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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16293-8.txt b/16293-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db1061a --- /dev/null +++ b/16293-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9780 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume +55, No. 340, February, 1844, 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 -- Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 14, 2005 [EBook #16293] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals; Jon +Ingram, Allen Siddle and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + +No. CCCXL. FEBRUARY 1844. Vol. LV. + + + + +CONTENTS: + + + THE HERETIC + THRUSH-HUNTING. BY ALEXANDER DUMAS + HIGH LIFE IN THE LAST CENTURY + NEWS FROM AN EXILED CONTRIBUTOR + THE PROPHECY OF THE TWELVE TRIBES + A BEWAILMENT FROM BATH; OR, POOR OLD MAIDS + MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART VIII. + SECESSION FROM THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND + SITTING FOR A PORTRAIT + MY FRIEND + THE LAND OF SLAVES + THE PRIEST'S BURIAL + PRUDENCE + FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION + + * * * * * + + + + + EDINBURGH: + + WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; + AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON. + + To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed. + + SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS THE UNITED KINGDOM. + + * * * * * + + PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH. + + * * * * * + + + + + +THE HERETIC.[1] + + [1] _The Heretic_. Translated from the Russian of Lajétchnikoff. By + T.B. Shaw, B.A. of Cambridge. In three volumes. + + +It is now about three centuries since Richard Chancellor, pilot-major of +the fleet which, under the command of Sir Hugh Willoughby, and by the +advice of Sebastian Cabot, set out to discover a north-east passage to +China, carried his ship, the Edward Bonaventura, into Archangel. The rest +of the fleet put into a haven on the coast of Lapland, where all their +crews, with the gallant commander, perished miserably of cold and hunger. +Chancellor, accompanied by Master George Killingworthe, found his way to +Moscow, where he was courteously entertained by the Tsar Iván IV., +surnamed the Terrible. On his return to England in 1554, he delivered a +friendly letter from the Tsar to King Edward VI., and announced to the +people of England "the discovery of Muscovy." The English adventurers +where mightily astonished by the state and splendour of the Russian +court, and gave a curious account of their intercourse with the tyrant +Iván, who treated them with great familiarity and kindness, though he was +perhaps the most atrocious monster, not excepting the worst of the Roman +emperors, that ever disgraced a throne. The Tsar "called them to his +table to receive each a cup from his hand to drinke, and took into his +hand Master George Killingworthe's beard, which reached over the table, +and pleasantly delivered it to the metropolitan, who seeming to bless it, +said in Russ, 'This is God's gift;' as indeed at that time it was not +only thicke, broad, and yellow coulered, but in length five foot and two +inches of a size." + +Chancellor returned the following year to Moscow, and arranged with the +Tsar the commercial privileges and immunities of a new company of +merchant-adventurers who desired to trade with Muscovy; but in 1556, while +on his way home, accompanied by Osep Neped, the first Russian ambassador +to the court of England, their ship was wrecked on our own coast, at +Pitsligo bay, where Chancellor was drowned, with most of the crew; but +Osep Neped, who escaped, was conducted with much pomp to London, and there +established on a firmer basis the commercial relations between the two +countries, to which Chancellor's discovery had led, and of which he had +laid the foundation. The commerce thus begun has continued uninterrupted, +to the mutual advantage of both nations, up to this time, and thousands of +our countrymen have there gained wealth and distinction, in commerce, in +the arts, in science, and in arms. + +But of the twenty-seven millions of men, women, and children who people +Great Britain and Ireland, how many may be presumed to know any thing of +Russian literature, or even to have enquired whether it contains any thing +worth knowing? Are there a dozen literary men or women amongst us who +could read a Russian romance, or understand a Russian drama? Dr Bowring +was regarded as a prodigy of polyglot learning, because he gave us some +very imperfect versions of Russian ballads; and we were thankful even for +that contribution, from which, we doubt not, many worthy and well-informed +people learned for the first time that Russia produced poets as well as +potashes. Russia has lately lost a poet of true genius, of whom his +countrymen are proud, and no doubt have a right to be proud, for his +poetry found its way at once to the heart of the nation: but how few there +are amongst us who know any thing of Poushkin, unless it be his untimely +and melancholy end? + +The generation that has been so prolific of prose fiction in other parts +of Europe, has not been barren in Russia. She boasts of men to whom she is +grateful for having adorned her young literature with the creations of +their genius, or who have made her history attractive with the allurements +of faithful fiction, giving life, and flesh, and blood to its dry bones; +and yet, gentle reader, learned or fair--or both fair and learned--whether +sombre in small clothes, or brilliant in _bas-bleus_--how many could +you have named a year ago of those names which are the pride and delight +of a great European nation, with which we have had an intimate, friendly, +and beneficial intercourse for three consecutive centuries, and whose +capital has now for some years been easily accessible in ten days from our +own? + +Surely it is somewhat strange, that while Russia fills so large a space, +not only on the map, but in the politics of the world--while the influence +of her active mind, and of her powerful muscle, is felt and acknowledged +in Europe, Asia, and America--that we, who come in contact with her +diplomatic skill and her intelligence at every turn and in every quarter, +should never have thought it worth while to take any note of her +literature--of the more attractive movements of her mind. + +The history, the ancient mythology, and the early Christian legends of +Russia, are full of interest. We there encounter the same energetic and +warlike people, who, from roving pirates of the Baltic sea, became the +founders of dynasties, and who have furnished much of what is most +romantic in the history of Europe. The Danes, who ravaged our coasts, and +gave a race of princes to England; the Normans, from whom are descended +our line of sovereigns, and many of our noble and ancient families--the +Normans, who established themselves in Sicily and the Warrhag, or +Varangians, who made their leader, Rurik, a sovereign over the ancient +Sclavonic republic of Nóvgorod, and gave their own distinctive appellation +of Russ to the people and to the country they conquered, were all men of +the same race, the same habits, and the same character. The daring spirit +of maritime adventure, the love of war, and the thirst of plunder, which +brought their barks to the coasts of Britain and of France, was displayed +with even greater boldness in Russia. After the death of Rurik, these +pirates of the Baltic, under the regent Oleg, launching their galleys on +the Borysthenes, forced the descent of the river against hostile tribes, +defeated the armies of Byzantium, exercised their ancient craft on the +Black sea and on the Bosphorus, and, entering Constantinople in triumph, +extorted tribute and a treaty from the Keisar in his palace. + +Then, after a time, came the introduction of the Christian religion and of +letters; and the contests which terminated in the triumph of Christianity +over the ancient mythology, in which the milder deities of the Pantheon, +with their attendant spirits of the woods, the streams, and the household +hearth, would seem to have mingled with the fiercer gods of the Valhalla. +Then the frequent contests and varying fortunes of the principalities into +which the country was divided--the invasions of the Tartar hordes, under +the successors of Chenjez Khan, destroying every living thing, and +deliberately making a desert of every populous place, that grass might +more abound for their horses and their flocks--the long and weary +domination of these desolating masters; the gradual relaxation of the iron +gripe with which they crushed the country; the pomp and power of the +Russian church, even in the worst times of Tartar oppression; the first +gathering together of the nation's strength as its spirit revived; the +first great effort to cast off the load under which its loins had been +breaking for more than two centuries, and the desperate valour with which +the Russians fought their first great battle for freedom and their faith, +and shook the Tartar supremacy, under the brave and skilful Dimítri, on +the banks of the Don--the cautious wisdom and foresight with which he +created an aristocracy to support the sovereignty he had made +hereditary--the pertinacity with which, in every change of fortune, his +successors worked out slowly, and more by superior intelligence than by +prowess, the deliverance of their country--the final triumph of this wary +policy, under the warlike, but consummately able and dexterous management +of Iván the Great--the rapidity and force with which the Muscovite power +expanded, when it had worn out and cast off the Tartar fetters that had +bound it--the cautious and successful attempts of Iván to take from the +first a high place amongst the sovereigns of Europe--the progress in the +arts of civilized life which was made in his reign--the accession of +weight and authority which the sovereign power received from the prudent +and dignified demeanour of his son and successor--the sanguinary tyranny +with which Iván IV., in the midst of the most revolting atrocities and +debaucheries, broke down the power of the aristocracy, prostrated the +energies of the nation, and paved the way for successive usurpations--the +skilful and crafty policy, and the unscrupulous means by which Boris +raised himself to the throne, after he had destroyed the last +representatives of the direct line of Rurik, which, in all the +vicissitudes of Russian fortune, had hitherto held the chief place in the +nation--the taint of guilt which poisoned and polluted a mind otherwise +powerful, and not without some virtues, and made him at length a +suspicious and cruel tyrant, who, having alienated the good-will of the +nation, was unable to oppose the pretensions of an impostor, and swallowed +poison to escape the tortures of an upbraiding conscience--the successful +imposture of the monk who personated the Prince Dimítri, one of the +victims of Boris' ambition, and who was slaughtered on the day of his +nuptials at the foot of the throne he had so strangely usurped, by an +infuriated mob; not because he was known to be an impostor, but because he +was accused of a leaning to the Latin church--the season of anarchy that +succeeded and led to fresh impostures, and to the Polish domination--the +servile submission of the Russian nobility to Sigismund, king of Poland, +to whom they sold their country; the revival of patriotic feelings, almost +as soon as the sacrifice had been made--the bold and determined opposition +of the Russian church to the usurpation of a Latin prince, the +persecutions, the hardships, the martyrdom it endured; the ultimate rising +of the Muscovite people at its call--the sanguinary conflict in Moscow; +the expulsion of the Poles; the election of Michael Romanoff, the first +sovereign of his family and of the reigning dynasty--the whole history of +the days of Peter, of Catharine, and of Alexander, and even the less +prominent reigns of intermediate sovereigns--are full of the interest and +the incidents which are usually considered most available to the writers +of historical romance. + +But such materials abound in the history of every people. Men of genius +for the work find them scattered every where--in the peculiarities of +personal character developed in the contests of petty tribes or turbulent +burghers, as often as in the revolutions of empires. The value of +historical, as well as of other fictions, must be measured by the power +and the skill it displays, rather than by the magnitude of the events it +describes, or the historical importance of the persons it introduces; and +therefore no history can well be exhausted for the higher purposes of +fiction. Of what historical importance are the stories on which Shakspeare +has founded his _Romeo and Juliet_--his _Othello_--his _Hamlet_, or his +_Lear_? Does the chief interest or excellence of _Waverley_, or _Ivanhoe_, +or _Peveril of the Peak_, or _Redgauntlet_, or _Montrose_, depend on the +delineation of historical characters, or the description of historical +events? What space do Balfour of Burleigh, or Rob Roy, or Helen Macgregor, +fill in history? The fact appears to be, that, even in the purest +historical prose fictions, neither the interest nor the excellence +generally depend upon the characters or the incidents most prominent in +history. A man of genius, who calls up princes and heroes from the dust +into which they have crumbled, may delight us with a more admirable +representation than our own minds could have furnished of some one whose +name we have long known, and of whose personal bearing, and habits, and +daily thoughts, we had but a vague and misty idea; and acknowledging the +fidelity of the portrait we may adopt it; and then this historical person +becomes to us what the imagination of genius, not what history, has made +him, and yet the portrait is probably one in which no contemporary could +have recognized any resemblance to the original. But the characters of +which history has preserved the most full and faithful accounts, whose +recorded actions reflect most accurately the frame of their minds, are +precisely those which each man has pictured to himself with most precision, +and therefore those of which he is least likely to appreciate another +man's imaginary portraits. The image in our own minds is disturbed, and we +feel something of the disappointment we experience when we find some one +of whom we have heard much very different from what we had imagined him to +be. The more intimately and generally an historical character is known, +the more unfit must it be for the purposes of fiction. + +Then again, in fiction, as in real life, our sympathies are more readily +awakened, and more strongly moved, by the sufferings or the successes of +those with whom we have much in common--of whose life we are, or fancy +that we might have been, a part. The figures that we see in history +elevated above the ordinary attributes of man, are magnified as we see +them through the mist of our own vague perceptions, and dwindle if we +approach too near them. If they are brought down from the lofty pedestal +of rank or fame on which they stood, that they may be within reach of the +warmest sympathies of men who live upon a lower level, the familiarity to +which we are admitted impairs their greatness, on the same principle, that +"no man is a hero to his _valet-de-chambre_." + +We are inclined to believe that the great attraction of historical prose +fiction is not any facility which it affords for the construction of a +better story--for we think it affords none--nor any superior interest +that attaches to the known and the prominent characters with which it +deals, or to the events it describes; but rather the occasion it gives for +making us familiar with the everyday life of the age and the country in +which the scene is laid. Independent of the merits of the fiction as a +work of imagination, we find another source of pleasure; and, if it be +written faithfully and with knowledge, of instruction in the vivid light +it casts on the characteristics of man's condition, which history does not +deign to record. This kind of excellence may give value to a work which is +defective in the higher essential qualifications of imaginative writing; +as old ballads and tales, which have no other merit, may be valuable +illustrations of the manners of their time, so by carefully collecting and +concentrating scattered rays, a man possessed of talents for the task may +throw a strong light on states of society that were formerly obscure, and +thus greatly enhance the pleasure we derive from any higher merits we may +find in his story. + +M. Lajétchnikoff, in the work before us, appears to have aimed at both +these kinds of excellence; and, in the opinion of his countrymen, to have +attained to that of which they are the best or the only good judges. Mr +Shaw, to whom we are indebted for all we yet know of this department of +Russian literature, tells us in his preface that he selected this romance +for translation because-- + + "It is the work of an author to whom all the critics have adjudged + the praise of a perfect acquaintance with the epoch which he has + chosen for the scene of his drama. Russian critics, some of whom have + reproached M. Lajétchnikoff with certain faults of style, and in + particular with innovations on orthography, have all united in + conceding to him the merit of great historical accuracy--not only as + regards the events and characters of his story, but even in the less + important matters of costume, language, &c. + + "This degree of accuracy was not accidental: he prepared himself for + his work by a careful study of all the ancient documents calculated + to throw light upon the period which he desired to recall--a + conscientious correctness however, which may be pushed too far; for + the original work is disfigured by a great number of obsolete words + and expressions, as unintelligible to the modern Russian reader + (unless he happened to be an antiquarian) as they would be to an + Englishman. These the Translator has, as far as possible, got rid of, + and has endeavoured to reduce the explanatory foot-notes--those + 'blunder-marks,' as they have been well styled--to as small a number + as is consistent with clearness in the text." + +M. Lajétchnikoff takes occasion, while referring to some anachronisms +which will be found in _The Heretic_, to state, in the following terms, +his opinion of the duties of an historical novelist-- + + "He must follow rather the poetry of history than its chronology. His + business is not to be the slave of dates; he ought to be faithful to + the character of the epoch, and of the _dramatis personae_ which he + has selected for representation. It is not his business to examine + every trifle, to count over with servile minuteness every link in the + chain of this epoch, or of the life of this character; that is the + department of the historian and the biographer. The mission of the + historical novelist is to select from them the most brilliant, the + most interesting events, which are connected with the chief personage + of his story, and to concentrate them into one poetic moment of his + romance. Is it necessary to say that this moment ought to be pervaded + by a leading idea?... Thus I understand the duties of the historical + novelist. Whether I have fulfilled them, is quite another question." + +We are not quite sure what is here meant by "a leading idea." If it be +that some abstract idea is to be developed or illustrated, we can neither +subscribe to the canon nor discover the leading idea of this specimen of +the author's productions; but we rather suppose that he only means to say +that there should be a main stream of interest running through the whole +story, to which the others are tributary--and in this sense he has acted +on the rule; for the _heretic_, from his birth to his burial, is never +lost sight of, and almost the whole action, from the beginning to the end, +is either directly or indirectly connected with his fortunes, which +preserve their interest throughout, amidst sovereigns and ambassadors, +officials and nobles, court intrigues and affairs of state, of love, of +war, and of religion. This machinery, though somewhat complicated, is on +the whole very skilfully constructed, and moves on smoothly enough without +jolting or jarring, without tedious stops or disagreeable interruptions, +and without having to turn back every now and then to pick up the +passengers it has dropped by the way. The author, however, appears to have +assumed--and, writing for Russians, was entitled to assume--that his +readers had some previous acquaintance with the history of the country and +the times to which his story belongs. His prologue, which has no connexion +with the body of the work, but which relates a separate incident that +occurred some years after the conclusion of the principal narrative, +introduces us to the death-bed of Iván III., at whose court the whole of +the subsequent scenes occur; and is calculated from this inversion of time, +and the recurrence of similar names, and even of the same persons, to +create little confusion in the mind of the reader who is ignorant of +Russian history. + + "The epoch chosen by Lajétchnikoff," says his translator, "is the + fifteenth century; an age most powerfully interesting in the history + of every country, and not less so in that of Russia. It was then that + the spirit of enquiry, the thirst for new facts and investigations in + religious, political, and physical philosophy, was at once stimulated + and gratified by the most important discoveries that man had as yet + made, and extended itself far beyond the limits of what was then + civilized Europe, and spoke, by the powerful voice of Iván III., even + to Russia, plunged as she then was in ignorance and superstition. + Rude as are the outlines of this great sovereign's historical + portrait, and rough as were the means by which he endeavoured to + ameliorate his country, it is impossible to deny him a place among + those rulers who have won the name of benefactors to their native + land." + +When Iván III., then twenty-two years old, mounted the tributary throne of +Muscovy in 1462, the power of the Tartars, who for nearly two centuries +and a half domineered over Russia, had visibly declined. Tamerlane, at the +head of fresh swarms from the deserts of Asia, had stricken the Golden +Horde which still held Russia in subjection; and having pursued its +sovereign, Ioktamish Khan, into the steppes of Kiptchak and Siberia, +turned back almost from the gates of Moscow, to seek a richer plunder in +Hindostan. Before the Golden Horde could recover from this blow, it was +again attacked, defeated, and plundered, by the khan of the Crimea. Still +the supremacy of the Tartar was undisputed at Moscow. The Muscovite prince +advanced to the outer door of his palace to receive the ambassador of his +master; spread costly furs under his horse's feet; kneeled at his stirrup +to hear the khan's orders read; presented a cup of kimmis to the Tartar +representative, and licked off the drops that fell upon the mane of his +horse. + +But during nearly a century and a half, the Muscovite princes had laboured +successfully to consolidate their own authority, and to unite the nation +against its oppressors. The principle of hereditary succession to the +dependent throne had been firmly established in the feelings of the people; +the ties of country, kindred, and language, and still more the bonds of +common religion, had united the discordant principalities into which the +country was still divided, by a sentiment of nationality and of hatred +against the Tartars, which made them capable of combining against their +Mahommedan masters. + +Iván's first acts were acts of submission. They were perhaps intended to +tranquillize the suspicions with which the first movements of a young +prince are certain to be regarded by a jealous superior; and this purpose +they effectually served. Without courage or talent for war, his powerful +and subtle mind sought to accomplish its objects by intellectual +superiority and by craft, rather than by force. Warned by the errors of +his predecessors, he did not dispute the right of the Tartars to the +tribute, but evaded its payment; and yet contrived to preserve the +confidence of the khan by bribing his ministers and his family, and by a +ready performance of the most humiliating acts of personal submission. His +conduct towards all his enemies--that is, towards all his neighbours--was +dictated by a similar policy; he admitted their rights, but he took every +safe opportunity to disregard them. So far did he carry the semblance of +submission, that the Muscovites were for some years disgusted with the +slavish spirit of their prince. His lofty ambition was concealed by rare +prudence and caution, and sustained by remarkable firmness and pertinacity +of purpose. He never took a step in advance from which he was forced to +recede. He had the art to combine with many of his enemies against one, +and thus overthrew them all in succession. It was by such means that he +cast off the Tartar yoke--curbed the power of Poland--humbled that of +Lithuania, subdued Nóvgorod, Tver, Pskoff, Kazán, and Viatka--reannexed +Veira, Ouglitch, Rezan, and other appanages to the crown, and added nearly +twenty thousand square miles with four millions of subjects to his +dominions. He framed a code of laws--improved the condition of his +army--established a police in every part of his empire--protected and +extended commerce--supported the church, but kept it in subjection to +himself; but was at all times arbitrary, often unjust and cruel, and +throughout his whole life, quite unscrupulous as to the means he employed +to compass his ends. + +One of the most successful strokes of his policy, was his marriage with +Sophia, daughter of the Emperor Paleologos, who had been driven from +Constantinople by the Turks. This alliance, which he sought with great +assiduity, not only added to the dignity of his government at home, but +opened the way for an intercourse on equal terms with the greatest princes +of Europe. It was Sophia who dissuaded him from submitting to the +degrading ceremonial which had been observed on receiving the Tartar +ambassadors at Moscow--and to her he probably owed the feelings of +personal dignity which he evinced in the latter part of his reign. It was +this alliance that at once placed the sovereigns of Russia at the head of +the whole Greek church; whose dignitaries, driven from the stately dome of +St Sophia in Byzantium, found shelter in the humbler temple raised by the +piety of their predecessors, some ages before, in the wilds of Muscovy, +and more than repaid the hospitality they received by diffusing a love of +learning amongst a barbarous people. It was by means of the Greeks who +followed Sophia, that Iván was enabled to maintain a diplomatic +intercourse with the other governments of Europe; it was from her that +Russia received her imperial emblem, the double-headed eagle; it was in +her train that science, taste, and refinement penetrated to Moscow; it was +probably at her instigation that Iván embellished his capital with the +beauties of architecture, and encouraged men of science, and amongst +others Antonio, "the heretic," and Fioraventi Aristotle, the architect and +mechanician, to settle at Moscow. + +But it is time we should proceed to the story. The greater part of the +first volume is occupied by an account of the family, birth, and youth of +the hero. Born of a noble family in Bohemia, he is educated as a physician. +This was not the voluntary act of his parents; for what haughty German +baron of those times would have permitted his son to degrade himself by +engaging in a profession which was then chiefly occupied by the accursed +Jews? No, this was a degradation prepared for the house of Ehrenstein, by +the undying revenge of a little Italian physician, whom the stalwart baron +had pitched a few yards out of his way during a procession at Rome. This +part of the history, though not devoid of interest, is hardly within the +bounds of a reasonable probability--but it contains some passages of +considerable vigour. The patient lying in wait of the revengeful Italian, +and the eagerness with which he presses his advantage, making an act of +mercy minister to the gratification of his passion, is not without merit, +and will probably have its attractions for those who find pleasure in such +conceptions. + +The young Antonio is educated by the physician, Antonio Fioraventi of +Padua, in ignorance of his birth--is disowned by his father, but cherished +by his mother; and grows up an accomplished gentleman, scholar, and leech, +of handsome person, captivating manners, and ardent aspirations to extend +the limits of science, and to promote the advancement of knowledge and of +civilization all over the earth. While these dreams are floating in his +mind, a letter on the architect Fioraventi, who had for some time resided +in Moscow, to his brother, the Italian physician, requesting him to send +some skilful leech to the court of Iván, decides the fate of Antonio. + + "Fioraventi began to look out for a physician who would volunteer + into a country so distant and so little known: he never thought of + proposing the journey to his pupil; his youth--the idea of a + separation--of a barbarous country--all terrified the old man. His + imagination was no longer wild--the intellect and the heart alone had + influence on him. And what had Antony to hope for there? His destiny + was assured by the position of his instructor--his tranquillity was + secured by circumstances--he could more readily make a name in Italy. + The place of physician at the court of the Muscovite Great Prince + would suit a poor adventurer; abundance of such men might be found at + that time possessed of talents and learning. But hardly was + Aristotle's letter communicated to Antony, than visions began to + float in his ardent brain.--'To Muscovy!' cried the voice of + destiny--'To Muscovy!' echoed through his soul, like a cry remembered + from infancy. That soul, in its fairest dreams, had long pined for a + new, distant, unknown land and people: Antony wished to be where the + physician's foot had never yet penetrated: perhaps he might discover, + by questioning a nature still rude and fresh, powers by which he + could retain on earth its short-lived inhabitants; perhaps he might + extort from a virgin soil the secret of regeneration, or dig up the + fountain of the water of life and death. But he who desired to + penetrate deeper into the nature of man, might have remarked other + motives in his desire. Did not knightly blood boil in his veins? Did + not the spirit of adventure whisper in his heart its hopes and high + promises? However this might be, he offered, with delight, to go to + Muscovy; and when he received the refusal of his preceptor, he began + to entreat, to implore him incessantly to recall it.--'Science calls + me thither,' he said, 'do not deprive her of new acquisitions, + perhaps of important discoveries. Do not deprive me of glory, my only + hope and happiness.' And these entreaties were followed by a new + refusal.--'Knowest thou not,' cried Fioraventi angrily, 'that the + gates of Muscovy are like the gates of hell--step beyond them, and + thou canst never return.' But suddenly, unexpectedly, from some + secret motive, he ceased to oppose Antony's desire. With tears he + gave him his blessing for the journey.--'Who can tell,' said he, + 'that this is not the will of fate? Perhaps, in reality, honour and + fame await thee there?' + + "At Padua was soon known Antony Ehrenstein's determination to make + that distant journey; and no one was surprised at it: there were, + indeed, many who envied him. + + "In truth, the age in which Antony lived was calculated to attune the + mind to the search after the unknown, and to serve as an excuse for + his visions. The age of deep profligacy, it was also the age of lofty + talents, of bold enterprises, of great discoveries. They dug into the + bowels of the earth; they kept up in the laboratory an unextinguished + fire; they united and separated elements; they buried themselves + living, in the tomb, to discover the philosopher's stone, and they + found it in the innumerable treasures of chemistry which they + bequeathed to posterity. Nicholas Diaz and Vasco de Gama had passed, + with one gigantic stride, from one hemisphere to another, and showed + that millions of their predecessors were but pigmies. The genius of a + third visioned forth a new world, with new oceans--went to it, and + brought it to mankind. Gunpowder, the compass, printing, cheap paper, + regular armies, the concentration of states and powers, ingenious + destruction, and ingenious creation--all were the work of this + wondrous age. At this time, also, there began to spread indistinctly + about, in Germany and many other countries of Europe, those ideas of + reformation, which soon were strengthened, by the persecution of the + Western Church, to array themselves in the logical head of Luther, + and to flame up in that universal crater, whence the fury, lava, and + smoke, were to rush with such tremendous violence on kingdoms and + nations. These ideas were then spreading through the multitude, and + when resisted, they broke through their dikes, and burst onward with + greater violence. The character of Antony, eager, thirsting for + novelty, was the expression of his age: he abandoned himself to the + dreams of an ardent soul, and only sought whither to carry himself + and his accumulations of knowledge. + + "Muscovy, wild still, but swelling into vigour, with all her + boundless snows and forests, the mystery of her orientalism, was to + many a newly-discovered land--a rich mine for human genius. Muscovy, + then for the first time beginning to gain mastery over her internal + and external foes, then first felt the necessity for real, material + civilization." + +Antony pays a farewell visit to his mother at the humble tower in Bohemia, +where she resided estranged from his father, of whose rank and condition +she left him ignorant. + + "If there were a paradise upon earth, Antony would have found it in + the whole month which he passed in the Bohemian castle. Oh! he would + not have exchanged that poor abode, the wild nature on the banks of + the Elbe, the caresses of his mother, whose age he would have + cherished with his care and love--no! he would not have exchanged all + this for magnificent palaces, for the exertions of proud kinsmen to + elevate him at the imperial court, for numberless vassals, whom, if + he chose, he might hunt to death with hounds. + + "But true to his vow, full of the hope of being useful to his mother, + to science, and to humanity, the visionary renounced this paradise: + his mother blessed him on his long journey to a distant and unknown + land: she feared for him; yet she saw that Muscovy would be to him a + land of promise--and how could she oppose his wishes?" + +Preceding our hero to Moscow, we are presented to the Great Prince before +Antonio's arrival. Ambassadors had come from Tver, and a Lithuanian +ambassador and his interpreter had been truly or falsely convicted of an +attempt to destroy Iván by poison. The Great Prince's enquiry what +punishment is decreed against the felon who reaches at another's life, +leads to the following dialogue:-- + + "'In the soudébnik it is decreed,' replied Góuseff, 'whoever shall be + accused of larceny, robbery, murder, or false accusation, or other + like evil act, and the same shall be manifestly guilty, the boyárin + shall doom the same unto the pain of death, and the plaintiff shall + have his goods; and if any thing remain, the same shall go to the + boyárin and the deacon.'... + + "'Ay, the lawyers remember themselves--never fear that the boyárin + and deacon forget their fees. And what is written in thy book against + royal murderers and conspirators?' + + "'In our memory such case hath not arisen.' + + "'Even so! you lawyers are ever writing leaf after leaf, and never do + ye write all; and then the upright judges begin to gloze, to + interpret, to take bribes for dark passages. The law ought to be like + an open hand without a glove, (the Prince opened his fist;) every + simple man ought to see what is in it, and it should not be able to + conceal a grain of corn. Short and clear; and, when needful, seizing + firmly!... But as it is, they have put a ragged glove on law; and, + besides, they close the fist. Ye may guess--odd or even! they can + show one or the other, as they like.' + + "'Pardon, my Lord Great Prince; lo, what we will add to the + soudébnik--the royal murderer and plotter shall not live.' + + "'Be it so. Let not him live, who reached at another's life.' (Here + he turned to Kourítzin, but remembering that he was always disinclined + to severe punishments, he continued, waving his hand,) 'I forgot that + a craven[2] croweth not like a cock.' (At these words the deacon's + eyes sparkled with satisfaction.) 'Mamón, be this thy care. Tell my + judge of Moscow--the court judge--to have the Lithuanian and the + interpreter burned alive on the Moskvá--burn them, dost thou hear? + that others may not think of such deeds.' + + [2] A _jeu de mots_ impossible to be rendered in English; _Kourítza_, + in Russian, is a 'hen.'"--T.B.S. + + "The dvorétzkoi bowed, and said, stroking his ragged beard--'In a few + days will arrive the strangers to build the palace, and the Almayne + leech: the Holy Virgin only knoweth whether there be not evil men + among them also. Dost thou vouchsafe me to speak what hath come into + my mind?' + + "'Speak.' + + "'Were it not good to show them an example at once, by punishing the + criminals before them?' + + "The Great Prince, after a moment's thought, replied--'Aristotle + answereth for the leech Antony; he is a disciple of his brother's. + The artists of the palace--foreigners--are good men, quiet men ... + but ... who can tell!... Mamón, put off the execution till after the + coming of the Almayne leech; but see that the fetters sleep not on + the evil doers!' + + "Here he signed to Mamón to go and fulfill his order." + +Here is another scene with the Great Prince. + + "He stopped, and turned with an air of stern command to Kourítzin. + + "The latter had addressed himself to speak--'The ambassadors from + Tver ... from the'.... + + "'From the prince, thou wouldst say,' burst in Iván Vassílievitch: 'I + no longer recognize a Prince of Tver. What--I ask thee, what did he + promise in the treaty of conditions which his bishop was to + negotiate?--the bishop who is with us now.' + + "'To dissolve his alliance with the Polish king, Kazimír, and never + without thy knowledge to renew his intercourse with him; nor with + thine ill-wishers, nor with Russian deserters: to swear, in his own + and his children's name, never to yield to Lithuania.' + + "'Hast thou still the letter to King Kazimír from our good + brother-in-law and ally--him whom thou yet callest the Great Prince + of Tver?' + + "'I have it, my lord.' + + "'What saith it?' + + "'The Prince of Tver urgeth the Polish King against the Lord of All + Russia.' + + "'Now, as God shall judge me, I have right on my side. Go and tell + the envoys from Tver, that I will not receive them: I spoke a word of + mercy to them--they mocked at it. What do they take me for?... A + bundle of rags, which to-day they may trample in the mud, and + to-morrow stick up for a scarecrow in their gardens! Or a puppet--to + bow down to it to-day, and to-morrow to cast it into the mire, with + _Vuiduibái, father vuiduibái_![3] No! they have chosen the wrong man. + They may spin their traitorous intrigues with the King of Poland, and + hail him their lord; but I will go myself and tell Tver who is her + real master. Tease me no more with these traitors!' + + [3] "When Vladímir, to convert the Russians to Christianity, caused + the image of their idol Peróun to be thrown into the Dniépr, the + people of Kíeff are said to have shouted '_vuiduibái, bátioushka, + vuiduibái_!'--bátioushka signifies 'father;' but the rest of the + exclamation has never been explained, though it has passed into a + proverb."--T.B.S. + + "Saying this, the Great Prince grew warmer and warmer, and at length + he struck his staff upon the ground so violently that it broke in two. + + "'Hold! here is our declaration of war,' he added--'yet one word more: + had it bent it would have remained whole.' + + "Kourítzin, taking the fatal fragments, went out. The philosopher of + those days, looking at them, shook his head and thought--'Even so + breaketh the mighty rival of Moscow!'" + +The Almayne physician is lodged by order of the Great Prince in one of the +three stone houses which Moscow could then boast--the habitation of the +voévoda Obrazétz, a fine old warrior, a venerable patriarch, and bigot, +such as all Russians then were. To him the presence of the heretic is +disgusting; his touch would be pollution; and the whole family is thrown +into the utmost consternation by the prospect of having to harbour so foul +a guest--a magician, a man who had sold his soul to Satan--above all, a +heretic. The voévoda had an only daughter, who, with Oriental caution, was +carefully screened from the sight of man, as became a high-born Russian +maiden. + + "From her very infancy Providence had stamped her with the seal of + the marvellous; when she was born a star had fallen on the house--on + her bosom she bore a mark resembling a cross within a heart. When ten + years old, she dreamed of palaces and gardens such as eye had never + seen on earth, and faces of unspeakable beauty, and voices that sang, + and self-moving dulcimers that played, as it were within her heart, + so sweetly and so well, that tongue could never describe it; and, + when she awoke from those dreams, she felt a light pressure on her + feet, and she thought she perceived that something was resting on + them with white wings folded; it was very sweet, and yet awful--and + in a moment all was gone. Sometimes she would meditate, sometimes she + would dream, she knew not what. Often, when prostrate before the + image of the Mother of God, she wept; and these tears she hid from + the world, like some holy thing sent down to her from on high. She + loved all that was marvellous; and therefore she loved the tales, the + legends, the popular songs and stories of those days. How greedily + did she listen to her nurse! and what marvels did the eloquent old + woman unfold, to the young, burning imagination of her foster child! + Anastasia, sometimes abandoning herself to poesy, would forget sleep + and food; sometimes her dreams concluded the unfinished tale more + vividly, more eloquently far." + +We must give the pendant to this picture--the portrait of Obrazétz himself, +sitting in his easy-chair, listening to a tale of travels in the East. + + "How noble was the aged man, free from stormy passions, finishing the + pilgrimage of life! You seemed to behold him in pure white raiment, + ready to appear before his heavenly judge. Obrazétz was the chief of + the party in years, in grave majestic dignity, and patriarchal air. + Crossing his arms upon his staff, he covered them with his beard, + downy as the soft fleece of a lamb; the glow of health, deepened by + the cup of strong mead, blushed through the snow-white hair with + which his cheeks were thickly clothed; he listened with singular + attention and delight to the story-teller. This pleasure was painted + on his face, and shone brightly in his eyes; from time to time a + smile of good-humoured mockery flitted across his lips, but this was + only the innocent offspring of irony which was raised in his good + heart by Aphónia's boasting, (for very few story-tellers, you know, + are free from this sin.) Reclining his shoulders against the back of + his arm-chair, he shut his eyes, and, laying his broad hairy hand + upon Andrióusha's head, he softly, gently dallied with the boy's + flaxen locks. On his countenance the gratification of curiosity was + mingled with affectionate tenderness: he was not dozing, but seemed + to be losing himself in sweet reveries. In the old man's visions + arose the dear never forgotten son, whom he almost fancied he was + caressing. When he opened his eyes, their white lashes still bore + traces of the touching society of his unearthly guest; but when he + remarked that the tear betraying the secret of his heart had + disturbed his companions, and made his daughter anxious, the former + expression of pleasure again dawned on his face, and doubled the + delighted attention of the whole party." + +At length the dreaded guest arrived. + + "Evil days had fallen on Obrazétz and his family. He seemed himself + as though he had lost his wife and son a second time. Khabár raged + and stormed like a mountain torrent. Anastasia, hearing the horrible + stories--is sometimes trembling like an aspen-leaf, and then weeps + like a fountain. She dares not even look forth out of the sliding + window of her bower. Why did Vassílii Féodorovitch build such a fine + house? Why did he build it so near the Great Prince's palace? 'Tis + clear, this was a temptation of the Evil One. He wanted, forsooth, to + boast of a nonsuch! He had sinned in his pride.... What would become + of him, his son and daughter! Better for them had they never been + born!... And all this affliction arose from the boyárin being about + to receive a German in his house!" + +The voévoda gave strict injunctions that none of his family should go to +meet the procession; but M. Lajétchnikoff knows that all such orders are +unavailing. + + "Curiosity is so strong in human nature, that it can conquer even + fear: notwithstanding the orders of the boyárin, all his servants + rushed to obtain a glance at the terrible stranger; one at the gate, + another through the crevices of the wooden fence, another over it. + Khabár, with his arms haughtily a-kimbo, gazed with stern pride from + the other gate. Now for the frightful face with mouse's ears, winking + owlish eyes streaming with fiendish fire! now for the beak! They + beheld a young man, tall, graceful, of noble deportment, overflowing + with fresh vigorous life. In his blue eyes shone the light of + goodness and benevolence through the moisture called up by the recent + spectacle of the execution: the lips, surmounted by a slight soft + mustache, bore a good-humoured smile--one of those smiles that it is + impossible to feign, and which can only find their source in a heart + never troubled by impure passions. Health and frost had united to + tinge the cheeks with a light rosy glow; he took off his cap, and his + fair curls streamed forth over his broad shoulders. He addressed + Mamón in a few words of such Russian as he knew, and in his voice + there was something so charming, that even the evil spirit which + wandered through the boyárin's heart, sank down to its abyss. This, + then, was the horrible stranger, who had harmed Obrazétz and his + household! This, then, was he--after all! If this was the devil, the + fiend must again have put on his original heavenly form. All the + attendants, as they looked upon him, became firmly convinced that he + had bewitched their eyes. + + "'Haste, Nástia![4] look how handsome he is!' cried Andrióusha to the + voevóda's daughter, in whose room he was, looking through the sliding + window, which he had drawn back. 'After this, believe stupid reports! + My father says that he is my brother: oh, how I shall love him! Look, + my dear!' + + [4]_Nástia_--the diminutive of Anastasia; Nástenka, the same. + Russian caressing names generally end in sia, sha, óusha, or + óushka--as Vásia, (for Iván;) Andrióusha, (Andrei;) + Varpholoméoushka, ( Bartholomew.)"--T.B.S. + + "And the son of Aristotle, affirming and swearing that he was not + deceiving his godmother, drew her, trembling and pale, to the window. + Making the sign of the cross, with a fluttering heart she ventured to + look out--she could not trust her eyes, again she looked out; + confusion! a kind of delighted disappointment, a kind of sweet thrill + running through her blood, never before experienced, fixed her for + some moments to the spot: but when Anastasia recovered herself from + these impressions, she felt ashamed and grieved that she had given + way to them. She already felt a kind of repentance. The sorcerer has + put on a mask, she thought, remembering her father's words: from this + moment she became more frequently pensive." + +We are conducted to the state prisons of Moscow, and introduced to some of +the prisoners whose names have figured in history. We select the following +dialogue as a specimen of the author's power to deal with such matters. +The prisoner is Márpha, the lady of Novogorod, who, by her courage and her +wealth, had laboured to preserve its independence. + + "Here the Great Prince rapped with his staff at a grating; at the + knock there looked out an old roman, who was fervently praying on her + knees. She was dressed in a much-worn high cap, and in a short veil, + poor, but white as new-fallen snow; her silver hair streamed over a + threadbare mantle: it was easy to guess that this was no common woman. + Her features were very regular, in her dim eyes was expressed + intellect, and a kind of stern greatness of soul. She looked proudly + and steadily at the Great Prince. + + "'For whom wert thou praying, Marphóusha?' asked the sovereign. + + "'For whom but for the dead!' she sullenly replied. + + "'But for whom in particular, if I may make bold to ask?' + + "'Ask concerning that of my child, thou son of a dog--of him who was + called thy brother, whom thou murderedst--of Nóvgorod, which thou + hast drowned in blood, and covered with ashes!' + + "'O, ho, ho!... Thou hast not forgotten thy folly, then--Lady of + Nóvgorod the Great.' + + "'I was such once, my fair lord!' + + "At these words she arose. + + "'Wilt thou not think again?' + + "'Of what?... I said that I was praying for the dead. Thy Moscow, + with all its hovels, can twice a-year be laid in ashes, and twice + built up again. The Tartar hath held it two ages in slavery.... It + pined, it pined away and yet it remains whole. It hath but changed + one bondage for another. But once destroy the queen--Nóvgorod the + Great--and Nóvgorod the Great will perish for ever.' + + "'How canst thou tell that?' + + "'Can ye raise up a city of hewn stone in a hundred years?' + + "'I will raise one in a dozen.' + + "'Ay, but this is not in the fairy tale, where 'tis done as soon as + said. Call together the Hanse traders whom thou hast driven away.' + + "'Ha, hucksteress! thou mournest for the traders more than for + Nóvgorod itself.' + + "'By my huckstering she grew not poor, but rich.' + + "'Let me but jingle a piece of money, and straight will fly the + merchants from all corners of the world, greedy for my grosches.' + + "'Recall the chief citizens whom thou hast exiled to thy towns.' + + "'Cheats, knaves, rebels! they are not worth this!' + + "'When was power in the wrong? Where is the water of life that can + revive those thou hast slain? Even if thou couldst do all this, + liberty, liberty would be no more for Nóvgorod, Iván Vassílievitch; + and Nóvgorod will never rise again! It may live on awhile like + lighted flax, that neither flameth nor goeth out, even as I live in a + dungeon!' + + "'It is thine inflexible obstinacy that hath ruined both of ye. I + should like to have seen how thou wouldst have acted in my place.' + + "'Thou hast done thy work, Great Prince of Moscow, I--mine. Triumph + not over me, in my dungeon, at my last hour.' + + "Márpha Borétzkaia coughed, and her face grew livid; she applied the + end of her veil to her lips, but it was instantly stained with blood, + and Iván remarked this, though she endeavoured to conceal it. + + "'I am sorry for thee, Márpha,' said the Great Prince in a + compassionate tone. + + "'Sharp is thy glance.... What! doth it delight thee?... Spread this + kerchief over Nóvgorod.... 'Twill be a rich pall!'... she added with + a smile. + + "'Let me in! let me in!... I cannot bear it.... Let me go in to her!' + cried Andrióusha, bursting into tears. + + "On the Great Prince's countenance was mingled compassion and + vexation. He, however, lifted the latch of the door, and let the son + of Aristotle pass in to Borétzkaia. + + "Andrea kissed her hand. Borétzkaia uttered not a word; she + mournfully shook her head, and her warm tears fell upon the boy's + face. + + "'Ask him how many years she can live,' said the Great Prince to + Aristotle, in a whisper. + + "'It is much, much, if she live three months; but, perhaps, 'twill be + only till spring,' answered Antony. 'No medicine can save her: that + blood is a sure herald of death.' + + "This reply was translated to Iván Vassílievitch in as low a tone as + possible, that Borétzkaia might not hear it; but she waved her hand, + and said calmly--'I knew it long ago'.... + + "'Hearken, Márpha Isákovna, if thou wilt, I will give thee thy + liberty, and send thee into another town.' + + "'Another town ... another place ... God hath willed it so, without + thee!' + + "'I would send thee to Báyjetzkoi-Verkh.' + + "''Tis true, that was our country. If I could but die in my native + land!' + + "'Then God be with thee: there thou mayst say thy prayers, give alms + to the churches; I will order thy treasury to be delivered up to + thee--and remember not the Great Prince of Moscow in anger.' + + "She smiled. Have you ever seen something resembling a smile on the + jaws of a human skull? + + "'Farewell, we shall never meet again,' said the Great Prince. + + "'We shall meet at the judgment-seat of God!' was the last reply of + Borétzkaia." + +The daughter of Obrazétz loved the heretic, who was long unconscious of +the feelings he had inspired, and himself untouched by the mysterious fire +that was consuming the heart of the young Anastasia. But his turn, too, +had come--he, too, had seen and loved; but she knew not of his love--she +hardly knew the nature of her own feelings; sometimes she feared she was +under the influence of magic, or imagined that the anxiety she felt for +the heretic was a holy desire to turn him from the errors of his faith to +save his immortal soul--or, if she knew the truth, she dared not +acknowledge it even to her own heart--far less to any human being. To love +a heretic was a deadly sin; but to save a soul would be acceptable to +God--a holy offering at the footstool of the throne of grace and mercy. +This hope would justify any sacrifice. The great Prince was about to march +against Tver, and Antonio was to accompany him. Could she permit him to +depart without an effort to redeem him from his heresy, or, alas! without +a token of her love? She determined to send him the crucifix she wore +round her neck--a holy and a sacred thing, which it would have been a +deadly sin to part with unless to rescue a soul from perdition--and she +sent it. Her brother, too, was to accompany the army, and had besides, on +his return, to encounter a judicial combat. The soul of the old warrior +Obrazétz was deeply moved by the near approach of his son's departure. One +son had died by his side--he might never see Iván more, and his heart +yearned to join with him in prayer. "The mercies of God are unaccountable." + + "Trusting in them, Obrazétz proceeded to the oratory, whither, by his + command, he was followed by Khabár and Anastasia. + + "Silently they go, plunged in feelings of awe: they enter the oratory; + the solitary window is curtained; in the obscurity, feebly dispelled + by the mysterious glimmer of the lamp, through the deep stillness, + fitfully broken by the flaring of the taper, they were gazed down + upon from every side by the dark images of the Saviour, the Holy + Mother of God, and the Holy Saints. From them there seems to breathe + a chilly air as of another world: here thou canst not hide thyself + from their glances; from every side they follow thee in the slightest + movement of thy thoughts and feelings. Their wasted faces, feeble + limbs, and withered frames--their flesh macerated by prayer and + fasting--the cross, the agony--all here speaks of the victory of will + over passions. Themselves an example of purity in body and soul, they + demand the same purity from all who enter the oratory, their holy + shrine. + + "To them Anastasia had recourse in the agitation of her heart; from + them she implored aid against the temptations of the Evil One; but + help there was none for her, the weak in will, the devoted to the + passion which she felt for an unearthly tempter. + + Thrice, with crossing and with prayer, did Obrazétz bow before the + images; thrice did his son and daughter bow after him. This pious + preface finished, the old man chanted the psalm--'Whoso dwelleth + under the defence of the Most High.' Thus, even in our own times, + among us in Russia, the pious warrior, when going to battle, almost + always arms himself with this shield of faith. With deep feeling, + Khabár repeated the words after his father. All this prepared + Anastasia for something terrible she trembled like a dove which is + caught by the storm in the open plain, where there is no shelter for + her from the tempest that is ready to burst above her. When they + arose from prayer, Obrazétz took from the shrine a small image of St + George the Victorious, cast in silver, with a ring for suspending it + on the bosom. 'In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the + Holy Ghost!' he said, with a solemn voice, holding the image in his + left hand, and with his right making three signs of the cross--'with + this mercy of God I bless thee, my dear and only son, Iván, and I + pray that the holy martyr, George, may give thee mastery and victory + over thine enemies: keep this treasure even as the apple of thine eye. + Put it not off from thee in any wise, unless the Lord willeth that + the foe shall take it from thee. I know thee, Ivan, they will not + take it from thee living; but they may from thy corse. Keep in mind at + every season thy father's blessing.' + + "Anastasia turned as white as snow, and trembled in every limb; her + bosom felt oppressed as with a heavy stone, a sound as of hammering + was in her ears. She seemed to hear all the images, one after another, + sternly repeating her father's words. He continued--'It is a great + thing, this blessing. He who remembereth it not, or lightly esteemeth + it, from him shall the heavenly Father turn away his face, and shall + leave him for ever and ever. He shall be cast out from the kingdom of + heaven, and his portion shall be in hell. Keep well my solemn word.' + + "Every accent of Obrazétz fell upon Anastasia's heart like a drop of + molten pitch. She seemed to be summoned before the dreadful + judgment-seat of Christ, to hear her father's curse, and her own + eternal doom. She could restrain herself no longer, and sobbed + bitterly; the light grew dim in her eyes; her feet began to totter. + Obrazétz heard her sobs, and interrupted his exhortation. 'Nástia, + Nástia! what aileth thee?' he enquired, with lively sympathy, of his + daughter, whom he tenderly loved. She had not strength to utter a + word, and fell into her brother's arms. Crossing himself, the boyárin + put back the image into its former place, and then hastened to + sprinkle his child with holy water which always stood ready in the + oratory. Anastasia revived, and when she saw herself surrounded by + her father and brother, in a dark, narrow, sepulchral place, she + uttered a wild cry, and turned her dim eyes around. 'My life, my + darling child, my dove! what aileth thee?' cried the father. + 'Recollect thyself: thou art in the oratory. 'Tis plain some evil eye + hath struck thee. Pray to the Holy Virgin: she, the merciful one, + will save thee from danger.' + + "The father and son bore her to the image of the Mother of God. Her + brother with difficulty raised her arm, and she, all trembling, made + the sign of the cross. Deeply, heavily she sighed, applied her + ice-cold lips to the image, and then signed to them with her hand + that they should carry her out speedily. She fancied that she saw the + Holy Virgin shake her head with a reproachful air. + + "When they had carried Anastasia to her chamber, she felt better." + +Hitherto none had shared her secret thoughts; but the experienced eye of +the widow Selínova had detected the nature of her malady, and she longed +to know the object of her affection. + + "One day, they were sitting alone together, making lace. A kind of + mischievous spirit whispered her to speak of the heretic. Imagine + yourself thrown by destiny on a foreign land. All around you are + speaking in an unknown tongue; their language appears to you a chaos + of wild, strange sounds. Suddenly, amid the crowd, drops a word in + your native language. Does not then a thrill run over your whole + being? does not your heart leap within you? Or place a Russian + peasant at a concert where is displayed all the creative luxury and + all the brilliant difficulties of foreign music. The child of nature + listens with indifference to the incomprehensible sounds; but + suddenly Voróbieva with her nightingale voice trills out--_The cuckóo + from out the fírs so dánk hath not cúckooed._ Look what a change + comes over the half-asleep listener. Thus it was with Anastasia! Till + this moment Selínova had spoken to her in a strange language, had + only uttered sounds unintelligible to her; but the instant that she + spoke the _native_ word, it touched the heart-string, and all the + chords of her being thrilled as if they were about to burst. + Anastasia trembled, her hands wandered vaguely over her lace cushion, + her face turned deadly pale. She dared not raise her eyes, and + replied at random, absently. + + "'Ah!' thought Selínova, 'that is the right key: that is the point + whence cometh the storm!' + + "Both remained silent. At length Anastasia ventured to glance at her + visitor, in order to see by the expression of her face, whether she + had remarked her confusion. Selínova's eyes were fixed upon her work, + on her face there was not even a shade of suspicion. The crafty widow + intended little by little, imperceptibly, to win the confidence of + the inexperienced girl. + + "'And where then is _he_ gone?' she asked after a short pause, + without naming the person about whom she was enquiring. + + "'He is gone with the Great Prince on the campaign,' answered + Anastasia blushing; then, after a moment's thought she added--'I + suppose thou askedst me about my brother?' + + "'No, my dear, our conversation was about Antony the leech. What a + pity he is a heretic! You will not easily find such another gallant + among our Muscovites. He hath all, both height and beauty: when he + looketh, 'tis as though he gave you large pearls; his locks lie on + his shoulders like the light of dawn; he is as white and rosy as a + young maiden. I wonder whence he had such beauty--whether by the + permission of God, or, not naturally, by the influence of the Evil + One. I could have looked at him--may it not be a sin to say, I could + have gazed at him for ever without being weary!' + + "At these praises Anastasia's pale countenance blushed like the + dawning that heralds the tempest. 'Thou hast then seen him?' asked + the enamoured maiden, in a trembling, dying voice, and breaking off + her work. + + "'I have seen him more than once. I have not only seen him, but + wonder now, my dear--I have visited him in his dwelling!' + + "'The maiden shook her head, her eyes were dimmed with the shade of + pensiveness; a thrill of jealousy, in spite of herself, darted to + her heart. 'What! and didst thou not fear to go to him?' she + said--'Is he not a heretic?' + + "'If thou knewest it, Nástenka, what wouldst thou not do for love?' + + "'Love?' ... exclaimed Anastasia, and her heart bounded violently in + her breast. + + "'Ah if I were not afraid, I would disclose to thee the secret of my + soul.' + + "'Speak, I pray thee, speak! Fear not; see! I call the Mother of God + to witness, thy words shall die with me.' + + "And the maiden, with a quivering hand, signed a large cross. + + "'If so, I will confide in thee what I have never disclosed but to + God. It is not over one blue sea alone that the mist lieth, and the + darksome cloud: it is not over one fair land descendeth the gloomy + autumn night; there was a time when my bosom was loaded with a heavy + sorrow, my rebellious heart lay drowned in woe and care: I loved thy + brother, Iván Vassílievitch. (The maiden's heart was relieved, she + breathed more freely.) Thou knowest not, my life, my child, what kind + of feeling is that of love, and God grant that thou mayest never know! + The dark night cometh, thou canst not close thine eyes: the bright + dawn breaketh, thou meetest it with tears, and the day is all + weary--O, so weary! There are many men in the fair world, but thou + see'st only one, in thy bower, in the street, in the house of God. A + stone lieth ever on thy breast, and thou canst not shake it off.' + + "Then Selínova wept sincere tears. Her companion listened to her with + eager sympathy: the feelings just depicted were her own. + + * * * * * + + "There was a deep silence. It was broken by the young widow. + + "'Nástenka, my life?' she began in a tone of such touching, such + lively interest, as called for her reluctant confidence. + + "The daughter of Obrazétz glanced at her with eyes full of tears, and + shook her head. + + "'Confide in me, as I have confided in thee,' continued Selínova, + taking her hand and pressing it to her bosom. 'I have lived longer in + the world than thou ... believe me, 'twill give thee ease ... 'tis + clear from every symptom, my love, what thou ailest.' + + "And Anastasia, sobbing, exclaimed at last--'O, my love, my dearest + friend, Praskóvia Vladimírovna, take a sharp knife, open my white + breast, look what is the matter there!' + + "'And wherefore need we take the sharp knife, and wherefore need we + open the white breast, or look upon the rebellious heart? Surely, by + thy fair face all can tell, my child, how that fair face hath been + darkened, how the fresh bloom hath faded, and bright eyes grown dull. + After all, 'tis clear thou lovest some wandering falcon, some + stranger youth.' + + "Anastasia answered not a word; she could not speak for tears; and + hid her face in her hands. At last, softened by Selínova's friendly + sympathy, and her assurances that she would be easier if she would + confide her secret to such a faithful friend, she related her love + for the heretic. The episode of the crucifix was omitted in this tale, + which finished, of course, with assurances that she was enchanted, + bewitched. + + "Poor Anastasia! + + "Snowdrop! beautiful flower, thou springest up alone in the bosom of + thy native valley! And the bright sun arises every day to glass + himself in thy morning mirror; and the beaming moon, after a sultry + day, hastens to fan thee with her breezy wing, and the angels of God, + lulling thee by night, spread over thee a starry canopy, such as king + never possessed. Who can tell from what quarter the tempest may bring + from afar, from other lands, the seeds of the ivy, and scatter them + by thy side, and the ivy arises and twines lovingly around thee, and + chokes thee, lovely flower! This is not all: the worm has crawled to + thy root, hath fixed its fang therein, and kills ye both, if some + kind hand save ye not." + +These extracts will enable our readers to judge for themselves of the +merits of M. Lajétchnikoff's style as it appears in Mr Shaw's translation. +A better selection might have been made, had we not been desirous to avoid +any such anticipation of the development of the story as light diminish +its interest; but we are inclined to believe that most of our readers will +agree with us in thinking, that if M. Lajétchnikoff has succeeded in +faithfully illustrating the manners of the age of Iván the Great, he has +also shown that he possesses brilliancy of fancy, fervour of thought, and +elevation of sentiment, as well as knowledge of the movements of the heart, +revealed only to the few who have been initiated into nature's mysteries. + +He does not appear to be largely gifted with the power of graphic +description, of placing the scenes of nature, or the living figures that +people them, vividly before us--he loves rather to indulge, even to excess, +mystical or passionate thoughts that are born in his own breast, and to +adorn them with garlands woven from the flowers of his fancy; but these +flowers are of native growth, the indigenous productions of the Russian +soil. His images often sound to our ears homely, sometimes even familiar +and mean, but they may be dignified in their native dress. He has no +lively perception of the beauties of external nature; his raptures are +reserved for the wonders of art, for what the human mind can create or +achieve; and, curiously enough, it is architecture that seems to excite in +him the greatest enthusiasm. In illustration of this feeling, we must +still extract an eloquent discourse on the life of the artist, which the +author puts into the mouth of Fioraventi Aristotle--a passage of much +feeling, and, we fear, of too much truth:-- + + "Thou knowest not, Antony, what a life is that of an artist! While + yet a child, he is agitated by heavy incomprehensible thoughts: to + him the sphynx, Genius, hath already proposed its enigmas; in his + bosom the Promethean vulture is already perched, and groweth with his + growth. His comrades are playing and making merry; they are preparing + for their riper years recollections of childhood's days of + paradise--childhood, that never can be but once: the time cometh, and + he remembereth but the tormenting dreams of that age. Youth is at + hand; for others 'tis the time of love, of soft ties, of revelry--the + feast of life; for the artist, none of these. Solitary, flying from + society, he avoideth the maiden, he avoideth joy; plunging into the + loneliness of his soul, he there, with indescribable mourning, with + tears of inspiration, on his knees before his Ideal, imploreth her to + come down upon earth to his frail dwelling. Days and nights he + waiteth, and pineth after unearthly beauty. Woe to him if she doth + not visit him, and yet greater woe to him if she doth! The tender + frame of youth cannot bear her bridal kiss; union with the gods is + fatal to man; and the mortal is annihilated in her embrace. I speak + not of the education, of the mechanic preparation. And here at every + step the Material enchaineth thee, buildeth up barriers before thee: + marketh a formless vein upon thy block of marble, mingling soot with + thy carmine, entangling thy imagination in a net of monstrous rules + and formulas, commandeth thee to be the slave of the house-painter or + of the stone-cutter. And what awaiteth thee, when thou hast come + forth victorious from this mechanic school--when thou hast succeeded + in throwing off the heavy sum of a thousand unnecessary rules, with + which pedantry hath overwhelmed thee--when thou takest as thy guide + only those laws which are so plain and simple?... What awaiteth thee + then? Again the Material! Poverty, need, forced labour, appreciators, + rivals, that ever-hungry flock which flieth upon thee ready to tear + thee in pieces, as soon as it knoweth that thou art a pure possessor + of the gift of God. Thy soul burneth to create, but thy carcass + demandeth a morsel of bread; inspiration veileth her wing, but the + body asketh not only to clothe its nakedness with a decent covering, + but fine cloth, silk, velvet, that it may appear before thy judges in + a proper dress, without which they will not receive thee, thou and + thy productions will die unknown. In order to obtain food, clothes, + thou must _work_: a merchant will order from thee a cellar, a + warehouse; the signore, stables and dog kennels. Now at last thou + hast procured thyself daily bread, a decent habit for thy bones and + flesh: inspiration thirsteth for its nourishment, demanding from thy + soul images and forms. Thou createst, thou art bringing thy Ideal to + fulfilment. How swiftly move the wheels of thy being! Thy existence + is tenfold redoubled, thy pulse is beating as when thou breathest the + atmosphere of high mountains. Thou spendest in one day whole months + of life. How many nights passed without sleep, how many days in + ceaseless chain, all filled with agitation! Or rather, there is nor + day nor night for thee, nor seasons of the year, as for other men. + Thy blood now boileth, then freezeth; the fever of imagination + wasteth thee away. Triumph setteth thee on fire, the fear of failure + maddeneth thee, tearing thee to pieces, tormenting thee with dread of + the judgments of men; then again ariseth the terror of dying with thy + task unfinished. Add, too, the inevitable shade of glory, which + stalketh ever in thy footsteps, and giveth thee not a moment of + repose. This is the period of creation! While creating, thou hast + been dwelling at the footstool of God. Crushed by thy contact with + the hem of his garment, overwhelmed by inspiration from Him whom the + world can scarcely bear, a poor mortal, half alive, half dead, thou + descendest upon earth, and carriest with thee what thou hast created + _there_, in _His_ presence! Mortals surround thy production, judging, + valuing, discussing it in detail; the patron laudeth the ornaments, + the grandeur of the columns, the weight of the work; the distributors + of favour gamble away thy honour, or creep like mice under thy plan, + and nibble at it in the darkness of night. No, my friend, the life of + an artist is the life of a martyr." + +We are so much accustomed to see virtue rewarded and vice punished, that +we might perhaps have been better pleased to have seen this kind of +poetical justice more equitably dispensed; but the cause of virtue is +perhaps as effectually served by making it attractive as by making it +triumphant, and vice is as much discouraged by making it odious or +contemptible as by making it unsuccessful. + +It only remains to say a few words of the translator's labours; and +although we do not pretend to decide on the fidelity of the version he has +given us, or how much his author may have lost or gained in his hands, we +cannot but think that we perceive internal evidence of efforts to be +faithful, even at the hazard of losing perhaps something of more value in +the attempt. However this may be, it is plain that Mr Shaw is himself a +vigorous and eloquent writer of his own language, as the extracts we have +given may vouch. We feel greatly indebted to him for unlocking to us the +stores of Russian fiction, which, if they contain many such works as _The +Heretic_, will well repay the labour of a careful examination. There is +about every thing Russian an air of orientalism which gives a peculiar +character to their dress, their mansions, their manners, their feelings, +their expressions, and their prejudices, which will probably long continue +to distinguish Russian literature on that of the other nations of Europe, +whose steps she has followed, perhaps too implicitly, in her attempts to +overtake them in the race of civilization and intellectual improvement. + + * * * * * + + + + +THRUSH-HUNTING. + +BY ALEXANDER DUMAS. + + +We have heard of certain cooks, the Udes and Vatels of their day, whose +boast it was to manufacture the most sumptuous and luxurious repast out of +coarse and apparently insufficient materials. We will take the liberty of +comparing M. Dumas with one of these artistical _cuisiniers_, possessing in +the highest degree the talent of making much out of little, by the skill +with which it is prepared, and the piquant nature of the condiments +applied. A successful dramatist, as well as a popular romance-writer, his +dialogues have the point and brilliancy, his narrative the vivid terseness, +generally observable in novels written by persons accustomed to dramatic +composition. Confining himself to no particular line of subject, he +rambles through the different departments of light literature in a most +agreeable and desultory manner; to-day a tourist, to-morrow a novelist; +the next day surprising his public by an excursion into the regions of +historical romance, amongst the well-beaten highways and byways of which +he still manages to discover an untrodden path, or to embellish a familiar +one by the sparkle of his wit and industry of his researches. The majority +of his books convey the idea of being written _currente calamo_, and with +little trouble to himself; and these have a lightness and brilliancy +peculiar to their lively author, which cannot fail to recommend them to +all classes of readers. They are like the sketches of a clever artist, who, +with a few bright and bold touches, gives an effect to his subject which +no labour would enable a less talented painter to achieve. But M. Dumas +can produce highly finished pictures as well as brilliant sketches, +although for the present it is one of the latter that we are about to +introduce to our readers. + +Every body knows, or ought to know, that M. Dumas has been in Italy, and +found means to make half a dozen highly amusing volumes out of his rambles +in a country, perhaps, of all others, the most familiar to the inhabitants +of civilized Europe--a country which has been described and re-described +_ad nauseam_, by tourists, loungers, and idlers innumerable. On his way to +the land of lazzaroni he made a pause at Marseilles to visit his friend +Méry, a poet and author of some celebrity; and here he managed to collect +materials for a volume which we can recommend to the perusal of the daily +increasing class of our countrymen who think that a book, although written +in French, may be witty and amusing without being either blasphemous or +indecent. + +We have reason to believe that many persons who have not visited the +south-eastern corner of France, think of it as a "land of the cypress and +myrtle;" where troubadours wander amongst orange groves, or tinkle their +guitars under the shade of the vine and the fig-tree. There is something +in a name, and Provence, if it were only for the sake of its roses, ought, +one would think, to be a smiling and beautiful country. And so part of it +is; but in this part is assuredly not included the district around its +chief city. One hears much of the vineyards and orange groves of the south. +We do not profess to care much about vines, except for the sake of what +they produce; most of the vineyards we ever saw looked very like +plantations of gooseberry bushes, and the best of them were not so +graceful or picturesque as a Kentish hop-ground. As to olives, admirable +as they undoubtedly are when flanking a sparkling jug of claret, we find +little to admire in the stiff, greyish, stunted sort of trees upon which +they think proper to grow. But neither vines nor olives are to be found +around Marseilles. Nothing but dust; dust on the roads, dust in the fields, +dust on every leaf of the parched, unhappy-looking trees that surround the +country-houses of the Marseillais. The fruit and vegetables consumed there +are brought for miles overland, or by water from places on the coast; +flowers are scarce--objecting, probably, to grow in so arid a soil, and in +a heat that, for some months of the year, is perfectly African. Game there +is little or none; notwithstanding which, there are nowhere to be found +more enthusiastic sportsmen than at Marseilles. It is on this hint M. +Dumas speaks. His description of the manner in which the worthy burghers +of Marseilles make war upon the volatiles is rather amusing. + +"Every Marseillais who aspires to the character of a keen sportsman, has +what is termed a _poste à feu_. This is a pit or cave dug in the ground in +the vicinity of a couple of pine-trees, and covered over with branches. In +addition to the pine-trees, it is usual to have _cimeaux_, long spars of +wood, of which two are supported horizontally on the branches of the trees, +and a third planted perpendicularly in the ground. These _cimeaux_ are +intended as a sort of treacherous invitation to the birds to come and rest +themselves. So regularly as Sunday morning arrives, the Marseillais +Cockney installs himself in his pit, arranges a loophole through which he +can see what passes outside, and waits with all imaginable patience. The +question that will naturally be asked, is--What does he wait for? + +"He waits for a thrush, an ortolan, a beccafico, a robin-redbreast, or any +other feathered and diminutive biped. He is not so ambitious as to expect +a quail. Partridges he has heard of; of one, at least, a sort of phoenix, +reproduced from its own ashes, and seen from time to time before an +earthquake, or other great catastrophe. As to the hare, he is well aware +that it is a fabulous animal of the unicorn species. + +"There is a tradition, however, at Marseilles, that during the last three +months of the year, flocks of wild pigeons pass over, on their way from +Africa or Kamschatka, or some other distant country. Within the memory of +man no one has ever seen one of these flights; but it would nevertheless +be deemed heresy to doubt the fact. At this season, therefore, the +sportsman provides himself with tame pigeon, which he fastens by a string +to the _cimeaux_, in such a manner that the poor bird is obliged to keep +perpetually on the wing, not being allowed rope enough to reach a perch. +After three or four Sundays passed in this manner, the unfortunate decoy +dies of a broken heart." + +There is not nearly so much caricature in this picture as our readers may +be disposed to think. Whoever has passed a few weeks of the autumn in a +French provincial town, must have witnessed and laughed at the very +comical proceedings of the _chasseurs_, the high-sounding title assumed by +every Frenchman who ever pointed a gun at a cock-sparrow. One sees them +going forth in the morning in various picturesque and fanciful costumes, +their loins girded with a broad leathern belt, a most capacious game-bag +slung over their shoulder, a fowling-piece of murderous aspect balanced on +their arm; their heads protected from the October sun by every possible +variety of covering, from the Greek skull-cap to the broad-brimmed Spanish +sombrero. Away they go, singly, or by twos and threes, accompanied by a +whole regiment of dogs, for the most part badly bred, and worse broken +curs, which, when they get into the field, go pottering about in a style +that would sorely tempt an English sportsman to bestow upon them the +contents of both barrels. Towards the close of the day, take a stroll +outside the town, and you meet the heroes returning. "Well, what sport?" +"_Pas mal, mon cher_. Not so bad," is the reply, in a tone of +ill-concealed triumph; and plunging his hand into his game-bag, the +chasseur produces--a phthisical snipe, a wood pigeon, an extenuated quail, +and perhaps something which you at first take for a deformed blackbird, +but which turns out to be a water-hen. As far as our own observations go, +we do aver this to be a very handsome average of a French sportsman's +day's shooting. If by chance he has knocked down a red-legged partridge, +(grey ones are very scarce in France,) his exultation knows no bounds. The +day on which such a thing occurs is a red-letter day with him for the rest +of his life. He goes home at once and inscribes the circumstance in the +family archives. + +But this state of things, it will perhaps be urged, may arise from the +scarcity of game in France, as probably as from the sportsman's want of +skill. True; but the worst is to come. After you have duly admired and +examined snipe, pigeon, quail, and water-hen, your friend again rummages +in the depths of his _gibecière_, and pulls out--what?--a handful of +tomtits and linnets, which he has been picking off every hedge for five +miles round. "_Je me suis rabattu sur le petit gibier_," he says, with a +grin and a shrug, and walks away, a proud man and a happy, leaving you in +admiration of his prowess. + +M. Dumas expresses a wish to make the acquaintance of one of these modern +Nimrods, and his friend Méry arranges a supper, to which he invites a +certain Monsieur Louet, who plays the fourth bass in the orchestra of the +Marseilles theatre. The conversation after supper is a good specimen of +_persiflage_. After doing ample justice to an excellent repast, during +which he had scarcely uttered a word, + +"Monsieur Louet threw himself back in his chair and looked at us all, one +after the other, as if he had only just become aware of our presence, +accompanying his inspection with a smile of the most perfect benevolence; +then, heaving a gentle sigh of satisfaction--'Ma foi! I have made a +capital supper!' exclaimed he. + +"'M. Louet! A cigar?' cried Méry: 'It is good for the digestion.' + +"'Thank you, most illustrious poet!' answered M. Louet; 'I never smoke. It +was not the fashion in my time. Smoking and boots were introduced by the +Cossacks. I always wear shoes, and am faithful to my snuff-box.' + +"So saying, M. Louet produced his box, and offered it round. We all +refused except Méry, who, wishing to flatter him, attacked his weak side. + +"'What delicious snuff, M. Louet! This cannot be the common French snuff?' + +"'Indeed it is--only I doctor it in a particular manner. It is a secret I +learned from a cardinal when I was at Rome.' + +"'Ha! You have been to Rome?' cried I. + +"'Yes, sir; I passed twenty years there.' + +"'M. Louet,' said Méry, 'since you do not smoke, you ought to tell these +gentlemen the story of your thrush-hunt.' + +"'I shall be most happy,' replied M. Louet graciously, 'if you think it +will amuse the company.' + +"'To be sure it will,' cried Méry. 'Gentlemen, you are going to hear the +account of one of the most extraordinary hunts that has taken place since +the days of Nimrod the mighty hunter. I have heard it told twenty times, +and each time with increased pleasure. Another glass of punch, M. Louet. +There! Now begin.--We are all impatience.' + +"'You are aware, gentlemen,' said M. Louet, 'that every Marseillais is +born a sportsman.' + +"'Perfectly true,' interrupted Méry 'it is a physiological phenomenon +which I have never been able to explain; but it is nevertheless quite +true.' + +"'Unfortunately,' continued M. Louet, 'or perhaps I should say fortunately, +we have neither lions nor tigers in the neighbourhood of Marseilles. On +the other hand, we have flights of pigeons.' + +"'There!' cried Méry, 'I told you so. They insist upon it.' + +"'Certainly,' replied M. Louet, visibly vexed; 'and, whatever you may say +to the contrary, the pigeons _do_ pass. Besides, did you not lend me the +other day a book of Mr Cooper's, the _Pioneers_, in which the fact is +authenticated?' + +"'Ah, yes! Authenticated in America.' + +"'Very well! If they pass over America why should they not pass over +Marseilles? The vessels that go from Alexandria and Constantinople to +America often pass here.' + +"'Very true!' replied Méry, thunderstruck by this last argument. 'I have +nothing more to say. M. Louet, your hand. I will never contradict you +again on the subject.' + +"'Sir, every man has a right to his opinion.' + +"'True, but I relinquish mine. Pray go on, M. Louet.' + +"'I was saying, then, that instead of lions and tigers we have flights of +pigeons.' M. Louet paused a moment to see if Méry would contradict him. +Méry nodded his head approvingly. + +"'True,' said he, 'they have flights of pigeons.'" + +Satisfied by this admission M. Louet resumed. + +"'You may easily imagine that at the period of the year when these flights +occur, every sportsman is on the alert; and, as I am only occupied in the +evening at the theatre, I am fortunately able to dispose of my mornings as +I like. It was in 1810 or '11, I was five-and-thirty years of age; that is +to say, gentlemen, rather more active than I am now. I was one morning at +my post, as usual, before daybreak. I had tied my decoy pigeon to the +_cimeaux_, and he was fluttering about like a mad thing, when I fancied I +saw by the light of the stars something perched upon my pine-tree. +Unfortunately it was too dark for me to distinguish whether this something +were a bat or a bird, so I remained quite quiet, waiting for the sun to +rise. At last the sun rose and I saw that it was a bird. I raised my gun +gently to my shoulder, and, when I was sure of my aim, I pulled the +trigger. Sir, I had omitted to discharge my gun on returning from shooting +the evening before. It had been twelve hours loaded, and it hung fire. + +"'Nevertheless I saw by the way in which the bird flew that he was touched. +I followed him with my eyes till he perched again. Then I looked for my +pigeon; but by an extraordinary chance a shot had cut the string which +tied him, and he had flown away. Without a decoy I knew very well it was +no use remaining at the post, so I resolved to follow up the thrush. I +forgot to tell you, gentlemen, that the bird I had fired at was a thrush. + +"'Unluckily I had no dog. When one shoots with a decoy, a dog is worse +than useless--it is a positive nuisance. I was obliged, therefore, to beat +the bushes myself. The thrush had run along the ground, and rose behind me +when I thought I still had him in front. At the sound of his wings I +turned and fired in a hurry. A shot thrown away, as you may suppose. +Nevertheless I saw some feathers fall from him.' + +"'You saw some feathers?' cried Méry. + +"'Yes, sir. I even found one, which I put in my buttonhole.' + +"'In that case,' said Méry, 'the thrush was hit?' + +"'That was my opinion at the time. I had not lost sight of him, and I +continued the pursuit; but the bird was scared, and this time flew away +before I got within range. I fired all the same. There is no saying where +a stray shot may go.' + +"'A stray shot is not enough for a thrush,' said Méry, shaking his head +gravely. 'A thrush is a very hard-lived bird.' + +"'Very true, sir; for I am certain my two first shots had wounded him, and +yet he made a third flight of nearly half a mile. But I had sworn to have +him, and on I went. Impossible to get near him. He led me on, mile after +mile, always flying away as soon as I came within fifty or sixty paces. I +became furious. If I had caught him I think I should have eaten him alive, +and the more so as I was beginning to get very hungry. Fortunately, as I +had calculated on remaining out all day, I had my breakfast and dinner in +my game-bag, and I eat as I went along.' + +"'Pardon me,' said Méry, interrupting M. Louet; 'I have an observation to +make. Observe, my dear Dumas, the difference between the habits of the +human race in northern and southern climes. In the north the sportsman +runs after his game; in the south he waits for it to come to him. In the +first case he takes out an empty bag and brings home a full one; in the +other he takes it out full and brings it home empty. Pray, go on, my dear +M. Louet. I have spoken.' And he recommenced puffing at his cigar. + +"'Where was I?' said M. Louet, who had lost the threat of his narrative +through this interruption. + +"'Speeding over hill and dale in pursuit of your thrush.' + +"'True, sir. I cannot describe to you the state of excitement and +irritation I was in. I began to think of the bird of Prince Camaralzaman, +and to suspect that I, too, might be the victim of some enchantment. I +passed Cassis and La Ciotat, and entered the large plain extending from +Ligne to St. Cyr. I had been fifteen hours on my feet, and I was half dead +with fatigue. I made a vow to Our Lady of La Garde to hang a silver thrush +in her chapel, if she would only assist me to catch the living one I was +following; but she paid no attention to me. Night was coming on, and in +despair I fired my last shot at the accursed bird. I have no doubt he +heard the lead whistle, for this time he flew so far that I lost sight of +him in the twilight. He had gone in the direction of the village of St. +Cyr. Probably he intended to sleep there, and I resolved to do the same. +Fortunately there was to be no performance that night at the Marseilles +theatre.'" + +The worthy basso goes to the inn at St. Cyr, and relates his troubles to +the host, who decides that the object of his pursuit must have halted for +the night in a neighbouring piece of brushwood. By daybreak M. Louet is +again a-foot, accompanied by the innkeeper's dog, Soliman. They soon get +upon the scent of the devoted thrush. + +"'Every body knows that a true sporting dog will follow any one who has a +gun on his shoulder. "Soliman, Soliman!" cried I; and Soliman came. Sir, +the instinct of the dog was remarkable: we had hardly got out of the +village when he made a point--such a point, sir!--his tail out as straight +as a ramrod. There was the thrush, not ten paces from me. I fired both +barrels--Poum! Poum! Powder not worth a rush. I had used all my own the +day before, and this was some I had got from my host. The thrush flew away +unhurt. But Soliman had kept his eye on him, and went straight to the +place where the bird was. Again he made a most beautiful point; but +although I looked with all my eyes, I could not see the thrush. I was +stooping down in this manner, looking for the creature, when suddenly it +flew away, and so fast, that before I got my gun to my shoulder, it was +out of reach. Soliman opened his eyes and stared at me; as much as to say, +"What is the meaning of all this?" The expression of the dog's face made +me feel quit humiliated. I could not help speaking to him. "Never mind," +said I, nodding my head, "you will see next time." You would have thought +the animal understood me. He again began to hunt about. In less than ten +minutes he stopped as if he were cut out of marble. I was determined not +to lose this chance; and I went right before the dog's nose. The bird rose +literally under my feet; but I was so agitated that I fired my first +barrel too soon, and my second too late. The first discharge passed by him +like a single ball; the second was too scattered, and he passed between it. +It was then that a thing happened to me--one of those things which I +should not repeat, but for my attachment to the truth. The dog looked at +me for a moment with a sort of smile upon his countenance: then, coming +close up to me while I was reloading my gun, he lifted his left hind leg, +made water against my gaiter, and then turning round, trotted away in the +direction of his master's house. You may easily suppose, that if it had +been a man who had thus insulted me, I would have had his life, or he +should have had mine. But what could I say, sir, to a dumb beast which God +had not gifted with reason?'" + +This canine insult only acts as a spur to the indefatigable chasseur, who, +dogless as he finds himself, follows up his thrush till he reaches the +town of Hyères. Here he loses all trace of the bird, but endeavours to +console himself by eating the oranges which grow in the garden of his +hotel. Whilst thus engaged, a thrush perches on a tree beside him, and the +first glance at the creature's profile satisfied him that it is the same +bird whose society he has been rejoicing in the for the last two days. +Unfortunately his gun is in the house, of which the thrush seems to be +aware, for it continues singing and dressing its feathers on a branch +within ten feet of his head. Afraid of losing sight of it, M. Louet waits +till the landlord comes to announce supper, and then desires him to bring +his gun. But there is a punishment of fine and imprisonment for whoever +fires a shot, between sunset and sunrise, within the precincts of the town; +and although the enthusiastic sportsman is willing enough to run this risk, +the hotel-keeper fears to be taken for an accomplice, and refuses to fetch +the gun, threatening to drive away the bird if M. Louet goes for it +himself. At last they come to terms. M. Louet sups and sleeps under the +tree, the bird roosts on the same; and at the first stroke of the matin +bell, mine host appears with the fowling-piece. Our chasseur stretches out +his hand to take it, and--the bird flies away. + +M. Louet throws down the price of his supper, and scales the garden wall +in pursuit. He follows his intended victim the whole of that day, and at +last has the mortification of seeing it carried away before his eyes by a +hawk. Foot-sore and tired, hungry and thirsty, the unfortunate musician +sinks down exhausted by the side of a road. A peasant passes by. + +"'My friend,' said I to him, 'is there any town, village, or house in +this neighbourhood?' + +"'_Gnor si_,' answered he, '_cé la citta di Nizza un miglia avanti_.' + +"The thrush had led me into Italy." + +At Nice M. Louet is in great tribulation. In the course of his long ramble +his money has worked a hole in his pocket, and he discovers that he is +penniless just at the moment that he has established himself at the best +hotel, and ordered supper for three by way of making up for past +privations. He gets out of his difficulties, however, by giving a concert, +which produces him a hundred crowns; and he then embarks for Toulon, on +board the letter of marque, La Vierge des Sept Douleurs, Captain Garnier. + +Once on the water, there is a fine opportunity for a display of French +naval heroism, at the expense, of course, of the unfortunate English, to +whom M. Dumas bears about the same degree of affection that another +dark-complexioned gentleman is said to do to holy water. This is one of M. +Dumas's little peculiarities or affectations, it is difficult to say which. +Wherever it is possible to bring in England and the English, depreciate +them in any way, or turn them into ridicule, M. Dumas invariably does it, +and those passages are frequently the most amusing in his books. In the +present instance, it is a very harmless piece of faufarronade in which he +indulges. + +The armed brig in which M. Louet has embarked, falls in which a squadron +of English men-of-war. Hearing a great bustle upon deck, our musician goes +up to enquire the cause, and finds the captain quietly seated, smoking his +pipe. After the usual salutations-- + +"'M. Louet, have you ever seen a naval combat?' said the captain to me. + +"'Never, sir.' + +"'Would you like to see one?' + +"'Why, captain, to say the truth, there are other things I should better +like to see.' + +"'I am sorry for it; for it you wished to see one, a real good one, your +wish would soon be gratified.' + +"'What! captain,' cried I, feeling myself grow pale; 'you do not mean to +say we are going to have a naval combat? Ha, ha! I see you are joking, +captain.' + +"'Joking, eh? Look yonder. What do you see?' + +"'I see three very fine vessels.' + +"'Count again.' + +"'I see more. Four, five, there are six of them.' + +"'Can you distinguish what there is on the flag of the nearest one? Here, +take the glass.' + +"'I cannot make out very well, but I think I see a harp.' + +"'Exactly.--The Irish harp. In a few minutes they'll play as a tune on it.' + +"'But captain,' said I, 'they are still a long way off, and it appears to +me, that by spreading all those sails which are now furled upon your masts +and yards, you might manage to escape. In your place I should certainly +run away. Excuse me for the suggestion, but it is my opinion as fourth +bass of the Marseilles theatre. If I had the honour to be a sailor, I +should perhaps think differently.'" + +Very sensible advice, too, M. Louet, _we_ should have thought at least, +considering the odds of six to one. But the fire-eating Frenchman thinks +otherwise. + +"'If it were a man, instead of a bass, who made me such a proposal,' +replied the captain, 'I should have had a word or two to say to him about +it. Know, sir, that Captain Garnier _never_ runs away! He fights till his +vessel is riddled like a sieve, then he allows himself to be boarded, and +when his decks are covered with the enemy, he goes into the powder +magazine with his pipe in his mouth, shakes out the burning ashes, and +sends the English on a voyage of discovery upwards.' + +"'And the French?' + +"'The French too.' + +"'And the passengers?' + +"'The passengers likewise.' + +"'At that moment, a small white cloud appeared issuing from the side of +one of the English ships. This was followed by a dull noise like a heavy +blow on the big drum. I saw some splinters fly from the top of the brig's +gunwale, and an artilleryman, who was just then standing on his gun, fell +backwards upon me. 'Come, my friend,' said I, 'mind what you are about.' +And, as he did not stir, I pushed him. He fell upon the deck. I looked at +him with more attention. His head was off. + +"My nerves were so affected by this sight, that five minutes later I found +myself in the ship's hold, without exactly knowing how I had got there." + +Thanks to a storm, the six English men of war manage to escape from the +brig, and when M. Louet ventures to re-appear upon deck, he finds himself +in the Italian port of Piombino, opposite the island of Elba. He has had +enough of the water, and goes on shore, where he bargains with a vetturino +to take him to Florence. A young officer of French hussars, and four +Italians, are his travelling companions. The former, on learning his name +and profession, asks him sundry questions about a certain Mademoiselle +Zephyrine, formerly a dancer at the Marseilles theatre, and in whom he +seems to take a strong interest. + +Bad springs and worse roads render it very difficult to sleep. At last, on +the second night of their journey, M. Louet succeeds in getting up a doze, +out of which he is roused in a very unpleasant manner. We will give his +own account of it. + +"'Two pistol-shots, the flash of which almost burned my face, awoke me. +They were fired by M. Ernest, (the hussar officer.) We were attacked by +banditti.' + +"'_Faccia in terra! Faccia in terra!_' I jumped out of the carriage, and +as I did so, one of the brigands gave me a blow between the shoulders, +that threw me upon my face. My companions were already in that position, +with the exception of M. Ernest, who was defending himself desperately. At +length he was overpowered and made prisoner. + +"My pockets were turned inside out, and my hundred crowns taken away. I +had a diamond ring on my finger, which I hoped they would not observe, and +I turned the stone inside, heartily wishing, as I did so, that it had the +power of Gyges' ring, and could render me invisible. But all was in vain. +The robbers soon found it out. When they had taken every thing from us-- + +"'Is there a musician amongst you?' said he who appeared the chief. + +"Nobody answered. + +"'Well,' repeated he, 'are you all deaf? I asked if any of you knew how to +play on an instrument.' + +"'Pardieu!' said a voice, which I recognized as that of the young officer; +'there's M. Louet, who plays the bass.' + +"I wished myself a hundred feet under ground. + +"'Which is M. Louet?' said the brigand. 'Is it this one?' And, stooping +down, he laid hold of the collar of my shooting-jacket, and lifted me on +my feet. + +"'For Heaven's sake, what do you want with me?' cried I. + +"'Nothing to be so frightened about,' was the answer. 'For a week past we +have been hunting every where for a musician, without being able to find +one. The captain will be delighted to see you.' + +"'What!' cried I, 'are you going to take me to the captain?' + +"'Certainly we are.' + +"'To separate me from my companions?' + +"'What can we do with them? _They_ are not musicians.' + +"'Gentlemen!' cried I, 'for God's sake, help me! do not let me be carried +off in this manner.' + +"'The gentlemen will have the goodness to remain with their noses in the +dust for the space of a quarter of an hour,' said the brigand. 'As to the +officer, tie him to a tree,' continued he, to the four men who were +holding the hussar. 'In a quarter of an hour the postillion will untie him. +Not a minute sooner, if you value your life.' + +"The postillion gave a sort of affirmative grunt, and the robbers now moved +off in the direction of the mountains. I was led between two of them. +After marching for some time, we saw a light in a window, and presently +halted at a little inn on a cross-road. The bandits went up stairs, +excepting two, who remained with me in the kitchen, and one of whom had +appropriated my fowling-piece, and the other my game-bag. As to my diamond +ring and my hundred crowns, they had become perfectly invisible. + +"Presently somebody shouted from above, and my guards, taking me by the +collar, pushed me up stairs, and into a room on the first floor. + +"Seated at a table, upon which was a capital supper and numerous array of +bottles, was the captain of the robbers, a fine-looking man of thirty-five +or forty years of age. He was dressed exactly like a theatrical robber, in +blue velvet, with a red sash and silver buckles. His arm was passed round +the waist of a very pretty girl in the costume of a Roman peasant; that is +to say, an embroidered boddice, short bright-coloured petticoat, and red +stockings. Her feet attracted my attention, they were so beautifully small. +On one of her fingers I saw my diamond ring--a circumstance which, as well +as the company in which I found her, gave me a very indifferent idea of +the young lady's morality. + +"'What countryman are you?' asked the captain. + +"'I am a Frenchman, your excellency.' + +"'So much the better!' cried the young girl. + +"I saw with pleasure that, at any rate, I was amongst people who spoke my +own language. + +"'You are a musician?' + +"'I am fourth bass at the Marseilles theatre.' + +"'Bring this gentleman's bass,' said the captain to one of his men. 'Now, +my little Rina,' said he, turning to his mistress, 'I hope you are ready +to dance." + +"'I always was,' answered she, 'but how could I without music?' + +"'_Non ho trovato l'instrumento_,' said the robber, reappearing at the +door. + +"'What!' cried the captain in a voice of thunder; 'no instrument?' + +"'Captain,' interposed his lieutenant, 'I searched every where, but could +not find even the smallest violoncello.' + +"'_Bestia_!' cried the captain. + +"'Excellency,' I ventured to observe, 'it is not his fault. I had no bass +with me.' + +"'Very well,' said the captain, 'send off five men immediately to Sienna, +Volterra, Grossetto--all over the country. I must have a bass by to-morrow +night.' + +"I could not help thinking I had seen Mademoiselle Rina's face somewhere +before, and I was cudgeling my memory to remember where, when she +addressed the captain. + +"'Tonino,' said she, 'you have not even asked the poor man if he is +hungry.' + +"I was touched by this little attention, and, on the captain's invitation, +I drew a chair to the table, in fear and trembling I acknowledge; but it +was nearly twelve hours since I had eaten any thing, and my hunger was +perfectly canine. Mademoiselle Rina herself had the kindness to pass me +the dishes and fill my glass; so that I had abundant opportunities of +admiring my own ring, which sparkled upon her finger. I began to perceive, +however, that I should not be so badly off as I had expected, and that the +captain was disposed to treat me well. + +"Supper over, I was allowed to retire to a room and a bed that had been +prepared for me. I slept fifteen hours without waking. The robbers had the +politeness not to disturb me till I awakened of my own accord. Then, +however, five of them entered my room, each carrying a bass. I chose the +best, and they made firewood of the others. + +"When I had made my choice, they told me the captain was waiting dinner +for me; and accordingly, on entering the principal room of the inn, I +found a table spread for the captain, Mademoiselle Rina, the lieutenant, +and myself. There were several other tables for the rest of the banditti. +The room was lighted up with at least three hundred wax candles. + +"The dinner was a merry one. The robbers were really very good sort of +people, and the captain was in an excellent humour. When the feasting was +over, + +"'You have not forgotten your promise, Rina, I hope?' said he. + +"'Certainly not,' was the reply. 'In a quarter of an hour I am ready.' + +"So saying, she skipped out of the room. + +"'And you, Signor Musico,' said the captain, 'I hope you are going to +distinguish yourself.' + +"'I will do my best, captain.' + +"'If I am satisfied, you shall have back your hundred crowns.' + +"'And my diamond ring, captain?' + +"'Oh! as to that, no. Besides, you see Rina has got it, and you are too +gallant to wish to take it from her.' + +"At this moment Mademoiselle Rina made her appearance in the costume of a +shepherdess--a boddice of silver, short silk petticoats, and a large +Cashmere shawl twisted round her waist. She was really charming in this +dress. I seized my bass. I fancied myself in the orchestra at Marseilles. + +"'What would you like me to play, Mademoiselle?' + +"'Do you know the shawl-dance in the ballet of _Clary_?' + +"'Certainly; it is my favourite.' + +"I began to play, Rina to dance, and the banditti to applaud. She danced +admirably. The more I looked at her, the more convinced I became that I +had seen her before. + +"She was in the middle of a _pirouette_ when the door opened, and the +innkeeper entering, whispered something in the captain's ear. + +"'_Ove sono_?' said the latter, quietly. 'Where are they?' + +"'A San Dalmazio.' + +"'No nearer? Then there is no hurry.' + +"'What is the matter?' said Rina, executing a magnificent _entrechat_. + +"'Nothing. Only those rascally travellers have given the alarm at Florence, +and the hussars of the Grand-duchess Eliza are looking for us.' + +"'They are too late for the performance,' said Rina, laughing. 'I have +finished my dance.' + +"It was lucky, for the bow had fallen from my hands at the news I had just +heard. Rina made one bound to the door, and then turning, as if she had +been on the stage, curtsied to the audience, and kissed her hand to the +captain. The applause was deafening; I doubt if she had ever had such a +triumph. + +"'And now, to arms!' cried the captain. 'Prepare a horse for Rina and +another for the musician. _We_ will go on foot. The road to Romagna, +remember! Stragglers to rejoin at Chianciano.' + +"For a few minutes all was bustle and preparation. + +"'Here I am,' cried Rina, running in, attired in her Roman peasant's +dress. + +"'_Usseri, Usseri_!' said the innkeeper. + +"'Off with you!' cried the captain, and every one hurried towards the +stairs. + +"'The devil!' said the captain, turning to me, 'you are forgetting your +bass, I think.' + +"I took the bass. I would willingly have crept into it. Two horses stood +ready saddled at the house door. + +"'Well, Monsieur le Musicien,' said Rina, 'do you not help me to get on my +horse? You are not very gallant.' + +"I held out my arm to assist her, and as I did so she put a small piece of +paper into my hand. + +"A cold perspiration stood upon my forehead. What could this paper be? Was +it a billet-doux? Had I been so unfortunate as to make a conquest, which +would render me the rival of the captain? My first impulse was to throw +the note away; but on second thoughts I put it in my pocket. + +"'_Usseri, Usseri_!' cried the innkeeper again, and a noise like that of a +distant galloping was heard. I scrambled on my horse, which two of the +robbers took by the bridle; two others led that of Mademoiselle Rina. The +captain, with his carbine on his shoulder, ran beside his mistress, the +lieutenant accompanied me, and the remainder of the band, consisting of +fifteen or eighteen men, brought up the rear. Five or six shots were fired +some three hundred yards behind us, and the balls whistled in our ears. +'To the left!' cried the captain, and we threw ourselves into a sort of +ravine, at the bottom of which ran a rapid stream. Here we halted and +listened, and heard the hussars gallop furiously past on the high-road. + +"'If they keep on at that pace, they'll soon be at Grossetto,' said the +captain laughing." + +This is the unfortunate musician's first essay in horsemanship, and when, +after twelve hours' march across the country, with his bass strapped upon +his shoulders, he halts at the inn at Chianciano, he is more dead than +alive. He remembers, however, to read Mademoiselle Rina's note. From this, +and a few words which she takes an opportunity of saying to him, he finds +that she is an opera-dancer named Zephyrine, who had had an engagement a +year or two previously at the Marseilles theatre. She had since +transferred herself to the Teatro de la Valle at Rome, where the bandit +captain, Tonino, happening to witness her performance, became enamoured of +her, and laid a plan for carrying her off, which had proved successful. +Her lover, however, Ernest, the same officer of hussars who had been M. +Louet's travelling companion, is in search of her; and, to assist him in +his pursuit, she writes her name, and that of the place they are next +going to, upon the window of each inn they stop at. It was for this +purpose she had secured M. Louet's diamond ring. + +If contrast was Dumas' object in writing this volume, he has certainly +been highly successful in carrying out his intention. Most writers would +have contented themselves with composing the female portion of the +brigands' society, of some dark-browed Italian _contadina_, with flashing +eyes and jetty ringlets, a knife in her garter and a mousquetoon in her +brawny fist, and a dozen crucifixes and amulets round her neck. At most, +one might have expected to meet with some English lady in a green veil, +(all English ladies, who travel, wear green veils,) whose carriage had +been attacked, and herself carried off on the road from Florence to Rome. +But M. Dumas scorns such commonplace _dramatis personae_, and is satisfied +with nothing less than transporting a French ballet-dancer into the +Appenines, with all her paraphernalia of gauze drapery, tinsel decorations, +and opera airs and graces; not forgetting the orchestra, in the person of +the luckless bass player. Yet so ingeniously does he dovetail it all +together, so probable does he make his improbabilities appear, that we +become almost reconciled to the idea of finding Mademoiselle Zephyrine +Taglionizing away upon the filthy floor of a mountain _osteria_, and are +inclined to be astonished that the spectators should not be provided with +bouquets to throw at her upon the conclusion of her performance. + +Several days are passed in running from one place to the other, always +followed by the hussars, from whom the banditti have some narrow escapes. +M. Louet is taken great care of in consideration of his skill as a +musician, and he on his part takes all imaginable care of his bass, which +he looks upon as a sort of a safeguard. At length they arrive at the +castle of Anticoli, a villa which the captain rents from a Roman nobleman, +and where he considers himself in perfect safety. Here M. Louet is +installed in a magnificent apartment, where he finds linen and clothes, of +which he is much in need. His toilet completed, he is conducted to the +drawing-room by a livery servant, who bears a strong resemblance to one of +his friends the banditti. But we will let him tell his story in his own +words. + +"There were three persons in the room into which I was ushered; a young +lady, a very elegantly dressed man, and a French officer. I thought there +must be some mistake, and was walking backwards out of the apartment, when +the lady said-- + +"'My dear M. Louet, where are you going? Do you not mean to dine with us?' + +"'Pardon me,' said I, 'I did not recognise you, Mademoiselle.' + +"'If you prefer it, you shall be served in your apartment,' said the +elegant-looking man. + +"'What, captain,' cried I, 'is it you?' + +"'M. Louet would not be so unkind as to deprive us of his society,' said +the French officer with a polite bow. I turned to thank him for his +civility. It was the lieutenant. It put me in mind of the changes in a +pantomime. + +"'_Al suo commodo_,' said a powdered lackey, opening the folding doors of +a magnificent dining-room. The captain offered his hand to Mademoiselle +Zephyrine. The lieutenant and I followed. + +"'I hope you will be pleased with my cook, my dear M. Louet,' said the +captain, waving me to a chair, and seating himself. 'He is a French artist +of some talent. I have ordered two or three Provençal dishes on purpose +for you.' + +"'Pah! with garlic in them!' said the French officer, taking a pinch of +perfumed snuff out of a gold box. I began to think I was dreaming. + +"'Have you seen the park yet, M. Louet?' asked the captain. + +"'Yes, Excellency, from the window of my room.' + +"'They say it is full of game. Are you fond of shooting?' + +"'I delight in it. Are there any thrushes in the park?' + +"'Thrushes! thousands.' + +"'Bravo! You may reckon upon me, captain, for a supply of game. That is, +if you will order my fowling-piece to be returned to me. I cannot shoot +well with any other. + +"'Agreed,' said the captain. + +"'Tonino,' said Mademoiselle Zephyrine, 'you promised to take me to the +theatre to-morrow. I am curious to see the dancer who has replaced me.' + +"'There is no performance to-morrow,' replied the captain, 'and I am not +sure the carriage is in good condition. But we can take a ride to Tivoli +or Subiaco, if you like.' + +"'Will you come with us, my dear M. Louet?' said Mademoiselle Zephyrine. + +"'Thank you,' replied I; 'I am not accustomed to ride. I would rather have +a day's shooting.' + +"'I will keep M. Louet company,' said the lieutenant. + +"On retiring to my apartment that night, I found my fowling-piece in one +corner, my game-bag in another, and my hundred crowns on the chimney-piece. +Captain Tonino was a man of his word. + +"Whilst I was undressing, the French cook came to know what I would choose +for breakfast. 'Count Villaforte,' he said, 'had ordered that I should be +served in my room, as I was going out shooting.' The captain, it appeared, +had changed his name as well as his dress. + +"The next morning I had just dressed and breakfasted, when the lieutenant +came to fetch me, and I accompanied him down-stairs. In front of the villa +four saddle-horses were being led up and down--one for the captain, one +for Mademoiselle Zephyrine, and the two others for servants. The captain +put a brace of double-barrelled pistols into his holsters, and the +servants did the same. Master and men had a sort of fancy costume, which +allowed them to wear a couteau-de-chasse. The captain saw that I remarked +all these precautions. + +"'The police is shocking in this country, M. Louet,' said he, 'and there +are so many bad characters about, that it is well to be armed.' + +"Mademoiselle Zephyrine looked charming in her riding-habit and hat. + +"'Much pleasure, my dear M. Louet,' said the captain, as he got on his +horse. 'Beaumanoir, take care of M. Louet.' + +"'The best possible care, count.' replied the lieutenant. + +"'The captain and Zephyrine waved their hands, and cantered away, followed +by their servants. + +"'Pardon me, sir,' said I, approaching the lieutenant; 'I believe it was +you whom the count addressed as Beaumanoir.' + +"'It was so.' + +"'I thought the family of Beaumanoir had been extinct.' + +"'Very possible. I revive it, that's all.' + +"'You are perfectly at liberty to do so, sir,' replied I. 'I beg pardon +for the observation.' + +"'Granted, granted, my dear Louet. Would you like a dog, or not?' + +"'Sir, I prefer shooting without a dog. The last I had insulted me most +cruelly, and I should not like the same thing to occur again.' + +"'As you please. Gaetano, untie Romeo.' + +"We commenced our sport. In six shots I killed four thrushes, which +satisfied me that the one which I had followed from Marseilles had been an +enchanted one. Beaumanoir laughed at me. + +"'What!' cried he. 'Do you amuse yourself in firing at such game as that?' + +"'Sir,' replied I, 'at Marseilles the thrush is a very rare animal. I have +seen but one in my life, and it is to that one I owe the advantage of +being in your society.' + +"Here and there I saw gardeners and gamekeepers whose faces were familiar +to me, and who touched their hats as I passed. They looked to me very like +my old friends, the robbers, in a new dress; but I had, of late, seen so +many extraordinary things, that nothing astonished me any longer. + +"The park was very extensive, and enclosed by a high wall, which had light +iron gratings placed here and there, to afford a view of the surrounding +country. I happened to be standing near one of these gratings, when M. +Beaumanoir fired at a pheasant. + +"'_Signore_,' said a countryman, who was passing, '_questo castello e il +castello d'Anticoli?_' + +"'Villager,' I replied, walking towards the grating, 'I do not understand +Italian; speak French, and I shall be happy to answer.' + +"'What! Is it you, M. Louet?' exclaimed the peasant. + +"'Yes, it is,' said I; 'but how do you know my name?' + +"'Hush! I am Ernest, the hussar officer, your travelling companion.' + +"'M. Ernest! Ah! Mademoiselle Zephyrine will be delighted.' + +"'Zephyrine is really here, then?' + +"'Certainly she is. A prisoner like myself.' + +"'And Count Villaforte?' + +"'Is Captain Tonino.' + +"'And the castle?' + +"'A den of thieves.' + +"'That is all I wanted to know. Adieu, my dear Louet. Tell Zephyrine she +shall soon hear from me.' So saying, he plunged into the forest. + +"'Here, Romeo, here!' cried Mr. Beaumanoir to his dog, who was fetching +the bird he had shot. I hastened to him. + +"'A beautiful pheasant!' cried I. 'A fine cock!' + +"'Yes, yes. Who were you talking to, M. Louet?' + +"'To a peasant, who asked me some question, to which I replied, that +unfortunately I did not understand Italian.' + +"'Hum!' said Beaumanoir, with a suspicious side-glance at me. Then, having +loaded his gun, 'We will change places, if you please,' said he. 'There +may be some more peasants passing, and, as I understand Italian, I shall +be able to answer their questions.' + +"'As you like, M. Beaumanoir,' said I. + +"The change was effected; but no more peasants appeared. + +"When we returned to the house, the captain and Zephyrine had not yet come +back from their ride, and I amused myself in my room with my bass, which I +found to be an excellent instrument. I resolved, more than ever, not to +part with it, but to take it back to France with me, if ever I returned to +that country. + +"At the hour of dinner, I repaired to the drawing-room, where I found +Count Villaforte and Mademoiselle Zephyrine. I had scarcely closed the +door, when it was reopened, and the lieutenant put in his head. + +"'Captain!' said he, in a hurried voice. + +"'Who calls me captain? Here there is no captain, my dear Beaumanoir, but +a Count Villaforte.' + +"'Captain, it is a serious matter. One moment, I beg.' + +"The captain left the room. When the door was shut, and I was sure he +could not hear me, I told Zephyrine of my interview with her lover. I had +just finished when the captain reappeared. + +"'Well,' said Zephyrine, running to meet him. 'What makes you look so +blank? Are there bad news?' + +"'Not very good ones.' + +"'Do they come from a sure source?' asked she with an anxiety which this +time was not assumed. + +"'From the surest possible. From one of our friends who is employed in the +police.' + +"'Gracious Heaven! What is going to happen?' + +"'We do not know yet, but it appears we have been traced from Chianciano +to the Osteria Barberini. They only lost the scent behind Mount Gennaro. +My dear Rina, I fear we must give up our visit to the theatre to-morrow.' + +"'But not our dinner to-day, captain, I hope,' said I. + +"'Here is your answer,' said the captain, as the door opened, and a +servant announced that the soup was on the table. + +"The captain and lieutenant dined each with a brace of pistols beside his +plate, and in the anteroom I saw two men armed with carbines. The repast +was a silent one; I did not dine comfortably myself, for I had a sort of +feeling that the catastrophe was approaching, and that made me uneasy. + +"'You will excuse me for leaving you,' said the captain, when dinner was +over; 'but I must go and take measures for our safety. I would advise you +not to undress, M. Louet, for we may have to make a sudden move, and it is +well to be ready.' + +"The lieutenant conducted me to my apartment, and wished me good-night +with great politeness. As he left the room, however, I heard that he +double-locked the door. I had nothing better to do than to throw myself on +my bed, which I did; but for some hours I found it impossible to sleep, on +account of the anxieties and unpleasant thoughts that tormented me. At +last I fell into a troubled slumber. + +"I do not know how long it had lasted, when I was awakened by being +roughly shaken. + +"'Subito! subito!' cried a voice. + +"'What is the matter?' said I, sitting up on the bed. + +"'_Non capisco, seguir me_!' cried the bandit. + +"'And where am I to _seguir_ you?' said I, understanding that he told me +to follow him. + +"'Avanti! Avanti!' + +"'May I take my bass?' I asked. + +"The man made sign in the affirmative, so I put my beloved instrument on +my back, and told him I was ready to follow him. He led me through several +corridors and down a staircase; then, opening a door, we found ourselves +in the park. Day was beginning to dawn. After many turnings and windings, +we entered a copse or thicket, in the depths of which was the opening of a +sort of grotto, where one of the robbers was standing sentry. They pushed +me into this grotto. It was very dark, and I was groping about with +extended arms, when somebody grasped my hand. I was on the point of crying +out; but the hand that held mine was too soft to be that of a brigand. + +"'M. Louet!' said a whispering voice, which I at once recognized. + +"'What is the meaning of all this, Mademoiselle?' asked I, in the same +tone. + +"'The meaning is, that they are surrounded by a regiment, and Ernest is at +the head of it.' + +"'But why are we put into this grotto?' + +"'Because it is the most retired place in the whole park, and consequently +the one least likely to be discovered. Besides there is a door in it, +which communicates probably with some subterraneous passage leading into +the open country.' + +"Just then we heard a musket shot. + +"'Bravo!' cried Zephyrine; 'it is beginning.' + +"There was a running fire, then a whole volley. + +"'Mademoiselle,' said I, 'it appears to me to be increasing very much.' + +"'So much the better,' answered she. + +"She was as brave as a lioness, that young girl. For my part I acknowledge +I felt very uncomfortable. But it appears I was doomed to witness +engagements both by land and sea. + +"'The firing is coming nearer,' said Zephyrine. + +"'I am afraid so, Mademoiselle,' answered I. + +"'On the contrary, you ought to be delighted. It is a sign that the +robbers are flying.' + +"'I had rather they fled in another direction.' + +"There was a loud clamour, and cries as if they were cutting one another's +throats, which, in fact, they were. The shouts and cries were mingled with +the noise of musketry, the sound of the trumpets, and roll of the drum. +There was a strong smell of powder. The fight was evidently going on +within a hundred yards of the grotto. + +"Suddenly there was a deep sigh, then the noise of a fall, and one of the +sentries at the mouth of the cave came rolling to our feet. A random shot +had struck him, and as he just fell in, a ray of light which entered the +grotto, we were able to see him writhing in the agonies of death. +Mademoiselle Zephyrine seized my hands, and I felt that she trembled +violently. + +"'Oh, M. Louet.' said she, 'it is very horrible to see a man die!' + +"At that moment we heard a voice exclaiming--'Stop, cowardly villain! Wait +for me!' + +"'Ernest!' exclaimed Zephyrine. 'It is the voice of Ernest!' + +"As she spoke the captain rushed in, covered with blood. + +"'Zephyrine!' cried he, 'Zephyrine, where are you?' + +"The sudden change from the light of day to the darkness of the cave, +prevented him from seeing us. Zephyrine made me a sign to keep silence. +After remaining for a moment as if dazzled, his eyes got accustomed to the +darkness. He bounded towards us with the spring of a tiger. + +"'Zephyrine, why don't you answer when I call? Come!' + +"He seized her arm, and began dragging her towards the door at the back of +the grotto. + +"'Where are you taking me?' cried the poor girl. + +"'Come with me--come along!' + +"'Never!' cried she, struggling. + +"'What! You won't go with me?' + +"'No; why should I? I detest you. You carried me off by force. I won't +follow you. Ernest, Ernest, here!' + +"'Ernest!' muttered the captain. 'Ha! 'Tis you, then, who betrayed us?' + +"'M. Louet!' cried Zephyrine, 'if you are a man, help me!' + +"I saw the blade of a poniard glitter. I had no weapon, but I seized my +bass by the handle, and, raising it in the air, let it fall with such +violence on the captain's skull, that the back of the instrument was +smashed in and the bandit's head disappeared in the interior of the bass. +Either the violence of the blow, or the novelty of finding his head in a +bass, so astonished the captain that he let go his hold of Zephyrine, at +the same time uttering a roar like that of a mad bull. + +"'Zephyrine! Zephyrine!' cried a voice outside. + +"'Ernest!' answered the young girl, darting out of the grotto. + +"I followed her, terrified at my own exploit. She was already clasped in +the arms of her lover. + +"'In there,' cried the young officer to a party of soldiers who just then +came up. 'He is in there. Bring him out, dead or alive.' + +"They rushed in, but the broken bass was all they found. The captain had +escaped by the other door. + +"On our way to the house we saw ten or twelve dead bodies. One was lying +on the steps leading to the door. + +"'Take away this carrion,' said Ernest. + +"Two soldiers turned the body over. It was the last of the Beaumanoirs. + +"We remained but a few minutes at the house, and then Zephyrine and myself +got into a carriage and set off, escorted by M. Ernest and a dozen men. I +did not forget to carry off my hundred crowns, my fowling-piece, and +game-bag. As to my poor bass, the captain's head had completely spoiled it. + +"After an hour's drive, we came in sight of a large city with an enormous +dome the middle of it. It was Rome. + +"'And did you see the Pope, M. Louet?' + +"'At that time he was at Fontainbleau, but I saw him afterwards, and his +successor too; for M. Ernest got me an appointment as bass-player at the +Teatro de la Valle, and I remained there till the year 1830. When I at +last returned to Marseilles, they did not know me again, and for some time +refused to give me back my place in the orchestra, under pretence that I +was not myself.' + +"'And Mademoiselle Zephyrine?' + +"'I heard that she married M. Ernest, whose other name I never knew, and +that he became a general, and she a very great lady." + +"'And Captain Tonino? Did you hear nothing more of him?' + +"'Three years afterwards he came to the theatre in disguise; was +recognised, arrested, and hung.' + +"'And thus it was, sir,' concluded M. Louet, 'that a thrush led me into +Italy, and caused me to pass twenty years at Rome.'" + +And so ends the thrush-hunt. One word at parting, to qualify any too +sweeping commendation we may have bestowed on M. Dumas in the early part +of this paper. While we fully exonerate his writings from the charge of +grossness, and recognise the absence of those immoral and pernicious +tendencies which disfigure the works of many gifted French writers of the +day, we would yet gladly see him abstain from the somewhat too +Decameronian incidents and narratives with which he occasionally varies +his pages. That he is quite independent of such meretricious aids, is +rendered evident by his entire avoidance of them in some of his books, +which are not on that account a whit the less _piquant_. With this single +reservation, we should hail with pleasure the appearance on our side the +Channel of a few such sprightly and amusing writers as Alexander Dumas. + + * * * * * + + + + +HIGH LIFE IN THE LAST CENTURY.[5] + + [5] _George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, with Memoirs and Notes_. + By T.H. Jesse. 4 vols. + + +The volumes of which we are about to give fragments and anecdotes, contain +a portion of the letters addressed to a man of witty memory, whose +existence was passed almost exclusively among men and women of rank; his +life, in the most expressive sense of the word, West End; and even in that +West End, his chief haunt St James's Street. Parliament and the Clubs +divided his day, and often his night. The brilliant roués, the steady +gamesters, the borough venders, and the lordly ex-members of ex-cabinets, +were the only population of whose living and breathing he suffered himself +to have any cognizance. In reverse of Gray's learned mouse, eating its way +through the folios of an ancient library--and to whom + + "A river or a sea was but a dish of tea, + And a kingdom bread and butter," + +to George Selwyn, the world and all that it inhabits, were concentrated in +Charles Fox, William Pitt, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and the circle of +men of pleasantry, loose lives, and vivacious temperaments, who, with +whatever diminishing lustre, revolved round them. + +Of the City of London, Selwyn probably had heard; for though fixed to one +spot, he was a man fond of collecting curious knowledge; but nothing short +of proof positive can ever convince us that he had passed Temple Bar. He, +of course, knew that there were such things on the globe as merchants and +traders, because their concerns were occasionally talked of in "the House," +where, however, he heard as little as possible about them; for in the +debates of the time he took no part but that of a listener, and even then +he abridged the difficulty, by generally sleeping through the sitting. He +was supposed to be the only rival of Lord North in the happy faculty of +falling into a sound slumber at the moment when any of those dreary +persons, who chiefly speak on such subjects, was on his legs. St James's, +and the talk of St James's, were his business, his pleasures, the exciters +of his wit, and the rewarders of his toil. He had applied the art of +French cookery to the rude material of the world, and refined and reduced +all things into a _sauce piquante_--all its realities were concentrated in +essences; and, disdaining the grosser tastes of mankind, he lived upon the +_aroma_ of high life--an epicure even among epicures; yet not an indolent +enjoyer of the luxuries of his condition, but a keen, restless, and eager +_student_ of pleasurable sensations--an Apicius, polished by the manners, +and furnished with the arts of the most self-enjoying condition of mankind, +that of an English gentleman of fortune in the 18th century. + +We certainly are not the champions of this style of life. We think that +man has other matters to consider than _pâtés_ and _consommés_, the +flavour of his Burgundy and pines, or even the _bons-mots_ of his friends. +We are afraid that we must, after all, regard the whole Selwyn class as +little better than the brutes in their stables, or on their hearth-rugs; +with the advantage to the brutes of following their natural appetites, +having no twinges of either conscience or the gout, and not being from +time to time stripped by their friends, or plundered by the Jews. The +closing hours of the horse or the dog are also, perhaps, more complacent +in general, and their deaths are less a matter of rejoicing to those who +are to succeed to their mangers and cushions. Of higher and more startling +contemplations, this is not the place to speak. If such men shall yet have +the power of looking down from some remoter planet on their idle, empty, +and self-indulgent course in our own, perhaps they would rejoice to have +exchanged with the lot of him whose bread was earned by the sweat of his +brow, yet who had fulfilled the duties of his station; and whose hand had +been withheld by necessity from that banquet, where all the nobler purposes +of life were forgotten, and where the senses absorbed the higher nature. +Still, we admit that these are topics on which no man ought to judge the +individual with severity. We have spoken only of the class. The individual +may have had virtues of which the world can know nothing; he may have been +liberal, affectionate, and zealous, when his feelings were once awakened; +his purse may have dried many a tear, and soothed many a pulse of secret +suffering. It is, at all events, more kindly to speak of poor human nature +with fellow feeling for those exposed to the strong temptations of fortune, +than to establish an arrogant comparison between the notorious errors of +others, and the secret failures of our own. + +But we have something to settle with Mr Jesse. He is alive, and therefore +may be instructed; he is making books with great rapidity, and therefore +may be advantageously warned of the perils of book-making. The _title_ of +his volumes has altogether deceived us. We shall not charge him with +intending this; but it has unquestionably had the effect. "_George Selwyn_ +and his contemporaries." We opened the volumes, expecting to find our +witty clubbist in every page; George in his full expansion, "in his armour +as he lived;" George, every inch a wit, glittering before us in his full +court suit, in his letters, his anecdotes, his whims, his odd views of +mankind, his caustic sneerings at the glittering world round him; an +epistolary HB., turning every thing into the pleasant food of his pen and +pungency. But we cannot discover any letters from him, excepting a few +very trifling ones of his youth. We have letters from all sorts of persons, +great lords and little, statesmen and travellers, placemen and +place-hunters; and amusing enough many of them are. Walpole furnishes some +sketches, and nothing can be better. In fact the volumes exhibit, not +George Selwyn, the only one whose letters we should have cared to see, but +those who wrote to him. And the disappointment is not the less, that in +those letters constant allusions are made to his "sparkling, delightful, +sportive, characteristic, &c. &c., epistles." Great ladies constantly urge +him to write to _them_. Maids, wives, and widows, pour out a stream of +perpetual laudation. Men of rank, men of letters, men at home, and men +abroad, unite in one common supplication for "London news" _réchaufféed_, +spiced, and served up, by the perfect _cuisinerie_ of George's art of +story-telling; like the horse-leech's two daughters, the cry is, "Give, +give." And this is what we wanted to see. Selwyn, the whole Selwyn, and +nothing but Selwyn. + +It is true that there is a preface which talks in this wise:-- + +It seems to have been one of the peculiarities of George Selwyn, to +preserve not only every letter addressed to him by his correspondents +during the course of his long life, but also the most trifling notes and +memoranda. To this peculiarity, the reader is indebted for whatever +amusement he may derive from the perusal of these volumes. The greater +portion of their contents consists of letters addressed to Selwyn, by +persons who, in their day, moved in the first circles of wit, genius, and +fashion." + +We have thus let Mr Jesse speak for himself. If the public are satisfied, +so let it be. But people seldom read prefaces. The title is the thing, and +that title is, "_George Selwyn_ and his contemporaries." If it had been +"Letters of the contemporaries of George Selwyn," we should have +understood the matter. + +Still we are not at all disposed to quarrel with the volumes. They contain +a great deal of pleasant matter; and the letters are evidently, in general, +the work of a higher order of persons than the world has often an +opportunity of seeing in their deshabille. The Persian proverb, which +accounted for the fragrance of a pebble by its having lain beside the rose, +has been in some degree realized in these pages. They are evidently of the +Selwyn school; and if he is not here witty himself, he is, like the "fat +knight," the cause of wit in others. We are enjoying a part of the feast +which his science had cooked, and then distributed to his friends to +figure as the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of their own tables. At all events, though +often on trifling subjects, and often not worth preserving, they vindicate +on the whole the claim of English letter-writing to European superiority. +Taking Walpole as the head, and nothing can be happier than his mixture of +keen remark, intelligent knowledge of his time, high-bred ease of language, +and exquisite point and polish of anecdote; his followers, even in these +few volumes, show that there were many men, even in the midst of all the +practical business and nervous agitation of public life, not unworthy of +their master. We have no doubt that there have been hundreds of persons, +and thousands of letters, which might equally contribute to this most +interesting, and sometimes most brilliant, portion of our literature. The +French lay claim to superiority in this as in every thing else; but we +must acknowledge that it is with some toil we have ever read the boasted +letters of De Sévigné--often pointed, and always elegant, they are too +often frivolous, and almost always local. We are sick of the adorable +Grignan, and her "belle chevelure." The letters of Du Deffand, Espinasse, +Roland, and even of De Staël, though always exhibiting ability, are too +hard or too hot, too fierce or too fond, for our tastes; they are also so +evidently intended for any human being except the one to whom they were +addressed, or rather for all human beings--they were so palpably "private +effusions" for the public ear--sentiments stereotyped, and sympathies for +the circulating library--that they possessed as little the interest as the +character of correspondence. + +Voltaire's letters are always spirited. That extraordinary man could do +nothing on which his talent was not marked; but his letters are +epigrammes--all is sacrificed to point, and all is written for the salons +of Paris. What Talleyrand's _might_ be, we can imagine from the singular +subtlety and universal knowledge of that most dexterous player of the most +difficult game which was ever on the diplomatic cards. But as his +definition of the excellence of a letter was--"to say any thing, but mean +nothing," we must give up the hope of his contribution. Grimm's volumes +are, after all, the only collection which belongs to the style of letters +to which we allude. They are amusing and anecdotical, and, in our +conception, by much the most intelligent French correspondence that has +fallen into our hands. But they are too evidently the work of a man +writing as a task, gathering the Parisian news as a part of his profession, +and in fact sending a daily newspaper to his German patron. + +Of the German epistolary literature we have seen nothing which approaches +to the excellence of the English school. The conception is generally vague, +vapourish, and metaphysical. And this predominates absurdly through all +its classes. The poet prides himself on being as much a dreamer in his +prose as in his poetry; the scholar is proud of being perplexed and +pedantic; the statesman is naturally immersed in that problematic style, +which belongs to the secrecy of despotic governments, and to the stiffness +of circles where all is etiquette. But Walpole and his tribe have fashion +wholly to themselves, and possess force without heaviness, and elegance +without effeminacy. + +We are strongly tempted to ask, whether there may not be letters of the +gay, the refined, and the sparkling George Canning. He was constantly +writing; knew every thing and every body; was engaged in all the high +transactions of his time; saw human nature in all possible shades; and was +a man whose talent, though capable of very noble efforts "on compulsion," +yet naturally loved a more level rank of times and things. It is perfectly +true to human experience, that there are minds, which, like caged +nightingales and canary-birds, though their wings were formed with the +faculty of cleaving the clouds, yet pass a perfectly contented existence +within their wires, and sing as cheerfully in return for their water and +seeds, as if they had the range of the horizon. Canning's whole song for +thirty years was in one cage or another, and he sang with equal +cheerfulness in them all. The moral of all this is, that we wish Mr Jesse, +or any one else, to apply himself, without delay, to the depositaries of +George Canning's familiar correspondence, and give his pleasant, piquant, +and graceful letters (for we are sure that they are all these) to the +world. + +Lord Dudley's letters have disappointed every body: but it is to be +observed, that we have only a small portion of them; that they were +written to a college tutor, a not very exciting species of correspondent +at any time, and who in this instance having nothing to give back, and +plodding his way through the well-meant monotony of college news, allowed +poor Lord Dudley not much more chance of brilliancy, than a smart drummer +might have of producing a reveillé on an unbraced drum. We must live in +hope. + +Lord Holland, we think, might, as the sailors say, "loom out large." The +life of that ancient Whig having been chiefly employed in telling other +men's stories over his own table--and much better employed, too, than in +talking his original follies in public--a tolerable selection from his +journals might furnish some variety; for when Whigs are cased up no longer +in the stiff braces and battered armour of their clique, they may +occasionally be amusing men. But Walpole still reigns: his whims, his +flirtings, his frivolities will disappear with his old china and trifling +antiquities; but his best letters will always be the best of their kind +among men. + +George Selwyn was a man of fashionable life for the greater part of the +last century, or perhaps we may more justly say, he was a man of +fashionable life for the seventy-two years of his existence; for, from his +cradle, he lived among that higher order of mankind who were entitled to +do nothing, to enjoy themselves, and alternately laugh at, and look down +upon the rest of the world. His family were opulent, and naturally +associated with rank; for his father had been aide-de-camp to the Duke of +Marlborough--a great distinction even in that brilliant age; and his +mother was the daughter of a general officer, and woman of the bedchamber +to Queen Caroline. She is recorded as a woman of talents, and peculiarly +of wit; qualities which seem frequently connected with long life, perhaps +as bearing some relation to that good-humour which undoubtedly tends to +lengthen the days of both man and woman. If the theory be true, that the +intellect of the offspring depends upon the mother, the remarkable wit of +George Selwyn may be adduced in evidence of the position. + +George, born in 1719, was sent, like the sons of all the court gentlemen +of his age and of our own, to Eton. After having there acquired classics, +aristocracy, and cricket, all consummated at Oxford, he proceeded to go +through the last performance of fashionable education, and give himself +the final polish for St James's; he proceeded to make the tour of Europe. +What induced him to recommence his boyhood, by returning to Oxford at the +ripe age of twenty-five, is among the secrets of his career, as also is +the occasion of his being expelled from the university; if that occasion +is not to be found in some of the burlesques of religion which he had +learned amongst the fashionable infidels of the Continent, similar to +those enacted by Wilkes in his infamous monkery. But every thing in his +career equally exhibits the times. At an age when he was fit for nothing +else, he was considered fit to receive the salary of a sinecure; and, at +twenty-one, he was appointed to a brace of offices at the mint. His share +of the duty consisted of his enjoying the weekly dinners of the +establishment, and signing the receipts for his quarter's pay. + +Within a few years more, he came into parliament; and in his thirty-second +year, by the death of his father and elder brother, he succeeded to the +family estates, consisting of three handsome possessions, one of which had +the additional value of returning a member of parliament. Nor was this all; +for his influence in Gloucestershire enabled him to secure, during many +years, his own seat for Gloucester, thus rendering his borough disposable; +and thus, master of a hereditary fortune, an easy sinecurist, the +possessor of two votes, and the influencer of the third--a man of family, +a man of connexion, and a man of the court--George Selwyn began a path +strewed with down and rose leaves. + +In addition to these advantages, George Selwyn evidently possessed a very +remarkable subtlety and pleasantry of understanding; that combination +which alone produced true wit, or which, perhaps, would be the best +definition of wit itself; for subtlety alone may excite uneasy sensations +in the hearer, and pleasantry alone may often be vulgar. But the acuteness +which detects the absurd of things, and the pleasantry which throws a +good-humoured coloring over the acuteness, form all that delights us in +wit. + +If we are to judge by the opinion of his contemporaries, and this is the +true criterion after all, Selwyn's wit must have been of the very first +order in a witty age. Walpole is full of him. Walpole himself, a wit, and +infinitely jealous of every rival in every thing on which he fastened his +fame, from a picture gallery down to a snuff-box, or from a history down +to an epigram, bows down to him with almost Persian idolatry. His letters +are alive with George Selwyn. The _bons-mots_ which Selwyn carelessly +dropped in his morning wall through St James's Street, are carefully +picked up by Walpole, and planted in his correspondence, like exotics in a +greenhouse. The careless brilliancies of conversation, which the one threw +loose about the club-rooms of the Court End, are collected by the other +and reset by this dexterous jeweller, for the sparklings and ornaments of +his stock in trade with posterity. + +Yet it may reconcile those less gifted by nature and fortune to their +mediocrity; to know that those singular advantages by no means constitute +happiness, usefulness, moral dignity, or even public respect. Selwyn, as +the French Abbé said, "had nothing to do, and he did it." His possession +of fortune enabled him to be a lounger through life, and he lounged +accordingly. The conversations of the clubs supplied him with the daily +toys of his mind, and he never sought more substantial employment. Though +nearly fifty years in parliament, he was known only as a silent voter; and, +after a life of seventy-two years, he died, leaving three and twenty +thousand pounds of his savings to a girl who was not his daughter; and the +chief part of his estates to the Duke of Queensberry, an old man already +plethoric with wealth, of which he had never known the use, and already +dying. + +His passion for attending executions was notorious and unaccountable, +except on the ground of that love of excitement which leads others to +drinking or the gaming-table. Those sights, from which human nature +shrinks, appear to have been sought for by Selwyn with an eagerness +resembling enjoyment. This strange propensity was frequently laughed at by +his friends. Alluding to the practice of criminals dropping a handkerchief +as a signal for the executioner, says Walpole, "George never thinks, but +_à la tête tranchée_. He came to town the other day to have a tooth drawn, +and told the man that he would drop his handkerchief for the signal." + +Another characteristic anecdote is told on this subject. When the first +Lord Holland, a man of habitual pleasantry, was confined to his bed, he +heard that Selwyn, who had been an old friend, had called to enquire for +his health. "The next time Mr Selwyn calls," said he, "show him up; if I +am alive, I shall be delighted to see him; and, if I am dead, he will be +delighted to see me." + +Walpole says, after telling a story of one Arthur Moore, "I told this the +other day to George Selwyn, whose passion is to see corpses and executions. +He replied, 'that Arthur Moore had his coffin chained to that of his +mistress.' + +"Said I, 'How do you know?' + +"'Why, I--I saw them the other day in a vault in St Giles's.' + +"George was walking this week in Westminster Abbey, with Lord Abergavenny, +and met the man who shows the tombs. 'Oh, your servant, Mr Selwyn; I +expected to have seen you here the other day, when the old Duke of +Richmond's body was taken up.'" Walpole then mentions Selwyn's going to +see Cornberry, with Lord Abergavenny and a pretty Mrs Frere, who were in +some degree attached to each other. + +"Do you know what you missed in the other room?" said Selwyn to the lady. +"Lord Holland's picture." + +"Well, what is Lord Holland to me?" + +"Why, do you know," said he, "my Lord Holland's body lies in the same +vault, in Kensington church, with my Lord Abergavenny's mother." + +Walpole, speaking of the share which he had in capturing a house-breaker, +says, "I dispatched a courier to White's in search of George Selwyn. It +happened that the drawer who received my message had very lately been +robbed himself, and had the wound fresh in his memory. He stalked up into +the club-room, and with a hollow trembling voice, said, 'Mr Selwyn, Mr +Walpole's compliments to you, and he has got a house-breaker for you.'" + +But some of his practical pleasantries were very amusing. Lady Townshend, +a woman of wit, but, in some points of character, a good deal scandalized, +was supposed to have taken refuge from her recollections in Popery. "On +Sunday last," says Walpole, "as George was strolling home to dinner, he +saw my Lady Townshend's coach stop at Caraccioli's chapel. He watched; saw +her go in; her footman laughed; he followed. She went up to the altar; a +woman brought her a cushion; she knelt, crossed her self, and prayed. He +stole up, and knelt by her. Conceive her face, if you can, when she turned +and found him close to her. In his demure voice, he said, 'Pray, ma'am, +how long has your ladyship left the pale of our church?' She looked furies, +and made no answer. Next day he went to see her, and she turned it off +upon curiosity. But is any thing more natural? No; she certainly means to +go armed with every viaticum: the Church of England in on hand, Methodism +in the other, and the Host in her mouth." + +Every one knows that _bons-mots_ are apt to lose a great deal by +transmission. It has been said that the time is one-half of the merit, and +the manner the other; thus leaving nothing for the wit. But the fact is, +that the wit so often depends upon both, as to leave the best _bon-mot_ +comparatively flat in the recital. With this palliative we may proceed. +Walpole, remarking to Selwyn one day, at a time of considerable popular +discontent, that the measures of government were as feeble and confused as +in the reign of the first Georges, and saying, "There is nothing new under +the sun." "No," replied Selwyn, "nor under the grandson." + +Selwyn one day observing Wilkes, who was constantly verging on libel, +listening attentively to the king's speech, said to him, "May Heaven +preserve the ears you lend!" an allusion to the lines of the _Dunciad_-- + + "Yet, oh, my sons, a father's words attend; + So may the fates preserve the ears you lend." + +The next is better. A man named Charles Fox having been executed, the +celebrated Charles asked Selwyn whether he had been present at the +execution as usual. "No," was the keen reply, "I make a point of never +attending rehearsals." + +Fox and General Fitzpatrick at one time lodged in the house of Mackay, an +oilman in Piccadilly, a singular residence for two men of the first +fashion. Somebody, probably in allusion to their debts, observed that such +lodgers would be the ruin of Mackay. "No," said Selwyn, "it will make his +fortune. He may boast of having the first pickles in London." + +_Nonchalant_ manners were the tone of the time; and to cut one's country +acquaintance (a habit learned among the French _noblesse_) was high +breeding. An old haunter of the pump-room in Bath, who had frequently +conversed with Selwyn in his visits there, meeting him one day in St +James's Street, attempted to approach him with his usual familiarity. +Selwyn passed him as if he had never seen him before. His old acquaintance +followed him, and said, "Sir, you knew me very well in Bath." "Well, sir," +replied Selwyn, "in Bath I may possibly know you again," and walked on. + +When _High Life Below Stairs_ was announced, Selwyn expressed a wish to be +present at its first night. "I shall go," said he, "because I am tired of +low life above stairs." + +One of the waiters at Arthur's had committed a felony, and was sent to +jail. "I am shocked at the committal," said Selwyn; "what a horrid idea +the fellow will give of us to the people in Newgate." + +Bruce's Abyssinian stories were for a long time the laugh of London. +Somebody at a dinner once asked him, whether he had seen any relics of +musical instruments among the Abyssinians, or any thing in the style of +the ancient sculptures of the Thebaid. "I think I saw one lyre there," was +the answer. "Ay," says Selwyn to his neighbour, "and that one left the +country along with him." + +Selwyn did not always spare his friends. When Fox's pecuniary affairs were +in a state of ruin, and a subscription was proposed; one of the +subscribers said that their chief difficulty was to know "how Fox would +take it." Selwyn, who knew that necessity has nothing to do with +delicacies of this order, replied, "Take it, why, quarterly to be sure!" + +Mr. Jesse's anecdotes are generally well told, but their version is +sometimes different from ours. Selwyn was one day walking up St James's +Street with Lord Pembroke, when a couple of sweeps brushed against them. +"Impudent rascals!" exclaimed Lord Pembroke. "The sovereignty of the +people," said Selwyn. "But such dirty dogs," said Pembroke. "Full dress +for the court of St Giles's," said Selwyn, with a bow to their sable +majesties. + +But Selwyn, with all his affability and pleasantry, had his dislikes, and +among them was the celebrated Sheridan. The extraordinary talent and early +fame of that most memorable and unfortunate man, had fixed all eyes upon +him from the moment of his entering into public life; and Selwyn, who had +long sat supreme in wit, probably felt some fears for his throne. At all +events, he determined to keep one place clear from collision with this +dangerous wit; and, on every attempt to put up Sheridan's name for +admission into Brookes's, two black balls were found in the balloting-box, +one of which was traced to Selwyn, while the other was supposed to be that +of Lord Besborough. One ball being sufficient to exclude, the opposition +was fatal; but Fox and his friends were equally determined, on their side, +to introduce Sheridan; and for this purpose a curious, though not very +creditable, artifice was adopted. On the evening of the next ballot, and +while George and Lord Besborough were waiting, with their usual +determination, to blackball the candidate, a chairman in great haste +brought in a note, apparently from Lady Duncannon, to her father-in-law +Lord Besborough, to tell him that his house in Cavendish Square was on +fire, and entreating him to return without a moment's delay. His lordship +instantly quitted the room, and hurried homewards. Immediately after, a +message was sent to George Selwyn that Miss Fagniani, the child whom he +had adopted, and whom he supposed to be his own, was suddenlly seized with +a fit, and that his presence was instantly required. He also obeyed the +summons. Both had no sooner left the room than the ballot was proceeded +with, the two ominous balls were not to be found, and Sheridan was +unanimously chosen. In the midst of the triumph, Selwyn and Lord +Besborough returned, indignant at the trick, but of course unable to find +out its perpetrators. How Sheridan and his friends looked may be imagined. +The whole scene was perfectly dramatic. + +Burke's speeches, which were destined to become the honour of his age, and +the delight of posterity, were sometimes negligently received by the house. +His splendid prolixity, which was fitter for an assembly of philosophers +than an English Parliament, sometimes wearied mere men of business, as +much as his fine metaphysics sometimes perplexed them; and the man who +might have sat between Plato and Aristotle, and been listened to with +congenial delight by both, was often left without an audience. One night, +when Selwyn was hurrying into the lobby with a crowd of members, a +nobleman coming up asked him, "Is the house up?" "No," was the reply, "but +Burke is." + +A model of fashionable life, Selwyn unhappily indulged in that vice which +was presumed to be essential to the man of fashion. The early gaming +propensities of Charles Fox are well known; he was ruined, estate, +personal fortune, sinecures and reversions, and all, before he was five +years in public life--ruined in every possible shape of ruin. There were +times when he could not command a guinea in the world. Yet there were +times when he won immensely. At one sitting he carried off £8000, but in a +few more he lost £11,000. He was a capital whist player; and in the cool +calculation of the clubs on such subjects, it was supposed that he might +have made £4000 a-year, if he had adhered to this profitable direction of +his genius. But, like many other great men, he mistook his forte, and +disdained all but the desperation of hazard. There he lost perpetually and +prodigiously, until he was stripped of every thing, and pauperised for +life. + +It gives a strong conception of the universality of this vice, to find so +timid and girlish a nature as the late William Wilberforce's initiated +into the same career. + +"When I left the University," says Wilberforce, in his later reminiscences, +"so little did I know of general society, that I came up to London stored +with arguments to prove the authenticity of 'Rowley's Poems,' (the +academic and pedantic topic of the day,) and now I was at once immersed in +politics and fashion. The very first time I went to Boodle's, I won +twenty-five guineas of the Duke of Norfolk. I belonged at this time to +five clubs, Miles' and Evans', Brookes', Boodle's, White's, and +Goosetree's. The first time I was at Brookes', scarcely knowing any one, I +joined, from mere shyness, in play at the faro-table, where George Selwyn +kept bank. A friend who knew my inexperience, and regarded me as a victim +dressed out for sacrifice, called to me--'What, Wilberforce, is that you?' +Selwyn quite resented the interference, and turning to him, said in his +most expressive tone--'Oh, sir, don't interrupt Mr Wilberforce, he could +not be better employed.' Nothing could be more harmonious than the style +of those clubs--Fox, Sheridan, Fitzpatrick, and all your leading men +frequented them, and associated upon the easiest terms. You either chatted, +played at cards, or gambled, as you pleased." + +We have no idea of entering into any of the scandals of the time. The +lives of all the men of fashion of that day were habitually profligate. +The "Grand Tour" was of but little service to their morals, and Pope's +sarcastic lines were but too true. + + "He travell'd Europe round, + And gather'd every vice on foreign ground; + Till home return'd, and perfectly well-bred, + With nothing but a solo in his head; + Stolen from a duel, follow'd by a nun, + And, if a borough choose him--not undone." + +But this vice did not descend among the body of the people. It was limited +to the idlers of high life, and even among them it was extinguished by the +cessation of our foreign intercourse at the French revolution; or was at +least so far withdrawn from the public eye, as to avoid offending the +common decencies of a moral people. + +Selwyn was probably more cautious in his habits than his contemporaries, +for he survived almost every man who had begun life with him; and he lived +to a much greater age than the chief of the showy characters who rose into +celebrity during his career. He died at the age of seventy-two, January 25, +1791. He had long relinquished gaming, assigning the very sufficient +reason, "It was too great a consumer of four things--time, health, fortune, +and _thinking_." But what man of his day escaped the gout, and the natural +termination of that torturing disease in dropsy? After seven years' +suffering from both, with occasional intervals of relief, he sank at last. +Walpole, almost the only survivor among his early friends, thus wrote on +the day of his expected death:--"I have lost, or am on the point of losing, +my oldest acquaintance and friend, George Selwyn, who was yesterday at the +extremity. Those misfortunes, though they can be so but for a short time, +are very sensible to the old: but him I loved, not only for his infinite +wit, but for a thousand good qualities." He writes a few days after, "Poor +Selwyn is gone; to my sorrow; and no wonder. Ucalegon feels it." + +Selwyn, with all his pleasantry, had evidently a quick eye for his own +interest. He contrived to remain in parliament for half a century, and he +gathered the emoluments of some half dozen snug sinecures. Among those +were the Registrar of Chancery in Barbadoes, and surveyor-general of the +lands. Thus he lived luxuriously, and died rich. + +Orator Henley is niched in an early part of this correspondence. The +orator was known in the last century as a remarkably dirty fellow in his +apparel, and still more so in his mind. He was the son of a gentleman, and +had received a gentleman's education at St John's, Cambridge. There, or +subsequently, he acquired Hebrew, and even Persian; wrote a tragedy on the +subject of Esther, in which he exhibited considerable poetic powers; and +finished his scholastic fame by a grammar of ten languages! On leaving +college, he took orders, and became a country curate. But the decency of +this life did not suit his habits, and he resolved to try his chance in +London for fortune and fame. Opening a chapel near Newport market, +Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, he harangued twice a-week, on theological subjects +on Sundays, and on the sciences and literature on Wednesdays. The audience +were admitted by a shilling ticket, and the butchers in the neighbourhood +were for a while his great patrons. At length, finding his audience tired +of common sense, he tried, like other charlatans since his day, the effect +of nonsense. His manner was theatrical, his style eccentric, and his +topics varied between extravagance and buffoonery. The history of such +performances is invariably the same--novelty is essential, and novelty +must be attained at all risks. He now professed to reform all literature, +and all religion. But even this ultimately failed him. At length the +butchers deserted him, and, falling from one disgrace to another, he sank +into dirt and debauchery, and died in 1750 at the age of sixty-four, +remembered in the world only by being pilloried in the Dunciad. + + "Embrown'd with native bronze, lo! Henley stands, + Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands; + How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue, + How sweet the periods neither said nor sung. + Still break the benches, Henley, with thy strain, + While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson preach in vain." + +The orator's contribution consists but of two notes; the first to Selwyn-- + + "I dine at twelve all the year, but shall be glad to take a glass + with you at the King's Arms any day from four to six. If I have + disobliged Mr Parsons, (who I hear was with you,) or any of you + gentlemen, I never intended it, and ask your pardons. I shall be + proud to oblige my Lord Carteret, or you, or the rest, at any time. + Pray let them see this." + + "J. HENLEY." + +There appears to have been some kind of riot at one of Henley's lectures, +probably a rough burlesque of his manner, in which Selwyn, then a student +of Oxford, made himself conspicuous. At least the letter is addressed to +him. + +"I am accountable for the peace of my congregation; and among the rules +and articles of my consent and conditions as owner and minister, one rule +is, to go out directly, forfeiting what has been given, if any person +cannot or will not preserve those conditions; for the smallest +circumstance of disorder has been inflamed to the highest outrage. The +bishop's nephew began something of the kind two months ago, and made me +retribution; so have others, and I must send an attorney to warn them not +to come whom I suspect hereafter. You have been at his sport before." + +We now come to a man of more importance, Richard Rigby, the "blushing +Rigby" of Junius. He was the son of a linen-draper, who, as factor to the +South Sea Company, acquired considerable property. This, however, his son, +who had adopted public life as his pursuit, rapidly squandered in +electioneering, in pleasure, and the irresistible vice of the time, play. +Frederic, Prince of Wales, was the first object of all needy politicians, +and Rigby for a while attached himself to this feeble personage with all +the zeal of a prospective placeman. But the prince remained too long in +opposition for the fidelity of courtiership, and Rigby glided over to the +Duke of Bedford; who unquestionably exhibited himself a steady and zealous +friend to his new adherent. The duke lent him money to pay his debts; gave +him the secretaryship for Ireland on his appointment to the viceroyalty; +gave him a seat in Parliament for Tavistock; was the means of his being +made a privy counsellor; obtained for him a sinecure of L.4000 a-year; and +at that period when most men are sincere, on his deathbed, appointed Rigby +his executor, and cancelled his bond for the sum which he had originally +lent to him. + +We know few instances of such steady liberality in public life, and the +man who gave, and the man who received those munificent tokens of +confidence, must have had more in them than the world was generally +inclined to believe. The duke has been shot through and through by the +pungent shafts of Junius: and Rigby was covered with mire throughout life +by all the retainers of party. Yet both were evidently capable of strong +friendship, and thus possessed the redeeming quality most unusual in the +selfishness and struggles of political existence. + +Amongst official men, Rigby is recorded as one of the most popular +personages of his time. One art of official popularity, and that too a +most unfailing one, he adopted in a remarkable degree--he kept an +incomparable table. Sir Robert Walpole, one of the shrewdest of men, had +long preserved his popularity by the same means. Rigby's paymastership of +the forces enabled him to support a splendid establishment, and it was his +custom, after the debates in the House of Commons, to invite the ministers +and the pleasantest men of the time, to supper at his apartments in +Whitehall. His wines were exquisite, his cookery was of the most +_recherché_ order; and by the help of a good temper, a broad laugh, +natural joviality, and a keen and perfect knowledge of all that was going +on round him in the world of fashion, he made his parties a delightful +resource to the wearied minds of the Cabinet. + +Wraxall, a very pleasant describer of men and manners, thus sketches +him:--"In Parliament he was invariably habited in a full-dress suit of +clothes, commonly of a dark colour, without lace or embroidery, close +buttoned, with his sword thrust through the pocket. His countenance was +very expressive, but not of genius; still less did it indicate timidity or +modesty. All the comforts of the pay-office seemed to be eloquently +depicted in it; his manner, rough yet frank, admirably set off whatever +sentiments he uttered in Parliament. Like Jenkinson, he borrowed neither +from ancient nor modern authors; his eloquence was altogether his own, +addressed not to the fancy, but to the plain comprehension of his hearers. +There was a happy audacity about him, which must have been the gift of +nature--art could not obtain it by any efforts. He seemed not to fear, nor +even to respect, the House, whose composition he well knew; and to the +members of which assembly he never appeared to give credit for any portion +of virtue, patriotism, or public spirit. Far from concealing those +sentiments, he insinuated, or even pronounced them, without disguise; and +from his lips they neither excited surprise, nor even commonly awaked +reprehension." + +But this flow of prosperity was to have its ebb. The jovial placeman was +to feel the uncertainties of office; and on Lord North's resignation in +1782, and the celebrated Edmund Burke's appointment to the paymastership, +Rigby found himself suddenly called on for a considerable arrear. It had +been the custom to allow the paymaster to make use of the balances in his +hands until they were called for, and this formed an acknowledged and very +important part of his income. But his expenses left him no resource to +meet the demand. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Sir Thomas Rumbold, +the recalled governor of Madras, had just then returned to England, under +investigation by the House of Commons for malpractices in his office. It +was the rumour of the day that Rigby, on the advance of a large sum by +Rumbold, had undertaken to soften the prosecution against him. Whether +this were the fact or not, it is certain that the charges soon ceased to +be pursued, and that Rigby's nephew and heir was soon after married to +Rumbold's daughter. Rigby, who had never been married, died in 1788, in +his sixty-seventh year. + +His letter to Selwyn, in 1745, is characteristic of the man and the time. +"I am just got home from a cock match, where I have won forty pounds in +ready money, and not having dined, am waiting till I hear the rattle of +the coaches from the House of Commons, in order to dine at White's. + +"I held my resolution of not going to the Ridotto till past three o'clock, +when, finding that nobody was willing to sit any longer but Boone, who was +_not able_, I took, as I thought, the least of two evils, and so went +there rather than to bed; but found it so infinitely dull, that I retired +in half an hour. The next morning I heard that there had been extreme deep +play, and that Harry Furnese went drunk from White's at six o'clock, and +won the dear memorable sum of one thousand guineas. + +"I saw Garrick in _Othello_ that same night, in which, I think, he was +very unmeaningly dressed, and succeeded in no degree of comparison with +Quin, except in the second scene, where Iago gives the first suspicions of +Desdemona." + +As the letter does not describe Garrick's dress, we can only suppose it to +have been remarkably absurd, when it could have attracted the censure of +any one accustomed to the stage in the middle of the last century. Nothing +could be more ignorant, unsuitable, or unbecoming, that the whole system +of theatrical costume. Garrick, for example, usually played Macbeth in the +uniform of an officer of the Guards--scarlet coat, cocked hat, and +regulation sword, were the exhibition of the Highland chieftain's wardrobe, +and the period, too, when the Highland dress was perfectly known to the +public eye. It must be acknowledged that we owe the reformation of the +stage, in this important point, to the French. It was commenced by the +celebrated Clairon, and perfected by the not less celebrated Talma. + +"I supped that night, _tête-à-tête_, with Metham, who was d----d angry +with Hubby Bubby (Doddington) for having asked all the Musquetaires to +supper but him. He went to sleep at twelve, and I to White's, where _I +staid till six_. Yesterday I spent a good part of the day with my Lord +Coke at a _cock match_; and went, towards the latter end of Quin's benefit, +to Mariamne. + +"The coaches rattle by fast, and George brings me word the House is up, +and I assure you I am extremely hungry." + +We now come to the name of a man who attained a considerable celebrity in +his own time, but has almost dropped into oblivion in ours, Sir Charles +Hanbury Williams. He was the third son of John Hanbury, Esq., a +Monmouthshire gentleman, and took the name of Williams on succeeding to +the property of his grandfather. His mother was aunt to George Selwyn. +Entering Parliament early in life, he adopted the ministerial side, and +was a steady adherent to Sir Robert Walpole. He had his reward in +ministerial honours, being created a Knight of the Bath; and though Sir +Robert died in 1745, Williams had so far established his court influence, +that he was successively appointed envoy to Saxony, minister at Berlin, +and ambassador at St Petersburg. He was a man of great pleasantry, some +wit, and perpetual verse-making--the name of poetry is not to be stooped +to such compositions as his; but their liveliness and locality, their +application to existing times and persons, and their occasional hits at +politics and principles, made both them and their author popular. But the +fashionable language of the day had tendencies which would not now be +tolerated; and Sir Charles, a fashionable voluptuary, is charged with +having written what none should wish to revive. After a residence of ten +years on the Continent, he fell into a state of illness which deranged his +understanding. From this he recovered, but subsequently relapsed into the +same unhappy state, and died, it was surmised, by his own hand in 1759. +His letter details, in his own flighty style, one of the frolics of +fashion. + +"The town-talk for some time past has been your child, (a note says +'apparently the Honourable John Hobart, afterwards Earl of +Buckinghamshire;') the moment you turned your back he flew out, went to +Lady Tankerville's drum-major, (a rout,) having unfortunately dined that +day with Rigby, who plied his head with too many bumpers, and also made +him a present of some Chinese crackers. Armed in this manner, he entered +the assembly, and resolving to do something that should make a noise, he +gave a string of four and twenty crackers to Lady Lucy Clinton, and bid +her put it in the candle, which she very innocently did, to her and the +whole room's astonishment. But when the first went off she threw the rest +upon the tea-table, where, one after the other, they all went off, with +much noise and not a little stench, to the real joy of most of the women +present, who don't dislike an opportunity of finding fault. Lady Lucy, +indeed, was plentifully abused, and Mr Hobart had his share; and common +fame says he has never had a card since. Few women will curtsy to him; and +I question if he ever will lead any one to their chair again as long as he +lives. I leave you to judge how deeply he feels this wound. Every body +says it would never have happened if you had not retired to your studies; +and you are a little blamed for letting him out alone. He has sunk his +chairman's wages 5s. a-week upon this accident, and intends to turn them +off in Passion week, because he then can go nowhere at all. All private +houses are already shut against him, and at that holy time no public place +is open." + +We have then some letters written in a time of great public anxiety, 1745. + +"All our forces are come from Flanders. The Pretender's second son (Henry +Stuart, afterwards Cardinal of York) is come to Dunkirk, where it is said +there are forty transports. The rebels, it is said, are very +advantageously encamped between two rivers, and are fortifying their camp." + +Another hurried letter says. + +"An express arrives to-day, (Dec. 8th,) while his Majesty was at chapel, +which brought an account of the rebels being close to Derby, and that the +Duke of Cumberland was at Meredan, four miles beyond Coventry observing +their motions." + +Another of the same date, six o'-clock at night, says, "The Tower guns +have not fired to-day. A letter has been received, stating that the rebels +had retreated towards Ashbourne." + +Walpole, in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, on the 9th repeats the news, and +says, "The Highlanders got nine thousand pounds at Derby, and had the +books brought to them, and obliged everybody to give them what they had +subscribed against them. They then retreated a few miles, but returned +again to Derby, got £10,000 more, and plundered the town; they are gone +again, and got back to Leake in Staffordshire, but miserably harassed; +they have left all their cannon behind them, and twenty waggons of sick." + +Nothing can give a stronger example of the changes which may take place in +a country, than the different state of preparation for an invader, +exhibited by England in 1745, and in little more than half a century after. +On the threat of Napoleon's invasion, England exhibited an armed force of +little less than a million, which would have been quadrupled in case of an +actual descent. In 1745, the alarm was extravagant, and almost burlesque. +The Pretender, with but a few thousand men--brave undoubtedly, but almost +wholly unprovided for a campaign--marched into the heart of England, and +reached within a hundred and thirty miles of the capital. But the +enterprise was then felt to be wholly beyond his means. A powerful force +under the Duke of Cumberland was already thrown between him and London. +What was more ominous still, no man of English rank had joined him, London +was firm, the Protestant feeling of the nation, though slowly excited, was +beginning to be roused, by its recollection of the bigotry of James, and +in England, this feeling will always be ultimately victorious. Even if +Charles Edward had arrived in London, and seized the throne, he would have +only had to commence a civil war against the nation. His retreat to the +north saved England from this great calamity, and probably saved himself, +and his adherents in both countries, from a more summary fate than that +which drove his miserable and bigoted father from the throne. + +One of the chief contributors to this correspondence is George James +Williams, familiarly styled Gilly Williams; a man of high life, uncle by +marriage to the minister Lord North, and lucky in the possession of an +opulent office--that of receiver-general of the excise. He, with George +Selwyn and Dick Edgecumbe, who met at Strawberry Hill at certain seasons, +formed what Walpole termed his out-of-town party. Life seems to have +glided smoothly with him, for he lived till 1785, dying at the ripe age of +eighty-six. + +He thus begins:-- + +"Dear George--I congratulate you on the near approach of Parliament, and +figure you before a glass at your rehearsals. I must intimate to you not +to forget to begin closing your periods with a significant stroke of the +breast, and recommend Mr Barry as a pattern, (the actor.) + +"You must observe, in letters from the country, every sentence begins with +being either sorry or glad. Apropos, I am glad to hear B. Bertie (son of +the Duke of Ancaster) is returned from Scarborough, having laid in such a +stock of health and spirits by the waters, as to dedicate the rest of his +days altogether to wine." + +In another letter he says--"I had almost forgot to tell you, that I rode +near ten miles on my way home with the ordinary of Gloucester, and have +several anecdotes of the late burnings and hangings, which I reserve for +your own private ear. I do not know whether he was sensible you had a +partiality for his profession; but he expressed the greatest regard for +you, and I am sure you may command his services." + +Gilly writes from Crome, Lord Coventry's seat in Worcestershire-- + +"Our life here for a while would not displease you, for we eat and drink +well, and the Earl (Coventry) holds a faro-bank every night to us, which +we have as yet plundered considerably. + +"I want to know where to find you, and how long you stay at your +mansion-house; for it would not be pleasant to ride so far only to see +squinting Jenny and the gardener at the end of my journey. I suppose we +shall see you here, where you will find the Countess of Coventry in high +spirits and in great beauty." + +We now come to a brief mention of two women, the most remarkable of their +day for popular admiration, if not for finish and fashion--the Gunnings, +afterwards Lady Coventry and the Duchess of Hamilton. They were the +daughters of an Irish country gentleman, John Gunning, of Castle Coote in +Ireland. On their first appearance at court in England, the elder was in +her nineteenth, and the second in her eighteenth year. They appear to have +excited a most unprecedented sensation in London. Walpole thus writes to +Sir Horace Mann-- + +"You, who knew England in other times, will find it difficult to conceive +what indifference reigns with regard to ministers and their squabbles. The +two Miss Gunnings are twenty times more the subject of conversation than +the two brothers (the Pelhams) and Lord Granville. They are two Irish +girls of no fortune, who are declared the handsomest women alive. I think +there being two so handsome, and both such perfect figures, is their chief +excellence, for, singly, I have seen much handsomer women than either. +However, they can't walk in the Park, or go to Vauxhall, but such crowds +follow them, that they are generally driven away." And this effect lasted; +for, two months after, Walpole writes--"I shall tell you a new story of +the Gunnings, who make more noise than any of their predecessors since the +days of Helen. They went the other day to see Hampton Court. As they were +going into the Beauty room, another company arrived, and the housekeeper +said--'This way, ladies, here are the beauties,' the Gunnings flew into a +passion, and asked her what she meant; they came to see the palace, not to +be shown as sights themselves." + +To the astonishment, and perhaps to the envy, of the fashionable world, +those two unportioned young women made the most splendid matches of the +season. The Duke of Hamilton fell in love with the younger at a masquerade, +and made proposals to her. The marriage was to take place within some +months; but his passion was so vehement, that in two nights after he +insisted on marrying her at the moment. Walpole tells us that he sent for +a clergyman, who however refused to marry them without license or ring. At +this period marriages were frequently performed in a very unceremonious +and unbecoming manner. From the laxity of the law, they were performed at +all hours, frequently in private houses, and sometimes even in jails, by +pretended clergymen. The law, however, was subsequently and properly +reformed. The duke and duchess are said to have been married with a +curtain-ring, at half-past twelve-at night, at May Fair Chapel. This +precipitated the marriage of Lord Coventry, a personage of a grave stamp, +but who had long paid attention to the elder sister Maria. He married her +about three weeks after. Except that we are accustomed to hear of the +frenzy which seizes people in the name of fashion, we should scarcely +believe the effect which those two women, handsome as they were, continued +to produce. On the Duchess of Hamilton's presentation at Court on her +marriage, the crowd was immense; and so great was the curiosity, that the +courtly multitude got on the chairs and tables to look at her. Mobs +gathered round their doors to see them get into their chairs; people +crowded early to the theatres when they heard they were to be there. Lady +Coventry's shoemaker is said to have made a fortune by selling patterns of +her shoe; and on the duchess's going to Scotland, several hundred people +walked about all night round the inn where she slept, on the Yorkshire +road, that they might have a view of her as she went off next morning. + +Yet they appear to have been strangely neglected in their education; +good-humoured and good-natured undoubtedly, but little better than hoydens +after all. Lord Down met Lord and Lady Coventry at Calais, and offered to +send her ladyship a tent-bed, for fear of bugs at the inn. "Oh dear!" said +she, "I had rather be bit to death than lie one night from my dear Cov." + +She is, however, memorable for one _étourderie_, which amused the world +greatly. Old George II., conversing with her on the dulness of the season, +expressed a regret that there had been no masquerades during the year, the +handsome rustic answered him, that she had seen sights enough, and the +only one she wanted to see now was--"a coronation." The king, however, +had the good sense to laugh, and repeated it good-humouredly to his circle +at supper. + +Lady Coventry died a few years after of consumption, at the age of +twenty-seven. It was said that her death was hastened by the habit of +using white lead as a paint, the fashionable custom of the time. The Duke +of Hamilton had died two years before, in 1758, and the duchess became +subsequently the wife of Colonel John Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyle. +The narrative observes the remarkable circumstance, that the untitled +daughter of an Irish commoner should have been the wife of two dukes and +the mother of four. By her first husband she was the mother of James, +seventh duke, and of Douglas, eighth duke, of Hamilton; and by her second +husband, of William, sixth duke, and of Henry, seventh duke, of Argyle. +The duchess, though at the time of Lady Coventry's illness supposed to be +in a consumption, survived for thirty years, dying in 1790. + +Mason the poet commemorated Lady Coventry's death in a long elegy, which +had some repute in those days, when even Hayley was called a poet. They +are dawdling and dulcified to a deplorable degree. + + "Yes, Coventry is dead; attend the strain, + Daughters of Albion, ye that, light as air, + So oft have trips in her fantastic train, + With hearts as gay, and faces half as fair; + For she was fair beyond your highest bloom; + This envy owns, since now her bloom is fled. + &c. &c. &c. + +We have then a sketch of a man of considerable celebrity in his day, Lord +Sandwich. Educated at Eton and Cambridge; on leaving college, he made the +then unusual exertion of a voyage round the Mediterranean, of which a +volume was published by his chaplain on his return. Shortly after, taking +his seat in the House of Lords, he came into ministerial employment as a +Lord of the Admiralty. In 1746, he was appointed minister to the States +General. And from that period, for nearly thirty years, he was employed in +high public offices; was twice an ambassador, three times first Lord of +the Admiralty, and twice Secretary of State. Lord Sandwich's personal +character was at least accused of so much profligacy, that, if the charges +be true, we cannot comprehend how he was suffered to retain employments of +such importance for so many years. Wilkes, who had known him intimately, +describes him, in his letters to the electors of Aylesbury, as "the most +abandoned man of the age." He is even said not to have been a man of +business; yet the Admiralty was a place which can scarcely be managed by +an idler, and the Secretaryship of State, in this country, can never be a +sinecure. He had certainly one quality which is remarkable for +conciliation, and without which no minister, let his talents be what they +may, has ever been personally popular; he was a man of great affability, +and of shrewd wit. The latter was exhibited, in peculiarly cutting style, +to Mr Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland. Eden, sagacious in his generation, +had suddenly ratted to Pitt, adding, however, the monstrous absurdity of +sending a circular to his colleagues by way of justification. Obviously, +nothing could be more silly than an attempt of this order, which could +only add their contempt for his understanding to their contempt for his +conduct. Lord Sandwich's answer was in the most cutting spirit of scorn:-- + +"Sir,--Your letter is now before me, and in a few minutes will be _behind +me_." + +An unhappy circumstance brought Lord Sandwich with painful prominence +before the world. A Miss Ray, a person of some attraction, had +unfortunately lived under his protection for several years. It happened, +however, that a young officer on the recruiting service, who had dined +once or twice at Lord Sandwich's house in the country, thought proper to +pay her some marked attentions, which, after allowing them, as it appears, +to proceed to some extent, she suddenly declined. On this the officer, +whose name was Hackman, and who was evidently of a fantastic and violent +temperament, rushed from England in a state of desperation, flew over to +Ireland, threw up his commission, and took orders in the church. But +instead of adopting the quietude which would have been suitable for his +new profession, the clerical robes seem to have made him more intractable +than the military uniform. After some months of rambling and romance in +Ireland, he rushed over to England again, resolving to conquer or die at +her feet; but the lady still rejected him, and, being alarmed at his +violence, threatened to appeal to Lord Sandwich. There are many +circumstances in the conduct of this unfortunate man, amounting to that +perversion of common sense which, in our times, is fashionably and +foolishly almost sanctioned as monomania. But nothing can be clearer than +the fact, that the most unjustifiable, dangerous, and criminal passion, +may be pampered, until it obtains possession of the whole mind, and leads +to the perpetration of the most atrocious offences against society. The +modern absurdity is, to look, in the violence of the passion for the +excuse of the crime; instead of punishing the crime for the violence of +the passion. We might as well say, that the violences of a drunkard were +more innocent the more furiously he was intoxicated; the whole being a +direct encouragement to excessive guilt. The popular feeling of justice in +the last century, however, was different; robbers and murderers were put +to death as they deserved, and society was relieved without burlesquing +the common understandings of man. Mr Hackman was a murderer, however he +might be a monomaniac, and he was eventually hanged as he deserved. The +trial, which took place in April 1779, excited the most extraordinary +public curiosity. By the statement of the witnesses, it appeared that a Mr +Macnamara, being in the lobby of Covent Garden Theatre when the audience +were coming away, and seeing Miss Ray making her way with some difficulty +through the crowd to her carriage, he went forward with Irish gallantry to +offer her his arm, which she accepted; and as they reached the door of the +carriage, a pistol was fired close to them, when Miss Ray clapped her hand +to her forehead and fell, when instantly another pistol-report followed. +He thought that she had fainted away through fright; but when he raised +her up, he found that she was wounded, and assisted the people in carrying +her into the Shakspeare Tavern; and on Hackman's being seized, and being +asked what could possess him to be guilty of such a deed, his only answer +was to give his name, and say, "It is not a proper place to ask such +questions." It appeared in evidence, that Hackman had been waiting some +time for Miss Ray's coming out of the theatre; that he followed her to the +carriage door, and pulling out two pistols, fired one at the unfortunate +woman, the ball of which went through her brain, and the other at himself, +crying out as he fell, "Kill me--kill me!" + +Of course, after evidence like this, there could be no defence, and none +as attempted. Hackman evidently wished to have died by his own hand; but +having failed there, his purpose was to perish by the law, and plead +guilty. However, on being brought to trial, he said that he now pleaded +not guilty, that he might avoid the appearance of contemning death--an +appearance not suitable to his present condition; that, on second thoughts, +he had considered the plea of guilty as rendering him accessory to a +second peril of his life; and that he thought that he could pay his debt +more effectually to the justice of the country by suffering his offences +to be proved by evidence, and submitting to the forms of a regular trial. +This, though it was penitence too late, was at least decorous language. +His whole conduct on the trial showed that, intemperate as his passions +were, he possessed abilities and feelings worthy of a wiser career, and a +less unhappy termination. Part of his speech was even affecting. + +"I stand here this day," he said, "the most wretched of human beings, and +confess myself criminal in a high degree; yet while I acknowledge, with +shame and repentance, that my determination against my own life was formal +and complete, I protest, with that regard which becomes my situation, that +the will to destroy her who was ever dearer to me than life, was never +mine till a momentary frenzy overpowered me, and induced me to commit the +deed I deplore. Before this dreadful act, I trust, nothing will be found +in the tenor of my life which the common charity of mankind will not +excuse. I have no wish to avoid the punishment which the laws of my +country appoint for my crime; but being already too unhappy to feel a +punishment in death, or a satisfaction in life, I submit myself with +penitence and patience to the disposal and judgment of Almighty God, and +to the consequences of this enquiry into my conduct and intentions." + +After a few minutes' consultation, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, +and he was executed two days after. It is surprising how strong an +interest was felt on this subject by persons of every condition; by the +populace, who loved excitement from whatever quarter it may come; by the +middle order, to whom the romance of the early part of the transaction and +the melancholy catastrophe were subjects of natural impression; and by the +nobility, to whom the character of Miss Ray and the habits of Lord +Sandwich were equally known. + +The Earl of Carlisle thus writes to Selwyn, beginning with a sort of +customary allusion to Selwyn's extraordinary fondness for those displays:-- + +"Hackman, Miss Ray's murderer, is hanged. I attended his execution in +order to give _you_ an account of his behaviour, and from no curiosity of +my own. I am this moment returned from it. Every one enquired after you. +_You have friends_ every where. The poor man behaved with great fortitude; +no appearances of fear were to be perceived, but very evident signs of +contrition and repentance." + +A novel, of some pathos and considerable popularity, was founded on this +unhappy transaction, and "The Letters of Mr Hackman and Miss Ray" long +flourished in the circulating libraries. But the groundwork was vulgar, +mean, and vicious, after all; and, divested of that colouring which +imagination may throw on any event, was degrading and criminal in all its +circumstances. The shame of the wretched woman herself, living in a state +of open criminality from year to year; the grossness of Hackman in his +proposal to make this abandoned woman his wife; the strong probability +that his object might have been the not uncommon, though infinitely vile +one, of obtaining Lord Sandwich's patronage, by relieving him of a +connexion of which that notorious profligate, after nine years, might be +weary--all characterise the earlier portion of their intercourse as +destitute of all pretence to honourable feelings. The catastrophe is +merely the work of an assassin. If there may be some slight allowance for +overwhelming passion, for suddenly excited jealousy, or for remediless +despair, yet those impulses act only to the extent of inflicting injury on +ourselves. No love ever seeks the death of its object. It is then mere +ruffianism, brute cruelty, savage fury; and even this becomes more the act +of a ruffian, when the determination to destroy is formed in cold blood. +Hackman carried two loaded pistols with him to the theatre. What other man +carried loaded pistols there? and what could be his purpose but the one +which he effected, to fire them both, one at the wretched woman, and the +other at himself? The clear case is, that he was neither more nor less +than a furious villain, resolved to have the life of a profligate +milliner's apprentice, who preferred Lord Sandwich's house and carriage, +to Mr Hackman's hovel and going on foot. We shall find that all similar +acts originate in similar motives--lucre, licentiousness, and rage--the +three stimulants of the highwayman, the debauchee, and the ruffian; with +only the distinction, that, in the case of those who murder when they +cannot possess, the three criminalities are combined. + +Even with the execution of the criminal, the excitement did not cease. The +papers of the day tell us, that when the body was conveyed to the +surgeon's hall, so great a crowd was assembled, and the efforts to obtain +entrance were so violent, that caps, gowns, wigs, were torn and cast away +in all directions. Old and young, men, women, and children, were trampled +in the multitude. In the afternoon, the crowd diminished, and several +persons of the better order made their way in, but with not a less +vexatious result; for, on reaching the staircase leading to the theatre, +they found themselves saluted with a shower from some engine worked under +the staircase. This was rather a rough mode of tranquillizing public +excitement, but seems to have been effectual. It was probably a trick of +some of the young surgeons, and excited great indignation at the time. +Hackman was but four-and-twenty, and rather a striking figure. + +The letters to which we have alluded, entitled "Love and Madness," +attracted attention in higher quarters, and even perplexed the +fastidiousness of Walpole himself. In one of his letters of March 1780, he +thus writes:--"Yesterday was published an octavo, pretending to contain +the correspondence of Hackman and Miss Ray. I doubt whether the letters +are genuine, and yet, if fictitious, they are executed well, and enter +into his character. This appears less natural, and yet the editors were +certainly more likely to be in possession of hers than his. It is not +probable that Lord Sandwich should have sent what he found in her +apartments to the press; no account is pretended to be given of how they +came to light." + +After having thus puzzled the dilettanti, it transpired that it was +written by Sir Herbert Croft, Bart. + +Another singular character, who, in connexion with one still more singular, +remarkably occupied the ear and tongue of the _beau monde_ of his day, is +introduced in these volumes. This was Augustus John, Earl of Bristol, +third son of John, Lord Hervey, by the beautiful Mary Lepel. He entered +the sea service at an early age, and prospered as the sons of men of rank +prospered in those days, being made a post-captain in 1747, when he was +but three and twenty years old. Promotion was heaped upon him, and he was +rapidly advanced to the rank of vice-admiral and colonel of marines. He +was, however, said to be a brave and skilful officer. More good fortune +was in store for him; he was placed in the king's household, was a member +of Parliament, was appointed one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and +finally rounded the circle of his honours by succeeding to the earldom of +Bristol. The history of his wife is a continued adventure. Miss Chudleigh, +maid of honour to the Princess of Wales, had, immediately on her +appearance at court, become the observed of all observers. She was +regarded as one of the most beautiful women of her time, was remarkably +quick and witty in her conversation, of a most capricious temper and a +most fantastic imagination--all qualities which naturally rendered her a +topic in every circle of the country. The circumstances of her marriage +rendered her if possible, still more a topic. On a visit at the house of a +relation, she met Lord Bristol, then but a lieutenant in the navy, and +plain Mr Hervey, and disregarding all the formalities of high life, they +were privately married at Lainston, in Northamptonshire. They were, +however, separated the very next day, the lady declaring her determination +never to see her husband's face again. This, of course, produced an ample +fund of conversation of every kind; but the lady returned to court, and +the gentleman returned to his ship, and went to sea. However, they met +again, and the result was, she became a mother. From her determination to +keep her marriage secret, she retired for her accouchement to a secluded +spot in Chelsea, where her child was born, and where it soon after died. + +It may easily be supposed, that the sudden disappearance of so conspicuous +a person from the most conspicuous society, must have given rise to +rumours and ridicule of every kind. She returned to court nevertheless, +and constantly denying her marriage, fought it out with the effrontery +which is so easily forgiven, in fashionable life, to youth, wit, and +beauty. + +Yet she could not quite escape the flying shafts of wit herself. One day +after her return, meeting the memorable Lord Chesterfield--"Think, my +lord," said she, with an air of indignation, "to what lengths the +scandalous chronicle will go, when it absolutely says that I have had +twins." "My dear," said Lord Chesterfield, "I make it a rule never to +believe above half what the world says." + +She now received the attentions of many suitors, extraordinary as the +circumstance may be, when the mystery of her own conduct and the surmises +of the public are considered; and, to make assurance doubly sure, she +determined to extinguish all proof of her hasty marriage. Ascertaining +that the clergyman who had married her was dead, she went to Lainston +church, and contrived to carry away the entry of her marriage from the +register. Some time after this, Miss Chudleigh (for she never would take +her husband's name) married the Duke of Kingston. It was strongly asserted, +though the circumstance is so dishonourable that it can scarcely be +believed, that the silence of the real husband was purchased by the +advance of a large sum of money from the pretended one. The marriage +remained undisturbed until the death of the duke. She then came into +possession of his very large disposable property, and traveled in great +pomp to Rome; but the duke's nephew and heir, having his suspicious of the +fact excited, commenced proceedings against the duchess for bigamy. She +was tried before her peers in Westminster hall, and found guilty of the +offence, in April 1776; but by claiming the privilege of peerage, she was +discharged on payment of the usual fees. + +It is scarcely possible to believe that a man of the rank and profession +of Lord Bristol, could have been base enough to connive at his wife's +marriage with the Duke of Kingston. But there can be no question, that in +the prevalent opinion of the time, he had even taken a large sum of money +for the purpose. In one of Walpole's letters, subsequently to the trial, +he says, "if the Pope expects his duchess back, he must create her one, +for her peers have reduced her to a countess. Her folly and her obstinacy +here appear in the full vigour, at least her faith in the ecclesiastical +court, trusting to the infallibility of which she provoked this trial in +the face of every sort of detection. The living witness of the first +marriage, a register of it fabricated long after by herself, the widow of +the clergyman who married her, many confidants to whom she had entrusted +the secret, and even Hawkins, the surgeon, privy to the birth of the child, +appeared against her. The Lords were tender, and would not probe the +earl's collusion; but the ecclesiastical court, who so readily accepted +their juggle, and sanctified the second match, were brought to shame--they +care not if no reformation follows. The duchess, who could produce nothing +else in her favour, tried the powers of oratory, and made a long oration, +in which she cited the protection of her late mistress, the Princess of +Wales. Her counsel would have curtailed this harangue; but she told them +they might be good lawyers, but did not understand speaking to the +passions. She concluded her rhetoric with a fit, and retired with rage +when convicted of the bigamy." + +The charge to which Walpole alludes, was, that the earl had given her a +bond for L.30,000 not to molest her; but as there was no proof, this gross +charge certainly has no right to be implicitly received. Still it is +unaccountable why he should have suffered her to have married the Duke of +Kingston without any known remonstrance, and why he should have allowed +her to retain the title of the duke's widow until the rightful heir +instituted the proceedings. The earl died in 1779, within three years from +the trial. + +Among the characters which pass through this magic-lantern, is Topham +Beauclerk, so frequently mentioned, and mentioned with praise, in +Boswell's _Johnson_. He seems to have been a man of great elegance of +manner, and peculiarity of that happy talent of conversation whose wit +seems to be spontaneous, and whose anecdotes, however _recherché_, seem to +flow from the subject. "Every thing," remarked Johnson, "comes from +Beauclerk so easily, that it appears to me that I labour when I say a good +thing." + +Beauclerk was the only son of Lord Sydney Beauclerk, a son of Charles, +first Duke of St Albans. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and, +from the moment of his entering fashionable life, was remarked for the +elegance of manner, and the liveliness of conversation, which continued to +be his distinctions to the close of his career. Unfortunately, the fashion +of the time not only allowed, but seems to have almost required, an +irregularity of life which would tarnish the character of any man in our +more decorous day. His unfortunate intercourse with Viscountess +Bolingbroke, better known by her subsequent name of Lady Diana Beauclerk, +produced a divorce, and in two days after a marriage. She was the eldest +daughter of Charles, the second Duke of Marlborough, and was in early life +as distinguished for her beauty, as in later years she was for her wit. + +Johnson in his old age became acquainted with Topham Beauclerk, through +their common friend, Langton, and even the sage and moralist acknowledged +the captivation of his manners. "What a coalition!" said Garrick, when he +heard of their acquaintance, "I shall have my old friend to bail out of +the roundhouse." But whatever might be the elegance of his companion's +laxity, Johnson did not hesitate to rebuke him. Beauclerk, like wits in +general, had a propensity to satire, on which Johnson once took him to +task in this rough style--"You never open your mouth but with the +intention to give pain; and you have now given me pain, not from the power +of what you have said, but from my seeing the intention." At another tine, +applying to him that line of Pope's, slightly altered, he said-- + + 'Thy love of folly, and thy scorn of fools;' + +everything you do shows the one, and every thing you say the other." + +Another rather less intelligible rebuke occurred in his saying, "Thy body +is all vice and thy mind all virtue." As the actions of the body proceed +from the mind, it is difficult to conceive how the one can be impure +without the other. At least Beauclerk did not appear to relish the +distinction, and he was angry at the phrase. However, Johnson's attempt to +appease him was a curious specimen of his magniloquence. "Nay, sir, +Alexander the Great, marching in triumph into Babylon, could not have +desired to have had more said to him." + +Topham Beauclerk had two daughters by Lady Diana, one of whom became Lady +Pembroke. He died at his house in Great Russell Street, then a place of +fashion, in 1780, in his 41st year. + +Selwyn's seat, Matson, in Gloucestershire, received some pretty historical +reminiscences. One of Walpole's letters to Bentley, thus speaks of a visit +to his friend's villa in the autumn of 1753. + +"I staid two days at George Selwyn's house, which lies on Robin Hood's +hill. It is lofty enough for an Alp, yet is a mountain of turf to the very +top, has woods scattered all over it, springs that long to be cascades in +twenty places; and from the summits it beats even Sir George Littleton's +views, by having the city of Gloucester at its foot, and the Severn +widening to the horizon. The house is small but neat; King Charles (the +First,) lay here at the siege, and the Duke of York, with typical fury, +hacked and hewed the windows of his chamber, as a memorandum of his being +there. The fact however being, that both the princes, Charles and James, +who were then mere boys, remained at Matson--a circumstance frequently +mentioned to Selwyn's grandfather by James II., observing:--'My brother +and I were generally shut up in a chamber on the second floor during the +day, where you will find that we have left the marks of our confinement +inscribed with our knives on the ledges of all the windows."' + +The house must have been quite a treasure to Walpole, for he found in it a +good picture of the famous Earl of Leicester, which he had given to Sir +Francis Walsingham; and what makes it very curious, Walpole observes his +age is marked on it fifty-four, in 1752. "I had never been able to +discover before in what year he was born, and here is the very flower-pot +and counterfeit association for which Bishop Sprat was taken up, and the +Duke of Marlborough sent to the Tower." + +It is, however, by no means clear, that this was a "counterfeit +association," though Walpole abandons his usual scepticism on all +disputable points with such facility. The "association" was a plot to +bring back that miserable blockhead and bigot, James II., said to be +signed by Marlborough, the Bishop of Rochester, Lords Salisbury, Cornberry, +and Sir Basil Firebrace. On the information of one Young, the draft of the +plot was found in a flower-pot in the Bishop's house at Bromley. But +fortunately the days of royal terror had passed by. The crown was strong +enough to treat conspiracy with contempt, and the affair was suffered to +fall into oblivion. Yet it is now so notorious that many of the highest +persons in the state were tampering with the exiled family, that the plot +is rendered sufficiently probable. There seems to have been some political +infatuation connected with the name of the Stuarts. Though, excepting the +bravery of Charles I. and the pleasantry of Charles II., they all were +evidently the dullest, most mulish, and most repulsive of mankind; yet +many brave men periled their lives to restore them, and many men of great +distinction hazarded their safety to correspond with them. The "Stuart +Correspondence" was less a breach of loyalty than a libel on the national +understanding. + +On the whole, these volumes are interesting, in many parts--very much so. +The editor has evidently done his best to illustrate and explain. But can +he not discover any remnant of the letters of Selwyn himself? he might +then remove the objection to his title, and please all readers together. + + * * * * * + + + + +NEWS FROM AN EXILED CONTRIBUTOR. + + + MELBOURNE, PORT PHILIP, + NEW SOUTH WALES, _July_ 1, 1843. + + BELOVED AND REV. CHRISTOPHER, + + +You have been pleased many times, in very decided terms, to express your +ever-to-be-respected conviction that I should eventually come to something; +haply to the woolsack--possibly to the gallows; from which prophetic +sentiment, I have naturally inferred that my genius was rare, and that +your eagle eye had discovered it. + +Before my letter reaches your generous shores, twelve months will have +elapsed, most reverend Christopher, since we parted in the Hibernian city. +Then we were as near to one another as firmly grasped hands could render +us; now sixteen thousand miles effectually divide us; and whilst I sit +silently wishing you ages of health and mortal happiness, the mercury of +my thermometer stands lazily at freezing point, whereas your own sprightly +quicksilver rushes up to 92. All things tell me of our separation. We +sailed, as you will find by referring to your pocket-book--for you made a +memorandum at the time--on the 14th day of November last from Cork; +sighted Madeira--about thirty miles abreast--in eight days, and out of +sight of it on the 22d. A fine fair wind was sent to us, and we crossed +the Line, all well, on the 14th of December; then steering pretty far to +westward, we luckily caught the trade-wind, and rounded the Cape in a good +gale on the 15th of January. And here it came on to blow right earnestly; +but we kept the gale for about eight days on our larboard quarter, and we +scudded on our course at a fearful rate. Our mizen mast was carried +away--both our mainsails split--and we smashed a few spars, and lost some +running gear; nothing more serious happened, save the loss of as fine a +young fellow as ever trode shoe-leather--a seaman. He was caught sharply +by one of the ropes that gave way, and it carried him overboard like a +feather. We saw him drop--the sea was running mountains high--we could +render him no assistance; and he perished under our very eyes. The wind, +fortunately for us, continued on either quarter of our ship; and it is a +remarkable fact, and deserving of notice, that, during the whole of our +voyage, we had occasion only _to put the ship about_ TWICE. We cast anchor +in Hobson's Bay, Port Philip on the morning of the 21st of February, +having made our voyage in the short space of ninety-nine days, and the +land within a quarter of an hour of the captain's reckoning. The events of +the passage may be given _paucis verbis_. We had nine _accouchements_ in +the steerage amongst the emigrants, some of them premature from violent +sea-sickness, and seven deaths--all children. + +Our deaths, as I have said, were confined to the children. The adults kept +free from fever; an astonishing fact, when the confinement and closeness of +a steerage birth is taken into account. The voyage was agreeable. We were +good friends in the cabin. The captain, a prudent, temperate man, took his +three glasses of grog per diem, and no more; the first at noon, the second +at dinner, the third and last at _"turn-in_." Your obedient servant, ever +mindful of your strict injunctions, and of your eloquent discourse on +sobriety and self-denial, and believing that he could not do better than +regulate his watch according to the captain's chronometer, followed +precisely the same rule. We maintained a glorious state of health after +the first week; and if all future voyagers would do the same, let them +neither eat nor drink aboard ship to the full extent of their appetites. +This is simple advice, but I reckon it the first great secret which my +nomadic experience enables me to put down for the benefit of my +fellow-creatures; especially on board of a ship, _leave off with an +appetite._ We passed our time--not having the fear of the Ancient Mariner +before our eyes--in shooting albatrosses, Cape pigeons, and the like; in +picking up a porpoise, a bonnitta, or a dolphin. Books, backgammon, and +whist, filled up the measure of the day. _Mem_.--had we been favoured with +less wind, we should have got more porpoises. We speared +many--_first-raters_; but the speed at which we cut along, prevented our +securing them. + +But we have cast anchor. The harbour of Hobson's Bay is a splendid inlet +of the sea. The bay is very narrow at the entrance, but the moment you get +past the Heads, it extends to a breadth of eight or ten miles, and to a +length of twenty-two miles, from the mouth to the anchoring place. The +land around the bay is flat and sandy, and covered with wood almost to the +water's edge. The tree there resembles our common mountain fir: it is +exactly like it in the bark; but it is called by the settlers, _the +she-oak_. I reckon it to be the beef-tree, for it has its appearance when +cut up, is hard, and takes a beautiful polish. Inland, this wood grows to +a considerable height and thickness; but the principal part of the +interior is thickly covered with the various species of the gum and +peppermint trees, many of them of a singularly large growth: but more of +the interior anon. Immediately opposite to the anchorage ground, there is +a pretty little town called _Williamstown_, in which the water-police +magistrate, an old seafaring gentleman, Captain ----, has his residence. +The gallant captain has enough to do with the jolly tars, who invariably +attempt to cut and run as soon as they have got here. A sailor +misconducting himself on the voyage, has at least two months' reflection +in the jail of Williamstown, commencing immediately upon his arrival. The +news of this prison establishment will probably reach England before my +letter. Should it be spoken of in your presence, say that it has been +found absolutely necessary for the protection of shipmasters, and that an +act was passed accordingly for its erection. _Gordon law_, so called after +the first magistrate, is proverbial, and very summary. Every fellow found +drunk gets two hours in the stocks, and he becomes sober there much sooner +than if he had been simply fined five shillings. + +The town of Melbourne is beautifully situated on the face of a hill, in +the hollow of which runs the noble river called the _Yarra-Yarra_, words +which signify in the native language, _"flowing constantly."_ It is +distinguished by its title from the large majority of rivers, which are +nearly _still_, and which, after extending only for a mile or two, form at +length a species of swamp. Such rivers are generally styled _lagoons_. The +_Yarra-Yarra_ is navigable up to the town of Melbourne for ships of a +large size--say 400 tons; but the seven miles of distance being circuitous, +and the banks of sand at the mouth of the river occasionally shifting, the +larger class of ships generally remain at the anchorage ground in the bay, +and discharge by common lighters. At the present moment, from twenty to +thirty very large ships are riding in the bay. A pretty little steamer +plies three times a-day between the towns of Melbourne and +Williamstown--price five shillings, up and down. Another steamer, "The Sea +Horse," plies between Melbourne and Sydney once a fortnight; the passage +is made in three days, and the fares £12 for cabin, £6 for steerage. The +communication is a vast accommodation to this district. The steamer is in +private hands, and did not answer at first; she now carries the mail, and +promises to turn out a profitable _spec_. The coast is very dangerous, and +at _every_ season of the year liable to very violent gales. Even in the +bay the squalls are sudden, violent, and dangerous, and many lives are +lost for want of proper precaution and care, on board of small boats. Only +yesterday, my friend, Mr G----, and three men, were out in a pleasure boat; +in five minutes they were swept off to leeward, the boat was upset, and +they were all drowned. + +Melbourne is perhaps the most surprising place in her Majesty's dominions. +Nothing, in the history of colonization, approaches her as regards the +rapidity of advancement and extent. Six years ago there were not twenty +British subjects on the spot, and at the present hour, Melbourne and its +suburbs boast of a population of ten thousand souls. There are already +built four splendid edifices for public worship--Episcopalians, +Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Independents, are provided for--and there is +in addition a very large Roman Catholic chapel in the course of erection. +There are three banks all doing excellently well--"The Australasian," "The +Union Bank of Australia," and "Port Philip's Bank"--and there is yet a +good field for another, under prudent management. The rate of discount is +£10 per cent; and the interest given on deposit accounts £7 per cent. The +common rate of interest, given with good mortgage security, is £20 per +cent; and in some instances, where a little risk is taken, £25 and £30. +Bills past due at the bank, are charged £12 per cent. A court of law (by +act of Council) allows £8 per cent on all bills sued upon, with a +discretionary power of extending the rate to £12 per cent, to cover any +damage or loss sustained. There are two Club houses, a Royal Exchange, and +some very large buildings for stores. A spacious new jail is building in a +most commodious situation, and a public court house will soon follow; the +one existing being but small and temporary. The new customhouse, which has +been completed since my arrival is a fine building, and forms one side of +the Market Square. In front of this, and about four hundred yards distant, +stands the wharf. Melbourne rejoices likewise in its theatre, or, as it is +called, "_pavilion_," which place of amusement, however, the governor does +not think proper to license. His refusal is, I believe, very properly +founded upon the questionable condition of the morals of the great body of +the population. Two hours at the police-office any morning, afford a +stranger a tolerably clear insight into this subject generally, and +acquaint him particularly with the over-night deportment of the +Melbournese. The police magistrate holds any thing but a sinecure. We have +three newspapers in Melbourne, namely, _The Patriot_, _The Herald_, and +_Gazette_, each published twice a-week; the first on Monday and Thursday, +the second on Tuesday and Friday, the third on Wednesday and Saturday; so +that we have a newspaper every day. The advertisements are numerous and +varied in matter. I have heard upon good authority that the proprietor of +any one of these journals draws at least £4000 to £5000 per annum from the +profits of them. It is not difficult to account for these enormous gains. +Every thing here is sold by auction, and the advertisements are in +consequence more numerous than they would otherwise be. An auctioneer +alone, in good business, will pay each of the papers about £1000 per annum +for printing and advertising his numerous sales. We have a supreme court +with a suitable establishment of officers. John Walpole Willis, Esq., was +resident judge. He is now amongst you, for, by the slip which carries this +letter, he starts for England, circumstances having occurred that render +it necessary for him to vindicate in person a character which requires no +vindication. The people of Melbourne part with the upright and learned +judge with infinite regret, softened only by the certain hope they +entertain of his immediate return. The resident judge holds civil courts +as in England during the several terms, and criminal courts of general +jail-delivery every month. The pleadings are conducted by barristers at +law, who have been duly admitted in England, Ireland, Scotland, or Isle of +Man. The agents or attorneys and solicitors are those duly admitted at +Sydney, at courts of Westminster in England, High Courts in Ireland, and +_writers to her Majesty's Signet in Scotland_. Others who may have served +a regular apprenticeship of not less than five years to any such agent, +after undergoing a necessary examination, are likewise suffered to +practise as attorneys. The supreme court has been established about twelve +months. Before that time all suits were carried on in Sydney. Conveyances +of land may be prepared by any one, and, before professional men appeared +amongst the settlers, there were some rare specimens of deeds in this +branch of English law. Now they are of course better--and those to which I +have adverted have fortunately paved the way for endless litigation. We +have a sprinkling of military and mounted police; two very large steam +mills for grinding flour and sawing timber; and in a word, all the +concomitants of a large and flourishing city. I should, however, except +the public streets. These are still unpaved, and consequently in wet +weather, in some places, impassable, and in dry weather insufferably dusty. +I have spoken of the sudden squalls which arise often in the Bay. Whilst +one of these prevails, clouds of dust are carried from the streets so +dense that you cannot see half a yard before you. If you are exposed to +the whirlwind, and chance to wear clothes of a dark colour, you issue from +it with the appearance of a man who has been confined in a mill for a week. +A house of furniture well cleaned in the morning, looks at dinner-time as +if it had been coated with dirt for a twelvemonth. Should there be a +sudden mortality among the ladies of Port Philip, it will undoubtedly be +occasioned by this warfare with the dirt, which is carried forward day +after day without any prospect of retreat on either side. + +Having read thus far, you will very likely tap the floor impatiently with +your foot, and say--if you have not said it already--"Well, but what is +the fellow about himself?" Patience, gentle Christopher. I will tell you +now. Upon my arrival with a pocket, as you are aware, not very +inconveniently laden, I kept of course "my eye ahead" for any thing +suitable in the farming way; sheep-stock or cattle. But it would not do. +_Capital_ was required to get a sheep-station, and employment as an +overseer, in consequence of the depression that existed in the markets +_for all kinds of stock_, altogether hopeless. No man is idle here longer +than he can help it, unless he have the wherewithal to look to; and there +are fifty modes of gaining bread here, if a man will turn to them? What +could a briefless barrister do better than throw himself upon the law? I +smelled out the attorneys to begin with. The first with whom I came in +contact was one Mr ----, from a northern county in England. He had been +here only three years, and was already rattling about in his carriage. He +arrived without a shoe to his foot, or a sixpence in his pocket. Another +was my old and respected friend Mr ----, writer to the signet, of +Edinburgh, who had been here about eighteen months, was living like a +gentleman, and on the point of entering a fine new dwelling-house, which +he had himself erected out of his own honourable gains. Upon him I waited, +and from his kindness I obtained all the information I stood in need of; +and not only this, but immediate profitable employment in his office, +which, with his leave, I hold until something offers--whether I shall +claim admission as attorney, solicitor, and proctor, as some have done +before me, or resort to my old calling of advocate, is as yet an undecided +question. I am now in the receipt of more than is necessary for +subsistence, and I shall look before I leap. The rents of houses are +extravagantly high. The poorest tradesmen pay fifteen shillings a-week for +his small house--and he must pay it weekly; the better class of tradesmen +pay twenty and twenty-five shillings, and the higher class from two to +four pounds a-week; for a petty dwelling containing only three rooms and a +kitchen. A small brick cottage held by a friend of mine, and consisting of +sitting-room, bed-room, servant's room, and kitchen, is considered a great +bargain at a hundred pounds per annum. The hours of business are limited +with strictness to seven--_videlicit_, from nine in the morning until four +P.M. You are your own master after four o'clock, and need fear no +business-calls or interruptions. Whilst business, however, is going on, +the excitement and bustle compel me to regard Cheapside on a Saturday +afternoon, as a place of great quietness and an agreeable promenade. +Fellows are riding as hard as they can tear from one end of the town to +the other--cattle are driving to and fro--bullock-drays are crowding from +the interior with wood--auctions are eternally at work--settlers are +coming from their stations, or getting their provisions in. Tradesmen and +mercantile men are hurry-skurrying with their orders. A vast amount of +work is done up to four o'clock, and afterwards all is silence, and the +place looks unlike nothing so much as itself; and yet, notwithstanding all +this bustle, _money_ is altogether out of the question. From what exact +cause or series of causes, I cannot tell you now--but the fact is certain +that the mercantile community here is nearly _bankrupt_. There is a glut +of goods, a superabundance of every thing in the market. It has been +wrongfully supposed in England that every thing would sell here, and the +consequence has been that an overflow of every kind of commodity has +poured in upon us. The supply has doubled and trebled the demand. Upon the +first establishment of these settlements the wants of the people were of +course many, and their prices for stock were so good, and their +speculations in land so profitable and bright, that they could afford the +indulgence of a luxury, no matter what price was asked to purchase it. It +is very different _now_. The staple commodity of this colony is wool. Well, +so long as all the stations or sheep-runs continued unoccupied, and new +settlers arrived, the price of sheep kept naturally very high; but every +station that can command a due supply of water, is now in occupation, and +consequently the demand for stock has ceased. Sheep, which three years ago +sold for twenty-five and eighteen shillings, command now, for first +quality, eight shillings and sixpence only; ordinary quality, six +shillings; and middling as low as five shillings. For cash sale by +sheriff-warrant, I have seen beautiful ewes, free from all disease--2000 +of them--sold for two and sixpence each! Cattle three years ago sold for +ten, twelve, and sometimes fifteen pounds per head. At this moment they +are so plentiful that I could purchase a drove of fat cattle, two to three +hundred head--and some of them weighing eighty stone--for eight pounds a +beast, and that on credit too by approved bill at four months' date. Such +are a few of the reasons why a damper has come over the Port Philip market, +reducing amongst other things the price of wages by nearly a third. +Emigrants continue to pour in, and they stare and are grievously +disappointed at the rate of wages, so very different to that which they +expected. Twelve months since, a single labouring man got forty pounds per +annum, with weekly rations of provisions; now with his rations, he +receives only twenty-five, or at most thirty pounds per annum. Married men +with young families will not be hired at any rate, for they are only +burdens on a station. A good thorough-bred shepherd maintains his price. +He is still in great demand, and may command from sixty to seventy pounds +per annum, with rations, cow's milk, free hut, and a portion of produce of +stock in addition to all, if he chooses to put his wages to that mode of +profit. Women servants were formerly much wanted. They are now at a +discount. The filthy drabs ejected from Ireland are scarcely worth their +meat. I am proud to say it, and you should be proud to hear it, gentle +Christopher, that a Scotch servant, male or female, is forty per cent +above every other in value in this colony. Scotch servants get ahead in +spite of every thing. The Scotch tradesmen have almost all of them made +money; some abundantly. I have met many here from the North who brought +nothing but their energy, moderation, and unconquerable perseverance with +them, and they are affluent, and are becoming daily more so. Donald ----, +who was a servant lad at home, and is now a respected and respectable man +in Melbourne, is independent. He went first to Van Diemen's Land, and came +here some three years ago. "And had you arrived," he said to me the other +day, "at the same time, you might now have been moving home a prosperous +gentleman." However, _nil desperandum_. There is still a fair opportunity +for an industrious man, who above all things has resolution to be SOBER in +his habits. The mischief with the labouring man has been, that having +suddenly discovered his wages to be high in comparison with those he +received in the mother country, he has considered himself entitled to have +a proportionate extra amount of enjoyment at the public-house, where drink +is very high. Good tradesmen would infallibly make money, but for this +great failing. The bullock dray-drivers, certainly the best paid of all +the working men, absolutely think nothing of coming from the Bush into +Melbourne, with twenty or thirty pounds in their pocket, and spending +every farthing of the sum--in _one night_--champagne to the mast-head. The +innkeepers make fortunes rapidly. Shall I tell how much Boniface will draw +in a week? No--for you will not believe me. Certainly as much as many an +innkeeper in a country town would draw in twelve months. An innkeeper's +license to Government is thirty pounds per annum. This entitles him to +keep his house open from six in the morning until eleven o'clock at night; +ten pounds more enables him to have open house during the night; and an +additional ten pounds enables him to keep a billiard table. There are a +great many houses with tables and a number of light houses; but, as I have +hinted before, our police courts exhibit abominations, and a police court +is a good criterion of the morals of a people. In the first formation and +early beginnings of this colony, a man having sheep took up his abode in +the interior, on any spot which he considered suitable and agreeable, and +he was called a _squatter_. Now no individual may pasture sheep or cattle +of any kind without receiving a license from Government, for which he pays +ten pounds annually, and making a return every year of all his stock, +servants, and increase--the license, by the way, not being available +within three miles of Melbourne. The holder of such a license is called a +_settler_. A settler is entitled to cut wood upon his own station or run, +for firing for himself and servants; but if he cut it for sale--and we +have no coal here--he pays, in addition to the ten pounds, three pounds +more per annum for the permission so to do. + +You shall now receive a faithful account of the settling of a settler. +Suppose him to have a station in the interior, or as it is invariably +styled, "in the _Bush_." The distance is forty, fifty, or it may be eighty, +miles from Melbourne, and the stock consists of from four to five thousand +sheep, and from one to two hundred head of cattle. The settler, in all +probability, has been accustomed in early life to good society, has been +well educated and brought up. Living at his station he sees none but his +own servants, his _chère amie_, (always a part of a settler's stock,) and +perhaps a few black natives, not unfrequently hostile visitors. Business +calls the settler to Melbourne; he puts up at his inn; any thing in the +shape of society rejoices his heart, and forthwith he begins "the lark;" +he dines out--gets fuddled, returns to his inn, finds a city friend or two +waiting for him, treats them to champagne, of which, at ten shillings per +bottle, they drink no end. Very well. His horse is in the stable at seven +shillings and sixpence a-night, his own bill varies from six to eight +pounds per diem, and at the end of a fortnight my settler is called upon +to hand over a cheque upon his banker to the tune of a hundred pounds, or, +if he has no bank-account, his promissory note at a very short date. Away +starts the settler back to his solitude; he has given his bill, and he +thinks no more about it; but the bill finds its way quickly into the hands +of an attorney, and in eight days there is an execution out for recovery, +with an addition of ten pounds already incurred in legal expenses. The +sheriff's bailiff rides to the station and demands payment of the whole. +He gets no money, but settler and bailiff return in company to Melbourne: +a friend is applied to; he discounts a bill for the sum required. The +attorney is paid the amount by the hands of the sheriff. The bill once +more becomes due, and is once more dishonoured; expenses run up like +wildfire. This time there is no escape, and a portion of the stock must be +sold to avoid ruin--and it is sold sometimes at a fearful sacrifice. This +is no insulated case. It is the history of nine-tenths of the thoughtless +fellows who dwell away in the Bush. Such gentlemen at the present hour, in +consequence of the depressed state of the stock market, are all but ruined. +Any one of them, who twelve months since purchased his flock of two +thousand sheep at eighteen or five-and-twenty shillings, can only reckon +upon a fourth of the amount in value _now_. It is increase only that +enables him to pay his servants, and he has as much off the wool as +affords him the means of living. The sale of his wethers would not pay for +the tear and wear of bullocks and drays; and if any profit does by any +chance arise, it can be only from occasionally catching a few head of +cattle, which, as they run wild in the woods, the settler can keep no +account of, and only with difficulty secure when they come to a lagoon for +water, where they are watched, because at one time or another they are +certain to appear. Horses are very dear in Melbourne: a useless brute, +which in England would be dear at ten pounds, sells here quickly for +thirty; a good saddle horse will fetch a hundred, and I have seen some +tolerable cart horses sold for fifty and sixty pounds. In a new colony, +where almost all the draught is performed by bullocks, cart horses must +realize a good price. The hire of a horse and cart in Melbourne is, one +pound four shillings for the day. + +In addition to those above spoken of there is another class of settlers, +who were the original stock-holders and land-purchasers in the district. +They have large tracts of country in the Bush, and thousands of sheep and +cattle on then, and all managed by servants and overseers. These +proprietors live at the clubs in Melbourne and constitute what is here +termed the _élite_ of society. A short time ago these gentlemen +entertained the pleasing notion, that there was to be no termination to +the increase and extent of their wealth; and one very young member of the +society was heard to exclaim, in apparent agony at his excessive good +fortune, "upon my soul, I am become most disgustingly rich." But mark the +difference The _élite_ have been living in the most extravagant manner. +They discounted bills at their own pleasure here at ten per cent; and +knowing well that these bills would not be honoured at maturity, they sent +them to London, and cashed them there: with the funds thus raised, they +speculated in the buying of land and stock, hoping to get (as in many +instances they did) at least eighty per cent profit by their transactions. +But now stock has fallen to a trifle; bills are falling due, rushing back +from England under protest--and the bubble bursts. The banks are drawing +in their accommodation, and the _élite_, who were a short time back so +disgustingly rich, are, whilst I write, most disgustingly poor. This is no +imaginative statement; it is a sober fact. But I do not suppose that the +present state of things will last long. Speculation and the rate of +interest must come down. When the human body is disordered, it is a happy +time for the doctor; when the body mercantile is diseased, it is the +attorney's harvest time. If an attorney has any business at all, he must +do well in Melbourne, for his fees are inordinately high. Protesting a +bill is five-and-twenty shillings; noting, half-a-guinea; every letter +demanding payment of account, if under twenty pounds, half-a-guinea; above +twenty and under a hundred pounds, one guinea; above a hundred, two +guineas. Every summons (a summons being a short printed form) before the +supreme court, is charged six guineas; and the clients pay down at once, +without any questions, too glad to do so, provided they can get rid of +their temporary difficulties. Litigation is short and quick. Conveyancing +is downright profit; a deed, however short, conveying a piece of land, +however trifling, costs five guineas. There are no stamps, and the work is +done in an hour. More valuable properties are conveyed by a deed generally +charged nine guineas. My friend ---- has drawn twelve such deeds in his +office in the course of one day; and with these eyes I have seen him earn +six guineas in as many minutes, by appearing at the police-office when a +dispute has arisen between a master and his servant. All quarrels of this +kind are arranged at the police-office, when the amount of wages received +by the servant does not exceed thirty pounds annually. An attorney with +brains cannot fail to get ahead. He has only to use dispatch, and to begin +and continue in one even and undeviating course. Our barristers are few in +number. There are but four of then. There is still a glorious field for a +barrister of talent, and especially if he be conversant with the nicer +points of conveyancing. Any clever barrister up to the business and a good +speaker, might rely upon making immediately at least a thousand a-year; +the community are looking and waiting for such a man. A fellow with no +capital and no profession had better not show his face in Melbourne. It is +a thousand to one against him. Compared to his position that of a labourer +is an enviable one; yet any respectable and intelligent man tolerably well +educated, coming here with four or five hundred pounds in his pocket, may +certainly, in a couple of years, and in twenty different ways, treble that +capital. The best and most promising is the following:--Buy in any +_growing_ part of the town of Melbourne, a small piece of town allotment. +This will cost fifty pounds, upon this you may erect two small brick +cottages, containing each two rooms and a kitchen, and well fitted for a +respectable tradesman. Two hundred and forty pounds will build them up; +thus the whole expense of cottages and ground is two hundred and ninety +pounds at most. Each cottage will, for a moral certainty, let for one +pound five shillings per week, and thus return you a clear rental of +sixty-four pounds per annum, for the sum of one hundred and forty-four +pounds laid out. Some capitalists are not long in discovering this mode of +adding to their fortunes, and it is not surprising that such men, with +ease, get speedily rich. Many individuals are personally known to me who +arrived here with small means a few years back, and who are now receiving +an income of fifteen hundred pounds a-year from houses, which they have +raised upon their profits and by not slow degrees. Their returns are +certain for, mark you, every tradesman pays his rent every Monday morning, +there is no delay. If it be not paid the hour it is due, the landlord is +empowered by law to send a bailiff to the house, to keep him there at an +expense to the tenant of three shillings per day--and to request him, at +the end of five days, to sell off the goods and chattels provided the +demand is still unsatisfied. I know no better investment for capital, be +it large or small, than that of which I speak. There are no taxes, no +ground-rents, and the tenant is bound to keep his premises in repair. If a +mistake has been made in the building of houses, it is because some have +overshot the mark, and built dwellings that are _too large for the +purposes required_; these large houses cost a large sum of money, and +neither let readily nor nearly so high in proportion, as the smaller +houses occupied by the working-classes. + +I am unable to give you an accurate notion of the general appearance of +the country. Speaking in broad terms it is wooded, but not so densely as +on the Sydney side, Van Diemen's Land, or New Zealand. The peculiar and +beautiful feature of this country is the open plain which is found at +every ten or twelve miles spreading itself over a surface not less than +three miles in length and half the distance in breadth. It is as smooth as +a lawn. A magnificent tree rears itself to a great height here and there +upon the sward, on either side of which appears a natural park, the finest +that taste could fashion or art could execute. Nature has done in fact +what no art could accomplish. Gaze upon these grounds, and for a moment +imagine that the enormous bullocks before you, with their fearful horns, +are a gigantic herd of deer, and you have a sight that England, famous for +her parks, shall in vain attempt to rival. But against this royal +scene--set off a melancholy drawback, one which I fear may never be made +good even by the ingenuity and indomitable energy of man. The land has an +awful want of _spring water_. There are a few small holes, called lagoons, +the remains of ancient rivers, met with now and then; and strange to say, +one of such holes will be found to contain salt sea-water, whilst another, +within a very few yards of it, has water quite fresh, or nearly so. In the +former are found large seafish, such as cod, mullet, sea-carp, and a fish +similar to our perch. I an speaking of holes discovered at a distance of a +hundred and twenty miles from the sea, and having no visible communication +with it. In several districts there are large rivers, but their course is +uncertain, and it is impossible to say that any one river empties itself +into the sea. Goulburn is a fine river, and ninety miles from this on the +banks of that river, are found very large lobsters, and other shell-fish. +To stand on an eminence, and to cast your eye down into the valley beyond +and beneath you, is to have an enjoyment which the ardent lover of nature +alone can appreciate. Far as the eye can look, there is uninterrupted +harmony. Splendid plains covered with the fleecy tribe, and here and there +(alas! only but _here_ and _there_) a speck of water, enough to vindicate +nature from the charge of utter neglect--and no more. A glance thrown in +another direction brings to your view an endless tract of country deprived +even of these solitary specks, where the grass grows as high as your knee, +and where no man dare take his flocks and herds for lack of the sweet +element. If the surface of this land were blessed with spring water as +England is, the wealth of this colony would surpass the calculation of any +living man. As it is, who can tell the ultimate effect of this important +deprivation? There are one or two stations, on which spring water has been +discovered, but it is a rare discovery, and dearly prized. In Melbourne +we have no water, but such as is carted by the water barrel carters from +the river _Yarra-Yarra_. Every house has its barrel or hogshead for +holding water. The _Yarra-Yarra_ water is brackish, and causes dysentery. +The complaint is now prevailing. In many parts of the interior puddle +holes are made, and water is thus secured from the heavy rain that falls +in the early part of summer. Water saved in this manner never becomes +putrid. The leaves of the gum-tree fall into the pool abundantly, and not +only give to the water a very peculiar flavour, but preserve it from all +putrefaction. This gum water is safest when boiled with a little tea, and +drunk cold. Every settler in the Bush drinks water in no other way, +and--for want of better things--he takes tea and fresh mutton at least +three times a-day. His bread is a lump of flour and water rolled into a +ball, and placed in hot ashes to bake. The loaf is called "_a damper_." +The country, as far as I have seen it, bears evident marks of great +volcanic change. You meet with a stone, round like a turnip, as hard as +iron, like rusty iron in appearance, and on the outside honey-combed. +There are large beds of it for miles. You then come to the flat country +where the soil surpasses any thing you can conceive in richness, fit for +any cultivation under heaven, and upwards of fifteen feet in depth. Before +I quitted London, I heard that the climate of Australia was fine and +equable, seldom varying, and well suited to a delicate constitution. I am +satisfied that many consumptive persons _live_ here, who in Scotland would +be carried off in a month. You seldom hear a person cough. In church I +have listened in vain for a single _hoste_; no, not even before the +commencement of a psalm do you find the _haughting_ and _clachering_ that +are indispensable in England. All pipes are clear as bell. I noticed this +as a phenomenon on my first arrival. We are now, as you would say, in the +dead of winter; a strange announcement to a British ear in the month of +July. The air is chill in the morning and evening, before sunrise and +after sunset, but during the day the weather is as fine as on the finest +September day in Scotland. Notwithstanding what I have said, I would not +have you ground any theory upon my remarks as yet--or deceive Sir James +Clark, and the rest of the medical gentlemen, who are looking on all sides +of the world for a climate for their hopeless invalids. I have stated +facts, but those which follow are no less authentic. On the 30th and 31st +of December last, the thermometer at the observatory stood in the shade at +70 deg. and 72 deg. noon. On the 1st of January at noon, and up to three +o'clock, P.M., it stood in the shade at 92 deg. and 93 deg. On the 2d it +rose to 95 deg. at noon, and fell at sunset, eight P.M., to 69 deg. In the +middle of the foresaid month of December the thermometer was 86 deg. at +breakfast time, and before dinner down to 63 deg. These memoranda, gained +from undoubted sources, would show the climate--in summer at least--to be +more variable than my reference proves it; yet I am told that even in +summer time you hear of little sickness amongst grown up people. New +comers suffer from dysentery, and children are attacked in the same way. I +have had two visitations, from which I rallied in the course of four and +twenty hours, with the aid of arrow root, port wine, and laudanum. A free +use of vegetables is always dangerous to strangers, and they are obtained +here in perfection. The weather is too hot for apples, pears, and +gooseberries in the summer. Grapes and other English hot-house fruits come +to delicious maturity in the open air. The melons are inconceivably +exquisite, and grow, as they were wont in Paradise before the fall, +without care or trouble spent upon them. The seed is put into the earth; a +little water is given to it at that time, and the thing is done--"_c'est +un fait accompli_." Potatoes grow at any season of the year, and +cauliflowers and turnips spring up almost in a night like mushrooms. There +are some five farms in cultivation around Melbourne, and the crops of +wheat are very fair in quality but fall off in quantity. Thirty bushels +per acre is considered a good crop. Oats grow too much to straw, and are +generally cut in the slot blade, winnowed, and carted to Melbourne and +sold for hay. Rye-grass hay does not answer, and clover is not more +successful; but vetches have just been introduced on a small scale, and +nothing yet grown has succeeded so well as green food for horses and cows. +Hay of fine quality is brought from Van Diemen's Land, but it is very dear. +A cart load of good oaten hay sells here for about forty-five shillings. +Van Diemen's Land hay is at present eleven guineas per ton. + +The aboriginal natives of this colony are a very savage race, and all the +efforts hitherto made by missionaries, protectors, and others, have never +given promise or warrant of effectual civilization. The males are tall, +and of fierce aspect; the skin and hair are exceedingly black--the latter +very smooth. In many instances, the features are striking and good. The +women are slender, and during the summer, naked; in winter, the females in +the immediate neighbourhood procure clothes from the inhabitants of +Melbourne, and cut, as you may suppose, a very original figure. Nothing +will induce the natives to work. They live in the Bush, and the bark of a +large tree forms their habitation. There are three distinct tribes around +us in a circuit of about a hundred miles, and the difference of features +amongst these tribes is easily observed. The three tribes speak three +different languages unintelligible to one another. They meet at different +periods of the year, and hold what they term a "_corroborice_,"--that +is--a dance. Their bodies on these occasions are covered with oil, red +paint, and green leaves. I have seen two hundred at a meeting, but they +assemble double that number at times. The festival concludes in pitched +battle. There is a grand fight with clubs, or arrows and spears. Three or +four are generally killed in the onslaught, and as many of the survivors +as are fortunate enough to get a bite, feast upon the fat of the victims' +hearts. This fat is their richest dainty. Those who are able to form an +opinion on the subject, pronounce the aborigines of this colony to be +_cannibals_. Many of their children disappear, and it is generally +supposed that they are devoured by their friends and acquaintances. In +many districts of the interior, the blacks have lately committed many +depredations amongst the sheep, and many of the devils are shot without +judge or jury. Two natives are now in the jail of Melbourne under sentence +of death, for committing a dreadful murder upon two sailors who were cast +ashore from a whaler. These savages had been for thirteen years under the +instruction of a protector and others. They belonged originally to Van +Diemen's Land, but migrated to a part of this colony called Portland Bay. +They spoke English quite well, yet, notwithstanding all their advantages, +they perpetrated this cruel and cold-blooded murder, and then cunningly +hid the bodies in the ground. They were detected by the merest chance, in +consequence of their having in possession of a few articles which had +formerly belonged to the unhappy mariners. None of the natives is allowed +to carry fire-arms, and a heavy fine is inflicted upon any individual who +is known to give them spirits. They are passionately fond of spirits, and +next to these of _loaf bread_. The females are called by the males +"_Loubras_," and the males are designated "_Coolies_." There is not +promiscuous cohabitation. When a _Coolie_ reaches the age of twenty-one, +he is allowed to choose his own "_Loubra_." Every male who then takes +unto himself a helpmate, loses a front tooth, which is knocked out of him. +The natives generally tattoo their arms and breasts, but not their faces; +many carry a long white wooden pin, or a feather, pierced through the thin +part of the nose; and they all twist kangaroo teeth and the bones of +fishes more or less in their hair. Every thing small and diminutive they +call "_Pickaninnie_," and any thing very good, "_Merri jig_." Their +language is a queer, rattling, hard-sounding gibberish, incomprehensible +to most people; they speak as fast as possible, laugh immoderately at +trifles, and are excellent mimics. Their own children they stile +"_Pickaninnies_." + +From all that I have seen, I do not hesitate to say, that this country +will prove a splendid field for future generations. At the present time, +no man should venture here who is unprepared for many privations and a +numerous list of annoyances. The common necessaries of life he will +certainly find, but none of his ancient and English luxuries. Society is, +as you may guess, very limited. You may acknowledge an _acquaintance_ with +any one, without committing yourself. To say that you know a man +intimately is hazardous; I mean--a man whose friendship you have +cultivated only since your arrival. There are many whom you have known at +home, and whose friendship it is a pride and a pleasure to renew in your +exile. But, as a general rule, "_keep yourself to yourself_" is a +serviceable adage. If it be attended to--_well_. If it be neglected--you +run your head against a stone in less than no time. + +If any man have a competency, let him not travel hither to _enjoy_ it. If +he has a little money, and desires with a little trouble and inconvenience +to double his capital in the shortest possible space of time--let him come +out, and fearlessly. Living is cheap enough as far as the essentials are +concerned. Butcher meat, not surpassed in any part of England, Scotland, +or Ireland, is to be had at twopence per pound; the fine four pound loaf +for sixpence halfpenny; brown sugar, fourpence; white, sixpence; candles, +sixpence per pound; tea, the finest, three shillings the pound; fresh +butter, one shilling and threepence per pound. Wild fowl in abundance. +Vegetables are cheaper than in any part of England. Wines of moderate +price, but not of good quality. Spirits first-rate, and every kind cheaper +than in England, except whisky, which is seventeen and eighteen shillings +per gallon; very old at twenty-one and twenty-two. The wine most wanted +here is claret. A great deal of it is drunk during the summer, but the +quality of it is bad. Fish are abundant in the river and pools, but the +people will not trouble themselves to catch them. However, for +eighteenpence or two shillings, you may get a good dish of mutteel, carp, +or a small fish called "flatties." I have never seen any of the salmon +tribe, or any fish like a sea or river trout. Wild swans--both black and +white--quails, snipes, cranes, and water-hens, are everywhere abundant, +and in the Bush, the varieties of the parrot kind are out of number. +Kangaroos, opossums, and flying-squirrels, are common near the town, and +afford plenty of amusement to the sportsman. No game license required! +_Sunday_ used to be the tradesman's day for shooting, and to a new comer +the proceeding had a very queer appearance. By act of council, Sunday +shooting is prohibited under a heavy penalty, which has been inflicted on +several transgressors, but, like most laws, this is evaded. _Shooting_ is +forbidden, but _hunting_ is not. Accordingly numerous parties sally forth +on the Sabbath to _hunt_ the kangaroo. The dog used for the sport is a +cross between a rough greyhound and a bull; but others follow in the pack. +Every man, woman, and child, keeps a dog. Some families have eight or nine +running over a house, and the natives have them without number. A few +months ago these animals congregated so thickly in the streets, that the +magistrates directed the police to shoot all that were not registered and +had a collar with the owner's name; as many as fifty were killed in a +morning. It costs nothing to feed a dog; the heads of bullocks and the +heads and feet of sheep are either thrown away or given to any one who +asks for them. The _bone manure system_, if brought into operation, would +help to keep the streets from a bony nuisance. _Memorandum_: Let the next +emigrant to this colony bring a good strong fox-hound bitch with him; he +will find it to his advantage. A cross between her and a Newfoundland or +large greyhound would do any thing. There are a couple of fox-hounds here, +but no bitch. It would do your heart good to see the pace at which the +fellows ride. Twenty miles on horseback they think about as much of as we +do of five. There is nothing to obstruct the animals; they are not even +shod, and they fly over the smooth sward. A hundred and twenty miles is +reckoned a journey of a day and a half. A dray, with eight, ten, or twelve +bullocks in it, according, to load, will travel thirty miles a-day. When +the folks travel, they take no shelter in a house or hut for the night. +When night approaches, they alight, and tie their horses to a stump; they +draw down some of the thick branches of the gum-tree, and peel off the +bark of a large tree, kindle a fire with a match, or, for want of this, +rubbing two sticks together, get up a blaze, and fall to sleep beside it. +If the traveller be accompanied by a dray, the tarpauling, is drawn round, +and he sleeps beneath it. + +Not amongst the least of the annoyances found here are the ants. There are +three species of the insect, and they are all very large. Many of them are +an inch long, and they bite confoundedly. A hand bitten by some of the +monsters will swell to the size of a man's head. Along the coast, and in +every house, smaller ants prevail, and fleas innumerable. The number of +the latter, which you shall find upon your blanket any day of the year, is +literally not to be computed. No house is free from this little disturber, +who spares neither age nor sex. I have stood upon the sea beach adorned +with white trousers, which in less than ten minutes have been covered with +hundreds of the vermin. It is an easy transition from the trousers to the +inner legs. But this is nothing when you are used to it. The _grey horse_ +won't live in the colony. So it is said; at all events none are seen; and +I am very sure that every emigrant ship brings its fair stock. It is a +wise ordination that forbids _their_ settling. The _mawk_ fly is +indigenous, and thrives wonderfully, as you shall hear. This fly is very +like our British bluebottle, with a somewhat greener head, and a body +entirely yellow. I have seen two _mawk_ flies strike (as it seemed) a +joint of meat, just as it was removing from the spit, leaving their fly +blows there. Before the joint had been ten minutes upon the table, small +white mawks were moving upon the surface of the meat in considerable +numbers. If by any chance these animals are suffered to accompany the meat +to the safe or larder, in the course of twenty-four hours the small white +mawks increase to the length of one-eighth of an inch, and are found +crawling in hundreds and moving about, as you have observed the yellow +flies buzzing over the old and rotten carcass of a horse that has been +exposed for weeks. In the winter these creatures are, of course, less +troublesome than in summer. Wire meat-covers are in constant use during +the latter season. + +Thus far had got in my epistle, when a torrent of ill news rushed in upon +us, and compelled me to delay my scribble. I am sorry to say, that in +addition to the account which I have already given of the depressed state +of the markets, I must add some dismal intelligence. The markets are in a +deplorable state, and so is the mercantile community in general. Every day +there is a fresh bankruptcy, and the heaviest yet has just taken place. I +cannot but believe that if more emigrant laborers come out just now, they +must starve. Any man with ten or fifteen thousand pounds could buy half of +the district for ready cash. The moneyed men are making fearful hauls as +it is. Let emigration stop for a time, and the markets must look up again. +At the present moment every thing is selling cheaper here than in England; +men's wages are down to the ordinary English rate. So long as the banks +afford seven per cent for deposits, moneyed men will lie in wait for +bargains, and until such present themselves, will lock up the capital +which at first was in circulation through the immense speculations in land +and stock. The men who saw no end to speculation are gone and floored, +every one of them. Will you believe that Messrs ---- sent out three +thousand pounds worth of brandy to Sydney, and so glutted the market that +part of the cargo was bought low enough to make it a good spec to reship +it for England. Such is the fact. There never was a better moment than the +present for a _hit_ in land--sheep are at so low a figure, and settlers so +hard run. The former I still believe will gradually rise; for, on the +Sydney side, the process of boiling down sheep for the sake of the tallow, +has commenced, and if it succeed, as I believe it will, the standard value +of a sheep will be fixed at something like eight shillings. So much for +the fleece and skin, so much for the bones, so much for the kidney fat, +and so much for the tallow or fat recovered by boiling the carcass. The +great object of this colony must be to increase the export produce, and to +bring capital in its place. Wool no doubt is, and will prove to be, the +staple commodity; and in time, the settlers will pay more attention to the +getting up of it, and to the packing. But above all they must speedily rid +themselves of their bloodsuckers, a set of men who charge enormous +commissions for anticipated sales, and what not, amounting to thirty and +forty per cent; a sum that is nothing short of utter ruin to a poor fellow +who has nothing but his wool to depend upon. Had Judge Willis remained +amongst us, he would have rooted out whole nests of these hornets. I have +no fear of the ultimate success of the colonist, if they will but be +faithful to themselves. They have a splendid country, and its capabilities +are now only beginning to be known. Before the end of the present year, +our exports will consist of wool, bark, tallow, gum, hides, furs, and last, +although not least, the finest cured beef in the world. If the latter +article of produce is acknowledged as it deserves to be, and finds and +establishes an _eastern_ market, nothing will prevent the colony from +rising to importance. As far as price is concerned, we can compete with +any country in the world. We have no politics in Port Philip. The +community are far better employed in attending to their commercial affairs. +Let them but persevere honestly and prudently in their course, and they +must do well. + +And so much for my first epistle, honoured Christopher. If it afford you +amusement, you shall hear from me again. I have spoken the truth, and have +writ down simple facts. As such, receive them, and communicate them to +your neighbours. And now, with affectionate remembrances to yourself and +all enquiring friends, + + Believe me, + + Reverend Christopher, + + Your grateful and attached, + + JOHN WILLIAM. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE PROPHECY OF THE TWELVE TRIBES. + + "And Jacob called into his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, + that I may tell you _that_ which shall befall you in the last days. + + "Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken + unto Israel your father." + + --GENESIS, xlix. 1, 2, &c. + + + The Patriarch sat upon his bed-- + His cheek was pale, his eye was dim; + Long years of woe had bow'd his head, + And feeble was the giant limb. + And his twelve mighty sons stood nigh, + In grief--to see their father die! + + But, sudden as the thunder-roll, + A new-born spirit fill'd his frame. + His fainting visage flash'd with soul, + His lip was touch'd with living flame; + And burst, with more than prophet fire, + The stream of Judgment, Love, and Ire. + + "REUBEN,[6] thou spearhead in my side, + Thy father's first-born, and his shame; + Unstable as the rolling tide, + A blight has fall'n upon thy name. + Decay shall follow thee and thine. + Go, outcast of a hallow'd line! + + "SIMEON and LEVI,[7] sons of blood + That still hangs heavy on the land; + Your flocks shall be the robber's food, + Your folds shall blaze beneath his brand. + In swamp and forest shall ye dwell. + Be scatter'd among Israel! + + "JUDAH![8] All hail, thou priest, thou king! + The crown, the glory, shall be thine; + Thine, in the fight, the eagle's wing-- + Thine, on the hill, the oil and wine. + Thou lion! nations shall turn pale + When swells thy roar upon the gale. + + "Judah, my son, ascend the throne, + Till comes from heaven the unborn king-- + The prophesied, the mighty one, + Whose heel shall crush the serpent's sting. + Till earth is paradise again, + And sin is dead, and death is slain! + + "Wide as the surges, ZEBULON,[9] + Thy daring keel shall plough the sea; + Before thee sink proud Sidon's sun, + And strong Issachar toil for thee. + Thou, reaper of his corn and oil, + Lord of the giant and the soil! + + "Whose banner flames in battle's van! + Whose mail is first in slaughter gored! + Thou, subtler than the serpent, DAN,[10] + Prince of the arrow and the sword. + Woe to the Syrian charioteer + When rings the rushing of thy spear! + + "Crush'd to the earth by war and woe, + GAD,[11] shall the cup of bondage drain, + Till bold revenge shall give the blow + That pays the long arrear of pain. + Thy cup shall glow with tyrant-gore, + Thou be my Son--and man once more! + + "Loved NAPHTALI,[12] thy snow-white hind + Shall bask beneath the rose and vine. + Proud ASHER, to the mountain wild + Shall star-like blaze, thy battle-sign. + All bright to both, from birth to tomb, + The heavens all sunshine, earth all bloom! + + "JOSEPH,[13] come near--my son, my son! + Egyptian prince, Egyptian sage, + Child of my first and best-loved one, + Great guardian of thy father's age. + Bring EPHRAIM and MANASSEH nigh, + And let me bless them ere I die. + + "Hear me--Thou GOD of Israel! + Thou, who hast been his living shield, + In the red desert's lion-dell, + In Egypt's famine-stricken field, + In the dark dungeon's chilling stone, + In Pharaoh's chain--by Pharaoh's throne. + + "My son, all blessings be on thee, + Be blest abroad, be blest at home; + Thy nation's strength--her living tree, + The well to which the thirsty come; + Blest be thy valley, blest thy hill, + Thy father's GOD be with thee still! + + "Thou man of blood, thou man of might, + Thy soul shall ravin, BENJAMIN.[14] + Thou wolf by day, thou wolf by night, + Rushing through slaughter, spoil, and sin; + Thine eagle's beak and vulture's wing + Shall curse thy nation with a king!" + + Then ceased the voice, and all was still: + The hand of death was on the frame; + Yet gave the heart one final thrill, + And breathed the dying lip one name. + "Sons, let me rest by Leah's side!" + He raised his brow to heaven--and died. + +HAVILAH. + + [6] The privileges of the _first-born_ passed away from the tribe + of Reuben, and were divided among his brethren. The double portion + of the inheritance was given to Joseph--the priesthood to Levi--and + the sovereignty to Judah. The tribe never rose into national power, + and it was the first which was carried into captivity. + + [7] The massacre of the Shechemites was the crime of the two + brothers. For a long period the tribe of Simeon was depressed; and + its position, on the verge of the Amalekites, always exposed it to + suffering. The Levites, though finally entrusted with the + priesthood, had no inheritance in Palestine: they dwelt scattered + among the tribes. + + [8] The tribe of Judah was distinguished from the beginning of the + nation. It led the van in the march to Palestine. It was the first + appointed to expel the Canaanites. It gave the first judge, Othniel. + It was the tribe of David, and, most glorious of all titles, was + the _Tribe of our_ LORD. + + [9] Zebulon was a maritime tribe, its location extending along the + sea-shore, and stretching to the borders of Sidon. The tribe of + Issachar were located in the country afterwards called Lower + Galilee; were chiefly tillers of the soil; were never distinguished + in the military or civil transactions of the nation, and, as they + dwelt among the Canaanites, seem to have habitually served them for + hire. Issachar is characterised as the "strong ass"--a drudge, + powerful but patient. + + [10] The tribe of Dan were remarkable for the daring of their + exploits in war, and not less so for their stratagems. Their great + chieftain Samson, distinguished alike for strength and subtlety, + might be an emblem of their qualities and history. + + [11] Gad; a tribe engaged in continual and memorable conflicts. + + [12] Naphtali and Asher inhabited the most fertile portions of + Palestine. + + [13] The two tribes Ephraim and Manasseh, descended from Joseph, + possessed the finest portion of the land, along both sides of the + Jordan. The united tribes numbered a larger population than any of + the rest. Besides Joshua, five of the twelve judges of Israel were + of the united tribes. In the formation of the kingdom of Israel, an + Ephraimite was the first king. + + [14] The tribe of Benjamin was conspicuous for valour. But its + turbulence and ferocity wrought its fall, in the great battles + recorded in Judges xix. and xx. Saul was of this fierce tribe. It + was finally lost in that of Judah. + + This great prophecy was delivered about three hundred years before + the conquest of Palestine. + + * * * * * + + + + +A BEWAILMENT FROM BATH; + +OR, POOR OLD MAIDS. + + +Mr Editor!--You have a great name with our sex! CHRISTOPHER NORTH is, in +our flowing cups--of Bohea--"freshly remembered." To you, therefore, as to +the Sir Philip Sidney of modern Arcadia, do I address the voice of my +bewailment. Not from any miserable coveting after the publicities of +printing. All I implore of you is, a punch of your crutch into the very +heart of a matter involving the best interests of my sex! + +You, dear Mr Editor, who have your eyes garnished with Solomon's +spectacles about you, cannot but have perceived on the parlour-tables and +book-shelves of your fair friends--by whose firesides you are courted even +as the good knight, and the _Spectator_, by the Lady Lizards of the days +of Anne--a sudden inundation of tabby-bound volumes, addressed, in +supergilt letters, to the "Wives of England"--the "Daughters of +England"--the "Grandmothers of England." A few, arrayed in modest calf or +embossed linen, address themselves to the sober latitudes of the manse or +parsonage-house. Some treat, without _per_mission, of "Woman's +Mission"--some, in defiance of custom, of her "Duties." From exuberant 4to, +down to the fid-fad concentration of 12mo--from crown demy to diamond +editions--no end to these chartered documentations of the sex! The women +of this favoured kingdom of Queen Victoria, appear to have been +unexpectedly weighed in the balance, and found wanting in morals and +manners; or why this sudden emission of codes of morality? + +No one denies, indeed, that woman has, of late, ris' wonderfully in the +market; or that the weaker sex is coming it amazingly strong. The sceptres +of three of the first kingdoms in Europe are swayed by female hands. The +first writer of young France is a woman. The first astronomer of young +England, _idem_. Mrs Trollope played the Chesterfield and the deuce with +the Yankees. Miss Martineau turned the head of the mighty Brougham. +Mademoiselle d'Angeville ascended Mont Blanc, and Mademoiselle Rachel has +replaced Corneille and Racine on their crumbling pedestals. I might waste +hours of your precious time, sir, in perusing a list of the eminent women +now competing with the rougher sex for the laurels of renown. But you know +it all better than I can tell you. You have done honour due, in your time, +to Joanna Baillie and Mrs Jamieson, to Caroline Southey and Miss Ferrier. +You praised Mrs Butler when she deserved it; and probably esteem Mary +Howitt, and Mary Mitford, and all the other Maries, at their just +value--to say nothing of the Maria of Edgworthstown, so fairly worth them +all. I make no doubt that you were even one of the first to do homage to +the Swedish Richardson, Frederika Bremer; though, having sown your wild +oats, you keep your own counsel anent novel reading. + +You will, therefore, probably sympathize in the general amazement, that, +at a moment when the sex is signalizing itself from pole to pole--when a +Grace Darling obtains the palm for intrepidity--when the Honourable Miss +Grimston's _Prayer-Book_ is read in churches--when Mrs Fry, like hunger, +eats through stone walls to call felons to repentance--when a king has +descended from his throne, and a prince from royal highnesshood, to reward +the virtues of the fair partners to whom they were unable to impart the +rights of the blood-royal--when the fairest specimen of modern sculpture +has been supplied by a female hand, and woman, in short, is at a premium +throughout the universe, all this waste of sermonizing should have been +thrown, like a wet blanket, over her shoulders! + +But this is not enough, dear Mr Editor. I wish to direct your attention +towards an exclusive branch of the grievance. I have no doubt that, in +your earlier years, instead of courting your fair friends, as Burns +appears to have done, with copies of your own works, you used to present +unto them the "_Legacy of Dr Gregory to his Daughters_"--or "_Mrs +Chapone's Letters_," or Miss Bowdler's, or Mrs Trimmer's, appropriately +bound and gilt; and thus apprized of the superabundance of prose provided +for their edification, are prepared to feel, with me, that if they have +not Mrs Barbauld and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded by the +frippery tomes which load the counters of our bazars. _This_ perception +has come of itself. If I could _only_ be fortunate enough to enlarge your +scope of comprehension! + +Mr dear Mr Editor, I am what is called a lone woman. Shakspeare, through +whose recklessness originate half the commonplaces of our land's language, +thought proper to define such a condition as "SINGLE BLESSEDNESS"--though +he aptly enough engrafts it on a thorn! For my part, I cannot enough +admire the theory of certain modern poets, that an angel is an ethereal +being, composed by the interunion in heaven, of two mortals who have been +faithfully attached on earth--and as to "blessedness" being ever "single," +either in this world or the next, I do not believe a word about the matter! +"Happiness," Lord Byron assures us, "was born a twin!" + +I do not mean to complain of my condition--far from it. But I wish to say, +that since, from the small care taken by English parents to double the +condition of their daughters, it is clear the state of "single blessedness" +is of higher account in our own "favoured country" than in any other in +Europe; it certainly behoves the guardians of the public weal to afford +due protection and encouragement to spinsters. + +Every body knows that Great Britain is the very fatherland of old maids. +In Catholic countries, the superfluous daughters of a family are disposed +of in convents and _béguinages_, just as in Turkey and China they are, +still more humanely, drowned. In certain provinces of the east, pigs are +expressly kept, to be turned into the streets at daybreak, for the purpose +of devouring the female infants exposed during the night--thus +benevolently securing them from the after torments of single "blessedness." + +But a far nobler arrangement was made by that greatest of modern +legislators, Napoleon--whose code entitles the daughters of a house to +share, equally with sons, in its property and bequeathments; and in France, +a woman with a dowery is as sure of courtship and marriage, as of death +and burial. Nay, so much is marriage regarded among the French as the +indispensable condition of the human species, that parents proceed as +openly to the task of procuring a proper husband for their daughter, as of +providing her with shoes and stockings. No false delicacy--no pitiful +manoeuvres! The affair is treated like any other negotiation. It is a mere +question of two and two making four, which enables two to make one. How +far more honest than the angling and trickery of English +match-making--which, by keeping men constantly on the defensive, +predisposes them against attractions to which they might otherwise give +way! However, as I said before, I do not wish to complain of my condition. + +I only consider it hard that the interests of the wives of England are to +be exclusively studied, when the unfortunate females who lack the +consolations of matronhood are in so far greater want of sustainment; and +that all the theories of the perfectionizement of the fair sex now issuing +from the press, should purport to instruct young ladies how to qualify +themselves for wives, and wives how to qualify themselves for heaven; and +not a word addressed, either in the way of exhortation, remonstrance, or +applause, to the highly respectable order of the female community whose +cause I have taken on myself to advocate. Have not the wives of England +husbands to whisper wisdom into their ears? Why, then, are _they_ to be +coaxed or lectured by tabby-bound volumes, while _we_ are left neglected +in a corner? _Our_ earthly career, the Lord he knows, is far more +trying--_our_ temptations as much greater, as our pleasures are less; and +it is mortifying indeed to find our behavior a thing so little worth +interference. We may conduct ourselves, it seems, as indecorously as we +think proper, for any thing the united booksellers of the United Kingdom +care to the contrary! + +Not that I very much wonder at literary men regarding the education of +wives as a matter of moment. The worse halves of Socrates, Milton, Hooker, +have been thorns in their sides, urging them into blasphemy against the +sex. But is this a reason, I only ask you, for leaving, like an +uncultivated waste, that holy army of martyrs, the spinsterhood of Great +Britain? + +Mr Editor, act like a man! Speak up for us! Write up for us! Tell these +little writers of little books, that however they may think to secure +dinners and suppers to themselves, by currying favour with the rulers of +the roast, _the greatest of all women have been_ SINGLE! Tell them of our +Virgin Queen, Elizabeth--the patroness of their calling, the protectress +of learning and learned men. Tell them of Joan of Arc, the conqueror of +even English chivalry. Tell them of all the tender mercies of the _Soeurs +de Charité_! Tell them that, from the throne to the hospital, the spinster, +unharassed by the cares of private life, has been found most fruitful in +public virtue. + +Then, perhaps, you will persuade them that we are worth our schooling; and +the "Old Maids of England" may look forward to receive a tabby-bound +manual of their duties, as well as its "Wives." I have really no patience +with the selfish conceit of these married women, who fancy their +well-doing of such importance. See how they were held by the +ancients!--treated like beasts of burden, and denied the privilege of all +mental accomplishment. When the Grecian matrons affected to weep over the +slain, after some victory of Themistocles, the Athenian general bade them +"dry their tears, and practise a single virtue in atonement of all their +weaknesses." It was to their single women the philosophers of the portico +addressed their lessons; not to the domestic drudges, whom they considered +only worthy to inspect the distaffs of their slaves, and produce sons for +the service of the country. + +In Bath, Brighton, and other spinster colonies of this island, the demand +for such a work would be prodigious. The sale of canary-birds and poodles +might suffer a temporary depression in consequence; but this is +comparatively unimportant. Perhaps--who knows--so positive a recognition +of our estate as a definite class of the community, might lead to the long +desiderated establishment of a lay convent, somewhat similar to the +_béguinages_ of Flanders, though less ostensibly subject to religious +law--a convent where single gentlewomen might unite together in their +meals and devotions, under the government of a code of laws set forth in +their tabby-bound Koran. + +Methinks I see it--a modern temple of Vesta, without its tell-tale +fires--square, rectangular, simple, airy, isolated--chaste as Diana and +quiet as the grave--the frescoed walls commemorating the legend of Saint +Ursula and her eleven thousand--the sacrifice of Jephtha's +daughter--Elizabeth Carter translating Epictetus--Harriet Martineau +revising the criminal code. In the hall, dear Editor, should hang the +portrait of Christopher North--in that locality, appropriately, a Kit-cat! + +Ponder upon this! The distinction is worthy consideration. As the +newspapers say, it is an "unprecedented opportunity for investment!" For +the sole Helicon of the institution shall be--"Blackwood's Entire" its +lady abbess-- + +Your humble servant to command, +(for the old maids of England,) + + TABITHA GLUM. + _1st Jan. 1844. + Lansdowne, Bath._ + + * * * * * + + + + +MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. + +PART VIII. + + "Have I not in my time heard lions roar? + Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind, + Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat? + Have I not heard great ordnance in the field, + And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies? + Have I not in the pitched battle heard + Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?" + SHAKSPEARE. + + +The action was a series of those grand manoeuvres in which the Prussians +excelled all the other troops of Europe. From the spot on which I stood, +the whole immense plain, to the foot of the defiles of Argonne, was +visible; but the combat, or rather the succession of combats, was fought +along the range of hills at the distance of some miles. These I could +discover only by the roar of the guns, and by an occasional cloud of smoke +rising among the trees. The chief Prussian force stood in columns in the +plain below me, in dark masses, making an occasional movement in advance +from time to time, or sending forth a mounted officer to the troops in +action. Parks of artillery lay formed in the spaces between the columns, +and the baggage, a much more various and curious sight than the troops, +halting in the wide grounds of what seemed some noble mansion, had already +begun to exhibit the appearance of a country fair. Excepting this busy +part of the scene, few things struck me as less like what I had conceived +of actual war, than the quietness of every thing before and around me. The +columns might nearly as well have been streets of rock; and the engagement +in front was so utterly lost to view in the forest, that, except for the +occasional sound of the cannon, I might have looked upon the whole scene +as the immense picture of a quiet Flemish holiday. The landscape was +beautiful. Some showery nights had revived the verdure, of which France +has so seldom to boast in autumn; and the green of the plain almost +rivalled the delicious verdure of home. The chain of hills, extending for +many a league, was covered with one of the most extensive forests of the +kingdom. The colours of this vast mass of foliage were glowing in all the +powerful hues of the declining year, and the clouds, which slowly +descended upon the horizon, with all the tinges of the west burning +through their folds, appeared scarcely more than a loftier portion of +those sheets of gold and purple which shone along the crown of the hills. + +But while I lingered, gazing on the rich and tranquil luxury of the scene, +almost forgetting that there was war in the world, I was suddenly recalled +to a more substantial condition of that world by the sound of a trumpet, +and the arrival of my troop, who had at length struggled up the hill, +evidently surprised at finding me there, when the suttlers were in full +employment within a few hundred yards below. Their petition was unanimous, +to be allowed to refresh themselves and their horses at this rare +opportunity; and their request, though respectful in its words, yet was so +decisive in its tone, that to comply was fully as much my policy as my +inclination. I mounted my horse, and proceeded, according to the humble +"command" of my brave dragoons. This was a most popular movement--the men, +the very horses, evidently rejoiced. The fatigue of our hard riding was +past in a moment--the riders laughed and sang, the chargers snorted and +pranced; and, when we trotted, huzzaing, into the baggage lines, half +their motley crowd evidently conceived that some sovereign prince was come +in fiery haste to make the campaign. We were received with all the +applause that is given by the suttler to all arrivals with a full purse in +the holsters, and a handsome valise, no matter from what source filled, on +the croupe of the charger. But we had scarcely begun to taste the gifts +that fortune had sent us in the shape of huge sausages and brown +bread--the _luxuries!_ for which the soldier of Teutchland wooes the +goddess of war--than we found ourselves ordered to move off the ground, by +the peremptory mandate of a troop of the Royal Guard, who had followed our +movement, more hungry, more thirsty, and more laced and epauleted than +ourselves. The Hulans tossed their lances; and it had nearly been a +business of cold steel, when their officer rode up, to demand the sword of +the presumptuous mutineer who had thus daringly questioned his right to +starve us. While I was deliberating for a moment between the shame of a +forced retreat, and the awkwardness of taking the bull by the horns, in +the shape of the King's Guard, I heard a loud laugh, and my name +pronounced, or rather roared, in the broadest accents of Germany. My +friend Varnhorst was the man. The indefatigable and good-humoured +Varnhorst, who did every thing, and was every where, was shaking my hand +with the honest grasp of his honest nature, and congratulating me on my +return. + +"We have to do with a set of sharp fellow," said he, "in these French; a +regiment of their light cavalry has somehow or other made its way between +the columns of our infantry, and has been picking up stragglers last night. +The duke, with whom you happen to have established a favouritism that +would make you a chamberlain at the court of Brunswick, if you were not +assassinated previously by the envy of the other chamberlains, or pinked +by some lover of the "_dames d'honneur_," was beginning to be uneasy about +you; and, as I had the peculiar good fortune of the Chevalier Marston's +acquaintance, I was sent to pick him up if he had fallen in honourable +combat in the plains of Champagne, or if any fragment of him were +recoverable from the hands of the peasantry, to preserve it for the family +mausoleum." + +I anxiously enquired the news of the army, and the progress of the great +operation which was then going on. + +"We have beaten every thing before us for these three hours," was the +answer. "The resistance in the plain was slight, for the French evidently +intended to make their stand only in the forest. But the duke has pushed +them strongly on the right flank; and, as you may perceive, the attack +goes on in force." He pointed to the entrance of one of the defiles, where +several columns were in movement, and where the smoke of the firing lay +heavily above the trees. He then laid his watch on the table beside our +champagne flask. "The time is come to execute another portion of my orders. +What think you of following me, and seeing a little of the field." + +"Nothing could delight me more. I am perfectly at your service." + +"Then mount, and in five minutes I shall allow you one of the first +officers in Europe, the Count Clairfait, he is a Walloon, 'tis true, and +has the ill luck to be an Austrian brigadier besides, and, to finish his +misfortune, has served only against the Turks. But for all that, if any +man in the army now in the field is fit to succeed to the command, that +man is the Count Clairfait. I only wish that he were a Prussian." + +"Has he had any thing to do in this campaign?" + +"Every thing that has been done. He has commanded the whole advance guard +of the army; and let me whisper this in your ear--if his advice had been +taken a week ago, we should by this time have been smoking our cigars in +the Palais Royal." + +"I am impatient to be introduced to the Comte; let us mount and ride on." +He looked at his watch again. + +"Not for ten minutes to come. If I made my appearance before him five +minutes in advance of the time appointed by my orders, Clairfait would +order me into arrest if I were his grandmother. He is the strictest +disciplinarian between this and the North Pole." + +"A faultless monster himself, I presume." + +"Nearly so; he has but one fault--he is too fond of the sabre and bayonet. +'Charge,' is his word of command. His school was among the Turks, and he +fights _à la Turque_." + +"I should like him the better for it. That dash and daring is the very +thing for success." + +"Ay, ay--edge and point are good things in their way. But they are the +temptations of the general. Frederick's maxim was--The bullet for the +infantry, the spur for the dragoon. The weight of fire is the true test of +infantry, the rapidity of charge is the true test of cavalry. The business +of a general is manoeuvring--to menace masses by greater masses, to throw +the weight of an army on a flank, to pierce a centre while the flanks were +forced to stand and see it beaten; these were Frederick's lessons to his +staff: and if Clairfait shall go on, with his perpetual hand to hand work, +those sharp Frenchmen will soon learn his trade, and perhaps pay him back +in his own coin. But, Halt squadron. Dress--advance in parade order." + +While I was thus taking my first tuition in the art of heroes, we had rode +through a deep ravine, from which, with some difficulty, we had struggled +our way to a space of more level ground. Our disorder on reaching it, +required all the count's ready skill to bring us into a condition fit for +the eye of this formidable Austrian. But before we were complete, a group +of mounted officers were seen coming from a column of glittering lances +and sabres, resting on the distant verge of the plain. My friend +pronounced the name of Clairfait, and I was introduced to the officer who +was afterwards to play so distinguished a part in the gallant and +melancholy history of the Flemish fields. I had pictured to myself the +broad, plump face of the Walloon. I say a countenance, darkened probably +by the sultry exposure of his southern campaigns, but of singular depth +and power. It was impossible to doubt, that within the noble forehead +before me, was lodged an intelligence of the first order. His manners were +cold, yet not uncourteous, and to me he spoke with more than usual +attention. But when he alluded to the proceedings of the day, and was +informed by Varnhorst that the time appointed for his movement was come, I +never saw a more rapid transition from the phlegm of the Netherlander to +the vividness of the man of courage and genius. Waiting with his watch in +his hand for the exact moment appointed in the brief despatch, it had no +sooner arrived than the word was given, and his whole force, composed of +Austrian light infantry and cavalry, moved forward. Nothing could be more +regular than the march for the first half mile; but we then entered a +portion of the forest, or rather its border, thinly scattered over an +extent of broken country: to preserve the regularity of a movement along a +high-road, soon began to be wholly impossible. The officers soon gave up +the attempt in despair, and the troops enjoyed the disorder in the highest +degree. The ground was so intersected with small trenches, cut by the +foresters, that every half dozen yards presented a leap, and the clumps of +bushes made it continually necessary to break the ranks. Wherever I looked, +I now saw nothing but all the animation of an immense skirmish, the use of +sabre and pistol alone excepted. Between two and three thousand cavalry, +mounted on the finest horses of Austria and Turkey, galloping in all +directions, some springing over the rivulets, some dashing through the +thickets, all in the highest spirits, calling out to each other, laughing +at each other's mishaps, their horses in as high spirits as themselves, +bounding, rearing, neighing, springing like deer; trumpets sounding, +standards tossing, officers commanding in tones of helpless authority, to +which no one listened, and at which they themselves often laughed. The +whole, like a vast school broke loose for a holiday; the most joyous, +sportive, and certainly the most showy display that had ever caught my eye. +The view strongly reminded me of some of the magnificent old hunting +pieces by Snyders, the field sports of the Archduke Ferdinand, with the +landscape and horses by Rubens and Jordaens: there we had every thing but +the stag or the boar and the dogs. We had the noble trees, the rich deep +glades, the sunny openings, the masses of green; and all crowded with life. +But how infinitely superior in interest! No holiday sport, nor imperial +pageant, but an army rushing into action; one of the great instruments of +human power and human change called into energy. Thousands of bold lives +about to be periled; a victory about to be achieved, which might fix the +fate of Europe; or perhaps losses to be sustained which might cover the +future generation with clouds; and all this is on the point of being done. +No lazy interval to chill expectancy; within the day, within the hour, nay, +within the next five hundred yards, the decisive moment might be come. + +Still we rushed on; the staff pausing from time to time to listen to the +distant cannonade, and ascertain by its faintness or loudness, the +progress of the attack which had been made on the great centre and right +defiles of the forest. In one of these, while I had ridden up as near as +the broken ground would suffer me, towards Count Clairfait, he made a +gesture to me to look upwards, and I saw, almost for the first time, a +smile on his countenance. I followed the gesture, and saw, what to me was +the novelty of a huge shell, leisurely as it seemed, traversing the air. +The Count and his staff immediately galloped in all directions; but I had +not escaped a hundred yards, when the shell dropped into the spot where I +had been standing, and burst with a tremendous explosion almost +immediately on its touching the ground. The cavalry had dispersed and the +explosion was, I believe, without injury. But this, at least, gave +evidence that the enemy were not far off, and the eagerness of the troops +was excited to the highest pitch: all pressed forward to the front, and +their cries, in all the languages of the frontier of Europe, the voices of +the officers, and the clangour of the bugles and trumpets became an +absolute Babel, but an infinitely bold and joyous one. The yagers were now +ordered to clear the way, and a thousand Tyrolese and Transylvanian +sharpshooters rushed forward to line the border. A heavy firing commenced, +and the order was given to halt the cavalry until the effect of the fire +was produced. This was speedily done; the enemy, evidently in inferior +force and unprepared for this attack, gave way, and the first squadrons +which reached the open ground made a dash among them, and took the greater +part prisoners. + +This whole day was full of splendid exhibitions. On reaching the edge of +the wood, the first object below us as the succession of deep columns +which I had seen some hours before, and which appeared to have been rooted +to the ground ever since. But an aide-de-camp from the circle where the +count stood, darted down on the plain, and, as if a flash of lightning had +awoke them, all were instantly in motion. The columns on the right now +made a sudden rush forward, and to my surprise, four or five strong +brigades, which rapidly followed from the centre, took up their position. + +Varnhorst, who had been beside me during the whole day, now exhibited +great delight. "I told you," said he, "that Clairfait would turn out well. +I see that he has been taught in our school. Observe that manoeuvre;" he +continued his comment with increasing force of gesture--"That was the +Great Frederic's favourite, the oblique formation. The finest invention in +tactics, with that he gained Rosbach, and beat the French and Austrians; +with that he gained the battle of Breslau; and with that he gained the +grand fight of Torgau, and finished the war. Yet the king always said that +he had learned the manoeuvre from Epaminondas, and was only fighting the +battle of Leuctra over again. But look there!" He pointed to a rising +ground, a bluff of the forest ridge, to which a battalion of sharpshooters +were hastening; it had seemed destitute of defence, and the sharpshooters +were already beginning to scramble up its sides; when on the instant a +large body of the enemy which had been covered by the forest, rushed upon +its summit with a shout, and poured down a general volley. The whole +Prussian line returned it by one tremendous discharge. The drums and +trumpets struck up, the battalions and squadrons advanced, singing their +national hymn. The skirmishers poured forward and the battle began. How +shall I speak of what I felt at that moment; the sensation was +indescribable! It was mingled of all feelings but personal. I was absorbed +in that glorious roar, in that bold burst of human struggle, in all that +was wild, ardent, and terrible in the power of man. I had not a thought of +any thing but of the martial pomp and spirit-stilling grandeur of the +scene before me. I was aroused from my contemplations by the loud laugh +of my veteran friend; he was trying the benefit of a large brandy flask, +which I remembered, and with some not very respectful opinion of his +temperance, to have seen him place in one of his holsters at our visit to +the suttlers. He now offered it to me. "You look wretchedly pale," said he; +"our kind of life is too rough for you gentlemen _diplomats_, and you will +find this glass right Nantz, the very best thing, if not the only good +thing, that its country has to give." This took me down from my heroics at +once, the brandy was first-rate, and I found myself restored to the level +of the world at once, and infinitely the better for the operation. We now +followed the advance of the troops. The leading columns had already forced +their way into the entrance of the forest; but it was a forest of three +leagues' depth and twice the number in length, a wooded province, and the +way was fought foot by foot. It is only justice to the French to say, that +they fought well--held the pass boldly--often charged our advance, and +gave way only when they were on the point of being surrounded. But our +superiority of discipline and numbers combined, did not suffer the success +to be for a moment doubtful. Still, as we followed, the battle raged in +the depths of the forest, already as dark as if night had come on--our +only light the incessant illumination of the musketry, and the bursts of +fire from the howitzers and guns. + +As we were standing on the last height at the entrance of the defile, +"Look round," exclaimed Varnhorst, "and take your first lesson in our art, +if you ever adopt the trade of soldiership. The Duke has outwitted the +Frenchman. I suspected something of this sort in the morning, when I first +heard his guns so far to the right. I allow that the enemy may be puzzled +for a while who has five passes to defend, with half a dozen leagues +between them, and a Prussian army in front ready to make him choose. He +has evidently drawn off the strength of his troops to the Duke's point of +attack, and has stripped the wing before us. Clairfait's mass has been +thrown upon it, and the day is our own. Onward." + +The roads and the surrounding glades gave fearful evidence of the +obstinacy of the struggle; but it also gave some curious evidence of the +force of habit in making light of the troubles of life. The cavalry, which +had been comparatively unemployed, from the nature of the service during +the day, had taken advantage of the opportunity to consult their own +comfort as much as possible. On the flank and rear of the infantry the +troopers had taken the whole affair _en amateur_, and had lit their +campfires, cooked their rations, handsomely augmented by the general +spoliation of the hen-coops within many a league. Something like a fair +was established round them by the suttlers; while the shells were actually +falling and many a branch was shattered over their banquets by the shot +which constantly whizzed through the trees. But, "_Vive la fortune!_" Even +the sober Teuton and the rough son of the Bannat could enjoy the few +moments that war gives to festivity, and what the next night or morning +might bring was not suffered to disturb their sense of "schnapps," and +their supper. + +The trampling of horses in our rear, and the galloping of the chasseurs of +the ducal escort, now told us that the generalissimo was at hand. He rode +up in high spirits, received our congratulations with princely courtesy, +and bestowed praises on the troops, and especially on Clairfait, which +made the count's dark features absolutely glow. The whole group rode +together until we reached the open country. A decisive success had +unquestionably been gained; and in war the first success is of proverbial +importance. On this point, the duke laid peculiar weight on the few words +which he could spare to me. + +"M. Marston," he observed, taking me cordially by the hand, "we are +henceforth more than friends, we are camarades. We have been in the field +together; and, with us Prussians, that is a tie for life." + +I made my acknowledgments for his highness's condescension. Business then +took the lead. + +"You will now have a good despatch to transmit to our friends in England. +The Count Clairfait has shown himself worthy of his reputation. I +understand that the enemy's force consisted chiefly of the household +troops of France; if so, we have beaten the best soldiers of the kingdom, +and the rest can give us but little trouble. You will remark upon these +points; and now for Paris." + +A cry, or rather a shout of assent from the circle of officers, echoed the +words, and we all put spurs to our horses, and followed the _cortège_ +through the noble old groves. But before we reached its confines, the +firing had wholly ceased, and the enemy were hurrying down the slope of +the Argonne, and crossing in great disorder a plain which separated them +from their main body. Our light troops and cavalry were dashing in pursuit, +and prisoners were continually taken. From the spot where we halted, the +light of the sinking day showed us the rapid breaking up of the fugitive +column, the guns, one by one, left behind; the muskets thrown away; and +the soldiers scattered, until our telescopes could discover scarcely more +than a remnant reaching the protection of the distant hill. + +We supped that night on the green sward. The duke had invited his own +staff, and that of Clairfait, to his tent, in honour of the day, and I +never spent a gayer evening. His incomparable finish of manners, mingled +with the cordiality which no man could more naturally assume when it was +his pleasure, and his mixture of courtly pleasantry with the bold humour +which campaigning, in some degree, teaches to every one, made him, if +possible, more delightful, to my conception, than even in our first +interview. Towards the close of the supper, which, like every thing else +round him, was worthy of Sardanapalus, he addressed himself to me, and +giving a most gracious personal opinion of what my "services had merited +from the English minister," said that, "limited as his own means of +rewarding zeal and ability might be, he begged of me to retain a slight +memorial of his friendship, and of our day together on the heights of +Argonne." Taking from the hand of Guiscard the riband and star of the +"Order of Merit," the famous order instituted by the Great Frederic, he +placed it round my neck, and proposed my health to the table as a "Knight +of Prussia." + +This was a flattering distinction, and, if I could have had entire faith +in all the complimentary language addressed to me by the sitters at that +stately table, I should have had visions of very magnificent things. But +there is no antidote to vanity equal to an empty purse. If I had been born +to one of the leviathan fortunes of our peerage, I might possibly have +imagined myself possessed of all the talents of mankind, and with all its +distinctions waiting for my acceptance; but I never could forget the grave +lesson that I was a younger son. I sat, like the Roman in his triumph, +with the slave, to lecture him, behind. However, I had a more ample +evidence of the sincerity with which those compliments were paid, in the +higher degree of trust reposed in me from day to day. + +After the repast was ended, and the principal part of the guests had +withdrawn, I was desired to wait for the communication of important +intelligence--Guiscard and Varnhorst being the only officers of the staff +who remained. A variety of papers, taken in the portfolio of one of the +French generals who had fallen in the engagement of the day, were laid +before us, and our little council proceeded to examine them. They were of +a very various kind, and no bad epitome of the mind of a gallant and +crackbrained coxcomb. Reflections on the conduct of the Allied armies, and +conjectures on their future proceedings--both of so fantastic a kind, that +the duke's gravity often gave way, and even the grim Guiscard sometimes +wore a smile. Then came in a letter from some "_confrère_" in Paris, a +tissue of gossip and grumbling, anecdotes of the irregularities of private +life, and merciless abuse of the leaders of party. Interspersed with those +were epistles of a more tender description; from which it appeared that +the general's heart was as capacious as his ambition, and that he +contrived to give his admiration to half a dozen of the _élite_ of +Parisian beauty at a time. Varnhorst was delighted with this portion of +the correspondence; even the presence of the duke could not prevent him +from bursting into explosions of laughter; and he ended by imploring +possession of the whole, as models of his future correspondence, in any +emergency which compelled him to put pen to paper in matters of the sex. +But nearly the last of the documents in the portfolio was one deserving of +all attention. It was a statement of the measures which had been enjoined +by the Republican government for raising the population in arms; and, as +an appendix, the muster-roll of the various corps which were already on +their way to join the army of Dumourier. The duke read this paper with a +countenance from which all gaiety had vanished and handed it to Guiscard +to read aloud. + +"What think you of that, gentlemen?" asked the duke, in his most +deliberate tone. + +Varnhorst, in his usual unhesitating style, said--"It tells us only that +we shall have some more fighting; but, as we are sure to beat them, the +more the better. Your highness knows as well as any man alive, that the +maxim of our great master was, 'Begin the war by fighting as many pitched +battles as you can. Skirmishes teach discipline to the rabble; allow the +higher orders time to escape, the government to tamper, and to encourage +the resistance of all. Pitched battles are thunderbolts; they finish the +business at once; and, like the thunderbolts, they appear to come from a +source which defies resistance by man.'" + +"I think," said Guiscard, with his deep physiognomy still darkening, "that +we lost, what is the most difficult of all things to recover--time." + +The duke bit his lip. "How was it to be helped, Guiscard? _You_ know the +causes of the delay; they were many and stubborn." + +"Ay," was the reply, with an animation, which struck me with surprise, "as +many as the blockheads in Berlin, and as stubborn as the rock under our +feet, or the Aulic council." + +"Well," said the duke, turning to me, with his customary grace of +manner--"What does our friend, the Englishman, say?" + +Of course, I made no pretence to giving a military opinion. I merely said, +"That I had every reliance on the experienced conduct of his highness, and +on the established bravery of his army." + +"The truth is, M. Marston, as Guiscard says, we _have_ lost time, though +it is no fault of ours, and I observe, from these papers, that the enemy +availed themselves of the delay, by bringing up strong corps from every +point. Still, our duty lies plain before us; we _must_ advance, and rescue +the unfortunate royal family--we _must_ tranquillize France, by +overthrowing the rabble influence, which now threatens to subvert all law; +and having done that, we may then retire, with the satisfaction of having +fought without ambition, and been victorious without a wish for +aggrandizement." After a pause, which none attempted to interrupt, he +finished by saying--"I admit that our work is likely to become more +difficult than I had supposed." + +Varnhorst's sanguine nature bore this with visible reluctance. "Pardon me, +your highness, but my opinion is for instant action, whatever may happen. +Let us but move to-morrow morning, and I promise you another battle of +Rosbach within the next twelve hours." The idea was congenial to the +gallantry of the duke; he smiled, and shook the bold speaker by the hand. + +"I see, by these lists," said Guiscard, as he slowly perused the returns, +"that the troops with which we have been engaged to-day amounted to little +more than twenty thousand men, under the new general, Dumourier. They +fought badly, I think. I scarcely expected that they would have fought at +all since the emigration of their officers. Sixteen or eighteen thousand +men are already moving up from Flanders; a strong corps under my old +acquaintance and countryman, Kellerman--and whatever he may be as an +officer, a bolder and braver veteran does not exist--are coming, by forced +marches, from the Rhine; the sea-coast towns are stripped of their +garrisons, to supply a supplementary force; and I should not be surprised +to find that we rather under, than over, calculated the force which will +be in line against us within a week. + +"So be it!" exclaimed Varnhorst, "What are troops without discipline, and +generals without science? Both made to be beaten. The fifty thousand +Prussians with us would march through Europe. I am for the advance. That +was a brilliant dash of Clairfait's this afternoon. Let us match it +to-morrow morning." + +"It was admirable!" replied the duke, with the colour mounting to his +cheek. "Any officer in Europe might envy the decision, the daring, and the +success. His sagacity in discovering the weak point of the enemy's +position, and his skill in its attack, deserve all praise. His flank +movement _was_ perfectly admirable." + +"Well, we have only to try him again," exclaimed Varnhorst, with +increasing animation. "We have turned the position, and taken a thousand +prisoners and some guns. Our men are in high spirits; and, if I were in +command of a corps to-morrow, my only countersign would be--'Paris.'" + +"Varnhorst," said the duke, "you have only anticipated my intention with +regard to yourself. You shall have a command; the three brigades of +Prussian grenadiers shall be given into your charge, and you shall operate +on the flank. It is my wish to make our principal movement in that +direction, and I _know_ you well." + +Varnhorst's gratitude almost denied him words; but his countenance spoke +better than his tongue. + +One of those papers contained a detail of several projects by the leading +members of the Assembly for the government of France. Guiscard, after +bending his wise head over them, pronounced them all equally futile, and +equally tending to democracy. The duke was of the opposite opinion, and +after a glance at the papers, observed--"that he thought some of those +schemes ingenious; but that they so closely resembled the ideas thrown out +in Germany, under the patronage of the Emperor Joseph, as to deprive them +of any strong claim to originality." "No," said he gaily, "I shall never +believe that Frenchmen are changed, until I hear that there is no ballet +in Paris; you might as well tell me, that the Swiss will abjure the money +which makes a part of his distinction, as the Frenchman give up the laced +coat, the powdered queue, and the order of St Louis at his buttonhole. +Those things are the man, they are his mind, his senses, himself. He is a +creation of monarchy--a clever, amusing, ingenious, and brave one; but +rely upon my knowledge of human nature--if French nature be any thing of +the kind--that Paris, a capital without balls, and a government without +embroidery, will disgust him beyond all forgiveness. It is my opinion, +that if democracy were formed to-morrow, it would be danced away in a week; +or if every pedigree in France were burned in this evening's fire, you +would have the Boulevards crowded with marquises and marchionesses before +the month was over. Is my friend _un peu philosophe_?" He laughed at his +own picture of a revolution, and his pleasantry of manner would have made +his sentiments popular on any subject. Still, our long-headed friend, +Guiscard, was not to be convinced. + +"I may have every contempt," said he, in a hurried tone, "for the +shallowness of idlers and talkers attempting to mould men by theories; but +the question whether France is to remain a monarchy or not, is one of the +most pressing importance to your highness's operations. It is only in this +practical sense that I should think of the topic at all. You have taken +the frontier towns, and have beaten the frontier army. Thus, so far as the +regular force of France is concerned, the war is at an end. But then comes +the grand point. A country of thirty millions of people cannot be +conquered, if they can but be roused to resist. All the troops of +Europe--nay, perhaps all the princes of the earth--might perish before +they fully conquered a country so large as France, with so powerful a +population. This seems even to be one of the provisions of Providence +against ambition, that an invasion of a populous country is the most +difficult operation in the world, unless the people welcome the invader. +It gives every ditch the character of a fortress, and every man the spirit +of a soldier. I recollect no instance in European history, where an +established kingdom was conquered by invasion. They all stand at this hour, +as they stood a thousand years ago. In France, we found the people without +leaders, without troops, and without experience in war; of course they +have not resisted our hussars and guns. But they have not joined us. In +any other country of Europe, we should have recruits crowding to ask for +service. But the French farmer shuts up his house; the peasant flies; the +citizen barricades his gates, and gives a cannon-shot for an answer. The +whole land rejects us, if it dares not repel; and, if we conquer, we shall +have to colonize." + +"Well, we must fight them into it," said Varnhorst. + +"Or leave them to fight themselves out of it," I observed--"my national +prejudices not being favourable to reasoning at the point of the bayonet." + +"Or take the chances of the world, and float on wherever the surge carries +us," laughed the duke. + +But Guiscard was still inflexible. His deep eye flashed with a light which +I never could have looked for under those projecting brows. His cheek was +visited by a tinge which argued a passionate interest in the subject; and, +as he spoke, his tongue uttered a nervous and powerful eloquence, which +showed that Guiscard was thrown among camps, while he might have figured +in senates and councils. Of course, at this distance of time, I can offer +but a faint memory of his bold and spontaneous wisdom. + +"I can see no result for France but democracy. This war is like no other +since the fall of the Roman Empire. It is a war of the passions. What man +can calculate the power of those untried elements? I implore your highness +to consider with the deepest caution every step to be taken from this +moment. Europe has no other commander whom it can place in a rank with +yourself; and if you, at the head of the first army of Europe, shall find +it necessary to retreat before the peasantry of France, it will form a +disastrous era in the art of war, and a still more disastrous omen to +every crowned head of Europe." + +The duke looked uneasy. But he merely said with a smile--"My dear Guiscard, +we must keep these sentiments to ourselves in camp. You are a cosmopolite, +and look on these things with too refined a speculation. Like myself, you +have dined and supped with the Diderots and Raynals--pleasant people, no +doubt, but dangerous advisers." + +"I have!" exclaimed his excited hearer; "and neither I, nor any other man, +would have met them without admiring their talents. But I always looked on +their _coterie_ as a sort of moral lunatics, the madder the more light +they have." + +"Our question is simply one of fact," said the duke. + +"Yes, and of a fact on which the fate of Europe hinges at this moment! The +monarchy of France is already cloven down. What wild shape of power is now +to take up its fallen sword? The sovereignty of time, laws, and loyalty +are in the grave, and the funeral rites will be bloody; but what hand is +to make the ground of that grave firm enough to bear the foundations of a +new throne? + +"The heels of our boots and the hoofs of our horses will trample it solid +enough!" exclaimed Varnhorst. + +"The much stronger probability is," replied Guiscard, "that they will +trample it into a mire so deep, that we may reckon the Allied powers +fortunate if they can draw themselves out of it. France is revolutionized +irrecoverably. Three things have been done within the last three months, +any one of which would overthrow the strongest government on the Continent. +By confiscating the property of the nobles, she has set the precedent for +breaking down all property, thrown the prize into the hands of the +populace, and thus, after corrupting them by the robbery, has bound them +by the bribe. By destroying and banishing the persons of the nobility, she +has done more than extinguish an antagonist to the mob--she has swept away +a protector of the people. The provinces will henceforth be helpless; +Paris will be the sovereign, and Paris itself will have the mob for its +master. And by her third step, the ruin of the church, she has given the +death-blow to the few and feeble feelings which acknowledged higher +objects than those of the hour. The pressing point for us, is, how the +Revolution will act upon the military spirit of the nation. The French nay +succumb; but they make good soldiers, they are the only nation in Europe +who have an actual fondness for war, who contemplate it as a pastime, and, +in spite of all their defeats, regard it as their natural path to power." + +"But they fly before our squadrons," observed the duke. + +"Yes, as schoolboys fly before their master, until they are strong enough +to rebel; or as the Indians fled before the lances and horses of Cortes, +until they became accustomed to them. It would be infinitely wiser to +leave the republicans to struggle with each other, than unite them by a +national attack. Mobs, like the wolves, always fall upon the first wounded. +The first faction that receives a blow in those campaigns of the Palais +Royal, will have all the others tearing it to fragments. The custom will +spread; every new drop of blood will let loose a torrent in retaliation; +and when France has thus been drained of her fever, will be the time, +either to restore her, or to paralyse for ever her power of disturbing the +world." + +The sound of a gun from either flank of the army, reminded us that the +hour of the evening hymn had come. It broke up our council. The +incomparable harmony of so many thousand voices ascended into the air; and +at the discharge of another gun, all was still once more. The night had +now fallen, and the fatigues of the day made repose welcome. But the +conversation of the last hour made me anxious to obtain all the knowledge +of the actual state of the country, and the prospects of the campaign, +which could be obtained from Guiscard. Varnhorst, full of a soldier's +impetuosity, was gone to the quarters of his grenadiers, and was busy with +hurried preparations for the morrow. The duke had retired, and, through +the curtains of his tent, I could see the lamps by whose light his +secretaries were in attendance, and with whom he would probably pass the +greater part of the next twelve hours. With Guiscard I continued pacing up +and down in front of our quarters, listening to the observations of a mind +as richly stored, and as original, as I have ever met. He still persisted +in his conviction, "that we had come at the wrong time, either too early +or too late; _before_ the nation had grown weary of anarchy, and _after_ +they had triumphed over the throne. "The rebound," said he energetically, +"will be terrible. Ten times our force would be thrown away in this war. +The army may drive all things before its front; but it will be assailed in +the rear, in the flanks--every where. It is like the lava which I have +seen pour down from Etna into the sea. It drove the tide before it, and +threw the water up in vapour; but they were too powerful for it after all. +And there stands the lava fixed and cold, and there roll the surges once +again, burying it from the sight of man." + +A sudden harmony of trumpets, from various points of the vast encampment, +pierced the ear, and in another moment the whole line of the hills was +crowned with flame. The signal for lighting the fires of the Austrian and +Prussian outposts had been given, and the effect was almost magical. In +this army all things were done with a regularity almost perfect. The +trumpet spoke, and the answer was instantaneous. All comparisons are +feeble to realities of this order--seen, too, while the heart of man is +quickened to enjoy and wonder, and feels scarcely less than a new +existence in the stirring events every where round him. The first +comparison that struck me was the vague one of a shower of stars. The +mountain pinnacles were in a blaze. The general fires of the bivouacs soon +spread through the forest, and down the slopes of the hills, all round to +the horizon. + +The night was fine, the air flowed refreshingly from the verdure of the +immense woods, and the scent of the thyme and flowers of the heath, +pressed by my foot, rose "wooingly on the air." All was calm and odorous. +The flourish of the evening trumpets still continued to swell in the rich +harmonies which German skill alone can breathe, and thoughts of the past +and the future began to steal over my mind. I was once more in England, +gazing on the splendid beauty of Clotilde; and imagining the thousand +forms in which my weary fortunes must be shaped, before I dared offer her +a share in my hopes of happiness. I saw Mariamne once more, with her smile +reminding me of Shakspeare's exquisite picture-- + + "Oh, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful, + In the contempt and anger of that lip!" + +Then came a vision of my early home. The halls of Mortimer castle--the +feebly surviving parent there, whom I still loved--the heartless and +haughty brother--the pomp and pageantry to which he was born; while I was +flung out into the wilderness, like the son of the handmaid, to perish, or, +like him, escape only by a miracle. At that hour, perhaps, there were +revels in the house of my fathers, while their descendant was wandering on +a hill-side, in the midst of hostile armies, exposed to the chances of the +conflict, and possibly only measuring with his pace the extent of his +grave. But while I was thus sinking in heart, my hand, in making some +unconscious gesture, struck the badge of Frederic's order on my bosom. +What trifles change the current of human thoughts! That star threw more +light over my darkness than the thousand constellations that studded the +vault above my head. Success, honours, and public name, filled my mind. I +saw all things, events, and persons through a brilliant haze of hope; and +determining to follow fortune wherever she might lead me, abjured all +thoughts of calamity in my unfriended, yet resolute career. Is it to +consider the matter too curiously, to conceive that the laws of nature +affect the mind? or that the spirit of man resembles an instrument, after +all--an Aeolian harp, which owes all its pulses to the gusts that pass +across its strings, and in which it simply depends upon the stronger or +the feebler breeze, whether it shall smile with joyous and triumphant +chords, or sink into throbs and sounds of sorrow? + +The galloping of horses roused me. It was Guiscard with an escort. "What! +not in your bed yet?" was his hurried salutation. "So much the better; you +will have a showy despatch to send to England to-night. Clairfait has just +outdone himself. He found that the French were retreating, and he followed +them without loss of time. His troops had been so dispersed by the service +of the day, that he could collect but fifteen hundred hussars; and with +these he gallantly set forth to pick up stragglers. His old acquaintance, +Chazot, whom he had beaten the day before, was in command of a rearguard +of ten thousand men. His fifteen hundred brave fellows were now exposed to +ruin; and doubtless, if they had exhibited any show of retreating, they +must have been ruined. But here Clairfait's _à la Turque_ style was +exactly in place. He ordered that not a shot should be fired, but that the +spur and sabre should do the business; and at once plunged into the mass +of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. In five minutes the whole were put to +the rout--guns, baggage, and ammunition taken; and the French +general-in-chief as much stripped of his rearguard, as ever a peacock was +plucked of his tail." + +"Will the duke follow up the blow?" was my enquiry. + +"Beyond doubt. I have just left him giving orders for the advancement of +the whole line at daybreak; and unless M. Dumouier is remarkably on the +alert, we shall have him supping in the camp within the next twenty-four +hours. But you will have better intelligence from himself; for he bade me +prepare you for meeting him, as he rides to the wing from which the march +begins." + +"Excellent news! You and Varnhorst will be field-marshals before the +campaign is over." His countenance changed. + +"No; my course unfortunately lies in a different direction. The duke has +been so perplexed, by the delays continually forced upon him by the +diplomacy of the Allied cabinets, that he has been more than once on the +point of giving up the command. Clairfait's success, and the prospect of +cutting off the retreat of the French, or of getting between them and +Paris, have furnished him with new materials; and I am now on my way to +Berlin, to put matters in the proper point of view. Farewell, Marston, I +am sorry to lose you as a comrade; but we _must_ meet again--no laurels +for _me_ now. The duke must not find me here; he will pass by within the +next five minutes." + +The noble fellow sprang from his horse, and shook my hand with a fervour +which I had not thought to be in his grave and lofty nature. + +"Farewell!" he uttered once more, and threw himself on his saddle, and was +gone. + +I had scarcely lost the sound of his horse's hoofs, as they rattled up the +stony ravine of the hill, when the sound of a strong body of cavalry +announced the approach of the generalissimo. He soon rode up, and +addressed me with his usual courtesy. "I really am afraid, Mr Marston, +that you will think me in a conspiracy to prevent your enjoying a night's +rest, for all our meetings, I think, have been at the 'witching hour!' But +would you think it too much to mount your horse now, and ride with me, +before you send your despatches to your cabinet? I must visit the troops +of the left wing without delay; we can converse on the way." + +I was all obedience, a knight of Prussia, and therefore at his highness's +service. + +"Well, well, I thought so. You English gentlemen are ready for every thing. +In the mean time, while your horse is saddling, look over this letter. +That was a gallant attempt of Clairfait's, and, if we had not been too far +off to support him, we might have pounced upon the main body as +effectually as he did upon the rear. Chazot has escaped, but one of M. +Dumourier's aides-de-camp, a remarkably intelligent fellow, has been taken, +and on him has been found the papers which I beg you to peruse." + +It was a letter from the commander-in-chief to the _Bureau de la Guerre_ +in Paris. + +"MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE,--I write this, after having been on horseback for +eighteen hours. We must have reinforcements without a moment's delay, or +we are lost--the honour of France is lost--France herself is lost. I have +with me less than 20,000 men to defend the road to Paris against 100,000. +The truth must be told--truth becomes a citizen. We have been beaten! I +have been unable to hold the passes of Argonne, and the enemy's hussars +are already scouring the country in my rear. I have sent order upon order +to Kellerman, and all my answer is, that he is preparing to advance; but +he has not stirred a step. I daresay, that he is playing trictrac at Metz +this moment. + +"My march from the Argonne has been a bold manoeuvre, but it has cost us +something. Chazot, to whom I entrusted the protection of the march, and to +whom I had given the strictest orders to keep the enemy's light troops at +a distance, has suffered himself to be entrapped by those experienced +campaigners, and has lost men. Duval fought bravely at the head of his +brigade, and Miranda narrowly escaped being taken, in a dashing attempt to +save the park of artillery. He had a horse killed under him, and was taken +from the field insensible. Macdonald, who takes this, will explain more. +He is a promising officer--give him a step. In the mean time, send me +every man that you can. _France is in danger_." + +"The object now," observed the duke, "will be, to press upon the enemy in +his present state of disorder, until we shall either be enabled to force +him to fight a pitched battle at a disadvantage, or strike in between him +and the capital. And now forward!" + +I mounted, and we rode through the camp--the duke occasionally giving some +order for the morning to the officers commanding the successive divisions, +and conversing with me on the points in discussion between England and the +Allies. He was evidently dissatisfied with continental politics. + +"The king and the emperor are both sincere; but that is more than I can +always say for those about them. We have too many Italians, and even +Frenchmen, at our German courts. They are republicans to a man; and, by +consequence, every important measure is betrayed. I can perceive, in the +manoeuvres of the enemy's general, that he must have been acquainted with +my last despatch from Berlin; and, I am so thoroughly persuaded of the +fact, that I mean to manoeuvre to-morrow on that conviction. The order +from Berlin is, that I shall act upon his flanks. Within two hours after +daylight I shall make a push for his centre; and, breaking through that, +shall separate his wings, and crush them at my leisure. One would think," +said he, pausing, and looking round him with the exaltation of conscious +power, "that the troops had overheard us, and already anticipated a +victory." + +The sight from the knoll, where we drew our bridles, was certainly of the +most striking kind. The fires, which at first I had seen glittering only +on the mountain tops, were now blazing in all quarters; in the cleared +spaces of the forest, on the heaths and in the ravines: the heaps of +fagots gathered for the winter consumption of the cities, by woodmen of +the district, were put in requisition, and the axes of the pioneers laid +many a huge larch and elm on the blaze. Soldiers seldom think much of +those who are to come after them; and the flames shot up among the +thickets with the most unsparing brilliancy. Cheerfulness, too, prevailed; +the sounds of laughter, and gay voices, and songs, arose on every side. +The well-preserved game of this huge hunting-ground, the old vexation of +the French peasant, now fell into hands which had no fear of the galleys +for a shot at a wild boar, or bringing down a partridge. The fires +exhibited many a substantial specimen of forest luxury in the act of +preparation. No man enjoys rest and food like the soldier. A day's +fighting and fasting gives a sense of delight to both, such as the man of +cities can scarcely conceive. No epicure at his most _recherché_ board +ever knew the true pleasure of the senses, equal to the campaigner +stretched upon the grass, until his supper was ready, and then sitting +down to it. I acknowledge, that to me that simple rest, and that simple +meal, often gave a sense of enjoyment which I have never even conceived in +the luxuries of higher life. The instantaneous sleep that followed; the +night without a restless moment; the awaking with all my powers refreshed, +and yet with as complete an unconsciousness of the hours past away, as if +I had lain down but the moment before, and started from night into +sunshine--all belong to the campaigner: he has his troubles, but his +enjoyments are his own, exclusive, delicious, incomparable. + +An officer of the staff now rode up to make a report on some movement of +the division intended to lead in the morning, and the duke gave me +permission to retire. He galloped off in the direction of the column, and +I slowly pursued my way to my quarters. Yet I could not resist many a halt, +to gaze on the singular beauty of the bursts of flame which lighted the +landscape. More than once, it reminded me of the famous Homeric +description of the Trojan bivouac by the ships. All the images were the +same, except that, for the sea, we had the endless meadows of Champagne, +and, for the ships, the remote tents of the enemy. We had the fire, the +exulting troops, the carouse, the picketed horses, the shouts and songs, +the lustre of the autumnal sky, and the bold longings for victory and the +dawn. Even in Pope's feeble translation, the scene is animated-- + + "The troops exulting sate in order round, + And beaming fires illumined all the ground." + +Then follows the famous simile of the moon, suddenly throwing its radiance +over the obscure features of the landscape. + +But Homer, the poet of realities, soon returns to the true material-- + + "So many flames before proud Ilion blaze, + And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays, + A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild, + And shoot a shadowy lustre o'er the field. + Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend, + Whose umber'd arms by fits thick flashes send; + Loud neigh the coursers o'er their heaps of corn, + And ardent warriors wait the rising morn." + +I leave it to others to give the history of this campaign, one of the most +memorable of Europe from its consequences--the tramp of that army roused +the slumbering giant of France. If the Frenchman said of a battle, that it +was like a ball-room, you see little beyond your opposite partner; he +might have said of a campaign, that you scarcely see even so much. The +largeness of the scale is beyond all personal observation. I can answer +only for myself, that I was on horseback before daybreak, and marched in +the midst of columns which had no more doubt of beating up the enemy's +quarters than they had of eating their first meal. All were in the highest +spirits; and the opinions of the staff, among whom the duke had assigned +me a place, were so sanguine, that I felt some concern at their reaching +the ear of the captive aide-de-camp. This induced me to draw him away +gradually from the crowd. I found him lively, as his countrymen generally +are, but exhibiting at once a strength of observation and a frankness of +language which are more uncommon. + +"I admit," said he, "that you have beaten us; but this is the natural +effect of your incomparable discipline. Our army is new, our general new, +every thing new but our imprudence, in venturing to meet your 100,000 with +our 25,000. Yet France is not beaten. In fact, you have not met the French +up to this hour." + +"What!" I exclaimed in surprise; "of what nation are the troops which we +have fought in the Argonne, and are now following through the high-road to +Paris? The Duke of Brunswick will be amused by hearing that he has been +wasting his cannon-shot on spectres." + +"Ah, you English," he replied with a broad laugh, which made me still more +doubt his nation, "are such matter-of-fact people, that you require +substance in every thing. But what are the troops of France? Brave fellows +enough, but not one of them has ever seen a shot fired in his life; even +the few battalions which we had in America saw nothing but hedge-firing. +The men before you have never seen more service than they could find in a +cabaret, or hunting a highwayman. Some of them, I admit, have served their +King in the shape of shouldering their muskets at his palace gates in +Versailles, or marching in a procession of cardinals and confessors to +Notre-Dame. My astonishment is, that at the first shot they did not all +run to their soup, and at the second leave their muskets to take care of +themselves. But they are brave; and, if they once learn to fight, the +pupils will beat the master." + +"You are a philosopher, Monsieur, but, I hope, no prophet. I think I +observe in you something of our English blood after all. You have opinions, +and speak them." + +"Not quite English, nor quite French. My father was a borderer; so not +even exactly either English or Scotch. He took up arms for the son of +James--of course was ruined, as every one was who had to do with Stuart +from the beginning of time--luckily escaped after the crash of Culloden, +entered the Scottish Brigade here, and left to me nothing but his memory, +his sword, and the untarnished name of Macdonald." I bowed to a name so +connected with honour, and the lively aide-de-camp and I became from that +moment, fast friends. After a long and fatiguing march, about noon, in one +of the most sultry days of a British autumn, our advanced guard reached +the front of the enemy's position. The outposts were driven in at once, +and the whole army, as it came up, was formed in order of battle. Rumours +had been spread of large reinforcements being on their way; and the clouds +of dust which rose along the plain, and the confused sound of +baggage-wagons, and heavy guns behind the hills, rendered it probable. +Still the country before us was clear to the eye, and our whole force +moved slowly forward to storm a range of heights, in the shape of a +half-moon, which commanded the field. This was one of the sights which +nothing but war can furnish, and to which no other sight on earth is equal. +The motion, the shouts, the rapidity of all things--the galloping of the +cavalry--the rolling of the parks of artillery--the rush of the light +troops--the pressing march of the battalions--and all glittering with all +the pomps of war, waving standards, flashing sabres, and the blaze thrown +back from the columns' bayonets, that looked like sheets of steel, made me +almost breathless. The aide-de-camp evidently enjoyed the sight as much as +myself, and gave way to that instinct, by which man is a wolf, let the +wise say what they will, and exults in war. But when he heard shots fired +from the range of hills, his countenance changed. + +"There must be some mistake here," he said, with sudden gravity. +"Dumourier could never have intended to hold his position so far in +advance, and so wholly unprotected. Those troops will be lost, and the +whole campaign may be compromised." + +The attack now commenced along the line, and the resistance was evidently +serious. A heavy fire was sustained for some time; but the troops +gradually established themselves on the lower part of the range. "I know +it all now!" exclaimed my agitated companion, after a long look through my +glass: "it is Kellerman's corps," said he, "which ought to have been a +league to the rear of its present position at this moment. He must have +received counter orders since I left him, or been desperately deceived; +another half hour there, and he will never leave those hills but a +prisoner or a corpse." From the shaking of his bridle, and the nervous +quivering of his manly countenance, I saw how eagerly he would have +received permission to bring the French general out of his dilemma. But he +was a man of honour, and I was sure of him. In the midst of a thunder of +cannon, which absolutely seemed to shake the ground under our feet, the +firing suddenly ceased on the enemy's side. The cessation was followed on +ours; there was an extraordinary silence over the field, and probably the +generalissimo expected a flag of truce, or some proposal for the +capitulation of the enemy's corps. But none came; and after a pause, in +which aides-de-camp and orderlies were continually galloping between the +advance and the spot where the duke stood at the head of his staff, the +line moved again, and the hill was in our possession. But Kellerman was +gone; and before our light troops could make any impression on the +squadrons which covered the movement, he had again taken up a position on +the formidable ground which was destined to figure so memorably in the +annals of French soldiership, the heights of Valmy. + +"What think you now, my friend?" was my question. + +"Just what I thought before," was the answer. "We want science, without +which bravery _may_ fail; but we have bravery, without which science +_must_ fail. Kellerman may have been deceived in his first position, but +he has evidently retrieved his error. He has now shortened his distance +from his reinforcements, he has secured one of the most powerful positions +in the country, and unless yon drive him out of it before nightfall, you +might as well storm Ehrenbreitstein, or your own Gibraltar, by morning." + +"Well, the experiment is about to be made, for my glass shows me our +howitzers _en masse_, moving up to cannonade him with grape and canister. +He will have an uneasy bivouac of it." + +"Whether Kellerman can manoeuvre, I do not know. But that he will fight, I +am perfectly sure. He is old, but one of the most daring and firm officers +in our service. If it is in his orders to maintain those heights, he will +hold them to his last cartridge and his last man." + +Our conversation was now lost in the roar of artillery, and after a +tremendous fire of an hour on the French position, which was answered with +equal weight from the heights, a powerful division was sent to assail the +principal battery. The attempt was gallantly made, and the success seemed +infallible, when I heard, through all the roar, the exclamation of +Macdonald, "Brave Steingell!" At the words, he pointed to a heavy column +of infantry hurrying down the ravine in rear of the redoubt. + +"Those are from the camp," he exclaimed, "and a few thousands more will +make the post impregnable." + +The sight of the column seemed to have given renewed vigour to both sides; +for, while the French guns rapidly increased their fire, aided by the +musketry of the newly arrived troops, the Prussian artillerists, then the +first in Europe, threw in their balls in such showers, that the forest, +which hitherto had largely screened the enemy, began to fall in masses; +branch and trunk were swept away, and the ground became as naked of cover +as if it had been stripped by the axe. The troops thus exposed could not +withstand this "iron hail," and they were palpably staggered. The retreat +of a brigade, after suffering immense loss, shook the whole line, and +produced a charge of our dragoons up the hill. I gave an involuntary +glance at Macdonald. He was pale and exhausted; but in another moment his +eye sparkled, his colour came, and I heard him exclaim, "Bravo, Chazot! +All is not lost yet." I saw a group of mounted officers galloping into the +very spot which had been abandoned by the brigade, and followed by the +colours of three or four battalions, which were planted directly under our +fire. "There comes Chazot with his division!" cried the aide-de-camp; +"gallant fellow, let him now make up for his ill fortune! Monsieur +Brunswick will not sleep on the hill of Valmy to-night. He has been unable +to force the centre, and now both flanks are secured: another attack would +cost him ten thousand men. Nor will Monsieur Brunswick sleep on the hills +of Valmy to-morrow. Dumourier was right; there was his Thermopylæ. But it +will not be stormed. _Vive la France!_" + +The prediction was nearly true. The unexpected reinforcements, and the +approach of night, determined the generalissimo to abandon the assault for +the time. The fire soon slackened, the troops were withdrawn, and, after a +heavy loss on both sides, both slept upon the field. + +I was roused at midnight from the deep sleep of fatigue, by an order to +attend the duke, who was then holding a council. Varnhorst was my summoner, +and on our way he slightly explained the purpose of his mission. "We are +all in rather bad spirits at the result of to-day's action. The affair +itself was not much, as it was only between detachments, but it shows two +things; that the French are true to their revolutionary nonsense, and that +they can fight. On even ground we have beaten them, and shall beat them +again; but if Champagne gives them cover, what will it be when we get into +the broken country that lies between this and Paris? Still there has been +no rising of the people, and until then, we have nothing to fear for the +event of the campaign." + +"What then have you to fear?" was my question. "What calls the council +to-night?" + +"My good friend," said Varnhorst with a grave smile, which more reminded +me of Guiscard, "remember the Arab apologue, that every man is born with +two strings tied to him, one large and visible, but made of twisted +feathers; the other so fine as to be invisible, but made of twisted steel. +Thus there are few men without a visible motive, which all can see, and an +invisible one--which, however, pulls then just as the puller pleases. +Berlin pulls now, and the duke's glory and the good of Europe must be +sacrificed to policy." + +"But will the king suffer this? Will the emperor stand by and see this +done?" + +"They are both zealous for the liberation of the unfortunate royal family. +But, _entre nous_--and this is a secret which I scarcely dare whisper even +in a French desert--their counsellors have other ideas. Poland is the +prize to which the ministers of both courts look. They know that the +permanent possession of French provinces is impossible. It is against the +will of your great country, against the deepest request of the French king, +and against their own declarations. But Polish seizures would give them +provinces to which nobody has laid claim, and which nobody can envy. The +consequence is, that a negotiation is on foot at this moment to conclude +the war by treaty, and, having ensured the safety of the royal family, to +withdraw the army into Lorraine." + +"Why am I then summoned?" + +"To put your signature to the preliminaries." + +I started with indignation. "They shall wait long enough if they wait till +I sign them. I shall not attend this council." + +"Observe," said Varnhorst, "I have spoken only on conjecture. If I return +without you, my candour will be rewarded by an instant sentence for +Spandau." + +This decided me. I shook my gallant friend by the hand, the cloud passed +from his brow, and we rode together to the council. This was of a more +formal nature than I had yet witnessed. Two officers expressly sent from +Vienna and Berlin, a kind of military envoys, had brought the decisions of +their respective cabinets upon the crisis. The duke said little. He had +lost his gay nonchalance of manners, and was palpably dispirited and +disappointed. His address to me was gracious as ever; but he was more of +the prince and the diplomatist, and less of the soldier. Our sitting +closed with a resolution, to agree upon an armistice, and to make the +immediate release of the king one of the stipulations. I combated the +proposal as long as I could with decorum. I placed, in the strongest light +that I could, the immense impulse which any pause in our advance must give +to the revolutionary spirit in France, or even in Europe--the +impossibility of relying on any negotiation which depended on the will of +the rabble--and, above all, the certainty that the first sign of tardiness +on the part of the Allies would overthrow the monarchy, which was now kept +in existence only by the dread of our arms. I was overruled. The proposal +for the armistice was signed by all present but one--that one myself. And +as we broke up silently and sullenly, at the first glimpse of a cold and +stormy dawn, the fit omen of our future fate, I saw a secretary of the +duke, accompanied by Macdonald, sent off to the headquarters of the enemy. + +All was now over, and I thought of returning to my post at Paris. I spent +the rest of the day in paying parting civilities to my gallant friends, +and ordered my calèche to be in readiness by morning. But my prediction +had been only too true, though I had not calculated on so rapid a +fulfilment. The knowledge of the armistice was no sooner made +public--and, to do the French general justice, he lost neither time nor +opportunity--than it was regarded as a national triumph. The electric +change of public opinion, in this most electric of all countries, raised +the people from a condition of the deepest terror to the highest +confidence. Every man in France was a soldier, and every soldier a hero. +This was the miracle of twenty-four hours. Dumourier's force instantly +swelled to 100,000 men. He might have had a million, if he had asked for +them. The whole country became impassable. Every village poured out its +company of armed peasants; and, notwithstanding the diplomatic cessation +of hostilities, a real, universal, and desperate peasant war broke upon us +on every side. + +After a week of this most harassing warfare, in which we lost ten times +the number of men which it would have cost to march over the bodies of +Dumourier's army to the capital, the order was issued for a general +retreat to the frontier. I remembered Mordecai's letter; but it was now +too late. Even if I could have turned my horse's head to a French post, I +felt myself bound to share the fortunes of the gallant army to which I had +been so closely attached. In the heat of youth, I went even further, and, +as my mission had virtually ceased, and I wore a Prussian order, I took +the _un_diplomatic step of proposing to act as one of the duke's +aides-de-camp until the army had left the enemy's territory. Behold me now, +a hulan of the duke's guard! I found no reason to repent my choice, though +our service was remarkably severe. The present war was chiefly against the +light troops and irregulars of the retreating army--the columns being too +formidable to admit of attack, at least by the multitude. Forty thousand +men, of the main army of France, were appointed to the duty of "seeing us +out of the country." But every attempt at foraging, every movement beyond +the range of our cannon, was instantly met by a peasant skirmish. Every +village approached by our squadrons, exhibited a barricade, from which we +were fired on; every forest produced a succession of sharp encounters; and +the passage of every river required as much precaution, and as often +produced a serious contest, as if we were at open war. Thus we were +perpetually on the wing, and our personal escapes were often of the most +hair-breadth kind. If we passed through a thicket, we were sure to be met +by a discharge of bullets; if we dismounted from our horses to take our +hurried and scanty meal, we found some of them shot at the inn-door; if we +flung ourselves, as tired as hounds after a chase, on the straw of a +village stable, the probability was that we were awakened by finding the +thatch in a blaze. How often we envied the easier life of the battalions! +But there an enemy, more fearful than the peasantry, began to show itself. +The weather had changed to storms of rain and bitter wind; the plains of +Champagne, never famed for fertility, were now as wild and bare as a +Russian steppe. The worst provisions, supplied on the narrowest +scale--above all, disgust, the most fatal canker of the soldier's +soul--spread disease among the ranks; and the roads on which we followed +the march, gave terrible evidence of the havoc that every hour made among +them. The mortality at last became so great, that it seemed not unlikely +that the whole army would thus melt away before it reached the boundary of +this land of death. + +The horror of the scene even struck the peasantry, and whether through +fear of the contagion, or through the uselessness of hunting down men who +were treading to the grave by thousands, the peasantry ceased to follow us. +Yet such was the wretchedness of that hideous progress, that this +cessation of hostility was scarcely a relief. The animation of the +skirmishes, though it often cost life, yet kept the rest more alive; the +strategem, the adventure, the surprise, nay, even the failure and escape, +relieved us from the dreadful monotony of the life, or rather the +half-existence, to which we were now condemned. Our buoyant and brilliant +career was at an end; we were now only the mutes and mourners of a funeral +procession of seventy thousand men. + +I still look back with an indescribable shudder at the scenes which we +were compelled to witness from day to day during that month of misery; for +the march, which began in the first days of October, was protracted till +its end. I had kept up my spirits when many a more vigorous frame had sunk, +and many a maturer mind had desponded; but the perpetual recurrence of the +same dreary spectacles, the dying, and the more fortunate dead, covering +the highways, the fields, and the village streets, at length sank into my +soul. Some recollections of earlier principles, and the memory of my old +friend Vincent, prevented my taking the summary and unhappy means of +ridding myself of my burden, which I saw daily resorted to among the +soldiery--a bullet through the brain, or a bayonet through the heart, +cured all. But, thanks to early impressions, I was determined to wait the +hand of the enemy, or the course of nature. Many a night I lay down beside +my starving charger, with something of a hope that I should never see +another morning; and many a morning, when I dragged my feeble limbs from +the cold and wet ground, I looked round the horizon for the approach of +some enemy's squadron, or peasant band, which might give me an honourable +chance of escape from an existence now no longer endurable. But all was in +vain. For leagues round no living object was visible, except that long +column, silently and slowly winding on through the distance, like an army +of spectres. + +My diminished squadron had at length become almost the only rear-guard. +From a hundred and fifty as fine fellows as ever sat a charger, we were +now reduced to a third. All its officers, youths of the first families of +Prussia, had either been left behind dying in the villages, or had been +laid in the graves by the road-side, and I was now the only commandant. +Perhaps even this circumstance was the means of saving my life. My new +responsibility compelled me to make some exertion; and I felt that, live +or die, I might still earn an honourable name. Even in those darkest hours, +the thought that Clotilde might ask where and how I finished my +ill-fortuned career, and perhaps give a moment's sorrow to one who +remembered her to the last, had its share in restoring me to a sense of +the world. In that sort of fond frenzy, which seems so fantastic when it +is past, but so natural, and is actually so irresistible while it is in +the mind, I wrote down my feelings, wild as they were--my impossible hopes, +and a promise never to forget her while I remained in this world, and, if +there could be an intercourse between the living and the dead, in that +world to which I felt myself hastening. I then bade her a solemn and +heartfelt farewell. Placing the paper in my bosom, with a locket +containing a ringlet of her beautiful hair, which Marianne had contrived +to obtain for me, the only legacy I had to offer, I felt as if I had done +my last duty among mankind. + +Still we wandered on, through a country which had the look of a boundless +cemetery. Not a peasant was met; not a sound of human labour, joy or +sorrow, reached the ear; not a smoke rose from mansion or cottage; all was +still, except when the wind burst in bitter gusts over the plain, or the +almost ceaseless rain swelled into sheets, and sent the rivers roaring +down before us. If the land had never been inhabited, or had been swept of +its inhabitants by an avenging Providence, it could not have been more +solitary. I never conceived the idea of the wilderness before. It was the +intensity of desolation. + +We seemed even to make no progress. We began to think that the scene would +never change. But one evening, when the troop had lain down under the +shelter of a knoll, my sergeant, a fine Hungarian, whose eyes had been +sharpened by hussar service on the Turkish border, aroused me, saying that +he had discovered French horse-tracks in advance of us. We were all +instantly on the alert, the horse-tracks were found to be numerous, and it +was evident that a strong body of the enemy's cavalry had managed to get +in between us and the army. It is true that there was a treaty, in which +the unmolested movement of the duke was an article. But, it might have +been annulled; or the French general might have been inclined to make a +daring experiment on our worn-down battalions; or, at all events, it was +our business to keep him as far off as we could. We were on horseback +immediately. The track led us along the high-road for one or two leagues +and then turned off towards a village on a height at some distance. We now +paused, and the question was, whether to follow the enemy, or to dismount +and try to rest ourselves, and our tired horses, for the night. We had +scarcely come to the decision of unloosing girths, when the sky above the +village showed a sudden glow; and a confused clamour of voices came upon +the wind. Dispatching an orderly to the duke, to inform him of the French +movement, we rode towards the village. We found the road in its immediate +neighbourhood covered with fugitives; who, however, instead of flying from +us with the usual horror of the peasantry, threw themselves beside our +stirrups, hung on our bridles, and implored us with every wild +gesticulation to hasten to the gates. All that I could learn from the +outcries of men, women, and children, was, that their village, or rather +town--for we found it of considerable size--had been the quarters of some +of the Austrian cavalry, and that the officers had given a ball, to which +the leading families had been invited. The ball was charged as a national +crime by the democrats in Paris, and a regiment of horse had been sent to +punish the unfortunate town. + +To attack such a force with fifty worn-out men, was obviously hopeless, +and my hulans, brave as they were, hung down their heads; but a fresh +concourse came rushing from the gates with even louder outcries than +before, and the words, _massacre_ and _conflagration_, were heard with +fearful emphasis. While I pondered for a moment on our want of means, a +fine old man, with his white hair stained with blood from a sabre wound in +his forehead, clung to my charger's neck, and implored me, by the honour +of soldiership, to make but one effort against the revolutionary brigands, +as he termed them. "I am a French officer and noble!" he exclaimed--"I +have served my king, I have a son in the army of Condé, and now the +wretches have seized on my only daughter, my Amalia, and they are carrying +her to their accursed guillotine." I could resist no longer; yet I looked +round despairingly at my force. "Follow me," said the agonized old man; +"one half of the villains are drunk in the cafes already, the other half +are busy in that horrid procession to the axe. I shall take you by a +private way, and you may fall upon them by surprise. You shall find me, +and all who belong to me, sword in hand by your side. Come on; and the God +of battles, and protector of the unhappy, will give you victory." He knelt +at my feet, with his hands upraised.--"For my child's sake!"--he continued +faintly to exclaim--"for my innocent child's sake!" I saw tears fall down +some of our bronzed faces, and I had but one word to utter; but that +was--"Forward!" We followed our guide swiftly and silently through the +narrow streets; and then suddenly emerging into the public square, saw +such a sight of terror as never before met my eyes. + + * * * * * + + + + +SECESSION FROM THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. + + +A great revolution has taken place in Scotland. A greater has been +threatened. Nor is that danger even yet certainly gone by. Upon the +accidents of such events as may arise for the next five years, whether +fitted or not fitted to revive discussions in which many of the +Non-seceders went in various degrees along with the Seceders, depends the +final (and, in a strict sense, the very awful) question, What is to be the +fate of the Scottish church? Lord Aberdeen's Act is well qualified to +tranquillize the agitations of that body; and at an earlier stage, if not +intercepted by Lord Melbourne, might have prevented them in part. But Lord +Aberdeen has no power to stifle a conflagration once thoroughly kindled. +That must depend in a great degree upon the favourable aspect of events +yet in the rear. + +Meantime these great disturbances are not understood in England; and +chiefly on the differences between the two nations as to the language of +their several churches and law courts. The process of ordination and +induction is totally different under the different ecclesiastical +administrations of the two kingdoms. And the church courts of Scotland do +not exist in England. We write, therefore, with an express view to the +better information of England proper. And, with this purpose, we shall +lead the discussion through four capital questions:-- + +I. _What_ is it that has been done by the moving party? + +II. _How_ was it done? By what agencies and influence? + +III. What were the _immediate results_ of these acts? + +IV. What are the _remote results_ yet to be apprehended? + + * * * * * + +I. First, then, WHAT _is it that has been done_? + +Up to the month of May in 1834, the fathers and brothers of the "Kirk" +were in harmony as great as humanity can hope to see. Since May 1834, the +church has been a fierce crater of volcanic agencies, throwing out of her +bosom one-third of her children; and these children are no sooner born +into their earthly atmosphere, than they turn, with unnatural passions, to +the destruction of their brethren. What _can_ be the grounds upon which an +_acharnement_ so deadly has arisen? + +It will read to the ears of a stranger almost as an experiment upon his +credulity, if we tell the simple truth. Being incredible, however, it is +not the less true; and, being monstrous it will yet be recorded in history, +that the Scottish church has split into mortal feuds upon two points +absolutely without interest to the nation: 1st, Upon a demand for creating +clergymen by a new process; 2dly, Upon a demand for Papal latitude of +jurisdiction. Even the order of succession in these things is not without +meaning. Had the second demand stood first, it would have seemed possible +that the two demands might have grown up independently, and so far +conscientiously. But, according to the realities of the case, this is +_not_ possible, the second demand grew _out_ of the first. The interest of +the Seceders, as locked up in their earliest requisition, was that which +prompted their second. Almost every body was contented with the existing +mode of creating the pastoral relation. Search through Christendom, +lengthways and breadthways, there was not a public usage, an institution, +an economy, which more profoundly slept in the sunshine of divine favour +or of civil prosperity, than the peculiar mode authorized and practised in +Scotland of appointing to every parish its several pastor. Here and there +an ultra-Presbyterian spirit might prompt a murmur against it. But the +wise and intelligent approved; and those who had the appropriate--that is, +the religious interest--confessed that it was practically successful. From +whom, then, came the attempt to change? Why, from those only who had an +alien interest, an indirect interest, an interest of ambition in its +subversion. As matters stood in the spring of 1834, the patron of each +benefice, acting under the severest restraints--restraints which (if the +church courts did their duty) left no room or possibility for an unfit man +to creep in, nominated the incumbent. In a spiritual sense, the church had +all power: by refusing, first of all, to "_license_" unqualified persons; +secondly, by refusing to "_admit_" out of these licensed persons such as +might have become warped from the proper standard of pastoral fitness, the +church had a negative voice, all-potential in the creation of clergymen; +the church could exclude whom she pleased. But this contented her not. +Simply to shut out was an ungracious office, though mighty for the +interests of orthodoxy through the land. The children of this world, who +became the agitators of the church, clamoured for something more. They +desired for the church that she should become a lady patroness; that she +should give as well as take away; that she should wield a sceptre, courted +for its bounties, and not merely feared for its austerities. Yet how +should this be accomplished? Openly to translate upon the church the +present power of patrons--_that_ were too revolutionary, that would have +exposed its own object. For the present, therefore, let this device +prevail--let the power nominally be transferred to congregations; let this +be done upon the plea that each congregation understands best what mode of +ministrations tends to its own edification. There lies the semblance of a +Christian plea; the congregation, it is said, has become anxious for +itself; the church has become anxious for the congregation. And then, if +the translation should be effected, the church has already devised a means +for appropriating the power which she has unsettled; for she limits this +power to the communicants at the sacramental table. Now, in Scotland, +though not in England, the character of communicant is notoriously created +or suspended by the clergyman of each parish; so that, by the briefest of +circuits, the church causes the power to revolve into her own hands. + +That was the first change--a change full of Jacobinism; and for which to +be published was to be denounced. It was necessary, therefore, to place +this Jacobin change upon a basis privileged from attack. How should _that_ +be done? The object was to create a new clerical power; to shift the +election of clergymen from the lay hands in which law and usage had lodged +it; and, under a plausible mask of making the election popular, +circuitously to make it ecclesiastical. Yet, if the existing patrons of +church benefices should see themselves suddenly denuded of their rights, +and within a year or two should see these rights settling determinately +into the hands of the clergy, the fraud, the fraudulent purpose, and the +fraudulent machinery, would have stood out in gross proportions too +palpably revealed. In this dilemma the reverend agitators devised a second +scheme. It was a scheme bearing triple harvests; for, at one and the same +time, it furnished the motive which gave a constructive coherency and +meaning to the original purpose, it threw a solemn shadow over the rank +worldliness of that purpose, and it opened a diffusive tendency towards +other purposes of the same nature, as yet undeveloped. The device was this: +in Scotland, as in England, the total process by which a parish clergyman +is created, subdivides itself into several successive acts. The initial +act belongs to the patron of the benefice: he must "_present_"; that is, +he notifies the fact of his having conferred the benefice upon A B, to a +public body which officially takes cognizance of this act; and that body +is, not the particular parish concerned, but the presbytery of the +district in which the parish is seated. Thus far the steps, merely legal, +of the proceedings, were too definite to be easily disturbed. These steps +are sustained by Lord Aberdeen as realities, and even by the +Non-intrusionists were tolerated as formalities. + +But at this point commence other steps not so rigorously defined by law or +usage, nor so absolutely within one uniform interpretation of their value. +In practice they had long sunk into forms. But ancient forms easily lend +themselves to a revivification by meanings and applications, new or old, +under the galvanism of democratic forces. The disturbers of the church, +passing by the act of "presentation" as an obstacle too formidable to be +separately attacked on its own account, made their stand upon one of the +two acts which lie next in succession. It is the regular routine, that the +presbytery, having been warned of the patron's appointment, and having +"received" (in technical language) the presentee--that is, having formally +recognised him in that character--next appoint a day on which he is to +preach before the congregation. This sermon, together with the prayers by +which it is accompanied, constitute the probationary act according to some +views; but, according to the general theory, simply the inaugural act by +which the new pastor places himself officially before his future +parishioners. Decorum, and the sense of proportion, seem to require that +to every commencement of a very weighty relation, imposing new duties, +there should be a corresponding and ceremonial entrance. The new pastor, +until this public introduction, could not be legitimately assumed for +known to the parishioners. And accordingly at this point it was--viz. +subsequently to his authentic publication, as we may call it--that, in the +case of any grievous scandal known to the parish as outstanding against +him, arose the proper opportunity furnished by the church for lodging the +accusation, and for investigating it before the church court. In default, +however, of any grave objection to the presentee, he was next summoned by +the presbytery to what really _was_ a probationary act at their bar; viz. +an examination of his theological sufficiency. But in this it could not be +expected that he should fail, because he must previously have satisfied +the requisitions of the church in his original examination for a license +to preach. Once dismissed with credit from this bar, he was now beyond all +further probation whatsoever; in technical phrase, he was entitled to +"admission." Such were the steps, according to their orderly succession, +by which a man consummated the pastoral tie with any particular parish. +And all of these steps, subsequent to the "_reception_" and inaugural +preaching, were now summarily characterised by the revolutionists as +"spiritual;" for the sake of sequestering them into their own hands. As to +the initiatory act of presentation, _that_ might be secular, and to be +dealt with by a secular law. But the rest were acts which belonged not to +a kingdom of this world. "These," with a new-born scrupulosity never heard +of until the revolution of 1834, clamoured for new casuistries; "these," +said the agitators, "we cannot consent any longer to leave in their state +of collapse as mere inert or ceremonial forms. They must be revivified. By +all means, let the patron present as heretofore. But the acts of +'examination' and 'admission,' _together with power of altogether refusing +to enter upon either_, under a protest against the candidate from a clear +majority of the parishioners--these are acts falling within the spiritual +jurisdiction of the church. And these powers we must, for the future, see +exercised according to spiritual views." + +Here, then, suddenly emerged a perfect ratification for their own previous +revolutionary doctrine upon the creation of parish clergymen. This new +scruple was, in relation to former scruples, a perfect linch-pin for +locking their machinery into cohesion. For vainly would they have sought +to defeat the patron's right of presenting, unless through this sudden +pause and interdict imposed upon the _latter_ acts in the process of +induction, under the pretext that these were acts competent only to a +spiritual jurisdiction. This plea, by its tendency, rounded and secured +all that they had yet advanced in the way of claim. But, at the same tine, +though indispensable negatively, positively it stretched so much further +than any necessity or interest inherent in their present innovations, that +not improbably they faltered and shrank back at first from the +immeasurable field of consequences upon which it opened. Thy would +willingly have accepted less. But, unfortunately, it sometimes happens, +that, to gain as much as is needful in one direction, you must take a +great deal more than you wish for in another. Any principle, which _could_ +carry them over the immediate difficulty, would, by mere necessity, carry +them incalculably beyond it. For if every act bearing in any one direction +a spiritual aspect, showing at any angle a relation to spiritual things, +is therefore to be held spiritual in a sense excluding the interference of +the civil power, there falls to the ground at once the whole fabric of +civil authority in any independent form. Accordingly, we are satisfied +that the claim to a spiritual jurisdiction, in collision with the claims +of the state, would not probably have offered itself to the ambition of +the agitators, otherwise than as a measure ancillary to their earlier +pretension of appointing virtually all parish clergymen. The one claim was +found to be the integration or _sine quâ non_ complement of the other. In +order to sustain the power of appointment in their own courts, it was +necessary that they should defeat the patron's power; and, in order to +defeat the patron's power, ranging itself (as sooner or later it would) +under the law of the Land, it was necessary that they should decline that +struggle, by attempting to take the question out of all secular +jurisdictions whatever. + +In this way grew up that twofold revolution which has been convulsing the +Scottish church since 1834; first, the audacious attempt to disturb the +settled mode of appointing the parish clergy, through a silent robbery +perpetrated on the crown and great landed aristocracy, secondly, and in +prosecution of that primary purpose, the far more frantic attempt to renew +in a practical shape the old disputes so often agitating the forum of +Christendom, as to the bounds of civil and spiritual power. + +In our rehearsal of the stages through which the process of induction +ordinarily travels, we have purposely omitted one possible interlude or +parenthesis in the series; not as wishing to conceal it, but for the very +opposite reason. It is right to withdraw from a _representative_ account +of any transaction such varieties of the routine as occur but seldom: in +this way they are more pointedly exposed. Now, having made that +explanation, we go on to inform the Southern reader--than an old +traditionary usage has prevailed in Scotland, but not systematically or +uniformly, of sending to the presentee, through the presbytery, what is +designated a "_call_", subscribed by members of the parish congregation. +This call is simply an invitation to the office of their pastor. It arose +in the disorders of the seventeenth century; but in practice it is +generally admitted to have sunk into a mere formality throughout the +eighteenth century; and the very position which it holds in the succession +of steps, not usually coming forward until _after_ the presentation has +been notified, (supposing that it comes forward at all,) compels us to +regard it in that light. Apparently it bears the same relation to the +patron's act as the Address of the two Houses to the Speech from the +Throne: it is rather a courteous echo to the personal compliment involved +in the presentation, than capable of being regarded as any _original_ act +of invitation. And yet, in defiance of that notorious fact, some people go +so far as to assert, that a call is not good unless where it is subscribed +by a clear majority of the congregation. This is amusing. We have already +explained that, except as a liberal courtesy, the very idea of a call +destined to be inoperative, is and must be moonshine. Yet between two +moonshines, some people, it seems, can tell which is the denser. We have +all heard of Barmecide banquets, where, out of tureens filled to the brim +with--nothing, the fortunate guest was helped to vast messes of--air. For +a hungry guest to take this tantalization in good part, was the sure way +to win the esteem of the noble Barmecide. But the Barmecide himself would +hardly approve of a duel turning upon a comparison between two of his +tureens, question being--which had been the fuller, or of two nihilities +which had been seasoned the more judiciously. Yet this in effect is the +reasoning of those who say that a call, signed by fifty-one persons out of +a hundred, is more valid than another signed only by twenty-six, or by +nobody; it being in the mean time fully understood that neither is valid +in the least possible degree. But if the "_call_" was a Barmecide call, +there was another act open to the congregation which was not so. + +For the English reader must now understand, that over and above the +passive and less invidious mode of discountenancing or forbearing to +countenance a presentee, by withdrawing from the direct "_call_" upon him, +usage has sanctioned another and stronger sort of protest; one which takes +the shape of distinct and clamorous _objections_. We are speaking of the +routine in this place, according to the course which it _did_ travel or +_could_ travel under that law and that practice which furnished the pleas +for complaint. Now, it was upon these "objections," as may well be +supposed, that the main battle arose. Simply to want the "call," being a +mere _zero_, could not much lay hold upon public feeling. It was a case +not fitted for effect. You cannot bring a blank privation strongly before +the public eye. "The 'call' did not take place last week;" well, perhaps +it will take place next week. Or again, if it should never take place, +perhaps it may be religious carelessness on the part of the parish. Many +parishes notoriously feel no interest in their pastor, except as a quiet +member of their community. Consequently, in two of three cases that might +occur, there was nothing to excite the public: the parish had either +agreed with the patron, or had not noticeably dissented. But in the third +case of positive "objections," which (in order to justify themselves as +not frivolous and vexatious) were urged with peculiar emphasis, the +attention of all men was arrested. Newspapers reverberated the fact: +sympathetic groans arose: the patron was an oppressor: the parish was +under persecution: and the poor clergyman, whose case was the most to be +pitied, as being in a measure _endowed_ with a lasting fund of dislike, +had the mortification to find, over and above this resistance from within, +that he bore the name of "intruder" from without. He was supposed by the +fiction of the case to be in league with his patron for the persecution of +a godly parish; whilst in reality the godly parish was persecuting _him_, +and hallooing the world _ab extra_ to join in the hunt. + +In such cases of pretended objections to men who have not been tried, we +need scarcely tell the reader, that usually they are mere cabals and +worldly intrigues. It is next to impossible that any parish or +congregation should sincerely agree in their opinion of a clergyman. What +one man likes in such cases, another man detests. Mr A., with an ardent +nature, and something of a histrionic turn, doats upon a fine rhetorical +display. Mr B., with more simplicity of taste, pronounces this little +better than theatrical ostentation. Mr C. requires a good deal of critical +scholarship. Mr D. quarrels with this as unsuitable to a rustic +congregation. Mrs X., who is "under concern" for sin, demands a searching +and (as she expresses it) a "faithful" style of dealing with consciences. +Mrs Y., an aristocratic lady, who cannot bear to be mixed up in any common +charge together with low people, abominates such words as "sin," and wills +that the parson should confine his "observations" to the "shocking +demoralization of the lower orders." + +Now, having stated the practice of Scottish induction, as it was formerly +sustained in its first stage by law, in its second stage by usage, let us +finish that part of the subject by reporting the _existing_ practice as +regulated in all its stages by law. What law? The law as laid down in Lord +Aberdeen's late Act of Parliament. This statement should, historically +speaking, have found itself under our _third_ head, as being one amongst +the consequences immediately following the final rupture. But it is better +placed at this point; because it closes the whole review of that topic; +and because it reflects light upon the former practice--the practice which +led to the whole mutinous tumult: every alteration forcing more keenly +upon the reader's attention what had been the previous custom, and in what +respect it was held by any man to be a grievance. + +This Act, then, of Lord Aberdeen's, removes all _legal_ effect from the +"_call_." Common sense required _that_. For what was to be done with +patronage? Was it to be sustained, or was it not? If not, then why quarrel +with the Non-intrusionists? Why suffer a schism to take place in the +church? Give legal effect to the "call," and the original cause of quarrel +is gone. For, with respect to the opponents of the Non-intrusionists, +_they_ would bow to the law. On the other hand, if patronage _is_ to be +sustained, then why allow of any lingering or doubtful force to what must +often operate as a conflicting claim? "A call," which carries with it any +legal force, annihilates patronage. Patronage would thus be exercised only +on sufferance. Do we mean then, that a "call" should sink into a pure +fiction of ceremony, like the English _congé-d'élire_ addressed to a dean +and chapter, calling on them to elect a bishop, when all the world knows +that already the see has been filled by a nomination from the crown? Not +at all; a _moral_ weight will still attach to the "call," though no legal +coercion: and, what is chiefly important, all those _doubts_ be removed by +express legislation, which could not but arise between a practice pointing +sometimes in one direction, and sometimes in another, between legal +decisions again upholding one view, whilst something very like legal +prescription was occasionally pleaded for the other. Behold the evil of +written laws not rigorously in harmony with that sort of customary law +founded upon vague tradition or irregular practice. And here, by the way, +arises the place for explaining to the reader that irreconcilable dispute +amongst Parliamentary lawyers as to the question whether Lord Aberdeen's +bill were _enactory_, that is, created a new law, or _declaratory_, that +is, simply expounded an old one. If enactory, then why did the House of +Lords give judgment against those who allowed weight to the "call?" That +might need altering; _that_ might be highly inexpedient; but if it +required a new law to make it illegal, how could those parties be held in +the wrong previously to the new act of legislation? On the other hand, if +declaratory, then show us any old law which made the "call" illegal. The +fact is--that no man can decide whether the act established a new law, or +merely expounded an old one. And the reason why he cannot--is this: the +practice, the usage, which often is the law, had grown up variously during +the troubles of the seventeenth century. In many places political reasons +had dictated that the elders should nominate the incumbent. But the +ancient practice had authorized patronage: by the act of Queen Anne (10th +chap.) it was even formally restored; and yet the patron in known +instances was said to have waived his right in deference to the "call." +But why? Did he do so, in courteous compliance with the parish, as a party +whose _reasonable_ wishes ought, for the sake of all parties, to meet with +attention? Or did he do so, in humble submission to the parish, as having +by their majorities a legal right to the presentation? There lay the +question. The presumptions from antiquity were all against the call. The +more modern practice had occasionally been _for_ it. Now, we all know how +many colourable claims of right are created by prescription. What was the +exact force of the "call," no man could say. In like manner, the exact +character and limit of allowable objections had been ill-defined in +practice, and rested more on a vague tradition than on any settled rule. +This also made it hard to say whether Lord Aberdeen's Act were enactory or +declaratory, a predicament, however, which equally affects all statutes +_for removing doubts_. + +The "call," then, we consider as no longer recognised by law. But did Lord +Aberdeen by that change establish the right of the patron as an +unconditional right? By no means. He made it strictly a conditional right. +The presentee is _now_ a candidate, and no more. He has the most important +vote in his favour, it is true: but that vote may still be set aside, +though still only with the effect of compelling the patron to a new choice. +"_Calls_" are no longer doubtful in their meaning, but "_objections_" have +a fair field laid open to then. All reasonable objections are to be +weighed. But who is to judge whether they _are_ reasonable? The presbytery +of the district. And now pursue the action of the law, and see how little +ground it leaves upon which to hang a complaint. Every body's rights are +secured. Whatever be the event, first of all the presentee cannot complain, +if he is rejected only for proved insufficiency. He is put on his trial as +to these points only: 1. Is he orthodox? 2. Is he of good moral +reputation? 3. Is he sufficiently learned? And note this, (which in fact +Sir James Graham remarked in his official letter to the Assembly,) +strictly speaking, he ought not to be under challenge as respects the +third point; for it is your own fault, the fault of your own licensing +courts (the presbyteries,) if he is not qualified so far. You should not +have created him a licentiate, should not have given him a license to +preach, as must have been done in an earlier stage of his progress, if he +were not learned enough. Once learned, a man is learned for life. As to +the other points, he may change; and _therefore_ it is that an examination +is requisite. But how can _he_ complain, if he is found by an impartial +court of venerable men objectionable on any score? If it were possible, +however, that he should be wronged, he has his appeal. Secondly, how can +the patron complain? _His_ case is the same as his presentee's case; his +injuries the same; his relief the same. Besides, if _his_ man is rejected, +it is not the parish man that takes his place. No; but a second man of +his own choice: and, if again he chooses amiss, who is to blame for +_that_? Thirdly, can the congregation complain? They have a _general_ +interest in their spiritual guide. But as to the preference for +oratory--for loud or musical voice--for peculiar views in religion--these +things are special: they interest but an exceedingly small minority in any +parish; and, what is worse, that which pleases one is often offensive to +another. There are cases in which a parish would reject a man for being a +married man: some of the parish have unmarried daughters. But this case +clearly belongs to the small minority; and we have little doubt that, +where the objections lay "for cause not shown," it was often for _this_ +cause. Fourthly, can the church complain? Her interest is represented, 1, +not by the presentee; 2, not by the patron; 3, not by the congregation; +but 4, by the presbytery. And, whatever the presbytery say, _that_ is +supported. Speaking either for the patron, for the presentee, for the +congregation, or for themselves as conservators of the church, that court +is heard; what more would they have? And thus in turn every interest is +protected. Now the point to be remarked is--that each party in turn has a +separate influence. But on any other plan, giving to one party out of the +four an absolute or unconditional power, no matter which of the four it +be--all the rest have none at all. Lord Aberdeen has reconciled the rights +of patrons for the first time with those of all other parties interested. +Nobody has more than a conditional power. Every body has _that_. And the +patron, as necessity requires, if property is to be protected, has in all +circumstances the reversionary power. + +II. _Secondly_, How _were these things done?_ By what means were the hands +of any party strengthened, so as to find this revolution possible? + +We seek not to refine; but all moral power issues out of moral forces. And +it may be well, therefore, rapidly to sketch the history of religion, +which is the greatest of moral forces, as it sank and rose in this island +through the last two hundred years. + +It is well known that the two great revolutions of the seventeenth +century--that in 1649, accomplished by the Parliament armies, (including +its reaction in 1660,) and secondly, that in 1688-9--did much to unsettle +the religious tone of public morals. Historians and satirists ascribe a +large effect in this change to the personal influence of Charles II., and +the foreign character of his court. We do not share in their views; and +one eminent proof that they are wrong, lies in the following fact--viz. +that the sublimest act of self-sacrifice which the world has ever seen, +arose precisely in the most triumphant season of Charles's career, a time +when the reaction of hatred had not yet neutralized the sunny joyousness +of his Restoration. Surely the reader cannot be at a loss to know what we +mean--the renunciation in one hour, on St Bartholomew's day in 1662, of +two thousand benefices by the non-conforming clergymen of England. In the +same year, occurred a similar renunciation of three hundred and sixty +benefices in Scotland. These great sacrifices, whether called for or not, +argue a great strength in the religious principle at that era. Yet the +decay of external religion towards the close of that century is proved +incontestably. We ourselves are inclined to charge this upon two causes; +first, that the times were controversial and usually it happens--that, +where too much energy is carried into the controversies or intellectual +part of religion, a very diminished fervour attends the culture of its +moral and practical part. This was perhaps one reason; for the dispute +with the Papal church, partly, perhaps, with a secret reference to the +rumoured apostasy of the royal family, was pursued more eagerly in the +latter half of the seventeenth than even in any section of the sixteenth +century. But, doubtless, the main reason was the revolutionary character +of the times. Morality is at all periods fearfully shaken by intestine +wars, and by instability in a government. The actual duration of war in +England was not indeed longer than three and a half years, viz. from +Edgehill fight, in the autumn of 1642, to the defeat of the king's last +force under Sir Jacob Astley at Stow-in-the-wolds in the spring of 1646. +Any other fighting in that century belonged to mere insulated and +discontinuous war. But the insecurity of every government between 1638 and +1702, kept the popular mind in a state of fermentation. Accordingly, Queen +Anne's reign might be said to open upon an irreligious people. This +condition of things was further strengthened by the unavoidable +interweaving at that time of politics with religion. They could not be +kept separate; and the favour shown even by religious people to such +partisan zealots as Dr Sacheverell, evidenced, and at the same time +promoted, the public irreligion. This was the period in which the clergy +thought too little of their duties, but too much of their professional +rights; and if we may credit the indirect report of the contemporary +literature, all apostolic or missionary zeal for the extension of religion, +was in those days a thing unknown. It may seem unaccountable to many, that +the same state of things should have spread in those days to Scotland; but +this is no more than the analogies of all experience entitled us to expect. +Thus we know that the instincts of religious reformation ripened every +where at the same period of the sixteenth century from one end of Europe +to the other; although between most of the European kingdoms there was +nothing like so much intercourse as between England and Scotland in the +eighteenth century. In both countries, a cold and lifeless state of public +religion prevailed up to the American and French Revolutions. These great +events gave a shock every where to the meditative, and, consequently, to +the religious impulses of men. And, in the mean time, an irregular channel +had been already opened to these impulses by the two founders of Methodism. +A century has now passed since Wesley and Whitfield organized a more +spiritual machinery of preaching than could then be found in England, for +the benefit of the poor and labouring classes. These Methodist +institutions prospered, as they were sure of doing, amongst the poor and +the neglected at any time, much more when contrasted with the deep +slumbers of the Established church. And another ground of prosperity soon +arose out of the now expanding manufacturing system. Vast multitudes of +men grew up under that system--humble enough by the quality of their +education to accept with thankfulness the ministrations of Methodism, and +rich enough to react, upon that beneficent institution, by continued +endowments in money. Gradually, even the church herself, that mighty +establishment, under the cold shade of which Methodism had grown up as a +neglected weed, began to acknowledge the power of an extending Methodistic +influence, which originally she had haughtily despised. First, she +murmured; then she grew anxious or fearful; and finally, she began to find +herself invaded or modified from within, by influences springing up from +Methodism. This last effect became more conspicuously evident after the +French Revolution. The church of Scotland, which, as a whole, had +exhibited, with much unobtrusive piety, the same outward torpor as the +church of England during the eighteenth century, betrayed a corresponding +resuscitation about the same time. At the opening of this present century, +both of these national churches began to show a marked rekindling of +religious fervour. In what extent this change in the Scottish church had +been due, mediately or immediately, to Methodism, we do not pretend to +calculate; that is, we do not pretend to settle the proportions. But +_mediately_ the Scottish church must have been affected, because she was +greatly affected by her intercourse with the English church, (as, e.g., in +Bible Societies, Missionary Societies, &c.;) and the English church had +been previously affected by Methodism. _Immediately_ she must also have +been affected by Methodism, because Whitfield had been invited to preach +in Scotland, and _did_ preach in Scotland. But, whatever may have been the +cause of this awakening from slumber in the two established churches of +this island, the fact is so little to be denied, that, in both its aspects, +it is acknowledged by those most interested in denying it. The two +churches slept the sleep of torpor through the eighteenth century; so much +of the fact is acknowledged by their own members. The two churches awoke, +as from a trance, in or just before the dawning of the nineteenth century; +this second half of the fact is acknowledged by their opponents. The +Wesleyan Methodists, that formidable power in England and Wales, who once +reviled the Establishment as the dormitory of spiritual drones, have for +many years hailed a very large section in that establishment--viz., the +section technically known by the name of the Evangelical clergy--as +brothers after their own hearts, and corresponding to their own strictest +model of a spiritual clergy. That section again, the Evangelical section, +in the English church, as men more highly educated, took a direct interest +in the Scottish clergy, upon general principles of liberal interest in all +that could affect religion, beyond what could be expected from the +Methodists. And in this way grew up a considerable action and reaction +between the two classical churches of the British soil. + +Such was the varying condition, when sketched in outline, of the Scottish +and English churches. Two centuries ago, and for half a century beyond +that, we find both churches in a state of trial, of turbulent agitation, +and of sacrifices for conscience which involved every fifth or sixth +beneficiary. Then came a century of languor and the carelessness which +belongs to settled prosperity. And finally, for both has arisen a half +century of new light--new zeal--and, spiritually speaking, of new +prosperity. This deduction it was necessary to bring down, in order to +explain the new power which arose to the Scottish church during the last +generation of suppose thirty years. + +When two powerful establishments, each separately fitted to the genius and +needs of its several people, are pulling together powerfully towards one +great spiritual object, vast must be the results. Our ancestors would have +stood aghast as at some fabulous legend or some mighty miracle, could they +have heard of the scale on which our modern contributions proceed for the +purposes of missions to barbarous nations, of circulating the Scriptures, +(whether through the Bible Society, that is the National Society, or +Provincial Societies,) of translating the Scriptures into languages +scarcely known by name to scholars, of converting Jews, of organizing and +propagating education. Towards these great objects the Scottish clergy had +worked with energy and with little disturbance to their unanimity. +Confidence was universally felt in their piety and in their discretion. +This confidence even reached the supreme rulers of the state. Very much +through ecclesiastical influence, new plans for extending the religious +power of the Scottish church, and indirectly of extending their secular +power, were countenanced by the Government. Jealousy had been disarmed by +the upright conduct of the Scottish clergy, and their remarkable freedom +hitherto from all taint of ambition. It was felt, besides, that the temper +of the Scottish nation was radically indisposed to all intriguing or modes +of temporal ascendency in ecclesiastical bodies. The nation, therefore, +was in some degree held as a guarantee for the discretion of their clergy. +And hence it arose, that much less caution was applied to the first +encroachment of the Non-intrusionists, than would have been applied under +circumstances of more apparent doubt. Hence it arose, that a confidence +from the Scottish nation was extended to this clergy, which too certainly +has been abused. + +In the years 1824-5, Parliament had passed acts "for building additional +places of worship in the highlands and islands of Scotland." These acts +may be looked upon as one section in that general extension of religious +machinery which the British people, by their government and their +legislature, have for many years been promoting. Not, as is ordinarily +said, that the weight of this duty had grown upon them simply through +their own treacherous neglect of it during the latter half of the +eighteenth century; but that no reasonable attention to that duty _could_ +have kept pace with the scale upon which the claims of a new manufacturing +population had increased. In mere equity we must admit--not that the +British nation had fallen behind its duties, (though naturally it might +have done so under the religious torpor prevalent at the original era of +manufacturing extension,) but that the duties had outstripped all human +power of overtaking them. The efforts, however, have been prodigious in +this direction for many years. Amongst those applied to Scotland, it had +been settled by parliament that forty-two new churches should be raised in +the highlands, with an endowment from the Government of L.120 annually for +each incumbent. There were besides more than two hundred chapels of ease +to be founded; and towards this scheme the Scottish public subscribed +largely. The money was entrusted to the clergy. _That_ was right. But mark +what followed. It had been expressly provided by Parliament--that any +district or circumjacent territory, allotted to such parliamentary +churches as the range within which the incumbent was to exercise his +spiritual ministrations, should _not_ be separate parishes for any civil +or legal effects. Here surely the intentions and directions of the +legislature were plain enough, and decisive enough. + +How did the Scottish clergy obey them? They erected all these +jurisdictions into _bona fide_ "parishes," enjoying the plenary rights (as +to church government) of the other parishes, and distinguished from them +in a merely nominal way as parishes _quoad sacra_. There were added at +once to the presbyteries, which are the organs of the church power, 203 +clerical persons for the chapels of ease, and 42 for the highland +churches--making a total of 245 new members. By the constitution of the +Scottish church, an equal number of lay elders (called ruling elders) +accompany the clerical elders. Consequently 490 new members were +introduced at once into that particular class of courts (presbyteries) +which form the electoral bodies in relation to the highest court of +General Assembly. The effect of this change, made in the very teeth of the +law, was twofold. First, it threw into many separate presbyteries a +considerable accession of voters--_all owing their appointments to the +General Assembly_. This would at once give a large bias favourable to +their party views in every election for members to serve in the Assembly. +Even upon an Assembly numerically limited, this innovation would have told +most abusively. But the Assembly was _not_ limited; and therefore the +whole effect was, at the same moment, greatly to extend the electors and +the elected. + +Here, then, was the machinery by which the faction worked. They drew that +power from Scotland rekindled into a temper of religious anxiety, which +they never could have drawn from Scotland lying torpid, as she had lain +through the 18th century. The new machinery, (created by Parliament in +order to meet the wishes of the Scottish nation,) the money of that nation, +the awakened zeal of that nation; all these were employed, honourably in +one sense, that is, not turned aside into private channels for purposes of +individuals, but factiously in the result, as being for the benefit of a +faction; honourably as regarded the open _mode_ of applying such +influence--a mode which did not shrink from exposure; but most +dishonourably, in so far as privileges, which had been conceded altogether +for a spiritual object, were abusively transferred to the furtherance of a +temporal intrigue. Such were the methods by which the new-born ambition of +the clergy moved; and that ambition had become active, simply because it +had suddenly seemed to become practicable. The presbyteries, as being the +effectual electoral bodies, are really the main springs of the +ecclesiastical administration. To govern _them_, was in effect to govern +the church. A new scheme for extending religion, had opened a new avenue +to this control over the presbyteries. That opening was notoriously +unlawful. But not the less, the church faction precipitated themselves +ardently upon it; and but for the faithfulness of the civil courts, they +would never have been dislodged from what they had so suddenly acquired. +Such was the extraordinary leap taken by the Scottish clergy, into a power +of which, hitherto, they had never enjoyed a fraction. It was a movement +_per saltum_, beyond all that history has recorded. At cock-crow, they had +no power at all; when the sun went down, they had gained (if they could +have held) a papal supremacy. And a thing not less memorably strange is, +that even yet the ambitious leaders were not disturbed; what they had +gained was viewed by the public as a collateral gain, indirectly adhering +to a higher object, but forming no part at all of what the clergy had +sought. It required the scrutiny of law courts to unmask and decompose +their true object. The obstinacy of the defence betrayed the real _animus_ +of the attempt. It was an attempt which, in connexion with the _Veto_ Act, +(supposing that to have prospered,) would have laid the whole power of the +church at their feet. What the law had distributed amongst three powers, +patron, parish, and presbytery, would have been concentred in themselves. +The _quoad sacra_ parishes would have riveted their majorities in the +presbyteries; and the presbyteries, under the real action of the _Veto_, +would have appointed nearly every incumbent in Scotland. And this is the +answer to the question, when treated merely in outline--_How were these +things done?_ The religion of the times had created new machineries for +propagating a new religious influence. These fell into the hands of the +clergy; and the temptation to abuse these advantages led them into +revolution. + +III. Having now stated WHAT was done, as well as HOW it was done, let us +estimate the CONSEQUENCES of these acts; under this present, or _third_ +section, reviewing the immediate consequences which have taken effect +already, and under the next section, anticipating the more remote +consequences yet to be expected. + +In the spring of 1834, as we have sufficiently explained, the General +Assembly ventured on the fatal attempt to revolutionize the church, and +(as a preliminary towards _that_) on the attempt to revolutionize the +property of patronage. There lay the extravagance of the attempt; its +short-sightedness, if they did not see its civil tendencies; its audacity, +if they _did_. It was one revolution marching to its object through +another; it was a vote, which, if at all sustained, must entail a long +inheritance of contests with the whole civil polity of Scotland. + + "Heu quantum fati parva tabella vehit!" + +It might seem to strangers a trivial thing, that an obscure court, like +the presbytery, should proceed in the business of induction by one routine +rather than by another; but was it a trivial thing that the power of +appointing clergymen should lapse into this perilous dilemma--either that +it should be intercepted by the Scottish clerical order, and thus, that a +lordly hierarchy should be suddenly created, disposing of incomes which, +in the aggregate, approach to half a million annually; or, on the other +hand, that this dangerous power, if defeated as a clerical power, should +settle into a tenure exquisitely democratic? Was _that_ trivial? Doubtless, +the Scottish ecclesiastical revenues are not equal, nor nearly equal, to +the English; still, it is true, that Scotland, supposing all her benefices +equalized, gives a larger _average_ to each incumbent than England, of the +year 1830. England, in that year, gave an average of £299 to each +beneficiary; Scotland gave an average of £303. That body, therefore, which +wields patronage in Scotland, wields a greater relative power than the +corresponding body in England. Now this body, in Scotland, must finally +have been the _clerus_; but supposing the patronage to have settled +nominally where the Veto Act had placed it, then it would have settled +into the keeping of a fierce democracy. Mr Forsyth has justly remarked, +that in such a case the hired ploughmen of a parish, mercenary hands that +quit their engagements at Martinmas, and _can_ have no filial interest in +the parish, would generally succeed in electing the clergyman. That man +would be elected generally, who had canvassed the parish with the arts and +means of an electioneering candidate; or else, the struggle would lie +between the property and the Jacobinism of the district. + +In respect to Jacobinism, the condition of Scotland is much altered from +what it was; pauperism and great towns have worked "strange defeatures" in +Scottish society. A vast capital has arisen in the west, on a level with +the first-rate capitals of the Continent--with Vienna or with Naples; far +superior in size to Madrid, to Lisbon, to Berlin; more than equal to Rome +and Milan; or again to Munich and Dresden, taken by couples: and in this +point, beyond comparison with any one of these capitals, that whilst +_they_ are connected by slight ties with the circumjacent country, Glasgow +keeps open a communication with the whole land. Vast laboratories of +encouragement to manual skill, too often dissociated from consideration of +character; armies of mechanics, gloomy and restless, having no interfusion +amongst their endless files of any gradations corresponding to a system of +controlling officers; these spectacles, which are permanently offered by +the _castra stativa_ of combined mechanics in Glasgow and its dependencies, +(Paisley, Greenock, &c.,) supported by similar districts, and by turbulent +collieries in other parts of that kingdom, make Scotland, when now +developing her strength, no longer the safe and docile arena for popular +movements which once she was, with a people that were scattered, and +habits that were pastoral. And at this moment, so fearfully increased is +the overbalance of democratic impulses in Scotland, that perhaps in no +European nation--hardly excepting France--has it become more important to +hang weights and retarding forces upon popular movements amongst the +labouring classes. + +This being so, we have never been able to understand the apparent apathy +with which the landed body met the first promulgation of the _Veto_ Act in +May 1834. Of this apathy, two insufficient explanations suggest +themselves:--1st, It seemed a matter of delicacy to confront the General +Assembly, upon a field which they had clamorously challenged for their own. +The question at issue was tempestuously published to Scotland as a +question exclusively spiritual. And by whom was it thus published? The +Southern reader must here not be careless of dates. _At present_, viz. in +1844, those who fulminate such views of spiritual jurisdiction, are simply +dissenters; and those who vehemently withstand them are the church, armed +with the powers of the church. Such are the relations between the parties +in 1844. But in 1834, the revolutionary party were not only _in_ the +church, but (being the majority) they came forward _as_ the church. The +new doctrines presented themselves at first, not as those of a faction, +but of the Scottish kirk assembled in her highest court. The _prestige_ of +that advantage, has vanished since then; for this faction, after first of +all falling into a minority, afterwards ceased to be any part or section +of the church; but in that year 1834, such a _prestige_ did really operate; +and this must be received as one of the reasons which partially explain +the torpor of the landed body. No one liked to move _first_, even amongst +those who meant to move. But another reason we find in the conscientious +scruples of many landholders, who hesitated to move at all upon a question +then insufficiently discussed, and in which their own interest was by so +many degrees the largest. + +These reasons, however, though sufficient for suspense, seem hardly +sufficient for not having solemnly protested against the _Veto_ Act +immediately upon its passing the Assembly. Whatever doubts a few persons +might harbour upon the expediency of such an act, evidently it was +contrary to the law of the land. The General Assembly could have no power +to abrogate a law passed by the three estates of the realm. But probably +it was the deep sense of that truth, which reined up the national +resistance. Sure of a speedy collision between some patron and the +infringers of his right, other parties stood back for the present, to +watch the form which such a collision might assume. + +In that same year of 1834, not many months after the passing of the +Assembly's Act, came on the first case of collision; and some time +subsequently a second. These two cases, Auchterarder and Marnoch, +commenced in the very same steps, but immediately afterwards diverged as +widely as was possible. In both cases, the rights of the patron and of the +presentee were challenged peremptorily; that is to say, in both cases, +parishioners objected to the presentee without reason shown. The conduct +of the people was the same in one case as in the other; that of the two +presbyteries travelled upon lines diametrically opposite. The first case +was that of _Auchterarder_. The parish and the presbytery concerned, both +belonged to Auchterarder; and there the presbytery obeyed the new law of +the Assembly: they rejected the presentee, refusing to take him on trial +of his qualifications; And why? we cannot too often repeat--simply because +a majority of a rustic congregation had rejected him, without attempting +to show reason for his rejection. The Auchterarder presbytery, for _their_ +part in the affair, were prosecuted in the Court of Session by the injured +parties--Lord Kinnoul, the patron, and Mr Young, the presentee. Twice, +upon a different form of action, the Court of Session gave judgment +against the presbytery; twice the case went up by appeal to the Lords; +twice the Lords affirmed the judgment of the court below. In the other +case of _Marnoch_, the presbytery of Strathbogie took precisely the +opposite course. So far from abetting the unjust congregation of rustics, +they rebelled against the new law of the Assembly, and declared, by seven +of their number against three, that they were ready to proceed with the +trial of the presentee, and to induct him (if found qualified) into the +benefice. Upon this, the General Assembly suspended the seven members of +presbytery. By that mode of proceeding, the Assembly fancied that they +should be able to elude the intentions of the presbytery: it being +supposed that, whilst suspended, the presbytery had no power to ordain; +and that, without ordination, there was no possibility of giving induction. +But here the Assembly had miscalculated. Suspension would indeed have had +the effects ascribed to it; but in the mean time, the suspension, as being +originally illegal, was found to be void: and the presentee, on that +ground, obtained a decree from the Court of Session, ordaining the +presbytery of Strathbogie to proceed with the settlement. Three of the ten +members composing this presbytery, resisted; and they were found liable in +expenses. The other seven completed the settlement in the usual form. Here +was plain rebellion; and rebellion triumphant. If this were allowed, all +was gone. What should the Assembly do for the vindication of their +authority? Upon deliberation, they deposed the contumacious presbytery +from their functions as clergymen, and declared their churches vacant. But +this sentence was found to be a _brutum fulmen_; the crime was no crime, +the punishment turned out no punishment: and a minority, even in this very +Assembly, declared publicly that they would not consent to regard this +sentence as any sentence at all, but would act in all respects as if no +such sentence had been carried by vote. _Within_ their own high Court of +Assembly, it is, however, difficult to see how this refusal to recognise a +sentence voted by a majority could be valid. Outside, the civil courts +came into play; but within the Assembly, surely its own laws and votes +prevailed. However, this distinction could bring little comfort to the +Assembly at present; for the illegality of the deposal was now past all +dispute; and the attempt to punish, or even ruin, a number of professional +brethren for not enforcing a by-law, when the by-law itself had been found +irreconcilable to the law of the land, greatly displease the public, as +vindictive, oppressive, and useless to the purposes of the Assembly. + +Nothing was gained except the putting on record an implacability that was +_confessedly_ impotent. This was the very lunacy of malice. Mortifying it +might certainly seem for the members of a supreme court, like the General +Assembly, to be baffled by those of a subordinate court: but still, since +each party must be regarded as representing far larger interests than any +personal to themselves, trying on either side, not the energies of their +separate wits, but the available resources of law in one of its obscurer +chapters, there really seemed no more room for humiliation to the one +party, or for triumph to the other, than there is amongst reasonable men +in the result from a game, where the game is one exclusively of chance. + +From this period it is probably that the faction of Non-intrusionists +resolved upon abandoning the church. It was the one sole resource left for +sustaining their own importance to men who were now sinking fast in public +estimation. At the latter end of 1842, they summoned a convocation in +Edinburgh. The discussions were private; but it was generally understood +that at this time they concerted a plan for going out from the church, in +the event of their failing to alarm the Government by the notification of +this design. We do not pretend to any knowledge of secrets. What is known +to every body is--that on the annual meeting of the General Assembly, in +May 1843, the great body of the Non-intrusionists moved out in procession. +The sort of theatrical interest which gathered round the Seceders for a +few hurried days in May, was of a kind which should naturally have made +wise men both ashamed and disgusted. It was the merest effervescence from +that state of excitement which is nursed by novelty, by expectation, by +the vague anticipation of a "scene," possibly of a quarrel, together with +the natural interest in _seeing_ men whose names had been long before the +public in books and periodical journals. + +The first measure of the Seceders was to form themselves into a +pseudo-General Assembly. When there are two suns visible, or two moons, +the real one and its duplicate, we call the mock sun a _parhelios_, and +the mock moon a _paraselene_. On that principle, we must call this mock +Assembly a _para-synodos_. Rarely, indeed, can we applaud the Seceders in +the fabrication of names. They distinguish as _quoad sacra_ parishes those +which were peculiarly _quoad politica_ parishes; for in that view only +they had been interesting to the Non-intrusionists. Again, they style +themselves _The Free Church_, by way of taunting the other side with being +a servile church. But how are they any church at all? By the courtesies of +Europe, and according to usage, a church means a religious incorporation, +protected and privileged by the State. Those who are not so privileged are +usually content with the title of Separatists, Dissenters, or +Nonconformists. No wise man will see either good sense or dignity in +assuming titles not appropriate. The very position and aspect towards the +church (legally so called) which has been assumed by the +Non-intrusionists--viz. the position of protestors against that body, not +merely as bearing, amongst other features, a certain relation to the State, +but specifically _because_ they bear that relation, makes it incongruous, +and even absurd, for these Dissenters to denominate themselves a "church." +But there is another objection to this denomination--the "Free Church" +have no peculiar and separate Confession of Faith. Nobody knows what are +their _credenda_--what they hold indispensable for fellow-membership, +either as to faith in mysteries or in moral doctrines. Now, if they +reply--"Oh! as to that, we adopt for our faith all that ever we _did_ +profess when members of the Scottish kirk"--then in effect they are hardly +so much as a dissenting body, except in some elliptic sense. There is a +grievous _hiatus_ in their own title-deeds and archives; they supply it by +referring people to the muniment chest of the kirk. Would it not be a +scandal to a Protestant church if she should say to communicants--"We have +no sacramental vessels, or even ritual; but you may borrow both from Papal +Rome." Not only, however, is the Kirk to _lend_ her Confession, &c.; but +even then a plain rustic will not be able to guess how many parts in his +Confession are or may be affected by the "reformation" of the +Non-intrusionists. Surely, he will think, if this reformation were so vast +that it drove them out of the national church, absolutely exploded them, +then it follows that it must have interveined and _indirectly_ modified +innumerable questions: a difference that was punctually limited to this +one or these two clauses, could not be such a difference as justified a +rupture. Besides, if they have altered this one or these two clauses, or +have altered their interpretation, how is any man to know (except from a +distinct Confession of Faith) that they have not even _directly_ altered +much more? Notoriety through newspapers is surely no ground to stand upon +in religion. And now it appears that the unlettered rustic needs two +guides--one to show him exactly how much they have altered, whether two +points or two hundred, as well as _which_ two or two hundred; another to +teach him how far these original changes may have carried with them +secondary changes as consequences into other parts of the Christian system. +One of the known changes, viz. the doctrine of popular election as the +proper qualification for parish clergymen, possibility is not fitted to +expand itself or ramify, except by analogy. But the other change, the +infinity which has been suddenly turned off like a jet of gas, or like the +rushing of wind through the tubes of an organ, upon the doctrine and +application of _spirituality_, seems fitted for derivative effects that +are innumerable. Consequently, we say of the Non-intrusionists--not only +that they are no church; but that they are not even any separate body of +Dissenters, until they have published a "Confession" or a _revised_ +edition of the Scottish Confession. + +IV. Lastly, we have to sum and to appreciate the _ultimate_ consequences +of these things. Let us pursue them to the end of the vista.--First in +order stands the dreadful shock to the National Church Establishment; and +that is twofold: it is a shock from without, acting through opinion, and a +shock from within, acting through the contagion of example. Each case is +separately perfect. Through the opinion of men standing _outside_ of the +church, the church herself suffers wrong in her authority. Through the +contagion of sympathy stealing over men _inside_ of the church, peril +arises of other shocks in a second series, which would so exhaust the +church by reiterated convulsions, as to leave her virtually dismembered +and shattered for all her great national functions. + +As to that evil which acts through opinion, it works by a machinery, viz. +the press and social centralization in great cities, which in these days +is perfect. Right or wrong, justified or _not_ justified by the acts of +the majority, it is certain that every public body--how much more then, a +body charged with the responsibility of upholding the truth in its +standards!--suffers dreadfully in the world's opinion by any feud, schism, +or shadow of change among its members. This is what the New Testament, a +code of philosophy fertile in new ideas, first introduced under the name +of _scandal_; that is, any occasion of serious offence ministered to the +weak or to the sceptical by differences irreconcilable in the acts or the +opinions of those whom they are bound to regard as spiritual authorities. +Now here in Scotland, is a feud past all arbitration: here is a schism no +longer theoretic, neither beginning nor ending in mere speculation: here +is a change of doctrine, _on one side or the other_, which throws a sad +umbrage of doubt and perplexity over the pastoral relation of the church +to every parish in Scotland. Less confidence there must always be +henceforward in great religious incorporations. Was there any such +incorporation reputed to be more internally harmonious than the Scottish +church? None has been so tempestuously agitated. Was any church more +deeply pledged to the spirit of meekness? None has split asunder so +irreconcilably. As to the grounds of quarrel, could any questions or +speculations be found so little fitted for a popular intemperance? Yet no +breach of unity has ever propagated itself by steps so sudden and +irrevocable. One short decennium has comprehended within its circuit the +beginning and the end of this unparalleled hurricane. In 1834, the first +light augury of mischief skirted the horizon--a cloud no bigger than a +man's hand. In 1843 the evil had "travelled on from birth to birth." +Already it had failed in what may be called one conspiracy; already it had +entered upon a second, viz. to rear up an _Anti-Kirk_, or spurious +establishment, which should twist itself with snake-like folds about the +legal establishment; surmount it as a Roman _vinea_ surmounted the +fortifications which it beleaguered; and which, under whatsoever practical +issue for the contest, should at any rate overlook, molest, and insult the +true church for ever. Even this brief period of development would have +been briefer, had not the law courts interposed many delays. Demurs of law +process imposed checks upon the uncharitable haste of the _odium +theologicum_. And though in a question of schism it would be a _petitio +principii_ for a neutral censor to assume that either party had been +originally in error, yet it is within our competence to say, that the +Seceders it was whose bigotry carried the dispute to that sad issue of a +final separation. The establishment would have been well content to stop +short of that consummation: and temperaments might have been found, +compromises both safe and honourable, had the minority built less of their +reversionary hopes upon the policy of a fanciful martyrdom. Martyrs they +insisted upon becoming: and that they _might_ be martyrs, it was necessary +for them to secede. That Europe thinks at present with less reverence of +Protestant institutions than it did ten years ago, is due to one of these +institutions in particular; viz. to the Scottish kirk, and specifically to +the minority in that body. They it was who spurned all mutual toleration, +all brotherly indulgence from either side to what it regarded as error in +the other. Consequently upon _their_ consciences lies the responsibility +of having weakened the pillars of the Reformed churches throughout +Christendom. + +Had those abuses been really such, which the Seceders denounced, were it +possible that a primary law of pure Christianity had been set aside for +generations, how came it that evils so gross had stirred no whispers of +reproach before 1834? How came it that no aurora of early light, no +prelusive murmurs of scrupulosity even from themselves, had run before +this wild levanter of change? Heretofore or now there must have been huge +error on their own showing. Heretofore they must have been traitorously +below their duty, or now mutinously beyond it. + +Such conclusions are irresistible; and upon any path, seceding or not +seceding, they menace the worldly credit of ecclesiastical bodies. That +evil is now past remedy. As for the other evil, that which acts upon +church establishments, not through simple failure in the guarantees of +public opinion, but through their own internal vices of composition; here +undeniably we see a chasm traversing the Scottish church from the very +gates to the centre. And unhappily the same chasm, which marks a division +of the church internally, is a link connecting it externally with the +Seceders. For how stands the case? Did the Scottish Kirk, at the last +crisis, divide broadly into two mutually excluding sections? Was there one +of these bisections which said _Yes_, whilst the other responded _No_? Was +the affirmative and negative shared between them as between the black +chessmen and the white? Not so; and unhappily not so. The two extremes +there were, but these shaded off into each other. Many were the _nuances_; +multiplied the combinations. Here stood a section that had voted for all +the changes, with two or three exceptions; there stood another that went +the _whole_ length as to this change, but no part of the way as to that; +between these sections arose others that had voted arbitrarily, or +_eclectically_, that is, by no law generally recognised. And behind this +eclectic school were grouped others who had voted for all novelties up to +a certain day, but after _that_ had refused to go further with a movement +party whose tendencies they had begun to distrust. In this last case, +therefore, the divisional line fell upon no principle, but upon the +accident of having, at that particular moment, first seen grounds of +conscientious alarm. The principles upon which men had divided were +various, and these various principles were variously combined. But, on the +other hand, those who have gone out were the men who approved totally, not +partially--unconditionally, not within limits--up to the end, and not to a +given day. Consequently those who stayed in comprehended all the shades +and degrees which the men of violence excluded. The Seceders were +unanimous to a man, and of necessity; for he who approves the last act, +the extreme act, which is naturally the most violent act, _à fortiori_ +approves all lesser acts. But the establishment, by parity of reason, +retained upon its rolls all the degrees, all the modifications, all who +had exercised a wise discretion, who, in so great a cause, had thought it +a point of religion to be cautious; whose casuistry had moved in the +harness of peace, and who had preferred an interest of conscience to a +triumph of partisanship. We honour them for that policy; but we cannot +hide from ourselves, that the very principle which makes such a policy +honourable at the moment, makes it dangerous in reversion. For he who +avows that, upon public motives, he once resisted a temptation to schism, +makes known by that avowal that he still harbours in his mind the germ of +such a temptation; and to that scruple, which once he resisted, hereafter +he may see reason for yielding. The principles of schism, which for the +moment were suppressed, are still latent in the church. It is urged that, +in quest of unity, many of these men _succeeded_ in resisting the +instincts of dissension at the moment of crisis. True: But this might be +because they presumed on winning from their own party equal concessions by +means less violent than schism; or because they attached less weight to +the principle concerned, than they may see cause for attaching upon future +considerations; or because they would not allow themselves to sanction the +cause of the late Secession, by going out in company with men whose +principles they adopted only in part, or whose manner of supporting those +principles they abhorred. Universally it is evident, that little stress is +to be laid on a negative act; simply to have declined going out with the +Seceders proves nothing, for it is equivocal. It is an act which may cover +indifferently a marked hostility to the Secession party, or an absolute +friendliness, but a friendliness not quite equal to so extreme a test. And, +again, this negative act may be equivocal in a different way; the +friendliness may not only have existed, but may have existed in strength +sufficient for any test whatever; not the principles of the Seceders, but +their Jacobinical mode of asserting them, may have proved the true nerve +of the repulsion to many. What is it that we wish the English reader to +collect from these distinctions? Simply that the danger is not yet gone +past. The earthquake, says a great poet, when speaking of the general +tendency in all dangers to come round by successive and reiterated shocks-- + + "The earthquake is not satisfied at once." + +All dangers which lie deeply seated are recurrent dangers; they intermit, +only as the revolving lamps of a lighthouse are periodically eclipsed. The +General Assembly of 1843, when closing her gates upon the Seceders, shut +_in_, perhaps, more of the infected than at that time she succeeded in +shutting _out_. As respected the opinion of the world outside, it seemed +advisable to shut out the least number possible; for in proportion to the +number of the Seceders, was the danger that they should carry with them an +authentic impression in their favour. On the other hand, as respected a +greater danger, (the danger from internal contagion,) it seemed advisable +that the church should have shut out (if she could) very many of those who, +for the present, adhered to her. The broader the separation, and the more +absolute, between the church and the secession, so much the less anxiety +there would have survived lest the rent should spread. That the anxiety in +this respect is not visionary, the reader may satisfy himself by looking +over a remarkable pamphlet, which professes by its title to separate the +_wheat from the chaff_. By the "wheat," in the view of this writer, is +meant the aggregate of those who persevered in their recusant policy up to +the practical result of secession. All who stopped short of that +consummation, (on whatever plea,) are the "chaff." The writer is something +of an incendiary, or something of a fanatic; but he is consistent with +regard to his own principles, and so elaborately careful in his details as +to extort admiration of his energy and of his patience in research. + +But the reason for which we notice this pamphlet, is, with a view to the +proof of that large intestine mischief which still lingers behind in the +vitals of the Scottish establishment. No proof, in a question of that +nature, _can_ be so showy and _ostensive_ to a stranger, as that which is +supplied by this vindictive pamphlet. For every past vote recording a +scruple, is the pledge of a scruple still existing, though for the moment +suppressed. Since the secession, nearly 450 new men may have entered the +church. This supplementary body has probably diluted the strength of the +revolutionary principles. But they also may, perhaps, have partaken to +some extent in the contagion of these principles. True, there is this +guarantee for caution, on the part of these new men, that as yet they are +pledged to nothing; and that, seeing experimentally how fearfully many of +their older brethren are now likely to be fettered by the past, they have +every possible motive for reserve, in committing themselves, either by +their votes or by their pens. In _their_ situation, there is a special +inducement to prudence, because there is a prospect, that for _them_ +prudence is in time to be effectual. But for many of the older men, +prudence comes too late. They are already fettered. And what we are now +pointing out to the attention of our readers, is, that by the past, by the +absolute votes of the past, too sorrowfully it is made evident, that the +Scottish church is deeply tainted with the principles of the secession. +These germs of evil and of revolution, speaking of them in a _personal_ +sense, cannot be purged off entirely until one generation shall have +passed away. But, speaking of them as _principles_ capable of vegetation, +these germs may or may not expand into whole forests of evil, according to +the accidents of coming events, whether fitted to tranquillize our billowy +aspects of society; or, on the other hand, largely to fertilize the many +occasions of agitation, which political fermentations are too sure to +throw off. Let this chance turn out as it may, we repeat for the +information of Southerns--that the church, by shutting off the persons of +particular agitators, has not shut off the principles of agitation; and +that the _cordon sanataire_, supposing the spontaneous exile of the +Non-intrusionists to be regarded in that light, was not drawn about the +church until the disease had spread widely _within_ the lines. + +Past votes may not absolutely pledge a man to a future course of action; +warned in time, such a man may stand neutral in practice; but thus far +they poison the fountains of wholesome unanimity--that, if a man can evade +the necessity of squaring particular _actions_ to his past opinions, at +least he must find himself tempted to square his opinions themselves, or +his counsels, to such past opinions as he may too notoriously have placed +on record by his votes. + +But, if such are the continual dangers from reactions in the establishment, +so long as men survive in that establishment who feel upbraided by past +votes, and so long as enemies survive who will not suffer these +upbraidings to slumber--dangers which much mutual forbearance and charity +can alone disarm; on the other hand, how much profounder is the +inconsistency to which the Free church is doomed!--They have rent the +unity of that church, to which they had pledged their faith--but on what +plea? On the plea, that in cases purely spiritual, they could not in +conscience submit to the award of the secular magistrate. Yet how merely +impracticable is this principle, as an abiding principle of action! +Churches, that is, the charge of particular congregations, will be with +_them_ (as with other religious communities) the means of livelihood. +Grounds innumerable will arise for excluding, or attempting to exclude, +each other from these official stations. No possible form regulating the +business of ordination, or of induction, can anticipate the infinite +objections which may arise. But no man interested in such a case, will +submit to a judge appointed by insufficient authority. Daily bread for his +family, is what few men will resign without a struggle. And that struggle +will of necessity come for final adjudication to the law courts of the +land, whose interference in any question affecting a spiritual interest, +the Free church has for ever pledged herself to refuse. But in the case +supposed, she will not have the power to refuse it. She will be cited +before the tribunals, and can elude that citation in no way but by +surrendering the point in litigation; and if she should adopt the notion, +that it is better for her to do _that_, than to acknowledge a sufficient +authority in the court by pleading at its bar, upon this principle once +made public, she will soon be stripped of every thing, and will cease to +be a church at all. She cannot continue to be a depository of any faith, +or a champion of any doctrines, if she lose the means of defending her own +incorporations. But how can she maintain the defenders of her rights or +the dispensers of her truths, if she refuses, upon immutable principle, to +call in the aid of the magistrate on behalf of rights, which, under any +aspect, regard spiritual relations? Attempting to maintain these rights by +private arbitration within a forum of her own, she will soon find such +arbitration not binding at all upon the party who conceives himself +aggrieved. The issue will be as in Mr O'Connell's courts, where the +parties played at going to law; from the moment when they ceased to play, +and no longer "made believe" to be disputing, the award of the judge +became as entire a mockery, as any stage mimicry of such a transaction. + +This should be the natural catastrophe of the case, and the probable +evasion of that destructive consummation, to which she is carried by her +principles, will be--that, as soon as her feelings of rancour shall have +cooled down these principles will silently drop out of use; and the very +reason will be suffered to perish for which she ever became a dissenting +body. With this however, we, that stand outside, are noways concerned. But +an evil, in which we _are_ concerned, is the headlong tendency of the Free +church, and of all churches adulterating with her principle, to an issue +not merely dangerous in a political sense, but ruinous n an anti-social +sense. The artifice of the Free church lies in pleading a spiritual +relation of any case whatever, whether of doing or suffering, whether +positive or negative as a reason for taking it out of all civil control. +Now we may illustrate the peril of this artifice, by a reality at this +time impending over society in Ireland. Dr Higgins, titular bishop of +Ardagh, has undertaken, upon this very plea of a spiritual power not +amenable to civil control, a sort of warfare with Government, upon the +question of their power to suspend or defeat the O'Connell agitation. For, +says he, if Government should succeed in thus intercepting the direct +power of haranguing mobs in open assemblies, then will I harangue them, +and cause then to be harangued, in the same spirit, upon the same topics, +from the altar or the pulpit. An immediate extension of this principle +would be--that every disaffected clergyman in the three kingdoms, would +lecture his congregation upon the duty of paying no taxes. This he would +denominate passive resistance; and resistance to bad government would +become, in his language, the most sacred of duties. In any argument with +such a man, he would be found immediately falling back upon the principle +of the Free church: he would insist upon it as a spiritual right, as a +case entirely between his conscience and God, whether he should press to +an extremity any and every doctrine, though tending to the instant +disorganization of society. To lecture against war, and against taxes as +directly supporting war, would wear a most colourable air of truth amongst +all weak-minded persons. And these would soon appear to have been but the +first elements of confusion under the improved views of spiritual rights. +The doctrines of the _Levellers_ in Cromwell's time, of the _Anabaptists_ +in Luther's time, would exalt themselves upon the ruins of society, if +governments were weak enough to recognise these spiritual claims in the +feeblest of their initial advances. If it were possible to suppose such +chimeras prevailing, the natural redress would soon be seen to lie through +secret tribunals, like those of the dreadful _Fehmgericht_ in the middle +ages. It would be absurd, however, seriously to pursue these anti-social +chimeras through their consequences. Stern remedies would summarily crush +so monstrous an evil. Our purpose is answered, when the necessity of such +insupportable consequences is shown to link itself with that distinction +upon which the Free church has laid the foundations of its own +establishment. Once for all, there is no act or function belonging to an +officer of a church, which is faces. And every examination of the case +convinces us more and more that the Seceders took up the old papal +distinction, as to acts spiritual or not spiritual, not under any delusion +less or more, but under a simple necessity of finding some evasion or +other which should meet and embody the whole rancour of the moment. + +But beyond any other evil consequence prepared by the Free Church, is the +appalling spirit of Jacobinism which accompanies their whole conduct, and +which latterly has avowed itself in their words. The case began +Jacobinically, for it began in attacks upon the rights of property. But +since the defeat of this faction by the law courts, language seems to fail +them, for the expression of their hatred and affected scorn towards the +leading nobility of Scotland. Yet why? The case lies in the narrowest +compass. The Duke of Sutherland, and other great landholders, had refused +sites for their new churches. Upon this occurred a strong fact, and strong +in both directions; first, for the Seceders; secondly, upon better +information, _against_ them. The _Record_ newspaper, a religious journal, +ably and conscientiously conducted, took part with the Secession, and very +energetically; for they denounced the noble duke's refusal of land as an +act of "persecution;" and upon this principle--that, in a county where his +grace was pretty nearly the sole landed proprietor, to refuse land +(assuming that a fair price had been tendered for it) was in effect to +show such intolerance as might easily tend to the suppression of truth. +Intolerance, however, is not persecution; and, if it were, the casuistry +of the question is open still to much discussion. But this is not +necessary; for the ground is altogether shifted when the duke's reason for +refusing the land comes to be stated: he had refused it, not +unconditionally, not in the spirit of Non-intrusion courts' "_without +reason shown_," but on this unanswerable argument--that the whole efforts +of the new church were pointed (and professedly pointed) to the one object +of destroying the establishment, and "sweeping it from the land." Could +any guardian of public interests, under so wicked a threat, hesitate as to +the line of his duty? By granting the land to parties uttering such +menaces, the Duke of Sutherland would have made himself an accomplice in +the unchristian conspiracy. Meantime, next after this fact, it is the +strongest defence which we can offer for the duke--that in a day or two +after this charge of "persecution," the _Record_ was forced to attack the +Seceders in terms which indirectly defended the duke. And this, not in any +spirit of levity, but under mere conscientious constraint. For no journal +has entered so powerfully or so eloquently into the defence of the general +principle involved in the Secession, (although questioning its expediency,) +as this particular _Record_. Consequently any word of condemnation from so +earnest a friend, comes against the Seceders with triple emphasis. And +this is shown in the tone of the expostulations addressed to the _Record_ +by some of the Secession leaders. It spares us, indeed, all necessity of +quoting the vile language uttered by members of the Free Church Assembly, +if we say, that the _neutral_ witnesses of such un-Christian outrages have +murmured, remonstrated, protested, in every direction; and that Dr +Macfarlane, who has since corresponded with the Duke of Sutherland upon +the whole case--viz. upon the petition for land, as affected by the +shocking menaces of the Seceders--has, in no other way, been able to evade +the double mischief of undertaking a defence for the indefensible, and at +the same time of losing the land irretrievably, than by affecting an +unconsciousness of language used by his party little suited to his own +sacred calling, or to the noble simplicities of Christianity. Certainly it +is unhappy for the Seceders, that the only disavowal of the most fiendish +sentiments heard in our days, has come from an individual not authorized, +or at all commissioned by his party--from an individual not showing any +readiness to face the whole charges, disingenuously dissembling the worst +of them, and finally offering his very feeble disclaimer, which +equivocates between a denial and a palliation--not until _after_ he found +himself in the position of a petitioner for favours. + +Specifically the great evil of our days, is the abiding temptation, in +every direction, to popular discontent, to agitation, and to systematic +sedition. Now, we say it with sorrow, that from no other incendiaries have +we heard sentiments so wild, fierce, or maliciously democratic, as from +the leaders of the Secession. It was the Reform Bill of 1832, and the +accompanying agitation, which first suggested the _veto_ agitation of 1834, +and prescribed its tone. From all classes of our population in turn, there +have come forward individuals to disgrace themselves by volunteering their +aid to the chief conspirators of the age. We have earls, we have +marquesses, coming forward as Corn-League agents; we have magistrates by +scores angling for popularity as Repealers. But these have been private +parties, insulated, disconnected, disowned. When we hear of Christianity +prostituted to the service of Jacobinism--of divinity becoming the +handmaid to insurrection--and of clergymen in masses offering themselves +as promoters of anarchy, we go back in thought to that ominous +organization of irreligion, which gave its most fearful aspects to the +French Revolution. + +Other evils are in the rear as likely to arise out of the _funds_ provided +for the new Seceders, were the distribution of those funds confessedly +unobjectionable, but more immediately under the present murmurs against +that distribution. There are two funds: one subscribed expressly for the +building of churches, the other limited to the "sustentation" of +incumbents. And the complaint is--that this latter fund has been invaded +for purposes connected with the first. The reader can easily see the +motive to this injustice: it is a motive of ambition. Far more display of +power is made by the annunciation to the world of six hundred churches +built, than of any difference this way or that in the comfort and decorous +condition of the clergy. This last is a domestic feature of the case, not +fitted for public effect. But the number of the churches will resound +through Europe. Meantime, _at present_, the allowance to the great body of +Seceding clergy averages but £80 a-year; and the allegation is--that, but +for the improper interference with the fund on the motive stated, it would +have averaged £150 a-year. If any where a town parish has raised a much +larger provision for its pastor, even _that_ has now become a part of the +general grievance. For it is said that all such special contributions +ought to have been thrown into one general fund--liable to one general +principle of distribution. Yet again, will even this fund, partially as it +seems to have been divided, continue to be available? Much of it lies in +annual subscriptions: now, in the next generation of subscribers, a son +will possibly not adopt the views of his father; but assuredly he will not +adopt his father's zeal. Here however, (though this is not probable,) +there may arise some compensatory cases of subscribers altogether new. But +another question is pressing for decision, which menaces a frightful shock +to the schismatical church: female agency has been hitherto all potent in +promoting the subscriptions; and a demand has been made in +consequence--that women shall be allowed to vote in the church courts. +Grant this demand--for it cannot be evaded--and what becomes of the model +for church government as handed down from John Knox and Calvin? Refuse it, +and what becomes of the future subscriptions? + +But these are evils, it may be said, only for the Seceders. Not so: we are +all interested in the respectability of the national teachers, whatever be +their denomination: we are all interested in the maintenance of a high +standard for theological education. These objects are likely to suffer at +any rate. But it is even a worse result which we may count on from the +changes, that a practical approximation is thus already made to what is +technically known as Voluntaryism. The "_United Secession_," that is the +old collective body of Scottish Dissenters, who, having no regular +provision, are carried into this voluntary system, already exult that this +consummation of the case cannot be far off. Indeed, so far as the Seceders +are dependent upon _annual_ subscriptions, and coupling that relation to +the public with the great doctrine of these Seceders, that congregations +are universally to appoint their own pastors, we do not see how such an +issue is open to evasion. The leaders of the new Secession all protest +against Voluntaryism: but to that complexion of things they travel rapidly +by the mere mechanic action of their dependent (or semi-dependent) +situation, combined with one of their two characteristic principles. + +The same United Secession journal openly anticipates another and more +diffusive result from this great movement; viz. the general disruption of +church establishments. We trust that this anticipation will be signally +defeated. And yet there is one view of the case which saddens us when we +turn our eyes in that direction. Among the reasonings and expostulations +of the Schismatic church, one that struck us as the most eminently +hypocritical, and ludicrously so, was this: "You ought," said they, when +addressing the Government, and exposing the error of the law proceedings, +"to have stripped us of the temporalities arising from the church, stipend, +glebe, parsonage, but not of the spiritual functions. We had no right to +the emoluments of our stations, when the law courts had decided against us +but we _had_ a right to the laborious duties of the stations." No gravity +could refuse to smile at this complaint--verbally so much in the spirit of +primitive Christianity, yet in its tendency so insidious. For could it be +possible that a competitor introduced by the law, and leaving the duties +of the pastoral office to the old incumbent, but pocketing the salary, +should not be hooted on the public roads by many who might otherwise have +taken no part in the feud? This specious claim was a sure and brief way to +secure the hatefulness of their successors. Now, we cannot conceal from +ourselves that something like this invidious condition of things might be +realized under two further revolutions. We have said, that a second schism +in the Scottish church is not impossible. It is also but too possible that +Puseyism nay yet rend the English establishment by a similar convulsion. +But in such contingencies, we should see a very large proportion of the +spiritual teachers in both nations actually parading to the public eye, +and rehearsing something very like the treacherous proposal of the late +Seceders, viz. the spectacle of one party performing much of the difficult +duties, and another party enjoying the main emoluments. This would be a +most unfair mode of recommending Voluntaryism. Falling in with the +infirmities of many in these days, such a spectacle would give probably a +fatal bias to that system in our popular and Parliamentary counsels. This +would move the sorrow of the Seceders themselves: for they have protested +against the theory of all Voluntaries with a vehemence which that party +even complain of as excessive. Their leaders have many times avowed, that +any system which should leave to men in general the estimate of their own +religious wants as a pecuniary interest, would be fatal to the Christian +tone of our national morals. Checked and overawed by the example of an +establishment, the Voluntaries themselves are far more fervent in their +Christian exertions than they could be when liberated from that contrast. +The religious spirit of both England and Scotland under such a change +would droop for generations. And in that one evil, let us hope, the +remotest and least probable of the many evils threatened by the late +schism, these nations would have reason by comparison almost to forget the +rest. + + * * * * * + + + + +SITTING FOR A PORTRAIT + + +What could induce you, my dear Eusebius, to commit yourself into the hands +of a portrait-painter? And so, you ask me to go with you. Are you afraid, +that you want me to keep you in countenance, where I shall be sure to put +you out? You ask too petitioningly, as if you suspected I should refuse to +attend your _execution_; for you are going to be _be-headed_, and soon +will it be circulated through your village, that you have had your _head +taken off_: I will not go with you--it would spoil all. You are afraid to +trust the painter. You think he may be a physiognomist, and will hit some +characteristic which you would quietly let slip his notice; and you +flatter yourself that I might help to mislead him. Are you afraid of being +made too amiable, or too plain? No, no! You are not vain. Whence comes +this vagary?--well, we shall all know in good time. Were I to be with you, +I should talk--perhaps maliciously--on purpose to see how your features +would unsettle and shift themselves to the vagrant humour, that though one +would know another from habit, and their old acquaintanceship, the painter +would never be able to keep them steadily together. I should laugh to see +every lineament "going ahead," and art "non compos." + +I will, however, venture to put down some plain directions how you are to +sit. First, let me tell you how you are not to sit. Don't, in your horror +of a sentimental amiable look, put on yourself the air of a Diogenes, or +you will be like nothing human--and if you shun Diogenes, you may put on +the likeness of a still greater fool. No man living can look more wise +than you; but if you fall out with wisdom, or would in your whim throw +contempt on it, no one can better play the fool. You are the laughing or +crying Philosopher at pleasure--but sit as neither, for in either +character you will set the painter's house in a roar. I fear the very +plaster figures in it will set you off--to see yourself in such motley +company, with Bacchus and Hercules, and Jupiter and Saturn, with his +marble children to devour. You will look Homer and Socrates in the face; +and I know will make antics, throw out, and show fight to the Gladiator. +This may be, if your painter, as many of them do, affect the antique; but +if he be another sort of guess person, it may be worse still with you. You +may not have to make your bow to a Venus Anadyomene--but how will you be +able to face the whole Muggletonian synod? Imagine the "Complete Body," +from the Evangelical Magazine, framed and glazed, round the walls, and all +looking at you in the condemned cell. Against this you must prepare; for +many country artists prefer this line to the antique. It is their +connexion--and should you make a mistake and go to the wrong man, you +will most assuredly be added to the Convocation, if not put to head a +controversy as frontispiece. It will be in vain for you to say, "Fronti +nulla fides;" "[Greek: gnothi seauton]" before you get there, or nobody +will know you. Take care lest your physiognomy be canvassed by many more +besides the painter. Are you prepared to have your every lineament +scrutinized by every body? to hear behind a screen the disparagement of +your lips, your eyes thought deceitful, and, in addition, a sentence of +general ugliness passed upon you? So you must stoop to paint-pots, have +daubs of reds, and yellows, and greys perked up against your nose for +comparison. Your man may be a fancy mesmerizer, or mesmerize you, now that +it is flying about like an epidemic, without knowing it. If he can, he +will surely do it, to keep you still: that is the way to get a good sitter. +Eusebius in a _coma_! answering all comers, like one of the heads in the +play of Macbeth! But I was to tell you how to sit--that is the way, get +into a _coma_--that will be the painter's best chance of having you; or, +when he has been working for hours, he may find you a Proteus, and that +you have slipped through his fingers after all his toil to catch you. I +will tell you what happened to a painter of my acquaintance. A dentist sat +to him two days--the third the painter worked away very hard--looked at +the picture, then at his sitter. "Why, sir," said he; "I find I have been +all wrong--what can it be? Why, sir, your mouth is not at all like what it +was yesterday." "Ah! ah! I will tell you vat it ees," replied the French +dentist; "ah! good--my mouse is not de same--no indeed--yesterday I did +have my jaw in, but I did lend it out to a lady this day." Don't you think +of this now while you are sitting. You know the trick Garrick played the +painter, who, foiled in his attempt, started up, and said--"You must be +Garrick or the d----!" Then as to attitude, 'tis ten to one but you will +be put into one which will be quite uncomfortable to you. One, perhaps, +after a pattern. I should advise you to resist this--and sit easy--if you +can. Don't put your hand in your waistcoat, and one arm akimbo, like a +Captain Macheath, however he may entreat you; and don't be made looking up, +like a martyr, which some wonderfully affect; and don't be made turn your +head round, as if it was in disgust with the body; and don't let your +stomach be more conspicuous than the head, like a cucumber running to seed. +Don't let him put your arm up, as in command, or accompanied with a rapt +look as if you were listening to the music of the spheres; don't thrust +out your foot conspicuously, as if you meant to advertise the blacking. +Some artists are given to fancy attitudes such as best set off the coats, +they are but nature's journeymen at the faces; don't fancy that the cut, +colour, or cloth of your coat will exempt you from the penalty of their +practice. Why, Eusebius, they have lay-figures, and dress them just as you +see them at the tailor's or perfumer's; and one of these things will be +put up for you--a mannikin for Eusebius! In such hands the coat is by far +the best piece of work, you may be sure your _own_ won't be taken for a +pattern. You will despise it when you see it, and it will be one you can +never change--it will defy vamping. You may be at any time new varnished +whenever after generations shall wish to see how like a dancing-master the +old gentleman must have looked. It is enough to make you a dancing bear +now to think of it. Others, again, equip you with fur and make you look +as if you were in the Hudson's Bay Company. Luckily for you, flowered +dressing-gowns are out, or you might have been represented a Mantelini. +What can you be doing! It is difficult to put you in your positions. There +are some that will turn you about and about a half an hour or more before +they begin, as they would a horse at the fair--ay, and look in your mouth +too. If they cannot get you otherwise into an attitude, they will shampoo +you into one. And, remember, all this they will do, because they have not +the skill to paint any one sitting quite easy. Don't have a roll in your +hand--that always signifies a member of Parliament. Don't have your finger +on a book--that would be a pedantry you could not endure. I cannot imagine +what you will do with your hands. Ten to one, however, but the painter +leaves then out or copies them out of some print when you are gone. This +will be picking and stealing that you will have no hand in. What to do +with any one's hands is a most difficult thing to say--too many do not +know what to do with them themselves; and, under the suffering of sitting, +I think you will be one of them. If there is a child in the room, you will +be making rabbits with your fingers. Then you are at the mercy of the +painter's privilege--the foreground and background. If you have the common +fate, your head will be stuck upon a red curtain, a watered pattern. If +your man has used up his carmine, you will be standing in a fine colonnade, +waiting with the utmost patience for the burst of a thunder cloud that +makes the marble column stand out conspicuously, and there will be a +distant park scene; and thus you will represent the landed interest: or +you will perhaps have your glove in your hand--a device adopted by some, +to intimate that they are hand and glove with all the neighbouring gentry. +And it is a common thing to have a new hat and a walking-cane upon a +marble table. This shows the sitter has the use of his legs, which +otherwise might be doubted, and is therefore judicious. If you are +supposed to be in the open air, you will not know at first sight that you +are so represented, until you have learned the painter's hieroglyphic for +trees. You will find them to be angular sorts of sticks, with red and +yellow flag-rags flapping about; and ten to one but you have a murky sky, +and no hat on your head; but as to such a country as you ever walked in, +or ever saw, don't expect to see such a one as a background to your +picture, and you will readily console yourself that you are turning your +back upon it. If you are painted in a library, books are cheap--so that +the artist can afford to throw you in a silver inkstand into the bargain, +and a pen--such a pen! the goose wouldn't know it that bred it--and +perhaps an open letter to answer, with your name on the cover. If you are +made answering the letter, that will never be like you--perhaps it would +be more like if the letter should be unopened. Now, do not flatter +yourself; Eusebius, that all these things are matters of choice with you. +"_Non omnia possumus omnes_," is the regular rule of the profession; some +stick to the curtain all their lives, from sheer inability to set it--to +draw it aside. You remember the sign-painter that went about painting red +lions, and his reply to a refractory landlord who insisted upon a white +lamb. "You may have a white lamb if you please, but when all is said and +done, it will be a great deal more like a red lion." And I am sorry to say, +the faces too, are not unfrequently in this predicament, for they have a +wonderful family likeness, and these run much by counties. A painter has +often been known totally to fail, by quitting his beat. There is certainly +an advantage in this; for if any gentleman should be so unfortunate as to +have no ancestors, he may pick up at random, in any given county in +England, a number that will very well match, and all look like +blood-relations. There is an instance where this resemblance was greatly +improved, by the advice of an itinerant of the profession, who, at a very +moderate price, put wigs on all the Vandyks. And there you see some danger, +Eusebius, that--be represented how you may--you are not sure of keeping +your condition ten years; you may have, by that time, a hussar cap put +upon your unconscious head. But portraits fare far worse than that. + +I remember, when a boy, walking with an elderly gentleman, and passing a +broker's stall, there was the portrait of a fine florid gentleman in +regimentals; he stopped to look at it--he might have bought it for a few +shillings. After we had gone away,--"that," said he, "is the portrait of +my wife's great uncle--member for the county, and colonel of militia: you +see how he is degraded to these steps." "Why do you not rescue him?" said +I. "Because he left me nothing," was the reply. A relative of mine, an old +lady, hit upon a happy device; the example is worth following. Her husband +was the last of his race, for she had no children. She took all the family +portraits out of their frames, rolled up all the pictures, and put them in +the coffin with the deceased. No one was more honourably accompanied to +the grave--and so he slept with his fathers. It has not, to be sure, +Eusebius, much to do with your portrait, but thinking of these family +portraits, one is led on to think of their persons, &c.; so I must tell +you what struck me as a singular instance of the _'sic nos non nobis.'_ I +went with a cousin, upon a sort of pilgrimage at some distance, to visit +some family monuments. There was one large handsome marble one in the +chancel. You will never guess how it had been treated. A vicar's wife had +died, and the disconsolate widower had caused a square marble tablet, with +the inscription of his wife's virtues, to be actually inserted in the Very +centre of our family monument: and yet you, by sitting for your portrait, +hope to be handed down unmutilated to generations to come,--yes, they will +come, and you will be a mark for the boys to shoot peas at--that is, if +you remain at all in the family--you may be transferred to the wench's +garret, or the public-house, and have a pipe popped through the canvass +into your mouth, to make you look ridiculous. I really think you have a +chance of being purchased, to be hung up in the club parlour as pictorial +president of the Odd-Fellows. Why should you be exempt from what kings are +subject to? The "king's head" is a sign in many a highway, to countenance +ill-living. You too, will be bought at a broker's--have your name changed +without your consent--and be adopted into a family whereof you would +heartily despise the whole kith and kin. If pride has not a fall in the +portraits of the great and noble, where shall we find it?" + +A painter once told me, that he assisted one of the meanest of low rich +men, to collect some family portraits; he recommended to him a fine +Velasquez. "Velasquez!--who's he?" said the head of his family. "It is a +superb picture, sir--a genuine portrait by the Spaniard, and doubtless, of +some Spanish nobleman. "Then," said he, "I won't have it; I'll have no +Spanish blood contaminate my family, sir." "Spanish blood," rejected by +the plebeian! I have known better men than you, Eusebius--excuse the +comparison--vamped up and engraved upon the spur of the moment, for +celebrated highwaymen or bloody murderers. But this digression won't help +you out in your sitting. Let me see what the learned say upon the +subject--what advice shall we get from the man of academies. Here we have +him, Gerrard Larresse; you may be sure that he treats of portrait-painting, +and with importance enough too. Here it is--"Of Portraiture." But that is +far too plan. We must have an emblem:-- + + "Emblem touching the handling of portraits." + +"Nature with her many breasts, is in a sitting posture. Near her stands a +little child, lifting her garment off her shoulders. On the other side +stands Truth, holding a mirror before her, wherein she views herself down +to the middle, and is seemingly surprised at it. On the frame of this +glass, are seen a _gilt pallet and pencils. Truth has a book and palm +branch_ in her hand." What do you think of that, Eusebius, for a position? +But why Nature or Truth should be surprised at viewing herself down to the +middle, I cannot imagine. It evidently won't do to surprise you in that +manner. Poor Gerrard, I see, thinks it a great condescension in him to +speak of portrait-painting at all; he calls it, "departing from the +essence of art, and subjecting (the painter) to all the defects of nature." +Hear that, Eusebius! you are to sit to be a specimen of the _defects_ of +nature. He is indignant that "such great masters as Vandyke, Lely, Van Loo, +the old and young Bakker, and others," possessed of great talents, +postponed what is noble and beautiful to what is more ordinary. There you +are again, Eusebius, with your ordinary visage, unworthy such men as the +old and young Bakker, whoever they were. But since there must be portraits, +he could endure the method of the ancients, who, "used to cause those from +whom the commonwealth had received extraordinary benefits, either in war +or civil affairs, or for eminence in religion, to be represented in marble +or metal, or in a picture, that the sight of them, by those honours, might +be a spur to posterity to emulate the same virtues. This honour was first +begun with their deities; afterwards it was paid to heroes, and of +consequence to philosophers, orators, religious men, and others, not only +to perpetuate their virtues, but also to embalm their names and memories. +But now it goes further; a person of any condition whatsoever, have he but +as much money as the painter asks, must sit for his picture. This is a +great abuse, and sprung from as laudable a cause." + +Are you not ashamed to sit after that? He is not, however, without his +indulgences. He will allow something to a lover and a husband. + +"Has a citizen's wife but an only babe? he is drawn at half a year old; at +ten years old he sits again; and for the last time in his twenty-fifth +year, in order to show her tender folly: and then she stands wondering how +a man can so alter in that time. Is not this a weighty reason? a +reprovable custom, if painters did not gain by it. But again, portraits +are allowable, when a lover is absent from his mistress, that they may +send each other their pictures, to cherish and increase their loves; a man +and wife parted so may do the same." You undertake, you perceive, a matter +of some responsibility--you must account to your conscience for the act of +sitting for your picture. Then there is a chapter upon defects, which, as +I suppose he presumes people don't know themselves, he catalogues pretty +fully, till you are quite out of humour with poor human nature. The +defects are "natural ones--accidental ones--usual ones." Natural--"a wry +face, squint eyes, wry mouth, nose," &c. Accidental. "Loss of an eye, a +cut on the cheek, or other part of the face, pits of the small-pox and the +like." Usual. "Contraction of the eyes and mouth, or closing or gaping of +the latter, or drawing it in somewhat to this or that side, upwards or +downwards," &c. As for other bodily infirmities, how many have wry necks, +hunchbacks, bandy legs--withered or short arms, or one shorter than +another; dead or lame hands or fingers." Now, are you so sure of the +absence of all these defects, that you venture? You must think yourself an +Adonis, and not think that you are to be flattered, by having any very +considerable number of your defects hid. "The necessary ones ought to be +seen, because they _help the likeness_; such as a wry face, squint eyes, +low forehead, thinness, and fatness; a wry neck, too short or too long a +nose; wrinkles between the eyes; ruddiness or paleness of the cheeks, or +lips; pimples or warts about the mouth; and such like." After this, it is +right you should know that "Nature abhors deformity." Nay, that we always +endeavour to hide our own--and which do you mean to hide, or do you intend +to come out perfect? I daresay you can discover some little habits of your +own, Eusebius, free from vanity as you are, that tend to these little +concealments! Do you remember how a foolish man lost a considerable sum of +money once, by forgetting this human propensity? He had lost some money to +little K---- of Bath, the deformed gambler--and being netted at his loss, +thought to pique the winner. "I'll wager," said he, "£50, I'll point out +the worst leg in company."--"Done," said K---- to his astonishment. "The +man does not know himself," thought he, for there sat K---- crouched up +all shapes by the fireside. The wagerer, to win his bet, at once cried, +"Why, that," pointing to K----'s leg, which was extended towards the grate. +"No," said K---- quietly unfolding the other from beneath the chair, and +showing it, "that's worse." By which you may learn the fact--that every +man puts his best leg foremost. But we must not quit our friend Gerard yet. +I like his grave conceit. I rejoice to find him giving the painters a rap +over their knuckles. He says, Eusebius, that they are fond of having +"smutty pictures" in their rooms; and roundly tells them, that though fine +pictures are necessary, there is no need of their having such subjects as +"Mars and Venus, and Joseph and Potiphar's Wife." Now, though I do not +think our moderns offend much in this respect--the hint is good--and some +exhibit studies from models about their rooms, that evidently sat without +their stays. Gerard was the man for contrivances--here is a capital one. +He does not quite approve of painting a wooden leg; but if it be to be +done, see with what skill even that in the hands of a Gerard may be +dignified--and the painter absolved, "lege solutus." "But if the hero +insist upon the introducing of such a leg, on a supposition that 'tis an +honour to have lost a limb in his country's service, the painter must then +comply with his desires; or _else contrive it lying on a table covered +with red velvet_." But capital as this is, it is not all. He quite revels +in contrivances; "if he desire it after the antique manner, it must be +contrived in a bas-relief, wherein the occasion of it may be represented; +or it may hang near him on a wall, with its buckles and straps, as is done +in hunting equipages; or else it may be placed among the ornaments of +architecture, to be more in view." You see he scorns to hide it--has +worked up his imagination to conceive all possible ways of showing it; +depend upon it he longed to paint a wooden leg, to which the face should +be the appendage, the leg the portrait. "Hoc ligno," not "hoc signo +vinces." But here Gerard bounces--giving an instance of a gentleman "who, +being drawn in little, and comparing the smallness of the eyes with his +own, asked the painter whether he had such? However, in complaisance, and +for his pleasure, he desired that one eye at least might be as big as his +own, the other to remain as it was." Fie, Gerard! you have spoiled your +emblem by taking the mirror out of truth's hand. + +He is particular about postures and backgrounds. "It will not be improper +to treat also about easiness and sedateness in posture, opposed to stir +and bustle, and the contrary--namely, that the picture of a gentlewoman of +repute, who, in a grave and sedate manner, turns towards that of her +husband, hanging near it, gets a great decorum by _moving and stirring +hind-works_, whether by means of waving trees, or crossing architecture of +stone and wood, or any thing else that the master thinks will best +_contrast_, or oppose, the _sedate posture of his principal figure_." Here +you see Eusebius, how hind-works tend to keep up a _bustle_! "And because +these are things of consequence, and may not be plainly apprehended by +every one," he explains himself by ten figures in one plate--and such +figures! As a sitter, he would place you very much above the eye--that is, +technically speaking, adopt a low horizon; "because--the because is a +because--because it's certain that when we see any painted figure, or +object, in a place where the life can be expected, as standing on the +ground, leaning over a balcony or balustrade, or out at a window, &c., it +deceives the eye, and by being seen unawares, (though expected,) causes +sometimes a pleasing mistake; or it frightens and surprises others, when +they meet with it unexpectedly, at such places as aforesaid, and where +there is _any likelihood_ for it." Your artist will probably put you on an +inverted box, and sitting in a great chair, probably covered with red +morocco leather, in which you will not be at home, and in any manner +comfortable. We see this deal box sometimes converted into a marble step, +as a step to a throne, and such it is in one of the pictures of the Queen; +but it is so ill coloured, that it looks for all the world like a great +cheese; it should be sent to the farmers who made the Queen the cheese +present, to show the pride of England walking upon the "fat of the land." +He presents us with many methods of showing the different characters of +persons to be painted, some of which will be novel to you. For instance, +you would not expect directions to represent a secretary of state with the +accompaniments of a goose. "With a secretary the statue of Harpocrates, +and in tapestry or bas-relief, the story of Alexander shutting +Hephæstion's mouth with a seal-ring; also the emblem of fidelity, or a +goose with a stone in its bill." Methinks the director, or governor, of +the East India Company, must look very small beside his bedizened +accessory, meant to represent Company. "She is to be an heroine with a +scollop of mother-of-pearl on her head, in the nature of an helmet, and +thereon a coral branch; a breast ornament of scales; pearls and corals +about her neck; buskins on her legs, with two dolphins conjoined head to +head, adorned with sea-shells; two large shells on her shoulders, a +trident in her hand, and her clothing a long mantle; a landskip behind her +of an Indian prospect, with palm and cocoa trees, some figures of _blacks_, +and elephant's teeth. This figure also suits an admiral, or commander at +sea, when a sea-fight is introduced instead of a landskip." Such a figure +may, indeed, be more at home at sea, and such a one may have been that +famous lady, whose captain so "very much applauded her," and + + "Made her the first lieutenant + Of the gallant Thunder Bomb." + +Not a painter of the present day, it seems, knows how to paint the clergy. +Mr Pickersgill has done quite common things, and simply shown the cloth +and the band--that is poor device. See how Gerard would have it done. +Every clergyman should be a Dr Beattie. "With a divine agrees the statue +of truth, represented in a Christian-like manner, or else this same emblem +in one of his hands, and his other on his breast, besides tapestries, +bas-reliefs, or paintings, and some Christian emblems of the true faith; +and representation of the Old and New Testament--in the offskip a temple." +All the portraits of the great duke are defective, inasmuch as none of +them have "Mars in a niche," or Victory sitting on a trophy, or a statue +of Hercules. You probably have no idea what a great personage is a +"sea-insurer." He is accompanied by Arion on a dolphin; and in a picture a +sea-haven, with a ship under sail making towards it; on the shore the +figure of Fortune, and (who are, think you, the "supercargoes?") over the +cargo "Castor and Pollux." In this mode of portrait-painting it would be +absolutely necessary to go back to the old plan of putting the names +underneath the personages; and even then, though you write under such, +this is Castor, this Pollux, and this the sea-insurer, it will ever puzzle +the whole ship's crew to conjecture how they came there together. Gerard +admits we cannot paint what we have not seen, and by example rather +condemns his own recommendations. Fewer have seen Castor and Pollux, than +have seen a lion, and he says men cannot paint what they have not seen. +"As was the case of a certain Westphalian, who, representing Daniel in the +lions' den, and having never seen a lion, he painted hogs instead of lions, +and wrote underneath, 'These should be lions.'" + +By this time, Eusebius, you ought to know how to sit, if you have not made +up your mind not to sit at all. You need not, however, be much alarmed +about the emblems--modern masters cut all that matter short. They won't +throw in any superfluous work, you may be sure of that, unless you should +sit to Landseer, and he will paint your dog, and throw in your superfluous +self for nothing. You would be like Mercury with the statuary, mortified +to find his own image thrown into the bargain. + +Besides your own defects, you have to encounter the painter's. His +unsteady, uncertain hand, may add an inch to your nose before you are +aware of it. It is quite notorious that few painters paint both eyes of +the same size; and after your utmost efforts to look straight in his face, +he may make you squint for ever, and not see that he has done so. Unless +he be himself a sensible man, he will be sure to make you look like a fool. +Then, what is like to-day will be unlike to-morrow. His megillups will +change, so that in six months you may look like a copper Indian; or the +colours may fade, and leave you the ghost of what you were. Again, he may +paint you lamentably like, odiously like, yet give you a sinister +expression, or at least an unpleasant one. Then, if you remonstrate, he is +offended; if you refuse to take it, he writes you word that if not paid +for and removed by next Tuesday, he will add a tail to it, and dispose of +it to Mr Polito. Did not Hogarth do something of this kind? If he please +himself he may not satisfy you, and if you are satisfied, none of your +friends are, who take an opportunity of the portrait to say sarcastic +things of you. For in that respect you may be most like your picture, or +it most like you, for every body will have some fault to find with it. Why, +don't you remember but last year some _friends_ poked out the eye from a +portrait, even after it had been on the exhibition walls. Then, what with +the cleaning and varnishing, you have to go through as many disorders as +when you were a child. You will have the picture-cleaner's measles. It was +not long ago, I saw a picture in a most extraordinary state; and, on +enquiry, I found that the cook of the house had rubbed it over with fat of +bacon to make it bear out, and that she had learned it at a great house, +where there is a fine collection, which are thus bacon'd twice every year. +You are sure not to keep even your present good looks, but will become +smoked and dirty. Then must you be cleaned, and there is an even chance +that in doing it they put out at least one of your eyes, (I saw both eyes +taken out of a Correggio,) and the new one to be put in will never match +the other. The ills that flesh is heir to, are nothing to the ills its +representative is heir to. At best, the very change of fashion in dress +will make you look quizzical in a few years. For you are going to sit when +dress is most unbecoming, and it is only by custom that the eye is +reconciled to it, so that all the painted present generation must look +ridiculous in the eyes of posterity. Don't have your name put on the +canvass; then you may console yourself that, in all these mortal chances +and changes, whatever happens to it, you will not be known. I have one +before me now with the name and all particulars in large gilt letters. +Happily this ostentation is out; you may therefore hope, when the evil day +comes, _fallere_, to escape notice. I hope the painter will give you that +bold audacious look which may stare the beholder in the face, and deny +your own identity; no small advantage, for doubtless the "[Greek: sêmata +lugra]" of Bellerophon was but his portrait, which, by a hang-look +expression, intimatd death. Your painter may be ignorant of phrenology, +and, without knowing it, may give you some detestable bumps; and your +picture may be borrowed to lecture upon, at inns and institutions, and +anecdotes rummaged up or forged, to match the painter's doing--the bumps +he has given you. + +You must not, however, on this account, think too ill of the poor painter. +He is subject to human infirmities--so are you--and his hand and eye are +not always in tune. He has, too, to deal with all sorts of people--many +difficult enough to please. You know the fable of the painter who would +please everybody, and pleased nobody. You sitters are a whimsical set, +and most provokingly shift your features and position, and always expect +miracles, at a moment, too; you are here to-day, and must be off to-morrow. +It is nothing, to you that paint won't dry for you, so even that must be +forced, and you are rather varnished in than painted, and no wonder if +your faces go to pieces, and you become mealy almost as soon as you have +had the life's blood in you, and that with the best carmine. And often you +take upon yourselves to tell the painter what to do, as if you knew +yourselves better than he, though he has been staring at nothing but you +for an hour or two at a time, perhaps. You ask him, too, perpetually what +feature he is now doing, that you may call up a look. You screw up your +mouths, and try to put all the shine you can into your eyes, till, from +continual effort, they look like those of a shotten herring; and yet you +expect all to be like what you are in your ordinary way. After he has +begun to paint your hair, you throw it about with your hands in all +directions but the right, and all his work is to begin over again. You +have no notion how ignorant of yourselves you are. I happened to call, +some time since, upon a painter with whom I am on intimate terms. I found +him in a roar of laughter, and quite alone. "What is the matter?" said I. +"Matter!" replied he; "why, here has Mr B. been sitting to me these four +days following, and at last, about half an hour ago, he, sitting in that +chair, puts up his hand to me, thus, with 'Stop a moment, Mr Painter; I +don't know whether you have noticed it or not, but it is right that I +should tell you that _I have a slight_ cast in my eye.' You know Mr B., a +worthy good man, but he has the very worst gimlet eye I ever beheld." Yes, +and only _slightly_ knew it, Eusebius. And I have to say, he thought his +defect wondrously exaggerated, when, for the first time, he saw it on +canvas; and perhaps all his family noticed it there, whom custom had +reconciled into but little observation of it, and the painter was +considered no friend of the family. For the poor artist is expected to +please all down to the youngest child, and perhaps that one most, for she +often rules the rest. And people do not too much consider the _feelings_ +of painters. I knew an artist, a great humorist, who spent much time at +the court at Lisbon. He had to paint a child, I believe the Prince of the +Brazils. I remember, as if I saw him act the scene but yesterday, and it +is many years ago. Well, the maid of honour, or whatever was her title, +brought the child into the room, and remained some time, but at length +left him alone with the painter. When he found himself only in this +company, his pride took the alarm. He put on great airs, frowned, pouted, +looked disdainful, superbly swelling, and got off the chair, retreating +slowly, scornfully. The artist, who was a great mimic, imitated his every +gesture, and, with some extravagance, frowned as he frowned, swelled as he +swelled, blew out his breath as the child did, advanced as he retreated, +till the child at length found himself pinned in the corner, at which the +artist put on such a ridiculous expression, that risible nature could +stand it no longer; pride was conquered by humour, and from that hour they +were on the most familiar terms. It was not an ill-done thing of our Henry +VIII. when he made one of his noble courtiers apologize to Holbein for +some slight, bidding him, at the same time, to know that he could make a +hundred such as he, but it was past his power to make a Holbein. And you +know how a great monarch picked up Titian's pencil which had fallen. How +greatly did Alexander honour Apelles, in that he would suffer none else to +paint his portrait. And when the painter, by drawing his Campaspe, fell in +love with her, he presented her to him. It is a bad policy, Eusebius, to +put slights upon these men--and it is more, it is ungenerous; they may +revenge themselves upon you whenever they please, and give you a black eye +too, that will never get right again. They can in effigy, put every limb +out of joint; and you being no anatomist, may only see that you look ill, +and know not where you went wrong. All you sitters expect to be flattered, +and very little flattery do you bestow. Perversely, you won't even see +your own likenesses. Take, for instance, the following scene, which I had +from a miniature painter:--A man upwards of forty years of age, had been +sitting to him--one of as little pretensions as you can well imagine; you +would have thought it impossible that he could have had an homoeopathic +proportion of vanity--of personal vanity at least; but it turned out +otherwise. He was described as a greasy bilious man, with a peculiarly +conventicle aspect--that is, one that affects a union of gravity and love. +"Well, sir," said the painter, "that will do--I think I have been very +fortunate in your likeness." The man looks at it, and says nothing, puts +on an expression of disappointment. "What! don't you think it like, sir?" +says the artist. "Why--ye-ee-s, it is li-i-ke--but----" "But what sir?--I +think it exactly like. I wish you would tell me where it is not like?" +"Why, I'd rather you should find it out yourself. Have the goodness to +look at me."--And here my friend the painter declared, that he put on a +most detestably affected grin of amiability.--"Well, sir, upon my word, I +don't see any fault at all; it seems to me as like as it can be; I wish +you'd be so good as to tell me what you mean." "Oh, sir, I'd rather +not--I'd rather you should find it out yourself--look again." "I can't see +any difference, sir; so if you don't tell me, it can't be altered." "Well +then, with reluctance, if I must tell you, I don't think you have given my +_sweet expression about the eyes_." Oh, Eusebius, Eusebius, what a mock +you would have made of that man; you would have flouted his vanity about +his ears for him gloriously; I would have given a crown to have had him +sit to you, and you should have let me be by, to attend your colours. How +we would have bedaubed the fellow before he had left the room, with his +sweet eyes! But there, your patient painter must endure all that, and not +give a hint that he disagrees in the opinion: or if he speak his mind on +the occasion, he may as well quit the town, for under the influence of +those sweet eyes, nor man, woman, nor child, will come to sit to him. And +consider, Eusebius, their misery in having such sitters at all. They are +not Apollos, and Venuses, nor Adonises, that knock at painters' doors. Not +one in a hundred has even a tolerably pleasant face. I certainly once knew +a rough-dealing artist, who told a gentleman very plainly--"Sir, I do not +paint remarkably ugly people." But he came to no good. Not but that a +clever fellow might do something of this kind with management, with good +effect; get the reputation of being a painter of "beauties," with a little +skill, make beauties of every body, and stoutly maintain that he never +will have any others sit to him. I am not quite certain, that something of +this kind has been practised, or I do not think I should have the art to +invent it. All those who sit during a courtship, to present their +portraits as lovers, I look upon it come as professed cheats, and mean to +be most egregiously flattered; and if the thing succeeds through the +painter's skill, within six months after the marriage, he, the painter, is +called the cheat, and the portrait not in the least like. So easy is it to +get out of repute, by doing your best to please them with a little +flattery. You will never get into a book of beauty, Eusebius. Hitherto, +the list runs in the female line. The male will soon come in, depend upon +it. + +Have a little pity upon the poor artist, who would, but cannot, +flatter--who is conscious of his inability to put in those blandishments +that shall give a grace to ugliness--from whose hand unmitigated ugliness +becomes uglier--who, at length, driven from towns, where people begin to +see this, as a dauber, takes refuge among the farm houses; at first paints +the farmers and their wives, their ugly faces stretching to the very edge +of the frames, and is at last reduced to paint the favourite cow, or the +fat ox--the prodigal (alas! no; the simply miserable, in mistaking his +profession) feeding the swine, and with them, and they not over-proud of +his doings. Then there is another poor, self-deluded character among the +tribe. I have the man in my eye at this moment. It is not long since I +paid him a visit to see a great historical composition, which I had been +requested to look at. It was the most miserable of all miserable daubs; +yet so conspicuously set off with colours and hardness, that the eye could +not escape it. It was a most determined eye-sore. The quiet, the modest +demeanour of the young man at first deceived me; I ventured to find some +trifling fault. The artist was up--still his manner was quiet--somewhat, +in truth, contemptuously so; but, as for modesty, I doubt not he was +modest in every other matter relating to himself; but, in art, he as +calmly talked of himself, Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle, as a trio--that +two had obtained immortality of fame, and that he sought the same, and, he +trusted, by the same means, and believed with similar powers: as calmly +did he speak in this manner, as if it were a thing long settled in his own +mind and in fate--and in the manner of an indulgent communication. He +lamented the lack of taste and knowledge in the world; that so little was +real art appreciated, that he was obliged to submit to the drudgery of +portrait. _Submit!_--and such portraits. Poor fellow! how long will he get +sitters to _submit_? I have recently heard the fate of one of his great +compositions. He had persuaded the vicar and church-wardens of a parish to +accept a picture. He attended the putting it up. It was a fine old church. +With the quietest conceit, he had a fine east window blocked up to receive +the picture--had the tables of Commandments mutilated, and thrust up in a +corner--damaged the wall to give effect to the picture--and really +believed that he was conferring an honour and benefit upon the +parishioners and the county. Soon, however, men of better taste and sense +began to cry out. The incumbent died. His successor related to me the +shocking occurrence of the picture. He had it removed, and the damage done +to the edifice repaired. And what became of the grand historical? The +church-warden alone, who, in the pride of his heart and ignorance, had +paid the poor artist for the colours, gladly took the picture. His account +of it was, that it was so powerful in his small room, as to affect several +ladies to tears--and that he had covered it with a thin gauze, to keep +down _the fierceness of the sentiment_; for it was too affecting. Now, +here is a man, who, if you should happen to sit to him, will think it the +greatest condescension to take your picture, and will paint you such as +you never would wish to be seen or known. There is a predilection now for +schools of design; and the world will teem with these poor creatures. + +Many there are, however, who, having considerable ability, have much to +struggle against--who love the profession of art, and with that +unaccountable giving themselves up to it, are quite unfit for any other +occupation in life, yet, from adverse circumstances--ill health, strange +temperaments--do not succeed. Many years ago, I knew a very interesting +young man, and a very industrious one, too, of very considerable ability +as a painter, but not, at that time, of portraits. While hard at work, +getting just enough to live by, he was seized with an illness that +threatened rapid consumption. The kind physician who gratuitously visited +him, told him one day--"You cannot live here. I do not say that you have a +year of safety in this climate, or a month of safety, but you have not +weeks. You must instantly go to a warmer climate." Ill, and without means, +beyond the few pounds he could gather from his hasty breaking-up, he had +courage to look on the cheerful side of things, and went off in the first +vessel to the West Indies. I saw him afterwards. He gave me a history of +his adventures. He went from island to island--became portrait-painter--a +painter of scenes--of any thing that might offer; by good conduct, +urbanity, gentleness, and industry, was respected, liked, and patronized; +lived, and sent home a thousand pounds or two--came to England to see his +friends for a few months. I saw him on his way to them. He was then in +health and spirits--told me the many events of the few years--and in six +weeks the climate killed him. But the anecdote of his turning +portrait-painter is what I have to tell. On the passage, they touched at +one of the islands, and he found but very little money in his pocket; and, +while others went off to hotels, or estates of friends, he went his way +quietly to seek out cheap lodgings. He found such, which the good woman +told him he could have in three hours. He afterwards learned that she +waited that time for the then tenant _to die in the bed which he was to +occupy_. Walking away to pass the time, he met some of his fellow +passengers, who asked him if he had been to see the governor. He had not. +They told him it was necessary he should go. So thither he went. Now, the +governor asked him, "What brought him out to the West Indies?" He replied, +that he came as an artist. "An artist!" said the governor. "That is a +novelty indeed. Have you any specimens? I should like to see them." Now, +among his things, he had a miniature of himself, painted by a man who +attained eminence in the profession, and whom I knew well. Here, with an +ingenuousness characteristic of the man, he acknowledged to me how, +starvation staring him in the face, _he_ stared in the governor's; and the +governor being rather a hard-featured man, whose likeness, though he had +never taken a portrait, he thought he could hit; when the governor admired +the miniature, and asked him, "If it was his?" he did not resist the +temptation, and said, "Yes." Upon which the governor sat to him. Then +others sat to him; and so he left the island, with a replenished purse, +and from that time became a portrait-painter. If the poor fellow had been +the veriest dauber, you, Eusebius, would have sat to him twenty times over, +and have told all the country round quite as great a fib as he did the +governor, that he was a very Raffaelle in outline, and Titian in coloring. +And what shall the "recording angel" do? Poor fellow! he had no conceit. + +But you, Eusebius, need not trust or give your countenance, in the way of +the art to any man because you like his history or his manners. A thing +you are very likely to do in spite of this advice, though you multiply +portraits for "Saracen's Heads." + +Foolish artists themselves, who affect to talk of the great style, and set +themselves up as geniuses, speak slightingly of portrait-painting, as +degrading--as pandering to vanity, &c. I verily believe, that half this +common cant arose from jealousy of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Degradation +indeed!--as if Raffaelle and Titian, and Vandyk and Reynolds, degraded the +art, or were degraded by their practice; and as to pandering to +vanity--view it in another light, and it is feeding affection. + +I knew a painter, who honourably refused to paint a lady's picture, when +he waited upon her on purpose, sent by some injudicious friends to take +her portrait in her last days. She had been a woman of great +celebrity--she received the painter--but, with a weakness, pointed first +to one side of the room where were portraits of earls and bishops, saying, +"these are or were all my particular friends"--and then to the other side +of the room, to a well filled library--"and these are all my works." "Now," +said the painter to me, "I did not think it fair to her reputation to take +her portrait--and she had had many taken at better times." Here was one +who would not pander to vanity. After all, it is astonishing how few +flattering painters there have been. Even he who made Venus, Minerva, and +Juno, starting with astonishment at the presence of Queen Elizabeth, +certainly made her by far the ugliest of the quartette. You may see the +picture at Hampton Court. She must have been difficult to please, for she +insisted upon being painted without shadow. "Glorious Gloriana" was to be +the sun of female beauty. She is quite as well as some in "The Book." For +modern "beauty" manufacturers make beauty to consist in silliness or +sentimentality. + +Do you believe in the story of the origin of portrait--the Grecian maid +and her lover? I cannot--for I have often tried my hand, and such frights +were the result, that it would have been a cure for love. + +For lack of the art of portrait-painting, we have really no idea what +mankind were like before the time of our Eighth Harry. What we see could +not possibly be likenesses, because they are not humanity. But in +Holbein's heads, such as the royal collection, published by Chamberlaine, +we begin to see what men and women were. What our early Henrys and Edwards +were: what the court or the people were, we cannot know; they are buried +in the night of art, like the brave who lived before the time of Agamemnon. +Perhaps it is quite as well--"_omne ignotum pro mirifico_"--and who would +lose the pleasure of wonder and conjecture, with all its imaginary +phantasmagoria? We might have a mesmeric _coma_ that might put us in +possession of the past, if it can of the future--and gratify curiosity +wofully at the expense of what is more valuable than that kind of truth. A +mesmeric painter may take the portrait of Helen of Troy, and you may knock +at your twenty neighbours' doors, and find perhaps a greater beauty, +especially if chronology be trusted as to her age at the Trojan war. Would +you like to see a veritable portrait of Angelica--or of your Orlando in +his madness? + +The great portrait-painter--the sun, in his diurnal course all over the +world, may be, for aught we know, photographing mankind, and registering +us, too; and, if we are to judge from the specimens we do see, the +collection cannot be very flattering. Who dares call the sun a flatterer? + + "... Solem quis dicere falsum + Audeat?" + +At the very moment that you are sitting to your man, to be set off with +smirk and smile and the graces of art, you are perhaps making a most +formidable impression elsewhere. You would not like to + + "Look upon this picture, _and_ on this." + +Some poor country people have an unaccountable dislike to having their +portraits taken. Savages think them second selves, and that may be +bewitched and punished; possibly something of this feeling may be at the +bottom of the dislike. I was once sketching in a country village, and an +old woman went by, and I put her into the picture. Some, looking over me, +called out to her that her likeness was taken. She cried, because she had +not her best cap and gown on. I was once positively driven from a cottage +door, because a woman thought I was "taking her off." I know not but that +it was a commendable wish in the old woman to appear decent before the +world, and so might have been the fine lady's wish-- + + "Betty, put on a little red, + One surely need not look a fright when dead." + +We choose to be satirical, and call it vanity; but put both anecdotes +into tolerably good grave Latin, and name them Portia and Lucretia, and +we should have as fine a sentiment as the boasted one of the hero +endeavouring to fall decently. There may be but little difference, and +that only just what we, in our humours, choose to make it. I am sure you, +Eusebius, will stand up for the old village crone, and the fine lady, +too. But the fraternity of the brush, if they do now and then promote +vanity, much more commonly gratify affection. Private portraits seem to +me to be things so sacred, that they ought not to survive the immediate +family or friends for whose gratification they are painted. I much like +the idea of burying them at last. I will show you how estimable these +things sometimes are. You remember a portrait I have--a gentleman in a +dress of blue and gold--in crayon. Did I ever tell you the anecdote +respecting him? If not, you shall have it, as I had from my father. If +you recollect the picture, you must recollect that it is of a very +handsome man. His horses took fright, the carriage was overturned, and he +was killed upon the spot. The property came to my father. One day an +unknown lady, in a handsome equipage, stopped at his door, and, in an +interview with him, requested a portrait of this very person, not the one +you have seen, but another in oil-colour, and of that the head only. My +father cut it out, and gave it to her. Many, many years afterwards it was +returned to him by an unknown hand, with an account of the accident that +caused the death, pasted on the back; and it is now in my possession. The +lady was never known. No, Eusebius, we must not deny portrait-painters, +nor portrait painting. It is the line in which we excel--and that we have +above all others patronized, and had great men too arise from our +encouragement--Who are so rich in Vandyks as we are? And some we have had +better than the world allowed them to be--Sir Peter Lely was occasionally +an admirable painter--though Sir Joshua did say, "We must go beyond him +now." There was Sir Joshua himself, and Gainsborough--would that either +were alive to take you, Eusebius, though I were to pay for the sitting. I +think too, that I should have given the preference to Gainsborough--it +would have been so true. Did you ever see his portrait of Foote?--so +unaffected--it must be like. I won't be invidious by naming any, where we +have so many able portrait-painters--but if you have not fixed upon your +man, come to me, and I will tell half-a-dozen, and we will go to them, +and you shall judge for yourself--and if you like miniature, there are +those who will make what is small great. What wonderful power Cooper had +in this way. I recently had in my hands a wondrous and marvellous +portrait of Andrew Marvell by him. The sturdy honest Andrew. This man +Cooper, had such wonderful largeness of style, of execution too, even in +his highest finished small oil pictures--such as in this of Andrew +Marvell. We had an age, certainly, of very bad taste, and it was not +extinct in the days of Sir Joshua and Gainsborough; nay, sometimes under +both of these, I am sorry to say, it was even made worse. The age of +shepherds and shepherdesses--in the case of Gainsborough, brought down to +downright rustics. This, of making the sitters affect to be what they +were not, was bad enough--and it was any thing but poetical. But it was +infinitely worse in the itinerants of the day--and is very well ridiculed +by Goldsmith, who lived much among painters, in his Vicar of Wakefield +and family sitting for the family picture. We have happily quite got out +of that folly. But we are getting into one of most unpoetical +pageantry--portrait likenesses. We have not seen yet a good portrait of +Wellington, and the Queen, or the Prince; and if they must send their +portraits to foreign courts, let them be advised to learn, if they know +not yet how, and we are told they do, to paint them themselves. Montaigne +tells us, that he was present one day at Bar-le-duc, when King Francis +the Second, for a memorial of Réné, King of Sicily, was presented with a +picture the king had drawn of himself. Some how or other, kings and +queens are apt to have too many trappings about them; and the man is +often chosen to paint, who paints velvets and satins best, and faces the +worst. That is the reason we have them so ill done; and even if the faces +are well painted, they are overpowered by the ostentation of the dress. +Now, the Venetian portrait-painters contrived to keep down the glare of +all this ornament, to make it even more rich, but not obtruding. I +remember seeing a portrait of our queen, where, in a large bonnet, her +face looked like a small pip in the midst of an orange. It would be a +good thing, too, if you could contrive to spend a week or so in company +with your painter before you sit, that he may know you. Many a +characteristic may he lose, for want of knowing that it is a +characteristic; and may give you that in expression which does not belong +to you, while he may miss "your sweet expression about your eyes." He may +purse up your large and generous mouth, because you may screw it for a +moment to keep some ill-timed conceit from bolting out, and, besides +missing that noble feature, may give you an expression of a caution that +is not yours. A painter the other day, as I am assured, in a country +town, made a great mistake in a characteristic, and it was discovered by +a country farmer. It was the portrait of a lawyer--an attorney, who, from +humble pretensions, had made a good deal of money, and enlarged thereby +his pretensions, but somehow or other not very much enlarged his +respectability. To his pretensions was added that of having his portrait +put up in the parlour, as large as life. There it is, very flashy and +very true--one hand in his breast, the other in his small-clothes' +pocket. It is market-day--the country clients are called in--opinions are +passed--the family present, and all complimentary--such as, "Never saw +such a likeness in the course of all my born days. As like 'un as he can +stare." "Well, sure enough, there he is." But at last--there is one +dissentient! "'Tain't like--not very--no, 'tain't," said a heavy +middle-aged farmer, with rather a dry look, too, about his mouth, and a +moist one at the corner of his eye, and who knew the attorney well. All +were upon him. "Not like!--How not like? Say where is it not like?" "Why, +don't you see," said the man, "he's got his hand in his breeches' pocket. +It would be as like again if he had his hand in any other body's pocket." +The family portrait was removed, especially as, after this, many came on +purpose to see it; and so the attorney was lowered a peg, and the farmer +obtained the reputation of a connoisseur. + +But it is high time, Eusebius, that I should dismiss you and +portrait-painting, or you will think your thus sitting to me worse than +sitting for your picture; which picture, if it be of my Eusebius as I know +him and love him, will ever be a living speaking likeness, but if it be +one but of outward feature and resemblance, it will soon pass off to make +up the accumulation of dead lumber--while do you, Eusebius, as you are, +_vive valeque_. + + * * * * * + + + + +MY FRIEND. + + + Wouldst thou be friend of mine?-- + Thou must be quick and bold + When the right is to be done, + And the truth is to be told; + + Wearing no friend-like smile + When thine heart is hot within, + Making no truce with fraud or guile, + No compromise with sin. + + Open of eye and speech, + Open of heart and hand, + Holding thine own but as in trust + For thy great brother-band. + + Patient and stout to bear, + Yet bearing not for ever; + Gentle to rule, and slow to bind, + Like lightning to deliver! + + True to thy fatherland, + True to thine own true love; + True to thine altar and thy creed, + And thy good God above. + + But with no bigot scorn + For faith sincere as thine, + Though less of form attend the prayer, + Or more of pomp the shrine; + + Remembering Him who spake + The word that cannot lie, + "Where two or three in my name meet + There in the midst am I!" + + I bar thee not from faults-- + God wot, it were in vain! + Inalienable heritage + Since that primeval slain! + + The wisest have been fools-- + The surest stumbled sore: + _Strive_ thou to stand--or fall'n arise, + I ask thee not for more! + + This do, and thou shalt knit + Closely my heart to thine; + Next the dear love of God above, + Such Friend on earth, be mine! + + O.O. + +LONDON, _January_ 1844. + + * * * * * + +THE LAND OF SLAVES. + + "Le printemps--le printemps!"--_Berenger_. + + + 'Twas a sunny holiday, + Scene, Killarney--time, last May; + In the fields the rustic throng, + Every linnet in full song, + Not a cloud to threaten rain, + As I walk'd with lovely Jane. + + While we wander'd round the bay, + Came the gayest of the gay, + Pouring from a painted barge, + Anchor'd by the flowery marge; + Sporting round its cliffs and caves:-- + Ireland is the land of slaves! + + Next we met an infant group, + Never was a happier troop; + Dancing o'er the primrose plain. + "Joyous infancy!" said Jane; + "Free from care as winds and waves." + --"No, my darling, _these_ are slaves!" + + On we walk'd--a garden shade + Show'd us matron, man, and maid, + Laughing, talking, _all_ coquetting, + "Here," said Jane, "I see no fretting: + Mammon makes but fools or knaves." + --"No, my darling, _these_ are slaves!" + + On we walk'd--we saw a dome, + Fill'd with furious dupes of Rome, + Ranting of the sword and chain. + "Let us run away," said Jane: + "How that horrid rebel raves!" + --"No, my darling, _these_ are slaves!" + + As we ran, a monster-crowd + Stopp'd us, uttering vengeance loud; + Giving nobles to the halter, + Cursing England's throne and altar, + Brandishing their pikes and staves. + "Love," said Jane, "are all _these_ slaves?" + +[Greek: Aion] + + * * * * * + +THE PRIEST'S BURIAL. + + + He is dead!--he died of a broken heart, + Of a frighten'd soul, and a frenzied brain: + He died--of playing a desperate part + For folly; which others play'd for gain. + Yet o'er his turf the rebels rave! + Be silent, wretches!--spare the grave! + + He is dead!--bewilder'd, betray'd, beguiled; + Swept on by faction's fiery blast. + In its blood-stain'd track, a fool, a child! + His doom is fix'd--his lot is cast. + Yet scowls by his bier earth's blackest knave. + Be silent, wretches!--spare the grave! + + They dress'd the cold clay in mimic state, + And the peasants came crowding round; + And many a vow of revenge and hate + In that hour on their souls was bound-- + Oh! ruthless creed, that never forgave! + Be silent, wretches!--spare the grave! + + They bore him along by the village road, + And they yell'd at the village spire! + And they laid him at rest in his long abode, + In a storm of revenge and ire; + And round him their furious banners wave. + Be silent, wretches!--spare the grave! + + Then o'er him the bigot chant was sung, + And was said the bigot prayer, + And wild hearts with many a thought were stung, + That left its venom there, + To madden in many a midnight cave. + Be silent, wretches!--spare the grave! + + All is done; he is buried--the crowd depart, + He is laid in his kindred clay, + There, freed from the torture that ate his heart, + He rests, till the last great day. + O THOU! who alone canst defend and save, + Wake Ireland wise from this lowly grave. + +[Greek: Aion.] + + * * * * * + +PRUDENCE. + + "Bide your time."--_Rebel Song_. + + + Bide your time--bide your time! + Patience is the true sublime. + Heroes, bottle up your tears; + Wait for ten, or ten score, years. + Shrink from blows, but rage in rhyme: + Bide your time--bide your time! + + Bide your time--bide your time! + Snakes are safest in their slime. + Sages look before they leap; + Heroes, to your hovels creep. + Christmas loves pantomime: + Bide your time--bide your time! + + Bide your time--bide your time! + "Shoulder arms"--but never prime. + Keep your skins from Saxon lead; + Plunder paupers for your bread. + Popish begging is no crime: + Bide your time--bide your time! + +[Greek: Aion.] + + * * * * * + + + + +FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION + +Whoever has travelled in the highlands of Scotland, or the mountains of +Wales, must have observed the remarkable difference which exists between +artificial plantations, and the natural woods of the country. Planted _all +at once_, the former grow up of uniform height, and all their trees +present nearly the same form and symmetry. Sown at different periods, with +centuries between their growth, the latter exhibit every variety of age +and form, from the decaying patriarchs of the forest, which have survived +the blasts of some hundred years, to the infant sapling, which is only +beginning to shoot under the shelter of a projecting rock or stem. Nor is +the difference less remarkable in the room which is severally afforded for +growth, in the artificial plantations and in the wilds of nature. The +larches or firs, in the stiff and angular enclosure, are always crowded +together; and if not thinned by the care of the woodsman, will inevitably +choke each other, or shoot up thin and unhealthy, in consequence of their +close proximity to each other, and the dense mass of foliage which +overshadows the upper part of the wood. But no such danger need be +apprehended In the natural forest. No woodman is called to thin its +denizens. No forester's eye is required to tell which should be left, and +which cut away, in the vast array. In the ceaseless warfare of the weaker +with the stronger, the feeble plants are entirely destroyed. In vain the +infant sapling attempts to contend with the old oak, the branches of which +overshadow its growth--it is speedily crushed in the struggle. Nor are the +means of removing the useless remains less effectual. The hand of nature +insensibly clears the waste of its incumbrances; the weakness of time +brings them to the ground when their allotted period is expired; and youth, +as in the generations of men, springs beside the decay of age, and finds +ample room for its expansion over the fallen remains of its paternal stems. + +The difference between the artificial plantation and the natural wood, +illustrates the distinction between the imaginary communities which the +political economist expects to see grow up, in conformity with his +theories, and acting in obedience to his dictates, and the nations of +flesh and blood which exist around us, of which we form a part, and which +are immediately affected by ill-judged or inapplicable measures of +commercial regulation. Nations were planted by the hand of nature; they +were not sown, nor their place allotted by human foresight. They exist +often close to each other, and under apparently the same physical +circumstances, under every possible variety of character, age, and period +of growth. The difference even between those ruled by the same government, +and inhabited apparently by the same race, is prodigious. Who could +suppose that the Dutchman, methodical, calculating, persevering, was next +neighbour to the fiery, war-like, and impetuous Frenchman? Or that the +southern and western Irish, vehement, impassioned, and volatile, came from +the same stock which pervades the whole west of Britain? England, for +centuries the abode of industry, effort, and opulence, is subject to the +same government, and situated in the same latitude as Ireland, where +indolence is almost universal, wealth rare, and manufactures in general +unknown. Russia, ignorant, united, and ever victorious, adjoins Poland, +weak, distracted, and ever vanquished; and Prussia has risen with +unheard-of rapidity in national strength, and every branch of industry, at +the very time when Spain was fast relapsing into slavery and barbarism. + +Familiar as these truths are to all they seem to have been, in an +unaccountable manner, forgotten by our modern political economists; and +the oblivion of them is the principal cause of the remarkable failure +which has attended the application to practice of all their theories. They +invariably forget the different age of nations; they overlook the +essential difference between communities with different national character, +or in different stages of manufacturing or commercial advancement, and +fall into the fatal error of supposing that one general system is to be +readily embraced by, and found applicable to, a cluster of nations +existing under every possible variety of physical, social, and political +circumstances. Fixing their eyes upon their own country, or rather upon +the peculiar interest to which they belong in their own country, they +reason as if all mankind were placed in the same circumstances, and would +be benefited by the arrangements which they find advantageous. They forget +that all nations were not planted at the same time, nor in the same soil; +that the difference in their age, the inequality in their growth, the +variety in their texture, is as great as in the trees of the forest, the +seeds of which have been scattered by the hand of nature; that the +incessant warfare of the weaker with the stronger, exists not less in the +social than the physical world; and that all systems founded on the +oblivion of that continued contest, must ever be traversed by the +strongest of all moral laws--the instinct of SELF-PRESERVATION. + +We have said that the modern theories when applied to practice, have, in a +remarkable manner, failed. In saying so, we have chiefly in view the +acknowledged failure of the strenuous efforts made by England, during the +last twenty years, to effect an interchange in the advantages of free +trade, and the entire disappointment which has attended the long +establishment, on a great scale, of the reciprocity system. To the first +we shall advert in the present paper; the second will furnish ample room +for reflection in another. + +The abstract principles on which the doctrines of free trade are founded, +are these; and we put it to the warmest advocates of those principles, +whether they are not fairly stated. All nations were not intended by +nature, nor are they fitted by their physical circumstances, to excel in +the same branches of industry; and it is the variety in the production +which they severally can bring to maturity, which at once imposes the +necessity for, and occasions the profit of, commercial intercourse. +Nothing, therefore, can be so unwise as to attempt, either by arbitrary +regulations, to create a branch of industry in a country for which it is +not intended by nature, or to retain it in that branch where it is created +by forced prohibitions. Banish all restrictions, therefore, from commerce; +let every nation apply itself to that particular branch of industry for +which it is adapted by nature, and receive in exchange the produce of +other countries, raised, in like manner, in conformity with their natural +capabilities. Then will the industry of each people be turned into the +channel most advantageous and lucrative to itself; each will enjoy the +immense advantage of purchasing the commodities it requires at the +cheapest possible rate; hopeless or absurd hot-bed attempts to force +extraneous industry will cease; and, in the mutual interchange of the +surplus produce of each, the foundation will be laid of an advantageous +and durable commercial intercourse. England, on this principle, should not +attempt to raise wine, nor France iron or cotton goods; but the calicoes +and hardware of Great Britain should be exchanged for the wines and fruits +of France: both nations will thus be enriched, and a vast commercial +traffic grow up, which, being founded on mutual interest and attended with +mutual advantage, may be expected to be durable, and to extinguish, in the +end, the rivalry of their respective people, or the jealousy of their +several governments. + +Such is the theory of free trade; and it may be admitted it wears at first +sight a seducing and agreeable aspect. Let us now enquire how far +experience, the great test of truth, has verified its doctrines, or +demonstrated its practicability. To illustrate this matter, we shall have +recourse to no mean or doubtful authority; we shall have recourse to the +statement of an enlightened but candid contemporary, whose advocating of a +moderate system of free trade has excited no small anxiety in the British +empire; and which report, from the information and ability it displays, +has assigned to the present accomplished head of the Board of Trade. + +The efforts made in Great Britain to introduce a general system of free +trade, especially within the last three years, are thus enumerated in the +_Foreign and Colonial Review_. + +"England, without gaining or asking a single boon from any foreign country, +has-- + +"1. Reduced by about one-half the duties upon foreign corn. + +"2. By nearly the same amount, the duties on foreign timber. + +"3. Has removed her prohibitions against the importation of cattle and +other animals for food, and has fixed upon them duties, ranging on the +average at about ten per cent _ad valorem_. + +"4. Has made flesh meat admissible. + +"5. Has reduced the duty on salt provisions for home consumption by +one-third, and one-half; and has placed them on a footing of entire +equality with the British article for the supply of the whole marine +frequenting her ports. + +"6. Has lowered her duties on vegetables and seeds in general to one-half, +one-sixth, and even one-twelfth (in the case of that most important +esculent the potatoe) of what they formerly were. + +"7. Has made all _great_ articles of manufacture, except silk, which is +reserved for future negotiations, admissible at duties of ten, twelve and +a half, and fifteen per cent, and only in some few instances so much as +twenty per cent. + +"8. Upon some minor articles of manufacture, where our people lie under +heavy disadvantages in obtaining the raw material, and where their habits +have been formed in their particular occupation, wholly under the shelter, +and therefore upon the responsibility of the law, she has retained duties +in some cases as high as thirty per cent _ad valorem_, but yet has reduced +them to rates insignificant in comparison with those formerly charged. + +"9. In her colonies, she has fixed the ordinary rules of differential +duties upon foreign productions at four and seven per cent, with +exceptions altogether trifling in amount, on which a higher charge has +been laid for special reasons. + +"10. She has withdrawn the prohibition to export machinery, except so far +as regards the linen manufacture, and the spinning of the yarns employed +in it. + +"11. With regard to many other articles, such as butter and cheese, indeed, +with regard to all articles to which the simple and essential interests of +the revenue will allow the same rules to be applied--it has been declared +that they are only temporarily exempted from the operations of those rules, +and it is well understood, that no time will be allowed to pass, except +such as is necessary, before the work is completed; and lastly, + +"12. She has not even excluded from the benefit of these reductions the +very countries under whose simultaneous enactments, of a hostile character, +she is at this moment suffering: these advantages will be enjoyed by the +tar and cordage of Russia; by the corn and timber, the woollens, linens, +and hosiery of northern Germany; by the gloves, the boots and shoes, the +light writing-papers, the perfumery, the corks, the straw-hats, the +cottons and cambrics, the dressed skins, the thrown silk, and even (from +an incidental charge with respect to the charge of duty on the bottles) +the wines of France; by the salt provisions, the ashes, the turpentine, +the rice, the furs and skins, the sperm oil of America; and she in +particular may expect to derive advantage from the alteration in our +colonial import duties upon the great articles of flour, salt, provisions, +fish and lumber."[15] + + [15] _Foreign and Colonial Review_, Vol. i. p. 235. + +Such have been the sacrifices which Great Britain has recently made in +order to secure a system of free commercial enterprise throughout the +world. Let us now enquire what return she has met with for these +concessions; and the recent occurrences in this respect are detailed in +the same unexceptionable authority. + +"Within the last year, France has passed an ordinance, doubling the duty +on linen yarns--a measure hostile enough, had it been uniform in its +application to all countries; but, lest there should be any ambiguity +about its meaning, she has actually left open her Belgian frontier to that +article at the former duty, on the condition that Belgium should levy the +high French duty in her custom-houses, so as to prevent the transit of the +British yarns through that country. To this disreputable and humiliating +proposal, Belgium has consented. Again, amidst the loudest professions +from the Prussian government, of an anxiety to advance the relaxation of +commercial restrictions, that government has, nevertheless, adopted a +proceeding not less hostile or mischievous than the measure of France with +regard to linen yarns. The Congress of the Deputies of the Zollverein, at +Stuttgard, have in a new tariff, which was to take effect on the 1st of +January, besides some minor alterations of an unfavourable kind, decreed, +upon the proposal of Prussia, that goods mixed of cotton and wool, if of +more than one colour, shall pay fifty thalers the centner, instead of +thirty; that is, instead of a very high, shall be liable to an exorbitant, +and, as it may prove, a prohibitory duty. Next, America, as all our +readers must be aware, has, after a struggle, passed a tariff, subverting +altogether the arrangement established by the Compromise Act of 1833, and +imposing upon the various descriptions of manufactured goods rates of duty +varying from thirty to forty and fifty per cent and upwards, which have +had the effect of stopping a great portion of the shipments of cotton +goods to that country from Great Britain during the past autumn, and, +without doubt, have added greatly to the distresses of our manufacturing +population. Besides these greater instances, Russia, according to her wont +in such matters, and Spain, have published, within the test fifteen months, +new tariffs, of which it is difficult to say whether they are still worse +than, or only as execrably bad, as those which they succeeded, but, in the +close rivalry between the old and the new, the latter seem, upon the whole, +entitled to the palm of prohibitive rigour. And Portugal, likewise, has +augmented the duties payable upon certain classes of her imports, by a +measure of the recent date of March 1841, and by another of last year. In +the mean time, Spain has concluded a treaty with Belgium for the admission +of her linens. And the king of Prussia has effected an arrangement with +the czar, which, in certain particulars, secures, upon his own frontier, a +relaxation of the iron strictness of the Russian system. England has +concluded no commercial treaty with any of these powers; and the +negotiation with France, which the measures of Lord Palmerston interrupted +in 1840, at the very period of its ripeness, appears still to +slumber--owing, we believe, in part, to the prevalence of an anti-Anglican +feeling in that country, which, for the credit of common sense and of +human nature, we trust will be temporary; but much more to the high +protective notions, and the political activity and influence of the French +manufacturers, which overawe an administration far less strong, we regret +to say, than it deserves." + +Our recent attempts, therefore, to introduce a general system of free +trade among nations have proved a signal failure, on the admission of the +most enlightened advocates for that species of policy. Nor have our +earlier efforts been more successful. Mr Huskisson, as it is well known, +introduced, full twenty years ago, the system of free trade, and repealed +the navigation laws, in the hope of making the Northern Powers of Europe +more favourable to the admission of British manufactures, and materially +reduced the duties on French silks, watches, wines, and jewellery, in the +hope that the Government of that country would see the expedience of +making a corresponding reduction in the duties levied on our staple +manufactures in the French harbours. But after twenty years' experience of +these concessions on our part, the French Government are so far from +evincing a disposition to meet us with a similar conciliatory policy, that +they have done just the reverse. Scarce a year has elapsed without some +additional duty being imposed on our fabrics in their harbours; and the +great reductions contained in Sir R. Peel's tariff were immediately met, +as already noticed, by the imposition of an additional and very heavy duty +on British linens. Nay, so far has the free trade system been from +enlarging the market for our manufactures in Europe, that after twenty +years' experience of its effects, and an increase over Europe generally of +fully a third in numbers, and at least a half in wealth, it is an +ascertained fact, that our exports to the European-States _are less than +they were forty years ago_.[16] "That part of our commerce," says Mr +Porter, himself a decided free trader, "which, being carried on with the +rich and civilized inhabitants of European nations, should present the +greatest field for extension, will be seen to have fallen off in a +remarkable degree. The annual average exports to the whole of Europe were +_less in value by nearly twenty per cent_, on an average of five years, +from 1832 to 1836, _than they were during the five years that followed the +close of the war;_ and it affords strong evidence of the unsatisfactory +footing on which our trading regulations with Europe are established, that +our exports to the United States of America, which, with their population +of 12,000,000, (in 1837,) are situated 3000 miles from us across the +Atlantic, have amounted to more than half the sum of our shipments to the +whole of Europe, with a population fifteen times as great as that of the +United States of America, and with an abundance of productions suited to +our wants, which they are naturally desirous of exchanging for the produce +of our mines and looms."[17] + + [16] _Foreign and Colonial Review_, Vol. i. p. 233. + + [17] Porter's _Progress of the Nation_, Vol. i. p. 101. + +This was written by Mr Porter in 1837; but while subsequent times have +evinced an increased anxiety on the part of this country to extend the +principles of free trade, they have been met by such increased +determination on the part of the European governments to _resist the +system,_ and adhere more rigorously to their protecting policy, that the +disproportion is now universal, and is every day becoming more remarkable. +The following table will show that our exports to Europe, notwithstanding +our twelve reciprocity treaties with its maritime powers, and unceasing +efforts to give a practical exemplification of the principles of free +trade, are stationary or declining.[18] + + [18] Table showing the date and value of Exports of British Iron + Manufacturers to Europe in the afore-mentioned years. + + Northern Europe. Southern Europe. Total. + 1814 £14,113,773 £12,753,816 £26,867,589 + 1815 11,791,692 8,764,552 20,556,544 + 1816 11,369,086 7,284,467 18,653,555 + 1817 11,408,083 9,685,491 19,093,574 + 1818 11,809,243 7,639,139 19,448,382 + 1819 9,805,397 6,896,287 16,601,684 + 1820 11,289,891 7,139,042 18,428,433 + + 1833 9,313,549 5,686,949 15,000,498 + 1834 9,505,892 8,501,141 18,007,033 + 1835 10,303,316 8,161,117 18,464,433 + 1836 9,999,861 9,011,205 19,000,066 + 1837 11,097,436 7,789,126 18,187,662 + 1838 11,258,473 9,481,372 20,739,845 + 1839 11,991,236 9,376,241 21,367,477 + + +In one particular instance, the entire failure of the free trade system to +procure any corresponding return from the very continental states whose +harbours it was chiefly intended to open, has been singularly conspicuous. +In February 1821 the reciprocity system, in regard to shipping, was +introduced by Mr Huskisson, and acted upon by the legislature; and the +following reason was assigned by that eminent man for deviating from the +old navigation laws of Cromwell, which had so long constituted the +strength of the British navy. Mr Huskisson maintained--"That the period +had now arrived, when it had become indispensable to introduce a more +liberal system in regard to the admission of foreign shipping into our +harbours, if we would avoid the total exclusion of our manufacturers into +their harbours. The exclusive system did admirably well, as long as we +alone acted upon it; when foreign nations were content to take our goods, +though we excluded their shipping. But they had now become sensible of +the impolicy of such a system, and, right or wrong, were resolved to +resist it. Prussia, in particular, had resisted all the anxious endeavours +of this country, to effect the introduction of goods of our manufacture, +on favourable terms, into her harbours; and the reason assigned was, that +the navigation laws excluded her shipping from ours. The reciprocity +system has been rendered indispensable by the prohibitory system, which +the other European powers have adopted. The only means of meeting the +heavy duties they have imposed on our goods and shipping, is to place our +duties upon a system of perfect reciprocity with theirs. Foreign nations +have no advantage over us in the carrying trade: from the London report, +it clearly appeared, that the ships of Norway, Sweden, Russia, Prussia, +France, and Holland, cannot compete with British, either in long or short +voyages. But at any rate, the repeal of our discriminating duties has +become matter of necessity, if we would propose any trade with these +countries."[19] + + [19] Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, February 13, 1823; and Annual + Register, 1823, p. 104. + + Table showing the British and Foreign tonnage, with Sweden, Norway, + Denmark, and Prussia, since 1823, when the reciprocity system began, + in each of the following years:-- + + SWEDEN. NORWAY. DENMARK. PRUSSIA. +Years British Foreign British Foreign British Foreign British Foreign + Tons. Tons Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. +1821 23,005 8,508 13,855 61,342 5,312 3,969 79,590 37,720 +1822 20,799 13,692 13,377 87,974 7,096 3,910 102,847 58,270 +1823 20,986 22,529 13,122 117,015 4,413 4,795 81,202 86,013 +1824 17,074 40,092 11,419 135,272 6,738 23,689 94,664 151,621 +1825 15,906 53,141 14,825 157,910 15,158 50,943 189,214 182,752 +1826 11,829 16,939 15,603 90,726 22,000 56,544 119,060 120,589 +1827 11,719 21,822 13,945 96,420 10,825 52,456 150,718 109,184 +1828 14,877 24,700 10,826 85,771 17,464 49,293 133,753 99,195 +1829 16,536 25,046 9,985 86,205 24,576 53,390 125,918 127,861 +1830 12,116 23,158 6,459 84,585 12,210 51,420 102,758 139,646 +1831 11,450 39,689 4,518 114,865 6,552 62,190 83,908 140,532 +1832 8,335 25,755 3,798 82,155 7,268 35,772 62,079 89,187 +1833 10,009 29,454 5,901 98,931 6,840 38,620 41,735 108,753 +1834 15,353 35,910 6,403 98,303 5,691 53,282 32,021 118,111 +1835 12,036 35,061 2,592 95,049 6,007 49,008 25,514 124,144 +1836 10,865 42,439 1,573 12,875 2,152 51,907 42,567 174,439 +1837 7,608 42,602 1,035 88,004 5,357 55,961 67,566 145,742 +1838 10,425 38,991 1,364 110,817 3,466 57,554 86,734 175,643 +1839 8,359 42,270 2,582 109,228 5,535 106,960 111,470 229,208 +1840 11,933 53,337 3,166 114,241 6,327 103,067 112,709 237,984 + + --PORTER'S Part. Tables. + +Such were Mr Huskisson's reasons. They were grounded on alleged necessity. +He said in substance:--"The navigation laws are very good things; and if +we could only persuade other nations to take our goods, while we virtually +shut out their shipping, it would, doubtless, be very advisable to +continue the present system. But you can no longer do this. Foreign +nations see the undue advantage which has been so long obtained of them. +They insist upon an exchange of interests. We, as the richer and the more +powerful, are called on to make the first advances. We must relinquish our +navigation laws in favor of their staple manufacture, shipping, if we +would induce them to admit, on favourable terms, our staple article, +cotton goods." These were Mr Huskisson's principles; and it may be +admitted that, in the abstract, they were well-founded, for all commercial +intercourse, to be beneficial and lasting, must be founded on a mutual +exchange of advantages. But, in carrying into execution this principle, +he committed a fatal mistake, which has already endangered, without the +slightest advantage, and, if persevered in, may ultimately destroy the +commercial superiority of Great Britain. He virtually repealed, by the 4 +Geo. IV. c. 77 and the 5 Geo. IV. c. 1, the navigation laws, by +authorizing the King, by an order in council, to permit the exportation +and importation of goods in foreign vessels, on payment of the same duties +as where chargeable on British vessels, in favour of those countries which +did not levy discriminating duties on British vessels bringing goods into +their harbours, and to levy on the vessels of such countries the same +tonnage duties as they charged on British vessels. This was, in effect, +to say--We will admit your vessels on the same terms on which you admit +ours; and nothing, at first sight, could seem more equitable. + +But, nevertheless, this system involved a fatal mistake, the pernicious +effects of which have now been amply demonstrated by experience, and which +lies at the bottom of the whole modern doctrines of free trade. _It +stipulates for no advantages corresponding to the concession made_, and +thus the reciprocity was on one side only. Mr Huskisson repealed, in +favour of the Baltic powers, the British navigation laws; that is, he +threw open to Baltic competition, without any protection, the British +shipping interest: but _he forgot to exact from them any corresponding +favour for British iron or cotton goods in the Baltic harbours_. He +said--"We will admit your shipping on the same terms on which you admit +ours." What he should have said is--"We will admit your shipping into our +harbors on the same term you admit _our cotton goods_ into your harbours." +This would have been real reciprocity, because each side would have given +free ingress to that staple commodity in which its neighbor had the +advantage; and thus the most important branch of industry of each would +have been secured an inlet into the other's territories. The British +tonnage might have been driven out of the Baltic trade by the shipowners +of Denmark and Norway, but the Prussian cotton manufacturers would have +been crushed by the British. It might then have come to be a question of +whether the upholding of our shipping interest or the extension of our +cotton manufactures was the most advisable policy. But no such question +need be considered now. We have gained nothing by exposing our shipping +interest to the ruinous competition of the Baltic vessels. The Danish, +Norwegian and Prussian ships have come into our harbours, but the British +cotton and iron goods have not entered theirs. The reciprocity system has +been all on one side. After having been twenty years in operation, it has +failed in producing _the smallest concession_ in favour of British +manufactures, or producing in those states with whom the reciprocity +treaties were concluded, the _smallest extension of British exports_. +Since we so kindly permitted it, they have taken every thing and given +nothing. They have done worse. They have taken good and returned evil. The +vast concession contained in the repeal of our navigation laws, has been +answered by the enhanced duties contained in the Prussian Zollverein. +Twenty-six millions of Germans have been arrayed under a commercial league, +which, by levying duties, practically varying from thirty to fifty, though +nominally only ten _per cent_, effectually excludes British manufactures; +and, after twenty years' experience, our exports are only a few hundred +thousands a year, and our exports of cotton manufactures _only a few +hundreds a year_, to the whole States of Northern Europe, in favour of +whom the navigation laws were swept away, and an irreparable wound +inflicted on British maritime interests, and in whose wants Mr Huskisson +anticipated a vast market for our manufacturing industry, and an ample +compensation for the diminution of our shipping interest. + +Nature has established this great and all-important distinction between +the effects of wealth and national age on the productions of agriculture +and of manufactures. The reason is this:--If capital, machinery, and +knowledge, conferred the same immediate and decisive advantage on +agricultural that they do on manufacturing industry, old and +densely-peopled states would possess an undue superiority over the ruder +and more thinly-inhabited ones; the multiplication of the human race would +become excessive in the seats in which it had first taken root, and the +desert parts of the world would never, but under the pressure of absolute +necessity, be explored. The first command of God to man, "Be fruitful, and +multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it," would be frustrated. +The apprehensions of the Malthusians as to an excessive increase of +mankind, with its attendant dangers, would be realized in particular +places, while nineteen-twentieths of the earth lay neglected in a state of +nature. The desert would be left alone in its glory. The world would be +covered with huge and densely-peopled excrescences--with Babylons, Romes, +and Londons--in which wealth, power, and corruption were securely and +permanently intrenched, and from which the human race would ne'er diverge +but under the pressure of absolute impossibility to wrench a subsistence +from their over-peopled vicinities. + +These dangers, threatening alike to the moral character and material +welfare of nations, are completely prevented by the simple law, the +operations of which we every day see around us--viz. that wealth, +civilization, and knowledge, add rapidly and indefinitely to the powers of +manufacturing and commercial, but comparatively slowly to those of +agricultural industry. This simple circumstance effectually provides for +the dispersion of the human race, and the check of an undue growth in +particular communities. The old state can always undersell the young one +in manufactures, but it is everlastingly undersold by them in agriculture. +Thus the equalization of industry is introduced, the dispersion of the +human race secured, and a limit put to the perilous multiplication of its +members in particular communities. The old state can never rival the young +ones around it in raising subsistence; the young ones can never rival the +old one in manufactured articles. Either a free trade takes place between +them, or restrictions are established. If the commercial intercourse +between them is unrestricted, agriculture is destroyed, and with it +national strength is undermined in the old state, and manufactures are +nipped in the bud in the young ones. If restrictions prevail, and a war of +tariffs is introduced, the agriculture of the old state, and with it its +national strength, is preserved, but its export of manufactures to the +adjoining states is checked, and they establish growing fabrics for +themselves. Whichever effect takes place, the object of nature in the +equalization of industry, the limitation of aged communities, and the +dispersion of mankind, is gained, in the first, by the ruin of the old +empire from the decay of its agricultural resources; in the second, by the +check given to its manufacturing prowess, and the transference of +mercantile industry to its younger rivals. + +Generally the interests and necessities of the young states introduce a +prohibitory system to exclude the manufactures of the old one; and it is +this necessity which England is now experiencing, and vainly endeavours to +obviate, by introducing a system of free trade. But in one memorable +instance, and one only, the preponderance of a particular power rendered +this impossible, and illustrated on a great scale, and over the whole +civilized world, for a course of centuries, the effects of a perfect +freedom of trade. The Roman empire, spreading as it did round the shores +of the Mediterranean, afforded the utmost facilities for a great internal +traffic; while the equal policy of the emperors, and indeed the necessity +of their situation, introduced a perfect freedom in the interchange of +commodities between every part of their vast dominions. And what was the +result? Why, that the agriculture of Italy was destroyed--that 300,000 +acres in the champaign of Naples alone reverted to a state of nature, and +were tenanted only by wild-boars and buffaloes, before a single barbarian +had crossed the Alps--that the Grecian cities were entirely maintained by +grain from the plains of Podolia--and the mistress of the world, according +to the plaintive expression of the Roman annalist, depended for her +subsistence on the floods of the Nile.[20] Not the corruption of manners, +not the tyranny of the Caesars, occasioned the ruin of the empire, for +they affected only a limited class of the people; but the practical +working of free trade, joined to domestic slavery, which destroyed the +agricultural population of the heart of the empire, and left only +effeminate urban multitudes to contend with the hardy barbarians of the +north. + + [20] Tacitus, Vol. xiv. p. 21; Michelet's _Hist. de France,_ + Vol. i. p. 217. + +The advocates of free trade are not insensible to the superior advantages +of the rising over the old state in agriculture, and of the latter over +the former in manufactures. On the contrary, it is a secret but clear +sense of the reality of this distinction, which causes them so strenuously +to contend for the removal of all restrictions. They hope, by so doing, to +effect a great extension of their sales in foreign countries, without, as +they pretend, creating any diminution in their own. But the views which +have now been given show that this is a vain conceit, and demonstrate how +it has happened, that the more strenuously England contends for the +principles of free trade, and the more energetically that she carries them +into practice, the more decided is the resistance which she meets on +foreign states in the attempt, and the more rigorously do they act on the +principles of protection. It is because they are striving to become +manufacturing and commercial communities that they do this--it is a clear +sense of the ruin which awaits them, if deluged with British goods, which +makes them so strenuous in their system of exclusion. The more that we +open our trade, the more will they close theirs. They think, and not +without reason, that we advocate unrestricted commercial intercourse only +because it would be profitable to us, and deprecate our old system of +exclusion only because it has now been turned against ourselves. "Now, +then," say they, "is the time, when England is suffering under the system +of exclusion, which we have at length had sense enough to borrow from her, +to draw closer the bonds of that system, and complete the glorious work of +our own elevation on her ruins. Our policy is clearly chalked out by hers; +we have only to do what she deprecates, and we are sure to be right." It +is evident that these views will be permanently entertained by them, +because they are founded on the strongest of all instincts that of +self-preservation. When we cease to be a great manufacturing nation, when +we are no longer formidable rivals, they will open their harbours; but not +till then. In striving to introduce a system of free trade, therefore, we +gratuitously inflict a severe wound on our domestic industry, without any +chance even of a compensation in that which is destined for the foreign +markets. We let in their goods into our harbours, but we do not obtain +admission, nor will we ever obtain admission, for ours into theirs. The +reciprocity is, and ever must be, all on one side. + +It is by mistaking the dominant influence among the continental states, +that so large a portion of the community are deceived on this subject. +They say, if we take their grain and cattle, they will take our cotton +goods; that their system of exclusion is entirely a consequence of, and +retaliation for, ours. Can they produce a single instance in which our +concessions in favour of their rude produce have led to a corresponding +return in favour of ours? How can it be so, when, in all old states, the +monied is the prevailing interest which sways the determinations of +government? The landholders, separated from each other, without capital, +almost all burdened with debt, are no match in the domestic struggle for +the manufacturing and commercial interests. Their superiority is founded +on a very clear footing--the same which has rendered the British House of +Commons omnipotent. _They hold the purse._ It is their loans which support +the credit of Government; it is by the customs which their imports pay +that the public revenue is to be chiefly raised. The more popular that +governments become, the more strongly will their influences appear in the +war of tariffs. If pure democracies were established in all the +neighbouring states, we would be met in then all by a duty of sixty per +cent. Witness the American tariff of 1842, and the progressive increases +of duties against us since the popular revolutions we have fostered and +encouraged in France, Belgium, and Portugal. + +Is, then, a free and unrestrained system of commercial intercourse +impossible between nations, and must it ever end in a war of tariffs and +the pacific infliction of mutual injury? We consider it is impossible +between two nations, both manufacturing, or aspiring to be so, and in the +same, or nearly the same, age and social circumstances. It is mere folly +to attempt it; because interests which must clash, are continually arising +on both parts, and reciprocity, if attempted, is on one side only. With +such nations, the only wisdom is, to conclude treaties, not of reciprocity, +but of _commerce_; that is, treaties in which, in consideration of certain +branches of our manufactures being admitted on favourable terms, we agree +to admit certain articles of their produce on equally advantageous +conditions. Thus, a treaty, by which we agreed to admit, for a moderate +duty, the wines of France, which we can never rival, in return for their +admitting our iron and cotton goods on similar terns, would be a measure +of equal benefit to both countries. It would be as wise a measure as Mr +Huskisson's reduction of the duties on French silks, gloves, and clocks, +was a gratuitous and unwarranted injury to staple branches of our own +industry. The only countries to which the reciprocity system is really +applicable, are distant states in an early state of civilization, whose +natural products are essentially different from our own, and whose stage +of advancement is not such as to have made them enter on the career of +manufacture, of jealousy, and of tariffs. Colonies unite all these +advantages; and it is in them that the real sources of our strength, and +the only secure markets for our produce, are to be found; but that subject, +so vast, so interesting, so vital to our individual and national +advancement, must be reserved for a future occasion. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- +Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 16293-8.txt or 16293-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/9/16293/ + +Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals; Jon +Ingram, Allen Siddle and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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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 -- Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 14, 2005 [EBook #16293] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals; Jon +Ingram, Allen Siddle and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<br> +<hr> +<br> +<h1>BLACKWOOD'S</h1> +<h1>Edinburgh</h1> +<h1>MAGAZINE.</h1> +<hr> +<h3>NO. CCCXL. FEBRUARY 1844. Vol. LV.</h3> +<hr> + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<ul> + <li><a href="#bw340s1">THE HERETIC</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s2">THRUSH-HUNTING. BY ALEXANDER DUMAS</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s3">HIGH LIFE IN THE LAST CENTURY</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s4">NEWS FROM AN EXILED CONTRIBUTOR</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s5">THE PROPHECY OF THE TWELVE TRIBES</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s6">A BEWAILMENT FROM BATH; OR, POOR OLD MAIDS</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s7">MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART VIII.</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s8">SECESSION FROM THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s9">SITTING FOR A PORTRAIT</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s10">MY FRIEND</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s11">THE LAND OF SLAVES</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s12">THE PRIEST'S BURIAL</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s13">PRUDENCE</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340s14">FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION</a></li> + <li><a href="#bw340-footnotes">[FOOTNOTES]</a></li> +</ul> + +<br> +<br> +<hr> +<h2>EDINBURGH:</h2> +<h4>WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET;</h4> +<h4>AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON.</h4> +<h4><i>To whom all Communications (post paid) must +be addressed.</i></h4> +<h4>SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS THE UNITED KINGDOM.</h4> +<h4>PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH.</h4> + + +<br><hr class="full"> + +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page133 name=page133></A>[pg 133]</SPAN> +<a name="bw340s1" id="bw340s1"></a><h2>THE HERETIC.<a id=footnotetag1 +name=footnotetag1></a><a +href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a></h2> + +<p> +It is now about three centuries since Richard Chancellor, pilot-major of +the fleet which, under the command of Sir Hugh Willoughby, and by the +advice of Sebastian Cabot, set out to discover a north-east passage to +China, carried his ship, the Edward Bonaventura, into Archangel. The rest +of the fleet put into a haven on the coast of Lapland, where all their +crews, with the gallant commander, perished miserably of cold and hunger. +Chancellor, accompanied by Master George Killingworthe, found his way to +Moscow, where he was courteously entertained by the Tsar Iván IV., +surnamed the Terrible. On his return to England in 1554, he delivered a +friendly letter from the Tsar to King Edward VI., and announced to the +people of England "the discovery of Muscovy." The English adventurers +where mightily astonished by the state and splendour of the Russian court, +and gave a curious account of their intercourse with the tyrant Iván, who +treated them with great familiarity and kindness, though he was perhaps +the most atrocious monster, not excepting the worst of the Roman emperors, +that ever disgraced a throne. The Tsar "called them to his table to +receive each a cup from his hand to drinke, and took into his hand Master +George Killingworthe's beard, which reached over the table, and pleasantly +delivered it to the metropolitan, who seeming to bless it, said in Russ, +'This is God's gift;' as indeed at that time it was not only thicke, broad, +and yellow coulered, but in length five foot and two inches of a size." +</p> +<p> +Chancellor returned the following year to Moscow, and arranged with the +Tsar the commercial privileges and immunities of a new company of +merchant-adventurers who desired to trade with Muscovy; but in 1556, while +on his way home, accompanied by Osep Neped, the first Russian ambassador +to the court of England, their ship was wrecked on our own coast, at +Pitsligo bay, where Chancellor was drowned, with most of the crew; but +Osep Neped, who escaped, was conducted with much pomp to London, and there +established on a firmer basis the commercial relations between the two +countries, to which Chancellor's discovery had led, and of which he had +laid the foundation. The commerce thus begun has continued uninterrupted, +to the mutual advantage of both nations, up to this time, and thousands of +our countrymen have there gained wealth and distinction, in commerce, in +the arts, in science, and in arms. +</p> +<p> +But of the twenty-seven millions of men, women, and children who people +Great Britain and Ireland, how many may be presumed to know any thing +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page134 name=page134></A>[pg 134]</SPAN>of +Russian literature, or even to have enquired whether it contains any thing +worth knowing? Are there a dozen literary men or women amongst us who +could read a Russian romance, or understand a Russian drama? Dr Bowring +was regarded as a prodigy of polyglot learning, because he gave us some +very imperfect versions of Russian ballads; and we were thankful even for +that contribution, from which, we doubt not, many worthy and well-informed +people learned for the first time that Russia produced poets as well as +potashes. Russia has lately lost a poet of true genius, of whom his +countrymen are proud, and no doubt have a right to be proud, for his +poetry found its way at once to the heart of the nation: but how few there +are amongst us who know any thing of Poushkin, unless it be his untimely +and melancholy end? +</p> +<p> +The generation that has been so prolific of prose fiction in other parts +of Europe, has not been barren in Russia. She boasts of men to whom she is +grateful for having adorned her young literature with the creations of +their genius, or who have made her history attractive with the allurements +of faithful fiction, giving life, and flesh, and blood to its dry bones; +and yet, gentle reader, learned or fair—or both fair and learned—whether +sombre in small clothes, or brilliant in <i>bas-bleus</i>—how many could +you have named a year ago of those names which are the pride and delight +of a great European nation, with which we have had an intimate, friendly, +and beneficial intercourse for three consecutive centuries, and whose +capital has now for some years been easily accessible in ten days from our +own? +</p> +<p> +Surely it is somewhat strange, that while Russia fills so large a space, +not only on the map, but in the politics of the world—while the influence +of her active mind, and of her powerful muscle, is felt and acknowledged +in Europe, Asia, and America—that we, who come in contact with her +diplomatic skill and her intelligence at every turn and in every quarter, +should never have thought it worth while to take any note of her +literature—of the more attractive movements of her mind. +</p> +<p> +The history, the ancient mythology, and the early Christian legends of +Russia, are full of interest. We there encounter the same energetic and +warlike people, who, from roving pirates of the Baltic sea, became the +founders of dynasties, and who have furnished much of what is most +romantic in the history of Europe. The Danes, who ravaged our coasts, and +gave a race of princes to England; the Normans, from whom are descended +our line of sovereigns, and many of our noble and ancient families—the +Normans, who established themselves in Sicily and the Warrhag, or +Varangians, who made their leader, Rurik, a sovereign over the ancient +Sclavonic republic of Nóvgorod, and gave their own distinctive appellation +of Russ to the people and to the country they conquered, were all men of +the same race, the same habits, and the same character. The daring spirit +of maritime adventure, the love of war, and the thirst of plunder, which +brought their barks to the coasts of Britain and of France, was displayed +with even greater boldness in Russia. After the death of Rurik, these +pirates of the Baltic, under the regent Oleg, launching their galleys on +the Borysthenes, forced the descent of the river against hostile tribes, +defeated the armies of Byzantium, exercised their ancient craft on the +Black sea and on the Bosphorus, and, entering Constantinople in triumph, +extorted tribute and a treaty from the Keisar in his palace. +</p> +<p> +Then, after a time, came the introduction of the Christian religion and of +letters; and the contests which terminated in the triumph of Christianity +over the ancient mythology, in which the milder deities of the Pantheon, +with their attendant spirits of the woods, the streams, and the household +hearth, would seem to have mingled with the fiercer gods of the Valhalla. +Then the frequent contests and varying fortunes of the principalities into +which the country was divided—the invasions of the Tartar hordes, under +the successors of Chenjez Khan, destroying every living thing, and +deliberately making a desert of every populous place, that grass might +more abound for their horses and their flocks—the long and weary +domination of these desolating masters; the gradual relaxation of the iron +gripe with which they crushed the country; the pomp and power of the +Russian church, even in +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page135 name=page135></A>[pg 135]</SPAN> +the worst times of Tartar oppression; the first +gathering together of the nation's strength as its spirit revived; the +first great effort to cast off the load under which its loins had been +breaking for more than two centuries, and the desperate valour with which +the Russians fought their first great battle for freedom and their faith, +and shook the Tartar supremacy, under the brave and skilful Dimítri, on +the banks of the Don—the cautious wisdom and foresight with which he +created an aristocracy to support the sovereignty he had made +hereditary—the pertinacity with which, in every change of fortune, his +successors worked out slowly, and more by superior intelligence than by +prowess, the deliverance of their country—the final triumph of this wary +policy, under the warlike, but consummately able and dexterous management +of Iván the Great—the rapidity and force with which the Muscovite power +expanded, when it had worn out and cast off the Tartar fetters that had +bound it—the cautious and successful attempts of Iván to take from the +first a high place amongst the sovereigns of Europe—the progress in the +arts of civilized life which was made in his reign—the accession of +weight and authority which the sovereign power received from the prudent +and dignified demeanour of his son and successor—the sanguinary tyranny +with which Iván IV., in the midst of the most revolting atrocities and +debaucheries, broke down the power of the aristocracy, prostrated the +energies of the nation, and paved the way for successive usurpations—the +skilful and crafty policy, and the unscrupulous means by which Boris +raised himself to the throne, after he had destroyed the last +representatives of the direct line of Rurik, which, in all the +vicissitudes of Russian fortune, had hitherto held the chief place in the +nation—the taint of guilt which poisoned and polluted a mind otherwise +powerful, and not without some virtues, and made him at length a +suspicious and cruel tyrant, who, having alienated the good-will of the +nation, was unable to oppose the pretensions of an impostor, and swallowed +poison to escape the tortures of an upbraiding conscience—the successful +imposture of the monk who personated the Prince Dimítri, one of the +victims of Boris' ambition, and who was slaughtered on the day of his +nuptials at the foot of the throne he had so strangely usurped, by an +infuriated mob; not because he was known to be an impostor, but because he +was accused of a leaning to the Latin church—the season of anarchy that +succeeded and led to fresh impostures, and to the Polish domination—the +servile submission of the Russian nobility to Sigismund, king of Poland, +to whom they sold their country; the revival of patriotic feelings, almost +as soon as the sacrifice had been made—the bold and determined opposition +of the Russian church to the usurpation of a Latin prince, the +persecutions, the hardships, the martyrdom it endured; the ultimate rising +of the Muscovite people at its call—the sanguinary conflict in Moscow; +the expulsion of the Poles; the election of Michael Romanoff, the first +sovereign of his family and of the reigning dynasty—the whole history of +the days of Peter, of Catharine, and of Alexander, and even the less +prominent reigns of intermediate sovereigns—are full of the interest and +the incidents which are usually considered most available to the writers +of historical romance. +</p> +<p> +But such materials abound in the history of every people. Men of genius +for the work find them scattered every where—in the peculiarities of +personal character developed in the contests of petty tribes or turbulent +burghers, as often as in the revolutions of empires. The value of +historical, as well as of other fictions, must be measured by the power +and the skill it displays, rather than by the magnitude of the events it +describes, or the historical importance of the persons it introduces; and +therefore no history can well be exhausted for the higher purposes of +fiction. Of what historical importance are the stories on which Shakspeare +has founded his <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>—his <i>Othello</i>—his <i>Hamlet</i>, or his +<i>Lear</i>? Does the chief interest or excellence of <i>Waverley</i>, or <i>Ivanhoe</i>, +or <i>Peveril of the Peak</i>, or <i>Redgauntlet</i>, or <i>Montrose</i>, depend on the +delineation of historical characters, or the description of historical +events? What space <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page136 name=page136></A>[pg +136]</SPAN> +do Balfour of Burleigh, or Rob Roy, or Helen Macgregor, +fill in history? The fact appears to be, that, even in the purest +historical prose fictions, neither the interest nor the excellence +generally depend upon the characters or the incidents most prominent in +history. A man of genius, who calls up princes and heroes from the dust +into which they have crumbled, may delight us with a more admirable +representation than our own minds could have furnished of some one whose +name we have long known, and of whose personal bearing, and habits, and +daily thoughts, we had but a vague and misty idea; and acknowledging the +fidelity of the portrait we may adopt it; and then this historical person +becomes to us what the imagination of genius, not what history, has made +him, and yet the portrait is probably one in which no contemporary could +have recognized any resemblance to the original. But the characters of +which history has preserved the most full and faithful accounts, whose +recorded actions reflect most accurately the frame of their minds, are +precisely those which each man has pictured to himself with most precision, +and therefore those of which he is least likely to appreciate another +man's imaginary portraits. The image in our own minds is disturbed, and we +feel something of the disappointment we experience when we find some one +of whom we have heard much very different from what we had imagined him to +be. The more intimately and generally an historical character is known, +the more unfit must it be for the purposes of fiction. +</p> +<p> +Then again, in fiction, as in real life, our sympathies are more readily +awakened, and more strongly moved, by the sufferings or the successes of +those with whom we have much in common—of whose life we are, or fancy +that we might have been, a part. The figures that we see in history +elevated above the ordinary attributes of man, are magnified as we see +them through the mist of our own vague perceptions, and dwindle if we +approach too near them. If they are brought down from the lofty pedestal +of rank or fame on which they stood, that they may be within reach of the +warmest sympathies of men who live upon a lower level, the familiarity to +which we are admitted impairs their greatness, on the same principle, that +"no man is a hero to his <i>valet-de-chambre</i>." +</p> +<p> +We are inclined to believe that the great attraction of historical prose +fiction is not any facility which it affords for the construction of a +better story—for we think it affords none—nor any superior interest +that attaches to the known and the prominent characters with which it +deals, or to the events it describes; but rather the occasion it gives for +making us familiar with the everyday life of the age and the country in +which the scene is laid. Independent of the merits of the fiction as a +work of imagination, we find another source of pleasure; and, if it be +written faithfully and with knowledge, of instruction in the vivid light +it casts on the characteristics of man's condition, which history does not +deign to record. This kind of excellence may give value to a work which is +defective in the higher essential qualifications of imaginative writing; +as old ballads and tales, which have no other merit, may be valuable +illustrations of the manners of their time, so by carefully collecting and +concentrating scattered rays, a man possessed of talents for the task may +throw a strong light on states of society that were formerly obscure, and +thus greatly enhance the pleasure we derive from any higher merits we may +find in his story. +</p> +<p> +M. Lajétchnikoff, in the work before us, appears to have aimed at both +these kinds of excellence; and, in the opinion of his countrymen, to have +attained to that of which they are the best or the only good judges. Mr +Shaw, to whom we are indebted for all we yet know of this department of +Russian literature, tells us in his preface that he selected this romance +for translation because— +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "It is the work of an author to whom all the critics have adjudged + the praise of a perfect acquaintance with the epoch which he has + chosen for the scene of his drama. Russian critics, some of whom have + reproached M. Lajétchnikoff with certain faults of style, and in + particular with innovations on orthography, have all united in + conceding to him the merit of great historical accuracy—not only as + regards the events and characters of + <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page137 name=page137></A>[pg 137]</SPAN> + his story, but even in the less + important matters of costume, language, &c. +</p> +<p> + "This degree of accuracy was not accidental: he prepared himself for + his work by a careful study of all the ancient documents calculated + to throw light upon the period which he desired to recall—a + conscientious correctness however, which may be pushed too far; for + the original work is disfigured by a great number of obsolete words + and expressions, as unintelligible to the modern Russian reader + (unless he happened to be an antiquarian) as they would be to an + Englishman. These the Translator has, as far as possible, got rid of, + and has endeavoured to reduce the explanatory foot-notes—those + 'blunder-marks,' as they have been well styled—to as small a number + as is consistent with clearness in the text." +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +M. Lajétchnikoff takes occasion, while referring to some anachronisms +which will be found in <i>The Heretic</i>, to state, in the following terms, +his opinion of the duties of an historical novelist— +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "He must follow rather the poetry of history than its chronology. His + business is not to be the slave of dates; he ought to be faithful to + the character of the epoch, and of the <i>dramatis personae</i> which he + has selected for representation. It is not his business to examine + every trifle, to count over with servile minuteness every link in the + chain of this epoch, or of the life of this character; that is the + department of the historian and the biographer. The mission of the + historical novelist is to select from them the most brilliant, the + most interesting events, which are connected with the chief personage + of his story, and to concentrate them into one poetic moment of his + romance. Is it necessary to say that this moment ought to be pervaded + by a leading idea?... Thus I understand the duties of the historical + novelist. Whether I have fulfilled them, is quite another question." +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +We are not quite sure what is here meant by "a leading idea." If it be +that some abstract idea is to be developed or illustrated, we can neither +subscribe to the canon nor discover the leading idea of this specimen of +the author's productions; but we rather suppose that he only means to say +that there should be a main stream of interest running through the whole +story, to which the others are tributary—and in this sense he has acted +on the rule; for the <i>heretic</i>, from his birth to his burial, is never +lost sight of, and almost the whole action, from the beginning to the end, +is either directly or indirectly connected with his fortunes, which +preserve their interest throughout, amidst sovereigns and ambassadors, +officials and nobles, court intrigues and affairs of state, of love, of +war, and of religion. This machinery, though somewhat complicated, is on +the whole very skilfully constructed, and moves on smoothly enough without +jolting or jarring, without tedious stops or disagreeable interruptions, +and without having to turn back every now and then to pick up the +passengers it has dropped by the way. The author, however, appears to have +assumed—and, writing for Russians, was entitled to assume—that his +readers had some previous acquaintance with the history of the country and +the times to which his story belongs. His prologue, which has no connexion +with the body of the work, but which relates a separate incident that +occurred some years after the conclusion of the principal narrative, +introduces us to the death-bed of Iván III., at whose court the whole of +the subsequent scenes occur; and is calculated from this inversion of time, +and the recurrence of similar names, and even of the same persons, to +create little confusion in the mind of the reader who is ignorant of +Russian history. +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "The epoch chosen by Lajétchnikoff," says his translator, "is the + fifteenth century; an age most powerfully interesting in the history + of every country, and not less so in that of Russia. It was then that + the spirit of enquiry, the thirst for new facts and investigations in + religious, political, and physical philosophy, was at once stimulated + and gratified by the most important discoveries that man had as yet + made, and extended itself far beyond the limits of what was then + civilized Europe, and spoke, by the powerful voice of Iván III., even + to Russia, plunged as she then was in ignorance and superstition. + Rude as are the outlines of this great sovereign's historical + portrait, and rough as were the means by which he endeavoured to + ameliorate his country, it is impossible to deny him a + <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page138 name=page138></A>[pg 138]</SPAN> + place among + those rulers who have won the name of benefactors to their native + land." +</p> +</blockquote> +<p> +When Iván III., then twenty-two years old, mounted the tributary throne of +Muscovy in 1462, the power of the Tartars, who for nearly two centuries +and a half domineered over Russia, had visibly declined. Tamerlane, at the +head of fresh swarms from the deserts of Asia, had stricken the Golden +Horde which still held Russia in subjection; and having pursued its +sovereign, Ioktamish Khan, into the steppes of Kiptchak and Siberia, +turned back almost from the gates of Moscow, to seek a richer plunder in +Hindostan. Before the Golden Horde could recover from this blow, it was +again attacked, defeated, and plundered, by the khan of the Crimea. Still +the supremacy of the Tartar was undisputed at Moscow. The Muscovite prince +advanced to the outer door of his palace to receive the ambassador of his +master; spread costly furs under his horse's feet; kneeled at his stirrup +to hear the khan's orders read; presented a cup of kimmis to the Tartar +representative, and licked off the drops that fell upon the mane of his +horse. +</p> +<p> +But during nearly a century and a half, the Muscovite princes had laboured +successfully to consolidate their own authority, and to unite the nation +against its oppressors. The principle of hereditary succession to the +dependent throne had been firmly established in the feelings of the people; +the ties of country, kindred, and language, and still more the bonds of +common religion, had united the discordant principalities into which the +country was still divided, by a sentiment of nationality and of hatred +against the Tartars, which made them capable of combining against their +Mahommedan masters. +</p> +<p> +Iván's first acts were acts of submission. They were perhaps intended to +tranquillize the suspicions with which the first movements of a young +prince are certain to be regarded by a jealous superior; and this purpose +they effectually served. Without courage or talent for war, his powerful +and subtle mind sought to accomplish its objects by intellectual +superiority and by craft, rather than by force. Warned by the errors of +his predecessors, he did not dispute the right of the Tartars to the +tribute, but evaded its payment; and yet contrived to preserve the +confidence of the khan by bribing his ministers and his family, and by a +ready performance of the most humiliating acts of personal submission. His +conduct towards all his enemies—that is, towards all his neighbours—was +dictated by a similar policy; he admitted their rights, but he took every +safe opportunity to disregard them. So far did he carry the semblance of +submission, that the Muscovites were for some years disgusted with the +slavish spirit of their prince. His lofty ambition was concealed by rare +prudence and caution, and sustained by remarkable firmness and pertinacity +of purpose. He never took a step in advance from which he was forced to +recede. He had the art to combine with many of his enemies against one, +and thus overthrew them all in succession. It was by such means that he +cast off the Tartar yoke—curbed the power of Poland—humbled that of +Lithuania, subdued Nóvgorod, Tver, Pskoff, Kazán, and Viatka—reannexed +Veira, Ouglitch, Rezan, and other appanages to the crown, and added nearly +twenty thousand square miles with four millions of subjects to his +dominions. He framed a code of laws—improved the condition of his +army—established a police in every part of his empire—protected and +extended commerce—supported the church, but kept it in subjection to +himself; but was at all times arbitrary, often unjust and cruel, and +throughout his whole life, quite unscrupulous as to the means he employed +to compass his ends. +</p> +<p> +One of the most successful strokes of his policy, was his marriage with +Sophia, daughter of the Emperor Paleologos, who had been driven from +Constantinople by the Turks. This alliance, which he sought with great +assiduity, not only added to the dignity of his government at home, but +opened the way for an intercourse on equal terms with the greatest princes +of Europe. It was Sophia who dissuaded him from submitting to the +degrading ceremonial which had been observed on receiving the Tartar +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page139 name=page139></A>[pg 139]</SPAN> +ambassadors at Moscow—and to her he probably owed the feelings of +personal dignity which he evinced in the latter part of his reign. It was +this alliance that at once placed the sovereigns of Russia at the head of +the whole Greek church; whose dignitaries, driven from the stately dome of +St Sophia in Byzantium, found shelter in the humbler temple raised by the +piety of their predecessors, some ages before, in the wilds of Muscovy, +and more than repaid the hospitality they received by diffusing a love of +learning amongst a barbarous people. It was by means of the Greeks who +followed Sophia, that Iván was enabled to maintain a diplomatic +intercourse with the other governments of Europe; it was from her that +Russia received her imperial emblem, the double-headed eagle; it was in +her train that science, taste, and refinement penetrated to Moscow; it was +probably at her instigation that Iván embellished his capital with the +beauties of architecture, and encouraged men of science, and amongst +others Antonio, "the heretic," and Fioraventi Aristotle, the architect and +mechanician, to settle at Moscow. +</p> +<p> +But it is time we should proceed to the story. The greater part of the +first volume is occupied by an account of the family, birth, and youth of +the hero. Born of a noble family in Bohemia, he is educated as a physician. +This was not the voluntary act of his parents; for what haughty German +baron of those times would have permitted his son to degrade himself by +engaging in a profession which was then chiefly occupied by the accursed +Jews? No, this was a degradation prepared for the house of Ehrenstein, by +the undying revenge of a little Italian physician, whom the stalwart baron +had pitched a few yards out of his way during a procession at Rome. This +part of the history, though not devoid of interest, is hardly within the +bounds of a reasonable probability—but it contains some passages of +considerable vigour. The patient lying in wait of the revengeful Italian, +and the eagerness with which he presses his advantage, making an act of +mercy minister to the gratification of his passion, is not without merit, +and will probably have its attractions for those who find pleasure in such +conceptions. +</p> +<p> +The young Antonio is educated by the physician, Antonio Fioraventi of +Padua, in ignorance of his birth—is disowned by his father, but cherished +by his mother; and grows up an accomplished gentleman, scholar, and leech, +of handsome person, captivating manners, and ardent aspirations to extend +the limits of science, and to promote the advancement of knowledge and of +civilization all over the earth. While these dreams are floating in his +mind, a letter on the architect Fioraventi, who had for some time resided +in Moscow, to his brother, the Italian physician, requesting him to send +some skilful leech to the court of Iván, decides the fate of Antonio. +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "Fioraventi began to look out for a physician who would volunteer + into a country so distant and so little known: he never thought of + proposing the journey to his pupil; his youth—the idea of a + separation—of a barbarous country—all terrified the old man. His + imagination was no longer wild—the intellect and the heart alone had + influence on him. And what had Antony to hope for there? His destiny + was assured by the position of his instructor—his tranquillity was + secured by circumstances—he could more readily make a name in Italy. + The place of physician at the court of the Muscovite Great Prince + would suit a poor adventurer; abundance of such men might be found at + that time possessed of talents and learning. But hardly was + Aristotle's letter communicated to Antony, than visions began to + float in his ardent brain.—'To Muscovy!' cried the voice of + destiny—'To Muscovy!' echoed through his soul, like a cry remembered + from infancy. That soul, in its fairest dreams, had long pined for a + new, distant, unknown land and people: Antony wished to be where the + physician's foot had never yet penetrated: perhaps he might discover, + by questioning a nature still rude and fresh, powers by which he + could retain on earth its short-lived inhabitants; perhaps he might + extort from a virgin soil the secret of regeneration, or dig up the + fountain of the water of life and death. But he who desired to + penetrate deeper into the nature of man, might have remarked other + motives in his desire. Did not knightly blood boil in his veins? Did + not the spirit of adventure whisper in his heart its hopes and high + promises? However + <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page140 name=page140></A>[pg 140]</SPAN> + this might be, he offered, with delight, to go to + Muscovy; and when he received the refusal of his preceptor, he began + to entreat, to implore him incessantly to recall it.—'Science calls + me thither,' he said, 'do not deprive her of new acquisitions, + perhaps of important discoveries. Do not deprive me of glory, my only + hope and happiness.' And these entreaties were followed by a new + refusal.—'Knowest thou not,' cried Fioraventi angrily, 'that the + gates of Muscovy are like the gates of hell—step beyond them, and + thou canst never return.' But suddenly, unexpectedly, from some + secret motive, he ceased to oppose Antony's desire. With tears he + gave him his blessing for the journey.—'Who can tell,' said he, + 'that this is not the will of fate? Perhaps, in reality, honour and + fame await thee there?' +</p> +<p> + "At Padua was soon known Antony Ehrenstein's determination to make + that distant journey; and no one was surprised at it: there were, + indeed, many who envied him. +</p> +<p> + "In truth, the age in which Antony lived was calculated to attune the + mind to the search after the unknown, and to serve as an excuse for + his visions. The age of deep profligacy, it was also the age of lofty + talents, of bold enterprises, of great discoveries. They dug into the + bowels of the earth; they kept up in the laboratory an unextinguished + fire; they united and separated elements; they buried themselves + living, in the tomb, to discover the philosopher's stone, and they + found it in the innumerable treasures of chemistry which they + bequeathed to posterity. Nicholas Diaz and Vasco de Gama had passed, + with one gigantic stride, from one hemisphere to another, and showed + that millions of their predecessors were but pigmies. The genius of a + third visioned forth a new world, with new oceans—went to it, and + brought it to mankind. Gunpowder, the compass, printing, cheap paper, + regular armies, the concentration of states and powers, ingenious + destruction, and ingenious creation—all were the work of this + wondrous age. At this time, also, there began to spread indistinctly + about, in Germany and many other countries of Europe, those ideas of + reformation, which soon were strengthened, by the persecution of the + Western Church, to array themselves in the logical head of Luther, + and to flame up in that universal crater, whence the fury, lava, and + smoke, were to rush with such tremendous violence on kingdoms and + nations. These ideas were then spreading through the multitude, and + when resisted, they broke through their dikes, and burst onward with + greater violence. The character of Antony, eager, thirsting for + novelty, was the expression of his age: he abandoned himself to the + dreams of an ardent soul, and only sought whither to carry himself + and his accumulations of knowledge. +</p> +<p> + "Muscovy, wild still, but swelling into vigour, with all her + boundless snows and forests, the mystery of her orientalism, was to + many a newly-discovered land—a rich mine for human genius. Muscovy, + then for the first time beginning to gain mastery over her internal + and external foes, then first felt the necessity for real, material + civilization." +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +Antony pays a farewell visit to his mother at the humble tower in Bohemia, +where she resided estranged from his father, of whose rank and condition +she left him ignorant. +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "If there were a paradise upon earth, Antony would have found it in + the whole month which he passed in the Bohemian castle. Oh! he would + not have exchanged that poor abode, the wild nature on the banks of + the Elbe, the caresses of his mother, whose age he would have + cherished with his care and love—no! he would not have exchanged all + this for magnificent palaces, for the exertions of proud kinsmen to + elevate him at the imperial court, for numberless vassals, whom, if + he chose, he might hunt to death with hounds. +</p> +<p> + "But true to his vow, full of the hope of being useful to his mother, + to science, and to humanity, the visionary renounced this paradise: + his mother blessed him on his long journey to a distant and unknown + land: she feared for him; yet she saw that Muscovy would be to him a + land of promise—and how could she oppose his wishes?" +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +Preceding our hero to Moscow, we are presented to the Great Prince before +Antonio's arrival. Ambassadors had come from Tver, and a Lithuanian +ambassador and his interpreter had been truly or falsely convicted of an +attempt to destroy Iván by poison. The Great Prince's enquiry what +punishment is decreed against the felon who reaches at another's life, +leads to the following dialogue:— +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page141 name=page141></A>[pg 141]</SPAN> +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "'In the soudébnik it is decreed,' replied Góuseff, 'whoever shall be + accused of larceny, robbery, murder, or false accusation, or other + like evil act, and the same shall be manifestly guilty, the boyárin + shall doom the same unto the pain of death, and the plaintiff shall + have his goods; and if any thing remain, the same shall go to the + boyárin and the deacon.'... +</p> +<p> + "'Ay, the lawyers remember themselves—never fear that the boyárin + and deacon forget their fees. And what is written in thy book against + royal murderers and conspirators?' +</p> +<p> + "'In our memory such case hath not arisen.' +</p> +<p> + "'Even so! you lawyers are ever writing leaf after leaf, and never do + ye write all; and then the upright judges begin to gloze, to + interpret, to take bribes for dark passages. The law ought to be like + an open hand without a glove, (the Prince opened his fist;) every + simple man ought to see what is in it, and it should not be able to + conceal a grain of corn. Short and clear; and, when needful, seizing + firmly!... But as it is, they have put a ragged glove on law; and, + besides, they close the fist. Ye may guess—odd or even! they can + show one or the other, as they like.' +</p> +<p> + "'Pardon, my Lord Great Prince; lo, what we will add to the + soudébnik—the royal murderer and plotter shall not live.' +</p> +<p> + "'Be it so. Let not him live, who reached at another's life.' (Here + he turned to Kourítzin, but remembering that he was always disinclined + to severe punishments, he continued, waving his hand,) 'I forgot that + a craven<a id=footnotetag2 +name=footnotetag2></a><a +href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> croweth not like a cock.' (At these words the deacon's + eyes sparkled with satisfaction.) 'Mamón, be this thy care. Tell my + judge of Moscow—the court judge—to have the Lithuanian and the + interpreter burned alive on the Moskvá—burn them, dost thou hear? + that others may not think of such deeds.' +</p> +<p> + "The dvorétzkoi bowed, and said, stroking his ragged beard—'In a few + days will arrive the strangers to build the palace, and the Almayne + leech: the Holy Virgin only knoweth whether there be not evil men + among them also. Dost thou vouchsafe me to speak what hath come into + my mind?' +</p> +<p> + "'Speak.' +</p> +<p> + "'Were it not good to show them an example at once, by punishing the + criminals before them?' +</p> +<p> + "The Great Prince, after a moment's thought, replied—'Aristotle + answereth for the leech Antony; he is a disciple of his brother's. + The artists of the palace—foreigners—are good men, quiet men ... + but ... who can tell!... Mamón, put off the execution till after the + coming of the Almayne leech; but see that the fetters sleep not on + the evil doers!' +</p> +<p> + "Here he signed to Mamón to go and fulfill his order." +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +Here is another scene with the Great Prince. +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> + "He stopped, and turned with an air of stern command to Kourítzin. +</p> +<p> + "The latter had addressed himself to speak—'The ambassadors from + Tver ... from the'... +</p> +<p> + "'From the prince, thou wouldst say,' burst in Iván Vassílievitch: 'I + no longer recognize a Prince of Tver. What—I ask thee, what did he + promise in the treaty of conditions which his bishop was to + negotiate?—the bishop who is with us now.' +</p> +<p> + "'To dissolve his alliance with the Polish king, Kazimír, and never + without thy knowledge to renew his intercourse with him; nor with + thine ill-wishers, nor with Russian deserters: to swear, in his own + and his children's name, never to yield to Lithuania.' +</p> +<p> + "'Hast thou still the letter to King Kazimír from our good + brother-in-law and ally—him whom thou yet callest the Great Prince + of Tver?' +</p> +<p> + "'I have it, my lord.' +</p> +<p> + "'What saith it?' +</p> +<p> + "'The Prince of Tver urgeth the Polish King against the Lord of All + Russia.' +</p> +<p> + "'Now, as God shall judge me, I have right on my side. Go and tell + the envoys from Tver, that I will not receive them: I spoke a word of + mercy to them—they mocked at it. What do they take me for?... A + bundle of rags, which to-day they may trample in the mud, and + to-morrow stick up for a scarecrow in their gardens! Or a puppet—to + bow down to it to-day, and to-morrow to cast it into the mire, with + <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page142 name=page142></A>[pg 142]</SPAN> + <i>Vuiduibái, father vuiduibái</i>!<a id=footnotetag3 +name=footnotetag3></a><a +href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> No! they have chosen the wrong man. + They may spin their traitorous intrigues with the King of Poland, and + hail him their lord; but I will go myself and tell Tver who is her + real master. Tease me no more with these traitors!' +</p> +<p> + "Saying this, the Great Prince grew warmer and warmer, and at length + he struck his staff upon the ground so violently that it broke in two. +</p> +<p> + "'Hold! here is our declaration of war,' he added—'yet one word more: + had it bent it would have remained whole.' +</p> +<p> + "Kourítzin, taking the fatal fragments, went out. The philosopher of + those days, looking at them, shook his head and thought—'Even so + breaketh the mighty rival of Moscow!'" +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +The Almayne physician is lodged by order of the Great Prince in one of the +three stone houses which Moscow could then boast—the habitation of the +voévoda Obrazétz, a fine old warrior, a venerable patriarch, and bigot, +such as all Russians then were. To him the presence of the heretic is +disgusting; his touch would be pollution; and the whole family is thrown +into the utmost consternation by the prospect of having to harbour so foul +a guest—a magician, a man who had sold his soul to Satan—above all, a +heretic. The voévoda had an only daughter, who, with Oriental caution, was +carefully screened from the sight of man, as became a high-born Russian +maiden. +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "From her very infancy Providence had stamped her with the seal of + the marvellous; when she was born a star had fallen on the house—on + her bosom she bore a mark resembling a cross within a heart. When ten + years old, she dreamed of palaces and gardens such as eye had never + seen on earth, and faces of unspeakable beauty, and voices that sang, + and self-moving dulcimers that played, as it were within her heart, + so sweetly and so well, that tongue could never describe it; and, + when she awoke from those dreams, she felt a light pressure on her + feet, and she thought she perceived that something was resting on + them with white wings folded; it was very sweet, and yet awful—and + in a moment all was gone. Sometimes she would meditate, sometimes she + would dream, she knew not what. Often, when prostrate before the + image of the Mother of God, she wept; and these tears she hid from + the world, like some holy thing sent down to her from on high. She + loved all that was marvellous; and therefore she loved the tales, the + legends, the popular songs and stories of those days. How greedily + did she listen to her nurse! and what marvels did the eloquent old + woman unfold, to the young, burning imagination of her foster child! + Anastasia, sometimes abandoning herself to poesy, would forget sleep + and food; sometimes her dreams concluded the unfinished tale more + vividly, more eloquently far." +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +We must give the pendant to this picture—the portrait of Obrazétz himself, +sitting in his easy-chair, listening to a tale of travels in the East. +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> + "How noble was the aged man, free from stormy passions, finishing the + pilgrimage of life! You seemed to behold him in pure white raiment, + ready to appear before his heavenly judge. Obrazétz was the chief of + the party in years, in grave majestic dignity, and patriarchal air. + Crossing his arms upon his staff, he covered them with his beard, + downy as the soft fleece of a lamb; the glow of health, deepened by + the cup of strong mead, blushed through the snow-white hair with + which his cheeks were thickly clothed; he listened with singular + attention and delight to the story-teller. This pleasure was painted + on his face, and shone brightly in his eyes; from time to time a + smile of good-humoured mockery flitted across his lips, but this was + only the innocent offspring of irony which was raised in his good + heart by Aphónia's boasting, (for very few story-tellers, you know, + are free from this sin.) Reclining his shoulders against the back of + his arm-chair, he shut his eyes, and, laying his broad hairy hand + upon Andrióusha's head, he softly, gently dallied with the boy's + flaxen locks. On his countenance the + <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page143 name=page143></A>[pg 143]</SPAN> + gratification of curiosity was + mingled with affectionate tenderness: he was not dozing, but seemed + to be losing himself in sweet reveries. In the old man's visions + arose the dear never forgotten son, whom he almost fancied he was + caressing. When he opened his eyes, their white lashes still bore + traces of the touching society of his unearthly guest; but when he + remarked that the tear betraying the secret of his heart had + disturbed his companions, and made his daughter anxious, the former + expression of pleasure again dawned on his face, and doubled the + delighted attention of the whole party." +</p> +</blockquote> +<p> +At length the dreaded guest arrived. +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> + "Evil days had fallen on Obrazétz and his family. He seemed himself + as though he had lost his wife and son a second time. Khabár raged + and stormed like a mountain torrent. Anastasia, hearing the horrible + stories—is sometimes trembling like an aspen-leaf, and then weeps + like a fountain. She dares not even look forth out of the sliding + window of her bower. Why did Vassílii Féodorovitch build such a fine + house? Why did he build it so near the Great Prince's palace? 'Tis + clear, this was a temptation of the Evil One. He wanted, forsooth, to + boast of a nonsuch! He had sinned in his pride.... What would become + of him, his son and daughter! Better for them had they never been + born!... And all this affliction arose from the boyárin being about + to receive a German in his house!" +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +The voévoda gave strict injunctions that none of his family should go to +meet the procession; but M. Lajétchnikoff knows that all such orders are +unavailing. +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "Curiosity is so strong in human nature, that it can conquer even + fear: notwithstanding the orders of the boyárin, all his servants + rushed to obtain a glance at the terrible stranger; one at the gate, + another through the crevices of the wooden fence, another over it. + Khabár, with his arms haughtily a-kimbo, gazed with stern pride from + the other gate. Now for the frightful face with mouse's ears, winking + owlish eyes streaming with fiendish fire! now for the beak! They + beheld a young man, tall, graceful, of noble deportment, overflowing + with fresh vigorous life. In his blue eyes shone the light of + goodness and benevolence through the moisture called up by the recent + spectacle of the execution: the lips, surmounted by a slight soft + mustache, bore a good-humoured smile—one of those smiles that it is + impossible to feign, and which can only find their source in a heart + never troubled by impure passions. Health and frost had united to + tinge the cheeks with a light rosy glow; he took off his cap, and his + fair curls streamed forth over his broad shoulders. He addressed + Mamón in a few words of such Russian as he knew, and in his voice + there was something so charming, that even the evil spirit which + wandered through the boyárin's heart, sank down to its abyss. This, + then, was the horrible stranger, who had harmed Obrazétz and his + household! This, then, was he—after all! If this was the devil, the + fiend must again have put on his original heavenly form. All the + attendants, as they looked upon him, became firmly convinced that he + had bewitched their eyes. +</p> +<p> + "'Haste, Nástia!<a id=footnotetag4 +name=footnotetag4></a><a +href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> look how handsome he is!' cried Andrióusha to the + voevóda's daughter, in whose room he was, looking through the sliding + window, which he had drawn back. 'After this, believe stupid reports! + My father says that he is my brother: oh, how I shall love him! Look, + my dear!' +</p> +<p> + "And the son of Aristotle, affirming and swearing that he was not + deceiving his godmother, drew her, trembling and pale, to the window. + Making the sign of the cross, with a fluttering heart she ventured to + look out—she could not trust her eyes, again she looked out; + confusion! a kind of delighted disappointment, a kind of sweet thrill + running through her blood, never before experienced, fixed her for + some moments to the spot: but when Anastasia recovered herself from + these impressions, she felt ashamed and grieved that she had given + way to them. She already felt a kind of repentance. The sorcerer has + put on a mask, she thought, remembering her father's words: from this + moment she became more frequently pensive." +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +We are conducted to the state prisons +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page144 name=page144></A>[pg 144]</SPAN> +of Moscow, and introduced to some of +the prisoners whose names have figured in history. We select the following +dialogue as a specimen of the author's power to deal with such matters. +The prisoner is Márpha, the lady of Novogorod, who, by her courage and her +wealth, had laboured to preserve its independence. +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "Here the Great Prince rapped with his staff at a grating; at the + knock there looked out an old roman, who was fervently praying on her + knees. She was dressed in a much-worn high cap, and in a short veil, + poor, but white as new-fallen snow; her silver hair streamed over a + threadbare mantle: it was easy to guess that this was no common woman. + Her features were very regular, in her dim eyes was expressed + intellect, and a kind of stern greatness of soul. She looked proudly + and steadily at the Great Prince. +</p> +<p> + "'For whom wert thou praying, Marphóusha?' asked the sovereign. +</p> +<p> + "'For whom but for the dead!' she sullenly replied. +</p> +<p> + "'But for whom in particular, if I may make bold to ask?' +</p> +<p> + "'Ask concerning that of my child, thou son of a dog—of him who was + called thy brother, whom thou murderedst—of Nóvgorod, which thou + hast drowned in blood, and covered with ashes!' +</p> +<p> + "'O, ho, ho!... Thou hast not forgotten thy folly, then—Lady of + Nóvgorod the Great.' +</p> +<p> + "'I was such once, my fair lord!' +</p> +<p> + "At these words she arose. +</p> +<p> + "'Wilt thou not think again?' +</p> +<p> + "'Of what?... I said that I was praying for the dead. Thy Moscow, + with all its hovels, can twice a-year be laid in ashes, and twice + built up again. The Tartar hath held it two ages in slavery.... It + pined, it pined away and yet it remains whole. It hath but changed + one bondage for another. But once destroy the queen—Nóvgorod the + Great—and Nóvgorod the Great will perish for ever.' +</p> +<p> + "'How canst thou tell that?' +</p> +<p> + "'Can ye raise up a city of hewn stone in a hundred years?' +</p> +<p> + "'I will raise one in a dozen.' +</p> +<p> + "'Ay, but this is not in the fairy tale, where 'tis done as soon as + said. Call together the Hanse traders whom thou hast driven away.' +</p> +<p> + "'Ha, hucksteress! thou mournest for the traders more than for + Nóvgorod itself.' +</p> +<p> + "'By my huckstering she grew not poor, but rich.' +</p> +<p> + "'Let me but jingle a piece of money, and straight will fly the + merchants from all corners of the world, greedy for my grosches.' +</p> +<p> + "'Recall the chief citizens whom thou hast exiled to thy towns.' +</p> +<p> + "'Cheats, knaves, rebels! they are not worth this!' +</p> +<p> + "'When was power in the wrong? Where is the water of life that can + revive those thou hast slain? Even if thou couldst do all this, + liberty, liberty would be no more for Nóvgorod, Iván Vassílievitch; + and Nóvgorod will never rise again! It may live on awhile like + lighted flax, that neither flameth nor goeth out, even as I live in a + dungeon!' +</p> +<p> + "'It is thine inflexible obstinacy that hath ruined both of ye. I + should like to have seen how thou wouldst have acted in my place.' +</p> +<p> + "'Thou hast done thy work, Great Prince of Moscow, I—mine. Triumph + not over me, in my dungeon, at my last hour.' +</p> +<p> + "Márpha Borétzkaia coughed, and her face grew livid; she applied the + end of her veil to her lips, but it was instantly stained with blood, + and Iván remarked this, though she endeavoured to conceal it. +</p> +<p> + "'I am sorry for thee, Márpha,' said the Great Prince in a + compassionate tone. +</p> +<p> + "'Sharp is thy glance.... What! doth it delight thee?... Spread this + kerchief over Nóvgorod.... 'Twill be a rich pall!'... she added with + a smile. +</p> +<p> + "'Let me in! let me in!... I cannot bear it.... Let me go in to her!' + cried Andrióusha, bursting into tears. +</p> +<p> + "On the Great Prince's countenance was mingled compassion and + vexation. He, however, lifted the latch of the door, and let the son + of Aristotle pass in to Borétzkaia. +</p> +<p> + "Andrea kissed her hand. Borétzkaia uttered not a word; she + mournfully shook her head, and her warm tears fell upon the boy's + face. +</p> +<p> + "'Ask him how many years she can live,' said the Great Prince to + Aristotle, in a whisper. +</p> +<p> + "'It is much, much, if she live three months; but, perhaps, 'twill be + only till + <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page145 name=page145></A>[pg 145]</SPAN> + spring,' answered Antony. 'No medicine can save her: that + blood is a sure herald of death.' +</p> +<p> + "This reply was translated to Iván Vassílievitch in as low a tone as + possible, that Borétzkaia might not hear it; but she waved her hand, + and said calmly—'I knew it long ago'.... +</p> +<p> + "'Hearken, Márpha Isákovna, if thou wilt, I will give thee thy + liberty, and send thee into another town.' +</p> +<p> + "'Another town ... another place ... God hath willed it so, without + thee!' +</p> +<p> + "'I would send thee to Báyjetzkoi-Verkh.' +</p> +<p> + "''Tis true, that was our country. If I could but die in my native + land!' +</p> +<p> + "'Then God be with thee: there thou mayst say thy prayers, give alms + to the churches; I will order thy treasury to be delivered up to + thee—and remember not the Great Prince of Moscow in anger.' +</p> +<p> + "She smiled. Have you ever seen something resembling a smile on the + jaws of a human skull? +</p> +<p> + "'Farewell, we shall never meet again,' said the Great Prince. +</p> +<p> + "'We shall meet at the judgment-seat of God!' was the last reply of + Borétzkaia." +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +The daughter of Obrazétz loved the heretic, who was long unconscious of +the feelings he had inspired, and himself untouched by the mysterious fire +that was consuming the heart of the young Anastasia. But his turn, too, +had come—he, too, had seen and loved; but she knew not of his love—she +hardly knew the nature of her own feelings; sometimes she feared she was +under the influence of magic, or imagined that the anxiety she felt for +the heretic was a holy desire to turn him from the errors of his faith to +save his immortal soul—or, if she knew the truth, she dared not +acknowledge it even to her own heart—far less to any human being. To love +a heretic was a deadly sin; but to save a soul would be acceptable to +God—a holy offering at the footstool of the throne of grace and mercy. +This hope would justify any sacrifice. The great Prince was about to march +against Tver, and Antonio was to accompany him. Could she permit him to +depart without an effort to redeem him from his heresy, or, alas! without +a token of her love? She determined to send him the crucifix she wore +round her neck—a holy and a sacred thing, which it would have been a +deadly sin to part with unless to rescue a soul from perdition—and she +sent it. Her brother, too, was to accompany the army, and had besides, on +his return, to encounter a judicial combat. The soul of the old warrior +Obrazétz was deeply moved by the near approach of his son's departure. One +son had died by his side—he might never see Iván more, and his heart +yearned to join with him in prayer. "The mercies of God are unaccountable." +</p> +<blockquote> + +<p> + "Trusting in them, Obrazétz proceeded to the oratory, whither, by his + command, he was followed by Khabár and Anastasia. +</p> +<p> + "Silently they go, plunged in feelings of awe: they enter the oratory; + the solitary window is curtained; in the obscurity, feebly dispelled + by the mysterious glimmer of the lamp, through the deep stillness, + fitfully broken by the flaring of the taper, they were gazed down + upon from every side by the dark images of the Saviour, the Holy + Mother of God, and the Holy Saints. From them there seems to breathe + a chilly air as of another world: here thou canst not hide thyself + from their glances; from every side they follow thee in the slightest + movement of thy thoughts and feelings. Their wasted faces, feeble + limbs, and withered frames—their flesh macerated by prayer and + fasting—the cross, the agony—all here speaks of the victory of will + over passions. Themselves an example of purity in body and soul, they + demand the same purity from all who enter the oratory, their holy + shrine. +</p> +<p> + "To them Anastasia had recourse in the agitation of her heart; from + them she implored aid against the temptations of the Evil One; but + help there was none for her, the weak in will, the devoted to the + passion which she felt for an unearthly tempter. +</p> +<p> + Thrice, with crossing and with prayer, did Obrazétz bow before the + images; thrice did his son and daughter bow after him. This pious + preface finished, the old man chanted the psalm—'Whoso dwelleth + under the defence of the Most High.' Thus, even in our own times, + among us in Russia, the pious warrior, when going to battle, almost + always arms himself with this shield of faith. With deep feeling, + Khabár repeated the words after his father. All this prepared + Anastasia for something terrible + <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page146 name=page146></A>[pg 146]</SPAN> + she trembled like a dove which is + caught by the storm in the open plain, where there is no shelter for + her from the tempest that is ready to burst above her. When they + arose from prayer, Obrazétz took from the shrine a small image of St + George the Victorious, cast in silver, with a ring for suspending it + on the bosom. 'In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the + Holy Ghost!' he said, with a solemn voice, holding the image in his + left hand, and with his right making three signs of the cross—'with + this mercy of God I bless thee, my dear and only son, Iván, and I + pray that the holy martyr, George, may give thee mastery and victory + over thine enemies: keep this treasure even as the apple of thine eye. + Put it not off from thee in any wise, unless the Lord willeth that + the foe shall take it from thee. I know thee, Ivan, they will not + take it from thee living; but they may from thy corse. Keep in mind at + every season thy father's blessing.' +</p> +<p> + "Anastasia turned as white as snow, and trembled in every limb; her + bosom felt oppressed as with a heavy stone, a sound as of hammering + was in her ears. She seemed to hear all the images, one after another, + sternly repeating her father's words. He continued—'It is a great + thing, this blessing. He who remembereth it not, or lightly esteemeth + it, from him shall the heavenly Father turn away his face, and shall + leave him for ever and ever. He shall be cast out from the kingdom of + heaven, and his portion shall be in hell. Keep well my solemn word.' +</p> +<p> + "Every accent of Obrazétz fell upon Anastasia's heart like a drop of + molten pitch. She seemed to be summoned before the dreadful + judgment-seat of Christ, to hear her father's curse, and her own + eternal doom. She could restrain herself no longer, and sobbed + bitterly; the light grew dim in her eyes; her feet began to totter. + Obrazétz heard her sobs, and interrupted his exhortation. 'Nástia, + Nástia! what aileth thee?' he enquired, with lively sympathy, of his + daughter, whom he tenderly loved. She had not strength to utter a + word, and fell into her brother's arms. Crossing himself, the boyárin + put back the image into its former place, and then hastened to + sprinkle his child with holy water which always stood ready in the + oratory. Anastasia revived, and when she saw herself surrounded by + her father and brother, in a dark, narrow, sepulchral place, she + uttered a wild cry, and turned her dim eyes around. 'My life, my + darling child, my dove! what aileth thee?' cried the father. + 'Recollect thyself: thou art in the oratory. 'Tis plain some evil eye + hath struck thee. Pray to the Holy Virgin: she, the merciful one, + will save thee from danger.' +</p> +<p> + "The father and son bore her to the image of the Mother of God. Her + brother with difficulty raised her arm, and she, all trembling, made + the sign of the cross. Deeply, heavily she sighed, applied her + ice-cold lips to the image, and then signed to them with her hand + that they should carry her out speedily. She fancied that she saw the + Holy Virgin shake her head with a reproachful air. +</p> +<p> + "When they had carried Anastasia to her chamber, she felt better." +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +Hitherto none had shared her secret thoughts; but the experienced eye of +the widow Selínova had detected the nature of her malady, and she longed +to know the object of her affection. +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> + "One day, they were sitting alone together, making lace. A kind of + mischievous spirit whispered her to speak of the heretic. Imagine + yourself thrown by destiny on a foreign land. All around you are + speaking in an unknown tongue; their language appears to you a chaos + of wild, strange sounds. Suddenly, amid the crowd, drops a word in + your native language. Does not then a thrill run over your whole + being? does not your heart leap within you? Or place a Russian + peasant at a concert where is displayed all the creative luxury and + all the brilliant difficulties of foreign music. The child of nature + listens with indifference to the incomprehensible sounds; but + suddenly Voróbieva with her nightingale voice trills out—<i>The cuckóo + from out the fírs so dánk hath not cúckooed.</i> Look what a change + comes over the half-asleep listener. Thus it was with Anastasia! Till + this moment Selínova had spoken to her in a strange language, had + only uttered sounds unintelligible to her; but the instant that she + spoke the <i>native</i> word, it touched the heart-string, and all the + chords of her being thrilled as if they were about to burst. + Anastasia trembled, her hands wandered vaguely over her lace cushion, + her face turned deadly pale. She dared not raise her eyes, and + replied at random, absently. +</p> +<p> + "'Ah!' thought Selínova, 'that is + <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page147 name=page147></A>[pg 147]</SPAN> + the right key: that is the point + whence cometh the storm!' +</p> +<p> + "Both remained silent. At length Anastasia ventured to glance at her + visitor, in order to see by the expression of her face, whether she + had remarked her confusion. Selínova's eyes were fixed upon her work, + on her face there was not even a shade of suspicion. The crafty widow + intended little by little, imperceptibly, to win the confidence of + the inexperienced girl. +</p> +<p> + "'And where then is <i>he</i> gone?' she asked after a short pause, + without naming the person about whom she was enquiring. +</p> +<p> + "'He is gone with the Great Prince on the campaign,' answered + Anastasia blushing; then, after a moment's thought she added—'I + suppose thou askedst me about my brother?' +</p> +<p> + "'No, my dear, our conversation was about Antony the leech. What a + pity he is a heretic! You will not easily find such another gallant + among our Muscovites. He hath all, both height and beauty: when he + looketh, 'tis as though he gave you large pearls; his locks lie on + his shoulders like the light of dawn; he is as white and rosy as a + young maiden. I wonder whence he had such beauty—whether by the + permission of God, or, not naturally, by the influence of the Evil + One. I could have looked at him—may it not be a sin to say, I could + have gazed at him for ever without being weary!' +</p> +<p> + "At these praises Anastasia's pale countenance blushed like the + dawning that heralds the tempest. 'Thou hast then seen him?' asked + the enamoured maiden, in a trembling, dying voice, and breaking off + her work. +</p> +<p> + "'I have seen him more than once. I have not only seen him, but + wonder now, my dear—I have visited him in his dwelling!' +</p> +<p> + "'The maiden shook her head, her eyes were dimmed with the shade of + pensiveness; a thrill of jealousy, in spite of herself, darted to + her heart. 'What! and didst thou not fear to go to him?' she + said—'Is he not a heretic?' +</p> +<p> + "'If thou knewest it, Nástenka, what wouldst thou not do for love?' +</p> +<p> + "'Love?' ... exclaimed Anastasia, and her heart bounded violently in + her breast. +</p> +<p> + "'Ah if I were not afraid, I would disclose to thee the secret of my + soul.' +</p> +<p> + "'Speak, I pray thee, speak! Fear not; see! I call the Mother of God + to witness, thy words shall die with me.' +</p> +<p> + "And the maiden, with a quivering hand, signed a large cross. +</p> +<p> + "'If so, I will confide in thee what I have never disclosed but to + God. It is not over one blue sea alone that the mist lieth, and the + darksome cloud: it is not over one fair land descendeth the gloomy + autumn night; there was a time when my bosom was loaded with a heavy + sorrow, my rebellious heart lay drowned in woe and care: I loved thy + brother, Iván Vassílievitch. (The maiden's heart was relieved, she + breathed more freely.) Thou knowest not, my life, my child, what kind + of feeling is that of love, and God grant that thou mayest never know! + The dark night cometh, thou canst not close thine eyes: the bright + dawn breaketh, thou meetest it with tears, and the day is all + weary—O, so weary! There are many men in the fair world, but thou + see'st only one, in thy bower, in the street, in the house of God. A + stone lieth ever on thy breast, and thou canst not shake it off.' +</p> +<p> + "Then Selínova wept sincere tears. Her companion listened to her with + eager sympathy: the feelings just depicted were her own. +</p> +<p> + +<br><hr> + +<p> + "There was a deep silence. It was broken by the young widow. +</p> +<p> + "'Nástenka, my life?' she began in a tone of such touching, such + lively interest, as called for her reluctant confidence. +</p> +<p> + "The daughter of Obrazétz glanced at her with eyes full of tears, and + shook her head. +</p> +<p> + "'Confide in me, as I have confided in thee,' continued Selínova, + taking her hand and pressing it to her bosom. 'I have lived longer in + the world than thou ... believe me, 'twill give thee ease ... 'tis + clear from every symptom, my love, what thou ailest.' +</p> +<p> + "And Anastasia, sobbing, exclaimed at last—'O, my love, my dearest + friend, Praskóvia Vladimírovna, take a sharp knife, open my white + breast, look what is the matter there!' +</p> +<p> + "'And wherefore need we take the sharp knife, and wherefore need we + open the white breast, or look upon the rebellious heart? Surely, by + thy fair face all can tell, my child, how that fair face hath been + darkened, how the fresh bloom hath faded, and bright eyes grown dull. + After all, 'tis clear thou lovest some wandering falcon, some + stranger youth.' +</p> +<p> + "Anastasia answered not a word; she could not speak for tears; and + hid her + <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page148 name=page148></A>[pg 148]</SPAN> + face in her hands. At last, softened by Selínova's friendly + sympathy, and her assurances that she would be easier if she would + confide her secret to such a faithful friend, she related her love + for the heretic. The episode of the crucifix was omitted in this tale, + which finished, of course, with assurances that she was enchanted, + bewitched. +</p> +<p> + "Poor Anastasia! +</p> +<p> + "Snowdrop! beautiful flower, thou springest up alone in the bosom of + thy native valley! And the bright sun arises every day to glass + himself in thy morning mirror; and the beaming moon, after a sultry + day, hastens to fan thee with her breezy wing, and the angels of God, + lulling thee by night, spread over thee a starry canopy, such as king + never possessed. Who can tell from what quarter the tempest may bring + from afar, from other lands, the seeds of the ivy, and scatter them + by thy side, and the ivy arises and twines lovingly around thee, and + chokes thee, lovely flower! This is not all: the worm has crawled to + thy root, hath fixed its fang therein, and kills ye both, if some + kind hand save ye not." +</p> +</blockquote> +<p> +These extracts will enable our readers to judge for themselves of the +merits of M. Lajétchnikoff's style as it appears in Mr Shaw's translation. +A better selection might have been made, had we not been desirous to avoid +any such anticipation of the development of the story as light diminish +its interest; but we are inclined to believe that most of our readers will +agree with us in thinking, that if M. Lajétchnikoff has succeeded in +faithfully illustrating the manners of the age of Iván the Great, he has +also shown that he possesses brilliancy of fancy, fervour of thought, and +elevation of sentiment, as well as knowledge of the movements of the heart, +revealed only to the few who have been initiated into nature's mysteries. +</p> +<p> +He does not appear to be largely gifted with the power of graphic +description, of placing the scenes of nature, or the living figures that +people them, vividly before us—he loves rather to indulge, even to excess, +mystical or passionate thoughts that are born in his own breast, and to +adorn them with garlands woven from the flowers of his fancy; but these +flowers are of native growth, the indigenous productions of the Russian +soil. His images often sound to our ears homely, sometimes even familiar +and mean, but they may be dignified in their native dress. He has no +lively perception of the beauties of external nature; his raptures are +reserved for the wonders of art, for what the human mind can create or +achieve; and, curiously enough, it is architecture that seems to excite in +him the greatest enthusiasm. In illustration of this feeling, we must +still extract an eloquent discourse on the life of the artist, which the +author puts into the mouth of Fioraventi Aristotle—a passage of much +feeling, and, we fear, of too much truth:— +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "Thou knowest not, Antony, what a life is that of an artist! While + yet a child, he is agitated by heavy incomprehensible thoughts: to + him the sphynx, Genius, hath already proposed its enigmas; in his + bosom the Promethean vulture is already perched, and groweth with his + growth. His comrades are playing and making merry; they are preparing + for their riper years recollections of childhood's days of + paradise—childhood, that never can be but once: the time cometh, and + he remembereth but the tormenting dreams of that age. Youth is at + hand; for others 'tis the time of love, of soft ties, of revelry—the + feast of life; for the artist, none of these. Solitary, flying from + society, he avoideth the maiden, he avoideth joy; plunging into the + loneliness of his soul, he there, with indescribable mourning, with + tears of inspiration, on his knees before his Ideal, imploreth her to + come down upon earth to his frail dwelling. Days and nights he + waiteth, and pineth after unearthly beauty. Woe to him if she doth + not visit him, and yet greater woe to him if she doth! The tender + frame of youth cannot bear her bridal kiss; union with the gods is + fatal to man; and the mortal is annihilated in her embrace. I speak + not of the education, of the mechanic preparation. And here at every + step the Material enchaineth thee, buildeth up barriers before thee: + marketh a formless vein upon thy block of marble, mingling soot with + thy carmine, entangling thy imagination in a net of monstrous rules + and formulas, commandeth thee to be the slave of the house-painter or + of the stone-cutter. And what awaiteth thee, when thou hast come + forth victorious from this + <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page149 name=page149></A>[pg 149]</SPAN> + mechanic school—when thou hast succeeded + in throwing off the heavy sum of a thousand unnecessary rules, with + which pedantry hath overwhelmed thee—when thou takest as thy guide + only those laws which are so plain and simple? ... What awaiteth thee + then? Again the Material! Poverty, need, forced labour, appreciators, + rivals, that ever-hungry flock which flieth upon thee ready to tear + thee in pieces, as soon as it knoweth that thou art a pure possessor + of the gift of God. Thy soul burneth to create, but thy carcass + demandeth a morsel of bread; inspiration veileth her wing, but the + body asketh not only to clothe its nakedness with a decent covering, + but fine cloth, silk, velvet, that it may appear before thy judges in + a proper dress, without which they will not receive thee, thou and + thy productions will die unknown. In order to obtain food, clothes, + thou must <i>work</i>: a merchant will order from thee a cellar, a + warehouse; the signore, stables and dog kennels. Now at last thou + hast procured thyself daily bread, a decent habit for thy bones and + flesh: inspiration thirsteth for its nourishment, demanding from thy + soul images and forms. Thou createst, thou art bringing thy Ideal to + fulfilment. How swiftly move the wheels of thy being! Thy existence + is tenfold redoubled, thy pulse is beating as when thou breathest the + atmosphere of high mountains. Thou spendest in one day whole months + of life. How many nights passed without sleep, how many days in + ceaseless chain, all filled with agitation! Or rather, there is nor + day nor night for thee, nor seasons of the year, as for other men. + Thy blood now boileth, then freezeth; the fever of imagination + wasteth thee away. Triumph setteth thee on fire, the fear of failure + maddeneth thee, tearing thee to pieces, tormenting thee with dread of + the judgments of men; then again ariseth the terror of dying with thy + task unfinished. Add, too, the inevitable shade of glory, which + stalketh ever in thy footsteps, and giveth thee not a moment of + repose. This is the period of creation! While creating, thou hast + been dwelling at the footstool of God. Crushed by thy contact with + the hem of his garment, overwhelmed by inspiration from Him whom the + world can scarcely bear, a poor mortal, half alive, half dead, thou + descendest upon earth, and carriest with thee what thou hast created + <i>there</i>, in <i>His</i> presence! Mortals surround thy production, judging, + valuing, discussing it in detail; the patron laudeth the ornaments, + the grandeur of the columns, the weight of the work; the distributors + of favour gamble away thy honour, or creep like mice under thy plan, + and nibble at it in the darkness of night. No, my friend, the life of + an artist is the life of a martyr." +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p> +We are so much accustomed to see virtue rewarded and vice punished, that +we might perhaps have been better pleased to have seen this kind of +poetical justice more equitably dispensed; but the cause of virtue is +perhaps as effectually served by making it attractive as by making it +triumphant, and vice is as much discouraged by making it odious or +contemptible as by making it unsuccessful. +</p> +<p> +It only remains to say a few words of the translator's labours; and +although we do not pretend to decide on the fidelity of the version he has +given us, or how much his author may have lost or gained in his hands, we +cannot but think that we perceive internal evidence of efforts to be +faithful, even at the hazard of losing perhaps something of more value in +the attempt. However this may be, it is plain that Mr Shaw is himself a +vigorous and eloquent writer of his own language, as the extracts we have +given may vouch. We feel greatly indebted to him for unlocking to us the +stores of Russian fiction, which, if they contain many such works as <i>The +Heretic</i>, will well repay the labour of a careful examination. There is +about every thing Russian an air of orientalism which gives a peculiar +character to their dress, their mansions, their manners, their feelings, +their expressions, and their prejudices, which will probably long continue +to distinguish Russian literature on that of the other nations of Europe, +whose steps she has followed, perhaps too implicitly, in her attempts to +overtake them in the race of civilization and intellectual improvement. +</p> +<p> + +<br><hr class="full"> + +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page150 name=page150></A>[pg 150]</SPAN> +<a name="bw340s2" id="bw340s2"></a><h2>THRUSH-HUNTING.</h2> + +<h3>BY ALEXANDER DUMAS.</h3> + +<p> +We have heard of certain cooks, the Udes and Vatels of their day, whose +boast it was to manufacture the most sumptuous and luxurious repast out of +coarse and apparently insufficient materials. We will take the liberty of +comparing M. Dumas with one of these artistical <i>cuisiniers</i>, possessing in +the highest degree the talent of making much out of little, by the skill +with which it is prepared, and the piquant nature of the condiments +applied. A successful dramatist, as well as a popular romance-writer, his +dialogues have the point and brilliancy, his narrative the vivid terseness, +generally observable in novels written by persons accustomed to dramatic +composition. Confining himself to no particular line of subject, he +rambles through the different departments of light literature in a most +agreeable and desultory manner; to-day a tourist, to-morrow a novelist; +the next day surprising his public by an excursion into the regions of +historical romance, amongst the well-beaten highways and byways of which +he still manages to discover an untrodden path, or to embellish a familiar +one by the sparkle of his wit and industry of his researches. The majority +of his books convey the idea of being written <i>currente calamo</i>, and with +little trouble to himself; and these have a lightness and brilliancy +peculiar to their lively author, which cannot fail to recommend them to +all classes of readers. They are like the sketches of a clever artist, who, +with a few bright and bold touches, gives an effect to his subject which +no labour would enable a less talented painter to achieve. But M. Dumas +can produce highly finished pictures as well as brilliant sketches, +although for the present it is one of the latter that we are about to +introduce to our readers. +</p> +<p> +Every body knows, or ought to know, that M. Dumas has been in Italy, and +found means to make half a dozen highly amusing volumes out of his rambles +in a country, perhaps, of all others, the most familiar to the inhabitants +of civilized Europe—a country which has been described and re-described +<i>ad nauseam</i>, by tourists, loungers, and idlers innumerable. On his way to +the land of lazzaroni he made a pause at Marseilles to visit his friend +Méry, a poet and author of some celebrity; and here he managed to collect +materials for a volume which we can recommend to the perusal of the daily +increasing class of our countrymen who think that a book, although written +in French, may be witty and amusing without being either blasphemous or +indecent. +</p> +<p> +We have reason to believe that many persons who have not visited the +south-eastern corner of France, think of it as a "land of the cypress and +myrtle;" where troubadours wander amongst orange groves, or tinkle their +guitars under the shade of the vine and the fig-tree. There is something +in a name, and Provence, if it were only for the sake of its roses, ought, +one would think, to be a smiling and beautiful country. And so part of it +is; but in this part is assuredly not included the district around its +chief city. One hears much of the vineyards and orange groves of the south. +We do not profess to care much about vines, except for the sake of what +they produce; most of the vineyards we ever saw looked very like +plantations of gooseberry bushes, and the best of them were not so +graceful or picturesque as a Kentish hop-ground. As to olives, admirable +as they undoubtedly are when flanking a sparkling jug of claret, we find +little to admire in the stiff, greyish, stunted sort of trees upon which +they think proper to grow. But neither vines nor olives are to be found +around Marseilles. Nothing but dust; dust on the roads, dust in the fields, +dust on every leaf of the parched, unhappy-looking trees that surround the +country-houses of the Marseillais. The fruit and vegetables consumed there +are brought for miles overland, or by water from places on the coast; +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page151 name=page151></A>[pg 151]</SPAN> +flowers are scarce—objecting, probably, to grow in so arid a soil, and in +a heat that, for some months of the year, is perfectly African. Game there +is little or none; notwithstanding which, there are nowhere to be found +more enthusiastic sportsmen than at Marseilles. It is on this hint M. +Dumas speaks. His description of the manner in which the worthy burghers +of Marseilles make war upon the volatiles is rather amusing. +</p> +<p> +"Every Marseillais who aspires to the character of a keen sportsman, has +what is termed a <i>poste à feu</i>. This is a pit or cave dug in the ground in +the vicinity of a couple of pine-trees, and covered over with branches. In +addition to the pine-trees, it is usual to have <i>cimeaux</i>, long spars of +wood, of which two are supported horizontally on the branches of the trees, +and a third planted perpendicularly in the ground. These <i>cimeaux</i> are +intended as a sort of treacherous invitation to the birds to come and rest +themselves. So regularly as Sunday morning arrives, the Marseillais +Cockney installs himself in his pit, arranges a loophole through which he +can see what passes outside, and waits with all imaginable patience. The +question that will naturally be asked, is—What does he wait for? +</p> +<p> +"He waits for a thrush, an ortolan, a beccafico, a robin-redbreast, or any +other feathered and diminutive biped. He is not so ambitious as to expect +a quail. Partridges he has heard of; of one, at least, a sort of phoenix, +reproduced from its own ashes, and seen from time to time before an +earthquake, or other great catastrophe. As to the hare, he is well aware +that it is a fabulous animal of the unicorn species. +</p> +<p> +"There is a tradition, however, at Marseilles, that during the last three +months of the year, flocks of wild pigeons pass over, on their way from +Africa or Kamschatka, or some other distant country. Within the memory of +man no one has ever seen one of these flights; but it would nevertheless +be deemed heresy to doubt the fact. At this season, therefore, the +sportsman provides himself with tame pigeon, which he fastens by a string +to the <i>cimeaux</i>, in such a manner that the poor bird is obliged to keep +perpetually on the wing, not being allowed rope enough to reach a perch. +After three or four Sundays passed in this manner, the unfortunate decoy +dies of a broken heart." +</p> +<p> +There is not nearly so much caricature in this picture as our readers may +be disposed to think. Whoever has passed a few weeks of the autumn in a +French provincial town, must have witnessed and laughed at the very +comical proceedings of the <i>chasseurs</i>, the high-sounding title assumed by +every Frenchman who ever pointed a gun at a cock-sparrow. One sees them +going forth in the morning in various picturesque and fanciful costumes, +their loins girded with a broad leathern belt, a most capacious game-bag +slung over their shoulder, a fowling-piece of murderous aspect balanced on +their arm; their heads protected from the October sun by every possible +variety of covering, from the Greek skull-cap to the broad-brimmed Spanish +sombrero. Away they go, singly, or by twos and threes, accompanied by a +whole regiment of dogs, for the most part badly bred, and worse broken +curs, which, when they get into the field, go pottering about in a style +that would sorely tempt an English sportsman to bestow upon them the +contents of both barrels. Towards the close of the day, take a stroll +outside the town, and you meet the heroes returning. "Well, what sport?" +"<i>Pas mal, mon cher</i>. Not so bad," is the reply, in a tone of +ill-concealed triumph; and plunging his hand into his game-bag, the +chasseur produces—a phthisical snipe, a wood pigeon, an extenuated quail, +and perhaps something which you at first take for a deformed blackbird, +but which turns out to be a water-hen. As far as our own observations go, +we do aver this to be a very handsome average of a French sportsman's +day's shooting. If by chance he has knocked down a red-legged partridge, +(grey ones are very scarce in France,) his exultation knows no bounds. The +day on which such a thing occurs is a red-letter day with him for the rest +of his life. He goes home at once and inscribes the circumstance in the +family archives. +</p> +<p> +But this state of things, it will perhaps be urged, may arise from the +scarcity of game in France, as probably as from the sportsman's want of +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page152 name=page152></A>[pg 152]</SPAN> +skill. True; but the worst is to come. After you have duly admired and +examined snipe, pigeon, quail, and water-hen, your friend again rummages +in the depths of his <i>gibecière</i>, and pulls out—what?—a handful of +tomtits and linnets, which he has been picking off every hedge for five +miles round. "<i>Je me suis rabattu sur le petit gibier</i>," he says, with a +grin and a shrug, and walks away, a proud man and a happy, leaving you in +admiration of his prowess. +</p> +<p> +M. Dumas expresses a wish to make the acquaintance of one of these modern +Nimrods, and his friend Méry arranges a supper, to which he invites a +certain Monsieur Louet, who plays the fourth bass in the orchestra of the +Marseilles theatre. The conversation after supper is a good specimen of +<i>persiflage</i>. After doing ample justice to an excellent repast, during +which he had scarcely uttered a word, +</p> +<p> +"Monsieur Louet threw himself back in his chair and looked at us all, one +after the other, as if he had only just become aware of our presence, +accompanying his inspection with a smile of the most perfect benevolence; +then, heaving a gentle sigh of satisfaction—'Ma foi! I have made a +capital supper!' exclaimed he. +</p> +<p> +"'M. Louet! A cigar?' cried Méry: 'It is good for the digestion.' +</p> +<p> +"'Thank you, most illustrious poet!' answered M. Louet; 'I never smoke. It +was not the fashion in my time. Smoking and boots were introduced by the +Cossacks. I always wear shoes, and am faithful to my snuff-box.' +</p> +<p> +"So saying, M. Louet produced his box, and offered it round. We all +refused except Méry, who, wishing to flatter him, attacked his weak side. +</p> +<p> +"'What delicious snuff, M. Louet! This cannot be the common French snuff?' +</p> +<p> +"'Indeed it is—only I doctor it in a particular manner. It is a secret I +learned from a cardinal when I was at Rome.' +</p> +<p> +"'Ha! You have been to Rome?' cried I. +</p> +<p> +"'Yes, sir; I passed twenty years there.' +</p> +<p> +"'M. Louet,' said Méry, 'since you do not smoke, you ought to tell these +gentlemen the story of your thrush-hunt.' +</p> +<p> +"'I shall be most happy,' replied M. Louet graciously, 'if you think it +will amuse the company.' +</p> +<p> +"'To be sure it will,' cried Méry. 'Gentlemen, you are going to hear the +account of one of the most extraordinary hunts that has taken place since +the days of Nimrod the mighty hunter. I have heard it told twenty times, +and each time with increased pleasure. Another glass of punch, M. Louet. +There! Now begin.—We are all impatience.' +</p> +<p> +"'You are aware, gentlemen,' said M. Louet, 'that every Marseillais is +born a sportsman.' +</p> +<p> +"'Perfectly true,' interrupted Méry 'it is a physiological phenomenon +which I have never been able to explain; but it is nevertheless quite +true.' +</p> +<p> +"'Unfortunately,' continued M. Louet, 'or perhaps I should say fortunately, +we have neither lions nor tigers in the neighbourhood of Marseilles. On +the other hand, we have flights of pigeons.' +</p> +<p> +"'There!' cried Méry, 'I told you so. They insist upon it.' +</p> +<p> +"'Certainly,' replied M. Louet, visibly vexed; 'and, whatever you may say +to the contrary, the pigeons <i>do</i> pass. Besides, did you not lend me the +other day a book of Mr Cooper's, the <i>Pioneers</i>, in which the fact is +authenticated?' +</p> +<p> +"'Ah, yes! Authenticated in America.' +</p> +<p> +"'Very well! If they pass over America why should they not pass over +Marseilles? The vessels that go from Alexandria and Constantinople to +America often pass here.' +</p> +<p> +"'Very true!' replied Méry, thunderstruck by this last argument. 'I have +nothing more to say. M. Louet, your hand. I will never contradict you +again on the subject.' +</p> +<p> +"'Sir, every man has a right to his opinion.' +</p> +<p> +"'True, but I relinquish mine. Pray go on, M. Louet.' +</p> +<p> +"'I was saying, then, that instead of lions and tigers we have flights of +pigeons.' M. Louet paused a moment to see if Méry would contradict him. +Méry nodded his head approvingly. +</p> +<p> +"'True,' said he, 'they have flights of pigeons.'" +</p> +<p> +Satisfied by this admission M. Louet resumed. +</p> +<p> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page153 name=page153></A>[pg 153]</SPAN> +"'You may easily imagine that at the period of the year when these flights +occur, every sportsman is on the alert; and, as I am only occupied in the +evening at the theatre, I am fortunately able to dispose of my mornings as +I like. It was in 1810 or '11, I was five-and-thirty years of age; that is +to say, gentlemen, rather more active than I am now. I was one morning at +my post, as usual, before daybreak. I had tied my decoy pigeon to the +<i>cimeaux</i>, and he was fluttering about like a mad thing, when I fancied I +saw by the light of the stars something perched upon my pine-tree. +Unfortunately it was too dark for me to distinguish whether this something +were a bat or a bird, so I remained quite quiet, waiting for the sun to +rise. At last the sun rose and I saw that it was a bird. I raised my gun +gently to my shoulder, and, when I was sure of my aim, I pulled the +trigger. Sir, I had omitted to discharge my gun on returning from shooting +the evening before. It had been twelve hours loaded, and it hung fire. +</p> +<p> +"'Nevertheless I saw by the way in which the bird flew that he was touched. +I followed him with my eyes till he perched again. Then I looked for my +pigeon; but by an extraordinary chance a shot had cut the string which +tied him, and he had flown away. Without a decoy I knew very well it was +no use remaining at the post, so I resolved to follow up the thrush. I +forgot to tell you, gentlemen, that the bird I had fired at was a thrush. +</p> +<p> +"'Unluckily I had no dog. When one shoots with a decoy, a dog is worse +than useless—it is a positive nuisance. I was obliged, therefore, to beat +the bushes myself. The thrush had run along the ground, and rose behind me +when I thought I still had him in front. At the sound of his wings I +turned and fired in a hurry. A shot thrown away, as you may suppose. +Nevertheless I saw some feathers fall from him.' +</p> +<p> +"'You saw some feathers?' cried Méry. +</p> +<p> +"'Yes, sir. I even found one, which I put in my buttonhole.' +</p> +<p> +"'In that case,' said Méry, 'the thrush was hit?' +</p> +<p> +"'That was my opinion at the time. I had not lost sight of him, and I +continued the pursuit; but the bird was scared, and this time flew away +before I got within range. I fired all the same. There is no saying where +a stray shot may go.' +</p> +<p> +"'A stray shot is not enough for a thrush,' said Méry, shaking his head +gravely. 'A thrush is a very hard-lived bird.' +</p> +<p> +"'Very true, sir; for I am certain my two first shots had wounded him, and +yet he made a third flight of nearly half a mile. But I had sworn to have +him, and on I went. Impossible to get near him. He led me on, mile after +mile, always flying away as soon as I came within fifty or sixty paces. I +became furious. If I had caught him I think I should have eaten him alive, +and the more so as I was beginning to get very hungry. Fortunately, as I +had calculated on remaining out all day, I had my breakfast and dinner in +my game-bag, and I eat as I went along.' +</p> +<p> +"'Pardon me,' said Méry, interrupting M. Louet; 'I have an observation to +make. Observe, my dear Dumas, the difference between the habits of the +human race in northern and southern climes. In the north the sportsman +runs after his game; in the south he waits for it to come to him. In the +first case he takes out an empty bag and brings home a full one; in the +other he takes it out full and brings it home empty. Pray, go on, my dear +M. Louet. I have spoken.' And he recommenced puffing at his cigar. +</p> +<p> +"'Where was I?' said M. Louet, who had lost the threat of his narrative +through this interruption. +</p> +<p> +"'Speeding over hill and dale in pursuit of your thrush.' +</p> +<p> +"'True, sir. I cannot describe to you the state of excitement and +irritation I was in. I began to think of the bird of Prince Camaralzaman, +and to suspect that I, too, might be the victim of some enchantment. I +passed Cassis and La Ciotat, and entered the large plain extending from +Ligne to St. Cyr. I had been fifteen hours on my feet, and I was half dead +with fatigue. I made a vow to Our Lady of La Garde to hang a silver thrush +in her chapel, if she would only assist me to catch the living one I was +following; but she paid no attention +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page154 name=page154></A>[pg 154]</SPAN> +to me. Night was coming on, and in +despair I fired my last shot at the accursed bird. I have no doubt he +heard the lead whistle, for this time he flew so far that I lost sight of +him in the twilight. He had gone in the direction of the village of St. +Cyr. Probably he intended to sleep there, and I resolved to do the same. +Fortunately there was to be no performance that night at the Marseilles +theatre.'" +</p> +<p> +The worthy basso goes to the inn at St. Cyr, and relates his troubles to +the host, who decides that the object of his pursuit must have halted for +the night in a neighbouring piece of brushwood. By daybreak M. Louet is +again a-foot, accompanied by the innkeeper's dog, Soliman. They soon get +upon the scent of the devoted thrush. +</p> +<p> +"'Every body knows that a true sporting dog will follow any one who has a +gun on his shoulder. "Soliman, Soliman!" cried I; and Soliman came. Sir, +the instinct of the dog was remarkable: we had hardly got out of the +village when he made a point—such a point, sir!—his tail out as straight +as a ramrod. There was the thrush, not ten paces from me. I fired both +barrels—Poum! Poum! Powder not worth a rush. I had used all my own the +day before, and this was some I had got from my host. The thrush flew away +unhurt. But Soliman had kept his eye on him, and went straight to the +place where the bird was. Again he made a most beautiful point; but +although I looked with all my eyes, I could not see the thrush. I was +stooping down in this manner, looking for the creature, when suddenly it +flew away, and so fast, that before I got my gun to my shoulder, it was +out of reach. Soliman opened his eyes and stared at me; as much as to say, +"What is the meaning of all this?" The expression of the dog's face made +me feel quit humiliated. I could not help speaking to him. "Never mind," +said I, nodding my head, "you will see next time." You would have thought +the animal understood me. He again began to hunt about. In less than ten +minutes he stopped as if he were cut out of marble. I was determined not +to lose this chance; and I went right before the dog's nose. The bird rose +literally under my feet; but I was so agitated that I fired my first +barrel too soon, and my second too late. The first discharge passed by him +like a single ball; the second was too scattered, and he passed between it. +It was then that a thing happened to me—one of those things which I +should not repeat, but for my attachment to the truth. The dog looked at +me for a moment with a sort of smile upon his countenance: then, coming +close up to me while I was reloading my gun, he lifted his left hind leg, +made water against my gaiter, and then turning round, trotted away in the +direction of his master's house. You may easily suppose, that if it had +been a man who had thus insulted me, I would have had his life, or he +should have had mine. But what could I say, sir, to a dumb beast which God +had not gifted with reason?'" +</p> +<p> +This canine insult only acts as a spur to the indefatigable chasseur, who, +dogless as he finds himself, follows up his thrush till he reaches the +town of Hyères. Here he loses all trace of the bird, but endeavours to +console himself by eating the oranges which grow in the garden of his +hotel. Whilst thus engaged, a thrush perches on a tree beside him, and the +first glance at the creature's profile satisfied him that it is the same +bird whose society he has been rejoicing in the for the last two days. +Unfortunately his gun is in the house, of which the thrush seems to be +aware, for it continues singing and dressing its feathers on a branch +within ten feet of his head. Afraid of losing sight of it, M. Louet waits +till the landlord comes to announce supper, and then desires him to bring +his gun. But there is a punishment of fine and imprisonment for whoever +fires a shot, between sunset and sunrise, within the precincts of the town; +and although the enthusiastic sportsman is willing enough to run this risk, +the hotel-keeper fears to be taken for an accomplice, and refuses to fetch +the gun, threatening to drive away the bird if M. Louet goes for it +himself. At last they come to terms. M. Louet sups and sleeps under the +tree, the bird roosts on the same; and at the first stroke of the matin +bell, mine host appears with the fowling-piece. Our chasseur stretches out +his hand to take it, and—the bird flies away. +</p> +<p> +M. Louet throws down the price of his supper, and scales the garden wall +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page155 name=page155></A>[pg 155]</SPAN> +in pursuit. He follows his intended victim the whole of that day, and at +last has the mortification of seeing it carried away before his eyes by a +hawk. Foot-sore and tired, hungry and thirsty, the unfortunate musician +sinks down exhausted by the side of a road. A peasant passes by. +</p> +<p> +"'My friend,' said I to him, 'is there any town, village, or house in +this neighbourhood?' +</p> +<p> +"'<i>Gnor si</i>,' answered he, '<i>cé la citta di Nizza un miglia avanti</i>.' +</p> +<p> +"The thrush had led me into Italy." +</p> +<p> +At Nice M. Louet is in great tribulation. In the course of his long ramble +his money has worked a hole in his pocket, and he discovers that he is +penniless just at the moment that he has established himself at the best +hotel, and ordered supper for three by way of making up for past +privations. He gets out of his difficulties, however, by giving a concert, +which produces him a hundred crowns; and he then embarks for Toulon, on +board the letter of marque, La Vierge des Sept Douleurs, Captain Garnier. +</p> +<p> +Once on the water, there is a fine opportunity for a display of French +naval heroism, at the expense, of course, of the unfortunate English, to +whom M. Dumas bears about the same degree of affection that another +dark-complexioned gentleman is said to do to holy water. This is one of M. +Dumas's little peculiarities or affectations, it is difficult to say which. +Wherever it is possible to bring in England and the English, depreciate +them in any way, or turn them into ridicule, M. Dumas invariably does it, +and those passages are frequently the most amusing in his books. In the +present instance, it is a very harmless piece of faufarronade in which he +indulges. +</p> +<p> +The armed brig in which M. Louet has embarked, falls in which a squadron +of English men-of-war. Hearing a great bustle upon deck, our musician goes +up to enquire the cause, and finds the captain quietly seated, smoking his +pipe. After the usual salutations— +</p> +<p> +"'M. Louet, have you ever seen a naval combat?' said the captain to me. +</p> +<p> +"'Never, sir.' +</p> +<p> +"'Would you like to see one?' +</p> +<p> +"'Why, captain, to say the truth, there are other things I should better +like to see.' +</p> +<p> +"'I am sorry for it; for it you wished to see one, a real good one, your +wish would soon be gratified.' +</p> +<p> +"'What! captain,' cried I, feeling myself grow pale; 'you do not mean to +say we are going to have a naval combat? Ha, ha! I see you are joking, +captain.' +</p> +<p> +"'Joking, eh? Look yonder. What do you see?' +</p> +<p> +"'I see three very fine vessels.' +</p> +<p> +"'Count again.' +</p> +<p> +"'I see more. Four, five, there are six of them.' +</p> +<p> +"'Can you distinguish what there is on the flag of the nearest one? Here, +take the glass.' +</p> +<p> +"'I cannot make out very well, but I think I see a harp.' +</p> +<p> +"'Exactly.—The Irish harp. In a few minutes they'll play as a tune on it.' +</p> +<p> +"'But captain,' said I, 'they are still a long way off, and it appears to +me, that by spreading all those sails which are now furled upon your masts +and yards, you might manage to escape. In your place I should certainly +run away. Excuse me for the suggestion, but it is my opinion as fourth +bass of the Marseilles theatre. If I had the honour to be a sailor, I +should perhaps think differently.'" +</p> +<p> +Very sensible advice, too, M. Louet, <i>we</i> should have thought at least, +considering the odds of six to one. But the fire-eating Frenchman thinks +otherwise. +</p> +<p> +"'If it were a man, instead of a bass, who made me such a proposal,' +replied the captain, 'I should have had a word or two to say to him about +it. Know, sir, that Captain Garnier <i>never</i> runs away! He fights till his +vessel is riddled like a sieve, then he allows himself to be boarded, and +when his decks are covered with the enemy, he goes into the powder +magazine with his pipe in his mouth, shakes out the burning ashes, and +sends the English on a voyage of discovery upwards.' +</p> +<p> +"'And the French?' +</p> +<p> +"'The French too.' +</p> +<p> +"'And the passengers?' +</p> +<p> +"'The passengers likewise.' +</p> +<p> +"'At that moment, a small white cloud appeared issuing from the side of +one of the English ships. This was followed by a dull noise like a heavy +blow on the big drum. I saw some +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page156 name=page156></A>[pg 156]</SPAN> +splinters fly from the top of the brig's +gunwale, and an artilleryman, who was just then standing on his gun, fell +backwards upon me. 'Come, my friend,' said I, 'mind what you are about.' +And, as he did not stir, I pushed him. He fell upon the deck. I looked at +him with more attention. His head was off. +</p> +<p> +"My nerves were so affected by this sight, that five minutes later I found +myself in the ship's hold, without exactly knowing how I had got there." +</p> +<p> +Thanks to a storm, the six English men of war manage to escape from the +brig, and when M. Louet ventures to re-appear upon deck, he finds himself +in the Italian port of Piombino, opposite the island of Elba. He has had +enough of the water, and goes on shore, where he bargains with a vetturino +to take him to Florence. A young officer of French hussars, and four +Italians, are his travelling companions. The former, on learning his name +and profession, asks him sundry questions about a certain Mademoiselle +Zephyrine, formerly a dancer at the Marseilles theatre, and in whom he +seems to take a strong interest. +</p> +<p> +Bad springs and worse roads render it very difficult to sleep. At last, on +the second night of their journey, M. Louet succeeds in getting up a doze, +out of which he is roused in a very unpleasant manner. We will give his +own account of it. +</p> +<p> +"'Two pistol-shots, the flash of which almost burned my face, awoke me. +They were fired by M. Ernest, (the hussar officer.) We were attacked by +banditti.' +</p> +<p> +"'<i>Faccia in terra! Faccia in terra!</i>' I jumped out of the carriage, and +as I did so, one of the brigands gave me a blow between the shoulders, +that threw me upon my face. My companions were already in that position, +with the exception of M. Ernest, who was defending himself desperately. At +length he was overpowered and made prisoner. +</p> +<p> +"My pockets were turned inside out, and my hundred crowns taken away. I +had a diamond ring on my finger, which I hoped they would not observe, and +I turned the stone inside, heartily wishing, as I did so, that it had the +power of Gyges' ring, and could render me invisible. But all was in vain. +The robbers soon found it out. When they had taken every thing from us— +</p> +<p> +"'Is there a musician amongst you?' said he who appeared the chief. +</p> +<p> +"Nobody answered. +</p> +<p> +"'Well,' repeated he, 'are you all deaf? I asked if any of you knew how to +play on an instrument.' +</p> +<p> +"'Pardieu!' said a voice, which I recognized as that of the young officer; +'there's M. Louet, who plays the bass.' +</p> +<p> +"I wished myself a hundred feet under ground. +</p> +<p> +"'Which is M. Louet?' said the brigand. 'Is it this one?' And, stooping +down, he laid hold of the collar of my shooting-jacket, and lifted me on +my feet. +</p> +<p> +"'For Heaven's sake, what do you want with me?' cried I. +</p> +<p> +"'Nothing to be so frightened about,' was the answer. 'For a week past we +have been hunting every where for a musician, without being able to find +one. The captain will be delighted to see you.' +</p> +<p> +"'What!' cried I, 'are you going to take me to the captain?' +</p> +<p> +"'Certainly we are.' +</p> +<p> +"'To separate me from my companions?' +</p> +<p> +"'What can we do with them? <i>They</i> are not musicians.' +</p> +<p> +"'Gentlemen!' cried I, 'for God's sake, help me! do not let me be carried +off in this manner.' +</p> +<p> +"'The gentlemen will have the goodness to remain with their noses in the +dust for the space of a quarter of an hour,' said the brigand. 'As to the +officer, tie him to a tree,' continued he, to the four men who were +holding the hussar. 'In a quarter of an hour the postillion will untie him. +Not a minute sooner, if you value your life.' +</p> +<p> +"The postillion gave a sort of affirmative grunt, and the robbers now moved +off in the direction of the mountains. I was led between two of them. +After marching for some time, we saw a light in a window, and presently +halted at a little inn on a cross-road. The bandits went up stairs, +excepting two, who remained with me in the kitchen, and one of whom had +appropriated my fowling-piece, and the other my game-bag. As to my diamond +ring and my hundred crowns, they had become perfectly invisible. +</p> +<p> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page157 name=page157></A>[pg 157]</SPAN> +"Presently somebody shouted from above, and my guards, taking me by the +collar, pushed me up stairs, and into a room on the first floor. +</p> +<p> +"Seated at a table, upon which was a capital supper and numerous array of +bottles, was the captain of the robbers, a fine-looking man of thirty-five +or forty years of age. He was dressed exactly like a theatrical robber, in +blue velvet, with a red sash and silver buckles. His arm was passed round +the waist of a very pretty girl in the costume of a Roman peasant; that is +to say, an embroidered boddice, short bright-coloured petticoat, and red +stockings. Her feet attracted my attention, they were so beautifully small. +On one of her fingers I saw my diamond ring—a circumstance which, as well +as the company in which I found her, gave me a very indifferent idea of +the young lady's morality. +</p> +<p> +"'What countryman are you?' asked the captain. +</p> +<p> +"'I am a Frenchman, your excellency.' +</p> +<p> +"'So much the better!' cried the young girl. +</p> +<p> +"I saw with pleasure that, at any rate, I was amongst people who spoke my +own language. +</p> +<p> +"'You are a musician?' +</p> +<p> +"'I am fourth bass at the Marseilles theatre.' +</p> +<p> +"'Bring this gentleman's bass,' said the captain to one of his men. 'Now, +my little Rina,' said he, turning to his mistress, 'I hope you are ready +to dance." +</p> +<p> +"'I always was,' answered she, 'but how could I without music?' +</p> +<p> +"'<i>Non ho trovato l'instrumento</i>,' said the robber, reappearing at the +door. +</p> +<p> +"'What!' cried the captain in a voice of thunder; 'no instrument?' +</p> +<p> +"'Captain,' interposed his lieutenant, 'I searched every where, but could +not find even the smallest violoncello.' +</p> +<p> +"'<i>Bestia</i>!' cried the captain. +</p> +<p> +"'Excellency,' I ventured to observe, 'it is not his fault. I had no bass +with me.' +</p> +<p> +"'Very well,' said the captain, 'send off five men immediately to Sienna, +Volterra, Grossetto—all over the country. I must have a bass by to-morrow +night.' +</p> +<p> +"I could not help thinking I had seen Mademoiselle Rina's face somewhere +before, and I was cudgeling my memory to remember where, when she +addressed the captain. +</p> +<p> +"'Tonino,' said she, 'you have not even asked the poor man if he is +hungry.' +</p> +<p> +"I was touched by this little attention, and, on the captain's invitation, +I drew a chair to the table, in fear and trembling I acknowledge; but it +was nearly twelve hours since I had eaten any thing, and my hunger was +perfectly canine. Mademoiselle Rina herself had the kindness to pass me +the dishes and fill my glass; so that I had abundant opportunities of +admiring my own ring, which sparkled upon her finger. I began to perceive, +however, that I should not be so badly off as I had expected, and that the +captain was disposed to treat me well. +</p> +<p> +"Supper over, I was allowed to retire to a room and a bed that had been +prepared for me. I slept fifteen hours without waking. The robbers had the +politeness not to disturb me till I awakened of my own accord. Then, +however, five of them entered my room, each carrying a bass. I chose the +best, and they made firewood of the others. +</p> +<p> +"When I had made my choice, they told me the captain was waiting dinner +for me; and accordingly, on entering the principal room of the inn, I +found a table spread for the captain, Mademoiselle Rina, the lieutenant, +and myself. There were several other tables for the rest of the banditti. +The room was lighted up with at least three hundred wax candles. +</p> +<p> +"The dinner was a merry one. The robbers were really very good sort of +people, and the captain was in an excellent humour. When the feasting was +over, +</p> +<p> +"'You have not forgotten your promise, Rina, I hope?' said he. +</p> +<p> +"'Certainly not,' was the reply. 'In a quarter of an hour I am ready.' +</p> +<p> +"So saying, she skipped out of the room. +</p> +<p> +"'And you, Signor Musico,' said the captain, 'I hope you are going to +distinguish yourself.' +</p> +<p> +"'I will do my best, captain.' +</p> +<p> +"'If I am satisfied, you shall have back your hundred crowns.' +</p> +<p> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page158 name=page158></A>[pg 158]</SPAN> +"'And my diamond ring, captain?' +</p> +<p> +"'Oh! as to that, no. Besides, you see Rina has got it, and you are too +gallant to wish to take it from her.' +</p> +<p> +"At this moment Mademoiselle Rina made her appearance in the costume of a +shepherdess—a boddice of silver, short silk petticoats, and a large +Cashmere shawl twisted round her waist. She was really charming in this +dress. I seized my bass. I fancied myself in the orchestra at Marseilles. +</p> +<p> +"'What would you like me to play, Mademoiselle?' +</p> +<p> +"'Do you know the shawl-dance in the ballet of <i>Clary</i>?' +</p> +<p> +"'Certainly; it is my favourite.' +</p> +<p> +"I began to play, Rina to dance, and the banditti to applaud. She danced +admirably. The more I looked at her, the more convinced I became that I +had seen her before. +</p> +<p> +"She was in the middle of a <i>pirouette</i> when the door opened, and the +innkeeper entering, whispered something in the captain's ear. +</p> +<p> +"'<i>Ove sono</i>?' said the latter, quietly. 'Where are they?' +</p> +<p> +"'A San Dalmazio.' +</p> +<p> +"'No nearer? Then there is no hurry.' +</p> +<p> +"'What is the matter?' said Rina, executing a magnificent <i>entrechat</i>. +</p> +<p> +"'Nothing. Only those rascally travellers have given the alarm at Florence, +and the hussars of the Grand-duchess Eliza are looking for us.' +</p> +<p> +"'They are too late for the performance,' said Rina, laughing. 'I have +finished my dance.' +</p> +<p> +"It was lucky, for the bow had fallen from my hands at the news I had just +heard. Rina made one bound to the door, and then turning, as if she had +been on the stage, curtsied to the audience, and kissed her hand to the +captain. The applause was deafening; I doubt if she had ever had such a +triumph. +</p> +<p> +"'And now, to arms!' cried the captain. 'Prepare a horse for Rina and +another for the musician. <i>We</i> will go on foot. The road to Romagna, +remember! Stragglers to rejoin at Chianciano.' +</p> +<p> +"For a few minutes all was bustle and preparation. +</p> +<p> +"'Here I am,' cried Rina, running in, attired in her Roman peasant's +dress. +</p> +<p> +"'<i>Usseri, Usseri</i>!' said the innkeeper. +</p> +<p> +"'Off with you!' cried the captain, and every one hurried towards the +stairs. +</p> +<p> +"'The devil!' said the captain, turning to me, 'you are forgetting your +bass, I think.' +</p> +<p> +"I took the bass. I would willingly have crept into it. Two horses stood +ready saddled at the house door. +</p> +<p> +"'Well, Monsieur le Musicien,' said Rina, 'do you not help me to get on my +horse? You are not very gallant.' +</p> +<p> +"I held out my arm to assist her, and as I did so she put a small piece of +paper into my hand. +</p> +<p> +"A cold perspiration stood upon my forehead. What could this paper be? Was +it a billet-doux? Had I been so unfortunate as to make a conquest, which +would render me the rival of the captain? My first impulse was to throw +the note away; but on second thoughts I put it in my pocket. +</p> +<p> +"'<i>Usseri, Usseri</i>!' cried the innkeeper again, and a noise like that of a +distant galloping was heard. I scrambled on my horse, which two of the +robbers took by the bridle; two others led that of Mademoiselle Rina. The +captain, with his carbine on his shoulder, ran beside his mistress, the +lieutenant accompanied me, and the remainder of the band, consisting of +fifteen or eighteen men, brought up the rear. Five or six shots were fired +some three hundred yards behind us, and the balls whistled in our ears. +'To the left!' cried the captain, and we threw ourselves into a sort of +ravine, at the bottom of which ran a rapid stream. Here we halted and +listened, and heard the hussars gallop furiously past on the high-road. +</p> +<p> +"'If they keep on at that pace, they'll soon be at Grossetto,' said the +captain laughing." +</p> +<p> +This is the unfortunate musician's first essay in horsemanship, and when, +after twelve hours' march across the country, with his bass strapped upon +his shoulders, he halts at the inn at Chianciano, he is more dead than +alive. He remembers, however, to read Mademoiselle Rina's note. From this, +and a few words which she takes an opportunity of saying to him, he finds +that she is an opera-dancer named Zephyrine, who had had an engagement +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page159 name=page159></A>[pg 159]</SPAN> +a year or two previously at the Marseilles theatre. She had since +transferred herself to the Teatro de la Valle at Rome, where the bandit +captain, Tonino, happening to witness her performance, became enamoured of +her, and laid a plan for carrying her off, which had proved successful. +Her lover, however, Ernest, the same officer of hussars who had been M. +Louet's travelling companion, is in search of her; and, to assist him in +his pursuit, she writes her name, and that of the place they are next +going to, upon the window of each inn they stop at. It was for this +purpose she had secured M. Louet's diamond ring. +</p> +<p> +If contrast was Dumas' object in writing this volume, he has certainly +been highly successful in carrying out his intention. Most writers would +have contented themselves with composing the female portion of the +brigands' society, of some dark-browed Italian <i>contadina</i>, with flashing +eyes and jetty ringlets, a knife in her garter and a mousquetoon in her +brawny fist, and a dozen crucifixes and amulets round her neck. At most, +one might have expected to meet with some English lady in a green veil, +(all English ladies, who travel, wear green veils,) whose carriage had +been attacked, and herself carried off on the road from Florence to Rome. +But M. Dumas scorns such commonplace <i>dramatis personae</i>, and is satisfied +with nothing less than transporting a French ballet-dancer into the +Appenines, with all her paraphernalia of gauze drapery, tinsel decorations, +and opera airs and graces; not forgetting the orchestra, in the person of +the luckless bass player. Yet so ingeniously does he dovetail it all +together, so probable does he make his improbabilities appear, that we +become almost reconciled to the idea of finding Mademoiselle Zephyrine +Taglionizing away upon the filthy floor of a mountain <i>osteria</i>, and are +inclined to be astonished that the spectators should not be provided with +bouquets to throw at her upon the conclusion of her performance. +</p> +<p> +Several days are passed in running from one place to the other, always +followed by the hussars, from whom the banditti have some narrow escapes. +M. Louet is taken great care of in consideration of his skill as a +musician, and he on his part takes all imaginable care of his bass, which +he looks upon as a sort of a safeguard. At length they arrive at the +castle of Anticoli, a villa which the captain rents from a Roman nobleman, +and where he considers himself in perfect safety. Here M. Louet is +installed in a magnificent apartment, where he finds linen and clothes, of +which he is much in need. His toilet completed, he is conducted to the +drawing-room by a livery servant, who bears a strong resemblance to one of +his friends the banditti. But we will let him tell his story in his own +words. +</p> +<p> +"There were three persons in the room into which I was ushered; a young +lady, a very elegantly dressed man, and a French officer. I thought there +must be some mistake, and was walking backwards out of the apartment, when +the lady said— +</p> +<p> +"'My dear M. Louet, where are you going? Do you not mean to dine with us?' +</p> +<p> +"'Pardon me,' said I, 'I did not recognise you, Mademoiselle.' +</p> +<p> +"'If you prefer it, you shall be served in your apartment,' said the +elegant-looking man. +</p> +<p> +"'What, captain,' cried I, 'is it you?' +</p> +<p> +"'M. Louet would not be so unkind as to deprive us of his society,' said +the French officer with a polite bow. I turned to thank him for his +civility. It was the lieutenant. It put me in mind of the changes in a +pantomime. +</p> +<p> +"'<i>Al suo commodo</i>,' said a powdered lackey, opening the folding doors of +a magnificent dining-room. The captain offered his hand to Mademoiselle +Zephyrine. The lieutenant and I followed. +</p> +<p> +"'I hope you will be pleased with my cook, my dear M. Louet,' said the +captain, waving me to a chair, and seating himself. 'He is a French artist +of some talent. I have ordered two or three Provençal dishes on purpose +for you.' +</p> +<p> +"'Pah! with garlic in them!' said the French officer, taking a pinch of +perfumed snuff out of a gold box. I began to think I was dreaming. +</p> +<p> +"'Have you seen the park yet, M. Louet?' asked the captain. +</p> +<p> +"'Yes, Excellency, from the window of my room.' +</p> +<p> +"'They say it is full of game. Are you fond of shooting?' +</p> +<p> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page160 name=page160></A>[pg 160]</SPAN> +"'I delight in it. Are there any thrushes in the park?' +</p> +<p> +"'Thrushes! thousands.' +</p> +<p> +"'Bravo! You may reckon upon me, captain, for a supply of game. That is, +if you will order my fowling-piece to be returned to me. I cannot shoot +well with any other. +</p> +<p> +"'Agreed,' said the captain. +</p> +<p> +"'Tonino,' said Mademoiselle Zephyrine, 'you promised to take me to the +theatre to-morrow. I am curious to see the dancer who has replaced me.' +</p> +<p> +"'There is no performance to-morrow,' replied the captain, 'and I am not +sure the carriage is in good condition. But we can take a ride to Tivoli +or Subiaco, if you like.' +</p> +<p> +"'Will you come with us, my dear M. Louet?' said Mademoiselle Zephyrine. +</p> +<p> +"'Thank you,' replied I; 'I am not accustomed to ride. I would rather have +a day's shooting.' +</p> +<p> +"'I will keep M. Louet company,' said the lieutenant. +</p> +<p> +"On retiring to my apartment that night, I found my fowling-piece in one +corner, my game-bag in another, and my hundred crowns on the chimney-piece. +Captain Tonino was a man of his word. +</p> +<p> +"Whilst I was undressing, the French cook came to know what I would choose +for breakfast. 'Count Villaforte,' he said, 'had ordered that I should be +served in my room, as I was going out shooting.' The captain, it appeared, +had changed his name as well as his dress. +</p> +<p> +"The next morning I had just dressed and breakfasted, when the lieutenant +came to fetch me, and I accompanied him down-stairs. In front of the villa +four saddle-horses were being led up and down—one for the captain, one +for Mademoiselle Zephyrine, and the two others for servants. The captain +put a brace of double-barrelled pistols into his holsters, and the +servants did the same. Master and men had a sort of fancy costume, which +allowed them to wear a couteau-de-chasse. The captain saw that I remarked +all these precautions. +</p> +<p> +"'The police is shocking in this country, M. Louet,' said he, 'and there +are so many bad characters about, that it is well to be armed.' +</p> +<p> +"Mademoiselle Zephyrine looked charming in her riding-habit and hat. +</p> +<p> +"'Much pleasure, my dear M. Louet,' said the captain, as he got on his +horse. 'Beaumanoir, take care of M. Louet.' +</p> +<p> +"'The best possible care, count.' replied the lieutenant. +</p> +<p> +"'The captain and Zephyrine waved their hands, and cantered away, followed +by their servants. +</p> +<p> +"'Pardon me, sir,' said I, approaching the lieutenant; 'I believe it was +you whom the count addressed as Beaumanoir.' +</p> +<p> +"'It was so.' +</p> +<p> +"'I thought the family of Beaumanoir had been extinct.' +</p> +<p> +"'Very possible. I revive it, that's all.' +</p> +<p> +"'You are perfectly at liberty to do so, sir,' replied I. 'I beg pardon +for the observation.' +</p> +<p> +"'Granted, granted, my dear Louet. Would you like a dog, or not?' +</p> +<p> +"'Sir, I prefer shooting without a dog. The last I had insulted me most +cruelly, and I should not like the same thing to occur again.' +</p> +<p> +"'As you please. Gaetano, untie Romeo.' +</p> +<p> +"We commenced our sport. In six shots I killed four thrushes, which +satisfied me that the one which I had followed from Marseilles had been an +enchanted one. Beaumanoir laughed at me. +</p> +<p> +"'What!' cried he. 'Do you amuse yourself in firing at such game as that?' +</p> +<p> +"'Sir,' replied I, 'at Marseilles the thrush is a very rare animal. I have +seen but one in my life, and it is to that one I owe the advantage of +being in your society.' +</p> +<p> +"Here and there I saw gardeners and gamekeepers whose faces were familiar +to me, and who touched their hats as I passed. They looked to me very like +my old friends, the robbers, in a new dress; but I had, of late, seen so +many extraordinary things, that nothing astonished me any longer. +</p> +<p> +"The park was very extensive, and enclosed by a high wall, which had light +iron gratings placed here and there, to afford a view of the surrounding +country. I happened to be standing near one of these gratings, when M. +Beaumanoir fired at a pheasant. +</p> +<p> +"'<i>Signore</i>,' said a countryman, who <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page161 name= +page161></A>[pg 161]</SPAN> +was passing, '<i>questo castello e il +castello d'Anticoli?</i>' +</p> +<p> +"'Villager,' I replied, walking towards the grating, 'I do not understand +Italian; speak French, and I shall be happy to answer.' +</p> +<p> +"'What! Is it you, M. Louet?' exclaimed the peasant. +</p> +<p> +"'Yes, it is,' said I; 'but how do you know my name?' +</p> +<p> +"'Hush! I am Ernest, the hussar officer, your travelling companion.' +</p> +<p> +"'M. Ernest! Ah! Mademoiselle Zephyrine will be delighted.' +</p> +<p> +"'Zephyrine is really here, then?' +</p> +<p> +"'Certainly she is. A prisoner like myself.' +</p> +<p> +"'And Count Villaforte?' +</p> +<p> +"'Is Captain Tonino.' +</p> +<p> +"'And the castle?' +</p> +<p> +"'A den of thieves.' +</p> +<p> +"'That is all I wanted to know. Adieu, my dear Louet. Tell Zephyrine she +shall soon hear from me.' So saying, he plunged into the forest. +</p> +<p> +"'Here, Romeo, here!' cried Mr. Beaumanoir to his dog, who was fetching +the bird he had shot. I hastened to him. +</p> +<p> +"'A beautiful pheasant!' cried I. 'A fine cock!' +</p> +<p> +"'Yes, yes. Who were you talking to, M. Louet?' +</p> +<p> +"'To a peasant, who asked me some question, to which I replied, that +unfortunately I did not understand Italian.' +</p> +<p> +"'Hum!' said Beaumanoir, with a suspicious side-glance at me. Then, having +loaded his gun, 'We will change places, if you please,' said he. 'There +may be some more peasants passing, and, as I understand Italian, I shall +be able to answer their questions.' +</p> +<p> +"'As you like, M. Beaumanoir,' said I. +</p> +<p> +"The change was effected; but no more peasants appeared. +</p> +<p> +"When we returned to the house, the captain and Zephyrine had not yet come +back from their ride, and I amused myself in my room with my bass, which I +found to be an excellent instrument. I resolved, more than ever, not to +part with it, but to take it back to France with me, if ever I returned to +that country. +</p> +<p> +"At the hour of dinner, I repaired to the drawing-room, where I found +Count Villaforte and Mademoiselle Zephyrine. I had scarcely closed the +door, when it was reopened, and the lieutenant put in his head. +</p> +<p> +"'Captain!' said he, in a hurried voice. +</p> +<p> +"'Who calls me captain? Here there is no captain, my dear Beaumanoir, but +a Count Villaforte.' +</p> +<p> +"'Captain, it is a serious matter. One moment, I beg.' +</p> +<p> +"The captain left the room. When the door was shut, and I was sure he +could not hear me, I told Zephyrine of my interview with her lover. I had +just finished when the captain reappeared. +</p> +<p> +"'Well,' said Zephyrine, running to meet him. 'What makes you look so +blank? Are there bad news?' +</p> +<p> +"'Not very good ones.' +</p> +<p> +"'Do they come from a sure source?' asked she with an anxiety which this +time was not assumed. +</p> +<p> +"'From the surest possible. From one of our friends who is employed in the +police.' +</p> +<p> +"'Gracious Heaven! What is going to happen?' +</p> +<p> +"'We do not know yet, but it appears we have been traced from Chianciano +to the Osteria Barberini. They only lost the scent behind Mount Gennaro. +My dear Rina, I fear we must give up our visit to the theatre to-morrow.' +</p> +<p> +"'But not our dinner to-day, captain, I hope,' said I. +</p> +<p> +"'Here is your answer,' said the captain, as the door opened, and a +servant announced that the soup was on the table. +</p> +<p> +"The captain and lieutenant dined each with a brace of pistols beside his +plate, and in the anteroom I saw two men armed with carbines. The repast +was a silent one; I did not dine comfortably myself, for I had a sort of +feeling that the catastrophe was approaching, and that made me uneasy. +</p> +<p> +"'You will excuse me for leaving you,' said the captain, when dinner was +over; 'but I must go and take measures for our safety. I would advise you +not to undress, M. Louet, for we may have to make a sudden move, and it is +well to be ready.' +</p> +<p> +"The lieutenant conducted me to my apartment, and wished me good-night +with great politeness. As he left the room, however, I heard that he +double-locked the door. I had nothing better to do than to throw myself on +my <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page162 name=page162></A>[pg 162]</SPAN> +bed, which I did; but for some hours I found it impossible to sleep, on +account of the anxieties and unpleasant thoughts that tormented me. At +last I fell into a troubled slumber. +</p> +<p> +"I do not know how long it had lasted, when I was awakened by being +roughly shaken. +</p> +<p> +"'Subito! subito!' cried a voice. +</p> +<p> +"'What is the matter?' said I, sitting up on the bed. +</p> +<p> +"'<i>Non capisco, seguir me</i>!' cried the bandit. +</p> +<p> +"'And where am I to <i>seguir</i> you?' said I, understanding that he told me +to follow him. +</p> +<p> +"'Avanti! Avanti!' +</p> +<p> +"'May I take my bass?' I asked. +</p> +<p> +"The man made sign in the affirmative, so I put my beloved instrument on +my back, and told him I was ready to follow him. He led me through several +corridors and down a staircase; then, opening a door, we found ourselves +in the park. Day was beginning to dawn. After many turnings and windings, +we entered a copse or thicket, in the depths of which was the opening of a +sort of grotto, where one of the robbers was standing sentry. They pushed +me into this grotto. It was very dark, and I was groping about with +extended arms, when somebody grasped my hand. I was on the point of crying +out; but the hand that held mine was too soft to be that of a brigand. +</p> +<p> +"'M. Louet!' said a whispering voice, which I at once recognized. +</p> +<p> +"'What is the meaning of all this, Mademoiselle?' asked I, in the same +tone. +</p> +<p> +"'The meaning is, that they are surrounded by a regiment, and Ernest is at +the head of it.' +</p> +<p> +"'But why are we put into this grotto?' +</p> +<p> +"'Because it is the most retired place in the whole park, and consequently +the one least likely to be discovered. Besides there is a door in it, +which communicates probably with some subterraneous passage leading into +the open country.' +</p> +<p> +"Just then we heard a musket shot. +</p> +<p> +"'Bravo!' cried Zephyrine; 'it is beginning.' +</p> +<p> +"There was a running fire, then a whole volley. +</p> +<p> +"'Mademoiselle,' said I, 'it appears to me to be increasing very much.' +</p> +<p> +"'So much the better,' answered she. +</p> +<p> +"She was as brave as a lioness, that young girl. For my part I acknowledge +I felt very uncomfortable. But it appears I was doomed to witness +engagements both by land and sea. +</p> +<p> +"'The firing is coming nearer,' said Zephyrine. +</p> +<p> +"'I am afraid so, Mademoiselle,' answered I. +</p> +<p> +"'On the contrary, you ought to be delighted. It is a sign that the +robbers are flying.' +</p> +<p> +"'I had rather they fled in another direction.' +</p> +<p> +"There was a loud clamour, and cries as if they were cutting one another's +throats, which, in fact, they were. The shouts and cries were mingled with +the noise of musketry, the sound of the trumpets, and roll of the drum. +There was a strong smell of powder. The fight was evidently going on +within a hundred yards of the grotto. +</p> +<p> +"Suddenly there was a deep sigh, then the noise of a fall, and one of the +sentries at the mouth of the cave came rolling to our feet. A random shot +had struck him, and as he just fell in, a ray of light which entered the +grotto, we were able to see him writhing in the agonies of death. +Mademoiselle Zephyrine seized my hands, and I felt that she trembled +violently. +</p> +<p> +"'Oh, M. Louet.' said she, 'it is very horrible to see a man die!' +</p> +<p> +"At that moment we heard a voice exclaiming—'Stop, cowardly villain! Wait +for me!' +</p> +<p> +"'Ernest!' exclaimed Zephyrine. 'It is the voice of Ernest!' +</p> +<p> +"As she spoke the captain rushed in, covered with blood. +</p> +<p> +"'Zephyrine!' cried he, 'Zephyrine, where are you?' +</p> +<p> +"The sudden change from the light of day to the darkness of the cave, +prevented him from seeing us. Zephyrine made me a sign to keep silence. +After remaining for a moment as if dazzled, his eyes got accustomed to the +darkness. He bounded towards us with the spring of a tiger. +</p> +<p> +"'Zephyrine, why don't you answer when I call? Come!' +</p> +<p> +"He seized her arm, and began dragging her towards the door at the back of +the grotto. +</p> +<p> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page163 name=page163></A>[pg 163]</SPAN> +"'Where are you taking me?' cried the poor girl. +</p> +<p> +"'Come with me—come along!' + </p> +<p> +"'Never!' cried she, struggling. +</p> +<p> +"'What! You won't go with me?' + </p> +<p> +"'No; why should I? I detest you. You carried me off by force. I won't +follow you. Ernest, Ernest, here!' +</p> +<p> +"'Ernest!' muttered the captain. 'Ha! 'Tis you, then, who betrayed us?' + </p> +<p> +"'M. Louet!' cried Zephyrine, 'if you are a man, help me!' +</p> +<p> +"I saw the blade of a poniard glitter. I had no weapon, but I seized my +bass by the handle, and, raising it in the air, let it fall with such +violence on the captain's skull, that the back of the instrument was +smashed in and the bandit's head disappeared in the interior of the bass. +Either the violence of the blow, or the novelty of finding his head in a +bass, so astonished the captain that he let go his hold of Zephyrine, at +the same time uttering a roar like that of a mad bull. +</p> +<p> +"'Zephyrine! Zephyrine!' cried a voice outside. +</p> +<p> +"'Ernest!' answered the young girl, darting out of the grotto. +</p> +<p> +"I followed her, terrified at my own exploit. She was already clasped in +the arms of her lover. +</p> +<p> +"'In there,' cried the young officer to a party of soldiers who just then +came up. 'He is in there. Bring him out, dead or alive.' +</p> +<p> +"They rushed in, but the broken bass was all they found. The captain had +escaped by the other door. +</p> +<p> +"On our way to the house we saw ten or twelve dead bodies. One was lying +on the steps leading to the door. +</p> +<p> +"'Take away this carrion,' said Ernest. +</p> +<p> +"Two soldiers turned the body over. It was the last of the Beaumanoirs. +</p> +<p> +"We remained but a few minutes at the house, and then Zephyrine and myself +got into a carriage and set off, escorted by M. Ernest and a dozen men. I +did not forget to carry off my hundred crowns, my fowling-piece, and +game-bag. As to my poor bass, the captain's head had completely spoiled it. +</p> +<p> +"After an hour's drive, we came in sight of a large city with an enormous +dome the middle of it. It was Rome. +</p> +<p> +"'And did you see the Pope, M. Louet?' +</p> +<p> +"'At that time he was at Fontainbleau, but I saw him afterwards, and his +successor too; for M. Ernest got me an appointment as bass-player at the +Teatro de la Valle, and I remained there till the year 1830. When I at +last returned to Marseilles, they did not know me again, and for some time +refused to give me back my place in the orchestra, under pretence that I +was not myself.' +</p> +<p> +"'And Mademoiselle Zephyrine?' +</p> +<p> +"'I heard that she married M. Ernest, whose other name I never knew, and +that he became a general, and she a very great lady." +</p> +<p> +"'And Captain Tonino? Did you hear nothing more of him?' +</p> +<p> +"'Three years afterwards he came to the theatre in disguise; was +recognised, arrested, and hung.' +</p> +<p> +"'And thus it was, sir,' concluded M. Louet, 'that a thrush led me into +Italy, and caused me to pass twenty years at Rome.'" +</p> +<p> +And so ends the thrush-hunt. One word at parting, to qualify any too +sweeping commendation we may have bestowed on M. Dumas in the early part +of this paper. While we fully exonerate his writings from the charge of +grossness, and recognise the absence of those immoral and pernicious +tendencies which disfigure the works of many gifted French writers of the +day, we would yet gladly see him abstain from the somewhat too +Decameronian incidents and narratives with which he occasionally varies +his pages. That he is quite independent of such meretricious aids, is +rendered evident by his entire avoidance of them in some of his books, +which are not on that account a whit the less <i>piquant</i>. With this single +reservation, we should hail with pleasure the appearance on our side the +Channel of a few such sprightly and amusing writers as Alexander Dumas. +</p> + +<br><hr class="full"> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page164 name=page164></A>[pg 164]</SPAN> +<a name="bw340s3" id="bw340s3"></a><h2>HIGH LIFE IN THE LAST CENTURY.<a id= +footnotetag5 +name=footnotetag5></a><a +href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a></h2> + +<p> +The volumes of which we are about to give fragments and anecdotes, contain +a portion of the letters addressed to a man of witty memory, whose +existence was passed almost exclusively among men and women of rank; his +life, in the most expressive sense of the word, West End; and even in that +West End, his chief haunt St James's Street. Parliament and the Clubs +divided his day, and often his night. The brilliant roués, the steady +gamesters, the borough venders, and the lordly ex-members of ex-cabinets, +were the only population of whose living and breathing he suffered himself +to have any cognizance. In reverse of Gray's learned mouse, eating its way +through the folios of an ancient library—and to whom +</p> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "A river or a sea was but a dish of tea,</p> +<p> And a kingdom bread and butter,"</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +to George Selwyn, the world and all that it inhabits, were concentrated in +Charles Fox, William Pitt, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and the circle of +men of pleasantry, loose lives, and vivacious temperaments, who, with +whatever diminishing lustre, revolved round them. +</p> +<p> +Of the City of London, Selwyn probably had heard; for though fixed to one +spot, he was a man fond of collecting curious knowledge; but nothing short +of proof positive can ever convince us that he had passed Temple Bar. He, +of course, knew that there were such things on the globe as merchants and +traders, because their concerns were occasionally talked of in "the House," +where, however, he heard as little as possible about them; for in the +debates of the time he took no part but that of a listener, and even then +he abridged the difficulty, by generally sleeping through the sitting. He +was supposed to be the only rival of Lord North in the happy faculty of +falling into a sound slumber at the moment when any of those dreary +persons, who chiefly speak on such subjects, was on his legs. St James's, +and the talk of St James's, were his business, his pleasures, the exciters +of his wit, and the rewarders of his toil. He had applied the art of +French cookery to the rude material of the world, and refined and reduced +all things into a <i>sauce piquante</i>—all its realities were concentrated in +essences; and, disdaining the grosser tastes of mankind, he lived upon the +<i>aroma</i> of high life—an epicure even among epicures; yet not an indolent +enjoyer of the luxuries of his condition, but a keen, restless, and eager +<i>student</i> of pleasurable sensations—an Apicius, polished by the manners, +and furnished with the arts of the most self-enjoying condition of mankind, +that of an English gentleman of fortune in the 18th century. +</p> +<p> +We certainly are not the champions of this style of life. We think that +man has other matters to consider than <i>pâtés</i> and <i>consommés</i>, the +flavour of his Burgundy and pines, or even the <i>bons-mots</i> of his friends. +We are afraid that we must, after all, regard the whole Selwyn class as +little better than the brutes in their stables, or on their hearth-rugs; +with the advantage to the brutes of following their natural appetites, +having no twinges of either conscience or the gout, and not being from +time to time stripped by their friends, or plundered by the Jews. The +closing hours of the horse or the dog are also, perhaps, more complacent +in general, and their deaths are less a matter of rejoicing to those who +are to succeed to their mangers and cushions. Of higher and more startling +contemplations, this is not the place to speak. If such men shall yet have +the power of looking down from some remoter planet on their idle, empty, +and self-indulgent course in our own, perhaps they would rejoice to have +exchanged with the lot of him whose bread was earned by the sweat of his +brow, yet who had fulfilled the duties of his station; and whose hand had +been withheld +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page165 name=page165></A>[pg 165]</SPAN> +by necessity from that banquet, where all the nobler purposes +of life were forgotten, and where the senses absorbed the higher nature. +Still, we admit that these are topics on which no man ought to judge the +individual with severity. We have spoken only of the class. The individual +may have had virtues of which the world can know nothing; he may have been +liberal, affectionate, and zealous, when his feelings were once awakened; +his purse may have dried many a tear, and soothed many a pulse of secret +suffering. It is, at all events, more kindly to speak of poor human nature +with fellow feeling for those exposed to the strong temptations of fortune, +than to establish an arrogant comparison between the notorious errors of +others, and the secret failures of our own. +</p> +<p> +But we have something to settle with Mr Jesse. He is alive, and therefore +may be instructed; he is making books with great rapidity, and therefore +may be advantageously warned of the perils of book-making. The <i>title</i> of +his volumes has altogether deceived us. We shall not charge him with +intending this; but it has unquestionably had the effect. "<i>George Selwyn</i> +and his contemporaries." We opened the volumes, expecting to find our +witty clubbist in every page; George in his full expansion, "in his armour +as he lived;" George, every inch a wit, glittering before us in his full +court suit, in his letters, his anecdotes, his whims, his odd views of +mankind, his caustic sneerings at the glittering world round him; an +epistolary HB., turning every thing into the pleasant food of his pen and +pungency. But we cannot discover any letters from him, excepting a few +very trifling ones of his youth. We have letters from all sorts of persons, +great lords and little, statesmen and travellers, placemen and +place-hunters; and amusing enough many of them are. Walpole furnishes some +sketches, and nothing can be better. In fact the volumes exhibit, not +George Selwyn, the only one whose letters we should have cared to see, but +those who wrote to him. And the disappointment is not the less, that in +those letters constant allusions are made to his "sparkling, delightful, +sportive, characteristic, &c. &c., epistles." Great ladies constantly urge +him to write to <i>them</i>. Maids, wives, and widows, pour out a stream of +perpetual laudation. Men of rank, men of letters, men at home, and men +abroad, unite in one common supplication for "London news" <i>réchaufféed</i>, +spiced, and served up, by the perfect <i>cuisinerie</i> of George's art of +story-telling; like the horse-leech's two daughters, the cry is, "Give, +give." And this is what we wanted to see. Selwyn, the whole Selwyn, and +nothing but Selwyn. +</p> +<p> +It is true that there is a preface which talks in this wise:— +</p> +<p> +It seems to have been one of the peculiarities of George Selwyn, to +preserve not only every letter addressed to him by his correspondents +during the course of his long life, but also the most trifling notes and +memoranda. To this peculiarity, the reader is indebted for whatever +amusement he may derive from the perusal of these volumes. The greater +portion of their contents consists of letters addressed to Selwyn, by +persons who, in their day, moved in the first circles of wit, genius, and +fashion." +</p> +<p> +We have thus let Mr Jesse speak for himself. If the public are satisfied, +so let it be. But people seldom read prefaces. The title is the thing, and +that title is, "<i>George Selwyn</i> and his contemporaries." If it had been +"Letters of the contemporaries of George Selwyn," we should have +understood the matter. +</p> +<p> +Still we are not at all disposed to quarrel with the volumes. They contain +a great deal of pleasant matter; and the letters are evidently, in general, +the work of a higher order of persons than the world has often an +opportunity of seeing in their deshabille. The Persian proverb, which +accounted for the fragrance of a pebble by its having lain beside the rose, +has been in some degree realized in these pages. They are evidently of the +Selwyn school; and if he is not here witty himself, he is, like the "fat +knight," the cause of wit in others. We are enjoying a part of the feast +which his science had cooked, and then distributed to his friends to +figure as the <i>chefs-d'oeuvre</i> of their own tables. At all events, though +often on trifling subjects, and often not worth preserving, they vindicate +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page166 name=page166></A>[pg 166]</SPAN> +on the whole the claim of English letter-writing to European superiority. +Taking Walpole as the head, and nothing can be happier than his mixture of +keen remark, intelligent knowledge of his time, high-bred ease of language, +and exquisite point and polish of anecdote; his followers, even in these +few volumes, show that there were many men, even in the midst of all the +practical business and nervous agitation of public life, not unworthy of +their master. We have no doubt that there have been hundreds of persons, +and thousands of letters, which might equally contribute to this most +interesting, and sometimes most brilliant, portion of our literature. The +French lay claim to superiority in this as in every thing else; but we +must acknowledge that it is with some toil we have ever read the boasted +letters of De Sévigné—often pointed, and always elegant, they are too +often frivolous, and almost always local. We are sick of the adorable +Grignan, and her "belle chevelure." The letters of Du Deffand, Espinasse, +Roland, and even of De Staël, though always exhibiting ability, are too +hard or too hot, too fierce or too fond, for our tastes; they are also so +evidently intended for any human being except the one to whom they were +addressed, or rather for all human beings—they were so palpably "private +effusions" for the public ear—sentiments stereotyped, and sympathies for +the circulating library—that they possessed as little the interest as the +character of correspondence. +</p> +<p> +Voltaire's letters are always spirited. That extraordinary man could do +nothing on which his talent was not marked; but his letters are +epigrammes—all is sacrificed to point, and all is written for the salons +of Paris. What Talleyrand's <i>might</i> be, we can imagine from the singular +subtlety and universal knowledge of that most dexterous player of the most +difficult game which was ever on the diplomatic cards. But as his +definition of the excellence of a letter was—"to say any thing, but mean +nothing," we must give up the hope of his contribution. Grimm's volumes +are, after all, the only collection which belongs to the style of letters +to which we allude. They are amusing and anecdotical, and, in our +conception, by much the most intelligent French correspondence that has +fallen into our hands. But they are too evidently the work of a man +writing as a task, gathering the Parisian news as a part of his profession, +and in fact sending a daily newspaper to his German patron. +</p> +<p> +Of the German epistolary literature we have seen nothing which approaches +to the excellence of the English school. The conception is generally vague, +vapourish, and metaphysical. And this predominates absurdly through all +its classes. The poet prides himself on being as much a dreamer in his +prose as in his poetry; the scholar is proud of being perplexed and +pedantic; the statesman is naturally immersed in that problematic style, +which belongs to the secrecy of despotic governments, and to the stiffness +of circles where all is etiquette. But Walpole and his tribe have fashion +wholly to themselves, and possess force without heaviness, and elegance +without effeminacy. +</p> +<p> +We are strongly tempted to ask, whether there may not be letters of the +gay, the refined, and the sparkling George Canning. He was constantly +writing; knew every thing and every body; was engaged in all the high +transactions of his time; saw human nature in all possible shades; and was +a man whose talent, though capable of very noble efforts "on compulsion," +yet naturally loved a more level rank of times and things. It is perfectly +true to human experience, that there are minds, which, like caged +nightingales and canary-birds, though their wings were formed with the +faculty of cleaving the clouds, yet pass a perfectly contented existence +within their wires, and sing as cheerfully in return for their water and +seeds, as if they had the range of the horizon. Canning's whole song for +thirty years was in one cage or another, and he sang with equal +cheerfulness in them all. The moral of all this is, that we wish Mr Jesse, +or any one else, to apply himself, without delay, to the depositaries of +George Canning's familiar correspondence, and give his pleasant, piquant, +and graceful letters (for we are sure that they are all these) to the +world. +</p> +<p> +Lord Dudley's letters have disappointed <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page167 name= +page167></A>[pg 167]</SPAN> +every body: but it is to be +observed, that we have only a small portion of them; that they were +written to a college tutor, a not very exciting species of correspondent +at any time, and who in this instance having nothing to give back, and +plodding his way through the well-meant monotony of college news, allowed +poor Lord Dudley not much more chance of brilliancy, than a smart drummer +might have of producing a reveillé on an unbraced drum. We must live in +hope. +</p> +<p> +Lord Holland, we think, might, as the sailors say, "loom out large." The +life of that ancient Whig having been chiefly employed in telling other +men's stories over his own table—and much better employed, too, than in +talking his original follies in public—a tolerable selection from his +journals might furnish some variety; for when Whigs are cased up no longer +in the stiff braces and battered armour of their clique, they may +occasionally be amusing men. But Walpole still reigns: his whims, his +flirtings, his frivolities will disappear with his old china and trifling +antiquities; but his best letters will always be the best of their kind +among men. +</p> +<p> +George Selwyn was a man of fashionable life for the greater part of the +last century, or perhaps we may more justly say, he was a man of +fashionable life for the seventy-two years of his existence; for, from his +cradle, he lived among that higher order of mankind who were entitled to +do nothing, to enjoy themselves, and alternately laugh at, and look down +upon the rest of the world. His family were opulent, and naturally +associated with rank; for his father had been aide-de-camp to the Duke of +Marlborough—a great distinction even in that brilliant age; and his +mother was the daughter of a general officer, and woman of the bedchamber +to Queen Caroline. She is recorded as a woman of talents, and peculiarly +of wit; qualities which seem frequently connected with long life, perhaps +as bearing some relation to that good-humour which undoubtedly tends to +lengthen the days of both man and woman. If the theory be true, that the +intellect of the offspring depends upon the mother, the remarkable wit of +George Selwyn may be adduced in evidence of the position. +</p> +<p> +George, born in 1719, was sent, like the sons of all the court gentlemen +of his age and of our own, to Eton. After having there acquired classics, +aristocracy, and cricket, all consummated at Oxford, he proceeded to go +through the last performance of fashionable education, and give himself +the final polish for St James's; he proceeded to make the tour of Europe. +What induced him to recommence his boyhood, by returning to Oxford at the +ripe age of twenty-five, is among the secrets of his career, as also is +the occasion of his being expelled from the university; if that occasion +is not to be found in some of the burlesques of religion which he had +learned amongst the fashionable infidels of the Continent, similar to +those enacted by Wilkes in his infamous monkery. But every thing in his +career equally exhibits the times. At an age when he was fit for nothing +else, he was considered fit to receive the salary of a sinecure; and, at +twenty-one, he was appointed to a brace of offices at the mint. His share +of the duty consisted of his enjoying the weekly dinners of the +establishment, and signing the receipts for his quarter's pay. +</p> +<p> +Within a few years more, he came into parliament; and in his thirty-second +year, by the death of his father and elder brother, he succeeded to the +family estates, consisting of three handsome possessions, one of which had +the additional value of returning a member of parliament. Nor was this all; +for his influence in Gloucestershire enabled him to secure, during many +years, his own seat for Gloucester, thus rendering his borough disposable; +and thus, master of a hereditary fortune, an easy sinecurist, the +possessor of two votes, and the influencer of the third—a man of family, +a man of connexion, and a man of the court—George Selwyn began a path +strewed with down and rose leaves. +</p> +<p> +In addition to these advantages, George Selwyn evidently possessed a very +remarkable subtlety and pleasantry of understanding; that combination +which alone produced true wit, or which, perhaps, would be the best +definition of wit itself; for subtlety +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page168 name=page168></A>[pg 168]</SPAN> +alone may excite uneasy sensations +in the hearer, and pleasantry alone may often be vulgar. But the acuteness +which detects the absurd of things, and the pleasantry which throws a +good-humoured coloring over the acuteness, form all that delights us in +wit. +</p> +<p> +If we are to judge by the opinion of his contemporaries, and this is the +true criterion after all, Selwyn's wit must have been of the very first +order in a witty age. Walpole is full of him. Walpole himself, a wit, and +infinitely jealous of every rival in every thing on which he fastened his +fame, from a picture gallery down to a snuff-box, or from a history down +to an epigram, bows down to him with almost Persian idolatry. His letters +are alive with George Selwyn. The <i>bons-mots</i> which Selwyn carelessly +dropped in his morning wall through St James's Street, are carefully +picked up by Walpole, and planted in his correspondence, like exotics in a +greenhouse. The careless brilliancies of conversation, which the one threw +loose about the club-rooms of the Court End, are collected by the other +and reset by this dexterous jeweller, for the sparklings and ornaments of +his stock in trade with posterity. +</p> +<p> +Yet it may reconcile those less gifted by nature and fortune to their +mediocrity; to know that those singular advantages by no means constitute +happiness, usefulness, moral dignity, or even public respect. Selwyn, as +the French Abbé said, "had nothing to do, and he did it." His possession +of fortune enabled him to be a lounger through life, and he lounged +accordingly. The conversations of the clubs supplied him with the daily +toys of his mind, and he never sought more substantial employment. Though +nearly fifty years in parliament, he was known only as a silent voter; and, +after a life of seventy-two years, he died, leaving three and twenty +thousand pounds of his savings to a girl who was not his daughter; and the +chief part of his estates to the Duke of Queensberry, an old man already +plethoric with wealth, of which he had never known the use, and already +dying. +</p> +<p> +His passion for attending executions was notorious and unaccountable, +except on the ground of that love of excitement which leads others to +drinking or the gaming-table. Those sights, from which human nature +shrinks, appear to have been sought for by Selwyn with an eagerness +resembling enjoyment. This strange propensity was frequently laughed at by +his friends. Alluding to the practice of criminals dropping a handkerchief +as a signal for the executioner, says Walpole, "George never thinks, but +<i>à la tête tranchée</i>. He came to town the other day to have a tooth drawn, +and told the man that he would drop his handkerchief for the signal." +</p> +<p> +Another characteristic anecdote is told on this subject. When the first +Lord Holland, a man of habitual pleasantry, was confined to his bed, he +heard that Selwyn, who had been an old friend, had called to enquire for +his health. "The next time Mr Selwyn calls," said he, "show him up; if I +am alive, I shall be delighted to see him; and, if I am dead, he will be +delighted to see me." +</p> +<p> +Walpole says, after telling a story of one Arthur Moore, "I told this the +other day to George Selwyn, whose passion is to see corpses and executions. +He replied, 'that Arthur Moore had his coffin chained to that of his +mistress.' +</p> +<p> +"Said I, 'How do you know?' +</p> +<p> +"'Why, I—I saw them the other day in a vault in St Giles's.' +</p> +<p> +"George was walking this week in Westminster Abbey, with Lord Abergavenny, +and met the man who shows the tombs. 'Oh, your servant, Mr Selwyn; I +expected to have seen you here the other day, when the old Duke of +Richmond's body was taken up.'" Walpole then mentions Selwyn's going to +see Cornberry, with Lord Abergavenny and a pretty Mrs Frere, who were in +some degree attached to each other. +</p> +<p> +"Do you know what you missed in the other room?" said Selwyn to the lady. +"Lord Holland's picture." +</p> +<p> +"Well, what is Lord Holland to me?" +</p> +<p> +"Why, do you know," said he, "my Lord Holland's body lies in the same +vault, in Kensington church, with my Lord Abergavenny's mother." +</p> +<p> +Walpole, speaking of the share which he had in capturing a +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page169 name=page169></A>[pg 169]</SPAN> +house-breaker, +says, "I dispatched a courier to White's in search of George Selwyn. It +happened that the drawer who received my message had very lately been +robbed himself, and had the wound fresh in his memory. He stalked up into +the club-room, and with a hollow trembling voice, said, 'Mr Selwyn, Mr +Walpole's compliments to you, and he has got a house-breaker for you.'" +</p> +<p> +But some of his practical pleasantries were very amusing. Lady Townshend, +a woman of wit, but, in some points of character, a good deal scandalized, +was supposed to have taken refuge from her recollections in Popery. "On +Sunday last," says Walpole, "as George was strolling home to dinner, he +saw my Lady Townshend's coach stop at Caraccioli's chapel. He watched; saw +her go in; her footman laughed; he followed. She went up to the altar; a +woman brought her a cushion; she knelt, crossed her self, and prayed. He +stole up, and knelt by her. Conceive her face, if you can, when she turned +and found him close to her. In his demure voice, he said, 'Pray, ma'am, +how long has your ladyship left the pale of our church?' She looked furies, +and made no answer. Next day he went to see her, and she turned it off +upon curiosity. But is any thing more natural? No; she certainly means to +go armed with every viaticum: the Church of England in on hand, Methodism +in the other, and the Host in her mouth." +</p> +<p> +Every one knows that <i>bons-mots</i> are apt to lose a great deal by +transmission. It has been said that the time is one-half of the merit, and +the manner the other; thus leaving nothing for the wit. But the fact is, +that the wit so often depends upon both, as to leave the best <i>bon-mot</i> +comparatively flat in the recital. With this palliative we may proceed. +Walpole, remarking to Selwyn one day, at a time of considerable popular +discontent, that the measures of government were as feeble and confused as +in the reign of the first Georges, and saying, "There is nothing new under +the sun." "No," replied Selwyn, "nor under the grandson." +</p> +<p> +Selwyn one day observing Wilkes, who was constantly verging on libel, +listening attentively to the king's speech, said to him, "May Heaven +preserve the ears you lend!" an allusion to the lines of the <i>Dunciad</i>— +</p> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "Yet, oh, my sons, a father's words attend;</p> +<p> So may the fates preserve the ears you lend."</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +The next is better. A man named Charles Fox having been executed, the +celebrated Charles asked Selwyn whether he had been present at the +execution as usual. "No," was the keen reply, "I make a point of never +attending rehearsals." +</p> +<p> +Fox and General Fitzpatrick at one time lodged in the house of Mackay, an +oilman in Piccadilly, a singular residence for two men of the first +fashion. Somebody, probably in allusion to their debts, observed that such +lodgers would be the ruin of Mackay. "No," said Selwyn, "it will make his +fortune. He may boast of having the first pickles in London." +</p> +<p> +<i>Nonchalant</i> manners were the tone of the time; and to cut one's country +acquaintance (a habit learned among the French <i>noblesse</i>) was high +breeding. An old haunter of the pump-room in Bath, who had frequently +conversed with Selwyn in his visits there, meeting him one day in St +James's Street, attempted to approach him with his usual familiarity. +Selwyn passed him as if he had never seen him before. His old acquaintance +followed him, and said, "Sir, you knew me very well in Bath." "Well, sir," +replied Selwyn, "in Bath I may possibly know you again," and walked on. +</p> +<p> +When <i>High Life Below Stairs</i> was announced, Selwyn expressed a wish to be +present at its first night. "I shall go," said he, "because I am tired of +low life above stairs." +</p> +<p> +One of the waiters at Arthur's had committed a felony, and was sent to +jail. "I am shocked at the committal," said Selwyn; "what a horrid idea +the fellow will give of us to the people in Newgate." +</p> +<p> +Bruce's Abyssinian stories were for a long time the laugh of London. +Somebody at a dinner once asked him, whether he had seen any relics of +musical instruments among the Abyssinians, or any thing in the style of +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page170 name=page170></A>[pg 170]</SPAN> +the ancient sculptures of the Thebaid. "I think I saw one lyre there," was +the answer. "Ay," says Selwyn to his neighbour, "and that one left the +country along with him." +</p> +<p> +Selwyn did not always spare his friends. When Fox's pecuniary affairs were +in a state of ruin, and a subscription was proposed; one of the +subscribers said that their chief difficulty was to know "how Fox would +take it." Selwyn, who knew that necessity has nothing to do with +delicacies of this order, replied, "Take it, why, quarterly to be sure!" +</p> +<p> +Mr. Jesse's anecdotes are generally well told, but their version is +sometimes different from ours. Selwyn was one day walking up St James's +Street with Lord Pembroke, when a couple of sweeps brushed against them. +"Impudent rascals!" exclaimed Lord Pembroke. "The sovereignty of the +people," said Selwyn. "But such dirty dogs," said Pembroke. "Full dress +for the court of St Giles's," said Selwyn, with a bow to their sable +majesties. +</p> +<p> +But Selwyn, with all his affability and pleasantry, had his dislikes, and +among them was the celebrated Sheridan. The extraordinary talent and early +fame of that most memorable and unfortunate man, had fixed all eyes upon +him from the moment of his entering into public life; and Selwyn, who had +long sat supreme in wit, probably felt some fears for his throne. At all +events, he determined to keep one place clear from collision with this +dangerous wit; and, on every attempt to put up Sheridan's name for +admission into Brookes's, two black balls were found in the balloting-box, +one of which was traced to Selwyn, while the other was supposed to be that +of Lord Besborough. One ball being sufficient to exclude, the opposition +was fatal; but Fox and his friends were equally determined, on their side, +to introduce Sheridan; and for this purpose a curious, though not very +creditable, artifice was adopted. On the evening of the next ballot, and +while George and Lord Besborough were waiting, with their usual +determination, to blackball the candidate, a chairman in great haste +brought in a note, apparently from Lady Duncannon, to her father-in-law +Lord Besborough, to tell him that his house in Cavendish Square was on +fire, and entreating him to return without a moment's delay. His lordship +instantly quitted the room, and hurried homewards. Immediately after, a +message was sent to George Selwyn that Miss Fagniani, the child whom he +had adopted, and whom he supposed to be his own, was suddenly seized with +a fit, and that his presence was instantly required. He also obeyed the +summons. Both had no sooner left the room than the ballot was proceeded +with, the two ominous balls were not to be found, and Sheridan was +unanimously chosen. In the midst of the triumph, Selwyn and Lord +Besborough returned, indignant at the trick, but of course unable to find +out its perpetrators. How Sheridan and his friends looked may be imagined. +The whole scene was perfectly dramatic. +</p> +<p> +Burke's speeches, which were destined to become the honour of his age, and +the delight of posterity, were sometimes negligently received by the house. +His splendid prolixity, which was fitter for an assembly of philosophers +than an English Parliament, sometimes wearied mere men of business, as +much as his fine metaphysics sometimes perplexed them; and the man who +might have sat between Plato and Aristotle, and been listened to with +congenial delight by both, was often left without an audience. One night, +when Selwyn was hurrying into the lobby with a crowd of members, a +nobleman coming up asked him, "Is the house up?" "No," was the reply, "but +Burke is." +</p> +<p> +A model of fashionable life, Selwyn unhappily indulged in that vice which +was presumed to be essential to the man of fashion. The early gaming +propensities of Charles Fox are well known; he was ruined, estate, +personal fortune, sinecures and reversions, and all, before he was five +years in public life—ruined in every possible shape of ruin. There were +times when he could not command a guinea in the world. Yet there were +times when he won immensely. At one sitting he carried off £8000, but in a +few more he lost £11,000. He was a capital whist player; and in the cool +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page171 name=page171></A>[pg 171]</SPAN> +calculation of the clubs on such subjects, it was supposed that he might +have made £4000 a-year, if he had adhered to this profitable direction of +his genius. But, like many other great men, he mistook his forte, and +disdained all but the desperation of hazard. There he lost perpetually and +prodigiously, until he was stripped of every thing, and pauperised for +life. +</p> +<p> +It gives a strong conception of the universality of this vice, to find so +timid and girlish a nature as the late William Wilberforce's initiated +into the same career. +</p> +<p> +"When I left the University," says Wilberforce, in his later reminiscences, +"so little did I know of general society, that I came up to London stored +with arguments to prove the authenticity of 'Rowley's Poems,' (the +academic and pedantic topic of the day,) and now I was at once immersed in +politics and fashion. The very first time I went to Boodle's, I won +twenty-five guineas of the Duke of Norfolk. I belonged at this time to +five clubs, Miles' and Evans', Brookes', Boodle's, White's, and +Goosetree's. The first time I was at Brookes', scarcely knowing any one, I +joined, from mere shyness, in play at the faro-table, where George Selwyn +kept bank. A friend who knew my inexperience, and regarded me as a victim +dressed out for sacrifice, called to me—'What, Wilberforce, is that you?' +Selwyn quite resented the interference, and turning to him, said in his +most expressive tone—'Oh, sir, don't interrupt Mr Wilberforce, he could +not be better employed.' Nothing could be more harmonious than the style +of those clubs—Fox, Sheridan, Fitzpatrick, and all your leading men +frequented them, and associated upon the easiest terms. You either chatted, +played at cards, or gambled, as you pleased." +</p> +<p> +We have no idea of entering into any of the scandals of the time. The +lives of all the men of fashion of that day were habitually profligate. +The "Grand Tour" was of but little service to their morals, and Pope's +sarcastic lines were but too true. +</p> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p class="i10"> "He travell'd Europe round,</p> +<p> And gather'd every vice on foreign ground;</p> +<p> Till home return'd, and perfectly well-bred,</p> +<p> With nothing but a solo in his head;</p> +<p> Stolen from a duel, follow'd by a nun,</p> +<p> And, if a borough choose him—not undone."</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +But this vice did not descend among the body of the people. It was limited +to the idlers of high life, and even among them it was extinguished by the +cessation of our foreign intercourse at the French revolution; or was at +least so far withdrawn from the public eye, as to avoid offending the +common decencies of a moral people. +</p> +<p> +Selwyn was probably more cautious in his habits than his contemporaries, +for he survived almost every man who had begun life with him; and he lived +to a much greater age than the chief of the showy characters who rose into +celebrity during his career. He died at the age of seventy-two, January 25, +1791. He had long relinquished gaming, assigning the very sufficient +reason, "It was too great a consumer of four things—time, health, fortune, +and <i>thinking</i>." But what man of his day escaped the gout, and the natural +termination of that torturing disease in dropsy? After seven years' +suffering from both, with occasional intervals of relief, he sank at last. +Walpole, almost the only survivor among his early friends, thus wrote on +the day of his expected death:—"I have lost, or am on the point of losing, +my oldest acquaintance and friend, George Selwyn, who was yesterday at the +extremity. Those misfortunes, though they can be so but for a short time, +are very sensible to the old: but him I loved, not only for his infinite +wit, but for a thousand good qualities." He writes a few days after, "Poor +Selwyn is gone; to my sorrow; and no wonder. Ucalegon feels it." +</p> +<p> +Selwyn, with all his pleasantry, had evidently a quick eye for his own +interest. He contrived to remain in parliament for half a century, and he +gathered the emoluments of some half dozen snug sinecures. Among those +were the Registrar of Chancery in Barbadoes, and surveyor-general of the +lands. Thus he lived luxuriously, and died rich. +</p> +<p> +Orator Henley is niched in an early part of this correspondence. The +orator was known in the last +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page172 name=page172></A>[pg 172]</SPAN> +century as a remarkably dirty fellow in his +apparel, and still more so in his mind. He was the son of a gentleman, and +had received a gentleman's education at St John's, Cambridge. There, or +subsequently, he acquired Hebrew, and even Persian; wrote a tragedy on the +subject of Esther, in which he exhibited considerable poetic powers; and +finished his scholastic fame by a grammar of ten languages! On leaving +college, he took orders, and became a country curate. But the decency of +this life did not suit his habits, and he resolved to try his chance in +London for fortune and fame. Opening a chapel near Newport market, +Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, he harangued twice a-week, on theological subjects +on Sundays, and on the sciences and literature on Wednesdays. The audience +were admitted by a shilling ticket, and the butchers in the neighbourhood +were for a while his great patrons. At length, finding his audience tired +of common sense, he tried, like other charlatans since his day, the effect +of nonsense. His manner was theatrical, his style eccentric, and his +topics varied between extravagance and buffoonery. The history of such +performances is invariably the same—novelty is essential, and novelty +must be attained at all risks. He now professed to reform all literature, +and all religion. But even this ultimately failed him. At length the +butchers deserted him, and, falling from one disgrace to another, he sank +into dirt and debauchery, and died in 1750 at the age of sixty-four, +remembered in the world only by being pilloried in the Dunciad. +</p> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "Embrown'd with native bronze, lo! Henley stands,</p> +<p> Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands;</p> +<p> How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue,</p> +<p> How sweet the periods neither said nor sung.</p> +<p> Still break the benches, Henley, with thy strain,</p> +<p> While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson preach in vain."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +The orator's contribution consists but of two notes; the first to Selwyn— +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> + "I dine at twelve all the year, but shall be glad to take a glass + with you at the King's Arms any day from four to six. If I have + disobliged Mr Parsons, (who I hear was with you,) or any of you + gentlemen, I never intended it, and ask your pardons. I shall be + proud to oblige my Lord Carteret, or you, or the rest, at any time. + Pray let them see this." +</p> +<p> + "J. HENLEY." +</p> +</blockquote> +<p> +There appears to have been some kind of riot at one of Henley's lectures, +probably a rough burlesque of his manner, in which Selwyn, then a student +of Oxford, made himself conspicuous. At least the letter is addressed to +him. +</p> +<p> +"I am accountable for the peace of my congregation; and among the rules +and articles of my consent and conditions as owner and minister, one rule +is, to go out directly, forfeiting what has been given, if any person +cannot or will not preserve those conditions; for the smallest +circumstance of disorder has been inflamed to the highest outrage. The +bishop's nephew began something of the kind two months ago, and made me +retribution; so have others, and I must send an attorney to warn them not +to come whom I suspect hereafter. You have been at his sport before." +</p> +<p> +We now come to a man of more importance, Richard Rigby, the "blushing +Rigby" of Junius. He was the son of a linen-draper, who, as factor to the +South Sea Company, acquired considerable property. This, however, his son, +who had adopted public life as his pursuit, rapidly squandered in +electioneering, in pleasure, and the irresistible vice of the time, play. +Frederic, Prince of Wales, was the first object of all needy politicians, +and Rigby for a while attached himself to this feeble personage with all +the zeal of a prospective placeman. But the prince remained too long in +opposition for the fidelity of courtiership, and Rigby glided over to the +Duke of Bedford; who unquestionably exhibited himself a steady and zealous +friend to his new adherent. The duke lent him money to pay his debts; gave +him the secretaryship for Ireland on his appointment to the viceroyalty; +gave him a seat in Parliament for Tavistock; was the means of his being +made a privy counsellor; obtained for him a sinecure of L.4000 a-year; and +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page173 name=page173></A>[pg 173]</SPAN> +at that period when most men are sincere, on his deathbed, appointed Rigby +his executor, and cancelled his bond for the sum which he had originally +lent to him. +</p> +<p> +We know few instances of such steady liberality in public life, and the +man who gave, and the man who received those munificent tokens of +confidence, must have had more in them than the world was generally +inclined to believe. The duke has been shot through and through by the +pungent shafts of Junius: and Rigby was covered with mire throughout life +by all the retainers of party. Yet both were evidently capable of strong +friendship, and thus possessed the redeeming quality most unusual in the +selfishness and struggles of political existence. +</p> +<p> +Amongst official men, Rigby is recorded as one of the most popular +personages of his time. One art of official popularity, and that too a +most unfailing one, he adopted in a remarkable degree—he kept an +incomparable table. Sir Robert Walpole, one of the shrewdest of men, had +long preserved his popularity by the same means. Rigby's paymastership of +the forces enabled him to support a splendid establishment, and it was his +custom, after the debates in the House of Commons, to invite the ministers +and the pleasantest men of the time, to supper at his apartments in +Whitehall. His wines were exquisite, his cookery was of the most +<i>recherché</i> order; and by the help of a good temper, a broad laugh, +natural joviality, and a keen and perfect knowledge of all that was going +on round him in the world of fashion, he made his parties a delightful +resource to the wearied minds of the Cabinet. +</p> +<p> +Wraxall, a very pleasant describer of men and manners, thus sketches +him:—"In Parliament he was invariably habited in a full-dress suit of +clothes, commonly of a dark colour, without lace or embroidery, close +buttoned, with his sword thrust through the pocket. His countenance was +very expressive, but not of genius; still less did it indicate timidity or +modesty. All the comforts of the pay-office seemed to be eloquently +depicted in it; his manner, rough yet frank, admirably set off whatever +sentiments he uttered in Parliament. Like Jenkinson, he borrowed neither +from ancient nor modern authors; his eloquence was altogether his own, +addressed not to the fancy, but to the plain comprehension of his hearers. +There was a happy audacity about him, which must have been the gift of +nature—art could not obtain it by any efforts. He seemed not to fear, nor +even to respect, the House, whose composition he well knew; and to the +members of which assembly he never appeared to give credit for any portion +of virtue, patriotism, or public spirit. Far from concealing those +sentiments, he insinuated, or even pronounced them, without disguise; and +from his lips they neither excited surprise, nor even commonly awaked +reprehension." +</p> +<p> +But this flow of prosperity was to have its ebb. The jovial placeman was +to feel the uncertainties of office; and on Lord North's resignation in +1782, and the celebrated Edmund Burke's appointment to the paymastership, +Rigby found himself suddenly called on for a considerable arrear. It had +been the custom to allow the paymaster to make use of the balances in his +hands until they were called for, and this formed an acknowledged and very +important part of his income. But his expenses left him no resource to +meet the demand. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Sir Thomas Rumbold, +the recalled governor of Madras, had just then returned to England, under +investigation by the House of Commons for malpractices in his office. It +was the rumour of the day that Rigby, on the advance of a large sum by +Rumbold, had undertaken to soften the prosecution against him. Whether +this were the fact or not, it is certain that the charges soon ceased to +be pursued, and that Rigby's nephew and heir was soon after married to +Rumbold's daughter. Rigby, who had never been married, died in 1788, in +his sixty-seventh year. +</p> +<p> +His letter to Selwyn, in 1745, is characteristic of the man and the time. +"I am just got home from a cock match, where I have won forty pounds in +ready money, and not having dined, am waiting till I hear the rattle of +the coaches from the House of Commons, in order to dine at White's. +</p> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page174 name=page174></A>[pg 174]</SPAN><p> +"I held my resolution of not going to the Ridotto till past three o'clock, +when, finding that nobody was willing to sit any longer but Boone, who was +<i>not able</i>, I took, as I thought, the least of two evils, and so went +there rather than to bed; but found it so infinitely dull, that I retired +in half an hour. The next morning I heard that there had been extreme deep +play, and that Harry Furnese went drunk from White's at six o'clock, and +won the dear memorable sum of one thousand guineas. +</p> +<p> +"I saw Garrick in <i>Othello</i> that same night, in which, I think, he was +very unmeaningly dressed, and succeeded in no degree of comparison with +Quin, except in the second scene, where Iago gives the first suspicions of +Desdemona." +</p> +<p> +As the letter does not describe Garrick's dress, we can only suppose it to +have been remarkably absurd, when it could have attracted the censure of +any one accustomed to the stage in the middle of the last century. Nothing +could be more ignorant, unsuitable, or unbecoming, that the whole system +of theatrical costume. Garrick, for example, usually played Macbeth in the +uniform of an officer of the Guards—scarlet coat, cocked hat, and +regulation sword, were the exhibition of the Highland chieftain's wardrobe, +and the period, too, when the Highland dress was perfectly known to the +public eye. It must be acknowledged that we owe the reformation of the +stage, in this important point, to the French. It was commenced by the +celebrated Clairon, and perfected by the not less celebrated Talma. +</p> +<p> +"I supped that night, <i>tête-à-tête</i>, with Metham, who was d——d angry +with Hubby Bubby (Doddington) for having asked all the Musquetaires to +supper but him. He went to sleep at twelve, and I to White's, where <i>I +staid till six</i>. Yesterday I spent a good part of the day with my Lord +Coke at a <i>cock match</i>; and went, towards the latter end of Quin's benefit, +to Mariamne. +</p> +<p> +"The coaches rattle by fast, and George brings me word the House is up, +and I assure you I am extremely hungry." +</p> +<p> +We now come to the name of a man who attained a considerable celebrity in +his own time, but has almost dropped into oblivion in ours, Sir Charles +Hanbury Williams. He was the third son of John Hanbury, Esq., a +Monmouthshire gentleman, and took the name of Williams on succeeding to +the property of his grandfather. His mother was aunt to George Selwyn. +Entering Parliament early in life, he adopted the ministerial side, and +was a steady adherent to Sir Robert Walpole. He had his reward in +ministerial honours, being created a Knight of the Bath; and though Sir +Robert died in 1745, Williams had so far established his court influence, +that he was successively appointed envoy to Saxony, minister at Berlin, +and ambassador at St Petersburg. He was a man of great pleasantry, some +wit, and perpetual verse-making—the name of poetry is not to be stooped +to such compositions as his; but their liveliness and locality, their +application to existing times and persons, and their occasional hits at +politics and principles, made both them and their author popular. But the +fashionable language of the day had tendencies which would not now be +tolerated; and Sir Charles, a fashionable voluptuary, is charged with +having written what none should wish to revive. After a residence of ten +years on the Continent, he fell into a state of illness which deranged his +understanding. From this he recovered, but subsequently relapsed into the +same unhappy state, and died, it was surmised, by his own hand in 1759. +His letter details, in his own flighty style, one of the frolics of +fashion. +</p> +<p> +"The town-talk for some time past has been your child, (a note says +'apparently the Honourable John Hobart, afterwards Earl of +Buckinghamshire;') the moment you turned your back he flew out, went to +Lady Tankerville's drum-major, (a rout,) having unfortunately dined that +day with Rigby, who plied his head with too many bumpers, and also made +him a present of some Chinese crackers. Armed in this manner, he entered +the assembly, and resolving to do something that should make a noise, he +gave a string of four and twenty +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page175 name=page175></A>[pg 175]</SPAN> +crackers to Lady Lucy Clinton, and bid +her put it in the candle, which she very innocently did, to her and the +whole room's astonishment. But when the first went off she threw the rest +upon the tea-table, where, one after the other, they all went off, with +much noise and not a little stench, to the real joy of most of the women +present, who don't dislike an opportunity of finding fault. Lady Lucy, +indeed, was plentifully abused, and Mr Hobart had his share; and common +fame says he has never had a card since. Few women will curtsy to him; and +I question if he ever will lead any one to their chair again as long as he +lives. I leave you to judge how deeply he feels this wound. Every body +says it would never have happened if you had not retired to your studies; +and you are a little blamed for letting him out alone. He has sunk his +chairman's wages 5s. a-week upon this accident, and intends to turn them +off in Passion week, because he then can go nowhere at all. All private +houses are already shut against him, and at that holy time no public place +is open." +</p> +<p> +We have then some letters written in a time of great public anxiety, 1745. +</p> +<p> +"All our forces are come from Flanders. The Pretender's second son (Henry +Stuart, afterwards Cardinal of York) is come to Dunkirk, where it is said +there are forty transports. The rebels, it is said, are very +advantageously encamped between two rivers, and are fortifying their camp." +</p> +<p> +Another hurried letter says. +</p> +<p> +"An express arrives to-day, (Dec. 8th,) while his Majesty was at chapel, +which brought an account of the rebels being close to Derby, and that the +Duke of Cumberland was at Meredan, four miles beyond Coventry observing +their motions." +</p> +<p> +Another of the same date, six o'clock at night, says, "The Tower guns +have not fired to-day. A letter has been received, stating that the rebels +had retreated towards Ashbourne." +</p> +<p> +Walpole, in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, on the 9th repeats the news, and +says, "The Highlanders got nine thousand pounds at Derby, and had the +books brought to them, and obliged everybody to give them what they had +subscribed against them. They then retreated a few miles, but returned +again to Derby, got £10,000 more, and plundered the town; they are gone +again, and got back to Leake in Staffordshire, but miserably harassed; +they have left all their cannon behind them, and twenty waggons of sick." +</p> +<p> +Nothing can give a stronger example of the changes which may take place in +a country, than the different state of preparation for an invader, +exhibited by England in 1745, and in little more than half a century after. +On the threat of Napoleon's invasion, England exhibited an armed force of +little less than a million, which would have been quadrupled in case of an +actual descent. In 1745, the alarm was extravagant, and almost burlesque. +The Pretender, with but a few thousand men—brave undoubtedly, but almost +wholly unprovided for a campaign—marched into the heart of England, and +reached within a hundred and thirty miles of the capital. But the +enterprise was then felt to be wholly beyond his means. A powerful force +under the Duke of Cumberland was already thrown between him and London. +What was more ominous still, no man of English rank had joined him, London +was firm, the Protestant feeling of the nation, though slowly excited, was +beginning to be roused, by its recollection of the bigotry of James, and +in England, this feeling will always be ultimately victorious. Even if +Charles Edward had arrived in London, and seized the throne, he would have +only had to commence a civil war against the nation. His retreat to the +north saved England from this great calamity, and probably saved himself, +and his adherents in both countries, from a more summary fate than that +which drove his miserable and bigoted father from the throne. +</p> +<p> +One of the chief contributors to this correspondence is George James +Williams, familiarly styled Gilly Williams; a man of high life, uncle by +marriage to the minister Lord North, and lucky in the possession of an +opulent office—that of receiver-general of the excise. He, with George +Selwyn and Dick Edgecumbe, who met at Strawberry Hill at certain seasons, +formed what Walpole termed +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page176 name=page176></A>[pg 176]</SPAN> +his out-of-town party. Life seems to have +glided smoothly with him, for he lived till 1785, dying at the ripe age of +eighty-six. +</p> +<p> +He thus begins:— +</p> +<p> +"Dear George—I congratulate you on the near approach of Parliament, and +figure you before a glass at your rehearsals. I must intimate to you not +to forget to begin closing your periods with a significant stroke of the +breast, and recommend Mr Barry as a pattern, (the actor.) +</p> +<p> +"You must observe, in letters from the country, every sentence begins with +being either sorry or glad. Apropos, I am glad to hear B. Bertie (son of +the Duke of Ancaster) is returned from Scarborough, having laid in such a +stock of health and spirits by the waters, as to dedicate the rest of his +days altogether to wine." +</p> +<p> +In another letter he says—"I had almost forgot to tell you, that I rode +near ten miles on my way home with the ordinary of Gloucester, and have +several anecdotes of the late burnings and hangings, which I reserve for +your own private ear. I do not know whether he was sensible you had a +partiality for his profession; but he expressed the greatest regard for +you, and I am sure you may command his services." +</p> +<p> +Gilly writes from Crome, Lord Coventry's seat in Worcestershire— +</p> +<p> +"Our life here for a while would not displease you, for we eat and drink +well, and the Earl (Coventry) holds a faro-bank every night to us, which +we have as yet plundered considerably. +</p> +<p> +"I want to know where to find you, and how long you stay at your +mansion-house; for it would not be pleasant to ride so far only to see +squinting Jenny and the gardener at the end of my journey. I suppose we +shall see you here, where you will find the Countess of Coventry in high +spirits and in great beauty." +</p> +<p> +We now come to a brief mention of two women, the most remarkable of their +day for popular admiration, if not for finish and fashion—the Gunnings, +afterwards Lady Coventry and the Duchess of Hamilton. They were the +daughters of an Irish country gentleman, John Gunning, of Castle Coote in +Ireland. On their first appearance at court in England, the elder was in +her nineteenth, and the second in her eighteenth year. They appear to have +excited a most unprecedented sensation in London. Walpole thus writes to +Sir Horace Mann— +</p> +<p> +"You, who knew England in other times, will find it difficult to conceive +what indifference reigns with regard to ministers and their squabbles. The +two Miss Gunnings are twenty times more the subject of conversation than +the two brothers (the Pelhams) and Lord Granville. They are two Irish +girls of no fortune, who are declared the handsomest women alive. I think +there being two so handsome, and both such perfect figures, is their chief +excellence, for, singly, I have seen much handsomer women than either. +However, they can't walk in the Park, or go to Vauxhall, but such crowds +follow them, that they are generally driven away." And this effect lasted; +for, two months after, Walpole writes—"I shall tell you a new story of +the Gunnings, who make more noise than any of their predecessors since the +days of Helen. They went the other day to see Hampton Court. As they were +going into the Beauty room, another company arrived, and the housekeeper +said—'This way, ladies, here are the beauties,' the Gunnings flew into a +passion, and asked her what she meant; they came to see the palace, not to +be shown as sights themselves." +</p> +<p> +To the astonishment, and perhaps to the envy, of the fashionable world, +those two unportioned young women made the most splendid matches of the +season. The Duke of Hamilton fell in love with the younger at a masquerade, +and made proposals to her. The marriage was to take place within some +months; but his passion was so vehement, that in two nights after he +insisted on marrying her at the moment. Walpole tells us that he sent for +a clergyman, who however refused to marry them without license or ring. At +this period marriages were frequently performed in a very unceremonious +and unbecoming manner. From the laxity of the law, they were performed at +all hours, frequently in private houses, and sometimes even in jails, by +pretended clergymen. The law, however, was subsequently and properly +reformed. The duke and +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page177 name=page177></A>[pg 177]</SPAN> +duchess are said to have been married with a +curtain-ring, at half-past twelve-at night, at May Fair Chapel. This +precipitated the marriage of Lord Coventry, a personage of a grave stamp, +but who had long paid attention to the elder sister Maria. He married her +about three weeks after. Except that we are accustomed to hear of the +frenzy which seizes people in the name of fashion, we should scarcely +believe the effect which those two women, handsome as they were, continued +to produce. On the Duchess of Hamilton's presentation at Court on her +marriage, the crowd was immense; and so great was the curiosity, that the +courtly multitude got on the chairs and tables to look at her. Mobs +gathered round their doors to see them get into their chairs; people +crowded early to the theatres when they heard they were to be there. Lady +Coventry's shoemaker is said to have made a fortune by selling patterns of +her shoe; and on the duchess's going to Scotland, several hundred people +walked about all night round the inn where she slept, on the Yorkshire +road, that they might have a view of her as she went off next morning. +</p> +<p> +Yet they appear to have been strangely neglected in their education; +good-humoured and good-natured undoubtedly, but little better than hoydens +after all. Lord Down met Lord and Lady Coventry at Calais, and offered to +send her ladyship a tent-bed, for fear of bugs at the inn. "Oh dear!" said +she, "I had rather be bit to death than lie one night from my dear Cov." +</p> +<p> +She is, however, memorable for one <i>étourderie</i>, which amused the world +greatly. Old George II., conversing with her on the dulness of the season, +expressed a regret that there had been no masquerades during the year, the +handsome rustic answered him, that she had seen sights enough, and the +only one she wanted to see now was—"a coronation." The king, however, +had the good sense to laugh, and repeated it good-humouredly to his circle +at supper. +</p> +<p> +Lady Coventry died a few years after of consumption, at the age of +twenty-seven. It was said that her death was hastened by the habit of +using white lead as a paint, the fashionable custom of the time. The Duke +of Hamilton had died two years before, in 1758, and the duchess became +subsequently the wife of Colonel John Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyle. +The narrative observes the remarkable circumstance, that the untitled +daughter of an Irish commoner should have been the wife of two dukes and +the mother of four. By her first husband she was the mother of James, +seventh duke, and of Douglas, eighth duke, of Hamilton; and by her second +husband, of William, sixth duke, and of Henry, seventh duke, of Argyle. +The duchess, though at the time of Lady Coventry's illness supposed to be +in a consumption, survived for thirty years, dying in 1790. +</p> +<p> +Mason the poet commemorated Lady Coventry's death in a long elegy, which +had some repute in those days, when even Hayley was called a poet. They +are dawdling and dulcified to a deplorable degree. +</p> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "Yes, Coventry is dead; attend the strain,</p> +<p> Daughters of Albion, ye that, light as air,</p> +<p> So oft have trips in her fantastic train,</p> +<p> With hearts as gay, and faces half as fair;</p> +<p> For she was fair beyond your highest bloom;</p> +<p> This envy owns, since now her bloom is fled.</p> +<p> &c. &c. &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +We have then a sketch of a man of considerable celebrity in his day, Lord +Sandwich. Educated at Eton and Cambridge; on leaving college, he made the +then unusual exertion of a voyage round the Mediterranean, of which a +volume was published by his chaplain on his return. Shortly after, taking +his seat in the House of Lords, he came into ministerial employment as a +Lord of the Admiralty. In 1746, he was appointed minister to the States +General. And from that period, for nearly thirty years, he was employed in +high public offices; was twice an ambassador, three times first Lord of +the Admiralty, and twice Secretary of State. Lord Sandwich's personal +character was at least accused of so much profligacy, that, if the charges +be true, we cannot comprehend how he was suffered to retain employments of +such importance for so many years. Wilkes, +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page178 name=page178></A>[pg 178]</SPAN> +who had known him intimately, +describes him, in his letters to the electors of Aylesbury, as "the most +abandoned man of the age." He is even said not to have been a man of +business; yet the Admiralty was a place which can scarcely be managed by +an idler, and the Secretaryship of State, in this country, can never be a +sinecure. He had certainly one quality which is remarkable for +conciliation, and without which no minister, let his talents be what they +may, has ever been personally popular; he was a man of great affability, +and of shrewd wit. The latter was exhibited, in peculiarly cutting style, +to Mr Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland. Eden, sagacious in his generation, +had suddenly ratted to Pitt, adding, however, the monstrous absurdity of +sending a circular to his colleagues by way of justification. Obviously, +nothing could be more silly than an attempt of this order, which could +only add their contempt for his understanding to their contempt for his +conduct. Lord Sandwich's answer was in the most cutting spirit of scorn:— +</p> +<p> +"Sir,—Your letter is now before me, and in a few minutes will be <i>behind +me</i>." +</p> +<p> +An unhappy circumstance brought Lord Sandwich with painful prominence +before the world. A Miss Ray, a person of some attraction, had +unfortunately lived under his protection for several years. It happened, +however, that a young officer on the recruiting service, who had dined +once or twice at Lord Sandwich's house in the country, thought proper to +pay her some marked attentions, which, after allowing them, as it appears, +to proceed to some extent, she suddenly declined. On this the officer, +whose name was Hackman, and who was evidently of a fantastic and violent +temperament, rushed from England in a state of desperation, flew over to +Ireland, threw up his commission, and took orders in the church. But +instead of adopting the quietude which would have been suitable for his +new profession, the clerical robes seem to have made him more intractable +than the military uniform. After some months of rambling and romance in +Ireland, he rushed over to England again, resolving to conquer or die at +her feet; but the lady still rejected him, and, being alarmed at his +violence, threatened to appeal to Lord Sandwich. There are many +circumstances in the conduct of this unfortunate man, amounting to that +perversion of common sense which, in our times, is fashionably and +foolishly almost sanctioned as monomania. But nothing can be clearer than +the fact, that the most unjustifiable, dangerous, and criminal passion, +may be pampered, until it obtains possession of the whole mind, and leads +to the perpetration of the most atrocious offences against society. The +modern absurdity is, to look, in the violence of the passion for the +excuse of the crime; instead of punishing the crime for the violence of +the passion. We might as well say, that the violences of a drunkard were +more innocent the more furiously he was intoxicated; the whole being a +direct encouragement to excessive guilt. The popular feeling of justice in +the last century, however, was different; robbers and murderers were put +to death as they deserved, and society was relieved without burlesquing +the common understandings of man. Mr Hackman was a murderer, however he +might be a monomaniac, and he was eventually hanged as he deserved. The +trial, which took place in April 1779, excited the most extraordinary +public curiosity. By the statement of the witnesses, it appeared that a Mr +Macnamara, being in the lobby of Covent Garden Theatre when the audience +were coming away, and seeing Miss Ray making her way with some difficulty +through the crowd to her carriage, he went forward with Irish gallantry to +offer her his arm, which she accepted; and as they reached the door of the +carriage, a pistol was fired close to them, when Miss Ray clapped her hand +to her forehead and fell, when instantly another pistol-report followed. +He thought that she had fainted away through fright; but when he raised +her up, he found that she was wounded, and assisted the people in carrying +her into the Shakspeare Tavern; and on Hackman's being seized, and being +asked what could possess him to be guilty of such a deed, his only answer +was to give his name, and say, "It is not a proper +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page179 name=page179></A>[pg 179]</SPAN> +place to ask such +questions." It appeared in evidence, that Hackman had been waiting some +time for Miss Ray's coming out of the theatre; that he followed her to the +carriage door, and pulling out two pistols, fired one at the unfortunate +woman, the ball of which went through her brain, and the other at himself, +crying out as he fell, "Kill me—kill me!" +</p> +<p> +Of course, after evidence like this, there could be no defence, and none +as attempted. Hackman evidently wished to have died by his own hand; but +having failed there, his purpose was to perish by the law, and plead +guilty. However, on being brought to trial, he said that he now pleaded +not guilty, that he might avoid the appearance of contemning death—an +appearance not suitable to his present condition; that, on second thoughts, +he had considered the plea of guilty as rendering him accessory to a +second peril of his life; and that he thought that he could pay his debt +more effectually to the justice of the country by suffering his offences +to be proved by evidence, and submitting to the forms of a regular trial. +This, though it was penitence too late, was at least decorous language. +His whole conduct on the trial showed that, intemperate as his passions +were, he possessed abilities and feelings worthy of a wiser career, and a +less unhappy termination. Part of his speech was even affecting. +</p> +<p> +"I stand here this day," he said, "the most wretched of human beings, and +confess myself criminal in a high degree; yet while I acknowledge, with +shame and repentance, that my determination against my own life was formal +and complete, I protest, with that regard which becomes my situation, that +the will to destroy her who was ever dearer to me than life, was never +mine till a momentary frenzy overpowered me, and induced me to commit the +deed I deplore. Before this dreadful act, I trust, nothing will be found +in the tenor of my life which the common charity of mankind will not +excuse. I have no wish to avoid the punishment which the laws of my +country appoint for my crime; but being already too unhappy to feel a +punishment in death, or a satisfaction in life, I submit myself with +penitence and patience to the disposal and judgment of Almighty God, and +to the consequences of this enquiry into my conduct and intentions." +</p> +<p> +After a few minutes' consultation, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, +and he was executed two days after. It is surprising how strong an +interest was felt on this subject by persons of every condition; by the +populace, who loved excitement from whatever quarter it may come; by the +middle order, to whom the romance of the early part of the transaction and +the melancholy catastrophe were subjects of natural impression; and by the +nobility, to whom the character of Miss Ray and the habits of Lord +Sandwich were equally known. +</p> +<p> +The Earl of Carlisle thus writes to Selwyn, beginning with a sort of +customary allusion to Selwyn's extraordinary fondness for those displays:— +</p> +<p> +"Hackman, Miss Ray's murderer, is hanged. I attended his execution in +order to give <i>you</i> an account of his behaviour, and from no curiosity of +my own. I am this moment returned from it. Every one enquired after you. +<i>You have friends</i> every where. The poor man behaved with great fortitude; +no appearances of fear were to be perceived, but very evident signs of +contrition and repentance." +</p> +<p> +A novel, of some pathos and considerable popularity, was founded on this +unhappy transaction, and "The Letters of Mr Hackman and Miss Ray" long +flourished in the circulating libraries. But the groundwork was vulgar, +mean, and vicious, after all; and, divested of that colouring which +imagination may throw on any event, was degrading and criminal in all its +circumstances. The shame of the wretched woman herself, living in a state +of open criminality from year to year; the grossness of Hackman in his +proposal to make this abandoned woman his wife; the strong probability +that his object might have been the not uncommon, though infinitely vile +one, of obtaining Lord Sandwich's patronage, by relieving him of a +connexion of which that notorious profligate, after nine years, might be +weary—all characterise the earlier portion of their intercourse as +destitute of all pretence to honourable feelings. The +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page180 name=page180></A>[pg 180]</SPAN> +catastrophe is +merely the work of an assassin. If there may be some slight allowance for +overwhelming passion, for suddenly excited jealousy, or for remediless +despair, yet those impulses act only to the extent of inflicting injury on +ourselves. No love ever seeks the death of its object. It is then mere +ruffianism, brute cruelty, savage fury; and even this becomes more the act +of a ruffian, when the determination to destroy is formed in cold blood. +Hackman carried two loaded pistols with him to the theatre. What other man +carried loaded pistols there? and what could be his purpose but the one +which he effected, to fire them both, one at the wretched woman, and the +other at himself? The clear case is, that he was neither more nor less +than a furious villain, resolved to have the life of a profligate +milliner's apprentice, who preferred Lord Sandwich's house and carriage, +to Mr Hackman's hovel and going on foot. We shall find that all similar +acts originate in similar motives—lucre, licentiousness, and rage—the +three stimulants of the highwayman, the debauchee, and the ruffian; with +only the distinction, that, in the case of those who murder when they +cannot possess, the three criminalities are combined. +</p> +<p> +Even with the execution of the criminal, the excitement did not cease. The +papers of the day tell us, that when the body was conveyed to the +surgeon's hall, so great a crowd was assembled, and the efforts to obtain +entrance were so violent, that caps, gowns, wigs, were torn and cast away +in all directions. Old and young, men, women, and children, were trampled +in the multitude. In the afternoon, the crowd diminished, and several +persons of the better order made their way in, but with not a less +vexatious result; for, on reaching the staircase leading to the theatre, +they found themselves saluted with a shower from some engine worked under +the staircase. This was rather a rough mode of tranquillizing public +excitement, but seems to have been effectual. It was probably a trick of +some of the young surgeons, and excited great indignation at the time. +Hackman was but four-and-twenty, and rather a striking figure. +</p> +<p> +The letters to which we have alluded, entitled "Love and Madness," +attracted attention in higher quarters, and even perplexed the +fastidiousness of Walpole himself. In one of his letters of March 1780, he +thus writes:—"Yesterday was published an octavo, pretending to contain +the correspondence of Hackman and Miss Ray. I doubt whether the letters +are genuine, and yet, if fictitious, they are executed well, and enter +into his character. This appears less natural, and yet the editors were +certainly more likely to be in possession of hers than his. It is not +probable that Lord Sandwich should have sent what he found in her +apartments to the press; no account is pretended to be given of how they +came to light." +</p> +<p> +After having thus puzzled the dilettanti, it transpired that it was +written by Sir Herbert Croft, Bart. +</p> +<p> +Another singular character, who, in connexion with one still more singular, +remarkably occupied the ear and tongue of the <i>beau monde</i> of his day, is +introduced in these volumes. This was Augustus John, Earl of Bristol, +third son of John, Lord Hervey, by the beautiful Mary Lepel. He entered +the sea service at an early age, and prospered as the sons of men of rank +prospered in those days, being made a post-captain in 1747, when he was +but three and twenty years old. Promotion was heaped upon him, and he was +rapidly advanced to the rank of vice-admiral and colonel of marines. He +was, however, said to be a brave and skilful officer. More good fortune +was in store for him; he was placed in the king's household, was a member +of Parliament, was appointed one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and +finally rounded the circle of his honours by succeeding to the earldom of +Bristol. The history of his wife is a continued adventure. Miss Chudleigh, +maid of honour to the Princess of Wales, had, immediately on her +appearance at court, become the observed of all observers. She was +regarded as one of the most beautiful women of her time, was remarkably +quick and witty in her conversation, of a most capricious temper and a +most fantastic imagination—all qualities which naturally rendered her a +topic in every +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page181 name=page181></A>[pg 181]</SPAN> +circle of the country. The circumstances of her marriage +rendered her if possible, still more a topic. On a visit at the house of a +relation, she met Lord Bristol, then but a lieutenant in the navy, and +plain Mr Hervey, and disregarding all the formalities of high life, they +were privately married at Lainston, in Northamptonshire. They were, +however, separated the very next day, the lady declaring her determination +never to see her husband's face again. This, of course, produced an ample +fund of conversation of every kind; but the lady returned to court, and +the gentleman returned to his ship, and went to sea. However, they met +again, and the result was, she became a mother. From her determination to +keep her marriage secret, she retired for her accouchement to a secluded +spot in Chelsea, where her child was born, and where it soon after died. +</p> +<p> +It may easily be supposed, that the sudden disappearance of so conspicuous +a person from the most conspicuous society, must have given rise to +rumours and ridicule of every kind. She returned to court nevertheless, +and constantly denying her marriage, fought it out with the effrontery +which is so easily forgiven, in fashionable life, to youth, wit, and +beauty. +</p> +<p> +Yet she could not quite escape the flying shafts of wit herself. One day +after her return, meeting the memorable Lord Chesterfield—"Think, my +lord," said she, with an air of indignation, "to what lengths the +scandalous chronicle will go, when it absolutely says that I have had +twins." "My dear," said Lord Chesterfield, "I make it a rule never to +believe above half what the world says." +</p> +<p> +She now received the attentions of many suitors, extraordinary as the +circumstance may be, when the mystery of her own conduct and the surmises +of the public are considered; and, to make assurance doubly sure, she +determined to extinguish all proof of her hasty marriage. Ascertaining +that the clergyman who had married her was dead, she went to Lainston +church, and contrived to carry away the entry of her marriage from the +register. Some time after this, Miss Chudleigh (for she never would take +her husband's name) married the Duke of Kingston. It was strongly asserted, +though the circumstance is so dishonourable that it can scarcely be +believed, that the silence of the real husband was purchased by the +advance of a large sum of money from the pretended one. The marriage +remained undisturbed until the death of the duke. She then came into +possession of his very large disposable property, and traveled in great +pomp to Rome; but the duke's nephew and heir, having his suspicious of the +fact excited, commenced proceedings against the duchess for bigamy. She +was tried before her peers in Westminster hall, and found guilty of the +offence, in April 1776; but by claiming the privilege of peerage, she was +discharged on payment of the usual fees. +</p> +<p> +It is scarcely possible to believe that a man of the rank and profession +of Lord Bristol, could have been base enough to connive at his wife's +marriage with the Duke of Kingston. But there can be no question, that in +the prevalent opinion of the time, he had even taken a large sum of money +for the purpose. In one of Walpole's letters, subsequently to the trial, +he says, "if the Pope expects his duchess back, he must create her one, +for her peers have reduced her to a countess. Her folly and her obstinacy +here appear in the full vigour, at least her faith in the ecclesiastical +court, trusting to the infallibility of which she provoked this trial in +the face of every sort of detection. The living witness of the first +marriage, a register of it fabricated long after by herself, the widow of +the clergyman who married her, many confidants to whom she had entrusted +the secret, and even Hawkins, the surgeon, privy to the birth of the child, +appeared against her. The Lords were tender, and would not probe the +earl's collusion; but the ecclesiastical court, who so readily accepted +their juggle, and sanctified the second match, were brought to shame—they +care not if no reformation follows. The duchess, who could produce nothing +else in her favour, tried the powers of oratory, and made a long oration, +in which she cited the +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page182 name=page182></A>[pg 182]</SPAN> +protection of her late mistress, the Princess of +Wales. Her counsel would have curtailed this harangue; but she told them +they might be good lawyers, but did not understand speaking to the +passions. She concluded her rhetoric with a fit, and retired with rage +when convicted of the bigamy." +</p> +<p> +The charge to which Walpole alludes, was, that the earl had given her a +bond for L.30,000 not to molest her; but as there was no proof, this gross +charge certainly has no right to be implicitly received. Still it is +unaccountable why he should have suffered her to have married the Duke of +Kingston without any known remonstrance, and why he should have allowed +her to retain the title of the duke's widow until the rightful heir +instituted the proceedings. The earl died in 1779, within three years from +the trial. +</p> +<p> +Among the characters which pass through this magic-lantern, is Topham +Beauclerk, so frequently mentioned, and mentioned with praise, in +Boswell's <i>Johnson</i>. He seems to have been a man of great elegance of +manner, and peculiarity of that happy talent of conversation whose wit +seems to be spontaneous, and whose anecdotes, however <i>recherché</i>, seem to +flow from the subject. "Every thing," remarked Johnson, "comes from +Beauclerk so easily, that it appears to me that I labour when I say a good +thing." +</p> +<p> +Beauclerk was the only son of Lord Sydney Beauclerk, a son of Charles, +first Duke of St Albans. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and, +from the moment of his entering fashionable life, was remarked for the +elegance of manner, and the liveliness of conversation, which continued to +be his distinctions to the close of his career. Unfortunately, the fashion +of the time not only allowed, but seems to have almost required, an +irregularity of life which would tarnish the character of any man in our +more decorous day. His unfortunate intercourse with Viscountess +Bolingbroke, better known by her subsequent name of Lady Diana Beauclerk, +produced a divorce, and in two days after a marriage. She was the eldest +daughter of Charles, the second Duke of Marlborough, and was in early life +as distinguished for her beauty, as in later years she was for her wit. +</p> +<p> +Johnson in his old age became acquainted with Topham Beauclerk, through +their common friend, Langton, and even the sage and moralist acknowledged +the captivation of his manners. "What a coalition!" said Garrick, when he +heard of their acquaintance, "I shall have my old friend to bail out of +the roundhouse." But whatever might be the elegance of his companion's +laxity, Johnson did not hesitate to rebuke him. Beauclerk, like wits in +general, had a propensity to satire, on which Johnson once took him to +task in this rough style—"You never open your mouth but with the +intention to give pain; and you have now given me pain, not from the power +of what you have said, but from my seeing the intention." At another tine, +applying to him that line of Pope's, slightly altered, he said— +</p> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> 'Thy love of folly, and thy scorn of fools;'</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +everything you do shows the one, and every thing you say the other." +</p> +<p> +Another rather less intelligible rebuke occurred in his saying, "Thy body +is all vice and thy mind all virtue." As the actions of the body proceed +from the mind, it is difficult to conceive how the one can be impure +without the other. At least Beauclerk did not appear to relish the +distinction, and he was angry at the phrase. However, Johnson's attempt to +appease him was a curious specimen of his magniloquence. "Nay, sir, +Alexander the Great, marching in triumph into Babylon, could not have +desired to have had more said to him." +</p> +<p> +Topham Beauclerk had two daughters by Lady Diana, one of whom became Lady +Pembroke. He died at his house in Great Russell Street, then a place of +fashion, in 1780, in his 41st year. +</p> +<p> +Selwyn's seat, Matson, in Gloucestershire, received some pretty historical +reminiscences. One of Walpole's letters to Bentley, thus speaks of a visit +to his friend's villa in the autumn of 1753. +</p> +<p> +"I staid two days at George Selwyn's house, which lies on Robin Hood's +hill. It is lofty enough for an +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page183 name=page183></A>[pg 183]</SPAN> +Alp, yet is a mountain of turf to the very +top, has woods scattered all over it, springs that long to be cascades in +twenty places; and from the summits it beats even Sir George Littleton's +views, by having the city of Gloucester at its foot, and the Severn +widening to the horizon. The house is small but neat; King Charles (the +First,) lay here at the siege, and the Duke of York, with typical fury, +hacked and hewed the windows of his chamber, as a memorandum of his being +there. The fact however being, that both the princes, Charles and James, +who were then mere boys, remained at Matson—a circumstance frequently +mentioned to Selwyn's grandfather by James II., observing:—'My brother +and I were generally shut up in a chamber on the second floor during the +day, where you will find that we have left the marks of our confinement +inscribed with our knives on the ledges of all the windows."' +</p> +<p> +The house must have been quite a treasure to Walpole, for he found in it a +good picture of the famous Earl of Leicester, which he had given to Sir +Francis Walsingham; and what makes it very curious, Walpole observes his +age is marked on it fifty-four, in 1752. "I had never been able to +discover before in what year he was born, and here is the very flower-pot +and counterfeit association for which Bishop Sprat was taken up, and the +Duke of Marlborough sent to the Tower." +</p> +<p> +It is, however, by no means clear, that this was a "counterfeit +association," though Walpole abandons his usual scepticism on all +disputable points with such facility. The "association" was a plot to +bring back that miserable blockhead and bigot, James II., said to be +signed by Marlborough, the Bishop of Rochester, Lords Salisbury, Cornberry, +and Sir Basil Firebrace. On the information of one Young, the draft of the +plot was found in a flower-pot in the Bishop's house at Bromley. But +fortunately the days of royal terror had passed by. The crown was strong +enough to treat conspiracy with contempt, and the affair was suffered to +fall into oblivion. Yet it is now so notorious that many of the highest +persons in the state were tampering with the exiled family, that the plot +is rendered sufficiently probable. There seems to have been some political +infatuation connected with the name of the Stuarts. Though, excepting the +bravery of Charles I. and the pleasantry of Charles II., they all were +evidently the dullest, most mulish, and most repulsive of mankind; yet +many brave men periled their lives to restore them, and many men of great +distinction hazarded their safety to correspond with them. The "Stuart +Correspondence" was less a breach of loyalty than a libel on the national +understanding. +</p> +<p> +On the whole, these volumes are interesting, in many parts—very much so. +The editor has evidently done his best to illustrate and explain. But can +he not discover any remnant of the letters of Selwyn himself? he might +then remove the objection to his title, and please all readers together. +</p> + +<br><hr class="full"> + +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page184 name=page184></A>[pg 184]</SPAN> +<a name="bw340s4" id="bw340s4"></a><h2>NEWS FROM AN EXILED CONTRIBUTOR.</h2> + + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> + MELBOURNE, PORT PHILIP, + NEW SOUTH WALES, <i>July</i> 1, 1843. +</p> +<p> + BELOVED AND REV. CHRISTOPHER, +</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +You have been pleased many times, in very decided terms, to express your +ever-to-be-respected conviction that I should eventually come to something; +haply to the woolsack—possibly to the gallows; from which prophetic +sentiment, I have naturally inferred that my genius was rare, and that +your eagle eye had discovered it. +</p> +<p> +Before my letter reaches your generous shores, twelve months will have +elapsed, most reverend Christopher, since we parted in the Hibernian city. +Then we were as near to one another as firmly grasped hands could render +us; now sixteen thousand miles effectually divide us; and whilst I sit +silently wishing you ages of health and mortal happiness, the mercury of +my thermometer stands lazily at freezing point, whereas your own sprightly +quicksilver rushes up to 92. All things tell me of our separation. We +sailed, as you will find by referring to your pocket-book—for you made a +memorandum at the time—on the 14th day of November last from Cork; +sighted Madeira—about thirty miles abreast—in eight days, and out of +sight of it on the 22d. A fine fair wind was sent to us, and we crossed +the Line, all well, on the 14th of December; then steering pretty far to +westward, we luckily caught the trade-wind, and rounded the Cape in a good +gale on the 15th of January. And here it came on to blow right earnestly; +but we kept the gale for about eight days on our larboard quarter, and we +scudded on our course at a fearful rate. Our mizen mast was carried +away—both our mainsails split—and we smashed a few spars, and lost some +running gear; nothing more serious happened, save the loss of as fine a +young fellow as ever trode shoe-leather—a seaman. He was caught sharply +by one of the ropes that gave way, and it carried him overboard like a +feather. We saw him drop—the sea was running mountains high—we could +render him no assistance; and he perished under our very eyes. The wind, +fortunately for us, continued on either quarter of our ship; and it is a +remarkable fact, and deserving of notice, that, during the whole of our +voyage, we had occasion only <i>to put the ship about</i> TWICE. We cast anchor +in Hobson's Bay, Port Philip on the morning of the 21st of February, +having made our voyage in the short space of ninety-nine days, and the +land within a quarter of an hour of the captain's reckoning. The events of +the passage may be given <i>paucis verbis</i>. We had nine <i>accouchements</i> in +the steerage amongst the emigrants, some of them premature from violent +sea-sickness, and seven deaths—all children. +</p> +<p> +Our deaths, as I have said, were confined to the children. The adults kept +free from fever; an astonishing fact, when the confinement and closeness of +a steerage birth is taken into account. The voyage was agreeable. We were +good friends in the cabin. The captain, a prudent, temperate man, took his +three glasses of grog per diem, and no more; the first at noon, the second +at dinner, the third and last at <i>"turn-in</i>." Your obedient servant, ever +mindful of your strict injunctions, and of your eloquent discourse on +sobriety and self-denial, and believing that he could not do better than +regulate his watch according to the captain's chronometer, followed +precisely the same rule. We maintained a glorious state of health after +the first week; and if all future voyagers would do the same, let them +neither eat nor drink aboard ship to the full extent of their appetites. +This is simple advice, but I reckon it the first great secret which my +nomadic experience enables me to put down for the benefit of my +fellow-creatures; especially on board of a ship, <i>leave off with an +appetite.</i> We passed our time—not having the fear of the Ancient Mariner +before our eyes—in shooting albatrosses, Cape pigeons, and the like; in +picking up a porpoise, a bonnitta, or a dolphin. Books, backgammon, and +whist, filled +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page185 name=page185></A>[pg 185]</SPAN> +up the measure of the day. <i>Mem</i>.—had we been favoured with +less wind, we should have got more porpoises. We speared +many—<i>first-raters</i>; but the speed at which we cut along, prevented our +securing them. +</p> +<p> +But we have cast anchor. The harbour of Hobson's Bay is a splendid inlet +of the sea. The bay is very narrow at the entrance, but the moment you get +past the Heads, it extends to a breadth of eight or ten miles, and to a +length of twenty-two miles, from the mouth to the anchoring place. The +land around the bay is flat and sandy, and covered with wood almost to the +water's edge. The tree there resembles our common mountain fir: it is +exactly like it in the bark; but it is called by the settlers, <i>the +she-oak</i>. I reckon it to be the beef-tree, for it has its appearance when +cut up, is hard, and takes a beautiful polish. Inland, this wood grows to +a considerable height and thickness; but the principal part of the +interior is thickly covered with the various species of the gum and +peppermint trees, many of them of a singularly large growth: but more of +the interior anon. Immediately opposite to the anchorage ground, there is +a pretty little town called <i>Williamstown</i>, in which the water-police +magistrate, an old seafaring gentleman, Captain ——, has his residence. +The gallant captain has enough to do with the jolly tars, who invariably +attempt to cut and run as soon as they have got here. A sailor +misconducting himself on the voyage, has at least two months' reflection +in the jail of Williamstown, commencing immediately upon his arrival. The +news of this prison establishment will probably reach England before my +letter. Should it be spoken of in your presence, say that it has been +found absolutely necessary for the protection of shipmasters, and that an +act was passed accordingly for its erection. <i>Gordon law</i>, so called after +the first magistrate, is proverbial, and very summary. Every fellow found +drunk gets two hours in the stocks, and he becomes sober there much sooner +than if he had been simply fined five shillings. +</p> +<p> +The town of Melbourne is beautifully situated on the face of a hill, in +the hollow of which runs the noble river called the <i>Yarra-Yarra</i>, words +which signify in the native language, <i>"flowing constantly."</i> It is +distinguished by its title from the large majority of rivers, which are +nearly <i>still</i>, and which, after extending only for a mile or two, form at +length a species of swamp. Such rivers are generally styled <i>lagoons</i>. The +<i>Yarra-Yarra</i> is navigable up to the town of Melbourne for ships of a +large size—say 400 tons; but the seven miles of distance being circuitous, +and the banks of sand at the mouth of the river occasionally shifting, the +larger class of ships generally remain at the anchorage ground in the bay, +and discharge by common lighters. At the present moment, from twenty to +thirty very large ships are riding in the bay. A pretty little steamer +plies three times a-day between the towns of Melbourne and +Williamstown—price five shillings, up and down. Another steamer, "The Sea +Horse," plies between Melbourne and Sydney once a fortnight; the passage +is made in three days, and the fares £12 for cabin, £6 for steerage. The +communication is a vast accommodation to this district. The steamer is in +private hands, and did not answer at first; she now carries the mail, and +promises to turn out a profitable <i>spec</i>. The coast is very dangerous, and +at <i>every</i> season of the year liable to very violent gales. Even in the +bay the squalls are sudden, violent, and dangerous, and many lives are +lost for want of proper precaution and care, on board of small boats. Only +yesterday, my friend, Mr G——, and three men, were out in a pleasure boat; +in five minutes they were swept off to leeward, the boat was upset, and +they were all drowned. +</p> +<p> +Melbourne is perhaps the most surprising place in her Majesty's dominions. +Nothing, in the history of colonization, approaches her as regards the +rapidity of advancement and extent. Six years ago there were not twenty +British subjects on the spot, and at the present hour, Melbourne and its +suburbs boast of a population of ten thousand souls. There are already +built four splendid edifices for public worship—Episcopalians, +Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page186 name=page186></A>[pg 186]</SPAN> +Independents, are provided for—and there is +in addition a very large Roman Catholic chapel in the course of erection. +There are three banks all doing excellently well—"The Australasian," "The +Union Bank of Australia," and "Port Philip's Bank"—and there is yet a +good field for another, under prudent management. The rate of discount is +£10 per cent; and the interest given on deposit accounts £7 per cent. The +common rate of interest, given with good mortgage security, is £20 per +cent; and in some instances, where a little risk is taken, £25 and £30. +Bills past due at the bank, are charged £12 per cent. A court of law (by +act of Council) allows £8 per cent on all bills sued upon, with a +discretionary power of extending the rate to £12 per cent, to cover any +damage or loss sustained. There are two Club houses, a Royal Exchange, and +some very large buildings for stores. A spacious new jail is building in a +most commodious situation, and a public court house will soon follow; the +one existing being but small and temporary. The new customhouse, which has +been completed since my arrival is a fine building, and forms one side of +the Market Square. In front of this, and about four hundred yards distant, +stands the wharf. Melbourne rejoices likewise in its theatre, or, as it is +called, "<i>pavilion</i>," which place of amusement, however, the governor does +not think proper to license. His refusal is, I believe, very properly +founded upon the questionable condition of the morals of the great body of +the population. Two hours at the police-office any morning, afford a +stranger a tolerably clear insight into this subject generally, and +acquaint him particularly with the over-night deportment of the +Melbournese. The police magistrate holds any thing but a sinecure. We have +three newspapers in Melbourne, namely, <i>The Patriot</i>, <i>The Herald</i>, and +<i>Gazette</i>, each published twice a-week; the first on Monday and Thursday, +the second on Tuesday and Friday, the third on Wednesday and Saturday; so +that we have a newspaper every day. The advertisements are numerous and +varied in matter. I have heard upon good authority that the proprietor of +any one of these journals draws at least £4000 to £5000 per annum from the +profits of them. It is not difficult to account for these enormous gains. +Every thing here is sold by auction, and the advertisements are in +consequence more numerous than they would otherwise be. An auctioneer +alone, in good business, will pay each of the papers about £1000 per annum +for printing and advertising his numerous sales. We have a supreme court +with a suitable establishment of officers. John Walpole Willis, Esq., was +resident judge. He is now amongst you, for, by the slip which carries this +letter, he starts for England, circumstances having occurred that render +it necessary for him to vindicate in person a character which requires no +vindication. The people of Melbourne part with the upright and learned +judge with infinite regret, softened only by the certain hope they +entertain of his immediate return. The resident judge holds civil courts +as in England during the several terms, and criminal courts of general +jail-delivery every month. The pleadings are conducted by barristers at +law, who have been duly admitted in England, Ireland, Scotland, or Isle of +Man. The agents or attorneys and solicitors are those duly admitted at +Sydney, at courts of Westminster in England, High Courts in Ireland, and +<i>writers to her Majesty's Signet in Scotland</i>. Others who may have served +a regular apprenticeship of not less than five years to any such agent, +after undergoing a necessary examination, are likewise suffered to +practise as attorneys. The supreme court has been established about twelve +months. Before that time all suits were carried on in Sydney. Conveyances +of land may be prepared by any one, and, before professional men appeared +amongst the settlers, there were some rare specimens of deeds in this +branch of English law. Now they are of course better—and those to which I +have adverted have fortunately paved the way for endless litigation. We +have a sprinkling of military and mounted police; two very large steam +mills for grinding flour and sawing timber; and in a word, all the +concomitants of a large and flourishing +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page187 name=page187></A>[pg 187]</SPAN> +city. I should, however, except +the public streets. These are still unpaved, and consequently in wet +weather, in some places, impassable, and in dry weather insufferably dusty. +I have spoken of the sudden squalls which arise often in the Bay. Whilst +one of these prevails, clouds of dust are carried from the streets so +dense that you cannot see half a yard before you. If you are exposed to +the whirlwind, and chance to wear clothes of a dark colour, you issue from +it with the appearance of a man who has been confined in a mill for a week. +A house of furniture well cleaned in the morning, looks at dinner-time as +if it had been coated with dirt for a twelvemonth. Should there be a +sudden mortality among the ladies of Port Philip, it will undoubtedly be +occasioned by this warfare with the dirt, which is carried forward day +after day without any prospect of retreat on either side. +</p> +<p> +Having read thus far, you will very likely tap the floor impatiently with +your foot, and say—if you have not said it already—"Well, but what is +the fellow about himself?" Patience, gentle Christopher. I will tell you +now. Upon my arrival with a pocket, as you are aware, not very +inconveniently laden, I kept of course "my eye ahead" for any thing +suitable in the farming way; sheep-stock or cattle. But it would not do. +<i>Capital</i> was required to get a sheep-station, and employment as an +overseer, in consequence of the depression that existed in the markets +<i>for all kinds of stock</i>, altogether hopeless. No man is idle here longer +than he can help it, unless he have the wherewithal to look to; and there +are fifty modes of gaining bread here, if a man will turn to them? What +could a briefless barrister do better than throw himself upon the law? I +smelled out the attorneys to begin with. The first with whom I came in +contact was one Mr ——, from a northern county in England. He had been +here only three years, and was already rattling about in his carriage. He +arrived without a shoe to his foot, or a sixpence in his pocket. Another +was my old and respected friend Mr ——, writer to the signet, of +Edinburgh, who had been here about eighteen months, was living like a +gentleman, and on the point of entering a fine new dwelling-house, which +he had himself erected out of his own honourable gains. Upon him I waited, +and from his kindness I obtained all the information I stood in need of; +and not only this, but immediate profitable employment in his office, +which, with his leave, I hold until something offers—whether I shall +claim admission as attorney, solicitor, and proctor, as some have done +before me, or resort to my old calling of advocate, is as yet an undecided +question. I am now in the receipt of more than is necessary for +subsistence, and I shall look before I leap. The rents of houses are +extravagantly high. The poorest tradesmen pay fifteen shillings a-week for +his small house—and he must pay it weekly; the better class of tradesmen +pay twenty and twenty-five shillings, and the higher class from two to +four pounds a-week; for a petty dwelling containing only three rooms and a +kitchen. A small brick cottage held by a friend of mine, and consisting of +sitting-room, bed-room, servant's room, and kitchen, is considered a great +bargain at a hundred pounds per annum. The hours of business are limited +with strictness to seven—<i>videlicit</i>, from nine in the morning until four +P.M. You are your own master after four o'clock, and need fear no +business-calls or interruptions. Whilst business, however, is going on, +the excitement and bustle compel me to regard Cheapside on a Saturday +afternoon, as a place of great quietness and an agreeable promenade. +Fellows are riding as hard as they can tear from one end of the town to +the other—cattle are driving to and fro—bullock-drays are crowding from +the interior with wood—auctions are eternally at work—settlers are +coming from their stations, or getting their provisions in. Tradesmen and +mercantile men are hurry-skurrying with their orders. A vast amount of +work is done up to four o'clock, and afterwards all is silence, and the +place looks unlike nothing so much as itself; and yet, notwithstanding all +this bustle, <i>money</i> is altogether out of the question. From what exact +cause or series of causes, I cannot tell you now—but the fact is certain +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page188 name=page188></A>[pg 188]</SPAN> +that the mercantile community here is nearly <i>bankrupt</i>. There is a glut +of goods, a superabundance of every thing in the market. It has been +wrongfully supposed in England that every thing would sell here, and the +consequence has been that an overflow of every kind of commodity has +poured in upon us. The supply has doubled and trebled the demand. Upon the +first establishment of these settlements the wants of the people were of +course many, and their prices for stock were so good, and their +speculations in land so profitable and bright, that they could afford the +indulgence of a luxury, no matter what price was asked to purchase it. It +is very different <i>now</i>. The staple commodity of this colony is wool. Well, +so long as all the stations or sheep-runs continued unoccupied, and new +settlers arrived, the price of sheep kept naturally very high; but every +station that can command a due supply of water, is now in occupation, and +consequently the demand for stock has ceased. Sheep, which three years ago +sold for twenty-five and eighteen shillings, command now, for first +quality, eight shillings and sixpence only; ordinary quality, six +shillings; and middling as low as five shillings. For cash sale by +sheriff-warrant, I have seen beautiful ewes, free from all disease—2000 +of them—sold for two and sixpence each! Cattle three years ago sold for +ten, twelve, and sometimes fifteen pounds per head. At this moment they +are so plentiful that I could purchase a drove of fat cattle, two to three +hundred head—and some of them weighing eighty stone—for eight pounds a +beast, and that on credit too by approved bill at four months' date. Such +are a few of the reasons why a damper has come over the Port Philip market, +reducing amongst other things the price of wages by nearly a third. +Emigrants continue to pour in, and they stare and are grievously +disappointed at the rate of wages, so very different to that which they +expected. Twelve months since, a single labouring man got forty pounds per +annum, with weekly rations of provisions; now with his rations, he +receives only twenty-five, or at most thirty pounds per annum. Married men +with young families will not be hired at any rate, for they are only +burdens on a station. A good thorough-bred shepherd maintains his price. +He is still in great demand, and may command from sixty to seventy pounds +per annum, with rations, cow's milk, free hut, and a portion of produce of +stock in addition to all, if he chooses to put his wages to that mode of +profit. Women servants were formerly much wanted. They are now at a +discount. The filthy drabs ejected from Ireland are scarcely worth their +meat. I am proud to say it, and you should be proud to hear it, gentle +Christopher, that a Scotch servant, male or female, is forty per cent +above every other in value in this colony. Scotch servants get ahead in +spite of every thing. The Scotch tradesmen have almost all of them made +money; some abundantly. I have met many here from the North who brought +nothing but their energy, moderation, and unconquerable perseverance with +them, and they are affluent, and are becoming daily more so. Donald ——, +who was a servant lad at home, and is now a respected and respectable man +in Melbourne, is independent. He went first to Van Diemen's Land, and came +here some three years ago. "And had you arrived," he said to me the other +day, "at the same time, you might now have been moving home a prosperous +gentleman." However, <i>nil desperandum</i>. There is still a fair opportunity +for an industrious man, who above all things has resolution to be SOBER in +his habits. The mischief with the labouring man has been, that having +suddenly discovered his wages to be high in comparison with those he +received in the mother country, he has considered himself entitled to have +a proportionate extra amount of enjoyment at the public-house, where drink +is very high. Good tradesmen would infallibly make money, but for this +great failing. The bullock dray-drivers, certainly the best paid of all +the working men, absolutely think nothing of coming from the Bush into +Melbourne, with twenty or thirty pounds in their pocket, and spending +every farthing of the sum—in <i>one night</i>—champagne to the mast-head. The +innkeepers make fortunes rapidly. +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page189 name=page189></A>[pg 189]</SPAN> +Shall I tell how much Boniface will draw +in a week? No—for you will not believe me. Certainly as much as many an +innkeeper in a country town would draw in twelve months. An innkeeper's +license to Government is thirty pounds per annum. This entitles him to +keep his house open from six in the morning until eleven o'clock at night; +ten pounds more enables him to have open house during the night; and an +additional ten pounds enables him to keep a billiard table. There are a +great many houses with tables and a number of light houses; but, as I have +hinted before, our police courts exhibit abominations, and a police court +is a good criterion of the morals of a people. In the first formation and +early beginnings of this colony, a man having sheep took up his abode in +the interior, on any spot which he considered suitable and agreeable, and +he was called a <i>squatter</i>. Now no individual may pasture sheep or cattle +of any kind without receiving a license from Government, for which he pays +ten pounds annually, and making a return every year of all his stock, +servants, and increase—the license, by the way, not being available +within three miles of Melbourne. The holder of such a license is called a +<i>settler</i>. A settler is entitled to cut wood upon his own station or run, +for firing for himself and servants; but if he cut it for sale—and we +have no coal here—he pays, in addition to the ten pounds, three pounds +more per annum for the permission so to do. +</p> +<p> +You shall now receive a faithful account of the settling of a settler. +Suppose him to have a station in the interior, or as it is invariably +styled, "in the <i>Bush</i>." The distance is forty, fifty, or it may be eighty, +miles from Melbourne, and the stock consists of from four to five thousand +sheep, and from one to two hundred head of cattle. The settler, in all +probability, has been accustomed in early life to good society, has been +well educated and brought up. Living at his station he sees none but his +own servants, his <i>chère amie</i>, (always a part of a settler's stock,) and +perhaps a few black natives, not unfrequently hostile visitors. Business +calls the settler to Melbourne; he puts up at his inn; any thing in the +shape of society rejoices his heart, and forthwith he begins "the lark;" +he dines out—gets fuddled, returns to his inn, finds a city friend or two +waiting for him, treats them to champagne, of which, at ten shillings per +bottle, they drink no end. Very well. His horse is in the stable at seven +shillings and sixpence a-night, his own bill varies from six to eight +pounds per diem, and at the end of a fortnight my settler is called upon +to hand over a cheque upon his banker to the tune of a hundred pounds, or, +if he has no bank-account, his promissory note at a very short date. Away +starts the settler back to his solitude; he has given his bill, and he +thinks no more about it; but the bill finds its way quickly into the hands +of an attorney, and in eight days there is an execution out for recovery, +with an addition of ten pounds already incurred in legal expenses. The +sheriff's bailiff rides to the station and demands payment of the whole. +He gets no money, but settler and bailiff return in company to Melbourne: +a friend is applied to; he discounts a bill for the sum required. The +attorney is paid the amount by the hands of the sheriff. The bill once +more becomes due, and is once more dishonoured; expenses run up like +wildfire. This time there is no escape, and a portion of the stock must be +sold to avoid ruin—and it is sold sometimes at a fearful sacrifice. This +is no insulated case. It is the history of nine-tenths of the thoughtless +fellows who dwell away in the Bush. Such gentlemen at the present hour, in +consequence of the depressed state of the stock market, are all but ruined. +Any one of them, who twelve months since purchased his flock of two +thousand sheep at eighteen or five-and-twenty shillings, can only reckon +upon a fourth of the amount in value <i>now</i>. It is increase only that +enables him to pay his servants, and he has as much off the wool as +affords him the means of living. The sale of his wethers would not pay for +the tear and wear of bullocks and drays; and if any profit does by any +chance arise, it can be only from occasionally catching a few head of +cattle, which, as they run wild in the woods, the settler can keep no +account of, and only with difficulty +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page190 name=page190></A>[pg 190]</SPAN> +secure when they come to a lagoon for +water, where they are watched, because at one time or another they are +certain to appear. Horses are very dear in Melbourne: a useless brute, +which in England would be dear at ten pounds, sells here quickly for +thirty; a good saddle horse will fetch a hundred, and I have seen some +tolerable cart horses sold for fifty and sixty pounds. In a new colony, +where almost all the draught is performed by bullocks, cart horses must +realize a good price. The hire of a horse and cart in Melbourne is, one +pound four shillings for the day. +</p> +<p> +In addition to those above spoken of there is another class of settlers, +who were the original stock-holders and land-purchasers in the district. +They have large tracts of country in the Bush, and thousands of sheep and +cattle on then, and all managed by servants and overseers. These +proprietors live at the clubs in Melbourne and constitute what is here +termed the <i>élite</i> of society. A short time ago these gentlemen +entertained the pleasing notion, that there was to be no termination to +the increase and extent of their wealth; and one very young member of the +society was heard to exclaim, in apparent agony at his excessive good +fortune, "upon my soul, I am become most disgustingly rich." But mark the +difference The <i>élite</i> have been living in the most extravagant manner. +They discounted bills at their own pleasure here at ten per cent; and +knowing well that these bills would not be honoured at maturity, they sent +them to London, and cashed them there: with the funds thus raised, they +speculated in the buying of land and stock, hoping to get (as in many +instances they did) at least eighty per cent profit by their transactions. +But now stock has fallen to a trifle; bills are falling due, rushing back +from England under protest—and the bubble bursts. The banks are drawing +in their accommodation, and the <i>élite</i>, who were a short time back so +disgustingly rich, are, whilst I write, most disgustingly poor. This is no +imaginative statement; it is a sober fact. But I do not suppose that the +present state of things will last long. Speculation and the rate of +interest must come down. When the human body is disordered, it is a happy +time for the doctor; when the body mercantile is diseased, it is the +attorney's harvest time. If an attorney has any business at all, he must +do well in Melbourne, for his fees are inordinately high. Protesting a +bill is five-and-twenty shillings; noting, half-a-guinea; every letter +demanding payment of account, if under twenty pounds, half-a-guinea; above +twenty and under a hundred pounds, one guinea; above a hundred, two guineas. +Every summons (a summons being a short printed form) before the supreme +court, is charged six guineas; and the clients pay down at once, without +any questions, too glad to do so, provided they can get rid of their +temporary difficulties. Litigation is short and quick. Conveyancing is +downright profit; a deed, however short, conveying a piece of land, +however trifling, costs five guineas. There are no stamps, and the work is +done in an hour. More valuable properties are conveyed by a deed generally +charged nine guineas. My friend —— has drawn twelve such deeds in his +office in the course of one day; and with these eyes I have seen him earn +six guineas in as many minutes, by appearing at the police-office when a +dispute has arisen between a master and his servant. All quarrels of this +kind are arranged at the police-office, when the amount of wages received +by the servant does not exceed thirty pounds annually. An attorney with +brains cannot fail to get ahead. He has only to use dispatch, and to begin +and continue in one even and undeviating course. Our barristers are few in +number. There are but four of then. There is still a glorious field for a +barrister of talent, and especially if he be conversant with the nicer +points of conveyancing. Any clever barrister up to the business and a good +speaker, might rely upon making immediately at least a thousand a-year; +the community are looking and waiting for such a man. A fellow with no +capital and no profession had better not show his face in Melbourne. It is +a thousand to one against him. Compared to his position that of a labourer +is an enviable one; yet any respectable and intelligent man tolerably well +educated, +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page191 name=page191></A>[pg 191]</SPAN> +coming here with four or five hundred pounds in his pocket, may +certainly, in a couple of years, and in twenty different ways, treble that +capital. The best and most promising is the following:—Buy in any +<i>growing</i> part of the town of Melbourne, a small piece of town allotment. +This will cost fifty pounds, upon this you may erect two small brick +cottages, containing each two rooms and a kitchen, and well fitted for a +respectable tradesman. Two hundred and forty pounds will build them up; +thus the whole expense of cottages and ground is two hundred and ninety +pounds at most. Each cottage will, for a moral certainty, let for one +pound five shillings per week, and thus return you a clear rental of +sixty-four pounds per annum, for the sum of one hundred and forty-four +pounds laid out. Some capitalists are not long in discovering this mode of +adding to their fortunes, and it is not surprising that such men, with +ease, get speedily rich. Many individuals are personally known to me who +arrived here with small means a few years back, and who are now receiving +an income of fifteen hundred pounds a-year from houses, which they have +raised upon their profits and by not slow degrees. Their returns are +certain for, mark you, every tradesman pays his rent every Monday morning, +there is no delay. If it be not paid the hour it is due, the landlord is +empowered by law to send a bailiff to the house, to keep him there at an +expense to the tenant of three shillings per day—and to request him, at +the end of five days, to sell off the goods and chattels provided the +demand is still unsatisfied. I know no better investment for capital, be +it large or small, than that of which I speak. There are no taxes, no +ground-rents, and the tenant is bound to keep his premises in repair. If a +mistake has been made in the building of houses, it is because some have +overshot the mark, and built dwellings that are <i>too large for the +purposes required</i>; these large houses cost a large sum of money, and +neither let readily nor nearly so high in proportion, as the smaller +houses occupied by the working-classes. +</p> +<p> +I am unable to give you an accurate notion of the general appearance of +the country. Speaking in broad terms it is wooded, but not so densely as +on the Sydney side, Van Diemen's Land, or New Zealand. The peculiar and +beautiful feature of this country is the open plain which is found at +every ten or twelve miles spreading itself over a surface not less than +three miles in length and half the distance in breadth. It is as smooth as +a lawn. A magnificent tree rears itself to a great height here and there +upon the sward, on either side of which appears a natural park, the finest +that taste could fashion or art could execute. Nature has done in fact +what no art could accomplish. Gaze upon these grounds, and for a moment +imagine that the enormous bullocks before you, with their fearful horns, +are a gigantic herd of deer, and you have a sight that England, famous for +her parks, shall in vain attempt to rival. But against this royal +scene—set off a melancholy drawback, one which I fear may never be made +good even by the ingenuity and indomitable energy of man. The land has an +awful want of <i>spring water</i>. There are a few small holes, called lagoons, +the remains of ancient rivers, met with now and then; and strange to say, +one of such holes will be found to contain salt sea-water, whilst another, +within a very few yards of it, has water quite fresh, or nearly so. In the +former are found large seafish, such as cod, mullet, sea-carp, and a fish +similar to our perch. I an speaking of holes discovered at a distance of a +hundred and twenty miles from the sea, and having no visible communication +with it. In several districts there are large rivers, but their course is +uncertain, and it is impossible to say that any one river empties itself +into the sea. Goulburn is a fine river, and ninety miles from this on the +banks of that river, are found very large lobsters, and other shell-fish. +To stand on an eminence, and to cast your eye down into the valley beyond +and beneath you, is to have an enjoyment which the ardent lover of nature +alone can appreciate. Far as the eye can look, there is uninterrupted +harmony. Splendid plains covered with the fleecy tribe, and here and there +(alas! only but <i>here</i> and <i>there</i>) a speck of water, enough to vindicate +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page192 name=page192></A>[pg 192]</SPAN> +nature from the charge of utter neglect—and no more. A glance thrown in +another direction brings to your view an endless tract of country deprived +even of these solitary specks, where the grass grows as high as your knee, +and where no man dare take his flocks and herds for lack of the sweet +element. If the surface of this land were blessed with spring water as +England is, the wealth of this colony would surpass the calculation of any +living man. As it is, who can tell the ultimate effect of this important +deprivation? There are one or two stations, on which spring water has been +discovered, but it is a rare discovery, and dearly prized. In Melbourne +we have no water, but such as is carted by the water barrel carters from +the river <i>Yarra-Yarra</i>. Every house has its barrel or hogshead for +holding water. The <i>Yarra-Yarra</i> water is brackish, and causes dysentery. +The complaint is now prevailing. In many parts of the interior puddle +holes are made, and water is thus secured from the heavy rain that falls +in the early part of summer. Water saved in this manner never becomes +putrid. The leaves of the gum-tree fall into the pool abundantly, and not +only give to the water a very peculiar flavour, but preserve it from all +putrefaction. This gum water is safest when boiled with a little tea, and +drunk cold. Every settler in the Bush drinks water in no other way, +and—for want of better things—he takes tea and fresh mutton at least +three times a-day. His bread is a lump of flour and water rolled into a +ball, and placed in hot ashes to bake. The loaf is called "<i>a damper</i>." +The country, as far as I have seen it, bears evident marks of great +volcanic change. You meet with a stone, round like a turnip, as hard as +iron, like rusty iron in appearance, and on the outside honey-combed. +There are large beds of it for miles. You then come to the flat country +where the soil surpasses any thing you can conceive in richness, fit for +any cultivation under heaven, and upwards of fifteen feet in depth. Before +I quitted London, I heard that the climate of Australia was fine and +equable, seldom varying, and well suited to a delicate constitution. I am +satisfied that many consumptive persons <i>live</i> here, who in Scotland would +be carried off in a month. You seldom hear a person cough. In church I +have listened in vain for a single <i>hoste</i>; no, not even before the +commencement of a psalm do you find the <i>haughting</i> and <i>clachering</i> that +are indispensable in England. All pipes are clear as bell. I noticed this +as a phenomenon on my first arrival. We are now, as you would say, in the +dead of winter; a strange announcement to a British ear in the month of +July. The air is chill in the morning and evening, before sunrise and +after sunset, but during the day the weather is as fine as on the finest +September day in Scotland. Notwithstanding what I have said, I would not +have you ground any theory upon my remarks as yet—or deceive Sir James +Clark, and the rest of the medical gentlemen, who are looking on all sides +of the world for a climate for their hopeless invalids. I have stated +facts, but those which follow are no less authentic. On the 30th and 31st +of December last, the thermometer at the observatory stood in the shade at +70 deg. and 72 deg. noon. On the 1st of January at noon, and up to three +clock, P.M., it stood in the shade at 92 deg. and 93 deg. On the 2d it +rose to 95 deg. at noon, and fell at sunset, eight P.M., to 69 deg. In the +middle of the foresaid month of December the thermometer was 86 deg. at +breakfast time, and before dinner down to 63 deg. These memoranda, gained +from undoubted sources, would show the climate—in summer at least—to be +more variable than my reference proves it; yet I am told that even in +summer time you hear of little sickness amongst grown up people. New +comers suffer from dysentery, and children are attacked in the same way. I +have had two visitations, from which I rallied in the course of four and +twenty hours, with the aid of arrow root, port wine, and laudanum. A free +use of vegetables is always dangerous to strangers, and they are obtained +here in perfection. The weather is too hot for apples, pears, and +gooseberries in the summer. Grapes and other English hot-house fruits come +to delicious maturity in the open air. The melons are inconceivably +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page193 name=page193></A>[pg 193]</SPAN> +exquisite, and grow, as they were wont in Paradise before the fall, +without care or trouble spent upon them. The seed is put into the earth; a +little water is given to it at that time, and the thing is done—"<i>c'est +un fait accompli</i>." Potatoes grow at any season of the year, and +cauliflowers and turnips spring up almost in a night like mushrooms. There +are some five farms in cultivation around Melbourne, and the crops of +wheat are very fair in quality but fall off in quantity. Thirty bushels +per acre is considered a good crop. Oats grow too much to straw, and are +generally cut in the slot blade, winnowed, and carted to Melbourne and +sold for hay. Rye-grass hay does not answer, and clover is not more +successful; but vetches have just been introduced on a small scale, and +nothing yet grown has succeeded so well as green food for horses and cows. +Hay of fine quality is brought from Van Diemen's Land, but it is very dear. +A cart load of good oaten hay sells here for about forty-five shillings. +Van Diemen's Land hay is at present eleven guineas per ton. +</p> +<p> +The aboriginal natives of this colony are a very savage race, and all the +efforts hitherto made by missionaries, protectors, and others, have never +given promise or warrant of effectual civilization. The males are tall, +and of fierce aspect; the skin and hair are exceedingly black—the latter +very smooth. In many instances, the features are striking and good. The +women are slender, and during the summer, naked; in winter, the females in +the immediate neighbourhood procure clothes from the inhabitants of +Melbourne, and cut, as you may suppose, a very original figure. Nothing +will induce the natives to work. They live in the Bush, and the bark of a +large tree forms their habitation. There are three distinct tribes around +us in a circuit of about a hundred miles, and the difference of features +amongst these tribes is easily observed. The three tribes speak three +different languages unintelligible to one another. They meet at different +periods of the year, and hold what they term a "<i>corroborice</i>,"—that +is—a dance. Their bodies on these occasions are covered with oil, red +paint, and green leaves. I have seen two hundred at a meeting, but they +assemble double that number at times. The festival concludes in pitched +battle. There is a grand fight with clubs, or arrows and spears. Three or +four are generally killed in the onslaught, and as many of the survivors +as are fortunate enough to get a bite, feast upon the fat of the victims' +hearts. This fat is their richest dainty. Those who are able to form an +opinion on the subject, pronounce the aborigines of this colony to be +<i>cannibals</i>. Many of their children disappear, and it is generally +supposed that they are devoured by their friends and acquaintances. In +many districts of the interior, the blacks have lately committed many +depredations amongst the sheep, and many of the devils are shot without +judge or jury. Two natives are now in the jail of Melbourne under sentence +of death, for committing a dreadful murder upon two sailors who were cast +ashore from a whaler. These savages had been for thirteen years under the +instruction of a protector and others. They belonged originally to Van +Diemen's Land, but migrated to a part of this colony called Portland Bay. +They spoke English quite well, yet, notwithstanding all their advantages, +they perpetrated this cruel and cold-blooded murder, and then cunningly +hid the bodies in the ground. They were detected by the merest chance, in +consequence of their having in possession of a few articles which had +formerly belonged to the unhappy mariners. None of the natives is allowed +to carry fire-arms, and a heavy fine is inflicted upon any individual who +is known to give them spirits. They are passionately fond of spirits, and +next to these of <i>loaf bread</i>. The females are called by the males +"<i>Loubras</i>," and the males are designated "<i>Coolies</i>." There is not +promiscuous cohabitation. When a <i>Coolie</i> reaches the age of twenty-one, +he is allowed to choose his own "<i>Loubra</i>." Every male who then takes +unto himself a helpmate, loses a front tooth, which is knocked out of him. +The natives generally tattoo their arms and breasts, but not their faces; +many carry a long white wooden pin, or a feather, pierced through the thin +part of the nose; +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page194 name=page194></A>[pg 194]</SPAN> +and they all twist kangaroo teeth and the bones of +fishes more or less in their hair. Every thing small and diminutive they +call "<i>Pickaninnie</i>," and any thing very good, "<i>Merri jig</i>." Their +language is a queer, rattling, hard-sounding gibberish, incomprehensible +to most people; they speak as fast as possible, laugh immoderately at +trifles, and are excellent mimics. Their own children they stile +"<i>Pickaninnies</i>." +</p> +<p> +From all that I have seen, I do not hesitate to say, that this country +will prove a splendid field for future generations. At the present time, +no man should venture here who is unprepared for many privations and a +numerous list of annoyances. The common necessaries of life he will +certainly find, but none of his ancient and English luxuries. Society is, +as you may guess, very limited. You may acknowledge an <i>acquaintance</i> with +any one, without committing yourself. To say that you know a man +intimately is hazardous; I mean—a man whose friendship you have +cultivated only since your arrival. There are many whom you have known at +home, and whose friendship it is a pride and a pleasure to renew in your +exile. But, as a general rule, "<i>keep yourself to yourself</i>" is a +serviceable adage. If it be attended to—<i>well</i>. If it be neglected—you +run your head against a stone in less than no time. +</p> +<p> +If any man have a competency, let him not travel hither to <i>enjoy</i> it. If +he has a little money, and desires with a little trouble and inconvenience +to double his capital in the shortest possible space of time—let him come +out, and fearlessly. Living is cheap enough as far as the essentials are +concerned. Butcher meat, not surpassed in any part of England, Scotland, +or Ireland, is to be had at twopence per pound; the fine four pound loaf +for sixpence halfpenny; brown sugar, fourpence; white, sixpence; candles, +sixpence per pound; tea, the finest, three shillings the pound; fresh +butter, one shilling and threepence per pound. Wild fowl in abundance. +Vegetables are cheaper than in any part of England. Wines of moderate +price, but not of good quality. Spirits first-rate, and every kind cheaper +than in England, except whisky, which is seventeen and eighteen shillings +per gallon; very old at twenty-one and twenty-two. The wine most wanted +here is claret. A great deal of it is drunk during the summer, but the +quality of it is bad. Fish are abundant in the river and pools, but the +people will not trouble themselves to catch them. However, for +eighteenpence or two shillings, you may get a good dish of mutteel, carp, +or a small fish called "flatties." I have never seen any of the salmon +tribe, or any fish like a sea or river trout. Wild swans—both black and +white—quails, snipes, cranes, and water-hens, are everywhere abundant, +and in the Bush, the varieties of the parrot kind are out of number. +Kangaroos, opossums, and flying-squirrels, are common near the town, and +afford plenty of amusement to the sportsman. No game license required! +<i>Sunday</i> used to be the tradesman's day for shooting, and to a new comer +the proceeding had a very queer appearance. By act of council, Sunday +shooting is prohibited under a heavy penalty, which has been inflicted on +several transgressors, but, like most laws, this is evaded. <i>Shooting</i> is +forbidden, but <i>hunting</i> is not. Accordingly numerous parties sally forth +on the Sabbath to <i>hunt</i> the kangaroo. The dog used for the sport is a +cross between a rough greyhound and a bull; but others follow in the pack. +Every man, woman, and child, keeps a dog. Some families have eight or nine +running over a house, and the natives have them without number. A few +months ago these animals congregated so thickly in the streets, that the +magistrates directed the police to shoot all that were not registered and +had a collar with the owner's name; as many as fifty were killed in a +morning. It costs nothing to feed a dog; the heads of bullocks and the +heads and feet of sheep are either thrown away or given to any one who +asks for them. The <i>bone manure system</i>, if brought into operation, would +help to keep the streets from a bony nuisance. <i>Memorandum</i>: Let the next +emigrant to this colony bring a good strong fox-hound bitch with him; he +will find it to his advantage. A cross between her and a Newfoundland or +large greyhound would do any thing. There are +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page195 name=page195></A>[pg 195]</SPAN> +a couple of fox-hounds here, +but no bitch. It would do your heart good to see the pace at which the +fellows ride. Twenty miles on horseback they think about as much of as we +do of five. There is nothing to obstruct the animals; they are not even +shod, and they fly over the smooth sward. A hundred and twenty miles is +reckoned a journey of a day and a half. A dray, with eight, ten, or twelve +bullocks in it, according, to load, will travel thirty miles a-day. When +the folks travel, they take no shelter in a house or hut for the night. +When night approaches, they alight, and tie their horses to a stump; they +draw down some of the thick branches of the gum-tree, and peel off the +bark of a large tree, kindle a fire with a match, or, for want of this, +rubbing two sticks together, get up a blaze, and fall to sleep beside it. +If the traveller be accompanied by a dray, the tarpauling, is drawn round, +and he sleeps beneath it. +</p> +<p> +Not amongst the least of the annoyances found here are the ants. There are +three species of the insect, and they are all very large. Many of them are +an inch long, and they bite confoundedly. A hand bitten by some of the +monsters will swell to the size of a man's head. Along the coast, and in +every house, smaller ants prevail, and fleas innumerable. The number of +the latter, which you shall find upon your blanket any day of the year, is +literally not to be computed. No house is free from this little disturber, +who spares neither age nor sex. I have stood upon the sea beach adorned +with white trousers, which in less than ten minutes have been covered with +hundreds of the vermin. It is an easy transition from the trousers to the +inner legs. But this is nothing when you are used to it. The <i>grey horse</i> +won't live in the colony. So it is said; at all events none are seen; and +I am very sure that every emigrant ship brings its fair stock. It is a +wise ordination that forbids <i>their</i> settling. The <i>mawk</i> fly is +indigenous, and thrives wonderfully, as you shall hear. This fly is very +like our British bluebottle, with a somewhat greener head, and a body +entirely yellow. I have seen two <i>mawk</i> flies strike (as it seemed) a +joint of meat, just as it was removing from the spit, leaving their fly +blows there. Before the joint had been ten minutes upon the table, small +white mawks were moving upon the surface of the meat in considerable +numbers. If by any chance these animals are suffered to accompany the meat +to the safe or larder, in the course of twenty-four hours the small white +mawks increase to the length of one-eighth of an inch, and are found +crawling in hundreds and moving about, as you have observed the yellow +flies buzzing over the old and rotten carcass of a horse that has been +exposed for weeks. In the winter these creatures are, of course, less +troublesome than in summer. Wire meat-covers are in constant use during +the latter season. +</p> +<p> +Thus far had got in my epistle, when a torrent of ill news rushed in upon +us, and compelled me to delay my scribble. I am sorry to say, that in +addition to the account which I have already given of the depressed state +of the markets, I must add some dismal intelligence. The markets are in a +deplorable state, and so is the mercantile community in general. Every day +there is a fresh bankruptcy, and the heaviest yet has just taken place. I +cannot but believe that if more emigrant laborers come out just now, they +must starve. Any man with ten or fifteen thousand pounds could buy half of +the district for ready cash. The moneyed men are making fearful hauls as +it is. Let emigration stop for a time, and the markets must look up again. +At the present moment every thing is selling cheaper here than in England; +men's wages are down to the ordinary English rate. So long as the banks +afford seven per cent for deposits, moneyed men will lie in wait for +bargains, and until such present themselves, will lock up the capital +which at first was in circulation through the immense speculations in land +and stock. The men who saw no end to speculation are gone and floored, +every one of them. Will you believe that Messrs —— sent out three +thousand pounds worth of brandy to Sydney, and so glutted the market that +part of the cargo was bought low enough to make it a good spec to reship +it for England. Such is the fact. There never was a better moment than the +present for a +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page196 name=page196></A>[pg 196]</SPAN> +<i>hit</i> in land—sheep are at so low a figure, and settlers so +hard run. The former I still believe will gradually rise; for, on the +Sydney side, the process of boiling down sheep for the sake of the tallow, +has commenced, and if it succeed, as I believe it will, the standard value +of a sheep will be fixed at something like eight shillings. So much for +the fleece and skin, so much for the bones, so much for the kidney fat, +and so much for the tallow or fat recovered by boiling the carcass. The +great object of this colony must be to increase the export produce, and to +bring capital in its place. Wool no doubt is, and will prove to be, the +staple commodity; and in time, the settlers will pay more attention to the +getting up of it, and to the packing. But above all they must speedily rid +themselves of their bloodsuckers, a set of men who charge enormous +commissions for anticipated sales, and what not, amounting to thirty and +forty per cent; a sum that is nothing short of utter ruin to a poor fellow +who has nothing but his wool to depend upon. Had Judge Willis remained +amongst us, he would have rooted out whole nests of these hornets. I have +no fear of the ultimate success of the colonist, if they will but be +faithful to themselves. They have a splendid country, and its capabilities +are now only beginning to be known. Before the end of the present year, +our exports will consist of wool, bark, tallow, gum, hides, furs, and last, +although not least, the finest cured beef in the world. If the latter +article of produce is acknowledged as it deserves to be, and finds and +establishes an <i>eastern</i> market, nothing will prevent the colony from +rising to importance. As far as price is concerned, we can compete with +any country in the world. We have no politics in Port Philip. The +community are far better employed in attending to their commercial affairs. +Let them but persevere honestly and prudently in their course, and they +must do well. +</p> +<p> +And so much for my first epistle, honoured Christopher. If it afford you +amusement, you shall hear from me again. I have spoken the truth, and have +writ down simple facts. As such, receive them, and communicate them to +your neighbours. And now, with affectionate remembrances to yourself and +all enquiring friends, +</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="i2">Believe me,</p> + +<p class="i4">Reverend Christopher,</p> + +<p class="i2">Your grateful and attached,</p> + +<p class="i4">JOHN WILLIAM.</p> +</blockquote> + +<br><hr class="full"> + +<a name="bw340s5" id="bw340s5"></a><h2>THE PROPHECY OF THE TWELVE TRIBES. +</h2> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>"And Jacob called into his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, +</p> +<p>that I may tell you <i>that</i> which shall befall you in the last days.</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>"Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken</p> +<p>unto Israel your father."</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p class="i10"> —GENESIS, xlix. 1, 2, &c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>The Patriarch sat upon his bed—</p> +<p class="i2">His cheek was pale, his eye was dim;</p> +<p>Long years of woe had bow'd his head,</p> +<p class="i2">And feeble was the giant limb.</p> +<p>And his twelve mighty sons stood nigh,</p> +<p>In grief—to see their father die!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>But, sudden as the thunder-roll,</p> +<p class="i2">A new-born spirit fill'd his frame.</p> +<p>His fainting visage flash'd with soul,</p> +<p class="i2">His lip was touch'd with living flame;</p> +<p>And burst, with more than prophet fire,</p> +<p>The stream of Judgment, Love, and Ire.</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page197 name=page197></A>[pg 197]</SPAN> +<p>"REUBEN,<a id= +footnotetag6 +name=footnotetag6></a><a +href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a> thou spearhead in my side,</p> +<p class="i2"> Thy father's first-born, and his shame;</p> +<p>Unstable as the rolling tide,</p> +<p class="i2">A blight has fall'n upon thy name.</p> +<p>Decay shall follow thee and thine.</p> +<p>Go, outcast of a hallow'd line!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>"SIMEON and LEVI,<a id= +footnotetag7 +name=footnotetag7></a><a +href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a> sons of blood</p> +<p class="i2">That still hangs heavy on the land;</p> +<p>Your flocks shall be the robber's food,</p> +<p> Your folds shall blaze beneath his brand.</p> +<p>In swamp and forest shall ye dwell.</p> +<p>Be scatter'd among Israel!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>"JUDAH!<a id= +footnotetag8 +name=footnotetag8></a><a +href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a> All hail, thou priest, thou king!</p> +<p class="i2">The crown, the glory, shall be thine;</p> +<p>Thine, in the fight, the eagle's wing—</p> +<p class="i2">Thine, on the hill, the oil and wine.</p> +<p>Thou lion! nations shall turn pale</p> +<p>When swells thy roar upon the gale.</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>"Judah, my son, ascend the throne,</p> +<p class="i2">Till comes from heaven the unborn king—</p> +<p>The prophesied, the mighty one,</p> +<p class="i2">Whose heel shall crush the serpent's sting.</p> +<p>Till earth is paradise again,</p> +<p>And sin is dead, and death is slain!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>"Wide as the surges, ZEBULON,<a id= +footnotetag9 +name=footnotetag9></a><a +href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a></p> +<p class="i2">Thy daring keel shall plough the sea;</p> +<p>Before thee sink proud Sidon's sun,</p> +<p class="i2">And strong Issachar toil for thee.</p> +<p>Thou, reaper of his corn and oil,</p> +<p>Lord of the giant and the soil!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>"Whose banner flames in battle's van!</p> +<p class="i2">Whose mail is first in slaughter gored!</p> +<p>Thou, subtler than the serpent, DAN,<a id= +footnotetag10 +name=footnotetag10></a><a +href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a></p> +<p class="i2">Prince of the arrow and the sword.</p> +<p>Woe to the Syrian charioteer</p> +<p>When rings the rushing of thy spear!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page198 name=page198></A>[pg 198]</SPAN> +<p>"Crush'd to the earth by war and woe,</p> +<p class="i2">GAD,<a id= +footnotetag11 +name=footnotetag11></a><a +href="#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a> shall the cup of bondage drain,</p> +<p>Till bold revenge shall give the blow</p> +<p class="i2">That pays the long arrear of pain.</p> +<p>Thy cup shall glow with tyrant-gore,</p> +<p>Thou be my Son—and man once more!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>"Loved NAPHTALI,<a id= +footnotetag12 +name=footnotetag12></a><a +href="#footnote12"><sup>12</sup></a> thy snow-white hind</p> +<p class="i2">Shall bask beneath the rose and vine.</p> +<p>Proud ASHER, to the mountain wild</p> +<p class="i2">Shall star-like blaze, thy battle-sign.</p> +<p>All bright to both, from birth to tomb,</p> +<p>The heavens all sunshine, earth all bloom!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>"JOSEPH,<a id= +footnotetag13 +name=footnotetag13></a><a +href="#footnote13"><sup>13</sup></a> come near—my son, my son!</p> +<p class="i2">Egyptian prince, Egyptian sage,</p> +<p>Child of my first and best-loved one,</p> +<p class="i2">Great guardian of thy father's age.</p> +<p>Bring EPHRAIM and MANASSEH nigh,</p> +<p>And let me bless them ere I die.</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>"Hear me—Thou GOD of Israel!</p> +<p class="i2">Thou, who hast been his living shield,</p> +<p>In the red desert's lion-dell,</p> +<p class="i2">In Egypt's famine-stricken field,</p> +<p>In the dark dungeon's chilling stone,</p> +<p>In Pharaoh's chain—by Pharaoh's throne.</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>"My son, all blessings be on thee,</p> +<p class="i2">Be blest abroad, be blest at home;</p> +<p>Thy nation's strength—her living tree,</p> +<p class="i2">The well to which the thirsty come;</p> +<p>Blest be thy valley, blest thy hill,</p> +<p>Thy father's GOD be with thee still!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>"Thou man of blood, thou man of might,</p> +<p class="i2">Thy soul shall ravin, BENJAMIN.<a id= +footnotetag14 +name=footnotetag14></a><a +href="#footnote14"><sup>14</sup></a></p> +<p>Thou wolf by day, thou wolf by night,</p> +<p class="i2">Rushing through slaughter, spoil, and sin;</p> +<p>Thine eagle's beak and vulture's wing</p> +<p>Shall curse thy nation with a king!"</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> + +<p>Then ceased the voice, and all was still:</p> +<p class="i2">The hand of death was on the frame;</p> +<p>Yet gave the heart one final thrill,</p> +<p class="i2">And breathed the dying lip one name.</p> +<p>"Sons, let me rest by Leah's side!"</p> +<p>He raised his brow to heaven—and died.</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p class="i2">HAVILAH.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<br><hr class="full"> + + +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page199 name=page199></A>[pg 199]</SPAN> +<a name="bw340s6" id="bw340s6"></a><h2>A BEWAILMENT FROM BATH;</h2> + +<h3>OR, POOR OLD MAIDS.</h3> + +<p> +Mr Editor!—You have a great name with our sex! CHRISTOPHER NORTH is, in +our flowing cups—of Bohea—"freshly remembered." To you, therefore, as to +the Sir Philip Sidney of modern Arcadia, do I address the voice of my +bewailment. Not from any miserable coveting after the publicities of +printing. All I implore of you is, a punch of your crutch into the very +heart of a matter involving the best interests of my sex! +</p> +<p> +You, dear Mr Editor, who have your eyes garnished with Solomon's +spectacles about you, cannot but have perceived on the parlour-tables and +book-shelves of your fair friends—by whose firesides you are courted even +as the good knight, and the <i>Spectator</i>, by the Lady Lizards of the days +of Anne—a sudden inundation of tabby-bound volumes, addressed, in +supergilt letters, to the "Wives of England"—the "Daughters of +England"—the "Grandmothers of England." A few, arrayed in modest calf or +embossed linen, address themselves to the sober latitudes of the manse or +parsonage-house. Some treat, without <i>per</i>mission, of "Woman's +Mission"—some, in defiance of custom, of her "Duties." From exuberant 4to, +down to the fid-fad concentration of 12mo—from crown demy to diamond +editions—no end to these chartered documentations of the sex! The women +of this favoured kingdom of Queen Victoria, appear to have been +unexpectedly weighed in the balance, and found wanting in morals and +manners; or why this sudden emission of codes of morality? +</p> +<p> +No one denies, indeed, that woman has, of late, ris' wonderfully in the +market; or that the weaker sex is coming it amazingly strong. The sceptres +of three of the first kingdoms in Europe are swayed by female hands. The +first writer of young France is a woman. The first astronomer of young +England, <i>idem</i>. Mrs Trollope played the Chesterfield and the deuce with +the Yankees. Miss Martineau turned the head of the mighty Brougham. +Mademoiselle d'Angeville ascended Mont Blanc, and Mademoiselle Rachel has +replaced Corneille and Racine on their crumbling pedestals. I might waste +hours of your precious time, sir, in perusing a list of the eminent women +now competing with the rougher sex for the laurels of renown. But you know +it all better than I can tell you. You have done honour due, in your time, +to Joanna Baillie and Mrs Jamieson, to Caroline Southey and Miss Ferrier. +You praised Mrs Butler when she deserved it; and probably esteem Mary +Howitt, and Mary Mitford, and all the other Maries, at their just +value—to say nothing of the Maria of Edgworthstown, so fairly worth them +all. I make no doubt that you were even one of the first to do homage to +the Swedish Richardson, Frederika Bremer; though, having sown your wild +oats, you keep your own counsel anent novel reading. +</p> +<p> +You will, therefore, probably sympathize in the general amazement, that, +at a moment when the sex is signalizing itself from pole to pole—when a +Grace Darling obtains the palm for intrepidity—when the Honourable Miss +Grimston's <i>Prayer-Book</i> is read in churches—when Mrs Fry, like hunger, +eats through stone walls to call felons to repentance—when a king has +descended from his throne, and a prince from royal highnesshood, to reward +the virtues of the fair partners to whom they were unable to impart the +rights of the blood-royal—when the fairest specimen of modern sculpture +has been supplied by a female hand, and woman, in short, is at a premium +throughout the universe, all this waste of sermonizing should have been +thrown, like a wet blanket, over her shoulders! +</p> +<p> +But this is not enough, dear Mr Editor. I wish to direct your attention +towards an exclusive branch of the grievance. I have no doubt that, in +your earlier years, instead of +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page200 name=page200></A>[pg 200]</SPAN> +courting your fair friends, as Burns +appears to have done, with copies of your own works, you used to present +unto them the "<i>Legacy of Dr Gregory to his Daughters</i>"—or "<i>Mrs +Chapone's Letters</i>," or Miss Bowdler's, or Mrs Trimmer's, appropriately +bound and gilt; and thus apprized of the superabundance of prose provided +for their edification, are prepared to feel, with me, that if they have +not Mrs Barbauld and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded by the +frippery tomes which load the counters of our bazars. <i>This</i> perception +has come of itself. If I could <i>only</i> be fortunate enough to enlarge your +scope of comprehension! +</p> +<p> +My dear Mr Editor, I am what is called a lone woman. Shakspeare, through +whose recklessness originate half the commonplaces of our land's language, +thought proper to define such a condition as "SINGLE BLESSEDNESS"—though +he aptly enough engrafts it on a thorn! For my part, I cannot enough +admire the theory of certain modern poets, that an angel is an ethereal +being, composed by the interunion in heaven, of two mortals who have been +faithfully attached on earth—and as to "blessedness" being ever "single," +either in this world or the next, I do not believe a word about the matter! +"Happiness," Lord Byron assures us, "was born a twin!" +</p> +<p> +I do not mean to complain of my condition—far from it. But I wish to say, +that since, from the small care taken by English parents to double the +condition of their daughters, it is clear the state of "single blessedness" +is of higher account in our own "favoured country" than in any other in +Europe; it certainly behoves the guardians of the public weal to afford +due protection and encouragement to spinsters. +</p> +<p> +Every body knows that Great Britain is the very fatherland of old maids. +In Catholic countries, the superfluous daughters of a family are disposed +of in convents and <i>béguinages</i>, just as in Turkey and China they are, +still more humanely, drowned. In certain provinces of the east, pigs are +expressly kept, to be turned into the streets at daybreak, for the purpose +of devouring the female infants exposed during the night—thus +benevolently securing them from the after torments of single "blessedness." +</p> +<p> +But a far nobler arrangement was made by that greatest of modern +legislators, Napoleon—whose code entitles the daughters of a house to +share, equally with sons, in its property and bequeathments; and in France, +a woman with a dowery is as sure of courtship and marriage, as of death +and burial. Nay, so much is marriage regarded among the French as the +indispensable condition of the human species, that parents proceed as +openly to the task of procuring a proper husband for their daughter, as of +providing her with shoes and stockings. No false delicacy—no pitiful +manoeuvres! The affair is treated like any other negotiation. It is a mere +question of two and two making four, which enables two to make one. How +far more honest than the angling and trickery of English +match-making—which, by keeping men constantly on the defensive, +predisposes them against attractions to which they might otherwise give +way! However, as I said before, I do not wish to complain of my condition. +</p> +<p> +I only consider it hard that the interests of the wives of England are to +be exclusively studied, when the unfortunate females who lack the +consolations of matronhood are in so far greater want of sustainment; and +that all the theories of the perfectionizement of the fair sex now issuing +from the press, should purport to instruct young ladies how to qualify +themselves for wives, and wives how to qualify themselves for heaven; and +not a word addressed, either in the way of exhortation, remonstrance, or +applause, to the highly respectable order of the female community whose +cause I have taken on myself to advocate. Have not the wives of England +husbands to whisper wisdom into their ears? Why, then, are <i>they</i> to be +coaxed or lectured by tabby-bound volumes, while <i>we</i> are left neglected +in a corner? <i>Our</i> earthly career, the Lord he knows, is far more +trying—<i>our</i> temptations as much greater, as our pleasures are less; and +it is mortifying indeed to find our behavior a thing so little worth +interference. We may conduct ourselves, it seems, as indecorously as +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page201 name=page201></A>[pg 201]</SPAN> +we think proper, for any thing the united booksellers of the United Kingdom +care to the contrary! +</p> +<p> +Not that I very much wonder at literary men regarding the education of +wives as a matter of moment. The worse halves of Socrates, Milton, Hooker, +have been thorns in their sides, urging them into blasphemy against the +sex. But is this a reason, I only ask you, for leaving, like an +uncultivated waste, that holy army of martyrs, the spinsterhood of Great +Britain? +</p> +<p> +Mr Editor, act like a man! Speak up for us! Write up for us! Tell these +little writers of little books, that however they may think to secure +dinners and suppers to themselves, by currying favour with the rulers of +the roast, <i>the greatest of all women have been</i> SINGLE! Tell them of our +Virgin Queen, Elizabeth—the patroness of their calling, the protectress +of learning and learned men. Tell them of Joan of Arc, the conqueror of +even English chivalry. Tell them of all the tender mercies of the <i>Soeurs +de Charité</i>! Tell them that, from the throne to the hospital, the spinster, +unharassed by the cares of private life, has been found most fruitful in +public virtue. +</p> +<p> +Then, perhaps, you will persuade them that we are worth our schooling; and +the "Old Maids of England" may look forward to receive a tabby-bound +manual of their duties, as well as its "Wives." I have really no patience +with the selfish conceit of these married women, who fancy their +well-doing of such importance. See how they were held by the +ancients!—treated like beasts of burden, and denied the privilege of all +mental accomplishment. When the Grecian matrons affected to weep over the +slain, after some victory of Themistocles, the Athenian general bade them +"dry their tears, and practise a single virtue in atonement of all their +weaknesses." It was to their single women the philosophers of the portico +addressed their lessons; not to the domestic drudges, whom they considered +only worthy to inspect the distaffs of their slaves, and produce sons for +the service of the country. +</p> +<p> +In Bath, Brighton, and other spinster colonies of this island, the demand +for such a work would be prodigious. The sale of canary-birds and poodles +might suffer a temporary depression in consequence; but this is +comparatively unimportant. Perhaps—who knows—so positive a recognition +of our estate as a definite class of the community, might lead to the long +desiderated establishment of a lay convent, somewhat similar to the +<i>béguinages</i> of Flanders, though less ostensibly subject to religious +law—a convent where single gentlewomen might unite together in their +meals and devotions, under the government of a code of laws set forth in +their tabby-bound Koran. +</p> +<p> +Methinks I see it—a modern temple of Vesta, without its tell-tale +fires—square, rectangular, simple, airy, isolated—chaste as Diana and +quiet as the grave—the frescoed walls commemorating the legend of Saint +Ursula and her eleven thousand—the sacrifice of Jephtha's +daughter—Elizabeth Carter translating Epictetus—Harriet Martineau +revising the criminal code. In the hall, dear Editor, should hang the +portrait of Christopher North—in that locality, appropriately, a Kit-cat! +</p> +<p> +Ponder upon this! The distinction is worthy consideration. As the +newspapers say, it is an "unprecedented opportunity for investment!" For +the sole Helicon of the institution shall be—"Blackwood's Entire" its +lady abbess— +</p> +<p> +Your humble servant to command, +(for the old maids of England,) +</p> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p class=i10>TABITHA GLUM.</p> +<p><i>1st Jan. 1844.</i></p> +<p><i>Lansdowne, Bath.</i></p> +</div> +</div> + +<br><hr class=full> + +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page202 name=page202></A>[pg 202]</SPAN> +<a name="bw340s7" id="bw340s7"></a><h2>MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A +STATESMAN.</h2> + +<br><hr> +<h3>PART VIII.</h3> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>"Have I not in my time heard lions roar?</p> +<p>Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind,</p> +<p>Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat?</p> +<p>Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,</p> +<p>And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies?</p> +<p>Have I not in the pitched battle heard</p> +<p>Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?"</p> +<p class=i10> SHAKSPEARE.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +The action was a series of those grand manoeuvres in which the Prussians +excelled all the other troops of Europe. From the spot on which I stood, +the whole immense plain, to the foot of the defiles of Argonne, was +visible; but the combat, or rather the succession of combats, was fought +along the range of hills at the distance of some miles. These I could +discover only by the roar of the guns, and by an occasional cloud of smoke +rising among the trees. The chief Prussian force stood in columns in the +plain below me, in dark masses, making an occasional movement in advance +from time to time, or sending forth a mounted officer to the troops in +action. Parks of artillery lay formed in the spaces between the columns, +and the baggage, a much more various and curious sight than the troops, +halting in the wide grounds of what seemed some noble mansion, had already +begun to exhibit the appearance of a country fair. Excepting this busy +part of the scene, few things struck me as less like what I had conceived +of actual war, than the quietness of every thing before and around me. The +columns might nearly as well have been streets of rock; and the engagement +in front was so utterly lost to view in the forest, that, except for the +occasional sound of the cannon, I might have looked upon the whole scene +as the immense picture of a quiet Flemish holiday. The landscape was +beautiful. Some showery nights had revived the verdure, of which France +has so seldom to boast in autumn; and the green of the plain almost +rivalled the delicious verdure of home. The chain of hills, extending for +many a league, was covered with one of the most extensive forests of the +kingdom. The colours of this vast mass of foliage were glowing in all the +powerful hues of the declining year, and the clouds, which slowly +descended upon the horizon, with all the tinges of the west burning +through their folds, appeared scarcely more than a loftier portion of +those sheets of gold and purple which shone along the crown of the hills. +</p> +<p> +But while I lingered, gazing on the rich and tranquil luxury of the scene, +almost forgetting that there was war in the world, I was suddenly recalled +to a more substantial condition of that world by the sound of a trumpet, +and the arrival of my troop, who had at length struggled up the hill, +evidently surprised at finding me there, when the suttlers were in full +employment within a few hundred yards below. Their petition was unanimous, +to be allowed to refresh themselves and their horses at this rare +opportunity; and their request, though respectful in its words, yet was so +decisive in its tone, that to comply was fully as much my policy as my +inclination. I mounted my horse, and proceeded, according to the humble +"command" of my brave dragoons. This was a most popular movement—the men, +the very horses, evidently rejoiced. The fatigue of our hard riding was +past in a moment—the riders laughed and sang, the chargers snorted and +pranced; and, when we trotted, huzzaing, into the baggage lines, half +their motley crowd evidently conceived that some sovereign prince was come +in fiery haste to make the campaign. We were received with all the +applause that is given by the suttler to all arrivals with a full purse in +the holsters, and a handsome valise, no matter from what source filled, on +the croupe of the charger. But we had scarcely begun +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page203 name=page203></A>[pg 203]</SPAN> +to taste the gifts +that fortune had sent us in the shape of huge sausages and brown +bread—the <i>luxuries!</i> for which the soldier of Teutchland wooes the +goddess of war—than we found ourselves ordered to move off the ground, by +the peremptory mandate of a troop of the Royal Guard, who had followed our +movement, more hungry, more thirsty, and more laced and epauleted than +ourselves. The Hulans tossed their lances; and it had nearly been a +business of cold steel, when their officer rode up, to demand the sword of +the presumptuous mutineer who had thus daringly questioned his right to +starve us. While I was deliberating for a moment between the shame of a +forced retreat, and the awkwardness of taking the bull by the horns, in +the shape of the King's Guard, I heard a loud laugh, and my name +pronounced, or rather roared, in the broadest accents of Germany. My +friend Varnhorst was the man. The indefatigable and good-humoured +Varnhorst, who did every thing, and was every where, was shaking my hand +with the honest grasp of his honest nature, and congratulating me on my +return. +</p> +<p> +"We have to do with a set of sharp fellow," said he, "in these French; a +regiment of their light cavalry has somehow or other made its way between +the columns of our infantry, and has been picking up stragglers last night. +The duke, with whom you happen to have established a favouritism that +would make you a chamberlain at the court of Brunswick, if you were not +assassinated previously by the envy of the other chamberlains, or pinked +by some lover of the "<i>dames d'honneur</i>," was beginning to be uneasy about +you; and, as I had the peculiar good fortune of the Chevalier Marston's +acquaintance, I was sent to pick him up if he had fallen in honourable +combat in the plains of Champagne, or if any fragment of him were +recoverable from the hands of the peasantry, to preserve it for the family +mausoleum." +</p> +<p> +I anxiously enquired the news of the army, and the progress of the great +operation which was then going on. +</p> +<p> +"We have beaten every thing before us for these three hours," was the +answer. "The resistance in the plain was slight, for the French evidently +intended to make their stand only in the forest. But the duke has pushed +them strongly on the right flank; and, as you may perceive, the attack +goes on in force." He pointed to the entrance of one of the defiles, where +several columns were in movement, and where the smoke of the firing lay +heavily above the trees. He then laid his watch on the table beside our +champagne flask. "The time is come to execute another portion of my orders. +What think you of following me, and seeing a little of the field." +</p> +<p> +"Nothing could delight me more. I am perfectly at your service." +</p> +<p> +"Then mount, and in five minutes I shall allow you one of the first +officers in Europe, the Count Clairfait, he is a Walloon, 'tis true, and +has the ill luck to be an Austrian brigadier besides, and, to finish his +misfortune, has served only against the Turks. But for all that, if any +man in the army now in the field is fit to succeed to the command, that +man is the Count Clairfait. I only wish that he were a Prussian." +</p> +<p> +"Has he had any thing to do in this campaign?" +</p> +<p> +"Every thing that has been done. He has commanded the whole advance guard +of the army; and let me whisper this in your ear—if his advice had been +taken a week ago, we should by this time have been smoking our cigars in +the Palais Royal." +</p> +<p> +"I am impatient to be introduced to the Comte; let us mount and ride on." +He looked at his watch again. +</p> +<p> +"Not for ten minutes to come. If I made my appearance before him five +minutes in advance of the time appointed by my orders, Clairfait would +order me into arrest if I were his grandmother. He is the strictest +disciplinarian between this and the North Pole." +</p> +<p> +"A faultless monster himself, I presume." +</p> +<p> +"Nearly so; he has but one fault—he is too fond of the sabre and bayonet. +'Charge,' is his word of command. His school was among the Turks, and he +fights <i>à la Turque</i>." +</p> +<p> +"I should like him the better for it. That dash and daring is the very +thing for success." +</p> +<p> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page204 name=page204></A>[pg 204]</SPAN> +"Ay, ay—edge and point are good things in their way. But they are the +temptations of the general. Frederick's maxim was—The bullet for the +infantry, the spur for the dragoon. The weight of fire is the true test of +infantry, the rapidity of charge is the true test of cavalry. The business +of a general is manoeuvring—to menace masses by greater masses, to throw +the weight of an army on a flank, to pierce a centre while the flanks were +forced to stand and see it beaten; these were Frederick's lessons to his +staff: and if Clairfait shall go on, with his perpetual hand to hand work, +those sharp Frenchmen will soon learn his trade, and perhaps pay him back +in his own coin. But, Halt squadron. Dress—advance in parade order." +</p> +<p> +While I was thus taking my first tuition in the art of heroes, we had rode +through a deep ravine, from which, with some difficulty, we had struggled +our way to a space of more level ground. Our disorder on reaching it, +required all the count's ready skill to bring us into a condition fit for +the eye of this formidable Austrian. But before we were complete, a group +of mounted officers were seen coming from a column of glittering lances +and sabres, resting on the distant verge of the plain. My friend +pronounced the name of Clairfait, and I was introduced to the officer who +was afterwards to play so distinguished a part in the gallant and +melancholy history of the Flemish fields. I had pictured to myself the +broad, plump face of the Walloon. I say a countenance, darkened probably +by the sultry exposure of his southern campaigns, but of singular depth +and power. It was impossible to doubt, that within the noble forehead +before me, was lodged an intelligence of the first order. His manners were +cold, yet not uncourteous, and to me he spoke with more than usual +attention. But when he alluded to the proceedings of the day, and was +informed by Varnhorst that the time appointed for his movement was come, I +never saw a more rapid transition from the phlegm of the Netherlander to +the vividness of the man of courage and genius. Waiting with his watch in +his hand for the exact moment appointed in the brief despatch, it had no +sooner arrived than the word was given, and his whole force, composed of +Austrian light infantry and cavalry, moved forward. Nothing could be more +regular than the march for the first half mile; but we then entered a +portion of the forest, or rather its border, thinly scattered over an +extent of broken country: to preserve the regularity of a movement along a +high-road, soon began to be wholly impossible. The officers soon gave up +the attempt in despair, and the troops enjoyed the disorder in the highest +degree. The ground was so intersected with small trenches, cut by the +foresters, that every half dozen yards presented a leap, and the clumps of +bushes made it continually necessary to break the ranks. Wherever I looked, +I now saw nothing but all the animation of an immense skirmish, the use of +sabre and pistol alone excepted. Between two and three thousand cavalry, +mounted on the finest horses of Austria and Turkey, galloping in all +directions, some springing over the rivulets, some dashing through the +thickets, all in the highest spirits, calling out to each other, laughing +at each other's mishaps, their horses in as high spirits as themselves, +bounding, rearing, neighing, springing like deer; trumpets sounding, +standards tossing, officers commanding in tones of helpless authority, to +which no one listened, and at which they themselves often laughed. The +whole, like a vast school broke loose for a holiday; the most joyous, +sportive, and certainly the most showy display that had ever caught my eye. +The view strongly reminded me of some of the magnificent old hunting +pieces by Snyders, the field sports of the Archduke Ferdinand, with the +landscape and horses by Rubens and Jordaens: there we had every thing but +the stag or the boar and the dogs. We had the noble trees, the rich deep +glades, the sunny openings, the masses of green; and all crowded with life. +But how infinitely superior in interest! No holiday sport, nor imperial +pageant, but an army rushing into action; one of the great instruments of +human power and human change called into energy. Thousands of bold lives +about to be periled; a victory about to be +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page205 name=page205></A>[pg 205]</SPAN> +achieved, which might fix the +fate of Europe; or perhaps losses to be sustained which might cover the +future generation with clouds; and all this is on the point of being done. +No lazy interval to chill expectancy; within the day, within the hour, nay, +within the next five hundred yards, the decisive moment might be come. +</p> +<p> +Still we rushed on; the staff pausing from time to time to listen to the +distant cannonade, and ascertain by its faintness or loudness, the +progress of the attack which had been made on the great centre and right +defiles of the forest. In one of these, while I had ridden up as near as +the broken ground would suffer me, towards Count Clairfait, he made a +gesture to me to look upwards, and I saw, almost for the first time, a +smile on his countenance. I followed the gesture, and saw, what to me was +the novelty of a huge shell, leisurely as it seemed, traversing the air. +The Count and his staff immediately galloped in all directions; but I had +not escaped a hundred yards, when the shell dropped into the spot where I +had been standing, and burst with a tremendous explosion almost +immediately on its touching the ground. The cavalry had dispersed and the +explosion was, I believe, without injury. But this, at least, gave +evidence that the enemy were not far off, and the eagerness of the troops +was excited to the highest pitch: all pressed forward to the front, and +their cries, in all the languages of the frontier of Europe, the voices of +the officers, and the clangour of the bugles and trumpets became an +absolute Babel, but an infinitely bold and joyous one. The yagers were now +ordered to clear the way, and a thousand Tyrolese and Transylvanian +sharpshooters rushed forward to line the border. A heavy firing commenced, +and the order was given to halt the cavalry until the effect of the fire +was produced. This was speedily done; the enemy, evidently in inferior +force and unprepared for this attack, gave way, and the first squadrons +which reached the open ground made a dash among them, and took the greater +part prisoners. +</p> +<p> +This whole day was full of splendid exhibitions. On reaching the edge of +the wood, the first object below us as the succession of deep columns +which I had seen some hours before, and which appeared to have been rooted +to the ground ever since. But an aide-de-camp from the circle where the +count stood, darted down on the plain, and, as if a flash of lightning had +awoke them, all were instantly in motion. The columns on the right now +made a sudden rush forward, and to my surprise, four or five strong +brigades, which rapidly followed from the centre, took up their position. +Varnhorst, who had been beside me during the whole day, now exhibited +great delight. "I told you," said he, "that Clairfait would turn out well. +I see that he has been taught in our school. Observe that manoeuvre;" he +continued his comment with increasing force of gesture—"That was the +Great Frederic's favourite, the oblique formation. The finest invention in +tactics, with that he gained Rosbach, and beat the French and Austrians; +with that he gained the battle of Breslau; and with that he gained the +grand fight of Torgau, and finished the war. Yet the king always said that +he had learned the manoeuvre from Epaminondas, and was only fighting the +battle of Leuctra over again. But look there!" He pointed to a rising +ground, a bluff of the forest ridge, to which a battalion of sharpshooters +were hastening; it had seemed destitute of defence, and the sharpshooters +were already beginning to scramble up its sides; when on the instant a +large body of the enemy which had been covered by the forest, rushed upon +its summit with a shout, and poured down a general volley. The whole +Prussian line returned it by one tremendous discharge. The drums and +trumpets struck up, the battalions and squadrons advanced, singing their +national hymn. The skirmishers poured forward and the battle began. How +shall I speak of what I felt at that moment; the sensation was +indescribable! It was mingled of all feelings but personal. I was absorbed +in that glorious roar, in that bold burst of human struggle, in all that +was wild, ardent, and terrible in the power of man. I had not a thought of +any thing but of the martial pomp and spirit-stilling grandeur of the +scene before me. I was aroused +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page206 name=page206></A>[pg 206]</SPAN> +from my contemplations by the loud laugh +of my veteran friend; he was trying the benefit of a large brandy flask, +which I remembered, and with some not very respectful opinion of his +temperance, to have seen him place in one of his holsters at our visit to +the suttlers. He now offered it to me. "You look wretchedly pale," said he; +"our kind of life is too rough for you gentlemen <i>diplomats</i>, and you will +find this glass right Nantz, the very best thing, if not the only good +thing, that its country has to give." This took me down from my heroics at +once, the brandy was first-rate, and I found myself restored to the level +of the world at once, and infinitely the better for the operation. We now +followed the advance of the troops. The leading columns had already forced +their way into the entrance of the forest; but it was a forest of three +leagues' depth and twice the number in length, a wooded province, and the +way was fought foot by foot. It is only justice to the French to say, that +they fought well—held the pass boldly—often charged our advance, and +gave way only when they were on the point of being surrounded. But our +superiority of discipline and numbers combined, did not suffer the success +to be for a moment doubtful. Still, as we followed, the battle raged in +the depths of the forest, already as dark as if night had come on—our +only light the incessant illumination of the musketry, and the bursts of +fire from the howitzers and guns. +</p> +<p> +As we were standing on the last height at the entrance of the defile, +"Look round," exclaimed Varnhorst, "and take your first lesson in our art, +if you ever adopt the trade of soldiership. The Duke has outwitted the +Frenchman. I suspected something of this sort in the morning, when I first +heard his guns so far to the right. I allow that the enemy may be puzzled +for a while who has five passes to defend, with half a dozen leagues +between them, and a Prussian army in front ready to make him choose. He +has evidently drawn off the strength of his troops to the Duke's point of +attack, and has stripped the wing before us. Clairfait's mass has been +thrown upon it, and the day is our own. Onward." +</p> +<p> +The roads and the surrounding glades gave fearful evidence of the +obstinacy of the struggle; but it also gave some curious evidence of the +force of habit in making light of the troubles of life. The cavalry, which +had been comparatively unemployed, from the nature of the service during +the day, had taken advantage of the opportunity to consult their own +comfort as much as possible. On the flank and rear of the infantry the +troopers had taken the whole affair <i>en amateur</i>, and had lit their +campfires, cooked their rations, handsomely augmented by the general +spoliation of the hen-coops within many a league. Something like a fair +was established round them by the suttlers; while the shells were actually +falling and many a branch was shattered over their banquets by the shot +which constantly whizzed through the trees. But, "<i>Vive la fortune!</i>" Even +the sober Teuton and the rough son of the Bannat could enjoy the few +moments that war gives to festivity, and what the next night or morning +might bring was not suffered to disturb their sense of "schnapps," and +their supper. +</p> +<p> +The trampling of horses in our rear, and the galloping of the chasseurs of +the ducal escort, now told us that the generalissimo was at hand. He rode +up in high spirits, received our congratulations with princely courtesy, +and bestowed praises on the troops, and especially on Clairfait, which +made the count's dark features absolutely glow. The whole group rode +together until we reached the open country. A decisive success had +unquestionably been gained; and in war the first success is of proverbial +importance. On this point, the duke laid peculiar weight on the few words +which he could spare to me. +</p> +<p> +"M. Marston," he observed, taking me cordially by the hand, "we are +henceforth more than friends, we are camarades. We have been in the field +together; and, with us Prussians, that is a tie for life." +</p> +<p> +I made my acknowledgments for his highness's condescension. Business then +took the lead. +</p> +<p> +"You will now have a good despatch to transmit to our friends in England. +The Count Clairfait has shown himself worthy of his reputation. +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page207 name=page207></A>[pg 207]</SPAN> +I understand that the enemy's force consisted chiefly of the household +troops of France; if so, we have beaten the best soldiers of the kingdom, +and the rest can give us but little trouble. You will remark upon these +points; and now for Paris." +</p> +<p> +A cry, or rather a shout of assent from the circle of officers, echoed the +words, and we all put spurs to our horses, and followed the <i>cortège</i> +through the noble old groves. But before we reached its confines, the +firing had wholly ceased, and the enemy were hurrying down the slope of +the Argonne, and crossing in great disorder a plain which separated them +from their main body. Our light troops and cavalry were dashing in pursuit, +and prisoners were continually taken. From the spot where we halted, the +light of the sinking day showed us the rapid breaking up of the fugitive +column, the guns, one by one, left behind; the muskets thrown away; and +the soldiers scattered, until our telescopes could discover scarcely more +than a remnant reaching the protection of the distant hill. +</p> +<p> +We supped that night on the green sward. The duke had invited his own +staff, and that of Clairfait, to his tent, in honour of the day, and I +never spent a gayer evening. His incomparable finish of manners, mingled +with the cordiality which no man could more naturally assume when it was +his pleasure, and his mixture of courtly pleasantry with the bold humour +which campaigning, in some degree, teaches to every one, made him, if +possible, more delightful, to my conception, than even in our first +interview. Towards the close of the supper, which, like every thing else +round him, was worthy of Sardanapalus, he addressed himself to me, and +giving a most gracious personal opinion of what my "services had merited +from the English minister," said that, "limited as his own means of +rewarding zeal and ability might be, he begged of me to retain a slight +memorial of his friendship, and of our day together on the heights of +Argonne." Taking from the hand of Guiscard the riband and star of the +"Order of Merit," the famous order instituted by the Great Frederic, he +placed it round my neck, and proposed my health to the table as a "Knight +of Prussia." +</p> +<p> +This was a flattering distinction, and, if I could have had entire faith +in all the complimentary language addressed to me by the sitters at that +stately table, I should have had visions of very magnificent things. But +there is no antidote to vanity equal to an empty purse. If I had been born +to one of the leviathan fortunes of our peerage, I might possibly have +imagined myself possessed of all the talents of mankind, and with all its +distinctions waiting for my acceptance; but I never could forget the grave +lesson that I was a younger son. I sat, like the Roman in his triumph, +with the slave, to lecture him, behind. However, I had a more ample +evidence of the sincerity with which those compliments were paid, in the +higher degree of trust reposed in me from day to day. +</p> +<p> +After the repast was ended, and the principal part of the guests had +withdrawn, I was desired to wait for the communication of important +intelligence—Guiscard and Varnhorst being the only officers of the staff +who remained. A variety of papers, taken in the portfolio of one of the +French generals who had fallen in the engagement of the day, were laid +before us, and our little council proceeded to examine them. They were of +a very various kind, and no bad epitome of the mind of a gallant and +crackbrained coxcomb. Reflections on the conduct of the Allied armies, and +conjectures on their future proceedings—both of so fantastic a kind, that +the duke's gravity often gave way, and even the grim Guiscard sometimes +wore a smile. Then came in a letter from some "<i>confrère</i>" in Paris, a +tissue of gossip and grumbling, anecdotes of the irregularities of private +life, and merciless abuse of the leaders of party. Interspersed with those +were epistles of a more tender description; from which it appeared that +the general's heart was as capacious as his ambition, and that he +contrived to give his admiration to half a dozen of the <i>élite</i> of +Parisian beauty at a time. Varnhorst was delighted with this portion of +the correspondence; even the +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page208 name=page208></A>[pg 208]</SPAN> +presence of the duke could not prevent him +from bursting into explosions of laughter; and he ended by imploring +possession of the whole, as models of his future correspondence, in any +emergency which compelled him to put pen to paper in matters of the sex. +But nearly the last of the documents in the portfolio was one deserving of +all attention. It was a statement of the measures which had been enjoined +by the Republican government for raising the population in arms; and, as +an appendix, the muster-roll of the various corps which were already on +their way to join the army of Dumourier. The duke read this paper with a +countenance from which all gaiety had vanished and handed it to Guiscard +to read aloud. +</p> +<p> +"What think you of that, gentlemen?" asked the duke, in his most +deliberate tone. +</p> +<p> +Varnhorst, in his usual unhesitating style, said—"It tells us only that +we shall have some more fighting; but, as we are sure to beat them, the +more the better. Your highness knows as well as any man alive, that the +maxim of our great master was, 'Begin the war by fighting as many pitched +battles as you can. Skirmishes teach discipline to the rabble; allow the +higher orders time to escape, the government to tamper, and to encourage +the resistance of all. Pitched battles are thunderbolts; they finish the +business at once; and, like the thunderbolts, they appear to come from a +source which defies resistance by man.'" +</p> +<p> +"I think," said Guiscard, with his deep physiognomy still darkening, "that +we lost, what is the most difficult of all things to recover—time." +</p> +<p> +The duke bit his lip. "How was it to be helped, Guiscard? <i>You</i> know the +causes of the delay; they were many and stubborn." +</p> +<p> +"Ay," was the reply, with an animation, which struck me with surprise, "as +many as the blockheads in Berlin, and as stubborn as the rock under our +feet, or the Aulic council." +</p> +<p> +"Well," said the duke, turning to me, with his customary grace of +manner—"What does our friend, the Englishman, say?" +</p> +<p> +Of course, I made no pretence to giving a military opinion. I merely said, +"That I had every reliance on the experienced conduct of his highness, and +on the established bravery of his army." +</p> +<p> +"The truth is, M. Marston, as Guiscard says, we <i>have</i> lost time, though +it is no fault of ours, and I observe, from these papers, that the enemy +availed themselves of the delay, by bringing up strong corps from every +point. Still, our duty lies plain before us; we <i>must</i> advance, and rescue +the unfortunate royal family—we <i>must</i> tranquillize France, by +overthrowing the rabble influence, which now threatens to subvert all law; +and having done that, we may then retire, with the satisfaction of having +fought without ambition, and been victorious without a wish for +aggrandizement." After a pause, which none attempted to interrupt, he +finished by saying—"I admit that our work is likely to become more +difficult than I had supposed." +</p> +<p> +Varnhorst's sanguine nature bore this with visible reluctance. "Pardon me, +your highness, but my opinion is for instant action, whatever may happen. +Let us but move to-morrow morning, and I promise you another battle of +Rosbach within the next twelve hours." The idea was congenial to the +gallantry of the duke; he smiled, and shook the bold speaker by the hand. +</p> +<p> +"I see, by these lists," said Guiscard, as he slowly perused the returns, +"that the troops with which we have been engaged to-day amounted to little +more than twenty thousand men, under the new general, Dumourier. They +fought badly, I think. I scarcely expected that they would have fought at +all since the emigration of their officers. Sixteen or eighteen thousand +men are already moving up from Flanders; a strong corps under my old +acquaintance and countryman, Kellerman—and whatever he may be as an +officer, a bolder and braver veteran does not exist—are coming, by forced +marches, from the Rhine; the sea-coast towns are stripped of their +garrisons, to supply a supplementary force; and I should not be surprised +to find that we rather under, than over, calculated the force which will +be in line against us within a week. + </p> +<p> +"So be it!" exclaimed Varnhorst, +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page209 name=page209></A>[pg 209]</SPAN> +"What are troops without discipline, and generals without science? Both +made to be beaten. The fifty thousand Prussians with us would march +through Europe. I am for the advance. That was a brilliant dash of +Clairfait's this afternoon. Let us match it to-morrow morning." +</p> +<p> +"It was admirable!" replied the duke, with the colour mounting to his +cheek. "Any officer in Europe might envy the decision, the daring, and the +success. His sagacity in discovering the weak point of the enemy's +position, and his skill in its attack, deserve all praise. His flank +movement <i>was</i> perfectly admirable." +</p> +<p> +"Well, we have only to try him again," exclaimed Varnhorst, with +increasing animation. "We have turned the position, and taken a thousand +prisoners and some guns. Our men are in high spirits; and, if I were in +command of a corps to-morrow, my only countersign would be—'Paris.'" +</p> +<p> +"Varnhorst," said the duke, "you have only anticipated my intention with +regard to yourself. You shall have a command; the three brigades of +Prussian grenadiers shall be given into your charge, and you shall operate +on the flank. It is my wish to make our principal movement in that +direction, and I <i>know</i> you well." +</p> +<p> +Varnhorst's gratitude almost denied him words; but his countenance spoke +better than his tongue. +</p> +<p> +One of those papers contained a detail of several projects by the leading +members of the Assembly for the government of France. Guiscard, after +bending his wise head over them, pronounced them all equally futile, and +equally tending to democracy. The duke was of the opposite opinion, and +after a glance at the papers, observed—"that he thought some of those +schemes ingenious; but that they so closely resembled the ideas thrown out +in Germany, under the patronage of the Emperor Joseph, as to deprive them +of any strong claim to originality." "No," said he gaily, "I shall never +believe that Frenchmen are changed, until I hear that there is no ballet +in Paris; you might as well tell me, that the Swiss will abjure the money +which makes a part of his distinction, as the Frenchman give up the laced +coat, the powdered queue, and the order of St Louis at his buttonhole. +Those things are the man, they are his mind, his senses, himself. He is a +creation of monarchy—a clever, amusing, ingenious, and brave one; but +rely upon my knowledge of human nature—if French nature be any thing of +the kind—that Paris, a capital without balls, and a government without +embroidery, will disgust him beyond all forgiveness. It is my opinion, +that if democracy were formed to-morrow, it would be danced away in a week; +or if every pedigree in France were burned in this evening's fire, you +would have the Boulevards crowded with marquises and marchionesses before +the month was over. Is my friend <i>un peu philosophe</i>?" He laughed at his +own picture of a revolution, and his pleasantry of manner would have made +his sentiments popular on any subject. Still, our long-headed friend, +Guiscard, was not to be convinced. +</p> +<p> +"I may have every contempt," said he, in a hurried tone, "for the +shallowness of idlers and talkers attempting to mould men by theories; but +the question whether France is to remain a monarchy or not, is one of the +most pressing importance to your highness's operations. It is only in this +practical sense that I should think of the topic at all. You have taken +the frontier towns, and have beaten the frontier army. Thus, so far as the +regular force of France is concerned, the war is at an end. But then comes +the grand point. A country of thirty millions of people cannot be +conquered, if they can but be roused to resist. All the troops of +Europe—nay, perhaps all the princes of the earth—might perish before +they fully conquered a country so large as France, with so powerful a +population. This seems even to be one of the provisions of Providence +against ambition, that an invasion of a populous country is the most +difficult operation in the world, unless the people welcome the invader. +It gives every ditch the character of a fortress, and every man the spirit +of a soldier. I recollect no instance in European history, where an +established kingdom was conquered by invasion. They all stand at this hour, +as they +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page210 name=page210></A>[pg 210]</SPAN> +stood a thousand years ago. In France, we found the people without +leaders, without troops, and without experience in war; of course they +have not resisted our hussars and guns. But they have not joined us. In +any other country of Europe, we should have recruits crowding to ask for +service. But the French farmer shuts up his house; the peasant flies; the +citizen barricades his gates, and gives a cannon-shot for an answer. The +whole land rejects us, if it dares not repel; and, if we conquer, we shall +have to colonize." +</p> +<p> +"Well, we must fight them into it," said Varnhorst. +</p> +<p> +"Or leave them to fight themselves out of it," I observed—"my national +prejudices not being favourable to reasoning at the point of the bayonet." +</p> +<p> +"Or take the chances of the world, and float on wherever the surge carries +us," laughed the duke. +</p> +<p> +But Guiscard was still inflexible. His deep eye flashed with a light which +I never could have looked for under those projecting brows. His cheek was +visited by a tinge which argued a passionate interest in the subject; and, +as he spoke, his tongue uttered a nervous and powerful eloquence, which +showed that Guiscard was thrown among camps, while he might have figured +in senates and councils. Of course, at this distance of time, I can offer +but a faint memory of his bold and spontaneous wisdom. +</p> +<p> +"I can see no result for France but democracy. This war is like no other +since the fall of the Roman Empire. It is a war of the passions. What man +can calculate the power of those untried elements? I implore your highness +to consider with the deepest caution every step to be taken from this +moment. Europe has no other commander whom it can place in a rank with +yourself; and if you, at the head of the first army of Europe, shall find +it necessary to retreat before the peasantry of France, it will form a +disastrous era in the art of war, and a still more disastrous omen to +every crowned head of Europe." +</p> +<p> +The duke looked uneasy. But he merely said with a smile—"My dear Guiscard, +we must keep these sentiments to ourselves in camp. You are a cosmopolite, +and look on these things with too refined a speculation. Like myself, you +have dined and supped with the Diderots and Raynals—pleasant people, no +doubt, but dangerous advisers." +</p> +<p> +"I have!" exclaimed his excited hearer; "and neither I, nor any other man, +would have met them without admiring their talents. But I always looked on +their <i>coterie</i> as a sort of moral lunatics, the madder the more light +they have." +</p> +<p> +"Our question is simply one of fact," said the duke. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, and of a fact on which the fate of Europe hinges at this moment! The +monarchy of France is already cloven down. What wild shape of power is now +to take up its fallen sword? The sovereignty of time, laws, and loyalty +are in the grave, and the funeral rites will be bloody; but what hand is +to make the ground of that grave firm enough to bear the foundations of a +new throne? +</p> +<p> +"The heels of our boots and the hoofs of our horses will trample it solid +enough!" exclaimed Varnhorst. +</p> +<p> +"The much stronger probability is," replied Guiscard, "that they will +trample it into a mire so deep, that we may reckon the Allied powers +fortunate if they can draw themselves out of it. France is revolutionized +irrecoverably. Three things have been done within the last three months, +any one of which would overthrow the strongest government on the Continent. +By confiscating the property of the nobles, she has set the precedent for +breaking down all property, thrown the prize into the hands of the +populace, and thus, after corrupting them by the robbery, has bound them +by the bribe. By destroying and banishing the persons of the nobility, she +has done more than extinguish an antagonist to the mob—she has swept away +a protector of the people. The provinces will henceforth be helpless; +Paris will be the sovereign, and Paris itself will have the mob for its +master. And by her third step, the ruin of the church, she has given the +death-blow to the few and feeble feelings which acknowledged higher +objects than those of the hour. The pressing point for us, is, how the +Revolution will act upon the military spirit of the nation. The French nay +succumb; +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page211 name=page211></A>[pg 211]</SPAN> +but they make good soldiers, they are the only nation in Europe +who have an actual fondness for war, who contemplate it as a pastime, and, +in spite of all their defeats, regard it as their natural path to power." + </p> +<p> +"But they fly before our squadrons," observed the duke. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, as schoolboys fly before their master, until they are strong enough +to rebel; or as the Indians fled before the lances and horses of Cortes, +until they became accustomed to them. It would be infinitely wiser to +leave the republicans to struggle with each other, than unite them by a +national attack. Mobs, like the wolves, always fall upon the first wounded. +The first faction that receives a blow in those campaigns of the Palais +Royal, will have all the others tearing it to fragments. The custom will +spread; every new drop of blood will let loose a torrent in retaliation; +and when France has thus been drained of her fever, will be the time, +either to restore her, or to paralyse for ever her power of disturbing the +world." +</p> +<p> +The sound of a gun from either flank of the army, reminded us that the +hour of the evening hymn had come. It broke up our council. The +incomparable harmony of so many thousand voices ascended into the air; and +at the discharge of another gun, all was still once more. The night had +now fallen, and the fatigues of the day made repose welcome. But the +conversation of the last hour made me anxious to obtain all the knowledge +of the actual state of the country, and the prospects of the campaign, +which could be obtained from Guiscard. Varnhorst, full of a soldier's +impetuosity, was gone to the quarters of his grenadiers, and was busy with +hurried preparations for the morrow. The duke had retired, and, through +the curtains of his tent, I could see the lamps by whose light his +secretaries were in attendance, and with whom he would probably pass the +greater part of the next twelve hours. With Guiscard I continued pacing up +and down in front of our quarters, listening to the observations of a mind +as richly stored, and as original, as I have ever met. He still persisted +in his conviction, "that we had come at the wrong time, either too early +or too late; <i>before</i> the nation had grown weary of anarchy, and <i>after</i> +they had triumphed over the throne. "The rebound," said he energetically, +"will be terrible. Ten times our force would be thrown away in this war. +The army may drive all things before its front; but it will be assailed in +the rear, in the flanks—every where. It is like the lava which I have +seen pour down from Etna into the sea. It drove the tide before it, and +threw the water up in vapour; but they were too powerful for it after all. +And there stands the lava fixed and cold, and there roll the surges once +again, burying it from the sight of man." +</p> +<p> +A sudden harmony of trumpets, from various points of the vast encampment, +pierced the ear, and in another moment the whole line of the hills was +crowned with flame. The signal for lighting the fires of the Austrian and +Prussian outposts had been given, and the effect was almost magical. In +this army all things were done with a regularity almost perfect. The +trumpet spoke, and the answer was instantaneous. All comparisons are +feeble to realities of this order—seen, too, while the heart of man is +quickened to enjoy and wonder, and feels scarcely less than a new +existence in the stirring events every where round him. The first +comparison that struck me was the vague one of a shower of stars. The +mountain pinnacles were in a blaze. The general fires of the bivouacs soon +spread through the forest, and down the slopes of the hills, all round to +the horizon. +</p> +<p> +The night was fine, the air flowed refreshingly from the verdure of the +immense woods, and the scent of the thyme and flowers of the heath, +pressed by my foot, rose "wooingly on the air." All was calm and odorous. +The flourish of the evening trumpets still continued to swell in the rich +harmonies which German skill alone can breathe, and thoughts of the past +and the future began to steal over my mind. I was once more in England, +gazing on the splendid beauty of Clotilde; and imagining the thousand +forms in which my weary fortunes must be shaped, before I dared +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page212 name=page212></A>[pg 212]</SPAN> +offer her +a share in my hopes of happiness. I saw Mariamne once more, with her smile +reminding me of Shakspeare's exquisite picture— +</p> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "Oh, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful,</p> +<p> In the contempt and anger of that lip!"</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Then came a vision of my early home. The halls of Mortimer castle—the +feebly surviving parent there, whom I still loved—the heartless and +haughty brother—the pomp and pageantry to which he was born; while I was +flung out into the wilderness, like the son of the handmaid, to perish, or, +like him, escape only by a miracle. At that hour, perhaps, there were +revels in the house of my fathers, while their descendant was wandering on +a hill-side, in the midst of hostile armies, exposed to the chances of the +conflict, and possibly only measuring with his pace the extent of his +grave. But while I was thus sinking in heart, my hand, in making some +unconscious gesture, struck the badge of Frederic's order on my bosom. +What trifles change the current of human thoughts! That star threw more +light over my darkness than the thousand constellations that studded the +vault above my head. Success, honours, and public name, filled my mind. I +saw all things, events, and persons through a brilliant haze of hope; and +determining to follow fortune wherever she might lead me, abjured all +thoughts of calamity in my unfriended, yet resolute career. Is it to +consider the matter too curiously, to conceive that the laws of nature +affect the mind? or that the spirit of man resembles an instrument, after +all—an Aeolian harp, which owes all its pulses to the gusts that pass +across its strings, and in which it simply depends upon the stronger or +the feebler breeze, whether it shall smile with joyous and triumphant +chords, or sink into throbs and sounds of sorrow? +</p> +<p> +The galloping of horses roused me. It was Guiscard with an escort. "What! +not in your bed yet?" was his hurried salutation. "So much the better; you +will have a showy despatch to send to England to-night. Clairfait has just +outdone himself. He found that the French were retreating, and he followed +them without loss of time. His troops had been so dispersed by the service +of the day, that he could collect but fifteen hundred hussars; and with +these he gallantly set forth to pick up stragglers. His old acquaintance, +Chazot, whom he had beaten the day before, was in command of a rearguard +of ten thousand men. His fifteen hundred brave fellows were now exposed to +ruin; and doubtless, if they had exhibited any show of retreating, they +must have been ruined. But here Clairfait's <i>à la Turque</i> style was +exactly in place. He ordered that not a shot should be fired, but that the +spur and sabre should do the business; and at once plunged into the mass +of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. In five minutes the whole were put to +the rout—guns, baggage, and ammunition taken; and the French +general-in-chief as much stripped of his rearguard, as ever a peacock was +plucked of his tail." +</p> +<p> +"Will the duke follow up the blow?" was my enquiry. +</p> +<p> +"Beyond doubt. I have just left him giving orders for the advancement of +the whole line at daybreak; and unless M. Dumouier is remarkably on the +alert, we shall have him supping in the camp within the next twenty-four +hours. But you will have better intelligence from himself; for he bade me +prepare you for meeting him, as he rides to the wing from which the march +begins." +</p> +<p> +"Excellent news! You and Varnhorst will be field-marshals before the +campaign is over." His countenance changed. +</p> +<p> +"No; my course unfortunately lies in a different direction. The duke has +been so perplexed, by the delays continually forced upon him by the +diplomacy of the Allied cabinets, that he has been more than once on the +point of giving up the command. Clairfait's success, and the prospect of +cutting off the retreat of the French, or of getting between them and +Paris, have furnished him with new materials; and I am now on my way to +Berlin, to put matters in the proper point of view. Farewell, Marston, I +am sorry to lose you as a comrade; but we <i>must</i> meet again—no laurels +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page213 name=page213></A>[pg 213]</SPAN> +for <i>me</i> now. The duke must not find me here; he will pass by within the +next five minutes." +</p> +<p> +The noble fellow sprang from his horse, and shook my hand with a fervour +which I had not thought to be in his grave and lofty nature. +</p> +<p> +"Farewell!" he uttered once more, and threw himself on his saddle, and was +gone. +</p> +<p> +I had scarcely lost the sound of his horse's hoofs, as they rattled up the +stony ravine of the hill, when the sound of a strong body of cavalry +announced the approach of the generalissimo. He soon rode up, and +addressed me with his usual courtesy. "I really am afraid, Mr Marston, +that you will think me in a conspiracy to prevent your enjoying a night's +rest, for all our meetings, I think, have been at the 'witching hour!' But +would you think it too much to mount your horse now, and ride with me, +before you send your despatches to your cabinet? I must visit the troops +of the left wing without delay; we can converse on the way." +</p> +<p> +I was all obedience, a knight of Prussia, and therefore at his highness's +service. +</p> +<p> +"Well, well, I thought so. You English gentlemen are ready for every thing. +In the mean time, while your horse is saddling, look over this letter. +That was a gallant attempt of Clairfait's, and, if we had not been too far +off to support him, we might have pounced upon the main body as +effectually as he did upon the rear. Chazot has escaped, but one of M. +Dumourier's aides-de-camp, a remarkably intelligent fellow, has been taken, +and on him has been found the papers which I beg you to peruse." +</p> +<p> +It was a letter from the commander-in-chief to the <i>Bureau de la Guerre</i> +in Paris. +</p> +<p> +"MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE,—I write this, after having been on horseback for +eighteen hours. We must have reinforcements without a moment's delay, or +we are lost—the honour of France is lost—France herself is lost. I have +with me less than 20,000 men to defend the road to Paris against 100,000. +The truth must be told—truth becomes a citizen. We have been beaten! I +have been unable to hold the passes of Argonne, and the enemy's hussars +are already scouring the country in my rear. I have sent order upon order +to Kellerman, and all my answer is, that he is preparing to advance; but +he has not stirred a step. I daresay, that he is playing trictrac at Metz +this moment. +</p> +<p> +"My march from the Argonne has been a bold manoeuvre, but it has cost us +something. Chazot, to whom I entrusted the protection of the march, and to +whom I had given the strictest orders to keep the enemy's light troops at +a distance, has suffered himself to be entrapped by those experienced +campaigners, and has lost men. Duval fought bravely at the head of his +brigade, and Miranda narrowly escaped being taken, in a dashing attempt to +save the park of artillery. He had a horse killed under him, and was taken +from the field insensible. Macdonald, who takes this, will explain more. +He is a promising officer—give him a step. In the mean time, send me +every man that you can. <i>France is in danger</i>." +</p> +<p> +"The object now," observed the duke, "will be, to press upon the enemy in +his present state of disorder, until we shall either be enabled to force +him to fight a pitched battle at a disadvantage, or strike in between him +and the capital. And now forward!" +</p> +<p> +I mounted, and we rode through the camp—the duke occasionally giving some +order for the morning to the officers commanding the successive divisions, +and conversing with me on the points in discussion between England and the +Allies. He was evidently dissatisfied with continental politics. +</p> +<p> +"The king and the emperor are both sincere; but that is more than I can +always say for those about them. We have too many Italians, and even +Frenchmen, at our German courts. They are republicans to a man; and, by +consequence, every important measure is betrayed. I can perceive, in the +manoeuvres of the enemy's general, that he must have been acquainted with +my last despatch from Berlin; and, I am so thoroughly persuaded of the +fact, that I mean to manoeuvre to-morrow on that conviction. The order +from Berlin is, that I shall act +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page214 name=page214></A>[pg 214]</SPAN> +upon his flanks. Within two hours after +daylight I shall make a push for his centre; and, breaking through that, +shall separate his wings, and crush them at my leisure. One would think," +said he, pausing, and looking round him with the exaltation of conscious +power, "that the troops had overheard us, and already anticipated a +victory." +</p> +<p> +The sight from the knoll, where we drew our bridles, was certainly of the +most striking kind. The fires, which at first I had seen glittering only +on the mountain tops, were now blazing in all quarters; in the cleared +spaces of the forest, on the heaths and in the ravines: the heaps of +fagots gathered for the winter consumption of the cities, by woodmen of +the district, were put in requisition, and the axes of the pioneers laid +many a huge larch and elm on the blaze. Soldiers seldom think much of +those who are to come after them; and the flames shot up among the +thickets with the most unsparing brilliancy. Cheerfulness, too, prevailed; +the sounds of laughter, and gay voices, and songs, arose on every side. +The well-preserved game of this huge hunting-ground, the old vexation of +the French peasant, now fell into hands which had no fear of the galleys +for a shot at a wild boar, or bringing down a partridge. The fires +exhibited many a substantial specimen of forest luxury in the act of +preparation. No man enjoys rest and food like the soldier. A day's +fighting and fasting gives a sense of delight to both, such as the man of +cities can scarcely conceive. No epicure at his most <i>recherché</i> board +ever knew the true pleasure of the senses, equal to the campaigner +stretched upon the grass, until his supper was ready, and then sitting +down to it. I acknowledge, that to me that simple rest, and that simple +meal, often gave a sense of enjoyment which I have never even conceived in +the luxuries of higher life. The instantaneous sleep that followed; the +night without a restless moment; the awaking with all my powers refreshed, +and yet with as complete an unconsciousness of the hours past away, as if +I had lain down but the moment before, and started from night into +sunshine—all belong to the campaigner: he has his troubles, but his +enjoyments are his own, exclusive, delicious, incomparable. +</p> +<p> +An officer of the staff now rode up to make a report on some movement of +the division intended to lead in the morning, and the duke gave me +permission to retire. He galloped off in the direction of the column, and +I slowly pursued my way to my quarters. Yet I could not resist many a halt, +to gaze on the singular beauty of the bursts of flame which lighted the +landscape. More than once, it reminded me of the famous Homeric +description of the Trojan bivouac by the ships. All the images were the +same, except that, for the sea, we had the endless meadows of Champagne, +and, for the ships, the remote tents of the enemy. We had the fire, the +exulting troops, the carouse, the picketed horses, the shouts and songs, +the lustre of the autumnal sky, and the bold longings for victory and the +dawn. Even in Pope's feeble translation, the scene is animated— +</p> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "The troops exulting sate in order round,</p> +<p> And beaming fires illumined all the ground."</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Then follows the famous simile of the moon, suddenly throwing its radiance +over the obscure features of the landscape. +</p> +<p> +But Homer, the poet of realities, soon returns to the true material— +</p> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>"So many flames before proud Ilion blaze,</p> +<p>And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays,</p> +<p>A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild,</p> +<p>And shoot a shadowy lustre o'er the field.</p> +<p>Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend,</p> +<p>Whose umber'd arms by fits thick flashes send;</p> +<p>Loud neigh the coursers o'er their heaps of corn,</p> +<p>And ardent warriors wait the rising morn."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +I leave it to others to give the history of this campaign, one of the most +memorable of Europe from its consequences—the tramp of that army roused +the slumbering giant of France. If the Frenchman said of a battle, that it +was like a ball-room, you see little beyond your opposite partner; he +might have said of a campaign, that you scarcely see even so much. The +largeness of the scale is beyond +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page215 name=page215></A>[pg 215]</SPAN> +all personal observation. I can answer +only for myself, that I was on horseback before daybreak, and marched in +the midst of columns which had no more doubt of beating up the enemy's +quarters than they had of eating their first meal. All were in the highest +spirits; and the opinions of the staff, among whom the duke had assigned +me a place, were so sanguine, that I felt some concern at their reaching +the ear of the captive aide-de-camp. This induced me to draw him away +gradually from the crowd. I found him lively, as his countrymen generally +are, but exhibiting at once a strength of observation and a frankness of +language which are more uncommon. +</p> +<p> +"I admit," said he, "that you have beaten us; but this is the natural +effect of your incomparable discipline. Our army is new, our general new, +every thing new but our imprudence, in venturing to meet your 100,000 with +our 25,000. Yet France is not beaten. In fact, you have not met the French +up to this hour." +</p> +<p> +"What!" I exclaimed in surprise; "of what nation are the troops which we +have fought in the Argonne, and are now following through the high-road to +Paris? The Duke of Brunswick will be amused by hearing that he has been +wasting his cannon-shot on spectres." +</p> +<p> +"Ah, you English," he replied with a broad laugh, which made me still more +doubt his nation, "are such matter-of-fact people, that you require +substance in every thing. But what are the troops of France? Brave fellows +enough, but not one of them has ever seen a shot fired in his life; even +the few battalions which we had in America saw nothing but hedge-firing. +The men before you have never seen more service than they could find in a +cabaret, or hunting a highwayman. Some of them, I admit, have served their +King in the shape of shouldering their muskets at his palace gates in +Versailles, or marching in a procession of cardinals and confessors to +Notre-Dame. My astonishment is, that at the first shot they did not all +run to their soup, and at the second leave their muskets to take care of +themselves. But they are brave; and, if they once learn to fight, the +pupils will beat the master." +</p> +<p> +"You are a philosopher, Monsieur, but, I hope, no prophet. I think I +observe in you something of our English blood after all. You have opinions, +and speak them." +</p> +<p> +"Not quite English, nor quite French. My father was a borderer; so not +even exactly either English or Scotch. He took up arms for the son of +James—of course was ruined, as every one was who had to do with Stuart +from the beginning of time—luckily escaped after the crash of Culloden, +entered the Scottish Brigade here, and left to me nothing but his memory, +his sword, and the untarnished name of Macdonald." I bowed to a name so +connected with honour, and the lively aide-de-camp and I became from that +moment, fast friends. After a long and fatiguing march, about noon, in one +of the most sultry days of a British autumn, our advanced guard reached +the front of the enemy's position. The outposts were driven in at once, +and the whole army, as it came up, was formed in order of battle. Rumours +had been spread of large reinforcements being on their way; and the clouds +of dust which rose along the plain, and the confused sound of +baggage-wagons, and heavy guns behind the hills, rendered it probable. +Still the country before us was clear to the eye, and our whole force +moved slowly forward to storm a range of heights, in the shape of a +half-moon, which commanded the field. This was one of the sights which +nothing but war can furnish, and to which no other sight on earth is equal. +The motion, the shouts, the rapidity of all things—the galloping of the +cavalry—the rolling of the parks of artillery—the rush of the light +troops—the pressing march of the battalions—and all glittering with all +the pomps of war, waving standards, flashing sabres, and the blaze thrown +back from the columns' bayonets, that looked like sheets of steel, made me +almost breathless. The aide-de-camp evidently enjoyed the sight as much as +myself, and gave way to that instinct, by which man is a wolf, let the +wise say what they will, and exults in war. But when he heard shots fired +from the range of hills, his countenance changed. +</p> +<p> +"There must be some mistake here," he said, with sudden gravity. +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page216 name=page216></A>[pg 216]</SPAN> +"Dumourier could never have intended to hold his position so far in +advance, and so wholly unprotected. Those troops will be lost, and the +whole campaign may be compromised." +</p> +<p> +The attack now commenced along the line, and the resistance was evidently +serious. A heavy fire was sustained for some time; but the troops +gradually established themselves on the lower part of the range. "I know +it all now!" exclaimed my agitated companion, after a long look through my +glass: "it is Kellerman's corps," said he, "which ought to have been a +league to the rear of its present position at this moment. He must have +received counter orders since I left him, or been desperately deceived; +another half hour there, and he will never leave those hills but a +prisoner or a corpse." From the shaking of his bridle, and the nervous +quivering of his manly countenance, I saw how eagerly he would have +received permission to bring the French general out of his dilemma. But he +was a man of honour, and I was sure of him. In the midst of a thunder of +cannon, which absolutely seemed to shake the ground under our feet, the +firing suddenly ceased on the enemy's side. The cessation was followed on +ours; there was an extraordinary silence over the field, and probably the +generalissimo expected a flag of truce, or some proposal for the +capitulation of the enemy's corps. But none came; and after a pause, in +which aides-de-camp and orderlies were continually galloping between the +advance and the spot where the duke stood at the head of his staff, the +line moved again, and the hill was in our possession. But Kellerman was +gone; and before our light troops could make any impression on the +squadrons which covered the movement, he had again taken up a position on +the formidable ground which was destined to figure so memorably in the +annals of French soldiership, the heights of Valmy. +</p> +<p> +"What think you now, my friend?" was my question. +</p> +<p> +"Just what I thought before," was the answer. "We want science, without +which bravery <i>may</i> fail; but we have bravery, without which science +<i>must</i> fail. Kellerman may have been deceived in his first position, but +he has evidently retrieved his error. He has now shortened his distance +from his reinforcements, he has secured one of the most powerful positions +in the country, and unless yon drive him out of it before nightfall, you +might as well storm Ehrenbreitstein, or your own Gibraltar, by morning." +</p> +<p> +"Well, the experiment is about to be made, for my glass shows me our +howitzers <i>en masse</i>, moving up to cannonade him with grape and canister. +He will have an uneasy bivouac of it." +</p> +<p> +"Whether Kellerman can manoeuvre, I do not know. But that he will fight, I +am perfectly sure. He is old, but one of the most daring and firm officers +in our service. If it is in his orders to maintain those heights, he will +hold them to his last cartridge and his last man." +</p> +<p> +Our conversation was now lost in the roar of artillery, and after a +tremendous fire of an hour on the French position, which was answered with +equal weight from the heights, a powerful division was sent to assail the +principal battery. The attempt was gallantly made, and the success seemed +infallible, when I heard, through all the roar, the exclamation of +Macdonald, "Brave Steingell!" At the words, he pointed to a heavy column +of infantry hurrying down the ravine in rear of the redoubt. +</p> +<p> +"Those are from the camp," he exclaimed, "and a few thousands more will +make the post impregnable." +</p> +<p> +The sight of the column seemed to have given renewed vigour to both sides; +for, while the French guns rapidly increased their fire, aided by the +musketry of the newly arrived troops, the Prussian artillerists, then the +first in Europe, threw in their balls in such showers, that the forest, +which hitherto had largely screened the enemy, began to fall in masses; +branch and trunk were swept away, and the ground became as naked of cover +as if it had been stripped by the axe. The troops thus exposed could not +withstand this "iron hail," and they were palpably staggered. The retreat +of a brigade, after suffering immense loss, shook the whole line, and +produced a charge of our dragoons up the hill. I gave an involuntary +glance at Macdonald. He was pale and exhausted; +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page217 name=page217></A>[pg 217]</SPAN> +but in another moment his +eye sparkled, his colour came, and I heard him exclaim, "Bravo, Chazot! +All is not lost yet." I saw a group of mounted officers galloping into the +very spot which had been abandoned by the brigade, and followed by the +colours of three or four battalions, which were planted directly under our +fire. "There comes Chazot with his division!" cried the aide-de-camp; +"gallant fellow, let him now make up for his ill fortune! Monsieur +Brunswick will not sleep on the hill of Valmy to-night. He has been unable +to force the centre, and now both flanks are secured: another attack would +cost him ten thousand men. Nor will Monsieur Brunswick sleep on the hills +of Valmy to-morrow. Dumourier was right; there was his Thermopylæ. But it +will not be stormed. <i>Vive la France!</i>" +</p> +<p> +The prediction was nearly true. The unexpected reinforcements, and the +approach of night, determined the generalissimo to abandon the assault for +the time. The fire soon slackened, the troops were withdrawn, and, after a +heavy loss on both sides, both slept upon the field. +</p> +<p> +I was roused at midnight from the deep sleep of fatigue, by an order to +attend the duke, who was then holding a council. Varnhorst was my summoner, +and on our way he slightly explained the purpose of his mission. "We are +all in rather bad spirits at the result of to-day's action. The affair +itself was not much, as it was only between detachments, but it shows two +things; that the French are true to their revolutionary nonsense, and that +they can fight. On even ground we have beaten them, and shall beat them +again; but if Champagne gives them cover, what will it be when we get into +the broken country that lies between this and Paris? Still there has been +no rising of the people, and until then, we have nothing to fear for the +event of the campaign." +</p> +<p> +"What then have you to fear?" was my question. "What calls the council +to-night?" +</p> +<p> +"My good friend," said Varnhorst with a grave smile, which more reminded +me of Guiscard, "remember the Arab apologue, that every man is born with +two strings tied to him, one large and visible, but made of twisted +feathers; the other so fine as to be invisible, but made of twisted steel. +Thus there are few men without a visible motive, which all can see, and an +invisible one—which, however, pulls then just as the puller pleases. +Berlin pulls now, and the duke's glory and the good of Europe must be +sacrificed to policy." +</p> +<p> +"But will the king suffer this? Will the emperor stand by and see this +done?" +</p> +<p> +"They are both zealous for the liberation of the unfortunate royal family. +But, <i>entre nous</i>—and this is a secret which I scarcely dare whisper even +in a French desert—their counsellors have other ideas. Poland is the +prize to which the ministers of both courts look. They know that the +permanent possession of French provinces is impossible. It is against the +will of your great country, against the deepest request of the French king, +and against their own declarations. But Polish seizures would give them +provinces to which nobody has laid claim, and which nobody can envy. The +consequence is, that a negotiation is on foot at this moment to conclude +the war by treaty, and, having ensured the safety of the royal family, to +withdraw the army into Lorraine." +</p> +<p> +"Why am I then summoned?" +</p> +<p> +"To put your signature to the preliminaries." +</p> +<p> +I started with indignation. "They shall wait long enough if they wait till +I sign them. I shall not attend this council." +</p> +<p> +"Observe," said Varnhorst, "I have spoken only on conjecture. If I return +without you, my candour will be rewarded by an instant sentence for +Spandau." +</p> +<p> +This decided me. I shook my gallant friend by the hand, the cloud passed +from his brow, and we rode together to the council. This was of a more +formal nature than I had yet witnessed. Two officers expressly sent from +Vienna and Berlin, a kind of military envoys, had brought the decisions of +their respective cabinets upon the crisis. The duke said little. He had +lost his gay nonchalance of manners, and was palpably dispirited and +disappointed. His address to me was gracious as ever; but he was more of +the prince and the diplomatist, and less of the soldier. +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page218 name=page218></A>[pg 218]</SPAN> +Our sitting +closed with a resolution, to agree upon an armistice, and to make the +immediate release of the king one of the stipulations. I combated the +proposal as long as I could with decorum. I placed, in the strongest light +that I could, the immense impulse which any pause in our advance must give +to the revolutionary spirit in France, or even in Europe—the +impossibility of relying on any negotiation which depended on the will of +the rabble—and, above all, the certainty that the first sign of tardiness +on the part of the Allies would overthrow the monarchy, which was now kept +in existence only by the dread of our arms. I was overruled. The proposal +for the armistice was signed by all present but one—that one myself. And +as we broke up silently and sullenly, at the first glimpse of a cold and +stormy dawn, the fit omen of our future fate, I saw a secretary of the +duke, accompanied by Macdonald, sent off to the headquarters of the enemy. +</p> +<p> +All was now over, and I thought of returning to my post at Paris. I spent +the rest of the day in paying parting civilities to my gallant friends, +and ordered my calèche to be in readiness by morning. But my prediction +had been only too true, though I had not calculated on so rapid a +fulfilment. The knowledge of the armistice was no sooner made +public—and, to do the French general justice, he lost neither time nor +opportunity—than it was regarded as a national triumph. The electric +change of public opinion, in this most electric of all countries, raised +the people from a condition of the deepest terror to the highest +confidence. Every man in France was a soldier, and every soldier a hero. +This was the miracle of twenty-four hours. Dumourier's force instantly +swelled to 100,000 men. He might have had a million, if he had asked for +them. The whole country became impassable. Every village poured out its +company of armed peasants; and, notwithstanding the diplomatic cessation +of hostilities, a real, universal, and desperate peasant war broke upon us +on every side. +</p> +<p> +After a week of this most harassing warfare, in which we lost ten times +the number of men which it would have cost to march over the bodies of +Dumourier's army to the capital, the order was issued for a general +retreat to the frontier. I remembered Mordecai's letter; but it was now +too late. Even if I could have turned my horse's head to a French post, I +felt myself bound to share the fortunes of the gallant army to which I had +been so closely attached. In the heat of youth, I went even further, and, +as my mission had virtually ceased, and I wore a Prussian order, I took +the <i>un</i>diplomatic step of proposing to act as one of the duke's +aides-de-camp until the army had left the enemy's territory. Behold me now, +a hulan of the duke's guard! I found no reason to repent my choice, though +our service was remarkably severe. The present war was chiefly against the +light troops and irregulars of the retreating army—the columns being too +formidable to admit of attack, at least by the multitude. Forty thousand +men, of the main army of France, were appointed to the duty of "seeing us +out of the country." But every attempt at foraging, every movement beyond +the range of our cannon, was instantly met by a peasant skirmish. Every +village approached by our squadrons, exhibited a barricade, from which we +were fired on; every forest produced a succession of sharp encounters; and +the passage of every river required as much precaution, and as often +produced a serious contest, as if we were at open war. Thus we were +perpetually on the wing, and our personal escapes were often of the most +hair-breadth kind. If we passed through a thicket, we were sure to be met +by a discharge of bullets; if we dismounted from our horses to take our +hurried and scanty meal, we found some of them shot at the inn-door; if we +flung ourselves, as tired as hounds after a chase, on the straw of a +village stable, the probability was that we were awakened by finding the +thatch in a blaze. How often we envied the easier life of the battalions! +But there an enemy, more fearful than the peasantry, began to show itself. +The weather had changed to storms of rain and bitter wind; the plains of +Champagne, never famed for fertility, were now as wild and bare as a +Russian steppe. The worst provisions, supplied on the narrowest +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page219 name=page219></A>[pg 219]</SPAN> +scale—above all, disgust, the most fatal canker of the soldier's +soul—spread disease among the ranks; and the roads on which we followed +the march, gave terrible evidence of the havoc that every hour made among +them. The mortality at last became so great, that it seemed not unlikely +that the whole army would thus melt away before it reached the boundary of +this land of death. +</p> +<p> +The horror of the scene even struck the peasantry, and whether through +fear of the contagion, or through the uselessness of hunting down men who +were treading to the grave by thousands, the peasantry ceased to follow us. +Yet such was the wretchedness of that hideous progress, that this +cessation of hostility was scarcely a relief. The animation of the +skirmishes, though it often cost life, yet kept the rest more alive; the +strategem, the adventure, the surprise, nay, even the failure and escape, +relieved us from the dreadful monotony of the life, or rather the +half-existence, to which we were now condemned. Our buoyant and brilliant +career was at an end; we were now only the mutes and mourners of a funeral +procession of seventy thousand men. +</p> +<p> +I still look back with an indescribable shudder at the scenes which we +were compelled to witness from day to day during that month of misery; for +the march, which began in the first days of October, was protracted till +its end. I had kept up my spirits when many a more vigorous frame had sunk, +and many a maturer mind had desponded; but the perpetual recurrence of the +same dreary spectacles, the dying, and the more fortunate dead, covering +the highways, the fields, and the village streets, at length sank into my +soul. Some recollections of earlier principles, and the memory of my old +friend Vincent, prevented my taking the summary and unhappy means of +ridding myself of my burden, which I saw daily resorted to among the +soldiery—a bullet through the brain, or a bayonet through the heart, +cured all. But, thanks to early impressions, I was determined to wait the +hand of the enemy, or the course of nature. Many a night I lay down beside +my starving charger, with something of a hope that I should never see +another morning; and many a morning, when I dragged my feeble limbs from +the cold and wet ground, I looked round the horizon for the approach of +some enemy's squadron, or peasant band, which might give me an honourable +chance of escape from an existence now no longer endurable. But all was in +vain. For leagues round no living object was visible, except that long +column, silently and slowly winding on through the distance, like an army +of spectres. +</p> +<p> +My diminished squadron had at length become almost the only rear-guard. +From a hundred and fifty as fine fellows as ever sat a charger, we were +now reduced to a third. All its officers, youths of the first families of +Prussia, had either been left behind dying in the villages, or had been +laid in the graves by the road-side, and I was now the only commandant. +Perhaps even this circumstance was the means of saving my life. My new +responsibility compelled me to make some exertion; and I felt that, live +or die, I might still earn an honourable name. Even in those darkest hours, +the thought that Clotilde might ask where and how I finished my +ill-fortuned career, and perhaps give a moment's sorrow to one who +remembered her to the last, had its share in restoring me to a sense of +the world. In that sort of fond frenzy, which seems so fantastic when it +is past, but so natural, and is actually so irresistible while it is in +the mind, I wrote down my feelings, wild as they were—my impossible hopes, +and a promise never to forget her while I remained in this world, and, if +there could be an intercourse between the living and the dead, in that +world to which I felt myself hastening. I then bade her a solemn and +heartfelt farewell. Placing the paper in my bosom, with a locket +containing a ringlet of her beautiful hair, which Marianne had contrived +to obtain for me, the only legacy I had to offer, I felt as if I had done +my last duty among mankind. +</p> +<p> +Still we wandered on, through a country which had the look of a boundless +cemetery. Not a peasant was met; not a sound of human labour, joy or +sorrow, reached the ear; not a smoke rose from mansion or cottage; all was +still, except when the wind burst in bitter gusts over +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page220 name=page220></A>[pg 220]</SPAN>the plain, or the +almost ceaseless rain swelled into sheets, and sent the rivers roaring +down before us. If the land had never been inhabited, or had been swept of +its inhabitants by an avenging Providence, it could not have been more +solitary. I never conceived the idea of the wilderness before. It was the +intensity of desolation. +</p> +<p> +We seemed even to make no progress. We began to think that the scene would +never change. But one evening, when the troop had lain down under the +shelter of a knoll, my sergeant, a fine Hungarian, whose eyes had been +sharpened by hussar service on the Turkish border, aroused me, saying that +he had discovered French horse-tracks in advance of us. We were all +instantly on the alert, the horse-tracks were found to be numerous, and it +was evident that a strong body of the enemy's cavalry had managed to get +in between us and the army. It is true that there was a treaty, in which +the unmolested movement of the duke was an article. But, it might have +been annulled; or the French general might have been inclined to make a +daring experiment on our worn-down battalions; or, at all events, it was +our business to keep him as far off as we could. We were on horseback +immediately. The track led us along the high-road for one or two leagues +and then turned off towards a village on a height at some distance. We now +paused, and the question was, whether to follow the enemy, or to dismount +and try to rest ourselves, and our tired horses, for the night. We had +scarcely come to the decision of unloosing girths, when the sky above the +village showed a sudden glow; and a confused clamour of voices came upon +the wind. Dispatching an orderly to the duke, to inform him of the French +movement, we rode towards the village. We found the road in its immediate +neighbourhood covered with fugitives; who, however, instead of flying from +us with the usual horror of the peasantry, threw themselves beside our +stirrups, hung on our bridles, and implored us with every wild +gesticulation to hasten to the gates. All that I could learn from the +outcries of men, women, and children, was, that their village, or rather +town—for we found it of considerable size—had been the quarters of some +of the Austrian cavalry, and that the officers had given a ball, to which +the leading families had been invited. The ball was charged as a national +crime by the democrats in Paris, and a regiment of horse had been sent to +punish the unfortunate town. + </p> +<p> +To attack such a force with fifty worn-out men, was obviously hopeless, +and my hulans, brave as they were, hung down their heads; but a fresh +concourse came rushing from the gates with even louder outcries than +before, and the words, <i>massacre</i> and <i>conflagration</i>, were heard with +fearful emphasis. While I pondered for a moment on our want of means, a +fine old man, with his white hair stained with blood from a sabre wound in +his forehead, clung to my charger's neck, and implored me, by the honour +of soldiership, to make but one effort against the revolutionary brigands, +as he termed them. "I am a French officer and noble!" he exclaimed—"I +have served my king, I have a son in the army of Condé, and now the +wretches have seized on my only daughter, my Amalia, and they are carrying +her to their accursed guillotine." I could resist no longer; yet I looked +round despairingly at my force. "Follow me," said the agonized old man; +"one half of the villains are drunk in the cafes already, the other half +are busy in that horrid procession to the axe. I shall take you by a +private way, and you may fall upon them by surprise. You shall find me, +and all who belong to me, sword in hand by your side. Come on; and the God +of battles, and protector of the unhappy, will give you victory." He knelt +at my feet, with his hands upraised.—"For my child's sake!"—he continued +faintly to exclaim—"for my innocent child's sake!" I saw tears fall down +some of our bronzed faces, and I had but one word to utter; but that +was—"Forward!" We followed our guide swiftly and silently through the +narrow streets; and then suddenly emerging into the public square, saw +such a sight of terror as never before met my eyes. +</p> +<br><hr class=full> + +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page221 name=page221></A>[pg 221]</SPAN> +<a name="bw340s8" id="bw340s8"></a><h2>SECESSION FROM THE CHURCH OF +SCOTLAND.</h2> + + +<p> +A great revolution has taken place in Scotland. A greater has been +threatened. Nor is that danger even yet certainly gone by. Upon the +accidents of such events as may arise for the next five years, whether +fitted or not fitted to revive discussions in which many of the +Non-seceders went in various degrees along with the Seceders, depends the +final (and, in a strict sense, the very awful) question, What is to be the +fate of the Scottish church? Lord Aberdeen's Act is well qualified to +tranquillize the agitations of that body; and at an earlier stage, if not +intercepted by Lord Melbourne, might have prevented them in part. But Lord +Aberdeen has no power to stifle a conflagration once thoroughly kindled. +That must depend in a great degree upon the favourable aspect of events +yet in the rear. +</p> +<p> +Meantime these great disturbances are not understood in England; and +chiefly on the differences between the two nations as to the language of +their several churches and law courts. The process of ordination and +induction is totally different under the different ecclesiastical +administrations of the two kingdoms. And the church courts of Scotland do +not exist in England. We write, therefore, with an express view to the +better information of England proper. And, with this purpose, we shall +lead the discussion through four capital questions:— +</p> +<p> +I. <i>What</i> is it that has been done by the moving party? +</p> +<p> +II. <i>How</i> was it done? By what agencies and influence? +</p> +<p> +III. What were the <i>immediate results</i> of these acts? +</p> +<p> +IV. What are the <i>remote results</i> yet to be apprehended? + +<br><hr> +<p> +I. First, then, WHAT <i>is it that has been done</i>? +</p> +<p> +Up to the month of May in 1834, the fathers and brothers of the "Kirk" +were in harmony as great as humanity can hope to see. Since May 1834, the +church has been a fierce crater of volcanic agencies, throwing out of her +bosom one-third of her children; and these children are no sooner born +into their earthly atmosphere, than they turn, with unnatural passions, to +the destruction of their brethren. What <i>can</i> be the grounds upon which an +<i>acharnement</i> so deadly has arisen? +</p> +<p> +It will read to the ears of a stranger almost as an experiment upon his +credulity, if we tell the simple truth. Being incredible, however, it is +not the less true; and, being monstrous it will yet be recorded in history, +that the Scottish church has split into mortal feuds upon two points +absolutely without interest to the nation: 1st, Upon a demand for creating +clergymen by a new process; 2dly, Upon a demand for Papal latitude of +jurisdiction. Even the order of succession in these things is not without +meaning. Had the second demand stood first, it would have seemed possible +that the two demands might have grown up independently, and so far +conscientiously. But, according to the realities of the case, this is +<i>not</i> possible, the second demand grew <i>out</i> of the first. The interest of +the Seceders, as locked up in their earliest requisition, was that which +prompted their second. Almost every body was contented with the existing +mode of creating the pastoral relation. Search through Christendom, +lengthways and breadthways, there was not a public usage, an institution, +an economy, which more profoundly slept in the sunshine of divine favour +or of civil prosperity, than the peculiar mode authorized and practised in +Scotland of appointing to every parish its several pastor. Here and there +an ultra-Presbyterian spirit might prompt a murmur against it. But the +wise and intelligent approved; and those who had the appropriate—that is, +the religious interest—confessed that it was practically successful. From +whom, then, came the attempt to change? Why, from those only who had an +alien interest, an indirect interest, an interest of ambition in its +subversion. As matters stood in the spring of 1834, the patron of each +benefice, acting under the severest restraints—restraints which (if the +church courts did their +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page222 name=page222></A>[pg 222]</SPAN> +duty) left no room or possibility for an unfit man +to creep in, nominated the incumbent. In a spiritual sense, the church had +all power: by refusing, first of all, to "<i>license</i>" unqualified persons; +secondly, by refusing to "<i>admit</i>" out of these licensed persons such as +might have become warped from the proper standard of pastoral fitness, the +church had a negative voice, all-potential in the creation of clergymen; +the church could exclude whom she pleased. But this contented her not. +Simply to shut out was an ungracious office, though mighty for the +interests of orthodoxy through the land. The children of this world, who +became the agitators of the church, clamoured for something more. They +desired for the church that she should become a lady patroness; that she +should give as well as take away; that she should wield a sceptre, courted +for its bounties, and not merely feared for its austerities. Yet how +should this be accomplished? Openly to translate upon the church the +present power of patrons—<i>that</i> were too revolutionary, that would have +exposed its own object. For the present, therefore, let this device +prevail—let the power nominally be transferred to congregations; let this +be done upon the plea that each congregation understands best what mode of +ministrations tends to its own edification. There lies the semblance of a +Christian plea; the congregation, it is said, has become anxious for +itself; the church has become anxious for the congregation. And then, if +the translation should be effected, the church has already devised a means +for appropriating the power which she has unsettled; for she limits this +power to the communicants at the sacramental table. Now, in Scotland, +though not in England, the character of communicant is notoriously created +or suspended by the clergyman of each parish; so that, by the briefest of +circuits, the church causes the power to revolve into her own hands. +</p> +<p> +That was the first change—a change full of Jacobinism; and for which to +be published was to be denounced. It was necessary, therefore, to place +this Jacobin change upon a basis privileged from attack. How should <i>that</i> +be done? The object was to create a new clerical power; to shift the +election of clergymen from the lay hands in which law and usage had lodged +it; and, under a plausible mask of making the election popular, +circuitously to make it ecclesiastical. Yet, if the existing patrons of +church benefices should see themselves suddenly denuded of their rights, +and within a year or two should see these rights settling determinately +into the hands of the clergy, the fraud, the fraudulent purpose, and the +fraudulent machinery, would have stood out in gross proportions too +palpably revealed. In this dilemma the reverend agitators devised a second +scheme. It was a scheme bearing triple harvests; for, at one and the same +time, it furnished the motive which gave a constructive coherency and +meaning to the original purpose, it threw a solemn shadow over the rank +worldliness of that purpose, and it opened a diffusive tendency towards +other purposes of the same nature, as yet undeveloped. The device was this: +in Scotland, as in England, the total process by which a parish clergyman +is created, subdivides itself into several successive acts. The initial +act belongs to the patron of the benefice: he must "<i>present</i>"; that is, +he notifies the fact of his having conferred the benefice upon A B, to a +public body which officially takes cognizance of this act; and that body +is, not the particular parish concerned, but the presbytery of the +district in which the parish is seated. Thus far the steps, merely legal, +of the proceedings, were too definite to be easily disturbed. These steps +are sustained by Lord Aberdeen as realities, and even by the +Non-intrusionists were tolerated as formalities. +</p> +<p> +But at this point commence other steps not so rigorously defined by law or +usage, nor so absolutely within one uniform interpretation of their value. +In practice they had long sunk into forms. But ancient forms easily lend +themselves to a revivification by meanings and applications, new or old, +under the galvanism of democratic forces. The disturbers of the church, +passing by the act of "presentation" as an obstacle too formidable to be +separately attacked on its own account, made their stand upon one of the +two acts which lie next in +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page223 name=page223></A>[pg 223]</SPAN> +succession. It is the regular routine, that the +presbytery, having been warned of the patron's appointment, and having +"received" (in technical language) the presentee—that is, having formally +recognised him in that character—next appoint a day on which he is to +preach before the congregation. This sermon, together with the prayers by +which it is accompanied, constitute the probationary act according to some +views; but, according to the general theory, simply the inaugural act by +which the new pastor places himself officially before his future +parishioners. Decorum, and the sense of proportion, seem to require that +to every commencement of a very weighty relation, imposing new duties, +there should be a corresponding and ceremonial entrance. The new pastor, +until this public introduction, could not be legitimately assumed for +known to the parishioners. And accordingly at this point it was—viz. +subsequently to his authentic publication, as we may call it—that, in the +case of any grievous scandal known to the parish as outstanding against +him, arose the proper opportunity furnished by the church for lodging the +accusation, and for investigating it before the church court. In default, +however, of any grave objection to the presentee, he was next summoned by +the presbytery to what really <i>was</i> a probationary act at their bar; viz. +an examination of his theological sufficiency. But in this it could not be +expected that he should fail, because he must previously have satisfied +the requisitions of the church in his original examination for a license +to preach. Once dismissed with credit from this bar, he was now beyond all +further probation whatsoever; in technical phrase, he was entitled to +"admission." Such were the steps, according to their orderly succession, +by which a man consummated the pastoral tie with any particular parish. +And all of these steps, subsequent to the "<i>reception</i>" and inaugural +preaching, were now summarily characterised by the revolutionists as +"spiritual;" for the sake of sequestering them into their own hands. As to +the initiatory act of presentation, <i>that</i> might be secular, and to be +dealt with by a secular law. But the rest were acts which belonged not to +a kingdom of this world. "These," with a new-born scrupulosity never heard +of until the revolution of 1834, clamoured for new casuistries; "these," +said the agitators, "we cannot consent any longer to leave in their state +of collapse as mere inert or ceremonial forms. They must be revivified. By +all means, let the patron present as heretofore. But the acts of +'examination' and 'admission,' <i>together with power of altogether refusing +to enter upon either</i>, under a protest against the candidate from a clear +majority of the parishioners—these are acts falling within the spiritual +jurisdiction of the church. And these powers we must, for the future, see +exercised according to spiritual views." +</p> +<p> +Here, then, suddenly emerged a perfect ratification for their own previous +revolutionary doctrine upon the creation of parish clergymen. This new +scruple was, in relation to former scruples, a perfect linch-pin for +locking their machinery into cohesion. For vainly would they have sought +to defeat the patron's right of presenting, unless through this sudden +pause and interdict imposed upon the <i>latter</i> acts in the process of +induction, under the pretext that these were acts competent only to a +spiritual jurisdiction. This plea, by its tendency, rounded and secured +all that they had yet advanced in the way of claim. But, at the same tine, +though indispensable negatively, positively it stretched so much further +than any necessity or interest inherent in their present innovations, that +not improbably they faltered and shrank back at first from the +immeasurable field of consequences upon which it opened. Thy would +willingly have accepted less. But, unfortunately, it sometimes happens, +that, to gain as much as is needful in one direction, you must take a +great deal more than you wish for in another. Any principle, which <i>could</i> +carry them over the immediate difficulty, would, by mere necessity, carry +them incalculably beyond it. For if every act bearing in any one direction +a spiritual aspect, showing at any angle a relation to spiritual things, +is therefore to be held spiritual in a sense excluding the interference of +the civil power, there falls to the +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page224 name=page224></A>[pg 224]</SPAN> +ground at once the whole fabric of +civil authority in any independent form. Accordingly, we are satisfied +that the claim to a spiritual jurisdiction, in collision with the claims +of the state, would not probably have offered itself to the ambition of +the agitators, otherwise than as a measure ancillary to their earlier +pretension of appointing virtually all parish clergymen. The one claim was +found to be the integration or <i>sine quâ non</i> complement of the other. In +order to sustain the power of appointment in their own courts, it was +necessary that they should defeat the patron's power; and, in order to +defeat the patron's power, ranging itself (as sooner or later it would) +under the law of the Land, it was necessary that they should decline that +struggle, by attempting to take the question out of all secular +jurisdictions whatever. +</p> +<p> +In this way grew up that twofold revolution which has been convulsing the +Scottish church since 1834; first, the audacious attempt to disturb the +settled mode of appointing the parish clergy, through a silent robbery +perpetrated on the crown and great landed aristocracy, secondly, and in +prosecution of that primary purpose, the far more frantic attempt to renew +in a practical shape the old disputes so often agitating the forum of +Christendom, as to the bounds of civil and spiritual power. +</p> +<p> +In our rehearsal of the stages through which the process of induction +ordinarily travels, we have purposely omitted one possible interlude or +parenthesis in the series; not as wishing to conceal it, but for the very +opposite reason. It is right to withdraw from a <i>representative</i> account +of any transaction such varieties of the routine as occur but seldom: in +this way they are more pointedly exposed. Now, having made that +explanation, we go on to inform the Southern reader—than an old +traditionary usage has prevailed in Scotland, but not systematically or +uniformly, of sending to the presentee, through the presbytery, what is +designated a "<i>call</i>", subscribed by members of the parish congregation. +This call is simply an invitation to the office of their pastor. It arose +in the disorders of the seventeenth century; but in practice it is +generally admitted to have sunk into a mere formality throughout the +eighteenth century; and the very position which it holds in the succession +of steps, not usually coming forward until <i>after</i> the presentation has +been notified, (supposing that it comes forward at all,) compels us to +regard it in that light. Apparently it bears the same relation to the +patron's act as the Address of the two Houses to the Speech from the +Throne: it is rather a courteous echo to the personal compliment involved +in the presentation, than capable of being regarded as any <i>original</i> act +of invitation. And yet, in defiance of that notorious fact, some people go +so far as to assert, that a call is not good unless where it is subscribed +by a clear majority of the congregation. This is amusing. We have already +explained that, except as a liberal courtesy, the very idea of a call +destined to be inoperative, is and must be moonshine. Yet between two +moonshines, some people, it seems, can tell which is the denser. We have +all heard of Barmecide banquets, where, out of tureens filled to the brim +with—nothing, the fortunate guest was helped to vast messes of—air. For +a hungry guest to take this tantalization in good part, was the sure way +to win the esteem of the noble Barmecide. But the Barmecide himself would +hardly approve of a duel turning upon a comparison between two of his +tureens, question being—which had been the fuller, or of two nihilities +which had been seasoned the more judiciously. Yet this in effect is the +reasoning of those who say that a call, signed by fifty-one persons out of +a hundred, is more valid than another signed only by twenty-six, or by +nobody; it being in the mean time fully understood that neither is valid +in the least possible degree. But if the "<i>call</i>" was a Barmecide call, +there was another act open to the congregation which was not so. +</p> +<p> +For the English reader must now understand, that over and above the +passive and less invidious mode of discountenancing or forbearing to +countenance a presentee, by withdrawing from the direct "<i>call</i>" upon him, +usage has sanctioned another and stronger sort of protest; one which +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page225 name=page225></A>[pg 225]</SPAN> +takes +the shape of distinct and clamorous <i>objections</i>. We are speaking of the +routine in this place, according to the course which it <i>did</i> travel or +<i>could</i> travel under that law and that practice which furnished the pleas +for complaint. Now, it was upon these "objections," as may well be +supposed, that the main battle arose. Simply to want the "call," being a +mere <i>zero</i>, could not much lay hold upon public feeling. It was a case +not fitted for effect. You cannot bring a blank privation strongly before +the public eye. "The 'call' did not take place last week;" well, perhaps +it will take place next week. Or again, if it should never take place, +perhaps it may be religious carelessness on the part of the parish. Many +parishes notoriously feel no interest in their pastor, except as a quiet +member of their community. Consequently, in two of three cases that might +occur, there was nothing to excite the public: the parish had either +agreed with the patron, or had not noticeably dissented. But in the third +case of positive "objections," which (in order to justify themselves as +not frivolous and vexatious) were urged with peculiar emphasis, the +attention of all men was arrested. Newspapers reverberated the fact: +sympathetic groans arose: the patron was an oppressor: the parish was +under persecution: and the poor clergyman, whose case was the most to be +pitied, as being in a measure <i>endowed</i> with a lasting fund of dislike, +had the mortification to find, over and above this resistance from within, +that he bore the name of "intruder" from without. He was supposed by the +fiction of the case to be in league with his patron for the persecution of +a godly parish; whilst in reality the godly parish was persecuting <i>him</i>, +and hallooing the world <i>ab extra</i> to join in the hunt. +</p> +<p> +In such cases of pretended objections to men who have not been tried, we +need scarcely tell the reader, that usually they are mere cabals and +worldly intrigues. It is next to impossible that any parish or +congregation should sincerely agree in their opinion of a clergyman. What +one man likes in such cases, another man detests. Mr A., with an ardent +nature, and something of a histrionic turn, doats upon a fine rhetorical +display. Mr B., with more simplicity of taste, pronounces this little +better than theatrical ostentation. Mr C. requires a good deal of critical +scholarship. Mr D. quarrels with this as unsuitable to a rustic +congregation. Mrs X., who is "under concern" for sin, demands a searching +and (as she expresses it) a "faithful" style of dealing with consciences. +Mrs Y., an aristocratic lady, who cannot bear to be mixed up in any common +charge together with low people, abominates such words as "sin," and wills +that the parson should confine his "observations" to the "shocking +demoralization of the lower orders." +</p> +<p> +Now, having stated the practice of Scottish induction, as it was formerly +sustained in its first stage by law, in its second stage by usage, let us +finish that part of the subject by reporting the <i>existing</i> practice as +regulated in all its stages by law. What law? The law as laid down in Lord +Aberdeen's late Act of Parliament. This statement should, historically +speaking, have found itself under our <i>third</i> head, as being one amongst +the consequences immediately following the final rupture. But it is better +placed at this point; because it closes the whole review of that topic; +and because it reflects light upon the former practice—the practice which +led to the whole mutinous tumult: every alteration forcing more keenly +upon the reader's attention what had been the previous custom, and in what +respect it was held by any man to be a grievance. +</p> +<p> +This Act, then, of Lord Aberdeen's, removes all <i>legal</i> effect from the +"<i>call</i>." Common sense required <i>that</i>. For what was to be done with +patronage? Was it to be sustained, or was it not? If not, then why quarrel +with the Non-intrusionists? Why suffer a schism to take place in the +church? Give legal effect to the "call," and the original cause of quarrel +is gone. For, with respect to the opponents of the Non-intrusionists, +<i>they</i> would bow to the law. On the other hand, if patronage <i>is</i> to be +sustained, then why allow of any lingering or doubtful force to what must +often operate as a conflicting claim? "A call," which carries with it any +legal force, <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page226 name=page226></A>[pg 226]</SPAN> +annihilates patronage. Patronage would thus be exercised only +on sufferance. Do we mean then, that a "call" should sink into a pure +fiction of ceremony, like the English <i>congé-d'élire</i> addressed to a dean +and chapter, calling on them to elect a bishop, when all the world knows +that already the see has been filled by a nomination from the crown? Not +at all; a <i>moral</i> weight will still attach to the "call," though no legal +coercion: and, what is chiefly important, all those <i>doubts</i> be removed by +express legislation, which could not but arise between a practice pointing +sometimes in one direction, and sometimes in another, between legal +decisions again upholding one view, whilst something very like legal +prescription was occasionally pleaded for the other. Behold the evil of +written laws not rigorously in harmony with that sort of customary law +founded upon vague tradition or irregular practice. And here, by the way, +arises the place for explaining to the reader that irreconcilable dispute +amongst Parliamentary lawyers as to the question whether Lord Aberdeen's +bill were <i>enactory</i>, that is, created a new law, or <i>declaratory</i>, that +is, simply expounded an old one. If enactory, then why did the House of +Lords give judgment against those who allowed weight to the "call?" That +might need altering; <i>that</i> might be highly inexpedient; but if it +required a new law to make it illegal, how could those parties be held in +the wrong previously to the new act of legislation? On the other hand, if +declaratory, then show us any old law which made the "call" illegal. The +fact is—that no man can decide whether the act established a new law, or +merely expounded an old one. And the reason why he cannot—is this: the +practice, the usage, which often is the law, had grown up variously during +the troubles of the seventeenth century. In many places political reasons +had dictated that the elders should nominate the incumbent. But the +ancient practice had authorized patronage: by the act of Queen Anne (10th +chap.) it was even formally restored; and yet the patron in known +instances was said to have waived his right in deference to the "call." +But why? Did he do so, in courteous compliance with the parish, as a party +whose <i>reasonable</i> wishes ought, for the sake of all parties, to meet with +attention? Or did he do so, in humble submission to the parish, as having +by their majorities a legal right to the presentation? There lay the +question. The presumptions from antiquity were all against the call. The +more modern practice had occasionally been <i>for</i> it. Now, we all know how +many colourable claims of right are created by prescription. What was the +exact force of the "call," no man could say. In like manner, the exact +character and limit of allowable objections had been ill-defined in +practice, and rested more on a vague tradition than on any settled rule. +This also made it hard to say whether Lord Aberdeen's Act were enactory or +declaratory, a predicament, however, which equally affects all statutes +<i>for removing doubts</i>. +</p> +<p> +The "call," then, we consider as no longer recognised by law. But did Lord +Aberdeen by that change establish the right of the patron as an +unconditional right? By no means. He made it strictly a conditional right. +The presentee is <i>now</i> a candidate, and no more. He has the most important +vote in his favour, it is true: but that vote may still be set aside, +though still only with the effect of compelling the patron to a new choice. +"<i>Calls</i>" are no longer doubtful in their meaning, but "<i>objections</i>" have +a fair field laid open to then. All reasonable objections are to be +weighed. But who is to judge whether they <i>are</i> reasonable? The presbytery +of the district. And now pursue the action of the law, and see how little +ground it leaves upon which to hang a complaint. Every body's rights are +secured. Whatever be the event, first of all the presentee cannot complain, +if he is rejected only for proved insufficiency. He is put on his trial as +to these points only: 1. Is he orthodox? 2. Is he of good moral +reputation? 3. Is he sufficiently learned? And note this, (which in fact +Sir James Graham remarked in his official letter to the Assembly,) +strictly speaking, he ought not to be under challenge as respects the +third point; for it is your own fault, the fault of your own licensing +courts (the presbyteries,) if he is not qualified so far. You should not +have created him a licentiate, should +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page227 name=page227></A>[pg 227]</SPAN> +not have given him a license to +preach, as must have been done in an earlier stage of his progress, if he +were not learned enough. Once learned, a man is learned for life. As to +the other points, he may change; and <i>therefore</i> it is that an examination +is requisite. But how can <i>he</i> complain, if he is found by an impartial +court of venerable men objectionable on any score? If it were possible, +however, that he should be wronged, he has his appeal. Secondly, how can +the patron complain? <i>His</i> case is the same as his presentee's case; his +injuries the same; his relief the same. Besides, if <i>his</i> man is rejected, +it is not the parish man that takes his place. No; but a second man of +his own choice: and, if again he chooses amiss, who is to blame for +<i>that</i>? Thirdly, can the congregation complain? They have a <i>general</i> +interest in their spiritual guide. But as to the preference for +oratory—for loud or musical voice—for peculiar views in religion—these +things are special: they interest but an exceedingly small minority in any +parish; and, what is worse, that which pleases one is often offensive to +another. There are cases in which a parish would reject a man for being a +married man: some of the parish have unmarried daughters. But this case +clearly belongs to the small minority; and we have little doubt that, +where the objections lay "for cause not shown," it was often for <i>this</i> +cause. Fourthly, can the church complain? Her interest is represented, 1, +not by the presentee; 2, not by the patron; 3, not by the congregation; +but 4, by the presbytery. And, whatever the presbytery say, <i>that</i> is +supported. Speaking either for the patron, for the presentee, for the +congregation, or for themselves as conservators of the church, that court +is heard; what more would they have? And thus in turn every interest is +protected. Now the point to be remarked is—that each party in turn has a +separate influence. But on any other plan, giving to one party out of the +four an absolute or unconditional power, no matter which of the four it +be—all the rest have none at all. Lord Aberdeen has reconciled the rights +of patrons for the first time with those of all other parties interested. +Nobody has more than a conditional power. Every body has <i>that</i>. And the +patron, as necessity requires, if property is to be protected, has in all +circumstances the reversionary power. +</p> +<br><hr> + +<p> +II. <i>Secondly</i>, How <i>were these things done?</i> By what means were the hands +of any party strengthened, so as to find this revolution possible? +</p> +<p> +We seek not to refine; but all moral power issues out of moral forces. And +it may be well, therefore, rapidly to sketch the history of religion, +which is the greatest of moral forces, as it sank and rose in this island +through the last two hundred years. +</p> +<p> +It is well known that the two great revolutions of the seventeenth +century—that in 1649, accomplished by the Parliament armies, (including +its reaction in 1660,) and secondly, that in 1688-9—did much to unsettle +the religious tone of public morals. Historians and satirists ascribe a +large effect in this change to the personal influence of Charles II., and +the foreign character of his court. We do not share in their views; and +one eminent proof that they are wrong, lies in the following fact—viz. +that the sublimest act of self-sacrifice which the world has ever seen, +arose precisely in the most triumphant season of Charles's career, a time +when the reaction of hatred had not yet neutralized the sunny joyousness +of his Restoration. Surely the reader cannot be at a loss to know what we +mean—the renunciation in one hour, on St Bartholomew's day in 1662, of +two thousand benefices by the non-conforming clergymen of England. In the +same year, occurred a similar renunciation of three hundred and sixty +benefices in Scotland. These great sacrifices, whether called for or not, +argue a great strength in the religious principle at that era. Yet the +decay of external religion towards the close of that century is proved +incontestably. We ourselves are inclined to charge this upon two causes; +first, that the times were controversial and usually it happens—that, +where too much energy is carried into the controversies or intellectual +part of +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page228 name=page228></A>[pg 228]</SPAN> +religion, a very diminished fervour attends the culture of its +moral and practical part. This was perhaps one reason; for the dispute +with the Papal church, partly, perhaps, with a secret reference to the +rumoured apostasy of the royal family, was pursued more eagerly in the +latter half of the seventeenth than even in any section of the sixteenth +century. But, doubtless, the main reason was the revolutionary character +of the times. Morality is at all periods fearfully shaken by intestine +wars, and by instability in a government. The actual duration of war in +England was not indeed longer than three and a half years, viz. from +Edgehill fight, in the autumn of 1642, to the defeat of the king's last +force under Sir Jacob Astley at Stow-in-the-wolds in the spring of 1646. +Any other fighting in that century belonged to mere insulated and +discontinuous war. But the insecurity of every government between 1638 and +1702, kept the popular mind in a state of fermentation. Accordingly, Queen +Anne's reign might be said to open upon an irreligious people. This +condition of things was further strengthened by the unavoidable +interweaving at that time of politics with religion. They could not be +kept separate; and the favour shown even by religious people to such +partisan zealots as Dr Sacheverell, evidenced, and at the same time +promoted, the public irreligion. This was the period in which the clergy +thought too little of their duties, but too much of their professional +rights; and if we may credit the indirect report of the contemporary +literature, all apostolic or missionary zeal for the extension of religion, +was in those days a thing unknown. It may seem unaccountable to many, that +the same state of things should have spread in those days to Scotland; but +this is no more than the analogies of all experience entitled us to expect. +Thus we know that the instincts of religious reformation ripened every +where at the same period of the sixteenth century from one end of Europe +to the other; although between most of the European kingdoms there was +nothing like so much intercourse as between England and Scotland in the +eighteenth century. In both countries, a cold and lifeless state of public +religion prevailed up to the American and French Revolutions. These great +events gave a shock every where to the meditative, and, consequently, to +the religious impulses of men. And, in the mean time, an irregular channel +had been already opened to these impulses by the two founders of Methodism. +A century has now passed since Wesley and Whitfield organized a more +spiritual machinery of preaching than could then be found in England, for +the benefit of the poor and labouring classes. These Methodist +institutions prospered, as they were sure of doing, amongst the poor and +the neglected at any time, much more when contrasted with the deep +slumbers of the Established church. And another ground of prosperity soon +arose out of the now expanding manufacturing system. Vast multitudes of +men grew up under that system—humble enough by the quality of their +education to accept with thankfulness the ministrations of Methodism, and +rich enough to react, upon that beneficent institution, by continued +endowments in money. Gradually, even the church herself, that mighty +establishment, under the cold shade of which Methodism had grown up as a +neglected weed, began to acknowledge the power of an extending Methodistic +influence, which originally she had haughtily despised. First, she +murmured; then she grew anxious or fearful; and finally, she began to find +herself invaded or modified from within, by influences springing up from +Methodism. This last effect became more conspicuously evident after the +French Revolution. The church of Scotland, which, as a whole, had +exhibited, with much unobtrusive piety, the same outward torpor as the +church of England during the eighteenth century, betrayed a corresponding +resuscitation about the same time. At the opening of this present century, +both of these national churches began to show a marked rekindling of +religious fervour. In what extent this change in the Scottish church had +been due, mediately or immediately, to Methodism, we do not pretend to +calculate; that is, we do not pretend to settle the proportions. But +<i>mediately</i> the +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page229 name=page229></A>[pg 229]</SPAN> +Scottish church must have been affected, because she was +greatly affected by her intercourse with the English church, (as, e.g., in +Bible Societies, Missionary Societies, &c.;) and the English church had +been previously affected by Methodism. <i>Immediately</i> she must also have +been affected by Methodism, because Whitfield had been invited to preach +in Scotland, and <i>did</i> preach in Scotland. But, whatever may have been the +cause of this awakening from slumber in the two established churches of +this island, the fact is so little to be denied, that, in both its aspects, +it is acknowledged by those most interested in denying it. The two +churches slept the sleep of torpor through the eighteenth century; so much +of the fact is acknowledged by their own members. The two churches awoke, +as from a trance, in or just before the dawning of the nineteenth century; +this second half of the fact is acknowledged by their opponents. The +Wesleyan Methodists, that formidable power in England and Wales, who once +reviled the Establishment as the dormitory of spiritual drones, have for +many years hailed a very large section in that establishment—viz., the +section technically known by the name of the Evangelical clergy—as +brothers after their own hearts, and corresponding to their own strictest +model of a spiritual clergy. That section again, the Evangelical section, +in the English church, as men more highly educated, took a direct interest +in the Scottish clergy, upon general principles of liberal interest in all +that could affect religion, beyond what could be expected from the +Methodists. And in this way grew up a considerable action and reaction +between the two classical churches of the British soil. +</p> +<p> +Such was the varying condition, when sketched in outline, of the Scottish +and English churches. Two centuries ago, and for half a century beyond +that, we find both churches in a state of trial, of turbulent agitation, +and of sacrifices for conscience which involved every fifth or sixth +beneficiary. Then came a century of languor and the carelessness which +belongs to settled prosperity. And finally, for both has arisen a half +century of new light—new zeal—and, spiritually speaking, of new +prosperity. This deduction it was necessary to bring down, in order to +explain the new power which arose to the Scottish church during the last +generation of suppose thirty years. +</p> +<p> +When two powerful establishments, each separately fitted to the genius and +needs of its several people, are pulling together powerfully towards one +great spiritual object, vast must be the results. Our ancestors would have +stood aghast as at some fabulous legend or some mighty miracle, could they +have heard of the scale on which our modern contributions proceed for the +purposes of missions to barbarous nations, of circulating the Scriptures, +(whether through the Bible Society, that is the National Society, or +Provincial Societies,) of translating the Scriptures into languages +scarcely known by name to scholars, of converting Jews, of organizing and +propagating education. Towards these great objects the Scottish clergy had +worked with energy and with little disturbance to their unanimity. +Confidence was universally felt in their piety and in their discretion. +This confidence even reached the supreme rulers of the state. Very much +through ecclesiastical influence, new plans for extending the religious +power of the Scottish church, and indirectly of extending their secular +power, were countenanced by the Government. Jealousy had been disarmed by +the upright conduct of the Scottish clergy, and their remarkable freedom +hitherto from all taint of ambition. It was felt, besides, that the temper +of the Scottish nation was radically indisposed to all intriguing or modes +of temporal ascendency in ecclesiastical bodies. The nation, therefore, +was in some degree held as a guarantee for the discretion of their clergy. +And hence it arose, that much less caution was applied to the first +encroachment of the Non-intrusionists, than would have been applied under +circumstances of more apparent doubt. Hence it arose, that a confidence +from the Scottish nation was extended to this clergy, which too certainly +has been abused. +</p> +<p> +In the years 1824-5, Parliament had passed acts "for building additional +places of worship in the highlands +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page230 name=page230></A>[pg 230]</SPAN> +and islands of Scotland." These acts +may be looked upon as one section in that general extension of religious +machinery which the British people, by their government and their +legislature, have for many years been promoting. Not, as is ordinarily +said, that the weight of this duty had grown upon them simply through +their own treacherous neglect of it during the latter half of the +eighteenth century; but that no reasonable attention to that duty <i>could</i> +have kept pace with the scale upon which the claims of a new manufacturing +population had increased. In mere equity we must admit—not that the +British nation had fallen behind its duties, (though naturally it might +have done so under the religious torpor prevalent at the original era of +manufacturing extension,) but that the duties had outstripped all human +power of overtaking them. The efforts, however, have been prodigious in +this direction for many years. Amongst those applied to Scotland, it had +been settled by parliament that forty-two new churches should be raised in +the highlands, with an endowment from the Government of L.120 annually for +each incumbent. There were besides more than two hundred chapels of ease +to be founded; and towards this scheme the Scottish public subscribed +largely. The money was entrusted to the clergy. <i>That</i> was right. But mark +what followed. It had been expressly provided by Parliament—that any +district or circumjacent territory, allotted to such parliamentary +churches as the range within which the incumbent was to exercise his +spiritual ministrations, should <i>not</i> be separate parishes for any civil +or legal effects. Here surely the intentions and directions of the +legislature were plain enough, and decisive enough. +</p> +<p> +How did the Scottish clergy obey them? They erected all these +jurisdictions into <i>bona fide</i> "parishes," enjoying the plenary rights (as +to church government) of the other parishes, and distinguished from them +in a merely nominal way as parishes <i>quoad sacra</i>. There were added at +once to the presbyteries, which are the organs of the church power, 203 +clerical persons for the chapels of ease, and 42 for the highland +churches—making a total of 245 new members. By the constitution of the +Scottish church, an equal number of lay elders (called ruling elders) +accompany the clerical elders. Consequently 490 new members were +introduced at once into that particular class of courts (presbyteries) +which form the electoral bodies in relation to the highest court of +General Assembly. The effect of this change, made in the very teeth of the +law, was twofold. First, it threw into many separate presbyteries a +considerable accession of voters—<i>all owing their appointments to the +General Assembly</i>. This would at once give a large bias favourable to +their party views in every election for members to serve in the Assembly. +Even upon an Assembly numerically limited, this innovation would have told +most abusively. But the Assembly was <i>not</i> limited; and therefore the +whole effect was, at the same moment, greatly to extend the electors and +the elected. +</p> +<p> +Here, then, was the machinery by which the faction worked. They drew that +power from Scotland rekindled into a temper of religious anxiety, which +they never could have drawn from Scotland lying torpid, as she had lain +through the 18th century. The new machinery, (created by Parliament in +order to meet the wishes of the Scottish nation,) the money of that nation, +the awakened zeal of that nation; all these were employed, honourably in +one sense, that is, not turned aside into private channels for purposes of +individuals, but factiously in the result, as being for the benefit of a +faction; honourably as regarded the open <i>mode</i> of applying such +influence—a mode which did not shrink from exposure; but most +dishonourably, in so far as privileges, which had been conceded altogether +for a spiritual object, were abusively transferred to the furtherance of a +temporal intrigue. Such were the methods by which the new-born ambition of +the clergy moved; and that ambition had become active, simply because it +had suddenly seemed to become practicable. The presbyteries, as being the +effectual electoral bodies, are really the main springs of the +ecclesiastical administration. To govern <i>them</i>, was in +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page231 name=page231></A>[pg 231]</SPAN> +effect to govern +the church. A new scheme for extending religion, had opened a new avenue +to this control over the presbyteries. That opening was notoriously +unlawful. But not the less, the church faction precipitated themselves +ardently upon it; and but for the faithfulness of the civil courts, they +would never have been dislodged from what they had so suddenly acquired. +Such was the extraordinary leap taken by the Scottish clergy, into a power +of which, hitherto, they had never enjoyed a fraction. It was a movement +<i>per saltum</i>, beyond all that history has recorded. At cock-crow, they had +no power at all; when the sun went down, they had gained (if they could +have held) a papal supremacy. And a thing not less memorably strange is, +that even yet the ambitious leaders were not disturbed; what they had +gained was viewed by the public as a collateral gain, indirectly adhering +to a higher object, but forming no part at all of what the clergy had +sought. It required the scrutiny of law courts to unmask and decompose +their true object. The obstinacy of the defence betrayed the real <i>animus</i> +of the attempt. It was an attempt which, in connexion with the <i>Veto</i> Act, +(supposing that to have prospered,) would have laid the whole power of the +church at their feet. What the law had distributed amongst three powers, +patron, parish, and presbytery, would have been concentred in themselves. +The <i>quoad sacra</i> parishes would have riveted their majorities in the +presbyteries; and the presbyteries, under the real action of the <i>Veto</i>, +would have appointed nearly every incumbent in Scotland. And this is the +answer to the question, when treated merely in outline—<i>How were these +things done?</i> The religion of the times had created new machineries for +propagating a new religious influence. These fell into the hands of the +clergy; and the temptation to abuse these advantages led them into +revolution. +</p> +<br><hr> +<p> +III. Having now stated WHAT was done, as well as HOW it was done, let us +estimate the CONSEQUENCES of these acts; under this present, or <i>third</i> +section, reviewing the immediate consequences which have taken effect +already, and under the next section, anticipating the more remote +consequences yet to be expected. +</p> +<p> +In the spring of 1834, as we have sufficiently explained, the General +Assembly ventured on the fatal attempt to revolutionize the church, and +(as a preliminary towards <i>that</i>) on the attempt to revolutionize the +property of patronage. There lay the extravagance of the attempt; its +short-sightedness, if they did not see its civil tendencies; its audacity, +if they <i>did</i>. It was one revolution marching to its object through +another; it was a vote, which, if at all sustained, must entail a long +inheritance of contests with the whole civil polity of Scotland. +</p> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "Heu quantum fati parva tabella vehit!"</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +It might seem to strangers a trivial thing, that an obscure court, like +the presbytery, should proceed in the business of induction by one routine +rather than by another; but was it a trivial thing that the power of +appointing clergymen should lapse into this perilous dilemma—either that +it should be intercepted by the Scottish clerical order, and thus, that a +lordly hierarchy should be suddenly created, disposing of incomes which, +in the aggregate, approach to half a million annually; or, on the other +hand, that this dangerous power, if defeated as a clerical power, should +settle into a tenure exquisitely democratic? Was <i>that</i> trivial? Doubtless, +the Scottish ecclesiastical revenues are not equal, nor nearly equal, to +the English; still, it is true, that Scotland, supposing all her benefices +equalized, gives a larger <i>average</i> to each incumbent than England, of the +year 1830. England, in that year, gave an average of £299 to each +beneficiary; Scotland gave an average of £303. That body, therefore, which +wields patronage in Scotland, wields a greater relative power than the +corresponding body in England. Now this body, in Scotland, must finally +have been the <i>clerus</i>; but supposing the patronage to have settled +nominally where the Veto Act had placed it, then it would have settled +into the keeping of a fierce democracy. Mr Forsyth has justly remarked, +that in such a case the hired ploughmen of a parish, mercenary +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page232 name=page232></A>[pg 232]</SPAN> +hands that +quit their engagements at Martinmas, and <i>can</i> have no filial interest in +the parish, would generally succeed in electing the clergyman. That man +would be elected generally, who had canvassed the parish with the arts and +means of an electioneering candidate; or else, the struggle would lie +between the property and the Jacobinism of the district. +</p> +<p> +In respect to Jacobinism, the condition of Scotland is much altered from +what it was; pauperism and great towns have worked "strange defeatures" in +Scottish society. A vast capital has arisen in the west, on a level with +the first-rate capitals of the Continent—with Vienna or with Naples; far +superior in size to Madrid, to Lisbon, to Berlin; more than equal to Rome +and Milan; or again to Munich and Dresden, taken by couples: and in this +point, beyond comparison with any one of these capitals, that whilst +<i>they</i> are connected by slight ties with the circumjacent country, Glasgow +keeps open a communication with the whole land. Vast laboratories of +encouragement to manual skill, too often dissociated from consideration of +character; armies of mechanics, gloomy and restless, having no interfusion +amongst their endless files of any gradations corresponding to a system of +controlling officers; these spectacles, which are permanently offered by +the <i>castra stativa</i> of combined mechanics in Glasgow and its dependencies, +(Paisley, Greenock, &c.,) supported by similar districts, and by turbulent +collieries in other parts of that kingdom, make Scotland, when now +developing her strength, no longer the safe and docile arena for popular +movements which once she was, with a people that were scattered, and +habits that were pastoral. And at this moment, so fearfully increased is +the overbalance of democratic impulses in Scotland, that perhaps in no +European nation—hardly excepting France—has it become more important to +hang weights and retarding forces upon popular movements amongst the +labouring classes. +</p> +<p> +This being so, we have never been able to understand the apparent apathy +with which the landed body met the first promulgation of the <i>Veto</i> Act in +May 1834. Of this apathy, two insufficient explanations suggest +themselves:—1st, It seemed a matter of delicacy to confront the General +Assembly, upon a field which they had clamorously challenged for their own. +The question at issue was tempestuously published to Scotland as a +question exclusively spiritual. And by whom was it thus published? The +Southern reader must here not be careless of dates. <i>At present</i>, viz. in +1844, those who fulminate such views of spiritual jurisdiction, are simply +dissenters; and those who vehemently withstand them are the church, armed +with the powers of the church. Such are the relations between the parties +in 1844. But in 1834, the revolutionary party were not only <i>in</i> the +church, but (being the majority) they came forward <i>as</i> the church. The +new doctrines presented themselves at first, not as those of a faction, +but of the Scottish kirk assembled in her highest court. The <i>prestige</i> of +that advantage, has vanished since then; for this faction, after first of +all falling into a minority, afterwards ceased to be any part or section +of the church; but in that year 1834, such a <i>prestige</i> did really operate; +and this must be received as one of the reasons which partially explain +the torpor of the landed body. No one liked to move <i>first</i>, even amongst +those who meant to move. But another reason we find in the conscientious +scruples of many landholders, who hesitated to move at all upon a question +then insufficiently discussed, and in which their own interest was by so +many degrees the largest. +</p> +<p> +These reasons, however, though sufficient for suspense, seem hardly +sufficient for not having solemnly protested against the <i>Veto</i> Act +immediately upon its passing the Assembly. Whatever doubts a few persons +might harbour upon the expediency of such an act, evidently it was +contrary to the law of the land. The General Assembly could have no power +to abrogate a law passed by the three estates of the realm. But probably +it was the deep sense of that truth, which reined up the national +resistance. Sure of a speedy collision between some patron and the +infringers of his right, other parties stood back for the present, to +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page233 name=page233></A>[pg 233]</SPAN> +watch the form which such a collision might assume. +</p> +<p> +In that same year of 1834, not many months after the passing of the +Assembly's Act, came on the first case of collision; and some time +subsequently a second. These two cases, Auchterarder and Marnoch, +commenced in the very same steps, but immediately afterwards diverged as +widely as was possible. In both cases, the rights of the patron and of the +presentee were challenged peremptorily; that is to say, in both cases, +parishioners objected to the presentee without reason shown. The conduct +of the people was the same in one case as in the other; that of the two +presbyteries travelled upon lines diametrically opposite. The first case +was that of <i>Auchterarder</i>. The parish and the presbytery concerned, both +belonged to Auchterarder; and there the presbytery obeyed the new law of +the Assembly: they rejected the presentee, refusing to take him on trial +of his qualifications; And why? we cannot too often repeat—simply because +a majority of a rustic congregation had rejected him, without attempting +to show reason for his rejection. The Auchterarder presbytery, for <i>their</i> +part in the affair, were prosecuted in the Court of Session by the injured +parties—Lord Kinnoul, the patron, and Mr Young, the presentee. Twice, +upon a different form of action, the Court of Session gave judgment +against the presbytery; twice the case went up by appeal to the Lords; +twice the Lords affirmed the judgment of the court below. In the other +case of <i>Marnoch</i>, the presbytery of Strathbogie took precisely the +opposite course. So far from abetting the unjust congregation of rustics, +they rebelled against the new law of the Assembly, and declared, by seven +of their number against three, that they were ready to proceed with the +trial of the presentee, and to induct him (if found qualified) into the +benefice. Upon this, the General Assembly suspended the seven members of +presbytery. By that mode of proceeding, the Assembly fancied that they +should be able to elude the intentions of the presbytery: it being +supposed that, whilst suspended, the presbytery had no power to ordain; +and that, without ordination, there was no possibility of giving induction. +But here the Assembly had miscalculated. Suspension would indeed have had +the effects ascribed to it; but in the mean time, the suspension, as being +originally illegal, was found to be void: and the presentee, on that +ground, obtained a decree from the Court of Session, ordaining the +presbytery of Strathbogie to proceed with the settlement. Three of the ten +members composing this presbytery, resisted; and they were found liable in +expenses. The other seven completed the settlement in the usual form. Here +was plain rebellion; and rebellion triumphant. If this were allowed, all +was gone. What should the Assembly do for the vindication of their +authority? Upon deliberation, they deposed the contumacious presbytery +from their functions as clergymen, and declared their churches vacant. But +this sentence was found to be a <i>brutum fulmen</i>; the crime was no crime, +the punishment turned out no punishment: and a minority, even in this very +Assembly, declared publicly that they would not consent to regard this +sentence as any sentence at all, but would act in all respects as if no +such sentence had been carried by vote. <i>Within</i> their own high Court of +Assembly, it is, however, difficult to see how this refusal to recognise a +sentence voted by a majority could be valid. Outside, the civil courts +came into play; but within the Assembly, surely its own laws and votes +prevailed. However, this distinction could bring little comfort to the +Assembly at present; for the illegality of the deposal was now past all +dispute; and the attempt to punish, or even ruin, a number of professional +brethren for not enforcing a by-law, when the by-law itself had been found +irreconcilable to the law of the land, greatly displease the public, as +vindictive, oppressive, and useless to the purposes of the Assembly. +</p> +<p> +Nothing was gained except the putting on record an implacability that was +<i>confessedly</i> impotent. This was the very lunacy of malice. Mortifying it +might certainly seem for the members of a supreme court, like the General +Assembly, to be baffled by those of a subordinate court: but still, +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page234 name=page234></A>[pg 234]</SPAN> +since +each party must be regarded as representing far larger interests than any +personal to themselves, trying on either side, not the energies of their +separate wits, but the available resources of law in one of its obscurer +chapters, there really seemed no more room for humiliation to the one +party, or for triumph to the other, than there is amongst reasonable men +in the result from a game, where the game is one exclusively of chance. +</p> +<p> +From this period it is probably that the faction of Non-intrusionists +resolved upon abandoning the church. It was the one sole resource left for +sustaining their own importance to men who were now sinking fast in public +estimation. At the latter end of 1842, they summoned a convocation in +Edinburgh. The discussions were private; but it was generally understood +that at this time they concerted a plan for going out from the church, in +the event of their failing to alarm the Government by the notification of +this design. We do not pretend to any knowledge of secrets. What is known +to every body is—that on the annual meeting of the General Assembly, in +May 1843, the great body of the Non-intrusionists moved out in procession. +The sort of theatrical interest which gathered round the Seceders for a +few hurried days in May, was of a kind which should naturally have made +wise men both ashamed and disgusted. It was the merest effervescence from +that state of excitement which is nursed by novelty, by expectation, by +the vague anticipation of a "scene," possibly of a quarrel, together with +the natural interest in <i>seeing</i> men whose names had been long before the +public in books and periodical journals. +</p> +<p> +The first measure of the Seceders was to form themselves into a +pseudo-General Assembly. When there are two suns visible, or two moons, +the real one and its duplicate, we call the mock sun a <i>parhelios</i>, and +the mock moon a <i>paraselene</i>. On that principle, we must call this mock +Assembly a <i>para-synodos</i>. Rarely, indeed, can we applaud the Seceders in +the fabrication of names. They distinguish as <i>quoad sacra</i> parishes those +which were peculiarly <i>quoad politica</i> parishes; for in that view only +they had been interesting to the Non-intrusionists. Again, they style +themselves <i>The Free Church</i>, by way of taunting the other side with being +a servile church. But how are they any church at all? By the courtesies of +Europe, and according to usage, a church means a religious incorporation, +protected and privileged by the State. Those who are not so privileged are +usually content with the title of Separatists, Dissenters, or +Nonconformists. No wise man will see either good sense or dignity in +assuming titles not appropriate. The very position and aspect towards the +church (legally so called) which has been assumed by the +Non-intrusionists—viz. the position of protestors against that body, not +merely as bearing, amongst other features, a certain relation to the State, +but specifically <i>because</i> they bear that relation, makes it incongruous, +and even absurd, for these Dissenters to denominate themselves a "church." +But there is another objection to this denomination—the "Free Church" +have no peculiar and separate Confession of Faith. Nobody knows what are +their <i>credenda</i>—what they hold indispensable for fellow-membership, +either as to faith in mysteries or in moral doctrines. Now, if they +reply—"Oh! as to that, we adopt for our faith all that ever we <i>did</i> +profess when members of the Scottish kirk"—then in effect they are hardly +so much as a dissenting body, except in some elliptic sense. There is a +grievous <i>hiatus</i> in their own title-deeds and archives; they supply it by +referring people to the muniment chest of the kirk. Would it not be a +scandal to a Protestant church if she should say to communicants—"We have +no sacramental vessels, or even ritual; but you may borrow both from Papal +Rome." Not only, however, is the Kirk to <i>lend</i> her Confession, &c.; but +even then a plain rustic will not be able to guess how many parts in his +Confession are or may be affected by the "reformation" of the +Non-intrusionists. Surely, he will think, if this reformation were so vast +that it drove them out of the national church, absolutely exploded them, +then it follows that it must have interveined and <i>indirectly</i> modified +innumerable questions: a difference that was punctually limited to this +one or these two <SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page235 name=page235></A>[pg 235]</SPAN> +clauses, could not be such a difference as justified a +rupture. Besides, if they have altered this one or these two clauses, or +have altered their interpretation, how is any man to know (except from a +distinct Confession of Faith) that they have not even <i>directly</i> altered +much more? Notoriety through newspapers is surely no ground to stand upon +in religion. And now it appears that the unlettered rustic needs two +guides—one to show him exactly how much they have altered, whether two +points or two hundred, as well as <i>which</i> two or two hundred; another to +teach him how far these original changes may have carried with them +secondary changes as consequences into other parts of the Christian system. +One of the known changes, viz. the doctrine of popular election as the +proper qualification for parish clergymen, possibility is not fitted to +expand itself or ramify, except by analogy. But the other change, the +infinity which has been suddenly turned off like a jet of gas, or like the +rushing of wind through the tubes of an organ, upon the doctrine and +application of <i>spirituality</i>, seems fitted for derivative effects that +are innumerable. Consequently, we say of the Non-intrusionists—not only +that they are no church; but that they are not even any separate body of +Dissenters, until they have published a "Confession" or a <i>revised</i> +edition of the Scottish Confession. +</p> +<br><hr> +<p> +IV. Lastly, we have to sum and to appreciate the <i>ultimate</i> consequences +of these things. Let us pursue them to the end of the vista.—First in +order stands the dreadful shock to the National Church Establishment; and +that is twofold: it is a shock from without, acting through opinion, and a +shock from within, acting through the contagion of example. Each case is +separately perfect. Through the opinion of men standing <i>outside</i> of the +church, the church herself suffers wrong in her authority. Through the +contagion of sympathy stealing over men <i>inside</i> of the church, peril +arises of other shocks in a second series, which would so exhaust the +church by reiterated convulsions, as to leave her virtually dismembered +and shattered for all her great national functions. +</p> +<p> +As to that evil which acts through opinion, it works by a machinery, viz. +the press and social centralization in great cities, which in these days +is perfect. Right or wrong, justified or <i>not</i> justified by the acts of +the majority, it is certain that every public body—how much more then, a +body charged with the responsibility of upholding the truth in its +standards!—suffers dreadfully in the world's opinion by any feud, schism, +or shadow of change among its members. This is what the New Testament, a +code of philosophy fertile in new ideas, first introduced under the name +of <i>scandal</i>; that is, any occasion of serious offence ministered to the +weak or to the sceptical by differences irreconcilable in the acts or the +opinions of those whom they are bound to regard as spiritual authorities. +Now here in Scotland, is a feud past all arbitration: here is a schism no +longer theoretic, neither beginning nor ending in mere speculation: here +is a change of doctrine, <i>on one side or the other</i>, which throws a sad +umbrage of doubt and perplexity over the pastoral relation of the church +to every parish in Scotland. Less confidence there must always be +henceforward in great religious incorporations. Was there any such +incorporation reputed to be more internally harmonious than the Scottish +church? None has been so tempestuously agitated. Was any church more +deeply pledged to the spirit of meekness? None has split asunder so +irreconcilably. As to the grounds of quarrel, could any questions or +speculations be found so little fitted for a popular intemperance? Yet no +breach of unity has ever propagated itself by steps so sudden and +irrevocable. One short decennium has comprehended within its circuit the +beginning and the end of this unparalleled hurricane. In 1834, the first +light augury of mischief skirted the horizon—a cloud no bigger than a +man's hand. In 1843 the evil had "travelled on from birth to birth." +Already it had failed in what may be called one conspiracy; already it had +entered upon a second, viz. to rear up an <i>Anti-Kirk</i>, or spurious +establishment, which should twist itself with snake-like folds about the +legal establishment; surmount it as a Roman +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page236 name=page236></A>[pg 236]</SPAN> +<i>vinea</i> surmounted the +fortifications which it beleaguered; and which, under whatsoever practical +issue for the contest, should at any rate overlook, molest, and insult the +true church for ever. Even this brief period of development would have +been briefer, had not the law courts interposed many delays. Demurs of law +process imposed checks upon the uncharitable haste of the <i>odium +theologicum</i>. And though in a question of schism it would be a <i>petitio +principii</i> for a neutral censor to assume that either party had been +originally in error, yet it is within our competence to say, that the +Seceders it was whose bigotry carried the dispute to that sad issue of a +final separation. The establishment would have been well content to stop +short of that consummation: and temperaments might have been found, +compromises both safe and honourable, had the minority built less of their +reversionary hopes upon the policy of a fanciful martyrdom. Martyrs they +insisted upon becoming: and that they <i>might</i> be martyrs, it was necessary +for them to secede. That Europe thinks at present with less reverence of +Protestant institutions than it did ten years ago, is due to one of these +institutions in particular; viz. to the Scottish kirk, and specifically to +the minority in that body. They it was who spurned all mutual toleration, +all brotherly indulgence from either side to what it regarded as error in +the other. Consequently upon <i>their</i> consciences lies the responsibility +of having weakened the pillars of the Reformed churches throughout +Christendom. +</p> +<p> +Had those abuses been really such, which the Seceders denounced, were it +possible that a primary law of pure Christianity had been set aside for +generations, how came it that evils so gross had stirred no whispers of +reproach before 1834? How came it that no aurora of early light, no +prelusive murmurs of scrupulosity even from themselves, had run before +this wild levanter of change? Heretofore or now there must have been huge +error on their own showing. Heretofore they must have been traitorously +below their duty, or now mutinously beyond it. +</p> +<p> +Such conclusions are irresistible; and upon any path, seceding or not +seceding, they menace the worldly credit of ecclesiastical bodies. That +evil is now past remedy. As for the other evil, that which acts upon +church establishments, not through simple failure in the guarantees of +public opinion, but through their own internal vices of composition; here +undeniably we see a chasm traversing the Scottish church from the very +gates to the centre. And unhappily the same chasm, which marks a division +of the church internally, is a link connecting it externally with the +Seceders. For how stands the case? Did the Scottish Kirk, at the last +crisis, divide broadly into two mutually excluding sections? Was there one +of these bisections which said <i>Yes</i>, whilst the other responded <i>No</i>? Was +the affirmative and negative shared between them as between the black +chessmen and the white? Not so; and unhappily not so. The two extremes +there were, but these shaded off into each other. Many were the <i>nuances</i>; +multiplied the combinations. Here stood a section that had voted for all +the changes, with two or three exceptions; there stood another that went +the <i>whole</i> length as to this change, but no part of the way as to that; +between these sections arose others that had voted arbitrarily, or +<i>eclectically</i>, that is, by no law generally recognised. And behind this +eclectic school were grouped others who had voted for all novelties up to +a certain day, but after <i>that</i> had refused to go further with a movement +party whose tendencies they had begun to distrust. In this last case, +therefore, the divisional line fell upon no principle, but upon the +accident of having, at that particular moment, first seen grounds of +conscientious alarm. The principles upon which men had divided were +various, and these various principles were variously combined. But, on the +other hand, those who have gone out were the men who approved totally, not +partially—unconditionally, not within limits—up to the end, and not to a +given day. Consequently those who stayed in comprehended all the shades +and degrees which the men of violence excluded. The Seceders were +unanimous to a man, and of necessity; +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page237 name=page237></A>[pg 237]</SPAN> +for he who approves the last act, +the extreme act, which is naturally the most violent act, <i>à fortiori</i> +approves all lesser acts. But the establishment, by parity of reason, +retained upon its rolls all the degrees, all the modifications, all who +had exercised a wise discretion, who, in so great a cause, had thought it +a point of religion to be cautious; whose casuistry had moved in the +harness of peace, and who had preferred an interest of conscience to a +triumph of partisanship. We honour them for that policy; but we cannot +hide from ourselves, that the very principle which makes such a policy +honourable at the moment, makes it dangerous in reversion. For he who +avows that, upon public motives, he once resisted a temptation to schism, +makes known by that avowal that he still harbours in his mind the germ of +such a temptation; and to that scruple, which once he resisted, hereafter +he may see reason for yielding. The principles of schism, which for the +moment were suppressed, are still latent in the church. It is urged that, +in quest of unity, many of these men <i>succeeded</i> in resisting the +instincts of dissension at the moment of crisis. True: But this might be +because they presumed on winning from their own party equal concessions by +means less violent than schism; or because they attached less weight to +the principle concerned, than they may see cause for attaching upon future +considerations; or because they would not allow themselves to sanction the +cause of the late Secession, by going out in company with men whose +principles they adopted only in part, or whose manner of supporting those +principles they abhorred. Universally it is evident, that little stress is +to be laid on a negative act; simply to have declined going out with the +Seceders proves nothing, for it is equivocal. It is an act which may cover +indifferently a marked hostility to the Secession party, or an absolute +friendliness, but a friendliness not quite equal to so extreme a test. And, +again, this negative act may be equivocal in a different way; the +friendliness may not only have existed, but may have existed in strength +sufficient for any test whatever; not the principles of the Seceders, but +their Jacobinical mode of asserting them, may have proved the true nerve +of the repulsion to many. What is it that we wish the English reader to +collect from these distinctions? Simply that the danger is not yet gone +past. The earthquake, says a great poet, when speaking of the general +tendency in all dangers to come round by successive and reiterated shocks— +</p> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>"The earthquake is not satisfied at once."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +All dangers which lie deeply seated are recurrent dangers; they intermit, +only as the revolving lamps of a lighthouse are periodically eclipsed. The +General Assembly of 1843, when closing her gates upon the Seceders, shut +<i>in</i>, perhaps, more of the infected than at that time she succeeded in +shutting <i>out</i>. As respected the opinion of the world outside, it seemed +advisable to shut out the least number possible; for in proportion to the +number of the Seceders, was the danger that they should carry with them an +authentic impression in their favour. On the other hand, as respected a +greater danger, (the danger from internal contagion,) it seemed advisable +that the church should have shut out (if she could) very many of those who, +for the present, adhered to her. The broader the separation, and the more +absolute, between the church and the secession, so much the less anxiety +there would have survived lest the rent should spread. That the anxiety in +this respect is not visionary, the reader may satisfy himself by looking +over a remarkable pamphlet, which professes by its title to separate the +<i>wheat from the chaff</i>. By the "wheat," in the view of this writer, is +meant the aggregate of those who persevered in their recusant policy up to +the practical result of secession. All who stopped short of that +consummation, (on whatever plea,) are the "chaff." The writer is something +of an incendiary, or something of a fanatic; but he is consistent with +regard to his own principles, and so elaborately careful in his details as +to extort admiration of his energy and of his patience in research. +</p> +<p> +But the reason for which we notice this pamphlet, is, with a view to the +proof of that large intestine mischief which still lingers behind in the +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page238 name=page238></A>[pg 238]</SPAN> +vitals of the Scottish establishment. No proof, in a question of that +nature, <i>can</i> be so showy and <i>ostensive</i> to a stranger, as that which is +supplied by this vindictive pamphlet. For every past vote recording a +scruple, is the pledge of a scruple still existing, though for the moment +suppressed. Since the secession, nearly 450 new men may have entered the +church. This supplementary body has probably diluted the strength of the +revolutionary principles. But they also may, perhaps, have partaken to +some extent in the contagion of these principles. True, there is this +guarantee for caution, on the part of these new men, that as yet they are +pledged to nothing; and that, seeing experimentally how fearfully many of +their older brethren are now likely to be fettered by the past, they have +every possible motive for reserve, in committing themselves, either by +their votes or by their pens. In <i>their</i> situation, there is a special +inducement to prudence, because there is a prospect, that for <i>them</i> +prudence is in time to be effectual. But for many of the older men, +prudence comes too late. They are already fettered. And what we are now +pointing out to the attention of our readers, is, that by the past, by the +absolute votes of the past, too sorrowfully it is made evident, that the +Scottish church is deeply tainted with the principles of the secession. +These germs of evil and of revolution, speaking of them in a <i>personal</i> +sense, cannot be purged off entirely until one generation shall have +passed away. But, speaking of them as <i>principles</i> capable of vegetation, +these germs may or may not expand into whole forests of evil, according to +the accidents of coming events, whether fitted to tranquillize our billowy +aspects of society; or, on the other hand, largely to fertilize the many +occasions of agitation, which political fermentations are too sure to +throw off. Let this chance turn out as it may, we repeat for the +information of Southerns—that the church, by shutting off the persons of +particular agitators, has not shut off the principles of agitation; and +that the <i>cordon sanataire</i>, supposing the spontaneous exile of the +Non-intrusionists to be regarded in that light, was not drawn about the +church until the disease had spread widely <i>within</i> the lines. +</p> +<p> +Past votes may not absolutely pledge a man to a future course of action; +warned in time, such a man may stand neutral in practice; but thus far +they poison the fountains of wholesome unanimity—that, if a man can evade +the necessity of squaring particular <i>actions</i> to his past opinions, at +least he must find himself tempted to square his opinions themselves, or +his counsels, to such past opinions as he may too notoriously have placed +on record by his votes. +</p> +<p> +But, if such are the continual dangers from reactions in the establishment, +so long as men survive in that establishment who feel upbraided by past +votes, and so long as enemies survive who will not suffer these +upbraidings to slumber—dangers which much mutual forbearance and charity +can alone disarm; on the other hand, how much profounder is the +inconsistency to which the Free church is doomed!—They have rent the +unity of that church, to which they had pledged their faith—but on what +plea? On the plea, that in cases purely spiritual, they could not in +conscience submit to the award of the secular magistrate. Yet how merely +impracticable is this principle, as an abiding principle of action! +Churches, that is, the charge of particular congregations, will be with +<i>them</i> (as with other religious communities) the means of livelihood. +Grounds innumerable will arise for excluding, or attempting to exclude, +each other from these official stations. No possible form regulating the +business of ordination, or of induction, can anticipate the infinite +objections which may arise. But no man interested in such a case, will +submit to a judge appointed by insufficient authority. Daily bread for his +family, is what few men will resign without a struggle. And that struggle +will of necessity come for final adjudication to the law courts of the +land, whose interference in any question affecting a spiritual interest, +the Free church has for ever pledged herself to refuse. But in the case +supposed, she will not have the power to refuse it. She will be cited +before the tribunals, and can elude that citation in no way but by +surrendering the +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page239 name=page239></A>[pg 239]</SPAN> +point in litigation; and if she should adopt the notion, +that it is better for her to do <i>that</i>, than to acknowledge a sufficient +authority in the court by pleading at its bar, upon this principle once +made public, she will soon be stripped of every thing, and will cease to +be a church at all. She cannot continue to be a depository of any faith, +or a champion of any doctrines, if she lose the means of defending her own +incorporations. But how can she maintain the defenders of her rights or +the dispensers of her truths, if she refuses, upon immutable principle, to +call in the aid of the magistrate on behalf of rights, which, under any +aspect, regard spiritual relations? Attempting to maintain these rights by +private arbitration within a forum of her own, she will soon find such +arbitration not binding at all upon the party who conceives himself +aggrieved. The issue will be as in Mr O'Connell's courts, where the +parties played at going to law; from the moment when they ceased to play, +and no longer "made believe" to be disputing, the award of the judge +became as entire a mockery, as any stage mimicry of such a transaction. +</p> +<p> +This should be the natural catastrophe of the case, and the probable +evasion of that destructive consummation, to which she is carried by her +principles, will be—that, as soon as her feelings of rancour shall have +cooled down these principles will silently drop out of use; and the very +reason will be suffered to perish for which she ever became a dissenting +body. With this however, we, that stand outside, are noways concerned. But +an evil, in which we <i>are</i> concerned, is the headlong tendency of the Free +church, and of all churches adulterating with her principle, to an issue +not merely dangerous in a political sense, but ruinous n an anti-social +sense. The artifice of the Free church lies in pleading a spiritual +relation of any case whatever, whether of doing or suffering, whether +positive or negative as a reason for taking it out of all civil control. +Now we may illustrate the peril of this artifice, by a reality at this +time impending over society in Ireland. Dr Higgins, titular bishop of +Ardagh, has undertaken, upon this very plea of a spiritual power not +amenable to civil control, a sort of warfare with Government, upon the +question of their power to suspend or defeat the O'Connell agitation. For, +says he, if Government should succeed in thus intercepting the direct +power of haranguing mobs in open assemblies, then will I harangue them, +and cause then to be harangued, in the same spirit, upon the same topics, +from the altar or the pulpit. An immediate extension of this principle +would be—that every disaffected clergyman in the three kingdoms, would +lecture his congregation upon the duty of paying no taxes. This he would +denominate passive resistance; and resistance to bad government would +become, in his language, the most sacred of duties. In any argument with +such a man, he would be found immediately falling back upon the principle +of the Free church: he would insist upon it as a spiritual right, as a +case entirely between his conscience and God, whether he should press to +an extremity any and every doctrine, though tending to the instant +disorganization of society. To lecture against war, and against taxes as +directly supporting war, would wear a most colourable air of truth amongst +all weak-minded persons. And these would soon appear to have been but the +first elements of confusion under the improved views of spiritual rights. +The doctrines of the <i>Levellers</i> in Cromwell's time, of the <i>Anabaptists</i> +in Luther's time, would exalt themselves upon the ruins of society, if +governments were weak enough to recognise these spiritual claims in the +feeblest of their initial advances. If it were possible to suppose such +chimeras prevailing, the natural redress would soon be seen to lie through +secret tribunals, like those of the dreadful <i>Fehmgericht</i> in the middle +ages. It would be absurd, however, seriously to pursue these anti-social +chimeras through their consequences. Stern remedies would summarily crush +so monstrous an evil. Our purpose is answered, when the necessity of such +insupportable consequences is shown to link itself with that distinction +upon which the Free church has laid the foundations of its own +establishment. Once for all, there is no act or function belonging to an +officer of a church, which is faces. +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page240 name=page240></A>[pg 240]</SPAN> +And every examination of the case +convinces us more and more that the Seceders took up the old papal +distinction, as to acts spiritual or not spiritual, not under any delusion +less or more, but under a simple necessity of finding some evasion or +other which should meet and embody the whole rancour of the moment. +</p> +<p> +But beyond any other evil consequence prepared by the Free Church, is the +appalling spirit of Jacobinism which accompanies their whole conduct, and +which latterly has avowed itself in their words. The case began +Jacobinically, for it began in attacks upon the rights of property. But +since the defeat of this faction by the law courts, language seems to fail +them, for the expression of their hatred and affected scorn towards the +leading nobility of Scotland. Yet why? The case lies in the narrowest +compass. The Duke of Sutherland, and other great landholders, had refused +sites for their new churches. Upon this occurred a strong fact, and strong +in both directions; first, for the Seceders; secondly, upon better +information, <i>against</i> them. The <i>Record</i> newspaper, a religious journal, +ably and conscientiously conducted, took part with the Secession, and very +energetically; for they denounced the noble duke's refusal of land as an +act of "persecution;" and upon this principle—that, in a county where his +grace was pretty nearly the sole landed proprietor, to refuse land +(assuming that a fair price had been tendered for it) was in effect to +show such intolerance as might easily tend to the suppression of truth. +Intolerance, however, is not persecution; and, if it were, the casuistry +of the question is open still to much discussion. But this is not +necessary; for the ground is altogether shifted when the duke's reason for +refusing the land comes to be stated: he had refused it, not +unconditionally, not in the spirit of Non-intrusion courts' "<i>without +reason shown</i>," but on this unanswerable argument—that the whole efforts +of the new church were pointed (and professedly pointed) to the one object +of destroying the establishment, and "sweeping it from the land." Could +any guardian of public interests, under so wicked a threat, hesitate as to +the line of his duty? By granting the land to parties uttering such +menaces, the Duke of Sutherland would have made himself an accomplice in +the unchristian conspiracy. Meantime, next after this fact, it is the +strongest defence which we can offer for the duke—that in a day or two +after this charge of "persecution," the <i>Record</i> was forced to attack the +Seceders in terms which indirectly defended the duke. And this, not in any +spirit of levity, but under mere conscientious constraint. For no journal +has entered so powerfully or so eloquently into the defence of the general +principle involved in the Secession, (although questioning its expediency,) +as this particular <i>Record</i>. Consequently any word of condemnation from so +earnest a friend, comes against the Seceders with triple emphasis. And +this is shown in the tone of the expostulations addressed to the <i>Record</i> +by some of the Secession leaders. It spares us, indeed, all necessity of +quoting the vile language uttered by members of the Free Church Assembly, +if we say, that the <i>neutral</i> witnesses of such un-Christian outrages have +murmured, remonstrated, protested, in every direction; and that Dr +Macfarlane, who has since corresponded with the Duke of Sutherland upon +the whole case—viz. upon the petition for land, as affected by the +shocking menaces of the Seceders—has, in no other way, been able to evade +the double mischief of undertaking a defence for the indefensible, and at +the same time of losing the land irretrievably, than by affecting an +unconsciousness of language used by his party little suited to his own +sacred calling, or to the noble simplicities of Christianity. Certainly it +is unhappy for the Seceders, that the only disavowal of the most fiendish +sentiments heard in our days, has come from an individual not authorized, +or at all commissioned by his party—from an individual not showing any +readiness to face the whole charges, disingenuously dissembling the worst +of them, and finally offering his very feeble disclaimer, which +equivocates between a denial and a palliation—not until <i>after</i> he found +himself in the position of a petitioner for favours. +</p> +<p> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page241 name=page241></A>[pg 241]</SPAN> +Specifically the great evil of our days, is the abiding temptation, in +every direction, to popular discontent, to agitation, and to systematic +sedition. Now, we say it with sorrow, that from no other incendiaries have +we heard sentiments so wild, fierce, or maliciously democratic, as from +the leaders of the Secession. It was the Reform Bill of 1832, and the +accompanying agitation, which first suggested the <i>veto</i> agitation of 1834, +and prescribed its tone. From all classes of our population in turn, there +have come forward individuals to disgrace themselves by volunteering their +aid to the chief conspirators of the age. We have earls, we have +marquesses, coming forward as Corn-League agents; we have magistrates by +scores angling for popularity as Repealers. But these have been private +parties, insulated, disconnected, disowned. When we hear of Christianity +prostituted to the service of Jacobinism—of divinity becoming the +handmaid to insurrection—and of clergymen in masses offering themselves +as promoters of anarchy, we go back in thought to that ominous +organization of irreligion, which gave its most fearful aspects to the +French Revolution. +</p> +<p> +Other evils are in the rear as likely to arise out of the <i>funds</i> provided +for the new Seceders, were the distribution of those funds confessedly +unobjectionable, but more immediately under the present murmurs against +that distribution. There are two funds: one subscribed expressly for the +building of churches, the other limited to the "sustentation" of +incumbents. And the complaint is—that this latter fund has been invaded +for purposes connected with the first. The reader can easily see the +motive to this injustice: it is a motive of ambition. Far more display of +power is made by the annunciation to the world of six hundred churches +built, than of any difference this way or that in the comfort and decorous +condition of the clergy. This last is a domestic feature of the case, not +fitted for public effect. But the number of the churches will resound +through Europe. Meantime, <i>at present</i>, the allowance to the great body of +Seceding clergy averages but £80 a-year; and the allegation is—that, but +for the improper interference with the fund on the motive stated, it would +have averaged £150 a-year. If any where a town parish has raised a much +larger provision for its pastor, even <i>that</i> has now become a part of the +general grievance. For it is said that all such special contributions +ought to have been thrown into one general fund—liable to one general +principle of distribution. Yet again, will even this fund, partially as it +seems to have been divided, continue to be available? Much of it lies in +annual subscriptions: now, in the next generation of subscribers, a son +will possibly not adopt the views of his father; but assuredly he will not +adopt his father's zeal. Here however, (though this is not probable,) +there may arise some compensatory cases of subscribers altogether new. But +another question is pressing for decision, which menaces a frightful shock +to the schismatical church: female agency has been hitherto all potent in +promoting the subscriptions; and a demand has been made in +consequence—that women shall be allowed to vote in the church courts. +Grant this demand—for it cannot be evaded—and what becomes of the model +for church government as handed down from John Knox and Calvin? Refuse it, +and what becomes of the future subscriptions? +</p> +<p> +But these are evils, it may be said, only for the Seceders. Not so: we are +all interested in the respectability of the national teachers, whatever be +their denomination: we are all interested in the maintenance of a high +standard for theological education. These objects are likely to suffer at +any rate. But it is even a worse result which we may count on from the +changes, that a practical approximation is thus already made to what is +technically known as Voluntaryism. The "<i>United Secession</i>," that is the +old collective body of Scottish Dissenters, who, having no regular +provision, are carried into this voluntary system, already exult that this +consummation of the case cannot be far off. Indeed, so far as the Seceders +are dependent upon <i>annual</i> subscriptions, and coupling that relation to +the public with the great doctrine of these Seceders, that congregations +are universally to appoint their own pastors, we do not +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page242 name=page242></A>[pg 242]</SPAN> +see how such an +issue is open to evasion. The leaders of the new Secession all protest +against Voluntaryism: but to that complexion of things they travel rapidly +by the mere mechanic action of their dependent (or semi-dependent) +situation, combined with one of their two characteristic principles. +</p> +<p> +The same United Secession journal openly anticipates another and more +diffusive result from this great movement; viz. the general disruption of +church establishments. We trust that this anticipation will be signally +defeated. And yet there is one view of the case which saddens us when we +turn our eyes in that direction. Among the reasonings and expostulations +of the Schismatic church, one that struck us as the most eminently +hypocritical, and ludicrously so, was this: "You ought," said they, when +addressing the Government, and exposing the error of the law proceedings, +"to have stripped us of the temporalities arising from the church, stipend, +glebe, parsonage, but not of the spiritual functions. We had no right to +the emoluments of our stations, when the law courts had decided against us +but we <i>had</i> a right to the laborious duties of the stations." No gravity +could refuse to smile at this complaint—verbally so much in the spirit of +primitive Christianity, yet in its tendency so insidious. For could it be +possible that a competitor introduced by the law, and leaving the duties +of the pastoral office to the old incumbent, but pocketing the salary, +should not be hooted on the public roads by many who might otherwise have +taken no part in the feud? This specious claim was a sure and brief way to +secure the hatefulness of their successors. Now, we cannot conceal from +ourselves that something like this invidious condition of things might be +realized under two further revolutions. We have said, that a second schism +in the Scottish church is not impossible. It is also but too possible that +Puseyism nay yet rend the English establishment by a similar convulsion. +But in such contingencies, we should see a very large proportion of the +spiritual teachers in both nations actually parading to the public eye, +and rehearsing something very like the treacherous proposal of the late +Seceders, viz. the spectacle of one party performing much of the difficult +duties, and another party enjoying the main emoluments. This would be a +most unfair mode of recommending Voluntaryism. Falling in with the +infirmities of many in these days, such a spectacle would give probably a +fatal bias to that system in our popular and Parliamentary counsels. This +would move the sorrow of the Seceders themselves: for they have protested +against the theory of all Voluntaries with a vehemence which that party +even complain of as excessive. Their leaders have many times avowed, that +any system which should leave to men in general the estimate of their own +religious wants as a pecuniary interest, would be fatal to the Christian +tone of our national morals. Checked and overawed by the example of an +establishment, the Voluntaries themselves are far more fervent in their +Christian exertions than they could be when liberated from that contrast. +The religious spirit of both England and Scotland under such a change +would droop for generations. And in that one evil, let us hope, the +remotest and least probable of the many evils threatened by the late +schism, these nations would have reason by comparison almost to forget the +rest. +</p> +<br><hr class=full> + +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page243 name=page243></A>[pg 243]</SPAN> +<a name="bw340s9" id="bw340s9"></a><h2>SITTING FOR A PORTRAIT</h2> + +<p> +What could induce you, my dear Eusebius, to commit yourself into the hands +of a portrait-painter? And so, you ask me to go with you. Are you afraid, +that you want me to keep you in countenance, where I shall be sure to put +you out? You ask too petitioningly, as if you suspected I should refuse to +attend your <i>execution</i>; for you are going to be <i>be-headed</i>, and soon +will it be circulated through your village, that you have had your <i>head +taken off</i>: I will not go with you—it would spoil all. You are afraid to +trust the painter. You think he may be a physiognomist, and will hit some +characteristic which you would quietly let slip his notice; and you +flatter yourself that I might help to mislead him. Are you afraid of being +made too amiable, or too plain? No, no! You are not vain. Whence comes +this vagary?—well, we shall all know in good time. Were I to be with you, +I should talk—perhaps maliciously—on purpose to see how your features +would unsettle and shift themselves to the vagrant humour, that though one +would know another from habit, and their old acquaintanceship, the painter +would never be able to keep them steadily together. I should laugh to see +every lineament "going ahead," and art "non compos." +</p> +<p> +I will, however, venture to put down some plain directions how you are to +sit. First, let me tell you how you are not to sit. Don't, in your horror +of a sentimental amiable look, put on yourself the air of a Diogenes, or +you will be like nothing human—and if you shun Diogenes, you may put on +the likeness of a still greater fool. No man living can look more wise +than you; but if you fall out with wisdom, or would in your whim throw +contempt on it, no one can better play the fool. You are the laughing or +crying Philosopher at pleasure—but sit as neither, for in either +character you will set the painter's house in a roar. I fear the very +plaster figures in it will set you off—to see yourself in such motley +company, with Bacchus and Hercules, and Jupiter and Saturn, with his +marble children to devour. You will look Homer and Socrates in the face; +and I know will make antics, throw out, and show fight to the Gladiator. +This may be, if your painter, as many of them do, affect the antique; but +if he be another sort of guess person, it may be worse still with you. You +may not have to make your bow to a Venus Anadyomene—but how will you be +able to face the whole Muggletonian synod? Imagine the "Complete Body," +from the Evangelical Magazine, framed and glazed, round the walls, and all +looking at you in the condemned cell. Against this you must prepare; for +many country artists prefer this line to the antique. It is their +connexion—and should you make a mistake and go to the wrong man, you +will most assuredly be added to the Convocation, if not put to head a +controversy as frontispiece. It will be in vain for you to say, "Fronti +nulla fides;" "[Greek: gnothi seauton]" before you get there, or nobody +will know you. Take care lest your physiognomy be canvassed by many more +besides the painter. Are you prepared to have your every lineament +scrutinized by every body? to hear behind a screen the disparagement of +your lips, your eyes thought deceitful, and, in addition, a sentence of +general ugliness passed upon you? So you must stoop to paint-pots, have +daubs of reds, and yellows, and greys perked up against your nose for +comparison. Your man may be a fancy mesmerizer, or mesmerize you, now that +it is flying about like an epidemic, without knowing it. If he can, he +will surely do it, to keep you still: that is the way to get a good sitter. +Eusebius in a <i>coma</i>! answering all comers, like one of the heads in the +play of Macbeth! But I was to tell you how to sit—that is the way, get +into a <i>coma</i>—that will be the painter's best chance of having you; or, +when he has been working for hours, he may find you a Proteus, and that +you have slipped through his fingers after all his toil to catch you. I +will tell you what happened to a painter of my acquaintance. A dentist sat +to him two days—the third the painter +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page244 name=page244></A>[pg 244]</SPAN> +worked away very hard—looked at +the picture, then at his sitter. "Why, sir," said he; "I find I have been +all wrong—what can it be? Why, sir, your mouth is not at all like what it +was yesterday." "Ah! ah! I will tell you vat it ees," replied the French +dentist; "ah! good—my mouse is not de same—no indeed—yesterday I did +have my jaw in, but I did lend it out to a lady this day." Don't you think +of this now while you are sitting. You know the trick Garrick played the +painter, who, foiled in his attempt, started up, and said—"You must be +Garrick or the d——!" Then as to attitude, 'tis ten to one but you will +be put into one which will be quite uncomfortable to you. One, perhaps, +after a pattern. I should advise you to resist this—and sit easy—if you +can. Don't put your hand in your waistcoat, and one arm akimbo, like a +Captain Macheath, however he may entreat you; and don't be made looking up, +like a martyr, which some wonderfully affect; and don't be made turn your +head round, as if it was in disgust with the body; and don't let your +stomach be more conspicuous than the head, like a cucumber running to seed. +Don't let him put your arm up, as in command, or accompanied with a rapt +look as if you were listening to the music of the spheres; don't thrust +out your foot conspicuously, as if you meant to advertise the blacking. +Some artists are given to fancy attitudes such as best set off the coats, +they are but nature's journeymen at the faces; don't fancy that the cut, +colour, or cloth of your coat will exempt you from the penalty of their +practice. Why, Eusebius, they have lay-figures, and dress them just as you +see them at the tailor's or perfumer's; and one of these things will be +put up for you—a mannikin for Eusebius! In such hands the coat is by far +the best piece of work, you may be sure your <i>own</i> won't be taken for a +pattern. You will despise it when you see it, and it will be one you can +never change—it will defy vamping. You may be at any time new varnished +whenever after generations shall wish to see how like a dancing-master the +old gentleman must have looked. It is enough to make you a dancing bear +now to think of it. Others, again, equip you with fur and make you look +as if you were in the Hudson's Bay Company. Luckily for you, flowered +dressing-gowns are out, or you might have been represented a Mantelini. +What can you be doing! It is difficult to put you in your positions. There +are some that will turn you about and about a half an hour or more before +they begin, as they would a horse at the fair—ay, and look in your mouth +too. If they cannot get you otherwise into an attitude, they will shampoo +you into one. And, remember, all this they will do, because they have not +the skill to paint any one sitting quite easy. Don't have a roll in your +hand—that always signifies a member of Parliament. Don't have your finger +on a book—that would be a pedantry you could not endure. I cannot imagine +what you will do with your hands. Ten to one, however, but the painter +leaves then out or copies them out of some print when you are gone. This +will be picking and stealing that you will have no hand in. What to do +with any one's hands is a most difficult thing to say—too many do not +know what to do with them themselves; and, under the suffering of sitting, +I think you will be one of them. If there is a child in the room, you will +be making rabbits with your fingers. Then you are at the mercy of the +painter's privilege—the foreground and background. If you have the common +fate, your head will be stuck upon a red curtain, a watered pattern. If +your man has used up his carmine, you will be standing in a fine colonnade, +waiting with the utmost patience for the burst of a thunder cloud that +makes the marble column stand out conspicuously, and there will be a +distant park scene; and thus you will represent the landed interest: or +you will perhaps have your glove in your hand—a device adopted by some, +to intimate that they are hand and glove with all the neighbouring gentry. +And it is a common thing to have a new hat and a walking-cane upon a +marble table. This shows the sitter has the use of his legs, which +otherwise might be doubted, and is therefore judicious. If you are +supposed to be in the open air, you will not know at first sight that you +are +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page245 name=page245></A>[pg 245]</SPAN> +so represented, until you have learned the painter's hieroglyphic for +trees. You will find them to be angular sorts of sticks, with red and +yellow flag-rags flapping about; and ten to one but you have a murky sky, +and no hat on your head; but as to such a country as you ever walked in, +or ever saw, don't expect to see such a one as a background to your +picture, and you will readily console yourself that you are turning your +back upon it. If you are painted in a library, books are cheap—so that +the artist can afford to throw you in a silver inkstand into the bargain, +and a pen—such a pen! the goose wouldn't know it that bred it—and +perhaps an open letter to answer, with your name on the cover. If you are +made answering the letter, that will never be like you—perhaps it would +be more like if the letter should be unopened. Now, do not flatter +yourself; Eusebius, that all these things are matters of choice with you. +"<i>Non omnia possumus omnes</i>," is the regular rule of the profession; some +stick to the curtain all their lives, from sheer inability to set it—to +draw it aside. You remember the sign-painter that went about painting red +lions, and his reply to a refractory landlord who insisted upon a white +lamb. "You may have a white lamb if you please, but when all is said and +done, it will be a great deal more like a red lion." And I am sorry to say, +the faces too, are not unfrequently in this predicament, for they have a +wonderful family likeness, and these run much by counties. A painter has +often been known totally to fail, by quitting his beat. There is certainly +an advantage in this; for if any gentleman should be so unfortunate as to +have no ancestors, he may pick up at random, in any given county in +England, a number that will very well match, and all look like +blood-relations. There is an instance where this resemblance was greatly +improved, by the advice of an itinerant of the profession, who, at a very +moderate price, put wigs on all the Vandyks. And there you see some danger, +Eusebius, that—be represented how you may—you are not sure of keeping +your condition ten years; you may have, by that time, a hussar cap put +upon your unconscious head. But portraits fare far worse than that. +</p> +<p> +I remember, when a boy, walking with an elderly gentleman, and passing a +broker's stall, there was the portrait of a fine florid gentleman in +regimentals; he stopped to look at it—he might have bought it for a few +shillings. After we had gone away,—"that," said he, "is the portrait of +my wife's great uncle—member for the county, and colonel of militia: you +see how he is degraded to these steps." "Why do you not rescue him?" said +I. "Because he left me nothing," was the reply. A relative of mine, an old +lady, hit upon a happy device; the example is worth following. Her husband +was the last of his race, for she had no children. She took all the family +portraits out of their frames, rolled up all the pictures, and put them in +the coffin with the deceased. No one was more honourably accompanied to +the grave—and so he slept with his fathers. It has not, to be sure, +Eusebius, much to do with your portrait, but thinking of these family +portraits, one is led on to think of their persons, &c.; so I must tell +you what struck me as a singular instance of the <i>'sic nos non nobis.'</i> I +went with a cousin, upon a sort of pilgrimage at some distance, to visit +some family monuments. There was one large handsome marble one in the +chancel. You will never guess how it had been treated. A vicar's wife had +died, and the disconsolate widower had caused a square marble tablet, with +the inscription of his wife's virtues, to be actually inserted in the Very +centre of our family monument: and yet you, by sitting for your portrait, +hope to be handed down unmutilated to generations to come,—yes, they will +come, and you will be a mark for the boys to shoot peas at—that is, if +you remain at all in the family—you may be transferred to the wench's +garret, or the public-house, and have a pipe popped through the canvass +into your mouth, to make you look ridiculous. I really think you have a +chance of being purchased, to be hung up in the club parlour as pictorial +president of the Odd-Fellows. Why should you be exempt from what kings are +subject to? The "king's head" is a sign in many a +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page246 name=page246></A>[pg 246]</SPAN> +highway, to countenance +ill-living. You too, will be bought at a broker's—have your name changed +without your consent—and be adopted into a family whereof you would +heartily despise the whole kith and kin. If pride has not a fall in the +portraits of the great and noble, where shall we find it?" +</p> +<p> +A painter once told me, that he assisted one of the meanest of low rich +men, to collect some family portraits; he recommended to him a fine +Velasquez. "Velasquez!—who's he?" said the head of his family. "It is a +superb picture, sir—a genuine portrait by the Spaniard, and doubtless, of +some Spanish nobleman. "Then," said he, "I won't have it; I'll have no +Spanish blood contaminate my family, sir." "Spanish blood," rejected by +the plebeian! I have known better men than you, Eusebius—excuse the +comparison—vamped up and engraved upon the spur of the moment, for +celebrated highwaymen or bloody murderers. But this digression won't help +you out in your sitting. Let me see what the learned say upon the +subject—what advice shall we get from the man of academies. Here we have +him, Gerrard Larresse; you may be sure that he treats of portrait-painting, +and with importance enough too. Here it is—"Of Portraiture." But that is +far too plan. We must have an emblem:— +</p> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "Emblem touching the handling of portraits."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +"Nature with her many breasts, is in a sitting posture. Near her stands a +little child, lifting her garment off her shoulders. On the other side +stands Truth, holding a mirror before her, wherein she views herself down +to the middle, and is seemingly surprised at it. On the frame of this +glass, are seen a <i>gilt pallet and pencils. Truth has a book and palm +branch</i> in her hand." What do you think of that, Eusebius, for a position? +But why Nature or Truth should be surprised at viewing herself down to the +middle, I cannot imagine. It evidently won't do to surprise you in that +manner. Poor Gerrard, I see, thinks it a great condescension in him to +speak of portrait-painting at all; he calls it, "departing from the +essence of art, and subjecting (the painter) to all the defects of nature." +Hear that, Eusebius! you are to sit to be a specimen of the <i>defects</i> of +nature. He is indignant that "such great masters as Vandyke, Lely, Van Loo, +the old and young Bakker, and others," possessed of great talents, +postponed what is noble and beautiful to what is more ordinary. There you +are again, Eusebius, with your ordinary visage, unworthy such men as the +old and young Bakker, whoever they were. But since there must be portraits, +he could endure the method of the ancients, who, "used to cause those from +whom the commonwealth had received extraordinary benefits, either in war +or civil affairs, or for eminence in religion, to be represented in marble +or metal, or in a picture, that the sight of them, by those honours, might +be a spur to posterity to emulate the same virtues. This honour was first +begun with their deities; afterwards it was paid to heroes, and of +consequence to philosophers, orators, religious men, and others, not only +to perpetuate their virtues, but also to embalm their names and memories. +But now it goes further; a person of any condition whatsoever, have he but +as much money as the painter asks, must sit for his picture. This is a +great abuse, and sprung from as laudable a cause." +</p> +<p> +Are you not ashamed to sit after that? He is not, however, without his +indulgences. He will allow something to a lover and a husband. +</p> +<p> +"Has a citizen's wife but an only babe? he is drawn at half a year old; at +ten years old he sits again; and for the last time in his twenty-fifth +year, in order to show her tender folly: and then she stands wondering how +a man can so alter in that time. Is not this a weighty reason? a +reprovable custom, if painters did not gain by it. But again, portraits +are allowable, when a lover is absent from his mistress, that they may +send each other their pictures, to cherish and increase their loves; a man +and wife parted so may do the same." You undertake, you perceive, a matter +of some responsibility—you must account to your conscience for the act of +sitting for your picture. Then there is a chapter upon defects, which, as +I suppose he presumes people don't know +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page247 name=page247></A>[pg 247]</SPAN> +themselves, he catalogues pretty +fully, till you are quite out of humour with poor human nature. The +defects are "natural ones—accidental ones—usual ones." Natural—"a wry +face, squint eyes, wry mouth, nose," &c. Accidental. "Loss of an eye, a +cut on the cheek, or other part of the face, pits of the small-pox and the +like." Usual. "Contraction of the eyes and mouth, or closing or gaping of +the latter, or drawing it in somewhat to this or that side, upwards or +downwards," &c. As for other bodily infirmities, how many have wry necks, +hunchbacks, bandy legs—withered or short arms, or one shorter than +another; dead or lame hands or fingers." Now, are you so sure of the +absence of all these defects, that you venture? You must think yourself an +Adonis, and not think that you are to be flattered, by having any very +considerable number of your defects hid. "The necessary ones ought to be +seen, because they <i>help the likeness</i>; such as a wry face, squint eyes, +low forehead, thinness, and fatness; a wry neck, too short or too long a +nose; wrinkles between the eyes; ruddiness or paleness of the cheeks, or +lips; pimples or warts about the mouth; and such like." After this, it is +right you should know that "Nature abhors deformity." Nay, that we always +endeavour to hide our own—and which do you mean to hide, or do you intend +to come out perfect? I daresay you can discover some little habits of your +own, Eusebius, free from vanity as you are, that tend to these little +concealments! Do you remember how a foolish man lost a considerable sum of +money once, by forgetting this human propensity? He had lost some money to +little K—— of Bath, the deformed gambler—and being netted at his loss, +thought to pique the winner. "I'll wager," said he, "£50, I'll point out +the worst leg in company."—"Done," said K—— to his astonishment. "The +man does not know himself," thought he, for there sat K—— crouched up +all shapes by the fireside. The wagerer, to win his bet, at once cried, +"Why, that," pointing to K——'s leg, which was extended towards the grate. +"No," said K—— quietly unfolding the other from beneath the chair, and +showing it, "that's worse." By which you may learn the fact—that every +man puts his best leg foremost. But we must not quit our friend Gerard yet. +I like his grave conceit. I rejoice to find him giving the painters a rap +over their knuckles. He says, Eusebius, that they are fond of having +"smutty pictures" in their rooms; and roundly tells them, that though fine +pictures are necessary, there is no need of their having such subjects as +"Mars and Venus, and Joseph and Potiphar's Wife." Now, though I do not +think our moderns offend much in this respect—the hint is good—and some +exhibit studies from models about their rooms, that evidently sat without +their stays. Gerard was the man for contrivances—here is a capital one. +He does not quite approve of painting a wooden leg; but if it be to be +done, see with what skill even that in the hands of a Gerard may be +dignified—and the painter absolved, "lege solutus." "But if the hero +insist upon the introducing of such a leg, on a supposition that 'tis an +honour to have lost a limb in his country's service, the painter must then +comply with his desires; or <i>else contrive it lying on a table covered +with red velvet</i>." But capital as this is, it is not all. He quite revels +in contrivances; "if he desire it after the antique manner, it must be +contrived in a bas-relief, wherein the occasion of it may be represented; +or it may hang near him on a wall, with its buckles and straps, as is done +in hunting equipages; or else it may be placed among the ornaments of +architecture, to be more in view." You see he scorns to hide it—has +worked up his imagination to conceive all possible ways of showing it; +depend upon it he longed to paint a wooden leg, to which the face should +be the appendage, the leg the portrait. "Hoc ligno," not "hoc signo +vinces." But here Gerard bounces—giving an instance of a gentleman "who, +being drawn in little, and comparing the smallness of the eyes with his +own, asked the painter whether he had such? However, in complaisance, and +for his pleasure, he desired that one eye at least might be as big as his +own, the other to remain as it was." Fie, Gerard! you have spoiled your +emblem by taking the mirror out of truth's hand. +</p> +<p> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page248 name=page248></A>[pg 248]</SPAN> +He is particular about postures and backgrounds. "It will not be improper +to treat also about easiness and sedateness in posture, opposed to stir +and bustle, and the contrary—namely, that the picture of a gentlewoman of +repute, who, in a grave and sedate manner, turns towards that of her +husband, hanging near it, gets a great decorum by <i>moving and stirring +hind-works</i>, whether by means of waving trees, or crossing architecture of +stone and wood, or any thing else that the master thinks will best +<i>contrast</i>, or oppose, the <i>sedate posture of his principal figure</i>." Here +you see Eusebius, how hind-works tend to keep up a <i>bustle</i>! "And because +these are things of consequence, and may not be plainly apprehended by +every one," he explains himself by ten figures in one plate—and such +figures! As a sitter, he would place you very much above the eye—that is, +technically speaking, adopt a low horizon; "because—the because is a +because—because it's certain that when we see any painted figure, or +object, in a place where the life can be expected, as standing on the +ground, leaning over a balcony or balustrade, or out at a window, &c., it +deceives the eye, and by being seen unawares, (though expected,) causes +sometimes a pleasing mistake; or it frightens and surprises others, when +they meet with it unexpectedly, at such places as aforesaid, and where +there is <i>any likelihood</i> for it." Your artist will probably put you on an +inverted box, and sitting in a great chair, probably covered with red +morocco leather, in which you will not be at home, and in any manner +comfortable. We see this deal box sometimes converted into a marble step, +as a step to a throne, and such it is in one of the pictures of the Queen; +but it is so ill coloured, that it looks for all the world like a great +cheese; it should be sent to the farmers who made the Queen the cheese +present, to show the pride of England walking upon the "fat of the land." +He presents us with many methods of showing the different characters of +persons to be painted, some of which will be novel to you. For instance, +you would not expect directions to represent a secretary of state with the +accompaniments of a goose. "With a secretary the statue of Harpocrates, +and in tapestry or bas-relief, the story of Alexander shutting +Hephæstion's mouth with a seal-ring; also the emblem of fidelity, or a +goose with a stone in its bill." Methinks the director, or governor, of +the East India Company, must look very small beside his bedizened +accessory, meant to represent Company. "She is to be an heroine with a +scollop of mother-of-pearl on her head, in the nature of an helmet, and +thereon a coral branch; a breast ornament of scales; pearls and corals +about her neck; buskins on her legs, with two dolphins conjoined head to +head, adorned with sea-shells; two large shells on her shoulders, a +trident in her hand, and her clothing a long mantle; a landskip behind her +of an Indian prospect, with palm and cocoa trees, some figures of <i>blacks</i>, +and elephant's teeth. This figure also suits an admiral, or commander at +sea, when a sea-fight is introduced instead of a landskip." Such a figure +may, indeed, be more at home at sea, and such a one may have been that +famous lady, whose captain so "very much applauded her," and +</p> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "Made her the first lieutenant</p> +<p> Of the gallant Thunder Bomb."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +Not a painter of the present day, it seems, knows how to paint the clergy. +Mr Pickersgill has done quite common things, and simply shown the cloth +and the band—that is poor device. See how Gerard would have it done. +Every clergyman should be a Dr Beattie. "With a divine agrees the statue +of truth, represented in a Christian-like manner, or else this same emblem +in one of his hands, and his other on his breast, besides tapestries, +bas-reliefs, or paintings, and some Christian emblems of the true faith; +and representation of the Old and New Testament—in the offskip a temple." +All the portraits of the great duke are defective, inasmuch as none of +them have "Mars in a niche," or Victory sitting on a trophy, or a statue +of Hercules. You probably have no idea what a great personage is a +"sea-insurer." He is accompanied by Arion on a dolphin; and in a picture a +sea-haven, with a ship under sail making towards it; on the shore the +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page249 name=page249></A>[pg 249]</SPAN> +figure of Fortune, and (who are, think you, the "supercargoes?") over the +cargo "Castor and Pollux." In this mode of portrait-painting it would be +absolutely necessary to go back to the old plan of putting the names +underneath the personages; and even then, though you write under such, +this is Castor, this Pollux, and this the sea-insurer, it will ever puzzle +the whole ship's crew to conjecture how they came there together. Gerard +admits we cannot paint what we have not seen, and by example rather +condemns his own recommendations. Fewer have seen Castor and Pollux, than +have seen a lion, and he says men cannot paint what they have not seen. +"As was the case of a certain Westphalian, who, representing Daniel in the +lions' den, and having never seen a lion, he painted hogs instead of lions, +and wrote underneath, 'These should be lions.'" +</p> +<p> +By this time, Eusebius, you ought to know how to sit, if you have not made +up your mind not to sit at all. You need not, however, be much alarmed +about the emblems—modern masters cut all that matter short. They won't +throw in any superfluous work, you may be sure of that, unless you should +sit to Landseer, and he will paint your dog, and throw in your superfluous +self for nothing. You would be like Mercury with the statuary, mortified +to find his own image thrown into the bargain. +</p> +<p> +Besides your own defects, you have to encounter the painter's. His +unsteady, uncertain hand, may add an inch to your nose before you are +aware of it. It is quite notorious that few painters paint both eyes of +the same size; and after your utmost efforts to look straight in his face, +he may make you squint for ever, and not see that he has done so. Unless +he be himself a sensible man, he will be sure to make you look like a fool. +Then, what is like to-day will be unlike to-morrow. His megillups will +change, so that in six months you may look like a copper Indian; or the +colours may fade, and leave you the ghost of what you were. Again, he may +paint you lamentably like, odiously like, yet give you a sinister +expression, or at least an unpleasant one. Then, if you remonstrate, he is +offended; if you refuse to take it, he writes you word that if not paid +for and removed by next Tuesday, he will add a tail to it, and dispose of +it to Mr Polito. Did not Hogarth do something of this kind? If he please +himself he may not satisfy you, and if you are satisfied, none of your +friends are, who take an opportunity of the portrait to say sarcastic +things of you. For in that respect you may be most like your picture, or +it most like you, for every body will have some fault to find with it. Why, +don't you remember but last year some <i>friends</i> poked out the eye from a +portrait, even after it had been on the exhibition walls. Then, what with +the cleaning and varnishing, you have to go through as many disorders as +when you were a child. You will have the picture-cleaner's measles. It was +not long ago, I saw a picture in a most extraordinary state; and, on +enquiry, I found that the cook of the house had rubbed it over with fat of +bacon to make it bear out, and that she had learned it at a great house, +where there is a fine collection, which are thus bacon'd twice every year. +You are sure not to keep even your present good looks, but will become +smoked and dirty. Then must you be cleaned, and there is an even chance +that in doing it they put out at least one of your eyes, (I saw both eyes +taken out of a Correggio,) and the new one to be put in will never match +the other. The ills that flesh is heir to, are nothing to the ills its +representative is heir to. At best, the very change of fashion in dress +will make you look quizzical in a few years. For you are going to sit when +dress is most unbecoming, and it is only by custom that the eye is +reconciled to it, so that all the painted present generation must look +ridiculous in the eyes of posterity. Don't have your name put on the +canvass; then you may console yourself that, in all these mortal chances +and changes, whatever happens to it, you will not be known. I have one +before me now with the name and all particulars in large gilt letters. +Happily this ostentation is out; you may therefore hope, when the evil day +comes, <i>fallere</i>, to escape notice. I hope the painter will give you that +bold audacious look which +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page250 name=page250></A>[pg 250]</SPAN> +may stare the beholder in the face, and deny +your own identity; no small advantage, for doubtless the "[Greek: sêmata +lugra]" of Bellerophon was but his portrait, which, by a hang-look +expression, intimatd death. Your painter may be ignorant of phrenology, +and, without knowing it, may give you some detestable bumps; and your +picture may be borrowed to lecture upon, at inns and institutions, and +anecdotes rummaged up or forged, to match the painter's doing—the bumps +he has given you. +</p> +<p> +You must not, however, on this account, think too ill of the poor painter. +He is subject to human infirmities—so are you—and his hand and eye are +not always in tune. He has, too, to deal with all sorts of people—many +difficult enough to please. You know the fable of the painter who would +please everybody, and pleased nobody. You sitters are a whimsical set, +and most provokingly shift your features and position, and always expect +miracles, at a moment, too; you are here to-day, and must be off to-morrow. +It is nothing, to you that paint won't dry for you, so even that must be +forced, and you are rather varnished in than painted, and no wonder if +your faces go to pieces, and you become mealy almost as soon as you have +had the life's blood in you, and that with the best carmine. And often you +take upon yourselves to tell the painter what to do, as if you knew +yourselves better than he, though he has been staring at nothing but you +for an hour or two at a time, perhaps. You ask him, too, perpetually what +feature he is now doing, that you may call up a look. You screw up your +mouths, and try to put all the shine you can into your eyes, till, from +continual effort, they look like those of a shotten herring; and yet you +expect all to be like what you are in your ordinary way. After he has +begun to paint your hair, you throw it about with your hands in all +directions but the right, and all his work is to begin over again. You +have no notion how ignorant of yourselves you are. I happened to call, +some time since, upon a painter with whom I am on intimate terms. I found +him in a roar of laughter, and quite alone. "What is the matter?" said I. +"Matter!" replied he; "why, here has Mr B. been sitting to me these four +days following, and at last, about half an hour ago, he, sitting in that +chair, puts up his hand to me, thus, with 'Stop a moment, Mr Painter; I +don't know whether you have noticed it or not, but it is right that I +should tell you that <i>I have a slight</i> cast in my eye.' You know Mr B., a +worthy good man, but he has the very worst gimlet eye I ever beheld." Yes, +and only <i>slightly</i> knew it, Eusebius. And I have to say, he thought his +defect wondrously exaggerated, when, for the first time, he saw it on +canvas; and perhaps all his family noticed it there, whom custom had +reconciled into but little observation of it, and the painter was +considered no friend of the family. For the poor artist is expected to +please all down to the youngest child, and perhaps that one most, for she +often rules the rest. And people do not too much consider the <i>feelings</i> +of painters. I knew an artist, a great humorist, who spent much time at +the court at Lisbon. He had to paint a child, I believe the Prince of the +Brazils. I remember, as if I saw him act the scene but yesterday, and it +is many years ago. Well, the maid of honour, or whatever was her title, +brought the child into the room, and remained some time, but at length +left him alone with the painter. When he found himself only in this +company, his pride took the alarm. He put on great airs, frowned, pouted, +looked disdainful, superbly swelling, and got off the chair, retreating +slowly, scornfully. The artist, who was a great mimic, imitated his every +gesture, and, with some extravagance, frowned as he frowned, swelled as he +swelled, blew out his breath as the child did, advanced as he retreated, +till the child at length found himself pinned in the corner, at which the +artist put on such a ridiculous expression, that risible nature could +stand it no longer; pride was conquered by humour, and from that hour they +were on the most familiar terms. It was not an ill-done thing of our Henry +VIII. when he made one of his noble courtiers apologize to Holbein for +some slight, bidding him, at the same time, to know that he could make a +hundred such +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page251 name=page251></A>[pg 251]</SPAN> +as he, but it was past his power to make a Holbein. And you +know how a great monarch picked up Titian's pencil which had fallen. How +greatly did Alexander honour Apelles, in that he would suffer none else to +paint his portrait. And when the painter, by drawing his Campaspe, fell in +love with her, he presented her to him. It is a bad policy, Eusebius, to +put slights upon these men—and it is more, it is ungenerous; they may +revenge themselves upon you whenever they please, and give you a black eye +too, that will never get right again. They can in effigy, put every limb +out of joint; and you being no anatomist, may only see that you look ill, +and know not where you went wrong. All you sitters expect to be flattered, +and very little flattery do you bestow. Perversely, you won't even see +your own likenesses. Take, for instance, the following scene, which I had +from a miniature painter:—A man upwards of forty years of age, had been +sitting to him—one of as little pretensions as you can well imagine; you +would have thought it impossible that he could have had an homoeopathic +proportion of vanity—of personal vanity at least; but it turned out +otherwise. He was described as a greasy bilious man, with a peculiarly +conventicle aspect—that is, one that affects a union of gravity and love. +"Well, sir," said the painter, "that will do—I think I have been very +fortunate in your likeness." The man looks at it, and says nothing, puts +on an expression of disappointment. "What! don't you think it like, sir?" +says the artist. "Why—ye-ee-s, it is li-i-ke—but——" "But what sir?—I +think it exactly like. I wish you would tell me where it is not like?" +"Why, I'd rather you should find it out yourself. Have the goodness to +look at me."—And here my friend the painter declared, that he put on a +most detestably affected grin of amiability.—"Well, sir, upon my word, I +don't see any fault at all; it seems to me as like as it can be; I wish +you'd be so good as to tell me what you mean." "Oh, sir, I'd rather +not—I'd rather you should find it out yourself—look again." "I can't see +any difference, sir; so if you don't tell me, it can't be altered." "Well +then, with reluctance, if I must tell you, I don't think you have given my +<i>sweet expression about the eyes</i>." Oh, Eusebius, Eusebius, what a mock +you would have made of that man; you would have flouted his vanity about +his ears for him gloriously; I would have given a crown to have had him +sit to you, and you should have let me be by, to attend your colours. How +we would have bedaubed the fellow before he had left the room, with his +sweet eyes! But there, your patient painter must endure all that, and not +give a hint that he disagrees in the opinion: or if he speak his mind on +the occasion, he may as well quit the town, for under the influence of +those sweet eyes, nor man, woman, nor child, will come to sit to him. And +consider, Eusebius, their misery in having such sitters at all. They are +not Apollos, and Venuses, nor Adonises, that knock at painters' doors. Not +one in a hundred has even a tolerably pleasant face. I certainly once knew +a rough-dealing artist, who told a gentleman very plainly—"Sir, I do not +paint remarkably ugly people." But he came to no good. Not but that a +clever fellow might do something of this kind with management, with good +effect; get the reputation of being a painter of "beauties," with a little +skill, make beauties of every body, and stoutly maintain that he never +will have any others sit to him. I am not quite certain, that something of +this kind has been practised, or I do not think I should have the art to +invent it. All those who sit during a courtship, to present their +portraits as lovers, I look upon it come as professed cheats, and mean to +be most egregiously flattered; and if the thing succeeds through the +painter's skill, within six months after the marriage, he, the painter, is +called the cheat, and the portrait not in the least like. So easy is it to +get out of repute, by doing your best to please them with a little +flattery. You will never get into a book of beauty, Eusebius. Hitherto, +the list runs in the female line. The male will soon come in, depend upon +it. +</p> +<p> +Have a little pity upon the poor artist, who would, but cannot, +flatter—who is conscious of his inability to put in those blandishments +that shall give a grace to ugliness—from whose +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page252 name=page252></A>[pg 252]</SPAN> +hand unmitigated ugliness +becomes uglier—who, at length, driven from towns, where people begin to +see this, as a dauber, takes refuge among the farm houses; at first paints +the farmers and their wives, their ugly faces stretching to the very edge +of the frames, and is at last reduced to paint the favourite cow, or the +fat ox—the prodigal (alas! no; the simply miserable, in mistaking his +profession) feeding the swine, and with them, and they not over-proud of +his doings. Then there is another poor, self-deluded character among the +tribe. I have the man in my eye at this moment. It is not long since I +paid him a visit to see a great historical composition, which I had been +requested to look at. It was the most miserable of all miserable daubs; +yet so conspicuously set off with colours and hardness, that the eye could +not escape it. It was a most determined eye-sore. The quiet, the modest +demeanour of the young man at first deceived me; I ventured to find some +trifling fault. The artist was up—still his manner was quiet—somewhat, +in truth, contemptuously so; but, as for modesty, I doubt not he was +modest in every other matter relating to himself; but, in art, he as +calmly talked of himself, Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle, as a trio—that +two had obtained immortality of fame, and that he sought the same, and, he +trusted, by the same means, and believed with similar powers: as calmly +did he speak in this manner, as if it were a thing long settled in his own +mind and in fate—and in the manner of an indulgent communication. He +lamented the lack of taste and knowledge in the world; that so little was +real art appreciated, that he was obliged to submit to the drudgery of +portrait. <i>Submit!</i>—and such portraits. Poor fellow! how long will he get +sitters to <i>submit</i>? I have recently heard the fate of one of his great +compositions. He had persuaded the vicar and church-wardens of a parish to +accept a picture. He attended the putting it up. It was a fine old church. +With the quietest conceit, he had a fine east window blocked up to receive +the picture—had the tables of Commandments mutilated, and thrust up in a +corner—damaged the wall to give effect to the picture—and really +believed that he was conferring an honour and benefit upon the +parishioners and the county. Soon, however, men of better taste and sense +began to cry out. The incumbent died. His successor related to me the +shocking occurrence of the picture. He had it removed, and the damage done +to the edifice repaired. And what became of the grand historical? The +church-warden alone, who, in the pride of his heart and ignorance, had +paid the poor artist for the colours, gladly took the picture. His account +of it was, that it was so powerful in his small room, as to affect several +ladies to tears—and that he had covered it with a thin gauze, to keep +down <i>the fierceness of the sentiment</i>; for it was too affecting. Now, +here is a man, who, if you should happen to sit to him, will think it the +greatest condescension to take your picture, and will paint you such as +you never would wish to be seen or known. There is a predilection now for +schools of design; and the world will teem with these poor creatures. +</p> +<p> +Many there are, however, who, having considerable ability, have much to +struggle against—who love the profession of art, and with that +unaccountable giving themselves up to it, are quite unfit for any other +occupation in life, yet, from adverse circumstances—ill health, strange +temperaments—do not succeed. Many years ago, I knew a very interesting +young man, and a very industrious one, too, of very considerable ability +as a painter, but not, at that time, of portraits. While hard at work, +getting just enough to live by, he was seized with an illness that +threatened rapid consumption. The kind physician who gratuitously visited +him, told him one day—"You cannot live here. I do not say that you have a +year of safety in this climate, or a month of safety, but you have not +weeks. You must instantly go to a warmer climate." Ill, and without means, +beyond the few pounds he could gather from his hasty breaking-up, he had +courage to look on the cheerful side of things, and went off in the first +vessel to the West Indies. I saw him afterwards. He gave me a history of +his adventures. He went +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page253 name=page253></A>[pg 253]</SPAN> +from island to island—became portrait-painter—a +painter of scenes—of any thing that might offer; by good conduct, +urbanity, gentleness, and industry, was respected, liked, and patronized; +lived, and sent home a thousand pounds or two—came to England to see his +friends for a few months. I saw him on his way to them. He was then in +health and spirits—told me the many events of the few years—and in six +weeks the climate killed him. But the anecdote of his turning +portrait-painter is what I have to tell. On the passage, they touched at +one of the islands, and he found but very little money in his pocket; and, +while others went off to hotels, or estates of friends, he went his way +quietly to seek out cheap lodgings. He found such, which the good woman +told him he could have in three hours. He afterwards learned that she +waited that time for the then tenant <i>to die in the bed which he was to +occupy</i>. Walking away to pass the time, he met some of his fellow +passengers, who asked him if he had been to see the governor. He had not. +They told him it was necessary he should go. So thither he went. Now, the +governor asked him, "What brought him out to the West Indies?" He replied, +that he came as an artist. "An artist!" said the governor. "That is a +novelty indeed. Have you any specimens? I should like to see them." Now, +among his things, he had a miniature of himself, painted by a man who +attained eminence in the profession, and whom I knew well. Here, with an +ingenuousness characteristic of the man, he acknowledged to me how, +starvation staring him in the face, <i>he</i> stared in the governor's; and the +governor being rather a hard-featured man, whose likeness, though he had +never taken a portrait, he thought he could hit; when the governor admired +the miniature, and asked him, "If it was his?" he did not resist the +temptation, and said, "Yes." Upon which the governor sat to him. Then +others sat to him; and so he left the island, with a replenished purse, +and from that time became a portrait-painter. If the poor fellow had been +the veriest dauber, you, Eusebius, would have sat to him twenty times over, +and have told all the country round quite as great a fib as he did the +governor, that he was a very Raffaelle in outline, and Titian in coloring. +And what shall the "recording angel" do? Poor fellow! he had no conceit. +</p> +<p> +But you, Eusebius, need not trust or give your countenance, in the way of +the art to any man because you like his history or his manners. A thing +you are very likely to do in spite of this advice, though you multiply +portraits for "Saracen's Heads." +</p> +<p> +Foolish artists themselves, who affect to talk of the great style, and set +themselves up as geniuses, speak slightingly of portrait-painting, as +degrading—as pandering to vanity, &c. I verily believe, that half this +common cant arose from jealousy of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Degradation indeed! +—as if Raffaelle and Titian, and Vandyk and Reynolds, degraded the art, +or were degraded by their practice; and as to pandering to vanity—view it +in another light, and it is feeding affection. +</p> +<p> +I knew a painter, who honourably refused to paint a lady's picture, when +he waited upon her on purpose, sent by some injudicious friends to take +her portrait in her last days. She had been a woman of great +celebrity—she received the painter—but, with a weakness, pointed first +to one side of the room where were portraits of earls and bishops, saying, +"these are or were all my particular friends"—and then to the other side +of the room, to a well filled library—"and these are all my works." "Now," +said the painter to me, "I did not think it fair to her reputation to take +her portrait—and she had had many taken at better times." Here was one +who would not pander to vanity. After all, it is astonishing how few +flattering painters there have been. Even he who made Venus, Minerva, and +Juno, starting with astonishment at the presence of Queen Elizabeth, +certainly made her by far the ugliest of the quartette. You may see the +picture at Hampton Court. She must have been difficult to please, for she +insisted upon being painted without shadow. "Glorious Gloriana" was to be +the sun of female beauty. She is quite as well as some in "The Book." For +modern "beauty" manufacturers make +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page254 name=page254></A>[pg 254]</SPAN> +beauty to consist in silliness or +sentimentality. +</p> +<p> +Do you believe in the story of the origin of portrait—the Grecian maid +and her lover? I cannot—for I have often tried my hand, and such frights +were the result, that it would have been a cure for love. +</p> +<p> +For lack of the art of portrait-painting, we have really no idea what +mankind were like before the time of our Eighth Harry. What we see could +not possibly be likenesses, because they are not humanity. But in +Holbein's heads, such as the royal collection, published by Chamberlaine, +we begin to see what men and women were. What our early Henrys and Edwards +were: what the court or the people were, we cannot know; they are buried +in the night of art, like the brave who lived before the time of Agamemnon. +Perhaps it is quite as well—"<i>omne ignotum pro mirifico</i>"—and who would +lose the pleasure of wonder and conjecture, with all its imaginary +phantasmagoria? We might have a mesmeric <i>coma</i> that might put us in +possession of the past, if it can of the future—and gratify curiosity +wofully at the expense of what is more valuable than that kind of truth. A +mesmeric painter may take the portrait of Helen of Troy, and you may knock +at your twenty neighbours' doors, and find perhaps a greater beauty, +especially if chronology be trusted as to her age at the Trojan war. Would +you like to see a veritable portrait of Angelica—or of your Orlando in +his madness? +</p> +<p> +The great portrait-painter—the sun, in his diurnal course all over the +world, may be, for aught we know, photographing mankind, and registering +us, too; and, if we are to judge from the specimens we do see, the +collection cannot be very flattering. Who dares call the sun a flatterer? +</p> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "... Solem quis dicere falsum</p> +<p> Audeat?"</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +At the very moment that you are sitting to your man, to be set off with +smirk and smile and the graces of art, you are perhaps making a most +formidable impression elsewhere. You would not like to +</p> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p> "Look upon this picture, <i>and</i> on this."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +Some poor country people have an unaccountable dislike to having their +portraits taken. Savages think them second selves, and that may be +bewitched and punished; possibly something of this feeling may be at the +bottom of the dislike. I was once sketching in a country village, and an +old woman went by, and I put her into the picture. Some, looking over me, +called out to her that her likeness was taken. She cried, because she had +not her best cap and gown on. I was once positively driven from a cottage +door, because a woman thought I was "taking her off." I know not but that +it was a commendable wish in the old woman to appear decent before the +world, and so might have been the fine lady's wish— +</p> +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p class=i4> "Betty, put on a little red,</p> +<p> One surely need not look a fright when dead."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p> +We choose to be satirical, and call it vanity; but put both anecdotes into +tolerably good grave Latin, and name them Portia and Lucretia, and we +should have as fine a sentiment as the boasted one of the hero +endeavouring to fall decently. There may be but little difference, and +that only just what we, in our humours, choose to make it. I am sure you, +Eusebius, will stand up for the old village crone, and the fine lady, too. +But the fraternity of the brush, if they do now and then promote vanity, +much more commonly gratify affection. Private portraits seem to me to be +things so sacred, that they ought not to survive the immediate family or +friends for whose gratification they are painted. I much like the idea of +burying them at last. I will show you how estimable these things sometimes +are. You remember a portrait I have—a gentleman in a dress of blue and +gold—in crayon. Did I ever tell you the anecdote respecting him? If not, +you shall have it, as I had from my father. If you recollect the picture, +you must recollect that it is of a very handsome man. His horses took +fright, the carriage was overturned, and he was killed upon the spot. The +property came to my father. One day an unknown lady, in a handsome +equipage, stopped at his door, and, in an interview with him, requested a +portrait of this very person, not the one you have seen, but +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page255 name=page255></A>[pg 255]</SPAN> +another in +oil-colour, and of that the head only. My father cut it out, and gave it +to her. Many, many years afterwards it was returned to him by an unknown +hand, with an account of the accident that caused the death, pasted on the +back; and it is now in my possession. The lady was never known. No, +Eusebius, we must not deny portrait-painters, nor portrait painting. It is +the line in which we excel—and that we have above all others patronized, +and had great men too arise from our encouragement—Who are so rich in +Vandyks as we are? And some we have had better than the world allowed them +to be—Sir Peter Lely was occasionally an admirable painter—though Sir +Joshua did say, "We must go beyond him now." There was Sir Joshua himself, +and Gainsborough—would that either were alive to take you, Eusebius, +though I were to pay for the sitting. I think too, that I should have +given the preference to Gainsborough—it would have been so true. Did you +ever see his portrait of Foote?—so unaffected—it must be like. I won't +be invidious by naming any, where we have so many able +portrait-painters—but if you have not fixed upon your man, come to me, +and I will tell half-a-dozen, and we will go to them, and you shall judge +for yourself—and if you like miniature, there are those who will make +what is small great. What wonderful power Cooper had in this way. I +recently had in my hands a wondrous and marvellous portrait of Andrew +Marvell by him. The sturdy honest Andrew. This man Cooper, had such +wonderful largeness of style, of execution too, even in his highest +finished small oil pictures—such as in this of Andrew Marvell. We had an +age, certainly, of very bad taste, and it was not extinct in the days of +Sir Joshua and Gainsborough; nay, sometimes under both of these, I am sorry +to say, it was even made worse. The age of shepherds and shepherdesses—in +the case of Gainsborough, brought down to downright rustics. This, of +making the sitters affect to be what they were not, was bad enough—and it +was any thing but poetical. But it was infinitely worse in the itinerants +of the day—and is very well ridiculed by Goldsmith, who lived much among +painters, in his Vicar of Wakefield and family sitting for the family +picture. We have happily quite got out of that folly. But we are getting +into one of most unpoetical pageantry—portrait likenesses. We have not +seen yet a good portrait of Wellington, and the Queen, or the Prince; and +if they must send their portraits to foreign courts, let them be advised +to learn, if they know not yet how, and we are told they do, to paint them +themselves. Montaigne tells us, that he was present one day at Bar-le-duc, +when King Francis the Second, for a memorial of Réné, King of Sicily, was +presented with a picture the king had drawn of himself. Some how or other, +kings and queens are apt to have too many trappings about them; and the +man is often chosen to paint, who paints velvets and satins best, and +faces the worst. That is the reason we have them so ill done; and even if +the faces are well painted, they are overpowered by the ostentation of the +dress. Now, the Venetian portrait-painters contrived to keep down the +glare of all this ornament, to make it even more rich, but not obtruding. +I remember seeing a portrait of our queen, where, in a large bonnet, her +face looked like a small pip in the midst of an orange. It would be a good +thing, too, if you could contrive to spend a week or so in company with +your painter before you sit, that he may know you. Many a characteristic +may he lose, for want of knowing that it is a characteristic; and may give +you that in expression which does not belong to you, while he may miss +"your sweet expression about your eyes." He may purse up your large and +generous mouth, because you may screw it for a moment to keep some +ill-timed conceit from bolting out, and, besides missing that noble +feature, may give you an expression of a caution that is not yours. A +painter the other day, as I am assured, in a country town, made a great +mistake in a characteristic, and it was discovered by a country farmer. It +was the portrait of a lawyer—an attorney, who, from humble pretensions, +had made a good deal of money, and enlarged thereby his pretensions, but +somehow or other not very much +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page256 name=page256></A>[pg 256]</SPAN> +enlarged his respectability. To his +pretensions was added that of having his portrait put up in the parlour, +as large as life. There it is, very flashy and very true—one hand in his +breast, the other in his small-clothes' pocket. It is market-day—the +country clients are called in—opinions are passed—the family present, +and all complimentary—such as, "Never saw such a likeness in the course +of all my born days. As like 'un as he can stare." "Well, sure enough, +there he is." But at last—there is one dissentient! "'Tain't like—not +very—no, 'tain't," said a heavy middle-aged farmer, with rather a dry +look, too, about his mouth, and a moist one at the corner of his eye, and +who knew the attorney well. All were upon him. "Not like!—How not like? +Say where is it not like?" "Why, don't you see," said the man, "he's got +his hand in his breeches' pocket. It would be as like again if he had his +hand in any other body's pocket." The family portrait was removed, +especially as, after this, many came on purpose to see it; and so the +attorney was lowered a peg, and the farmer obtained the reputation of a +connoisseur. +</p> +<p> +But it is high time, Eusebius, that I should dismiss you and +portrait-painting, or you will think your thus sitting to me worse than +sitting for your picture; which picture, if it be of my Eusebius as I know +him and love him, will ever be a living speaking likeness, but if it be +one but of outward feature and resemblance, it will soon pass off to make +up the accumulation of dead lumber—while do you, Eusebius, as you are, +<i>vive valeque</i>. +</p> + +<br><hr class=full> + + +<a name="bw340s10" id="bw340s10"></a><h2>MY FRIEND.</h2> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>Wouldst thou be friend of mine?—</p> +<p class=i4>Thou must be quick and bold</p> +<p>When the right is to be done,</p> +<p class=i4>And the truth is to be told;</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>Wearing no friend-like smile</p> +<p class=i4>When thine heart is hot within,</p> +<p>Making no truce with fraud or guile,</p> +<p class=i4>No compromise with sin.</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>Open of eye and speech,</p> +<p class=i4>Open of heart and hand,</p> +<p>Holding thine own but as in trust</p> +<p class=i4>For thy great brother-band.</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>Patient and stout to bear,</p> +<p class=i4>Yet bearing not for ever;</p> +<p>Gentle to rule, and slow to bind,</p> +<p class=i4>Like lightning to deliver!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>True to thy fatherland,</p> +<p class=i4>True to thine own true love;</p> +<p>True to thine altar and thy creed,</p> +<p class=i4>And thy good God above.</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>But with no bigot scorn</p> +<p class=i4>For faith sincere as thine,</p> +<p>Though less of form attend the prayer,</p> +<p class=i4>Or more of pomp the shrine;</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>Remembering Him who spake</p> +<p class=i4>The word that cannot lie,</p> +<p>"Where two or three in my name meet</p> +<p class=i4>There in the midst am I!"</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>I bar thee not from faults—</p> +<p class=i4>God wot, it were in vain!</p> +<p>Inalienable heritage</p> +<p class=i4>Since that primeval slain!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>The wisest have been fools—</p> +<p class=i4>The surest stumbled sore:</p> +<p><i>Strive</i> thou to stand—or fall'n arise,</p> +<p class=i4>I ask thee not for more!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>This do, and thou shalt knit</p> +<p class=i4>Closely my heart to thine;</p> +<p>Next the dear love of God above,</p> +<p class=i4>Such Friend on earth, be mine!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>O.O.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>LONDON, <i>January</i> 1844.</p> + +<br> +<hr class=full> + +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page257 name=page257></A>[pg 257]</SPAN> +<a name="bw340s11" id="bw340s11"></a><h2>THE LAND OF SLAVES.</h2> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>"Le printemps—le printemps!"—<i>Berenger</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>'Twas a sunny holiday,</p> +<p>Scene, Killarney—time, last May;</p> +<p>In the fields the rustic throng,</p> +<p>Every linnet in full song,</p> +<p>Not a cloud to threaten rain,</p> +<p>As I walk'd with lovely Jane.</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>While we wander'd round the bay,</p> +<p>Came the gayest of the gay,</p> +<p>Pouring from a painted barge,</p> +<p>Anchor'd by the flowery marge;</p> +<p>Sporting round its cliffs and caves:—</p> +<p>Ireland is the land of slaves!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>Next we met an infant group,</p> +<p>Never was a happier troop;</p> +<p>Dancing o'er the primrose plain.</p> +<p>"Joyous infancy!" said Jane;</p> +<p>"Free from care as winds and waves."</p> +<p>—"No, my darling, <i>these</i> are slaves!"</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>On we walk'd—a garden shade</p> +<p>Show'd us matron, man, and maid,</p> +<p>Laughing, talking, <i>all</i> coquetting,</p> +<p>"Here," said Jane, "I see no fretting:</p> +<p>Mammon makes but fools or knaves."</p> +<p>—"No, my darling, <i>these</i> are slaves!"</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>On we walk'd—we saw a dome,</p> +<p>Fill'd with furious dupes of Rome,</p> +<p>Ranting of the sword and chain.</p> +<p>"Let us run away," said Jane:</p> +<p>"How that horrid rebel raves!"</p> +<p>—"No, my darling, <i>these</i> are slaves!"</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>As we ran, a monster-crowd</p> +<p>Stopp'd us, uttering vengeance loud;</p> +<p>Giving nobles to the halter,</p> +<p>Cursing England's throne and altar,</p> +<p>Brandishing their pikes and staves.</p> +<p>"Love," said Jane, "are all <i>these</i> slaves?"</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>[Greek: Aion]</p> + +<br><hr class=full> + +<a name="bw340s12" id="bw340s12"></a><h2>THE PRIEST'S BURIAL.</h2> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>He is dead!—he died of a broken heart,</p> +<p class=i4>Of a frighten'd soul, and a frenzied brain:</p> +<p>He died—of playing a desperate part</p> +<p class=i4>For folly; which others play'd for gain.</p> +<p class=i6> Yet o'er his turf the rebels rave!</p> +<p class=i6> Be silent, wretches!—spare the grave!</p> +</div> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page258 name=page258></A>[pg 258]</SPAN> +<div class=stanza> +<p>He is dead!—bewilder'd, betray'd, beguiled;</p> +<p class=i4>Swept on by faction's fiery blast.</p> +<p>In its blood-stain'd track, a fool, a child!</p> +<p class=i4>His doom is fix'd—his lot is cast.</p> +<p class=i6> Yet scowls by his bier earth's blackest knave.</p> +<p class=i6> Be silent, wretches!—spare the grave!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>They dress'd the cold clay in mimic state,</p> +<p class=i4>And the peasants came crowding round;</p> +<p>And many a vow of revenge and hate</p> +<p class=i4>In that hour on their souls was bound—</p> +<p class=i6> Oh! ruthless creed, that never forgave!</p> +<p class=i6> Be silent, wretches!—spare the grave!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>They bore him along by the village road,</p> +<p class=i4>And they yell'd at the village spire!</p> +<p>And they laid him at rest in his long abode,</p> +<p class=i4>In a storm of revenge and ire;</p> +<p class=i6> And round him their furious banners wave.</p> +<p class=i6> Be silent, wretches!—spare the grave!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>Then o'er him the bigot chant was sung,</p> +<p class=i4>And was said the bigot prayer,</p> +<p>And wild hearts with many a thought were stung,</p> +<p class=i4>That left its venom there,</p> +<p class=i6> To madden in many a midnight cave.</p> +<p class=i6> Be silent, wretches!—spare the grave!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>All is done; he is buried—the crowd depart,</p> +<p class=i4>He is laid in his kindred clay,</p> +<p>There, freed from the torture that ate his heart,</p> +<p class=i4>He rests, till the last great day.</p> +<p class=i6> O THOU! who alone canst defend and save,</p> +<p class=i6> Wake Ireland wise from this lowly grave.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>[Greek: Aion.]</p> + +<br><hr class=full> + +<a name="bw340s13" id="bw340s13"></a><h2>PRUDENCE.</h2> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>"Bide your time."—<i>Rebel Song</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class=poem> +<div class=stanza> +<p>Bide your time—bide your time!</p> +<p>Patience is the true sublime.</p> +<p>Heroes, bottle up your tears;</p> +<p>Wait for ten, or ten score, years.</p> +<p>Shrink from blows, but rage in rhyme:</p> +<p>Bide your time—bide your time!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>Bide your time—bide your time!</p> +<p>Snakes are safest in their slime.</p> +<p>Sages look before they leap;</p> +<p>Heroes, to your hovels creep.</p> +<p>Christmas loves pantomime:</p> +<p>Bide your time—bide your time!</p> +</div> +<div class=stanza> +<p>Bide your time—bide your time!</p> +<p>"Shoulder arms"—but never prime.</p> +<p>Keep your skins from Saxon lead;</p> +<p>Plunder paupers for your bread.</p> +<p>Popish begging is no crime:</p> +<p>Bide your time—bide your time!</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p>[Greek: Aion.]</p> + +<br><hr class=full> +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page259 name=page259></A>[pg 259]</SPAN> +<a name="bw340s14" id="bw340s14"></a><h2>FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION</h2> + +<p> +Whoever has travelled in the highlands of Scotland, or the mountains of +Wales, must have observed the remarkable difference which exists between +artificial plantations, and the natural woods of the country. Planted <i>all +at once</i>, the former grow up of uniform height, and all their trees +present nearly the same form and symmetry. Sown at different periods, with +centuries between their growth, the latter exhibit every variety of age +and form, from the decaying patriarchs of the forest, which have survived +the blasts of some hundred years, to the infant sapling, which is only +beginning to shoot under the shelter of a projecting rock or stem. Nor is +the difference less remarkable in the room which is severally afforded for +growth, in the artificial plantations and in the wilds of nature. The +larches or firs, in the stiff and angular enclosure, are always crowded +together; and if not thinned by the care of the woodsman, will inevitably +choke each other, or shoot up thin and unhealthy, in consequence of their +close proximity to each other, and the dense mass of foliage which +overshadows the upper part of the wood. But no such danger need be +apprehended In the natural forest. No woodman is called to thin its +denizens. No forester's eye is required to tell which should be left, and +which cut away, in the vast array. In the ceaseless warfare of the weaker +with the stronger, the feeble plants are entirely destroyed. In vain the +infant sapling attempts to contend with the old oak, the branches of which +overshadow its growth—it is speedily crushed in the struggle. Nor are the +means of removing the useless remains less effectual. The hand of nature +insensibly clears the waste of its incumbrances; the weakness of time +brings them to the ground when their allotted period is expired; and youth, +as in the generations of men, springs beside the decay of age, and finds +ample room for its expansion over the fallen remains of its paternal stems. +</p> +<p> +The difference between the artificial plantation and the natural wood, +illustrates the distinction between the imaginary communities which the +political economist expects to see grow up, in conformity with his +theories, and acting in obedience to his dictates, and the nations of +flesh and blood which exist around us, of which we form a part, and which +are immediately affected by ill-judged or inapplicable measures of +commercial regulation. Nations were planted by the hand of nature; they +were not sown, nor their place allotted by human foresight. They exist +often close to each other, and under apparently the same physical +circumstances, under every possible variety of character, age, and period +of growth. The difference even between those ruled by the same government, +and inhabited apparently by the same race, is prodigious. Who could +suppose that the Dutchman, methodical, calculating, persevering, was next +neighbour to the fiery, war-like, and impetuous Frenchman? Or that the +southern and western Irish, vehement, impassioned, and volatile, came from +the same stock which pervades the whole west of Britain? England, for +centuries the abode of industry, effort, and opulence, is subject to the +same government, and situated in the same latitude as Ireland, where +indolence is almost universal, wealth rare, and manufactures in general +unknown. Russia, ignorant, united, and ever victorious, adjoins Poland, +weak, distracted, and ever vanquished; and Prussia has risen with +unheard-of rapidity in national strength, and every branch of industry, at +the very time when Spain was fast relapsing into slavery and barbarism. +</p> +<p> +Familiar as these truths are to all they seem to have been, in an +unaccountable manner, forgotten by our modern political economists; and +the oblivion of them is the principal cause of the remarkable failure +which has attended the application to practice of all their theories. They +invariably forget the different age of nations; they overlook the +essential difference between communities with different national character, +or in different stages +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page260 name=page260></A>[pg 260]</SPAN> +of manufacturing or commercial advancement, and +fall into the fatal error of supposing that one general system is to be +readily embraced by, and found applicable to, a cluster of nations +existing under every possible variety of physical, social, and political +circumstances. Fixing their eyes upon their own country, or rather upon +the peculiar interest to which they belong in their own country, they +reason as if all mankind were placed in the same circumstances, and would +be benefited by the arrangements which they find advantageous. They forget +that all nations were not planted at the same time, nor in the same soil; +that the difference in their age, the inequality in their growth, the +variety in their texture, is as great as in the trees of the forest, the +seeds of which have been scattered by the hand of nature; that the +incessant warfare of the weaker with the stronger, exists not less in the +social than the physical world; and that all systems founded on the +oblivion of that continued contest, must ever be traversed by the +strongest of all moral laws—the instinct of SELF-PRESERVATION. +</p> +<p> +We have said that the modern theories when applied to practice, have, in a +remarkable manner, failed. In saying so, we have chiefly in view the +acknowledged failure of the strenuous efforts made by England, during the +last twenty years, to effect an interchange in the advantages of free +trade, and the entire disappointment which has attended the long +establishment, on a great scale, of the reciprocity system. To the first +we shall advert in the present paper; the second will furnish ample room +for reflection in another. +</p> +<p> +The abstract principles on which the doctrines of free trade are founded, +are these; and we put it to the warmest advocates of those principles, +whether they are not fairly stated. All nations were not intended by +nature, nor are they fitted by their physical circumstances, to excel in +the same branches of industry; and it is the variety in the production +which they severally can bring to maturity, which at once imposes the +necessity for, and occasions the profit of, commercial intercourse. +Nothing, therefore, can be so unwise as to attempt, either by arbitrary +regulations, to create a branch of industry in a country for which it is +not intended by nature, or to retain it in that branch where it is created +by forced prohibitions. Banish all restrictions, therefore, from commerce; +let every nation apply itself to that particular branch of industry for +which it is adapted by nature, and receive in exchange the produce of +other countries, raised, in like manner, in conformity with their natural +capabilities. Then will the industry of each people be turned into the +channel most advantageous and lucrative to itself; each will enjoy the +immense advantage of purchasing the commodities it requires at the +cheapest possible rate; hopeless or absurd hot-bed attempts to force +extraneous industry will cease; and, in the mutual interchange of the +surplus produce of each, the foundation will be laid of an advantageous +and durable commercial intercourse. England, on this principle, should not +attempt to raise wine, nor France iron or cotton goods; but the calicoes +and hardware of Great Britain should be exchanged for the wines and fruits +of France: both nations will thus be enriched, and a vast commercial +traffic grow up, which, being founded on mutual interest and attended with +mutual advantage, may be expected to be durable, and to extinguish, in the +end, the rivalry of their respective people, or the jealousy of their +several governments. +</p> +<p> +Such is the theory of free trade; and it may be admitted it wears at first +sight a seducing and agreeable aspect. Let us now enquire how far +experience, the great test of truth, has verified its doctrines, or +demonstrated its practicability. To illustrate this matter, we shall have +recourse to no mean or doubtful authority; we shall have recourse to the +statement of an enlightened but candid contemporary, whose advocating of a +moderate system of free trade has excited no small anxiety in the British +empire; and which report, from the information and ability it displays, +has assigned to the present accomplished head of the Board of Trade. +</p> +<p> +The efforts made in Great Britain to introduce a general system of free +trade, especially within the last three +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page261 name=page261></A>[pg 261]</SPAN> +years, are thus enumerated in the +<i>Foreign and Colonial Review</i>. +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> +"England, without gaining or asking a single boon from any foreign country, +has— +</p> +<p> +"1. Reduced by about one-half the duties upon foreign corn. +</p> +<p> +"2. By nearly the same amount, the duties on foreign timber. +</p> +<p> +"3. Has removed her prohibitions against the importation of cattle and +other animals for food, and has fixed upon them duties, ranging on the +average at about ten per cent <i>ad valorem</i>. +</p> +<p> +"4. Has made flesh meat admissible. +</p> +<p> +"5. Has reduced the duty on salt provisions for home consumption by +one-third, and one-half; and has placed them on a footing of entire +equality with the British article for the supply of the whole marine +frequenting her ports. +</p> +<p> +"6. Has lowered her duties on vegetables and seeds in general to one-half, +one-sixth, and even one-twelfth (in the case of that most important +esculent the potatoe) of what they formerly were. +</p> +<p> +"7. Has made all <i>great</i> articles of manufacture, except silk, which is +reserved for future negotiations, admissible at duties of ten, twelve and +a half, and fifteen per cent, and only in some few instances so much as +twenty per cent. +</p> +<p> +"8. Upon some minor articles of manufacture, where our people lie under +heavy disadvantages in obtaining the raw material, and where their habits +have been formed in their particular occupation, wholly under the shelter, +and therefore upon the responsibility of the law, she has retained duties +in some cases as high as thirty per cent <i>ad valorem</i>, but yet has reduced +them to rates insignificant in comparison with those formerly charged. +</p> +<p> +"9. In her colonies, she has fixed the ordinary rules of differential +duties upon foreign productions at four and seven per cent, with +exceptions altogether trifling in amount, on which a higher charge has +been laid for special reasons. +</p> +<p> +"10. She has withdrawn the prohibition to export machinery, except so far +as regards the linen manufacture, and the spinning of the yarns employed +in it. +</p> +<p> +"11. With regard to many other articles, such as butter and cheese, indeed, +with regard to all articles to which the simple and essential interests of +the revenue will allow the same rules to be applied—it has been declared +that they are only temporarily exempted from the operations of those rules, +and it is well understood, that no time will be allowed to pass, except +such as is necessary, before the work is completed; and lastly, +</p> +<p> +"12. She has not even excluded from the benefit of these reductions the +very countries under whose simultaneous enactments, of a hostile character, +she is at this moment suffering: these advantages will be enjoyed by the +tar and cordage of Russia; by the corn and timber, the woollens, linens, +and hosiery of northern Germany; by the gloves, the boots and shoes, the +light writing-papers, the perfumery, the corks, the straw-hats, the +cottons and cambrics, the dressed skins, the thrown silk, and even (from +an incidental charge with respect to the charge of duty on the bottles) +the wines of France; by the salt provisions, the ashes, the turpentine, +the rice, the furs and skins, the sperm oil of America; and she in +particular may expect to derive advantage from the alteration in our +colonial import duties upon the great articles of flour, salt, provisions, +fish and lumber."<a id=footnotetag15 +name=footnotetag15></a><a +href="#footnote15"><sup>15</sup></a> +</blockquote> +<p> +Such have been the sacrifices which Great Britain has recently made in +order to secure a system of free commercial enterprise throughout the +world. Let us now enquire what return she has met with for these +concessions; and the recent occurrences in this respect are detailed in +the same unexceptionable authority. +</p> +<blockquote> +<p> +"Within the last year, France has passed an ordinance, doubling the duty +on linen yarns—a measure hostile enough, had it been uniform in its +application to all countries; but, lest there should be any ambiguity +about its meaning, she has actually left open her Belgian frontier to that +article at the former duty, on the condition that Belgium should levy the +high French duty in her custom-houses, so as to prevent the transit of the +British yarns through that country. To this disreputable and humiliating +proposal, Belgium has consented. Again, amidst the loudest professions +from the Prussian government, of an anxiety to +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page262 name=page262></A>[pg 262]</SPAN> +advance the relaxation of +commercial restrictions, that government has, nevertheless, adopted a +proceeding not less hostile or mischievous than the measure of France with +regard to linen yarns. The Congress of the Deputies of the Zollverein, at +Stuttgard, have in a new tariff, which was to take effect on the 1st of +January, besides some minor alterations of an unfavourable kind, decreed, +upon the proposal of Prussia, that goods mixed of cotton and wool, if of +more than one colour, shall pay fifty thalers the centner, instead of +thirty; that is, instead of a very high, shall be liable to an exorbitant, +and, as it may prove, a prohibitory duty. Next, America, as all our +readers must be aware, has, after a struggle, passed a tariff, subverting +altogether the arrangement established by the Compromise Act of 1833, and +imposing upon the various descriptions of manufactured goods rates of duty +varying from thirty to forty and fifty per cent and upwards, which have +had the effect of stopping a great portion of the shipments of cotton +goods to that country from Great Britain during the past autumn, and, +without doubt, have added greatly to the distresses of our manufacturing +population. Besides these greater instances, Russia, according to her wont +in such matters, and Spain, have published, within the test fifteen months, +new tariffs, of which it is difficult to say whether they are still worse +than, or only as execrably bad, as those which they succeeded, but, in the +close rivalry between the old and the new, the latter seem, upon the whole, +entitled to the palm of prohibitive rigour. And Portugal, likewise, has +augmented the duties payable upon certain classes of her imports, by a +measure of the recent date of March 1841, and by another of last year. In +the mean time, Spain has concluded a treaty with Belgium for the admission +of her linens. And the king of Prussia has effected an arrangement with +the czar, which, in certain particulars, secures, upon his own frontier, a +relaxation of the iron strictness of the Russian system. England has +concluded no commercial treaty with any of these powers; and the +negotiation with France, which the measures of Lord Palmerston interrupted +in 1840, at the very period of its ripeness, appears still to +slumber—owing, we believe, in part, to the prevalence of an anti-Anglican +feeling in that country, which, for the credit of common sense and of +human nature, we trust will be temporary; but much more to the high +protective notions, and the political activity and influence of the French +manufacturers, which overawe an administration far less strong, we regret +to say, than it deserves." +</p> +</blockquote> +<p> +Our recent attempts, therefore, to introduce a general system of free +trade among nations have proved a signal failure, on the admission of the +most enlightened advocates for that species of policy. Nor have our +earlier efforts been more successful. Mr Huskisson, as it is well known, +introduced, full twenty years ago, the system of free trade, and repealed +the navigation laws, in the hope of making the Northern Powers of Europe +more favourable to the admission of British manufactures, and materially +reduced the duties on French silks, watches, wines, and jewellery, in the +hope that the Government of that country would see the expedience of +making a corresponding reduction in the duties levied on our staple +manufactures in the French harbours. But after twenty years' experience of +these concessions on our part, the French Government are so far from +evincing a disposition to meet us with a similar conciliatory policy, that +they have done just the reverse. Scarce a year has elapsed without some +additional duty being imposed on our fabrics in their harbours; and the +great reductions contained in Sir R. Peel's tariff were immediately met, +as already noticed, by the imposition of an additional and very heavy duty +on British linens. Nay, so far has the free trade system been from +enlarging the market for our manufactures in Europe, that after twenty +years' experience of its effects, and an increase over Europe generally of +fully a third in numbers, and at least a half in wealth, it is an +ascertained fact, that our exports to the European-States <i>are less than +they were forty years ago</i>.<a id=footnotetag16 +name=footnotetag16></a><a +href="#footnote16"><sup>16</sup></a> "That part of our commerce," says Mr Porter, +himself a decided free trader, +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page263 name=page263></A>[pg 263]</SPAN> +"which, being carried on with the rich and +civilized inhabitants of European nations, should present the greatest +field for extension, will be seen to have fallen off in a remarkable +degree. The annual average exports to the whole of Europe were <i>less in +value by nearly twenty per cent</i>, on an average of five years, from 1832 +to 1836, <i>than they were during the five years that followed the close of +the war;</i> and it affords strong evidence of the unsatisfactory footing on +which our trading regulations with Europe are established, that our +exports to the United States of America, which, with their population of +12,000,000, (in 1837,) are situated 3000 miles from us across the Atlantic, +have amounted to more than half the sum of our shipments to the whole of +Europe, with a population fifteen times as great as that of the United +States of America, and with an abundance of productions suited to our +wants, which they are naturally desirous of exchanging for the produce of +our mines and looms."<a id=footnotetag17 +name=footnotetag17></a><a +href="#footnote17"><sup>17</sup></a> +</p> +<p> +This was written by Mr Porter in 1837; but while subsequent times have +evinced an increased anxiety on the part of this country to extend the +principles of free trade, they have been met by such increased +determination on the part of the European governments to <i>resist the +system,</i> and adhere more rigorously to their protecting policy, that the +disproportion is now universal, and is every day becoming more remarkable. +The following table will show that our exports to Europe, notwithstanding +our twelve reciprocity treaties with its maritime powers, and unceasing +efforts to give a practical exemplification of the principles of free +trade, are stationary or declining.<a id=footnotetag18 +name=footnotetag18></a><a +href="#footnote18"><sup>18</sup></a> +</p> +<p> +In one particular instance, the entire failure of the free trade system to +procure any corresponding return from the very continental states whose +harbours it was chiefly intended to open, has been singularly conspicuous. +In February 1821 the reciprocity system, in regard to shipping, was +introduced by Mr Huskisson, and acted upon by the legislature; and the +following reason was assigned by that eminent man for deviating from the +old navigation laws of Cromwell, which had so long constituted the +strength of the British navy. Mr Huskisson maintained—"That the period +had now arrived, when it had become indispensable to introduce a more +liberal system in regard to the admission of foreign shipping into our +harbours, if we would avoid the total exclusion of our manufacturers into +their harbours. The exclusive system did admirably well, as long as we +alone acted upon it; when foreign nations were content to take our goods, +though we excluded their shipping. But they had now become sensible of +the impolicy of such a system, and, right or wrong, were resolved to +resist it. Prussia, in particular, had resisted all the anxious endeavours +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page264 name=page264></A>[pg 264]</SPAN> +of this country, to effect the introduction of goods of our manufacture, +on favourable terms, into her harbours; and the reason assigned was, that +the navigation laws excluded her shipping from ours. The reciprocity +system has been rendered indispensable by the prohibitory system, which +the other European powers have adopted. The only means of meeting the +heavy duties they have imposed on our goods and shipping, is to place our +duties upon a system of perfect reciprocity with theirs. Foreign nations +have no advantage over us in the carrying trade: from the London report, +it clearly appeared, that the ships of Norway, Sweden, Russia, Prussia, +France, and Holland, cannot compete with British, either in long or short +voyages. But at any rate, the repeal of our discriminating duties has +become matter of necessity, if we would propose any trade with these +countries."<a id=footnotetag19 +name=footnotetag19></a><a +href="#footnote19"><sup>19</sup></a> +</p> +<p> +Such were Mr Huskisson's reasons. They were grounded on alleged necessity. +He said in substance:—"The navigation laws are very good things; and if +we could only persuade other nations to take our goods, while we virtually +shut out their shipping, it would, doubtless, be very advisable to +continue the present system. But you can no longer do this. Foreign +nations see the undue advantage which has been so long obtained of them. +They insist upon an exchange of interests. We, as the richer and the more +powerful, are called on to make the first advances. We must relinquish our +navigation laws in favor of their staple manufacture, shipping, if we +would induce them to admit, on favourable terms, our staple article, +cotton goods." These were +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page265 name=page265></A>[pg 265]</SPAN> +Mr Huskisson's principles; and it may be +admitted that, in the abstract, they were well-founded, for all commercial +intercourse, to be beneficial and lasting, must be founded on a mutual +exchange of advantages. But, in carrying into execution this principle, +he committed a fatal mistake, which has already endangered, without the +slightest advantage, and, if persevered in, may ultimately destroy the +commercial superiority of Great Britain. He virtually repealed, by the 4 +Geo. IV. c. 77 and the 5 Geo. IV. c. 1, the navigation laws, by +authorizing the King, by an order in council, to permit the exportation +and importation of goods in foreign vessels, on payment of the same duties +as where chargeable on British vessels, in favour of those countries which +did not levy discriminating duties on British vessels bringing goods into +their harbours, and to levy on the vessels of such countries the same +tonnage duties as they charged on British vessels. This was, in effect, +to say—We will admit your vessels on the same terms on which you admit +ours; and nothing, at first sight, could seem more equitable. +</p> +<p> +But, nevertheless, this system involved a fatal mistake, the pernicious +effects of which have now been amply demonstrated by experience, and which +lies at the bottom of the whole modern doctrines of free trade. <i>It +stipulates for no advantages corresponding to the concession made</i>, and +thus the reciprocity was on one side only. Mr Huskisson repealed, in +favour of the Baltic powers, the British navigation laws; that is, he +threw open to Baltic competition, without any protection, the British +shipping interest: but <i>he forgot to exact from them any corresponding +favour for British iron or cotton goods in the Baltic harbours</i>. He +said—"We will admit your shipping on the same terms on which you admit +ours." What he should have said is—"We will admit your shipping into our +harbors on the same term you admit <i>our cotton goods</i> into your harbours." +This would have been real reciprocity, because each side would have given +free ingress to that staple commodity in which its neighbor had the +advantage; and thus the most important branch of industry of each would +have been secured an inlet into the other's territories. The British +tonnage might have been driven out of the Baltic trade by the shipowners +of Denmark and Norway, but the Prussian cotton manufacturers would have +been crushed by the British. It might then have come to be a question of +whether the upholding of our shipping interest or the extension of our +cotton manufactures was the most advisable policy. But no such question +need be considered now. We have gained nothing by exposing our shipping +interest to the ruinous competition of the Baltic vessels. The Danish, +Norwegian and Prussian ships have come into our harbours, but the British +cotton and iron goods have not entered theirs. The reciprocity system has +been all on one side. After having been twenty years in operation, it has +failed in producing <i>the smallest concession</i> in favour of British +manufactures, or producing in those states with whom the reciprocity +treaties were concluded, the <i>smallest extension of British exports</i>. +Since we so kindly permitted it, they have taken every thing and given +nothing. They have done worse. They have taken good and returned evil. The +vast concession contained in the repeal of our navigation laws, has been +answered by the enhanced duties contained in the Prussian Zollverein. +Twenty-six millions of Germans have been arrayed under a commercial league, +which, by levying duties, practically varying from thirty to fifty, though +nominally only ten <i>per cent</i>, effectually excludes British manufactures; +and, after twenty years' experience, our exports are only a few hundred +thousands a year, and our exports of cotton manufactures <i>only a few +hundreds a year</i>, to the whole States of Northern Europe, in favour of +whom the navigation laws were swept away, and an irreparable wound +inflicted on British maritime interests, and in whose wants Mr Huskisson +anticipated a vast market for our manufacturing industry, and an ample +compensation for the diminution of our shipping interest. +</p> +<p> +Nature has established this great and all-important distinction between +the effects of wealth and national age on the productions of agriculture +and of manufactures. The reason is this:— +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page266 name=page266></A>[pg 266]</SPAN> +If capital, machinery, and +knowledge, conferred the same immediate and decisive advantage on +agricultural that they do on manufacturing industry, old and +densely-peopled states would possess an undue superiority over the ruder +and more thinly-inhabited ones; the multiplication of the human race would +become excessive in the seats in which it had first taken root, and the +desert parts of the world would never, but under the pressure of absolute +necessity, be explored. The first command of God to man, "Be fruitful, and +multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it," would be frustrated. +The apprehensions of the Malthusians as to an excessive increase of +mankind, with its attendant dangers, would be realized in particular +places, while nineteen-twentieths of the earth lay neglected in a state of +nature. The desert would be left alone in its glory. The world would be +covered with huge and densely-peopled excrescences—with Babylons, Romes, +and Londons—in which wealth, power, and corruption were securely and +permanently intrenched, and from which the human race would ne'er diverge +but under the pressure of absolute impossibility to wrench a subsistence +from their over-peopled vicinities. +</p> +<p> +These dangers, threatening alike to the moral character and material +welfare of nations, are completely prevented by the simple law, the +operations of which we every day see around us—viz. that wealth, +civilization, and knowledge, add rapidly and indefinitely to the powers of +manufacturing and commercial, but comparatively slowly to those of +agricultural industry. This simple circumstance effectually provides for +the dispersion of the human race, and the check of an undue growth in +particular communities. The old state can always undersell the young one +in manufactures, but it is everlastingly undersold by them in agriculture. +Thus the equalization of industry is introduced, the dispersion of the +human race secured, and a limit put to the perilous multiplication of its +members in particular communities. The old state can never rival the young +ones around it in raising subsistence; the young ones can never rival the +old one in manufactured articles. Either a free trade takes place between +them, or restrictions are established. If the commercial intercourse +between them is unrestricted, agriculture is destroyed, and with it +national strength is undermined in the old state, and manufactures are +nipped in the bud in the young ones. If restrictions prevail, and a war of +tariffs is introduced, the agriculture of the old state, and with it its +national strength, is preserved, but its export of manufactures to the +adjoining states is checked, and they establish growing fabrics for +themselves. Whichever effect takes place, the object of nature in the +equalization of industry, the limitation of aged communities, and the +dispersion of mankind, is gained, in the first, by the ruin of the old +empire from the decay of its agricultural resources; in the second, by the +check given to its manufacturing prowess, and the transference of +mercantile industry to its younger rivals. +</p> +<p> +Generally the interests and necessities of the young states introduce a +prohibitory system to exclude the manufactures of the old one; and it is +this necessity which England is now experiencing, and vainly endeavours to +obviate, by introducing a system of free trade. But in one memorable +instance, and one only, the preponderance of a particular power rendered +this impossible, and illustrated on a great scale, and over the whole +civilized world, for a course of centuries, the effects of a perfect +freedom of trade. The Roman empire, spreading as it did round the shores +of the Mediterranean, afforded the utmost facilities for a great internal +traffic; while the equal policy of the emperors, and indeed the necessity +of their situation, introduced a perfect freedom in the interchange of +commodities between every part of their vast dominions. And what was the +result? Why, that the agriculture of Italy was destroyed—that 300,000 +acres in the champaign of Naples alone reverted to a state of nature, and +were tenanted only by wild-boars and buffaloes, before a single barbarian +had crossed the Alps—that the Grecian cities were entirely maintained by +grain from the plains of Podolia—and the mistress of the world, according +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page267 name=page267></A>[pg 267]</SPAN> +to the plaintive expression of the Roman annalist, depended for her +subsistence on the floods of the Nile.<a id=footnotetag20 +name=footnotetag20></a><a +href="#footnote20"><sup>20</sup></a> Not the corruption of manners, +not the tyranny of the Caesars, occasioned the ruin of the empire, for +they affected only a limited class of the people; but the practical +working of free trade, joined to domestic slavery, which destroyed the +agricultural population of the heart of the empire, and left only +effeminate urban multitudes to contend with the hardy barbarians of the +north. +</p> +<p> +The advocates of free trade are not insensible to the superior advantages +of the rising over the old state in agriculture, and of the latter over +the former in manufactures. On the contrary, it is a secret but clear +sense of the reality of this distinction, which causes them so strenuously +to contend for the removal of all restrictions. They hope, by so doing, to +effect a great extension of their sales in foreign countries, without, as +they pretend, creating any diminution in their own. But the views which +have now been given show that this is a vain conceit, and demonstrate how +it has happened, that the more strenuously England contends for the +principles of free trade, and the more energetically that she carries them +into practice, the more decided is the resistance which she meets on +foreign states in the attempt, and the more rigorously do they act on the +principles of protection. It is because they are striving to become +manufacturing and commercial communities that they do this—it is a clear +sense of the ruin which awaits them, if deluged with British goods, which +makes them so strenuous in their system of exclusion. The more that we +open our trade, the more will they close theirs. They think, and not +without reason, that we advocate unrestricted commercial intercourse only +because it would be profitable to us, and deprecate our old system of +exclusion only because it has now been turned against ourselves. "Now, +then," say they, "is the time, when England is suffering under the system +of exclusion, which we have at length had sense enough to borrow from her, +to draw closer the bonds of that system, and complete the glorious work of +our own elevation on her ruins. Our policy is clearly chalked out by hers; +we have only to do what she deprecates, and we are sure to be right." It +is evident that these views will be permanently entertained by them, +because they are founded on the strongest of all instincts that of +self-preservation. When we cease to be a great manufacturing nation, when +we are no longer formidable rivals, they will open their harbours; but not +till then. In striving to introduce a system of free trade, therefore, we +gratuitously inflict a severe wound on our domestic industry, without any +chance even of a compensation in that which is destined for the foreign +markets. We let in their goods into our harbours, but we do not obtain +admission, nor will we ever obtain admission, for ours into theirs. The +reciprocity is, and ever must be, all on one side. +</p> +<p> +It is by mistaking the dominant influence among the continental states, +that so large a portion of the community are deceived on this subject. +They say, if we take their grain and cattle, they will take our cotton +goods; that their system of exclusion is entirely a consequence of, and +retaliation for, ours. Can they produce a single instance in which our +concessions in favour of their rude produce have led to a corresponding +return in favour of ours? How can it be so, when, in all old states, the +monied is the prevailing interest which sways the determinations of +government? The landholders, separated from each other, without capital, +almost all burdened with debt, are no match in the domestic struggle for +the manufacturing and commercial interests. Their superiority is founded +on a very clear footing—the same which has rendered the British House of +Commons omnipotent. <i>They hold the purse.</i> It is their loans which support +the credit of Government; it is by the customs which their imports pay +that the public revenue is to be chiefly raised. The more popular that +governments become, the more strongly +<SPAN class=pagenum><A id=page268 name=page268></A>[pg 268]</SPAN> +will their influences appear in the +war of tariffs. If pure democracies were established in all the +neighbouring states, we would be met in then all by a duty of sixty per +cent. Witness the American tariff of 1842, and the progressive increases +of duties against us since the popular revolutions we have fostered and +encouraged in France, Belgium, and Portugal. +</p> +<p> +Is, then, a free and unrestrained system of commercial intercourse +impossible between nations, and must it ever end in a war of tariffs and +the pacific infliction of mutual injury? We consider it is impossible +between two nations, both manufacturing, or aspiring to be so, and in the +same, or nearly the same, age and social circumstances. It is mere folly +to attempt it; because interests which must clash, are continually arising +on both parts, and reciprocity, if attempted, is on one side only. With +such nations, the only wisdom is, to conclude treaties, not of reciprocity, +but of <i>commerce</i>; that is, treaties in which, in consideration of certain +branches of our manufactures being admitted on favourable terms, we agree +to admit certain articles of their produce on equally advantageous +conditions. Thus, a treaty, by which we agreed to admit, for a moderate +duty, the wines of France, which we can never rival, in return for their +admitting our iron and cotton goods on similar terns, would be a measure +of equal benefit to both countries. It would be as wise a measure as Mr +Huskisson's reduction of the duties on French silks, gloves, and clocks, +was a gratuitous and unwarranted injury to staple branches of our own +industry. The only countries to which the reciprocity system is really +applicable, are distant states in an early state of civilization, whose +natural products are essentially different from our own, and whose stage +of advancement is not such as to have made them enter on the career of +manufacture, of jealousy, and of tariffs. Colonies unite all these +advantages; and it is in them that the real sources of our strength, and +the only secure markets for our produce, are to be found; but that subject, +so vast, so interesting, so vital to our individual and national +advancement, must be reserved for a future occasion. +</p> + +<br><hr class="full"> + +<a name="bw340-footnotes" id="bw340-footnotes"></a><h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote1 name=footnote1></A> + <b>Footnote 1</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag1">return</a>) + <i>The Heretic</i>. Translated from the Russian of Lajétchnikoff. By + T.B. Shaw, B.A. of Cambridge. In three volumes. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote2 name=footnote2></A> + <b>Footnote 2</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag2">return</a>) + A <i>jeu de mots</i> impossible to be rendered in English; <i>Kourítza</i>, + in Russian, is a 'hen.'"—T.B.S. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote3 name=footnote3></A> + <b>Footnote 3</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag3">return</a>) + "When Vladímir, to convert the Russians to Christianity, caused + the image of their idol Peróun to be thrown into the Dniépr, the + people of Kíeff are said to have shouted '<i>vuiduibái, bátioushka, + vuiduibái</i>!'—bátioushka signifies 'father;' but the rest of the + exclamation has never been explained, though it has passed into a + proverb."—T.B.S. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote4 name=footnote4></A> + <b>Footnote 4</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag4">return</a>) + <i>Nástia</i>—the diminutive of Anastasia; Nástenka, the same. + Russian caressing names generally end in sia, she, óusha, or + óushka—as Vásia, (for Iván;) Andrióusha, (Andrei;) + Varpholoméoushka, ( Bartholomew.)"—T.B.S. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote5 name=footnote5></A> + <b>Footnote 5</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag5">return</a>) + <i>George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, with Memoirs and Notes</i>. + By T.H. Jesse. 4 vols. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote6 name=footnote6></A> + <b>Footnote 6</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag6">return</a>) + The privileges of the <i>first-born</i> passed away from the tribe + of Reuben, and were divided among his brethren. The double portion + of the inheritance was given to Joseph—the priesthood to Levi—and + the sovereignty to Judah. The tribe never rose into national power, + and it was the first which was carried into captivity. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote7 name=footnote7></A> + <b>Footnote 7</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag7">return</a>) + The massacre of the Shechemites was the crime of the two + brothers. For a long period the tribe of Simeon was depressed; and + its position, on the verge of the Amalekites, always exposed it to + suffering. The Levites, though finally entrusted with the + priesthood, had no inheritance in Palestine: they dwelt scattered + among the tribes. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote8 name=footnote8></A> + <b>Footnote 8</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag8">return</a>) + The tribe of Judah was distinguished from the beginning of the + nation. It led the van in the march to Palestine. It was the first + appointed to expel the Canaanites. It gave the first judge, Othniel. + It was the tribe of David, and, most glorious of all titles, was + the <i>Tribe of our</i> LORD. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote9 name=footnote9></A> + <b>Footnote 9</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag9">return</a>) + Zebulon was a maritime tribe, its location extending along the + sea-shore, and stretching to the borders of Sidon. The tribe of + Issachar were located in the country afterwards called Lower + Galilee; were chiefly tillers of the soil; were never distinguished + in the military or civil transactions of the nation, and, as they + dwelt among the Canaanites, seem to have habitually served them for + hire. Issachar is characterised as the "strong ass"—a drudge, + powerful but patient. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote10 name=footnote10></A> + <b>Footnote 10</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag10">return</a>) + The tribe of Dan were remarkable for the daring of their + exploits in war, and not less so for their stratagems. Their great + chieftain Samson, distinguished alike for strength and subtlety, + might be an emblem of their qualities and history. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote11 name=footnote11></A> + <b>Footnote 11</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag11">return</a>) + Gad; a tribe engaged in continual and memorable conflicts. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote12 name=footnote12></A> + <b>Footnote 12</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag12">return</a>) + Naphtali and Asher inhabited the most fertile portions of + Palestine. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote13 name=footnote13></A> + <b>Footnote 13</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag13">return</a>) + The two tribes Ephraim and Manasseh, descended from Joseph, + possessed the finest portion of the land, along both sides of the + Jordan. The united tribes numbered a larger population than any of + the rest. Besides Joshua, five of the twelve judges of Israel were + of the united tribes. In the formation of the kingdom of Israel, an + Ephraimite was the first king. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote14 name=footnote14></A> + <b>Footnote 14</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag14">return</a>) + The tribe of Benjamin was conspicuous for valour. But its + turbulence and ferocity wrought its fall, in the great battles + recorded in Judges xix. and xx. Saul was of this fierce tribe. It + was finally lost in that of Judah. + </p> + <p> + This great prophecy was delivered about three hundred years before + the conquest of Palestine. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote15 name=footnote15></A> + <b>Footnote 15</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag15">return</a>) + <i>Foreign and Colonial Review</i>, Vol. i. p. 235. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote16 name=footnote16></A> + <b>Footnote 16</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag16">return</a>) + <i>Foreign and Colonial Review</i>, Vol. i. p. 233. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote17 name=footnote17></A> + <b>Footnote 17</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag17">return</a>) + Porter's <i>Progress of the Nation</i>, Vol. i. p. 101. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote18 name=footnote18></A> + <b>Footnote 18</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag18">return</a>) + Table showing the date and value of Exports of British Iron + Manufacturers to Europe in the afore-mentioned years. +</p> +<center> +<table border="1" cellpadding=5 summary="Exports"> +<tr><th>Years</th><th>Northern Europe.</th><th>Southern Europe.</th><th>Total.</th></tr> +<tr><td>1814</td><td align="right">£14,113,773</td><td align="right">£12,753,816</td><td align="right">£26,867,589</td></tr> +<tr><td>1815</td><td align="right"> 11,791,692</td><td align="right"> 8,764,552</td><td align="right"> 20,556,544</td></tr> +<tr><td>1816</td><td align="right"> 11,369,086</td><td align="right"> 7,284,467</td><td align="right"> 18,653,555</td></tr> +<tr><td>1817</td><td align="right"> 11,408,083</td><td align="right"> 9,685,491</td><td align="right"> 19,093,574</td></tr> +<tr><td>1818</td><td align="right"> 11,809,243</td><td align="right"> 7,639,139</td><td align="right"> 19,448,382</td></tr> +<tr><td>1819</td><td align="right"> 9,805,397</td><td align="right"> 6,896,287</td><td align="right"> 16,601,684</td></tr> +<tr><td>1820</td><td align="right"> 11,289,891</td><td align="right"> 7,139,042</td><td align="right"> 18,428,433</td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="4"> </td></tr> +<tr><td>1833</td><td align="right"> 9,313,549</td><td align="right"> 5,686,949</td><td align="right"> 15,000,498</td></tr> +<tr><td>1834</td><td align="right"> 9,505,892</td><td align="right"> 8,501,141</td><td align="right"> 18,007,033</td></tr> +<tr><td>1835</td><td align="right"> 10,303,316</td><td align="right"> 8,161,117</td><td align="right"> 18,464,433</td></tr> +<tr><td>1836</td><td align="right"> 9,999,861</td><td align="right"> 9,011,205</td><td align="right"> 19,000,066</td></tr> +<tr><td>1837</td><td align="right"> 11,097,436</td><td align="right"> 7,789,126</td><td align="right"> 18,187,662</td></tr> +<tr><td>1838</td><td align="right"> 11,258,473</td><td align="right"> 9,481,372</td><td align="right"> 20,739,845</td></tr> +<tr><td>1839</td><td align="right"> 11,991,236</td><td align="right"> 9,376,241</td><td align="right"> 21,367,477</td></tr> +</table> +</center> +</BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote19 name=footnote19></A> + <b>Footnote 19</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag19">return</a>) +</p> +<p> + Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, February 13, 1823; and Annual + Register, 1823, p. 104. +</p> +<p> + Table showing the British and Foreign tonnage, with Sweden, Norway, + Denmark, and Prussia, since 1823, when the reciprocity system began, + in each of the following years:— +</p> +<br> +<center> +<table border="1" cellpadding=5 summary="Tonnage"> +<tr><th> </th> + <th colspan="2">SWEDEN.</th> + <th colspan="2">NORWAY.</th> + <th colspan="2">DENMARK.</th> + <th colspan="2">PRUSSIA.</th> +</tr> +<tr><th>Years</th> + <th>British <br>tons</th> + <th>Foreign <br>tons</th> + <th>British <br>tons</th> + <th>Foreign <br>tons</th> + <th>British <br>tons</th> + <th>Foreign <br>tons</th> + <th>British <br>tons</th> + <th>Foreign <br>tons</th> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1821</td> + <td align="right">23,005</td> + <td align="right">8,508</td> + <td align="right">13,855</td> + <td align="right">61,342</td> + <td align="right">5,312</td> + <td align="right">3,969</td> + <td align="right">79,590</td> + <td align="right">37,720</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1822</td> + <td align="right">20,799</td> + <td align="right">13,692</td> + <td align="right">13,377</td> + <td align="right">87,974</td> + <td align="right">7,096</td> + <td align="right">3,910</td> + <td align="right">102,847</td> + <td align="right">58,270</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1823</td> + <td align="right">20,986</td> + <td align="right">22,529</td> + <td align="right">13,122</td> + <td align="right">117,015</td> + <td align="right">4,413</td> + <td align="right">4,795</td> + <td align="right">81,202</td> + <td align="right">86,013</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1824</td> + <td align="right">17,074</td> + <td align="right">40,092</td> + <td align="right">11,419</td> + <td align="right">135,272</td> + <td align="right">6,738</td> + <td align="right">23,689</td> + <td align="right">94,664</td> + <td align="right">151,621</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1825</td> + <td align="right">15,906</td> + <td align="right">53,141</td> + <td align="right">14,825</td> + <td align="right">157,910</td> + <td align="right">15,158</td> + <td align="right">50,943</td> + <td align="right">189,214</td> + <td align="right">182,752</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1826</td> + <td align="right">11,829</td> + <td align="right">16,939</td> + <td align="right">15,603</td> + <td align="right">90,726</td> + <td align="right">22,000</td> + <td align="right">56,544</td> + <td align="right">119,060</td> + <td align="right">120,589</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1827</td> + <td align="right">11,719</td> + <td align="right">21,822</td> + <td align="right">13,945</td> + <td align="right">96,420</td> + <td align="right">10,825</td> + <td align="right">52,456</td> + <td align="right">150,718</td> + <td align="right">109,184</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1828</td> + <td align="right">14,877</td> + <td align="right">24,700</td> + <td align="right">10,826</td> + <td align="right">85,771</td> + <td align="right">17,464</td> + <td align="right">49,293</td> + <td align="right">133,753</td> + <td align="right">99,195</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1829</td> + <td align="right">16,536</td> + <td align="right">25,046</td> + <td align="right">9,985</td> + <td align="right">86,205</td> + <td align="right">24,576</td> + <td align="right">53,390</td> + <td align="right">125,918</td> + <td align="right">127,861</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1830</td> + <td align="right">12,116</td> + <td align="right">23,158</td> + <td align="right">6,459</td> + <td align="right">84,585</td> + <td align="right">12,210</td> + <td align="right">51,420</td> + <td align="right">102,758</td> + <td align="right">139,646</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1831</td> + <td align="right">11,450</td> + <td align="right">39,689</td> + <td align="right">4,518</td> + <td align="right">114,865</td> + <td align="right">6,552</td> + <td align="right">62,190</td> + <td align="right">83,908</td> + <td align="right">140,532</td> + </tr> + +<tr><td>1832</td> + <td align="right">8,335</td> + <td align="right">25,755</td> + <td align="right">3,798</td> + <td align="right">82,155</td> + <td align="right">7,268</td> + <td align="right">35,772</td> + <td align="right">62,079</td> + <td align="right">89,187</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1833</td> + <td align="right">10,009</td> + <td align="right">29,454</td> + <td align="right">5,901</td> + <td align="right">98,931</td> + <td align="right">6,840</td> + <td align="right">38,620</td> + <td align="right">41,735</td> + <td align="right">108,753</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1834</td> + <td align="right">15,353</td> + <td align="right">35,910</td> + <td align="right">6,403</td> + <td align="right">98,303</td> + <td align="right">5,691</td> + <td align="right">53,282</td> + <td align="right">32,021</td> + <td align="right">118,111</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1835</td> + <td align="right">12,036</td> + <td align="right">35,061</td> + <td align="right">2,592</td> + <td align="right">95,049</td> + <td align="right">6,007</td> + <td align="right">49,008</td> + <td align="right">25,514</td> + <td align="right">124,144</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1836</td> + <td align="right">10,865</td> + <td align="right">42,439</td> + <td align="right">1,573</td> + <td align="right">12,875</td> + <td align="right">2,152</td> + <td align="right">51,907</td> + <td align="right">42,567</td> + <td align="right">174,439</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1837</td> + <td align="right">7,608</td> + <td align="right">42,602</td> + <td align="right">1,035</td> + <td align="right">88,004</td> + <td align="right">5,357</td> + <td align="right">55,961</td> + <td align="right">67,566</td> + <td align="right">145,742</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1838</td> + <td align="right">10,425</td> + <td align="right">38,991</td> + <td align="right">1,364</td> + <td align="right">110,817</td> + <td align="right">3,466</td> + <td align="right">57,554</td> + <td align="right">86,734</td> + <td align="right">175,643</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1839</td> + <td align="right">8,359</td> + <td align="right">42,270</td> + <td align="right">2,582</td> + <td align="right">109,228</td> + <td align="right">5,535</td> + <td align="right">106,960</td> + <td align="right">111,470</td> + <td align="right">229,208</td> +</tr> + +<tr><td>1840</td> + <td align="right">11,933</td> + <td align="right">53,337</td> + <td align="right">3,166</td> + <td align="right">114,241</td> + <td align="right">6,327</td> + <td align="right">103,067</td> + <td align="right">112,709</td> + <td align="right">237,984</td> +</tr> +</table> +</center> +<p> + —PORTER'S Part. Tables. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + + +<BLOCKQUOTE class=footnote> + <P><A id=footnote20 name=footnote20></A> + <b>Footnote 20</b>: (<a href="#footnotetag20">return</a>) + Tacitus, Vol. xiv. p. 21; Michelet's <i>Hist. de France,</i> + Vol. i. p. 217. +</p></BLOCKQUOTE> + +<hr class="full"> + +<h4><i>Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work.</i></h4> + +<hr class="full"> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- +Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 16293-h.htm or 16293-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/9/16293/ + +Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals; Jon +Ingram, Allen Siddle and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + + diff --git a/16293.txt b/16293.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..109c922 --- /dev/null +++ b/16293.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9780 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- Volume +55, No. 340, February, 1844, 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 -- Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 14, 2005 [EBook #16293] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + + + + +Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals; Jon +Ingram, Allen Siddle and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + +No. CCCXL. FEBRUARY 1844. Vol. LV. + + + + +CONTENTS: + + + THE HERETIC + THRUSH-HUNTING. BY ALEXANDER DUMAS + HIGH LIFE IN THE LAST CENTURY + NEWS FROM AN EXILED CONTRIBUTOR + THE PROPHECY OF THE TWELVE TRIBES + A BEWAILMENT FROM BATH; OR, POOR OLD MAIDS + MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. PART VIII. + SECESSION FROM THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND + SITTING FOR A PORTRAIT + MY FRIEND + THE LAND OF SLAVES + THE PRIEST'S BURIAL + PRUDENCE + FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION + + * * * * * + + + + + EDINBURGH: + + WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; + AND 22, PALL-MALL, LONDON. + + To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed. + + SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS THE UNITED KINGDOM. + + * * * * * + + PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND HUGHES, EDINBURGH. + + * * * * * + + + + + +THE HERETIC.[1] + + [1] _The Heretic_. Translated from the Russian of Lajetchnikoff. By + T.B. Shaw, B.A. of Cambridge. In three volumes. + + +It is now about three centuries since Richard Chancellor, pilot-major of +the fleet which, under the command of Sir Hugh Willoughby, and by the +advice of Sebastian Cabot, set out to discover a north-east passage to +China, carried his ship, the Edward Bonaventura, into Archangel. The rest +of the fleet put into a haven on the coast of Lapland, where all their +crews, with the gallant commander, perished miserably of cold and hunger. +Chancellor, accompanied by Master George Killingworthe, found his way to +Moscow, where he was courteously entertained by the Tsar Ivan IV., +surnamed the Terrible. On his return to England in 1554, he delivered a +friendly letter from the Tsar to King Edward VI., and announced to the +people of England "the discovery of Muscovy." The English adventurers +where mightily astonished by the state and splendour of the Russian +court, and gave a curious account of their intercourse with the tyrant +Ivan, who treated them with great familiarity and kindness, though he was +perhaps the most atrocious monster, not excepting the worst of the Roman +emperors, that ever disgraced a throne. The Tsar "called them to his +table to receive each a cup from his hand to drinke, and took into his +hand Master George Killingworthe's beard, which reached over the table, +and pleasantly delivered it to the metropolitan, who seeming to bless it, +said in Russ, 'This is God's gift;' as indeed at that time it was not +only thicke, broad, and yellow coulered, but in length five foot and two +inches of a size." + +Chancellor returned the following year to Moscow, and arranged with the +Tsar the commercial privileges and immunities of a new company of +merchant-adventurers who desired to trade with Muscovy; but in 1556, while +on his way home, accompanied by Osep Neped, the first Russian ambassador +to the court of England, their ship was wrecked on our own coast, at +Pitsligo bay, where Chancellor was drowned, with most of the crew; but +Osep Neped, who escaped, was conducted with much pomp to London, and there +established on a firmer basis the commercial relations between the two +countries, to which Chancellor's discovery had led, and of which he had +laid the foundation. The commerce thus begun has continued uninterrupted, +to the mutual advantage of both nations, up to this time, and thousands of +our countrymen have there gained wealth and distinction, in commerce, in +the arts, in science, and in arms. + +But of the twenty-seven millions of men, women, and children who people +Great Britain and Ireland, how many may be presumed to know any thing of +Russian literature, or even to have enquired whether it contains any thing +worth knowing? Are there a dozen literary men or women amongst us who +could read a Russian romance, or understand a Russian drama? Dr Bowring +was regarded as a prodigy of polyglot learning, because he gave us some +very imperfect versions of Russian ballads; and we were thankful even for +that contribution, from which, we doubt not, many worthy and well-informed +people learned for the first time that Russia produced poets as well as +potashes. Russia has lately lost a poet of true genius, of whom his +countrymen are proud, and no doubt have a right to be proud, for his +poetry found its way at once to the heart of the nation: but how few there +are amongst us who know any thing of Poushkin, unless it be his untimely +and melancholy end? + +The generation that has been so prolific of prose fiction in other parts +of Europe, has not been barren in Russia. She boasts of men to whom she is +grateful for having adorned her young literature with the creations of +their genius, or who have made her history attractive with the allurements +of faithful fiction, giving life, and flesh, and blood to its dry bones; +and yet, gentle reader, learned or fair--or both fair and learned--whether +sombre in small clothes, or brilliant in _bas-bleus_--how many could +you have named a year ago of those names which are the pride and delight +of a great European nation, with which we have had an intimate, friendly, +and beneficial intercourse for three consecutive centuries, and whose +capital has now for some years been easily accessible in ten days from our +own? + +Surely it is somewhat strange, that while Russia fills so large a space, +not only on the map, but in the politics of the world--while the influence +of her active mind, and of her powerful muscle, is felt and acknowledged +in Europe, Asia, and America--that we, who come in contact with her +diplomatic skill and her intelligence at every turn and in every quarter, +should never have thought it worth while to take any note of her +literature--of the more attractive movements of her mind. + +The history, the ancient mythology, and the early Christian legends of +Russia, are full of interest. We there encounter the same energetic and +warlike people, who, from roving pirates of the Baltic sea, became the +founders of dynasties, and who have furnished much of what is most +romantic in the history of Europe. The Danes, who ravaged our coasts, and +gave a race of princes to England; the Normans, from whom are descended +our line of sovereigns, and many of our noble and ancient families--the +Normans, who established themselves in Sicily and the Warrhag, or +Varangians, who made their leader, Rurik, a sovereign over the ancient +Sclavonic republic of Novgorod, and gave their own distinctive appellation +of Russ to the people and to the country they conquered, were all men of +the same race, the same habits, and the same character. The daring spirit +of maritime adventure, the love of war, and the thirst of plunder, which +brought their barks to the coasts of Britain and of France, was displayed +with even greater boldness in Russia. After the death of Rurik, these +pirates of the Baltic, under the regent Oleg, launching their galleys on +the Borysthenes, forced the descent of the river against hostile tribes, +defeated the armies of Byzantium, exercised their ancient craft on the +Black sea and on the Bosphorus, and, entering Constantinople in triumph, +extorted tribute and a treaty from the Keisar in his palace. + +Then, after a time, came the introduction of the Christian religion and of +letters; and the contests which terminated in the triumph of Christianity +over the ancient mythology, in which the milder deities of the Pantheon, +with their attendant spirits of the woods, the streams, and the household +hearth, would seem to have mingled with the fiercer gods of the Valhalla. +Then the frequent contests and varying fortunes of the principalities into +which the country was divided--the invasions of the Tartar hordes, under +the successors of Chenjez Khan, destroying every living thing, and +deliberately making a desert of every populous place, that grass might +more abound for their horses and their flocks--the long and weary +domination of these desolating masters; the gradual relaxation of the iron +gripe with which they crushed the country; the pomp and power of the +Russian church, even in the worst times of Tartar oppression; the first +gathering together of the nation's strength as its spirit revived; the +first great effort to cast off the load under which its loins had been +breaking for more than two centuries, and the desperate valour with which +the Russians fought their first great battle for freedom and their faith, +and shook the Tartar supremacy, under the brave and skilful Dimitri, on +the banks of the Don--the cautious wisdom and foresight with which he +created an aristocracy to support the sovereignty he had made +hereditary--the pertinacity with which, in every change of fortune, his +successors worked out slowly, and more by superior intelligence than by +prowess, the deliverance of their country--the final triumph of this wary +policy, under the warlike, but consummately able and dexterous management +of Ivan the Great--the rapidity and force with which the Muscovite power +expanded, when it had worn out and cast off the Tartar fetters that had +bound it--the cautious and successful attempts of Ivan to take from the +first a high place amongst the sovereigns of Europe--the progress in the +arts of civilized life which was made in his reign--the accession of +weight and authority which the sovereign power received from the prudent +and dignified demeanour of his son and successor--the sanguinary tyranny +with which Ivan IV., in the midst of the most revolting atrocities and +debaucheries, broke down the power of the aristocracy, prostrated the +energies of the nation, and paved the way for successive usurpations--the +skilful and crafty policy, and the unscrupulous means by which Boris +raised himself to the throne, after he had destroyed the last +representatives of the direct line of Rurik, which, in all the +vicissitudes of Russian fortune, had hitherto held the chief place in the +nation--the taint of guilt which poisoned and polluted a mind otherwise +powerful, and not without some virtues, and made him at length a +suspicious and cruel tyrant, who, having alienated the good-will of the +nation, was unable to oppose the pretensions of an impostor, and swallowed +poison to escape the tortures of an upbraiding conscience--the successful +imposture of the monk who personated the Prince Dimitri, one of the +victims of Boris' ambition, and who was slaughtered on the day of his +nuptials at the foot of the throne he had so strangely usurped, by an +infuriated mob; not because he was known to be an impostor, but because he +was accused of a leaning to the Latin church--the season of anarchy that +succeeded and led to fresh impostures, and to the Polish domination--the +servile submission of the Russian nobility to Sigismund, king of Poland, +to whom they sold their country; the revival of patriotic feelings, almost +as soon as the sacrifice had been made--the bold and determined opposition +of the Russian church to the usurpation of a Latin prince, the +persecutions, the hardships, the martyrdom it endured; the ultimate rising +of the Muscovite people at its call--the sanguinary conflict in Moscow; +the expulsion of the Poles; the election of Michael Romanoff, the first +sovereign of his family and of the reigning dynasty--the whole history of +the days of Peter, of Catharine, and of Alexander, and even the less +prominent reigns of intermediate sovereigns--are full of the interest and +the incidents which are usually considered most available to the writers +of historical romance. + +But such materials abound in the history of every people. Men of genius +for the work find them scattered every where--in the peculiarities of +personal character developed in the contests of petty tribes or turbulent +burghers, as often as in the revolutions of empires. The value of +historical, as well as of other fictions, must be measured by the power +and the skill it displays, rather than by the magnitude of the events it +describes, or the historical importance of the persons it introduces; and +therefore no history can well be exhausted for the higher purposes of +fiction. Of what historical importance are the stories on which Shakspeare +has founded his _Romeo and Juliet_--his _Othello_--his _Hamlet_, or his +_Lear_? Does the chief interest or excellence of _Waverley_, or _Ivanhoe_, +or _Peveril of the Peak_, or _Redgauntlet_, or _Montrose_, depend on the +delineation of historical characters, or the description of historical +events? What space do Balfour of Burleigh, or Rob Roy, or Helen Macgregor, +fill in history? The fact appears to be, that, even in the purest +historical prose fictions, neither the interest nor the excellence +generally depend upon the characters or the incidents most prominent in +history. A man of genius, who calls up princes and heroes from the dust +into which they have crumbled, may delight us with a more admirable +representation than our own minds could have furnished of some one whose +name we have long known, and of whose personal bearing, and habits, and +daily thoughts, we had but a vague and misty idea; and acknowledging the +fidelity of the portrait we may adopt it; and then this historical person +becomes to us what the imagination of genius, not what history, has made +him, and yet the portrait is probably one in which no contemporary could +have recognized any resemblance to the original. But the characters of +which history has preserved the most full and faithful accounts, whose +recorded actions reflect most accurately the frame of their minds, are +precisely those which each man has pictured to himself with most precision, +and therefore those of which he is least likely to appreciate another +man's imaginary portraits. The image in our own minds is disturbed, and we +feel something of the disappointment we experience when we find some one +of whom we have heard much very different from what we had imagined him to +be. The more intimately and generally an historical character is known, +the more unfit must it be for the purposes of fiction. + +Then again, in fiction, as in real life, our sympathies are more readily +awakened, and more strongly moved, by the sufferings or the successes of +those with whom we have much in common--of whose life we are, or fancy +that we might have been, a part. The figures that we see in history +elevated above the ordinary attributes of man, are magnified as we see +them through the mist of our own vague perceptions, and dwindle if we +approach too near them. If they are brought down from the lofty pedestal +of rank or fame on which they stood, that they may be within reach of the +warmest sympathies of men who live upon a lower level, the familiarity to +which we are admitted impairs their greatness, on the same principle, that +"no man is a hero to his _valet-de-chambre_." + +We are inclined to believe that the great attraction of historical prose +fiction is not any facility which it affords for the construction of a +better story--for we think it affords none--nor any superior interest +that attaches to the known and the prominent characters with which it +deals, or to the events it describes; but rather the occasion it gives for +making us familiar with the everyday life of the age and the country in +which the scene is laid. Independent of the merits of the fiction as a +work of imagination, we find another source of pleasure; and, if it be +written faithfully and with knowledge, of instruction in the vivid light +it casts on the characteristics of man's condition, which history does not +deign to record. This kind of excellence may give value to a work which is +defective in the higher essential qualifications of imaginative writing; +as old ballads and tales, which have no other merit, may be valuable +illustrations of the manners of their time, so by carefully collecting and +concentrating scattered rays, a man possessed of talents for the task may +throw a strong light on states of society that were formerly obscure, and +thus greatly enhance the pleasure we derive from any higher merits we may +find in his story. + +M. Lajetchnikoff, in the work before us, appears to have aimed at both +these kinds of excellence; and, in the opinion of his countrymen, to have +attained to that of which they are the best or the only good judges. Mr +Shaw, to whom we are indebted for all we yet know of this department of +Russian literature, tells us in his preface that he selected this romance +for translation because-- + + "It is the work of an author to whom all the critics have adjudged + the praise of a perfect acquaintance with the epoch which he has + chosen for the scene of his drama. Russian critics, some of whom have + reproached M. Lajetchnikoff with certain faults of style, and in + particular with innovations on orthography, have all united in + conceding to him the merit of great historical accuracy--not only as + regards the events and characters of his story, but even in the less + important matters of costume, language, &c. + + "This degree of accuracy was not accidental: he prepared himself for + his work by a careful study of all the ancient documents calculated + to throw light upon the period which he desired to recall--a + conscientious correctness however, which may be pushed too far; for + the original work is disfigured by a great number of obsolete words + and expressions, as unintelligible to the modern Russian reader + (unless he happened to be an antiquarian) as they would be to an + Englishman. These the Translator has, as far as possible, got rid of, + and has endeavoured to reduce the explanatory foot-notes--those + 'blunder-marks,' as they have been well styled--to as small a number + as is consistent with clearness in the text." + +M. Lajetchnikoff takes occasion, while referring to some anachronisms +which will be found in _The Heretic_, to state, in the following terms, +his opinion of the duties of an historical novelist-- + + "He must follow rather the poetry of history than its chronology. His + business is not to be the slave of dates; he ought to be faithful to + the character of the epoch, and of the _dramatis personae_ which he + has selected for representation. It is not his business to examine + every trifle, to count over with servile minuteness every link in the + chain of this epoch, or of the life of this character; that is the + department of the historian and the biographer. The mission of the + historical novelist is to select from them the most brilliant, the + most interesting events, which are connected with the chief personage + of his story, and to concentrate them into one poetic moment of his + romance. Is it necessary to say that this moment ought to be pervaded + by a leading idea?... Thus I understand the duties of the historical + novelist. Whether I have fulfilled them, is quite another question." + +We are not quite sure what is here meant by "a leading idea." If it be +that some abstract idea is to be developed or illustrated, we can neither +subscribe to the canon nor discover the leading idea of this specimen of +the author's productions; but we rather suppose that he only means to say +that there should be a main stream of interest running through the whole +story, to which the others are tributary--and in this sense he has acted +on the rule; for the _heretic_, from his birth to his burial, is never +lost sight of, and almost the whole action, from the beginning to the end, +is either directly or indirectly connected with his fortunes, which +preserve their interest throughout, amidst sovereigns and ambassadors, +officials and nobles, court intrigues and affairs of state, of love, of +war, and of religion. This machinery, though somewhat complicated, is on +the whole very skilfully constructed, and moves on smoothly enough without +jolting or jarring, without tedious stops or disagreeable interruptions, +and without having to turn back every now and then to pick up the +passengers it has dropped by the way. The author, however, appears to have +assumed--and, writing for Russians, was entitled to assume--that his +readers had some previous acquaintance with the history of the country and +the times to which his story belongs. His prologue, which has no connexion +with the body of the work, but which relates a separate incident that +occurred some years after the conclusion of the principal narrative, +introduces us to the death-bed of Ivan III., at whose court the whole of +the subsequent scenes occur; and is calculated from this inversion of time, +and the recurrence of similar names, and even of the same persons, to +create little confusion in the mind of the reader who is ignorant of +Russian history. + + "The epoch chosen by Lajetchnikoff," says his translator, "is the + fifteenth century; an age most powerfully interesting in the history + of every country, and not less so in that of Russia. It was then that + the spirit of enquiry, the thirst for new facts and investigations in + religious, political, and physical philosophy, was at once stimulated + and gratified by the most important discoveries that man had as yet + made, and extended itself far beyond the limits of what was then + civilized Europe, and spoke, by the powerful voice of Ivan III., even + to Russia, plunged as she then was in ignorance and superstition. + Rude as are the outlines of this great sovereign's historical + portrait, and rough as were the means by which he endeavoured to + ameliorate his country, it is impossible to deny him a place among + those rulers who have won the name of benefactors to their native + land." + +When Ivan III., then twenty-two years old, mounted the tributary throne of +Muscovy in 1462, the power of the Tartars, who for nearly two centuries +and a half domineered over Russia, had visibly declined. Tamerlane, at the +head of fresh swarms from the deserts of Asia, had stricken the Golden +Horde which still held Russia in subjection; and having pursued its +sovereign, Ioktamish Khan, into the steppes of Kiptchak and Siberia, +turned back almost from the gates of Moscow, to seek a richer plunder in +Hindostan. Before the Golden Horde could recover from this blow, it was +again attacked, defeated, and plundered, by the khan of the Crimea. Still +the supremacy of the Tartar was undisputed at Moscow. The Muscovite prince +advanced to the outer door of his palace to receive the ambassador of his +master; spread costly furs under his horse's feet; kneeled at his stirrup +to hear the khan's orders read; presented a cup of kimmis to the Tartar +representative, and licked off the drops that fell upon the mane of his +horse. + +But during nearly a century and a half, the Muscovite princes had laboured +successfully to consolidate their own authority, and to unite the nation +against its oppressors. The principle of hereditary succession to the +dependent throne had been firmly established in the feelings of the people; +the ties of country, kindred, and language, and still more the bonds of +common religion, had united the discordant principalities into which the +country was still divided, by a sentiment of nationality and of hatred +against the Tartars, which made them capable of combining against their +Mahommedan masters. + +Ivan's first acts were acts of submission. They were perhaps intended to +tranquillize the suspicions with which the first movements of a young +prince are certain to be regarded by a jealous superior; and this purpose +they effectually served. Without courage or talent for war, his powerful +and subtle mind sought to accomplish its objects by intellectual +superiority and by craft, rather than by force. Warned by the errors of +his predecessors, he did not dispute the right of the Tartars to the +tribute, but evaded its payment; and yet contrived to preserve the +confidence of the khan by bribing his ministers and his family, and by a +ready performance of the most humiliating acts of personal submission. His +conduct towards all his enemies--that is, towards all his neighbours--was +dictated by a similar policy; he admitted their rights, but he took every +safe opportunity to disregard them. So far did he carry the semblance of +submission, that the Muscovites were for some years disgusted with the +slavish spirit of their prince. His lofty ambition was concealed by rare +prudence and caution, and sustained by remarkable firmness and pertinacity +of purpose. He never took a step in advance from which he was forced to +recede. He had the art to combine with many of his enemies against one, +and thus overthrew them all in succession. It was by such means that he +cast off the Tartar yoke--curbed the power of Poland--humbled that of +Lithuania, subdued Novgorod, Tver, Pskoff, Kazan, and Viatka--reannexed +Veira, Ouglitch, Rezan, and other appanages to the crown, and added nearly +twenty thousand square miles with four millions of subjects to his +dominions. He framed a code of laws--improved the condition of his +army--established a police in every part of his empire--protected and +extended commerce--supported the church, but kept it in subjection to +himself; but was at all times arbitrary, often unjust and cruel, and +throughout his whole life, quite unscrupulous as to the means he employed +to compass his ends. + +One of the most successful strokes of his policy, was his marriage with +Sophia, daughter of the Emperor Paleologos, who had been driven from +Constantinople by the Turks. This alliance, which he sought with great +assiduity, not only added to the dignity of his government at home, but +opened the way for an intercourse on equal terms with the greatest princes +of Europe. It was Sophia who dissuaded him from submitting to the +degrading ceremonial which had been observed on receiving the Tartar +ambassadors at Moscow--and to her he probably owed the feelings of +personal dignity which he evinced in the latter part of his reign. It was +this alliance that at once placed the sovereigns of Russia at the head of +the whole Greek church; whose dignitaries, driven from the stately dome of +St Sophia in Byzantium, found shelter in the humbler temple raised by the +piety of their predecessors, some ages before, in the wilds of Muscovy, +and more than repaid the hospitality they received by diffusing a love of +learning amongst a barbarous people. It was by means of the Greeks who +followed Sophia, that Ivan was enabled to maintain a diplomatic +intercourse with the other governments of Europe; it was from her that +Russia received her imperial emblem, the double-headed eagle; it was in +her train that science, taste, and refinement penetrated to Moscow; it was +probably at her instigation that Ivan embellished his capital with the +beauties of architecture, and encouraged men of science, and amongst +others Antonio, "the heretic," and Fioraventi Aristotle, the architect and +mechanician, to settle at Moscow. + +But it is time we should proceed to the story. The greater part of the +first volume is occupied by an account of the family, birth, and youth of +the hero. Born of a noble family in Bohemia, he is educated as a physician. +This was not the voluntary act of his parents; for what haughty German +baron of those times would have permitted his son to degrade himself by +engaging in a profession which was then chiefly occupied by the accursed +Jews? No, this was a degradation prepared for the house of Ehrenstein, by +the undying revenge of a little Italian physician, whom the stalwart baron +had pitched a few yards out of his way during a procession at Rome. This +part of the history, though not devoid of interest, is hardly within the +bounds of a reasonable probability--but it contains some passages of +considerable vigour. The patient lying in wait of the revengeful Italian, +and the eagerness with which he presses his advantage, making an act of +mercy minister to the gratification of his passion, is not without merit, +and will probably have its attractions for those who find pleasure in such +conceptions. + +The young Antonio is educated by the physician, Antonio Fioraventi of +Padua, in ignorance of his birth--is disowned by his father, but cherished +by his mother; and grows up an accomplished gentleman, scholar, and leech, +of handsome person, captivating manners, and ardent aspirations to extend +the limits of science, and to promote the advancement of knowledge and of +civilization all over the earth. While these dreams are floating in his +mind, a letter on the architect Fioraventi, who had for some time resided +in Moscow, to his brother, the Italian physician, requesting him to send +some skilful leech to the court of Ivan, decides the fate of Antonio. + + "Fioraventi began to look out for a physician who would volunteer + into a country so distant and so little known: he never thought of + proposing the journey to his pupil; his youth--the idea of a + separation--of a barbarous country--all terrified the old man. His + imagination was no longer wild--the intellect and the heart alone had + influence on him. And what had Antony to hope for there? His destiny + was assured by the position of his instructor--his tranquillity was + secured by circumstances--he could more readily make a name in Italy. + The place of physician at the court of the Muscovite Great Prince + would suit a poor adventurer; abundance of such men might be found at + that time possessed of talents and learning. But hardly was + Aristotle's letter communicated to Antony, than visions began to + float in his ardent brain.--'To Muscovy!' cried the voice of + destiny--'To Muscovy!' echoed through his soul, like a cry remembered + from infancy. That soul, in its fairest dreams, had long pined for a + new, distant, unknown land and people: Antony wished to be where the + physician's foot had never yet penetrated: perhaps he might discover, + by questioning a nature still rude and fresh, powers by which he + could retain on earth its short-lived inhabitants; perhaps he might + extort from a virgin soil the secret of regeneration, or dig up the + fountain of the water of life and death. But he who desired to + penetrate deeper into the nature of man, might have remarked other + motives in his desire. Did not knightly blood boil in his veins? Did + not the spirit of adventure whisper in his heart its hopes and high + promises? However this might be, he offered, with delight, to go to + Muscovy; and when he received the refusal of his preceptor, he began + to entreat, to implore him incessantly to recall it.--'Science calls + me thither,' he said, 'do not deprive her of new acquisitions, + perhaps of important discoveries. Do not deprive me of glory, my only + hope and happiness.' And these entreaties were followed by a new + refusal.--'Knowest thou not,' cried Fioraventi angrily, 'that the + gates of Muscovy are like the gates of hell--step beyond them, and + thou canst never return.' But suddenly, unexpectedly, from some + secret motive, he ceased to oppose Antony's desire. With tears he + gave him his blessing for the journey.--'Who can tell,' said he, + 'that this is not the will of fate? Perhaps, in reality, honour and + fame await thee there?' + + "At Padua was soon known Antony Ehrenstein's determination to make + that distant journey; and no one was surprised at it: there were, + indeed, many who envied him. + + "In truth, the age in which Antony lived was calculated to attune the + mind to the search after the unknown, and to serve as an excuse for + his visions. The age of deep profligacy, it was also the age of lofty + talents, of bold enterprises, of great discoveries. They dug into the + bowels of the earth; they kept up in the laboratory an unextinguished + fire; they united and separated elements; they buried themselves + living, in the tomb, to discover the philosopher's stone, and they + found it in the innumerable treasures of chemistry which they + bequeathed to posterity. Nicholas Diaz and Vasco de Gama had passed, + with one gigantic stride, from one hemisphere to another, and showed + that millions of their predecessors were but pigmies. The genius of a + third visioned forth a new world, with new oceans--went to it, and + brought it to mankind. Gunpowder, the compass, printing, cheap paper, + regular armies, the concentration of states and powers, ingenious + destruction, and ingenious creation--all were the work of this + wondrous age. At this time, also, there began to spread indistinctly + about, in Germany and many other countries of Europe, those ideas of + reformation, which soon were strengthened, by the persecution of the + Western Church, to array themselves in the logical head of Luther, + and to flame up in that universal crater, whence the fury, lava, and + smoke, were to rush with such tremendous violence on kingdoms and + nations. These ideas were then spreading through the multitude, and + when resisted, they broke through their dikes, and burst onward with + greater violence. The character of Antony, eager, thirsting for + novelty, was the expression of his age: he abandoned himself to the + dreams of an ardent soul, and only sought whither to carry himself + and his accumulations of knowledge. + + "Muscovy, wild still, but swelling into vigour, with all her + boundless snows and forests, the mystery of her orientalism, was to + many a newly-discovered land--a rich mine for human genius. Muscovy, + then for the first time beginning to gain mastery over her internal + and external foes, then first felt the necessity for real, material + civilization." + +Antony pays a farewell visit to his mother at the humble tower in Bohemia, +where she resided estranged from his father, of whose rank and condition +she left him ignorant. + + "If there were a paradise upon earth, Antony would have found it in + the whole month which he passed in the Bohemian castle. Oh! he would + not have exchanged that poor abode, the wild nature on the banks of + the Elbe, the caresses of his mother, whose age he would have + cherished with his care and love--no! he would not have exchanged all + this for magnificent palaces, for the exertions of proud kinsmen to + elevate him at the imperial court, for numberless vassals, whom, if + he chose, he might hunt to death with hounds. + + "But true to his vow, full of the hope of being useful to his mother, + to science, and to humanity, the visionary renounced this paradise: + his mother blessed him on his long journey to a distant and unknown + land: she feared for him; yet she saw that Muscovy would be to him a + land of promise--and how could she oppose his wishes?" + +Preceding our hero to Moscow, we are presented to the Great Prince before +Antonio's arrival. Ambassadors had come from Tver, and a Lithuanian +ambassador and his interpreter had been truly or falsely convicted of an +attempt to destroy Ivan by poison. The Great Prince's enquiry what +punishment is decreed against the felon who reaches at another's life, +leads to the following dialogue:-- + + "'In the soudebnik it is decreed,' replied Gouseff, 'whoever shall be + accused of larceny, robbery, murder, or false accusation, or other + like evil act, and the same shall be manifestly guilty, the boyarin + shall doom the same unto the pain of death, and the plaintiff shall + have his goods; and if any thing remain, the same shall go to the + boyarin and the deacon.'... + + "'Ay, the lawyers remember themselves--never fear that the boyarin + and deacon forget their fees. And what is written in thy book against + royal murderers and conspirators?' + + "'In our memory such case hath not arisen.' + + "'Even so! you lawyers are ever writing leaf after leaf, and never do + ye write all; and then the upright judges begin to gloze, to + interpret, to take bribes for dark passages. The law ought to be like + an open hand without a glove, (the Prince opened his fist;) every + simple man ought to see what is in it, and it should not be able to + conceal a grain of corn. Short and clear; and, when needful, seizing + firmly!... But as it is, they have put a ragged glove on law; and, + besides, they close the fist. Ye may guess--odd or even! they can + show one or the other, as they like.' + + "'Pardon, my Lord Great Prince; lo, what we will add to the + soudebnik--the royal murderer and plotter shall not live.' + + "'Be it so. Let not him live, who reached at another's life.' (Here + he turned to Kouritzin, but remembering that he was always disinclined + to severe punishments, he continued, waving his hand,) 'I forgot that + a craven[2] croweth not like a cock.' (At these words the deacon's + eyes sparkled with satisfaction.) 'Mamon, be this thy care. Tell my + judge of Moscow--the court judge--to have the Lithuanian and the + interpreter burned alive on the Moskva--burn them, dost thou hear? + that others may not think of such deeds.' + + [2] A _jeu de mots_ impossible to be rendered in English; _Kouritza_, + in Russian, is a 'hen.'"--T.B.S. + + "The dvoretzkoi bowed, and said, stroking his ragged beard--'In a few + days will arrive the strangers to build the palace, and the Almayne + leech: the Holy Virgin only knoweth whether there be not evil men + among them also. Dost thou vouchsafe me to speak what hath come into + my mind?' + + "'Speak.' + + "'Were it not good to show them an example at once, by punishing the + criminals before them?' + + "The Great Prince, after a moment's thought, replied--'Aristotle + answereth for the leech Antony; he is a disciple of his brother's. + The artists of the palace--foreigners--are good men, quiet men ... + but ... who can tell!... Mamon, put off the execution till after the + coming of the Almayne leech; but see that the fetters sleep not on + the evil doers!' + + "Here he signed to Mamon to go and fulfill his order." + +Here is another scene with the Great Prince. + + "He stopped, and turned with an air of stern command to Kouritzin. + + "The latter had addressed himself to speak--'The ambassadors from + Tver ... from the'.... + + "'From the prince, thou wouldst say,' burst in Ivan Vassilievitch: 'I + no longer recognize a Prince of Tver. What--I ask thee, what did he + promise in the treaty of conditions which his bishop was to + negotiate?--the bishop who is with us now.' + + "'To dissolve his alliance with the Polish king, Kazimir, and never + without thy knowledge to renew his intercourse with him; nor with + thine ill-wishers, nor with Russian deserters: to swear, in his own + and his children's name, never to yield to Lithuania.' + + "'Hast thou still the letter to King Kazimir from our good + brother-in-law and ally--him whom thou yet callest the Great Prince + of Tver?' + + "'I have it, my lord.' + + "'What saith it?' + + "'The Prince of Tver urgeth the Polish King against the Lord of All + Russia.' + + "'Now, as God shall judge me, I have right on my side. Go and tell + the envoys from Tver, that I will not receive them: I spoke a word of + mercy to them--they mocked at it. What do they take me for?... A + bundle of rags, which to-day they may trample in the mud, and + to-morrow stick up for a scarecrow in their gardens! Or a puppet--to + bow down to it to-day, and to-morrow to cast it into the mire, with + _Vuiduibai, father vuiduibai_![3] No! they have chosen the wrong man. + They may spin their traitorous intrigues with the King of Poland, and + hail him their lord; but I will go myself and tell Tver who is her + real master. Tease me no more with these traitors!' + + [3] "When Vladimir, to convert the Russians to Christianity, caused + the image of their idol Peroun to be thrown into the Dniepr, the + people of Kieff are said to have shouted '_vuiduibai, batioushka, + vuiduibai_!'--batioushka signifies 'father;' but the rest of the + exclamation has never been explained, though it has passed into a + proverb."--T.B.S. + + "Saying this, the Great Prince grew warmer and warmer, and at length + he struck his staff upon the ground so violently that it broke in two. + + "'Hold! here is our declaration of war,' he added--'yet one word more: + had it bent it would have remained whole.' + + "Kouritzin, taking the fatal fragments, went out. The philosopher of + those days, looking at them, shook his head and thought--'Even so + breaketh the mighty rival of Moscow!'" + +The Almayne physician is lodged by order of the Great Prince in one of the +three stone houses which Moscow could then boast--the habitation of the +voevoda Obrazetz, a fine old warrior, a venerable patriarch, and bigot, +such as all Russians then were. To him the presence of the heretic is +disgusting; his touch would be pollution; and the whole family is thrown +into the utmost consternation by the prospect of having to harbour so foul +a guest--a magician, a man who had sold his soul to Satan--above all, a +heretic. The voevoda had an only daughter, who, with Oriental caution, was +carefully screened from the sight of man, as became a high-born Russian +maiden. + + "From her very infancy Providence had stamped her with the seal of + the marvellous; when she was born a star had fallen on the house--on + her bosom she bore a mark resembling a cross within a heart. When ten + years old, she dreamed of palaces and gardens such as eye had never + seen on earth, and faces of unspeakable beauty, and voices that sang, + and self-moving dulcimers that played, as it were within her heart, + so sweetly and so well, that tongue could never describe it; and, + when she awoke from those dreams, she felt a light pressure on her + feet, and she thought she perceived that something was resting on + them with white wings folded; it was very sweet, and yet awful--and + in a moment all was gone. Sometimes she would meditate, sometimes she + would dream, she knew not what. Often, when prostrate before the + image of the Mother of God, she wept; and these tears she hid from + the world, like some holy thing sent down to her from on high. She + loved all that was marvellous; and therefore she loved the tales, the + legends, the popular songs and stories of those days. How greedily + did she listen to her nurse! and what marvels did the eloquent old + woman unfold, to the young, burning imagination of her foster child! + Anastasia, sometimes abandoning herself to poesy, would forget sleep + and food; sometimes her dreams concluded the unfinished tale more + vividly, more eloquently far." + +We must give the pendant to this picture--the portrait of Obrazetz himself, +sitting in his easy-chair, listening to a tale of travels in the East. + + "How noble was the aged man, free from stormy passions, finishing the + pilgrimage of life! You seemed to behold him in pure white raiment, + ready to appear before his heavenly judge. Obrazetz was the chief of + the party in years, in grave majestic dignity, and patriarchal air. + Crossing his arms upon his staff, he covered them with his beard, + downy as the soft fleece of a lamb; the glow of health, deepened by + the cup of strong mead, blushed through the snow-white hair with + which his cheeks were thickly clothed; he listened with singular + attention and delight to the story-teller. This pleasure was painted + on his face, and shone brightly in his eyes; from time to time a + smile of good-humoured mockery flitted across his lips, but this was + only the innocent offspring of irony which was raised in his good + heart by Aphonia's boasting, (for very few story-tellers, you know, + are free from this sin.) Reclining his shoulders against the back of + his arm-chair, he shut his eyes, and, laying his broad hairy hand + upon Andriousha's head, he softly, gently dallied with the boy's + flaxen locks. On his countenance the gratification of curiosity was + mingled with affectionate tenderness: he was not dozing, but seemed + to be losing himself in sweet reveries. In the old man's visions + arose the dear never forgotten son, whom he almost fancied he was + caressing. When he opened his eyes, their white lashes still bore + traces of the touching society of his unearthly guest; but when he + remarked that the tear betraying the secret of his heart had + disturbed his companions, and made his daughter anxious, the former + expression of pleasure again dawned on his face, and doubled the + delighted attention of the whole party." + +At length the dreaded guest arrived. + + "Evil days had fallen on Obrazetz and his family. He seemed himself + as though he had lost his wife and son a second time. Khabar raged + and stormed like a mountain torrent. Anastasia, hearing the horrible + stories--is sometimes trembling like an aspen-leaf, and then weeps + like a fountain. She dares not even look forth out of the sliding + window of her bower. Why did Vassilii Feodorovitch build such a fine + house? Why did he build it so near the Great Prince's palace? 'Tis + clear, this was a temptation of the Evil One. He wanted, forsooth, to + boast of a nonsuch! He had sinned in his pride.... What would become + of him, his son and daughter! Better for them had they never been + born!... And all this affliction arose from the boyarin being about + to receive a German in his house!" + +The voevoda gave strict injunctions that none of his family should go to +meet the procession; but M. Lajetchnikoff knows that all such orders are +unavailing. + + "Curiosity is so strong in human nature, that it can conquer even + fear: notwithstanding the orders of the boyarin, all his servants + rushed to obtain a glance at the terrible stranger; one at the gate, + another through the crevices of the wooden fence, another over it. + Khabar, with his arms haughtily a-kimbo, gazed with stern pride from + the other gate. Now for the frightful face with mouse's ears, winking + owlish eyes streaming with fiendish fire! now for the beak! They + beheld a young man, tall, graceful, of noble deportment, overflowing + with fresh vigorous life. In his blue eyes shone the light of + goodness and benevolence through the moisture called up by the recent + spectacle of the execution: the lips, surmounted by a slight soft + mustache, bore a good-humoured smile--one of those smiles that it is + impossible to feign, and which can only find their source in a heart + never troubled by impure passions. Health and frost had united to + tinge the cheeks with a light rosy glow; he took off his cap, and his + fair curls streamed forth over his broad shoulders. He addressed + Mamon in a few words of such Russian as he knew, and in his voice + there was something so charming, that even the evil spirit which + wandered through the boyarin's heart, sank down to its abyss. This, + then, was the horrible stranger, who had harmed Obrazetz and his + household! This, then, was he--after all! If this was the devil, the + fiend must again have put on his original heavenly form. All the + attendants, as they looked upon him, became firmly convinced that he + had bewitched their eyes. + + "'Haste, Nastia![4] look how handsome he is!' cried Andriousha to the + voevoda's daughter, in whose room he was, looking through the sliding + window, which he had drawn back. 'After this, believe stupid reports! + My father says that he is my brother: oh, how I shall love him! Look, + my dear!' + + [4]_Nastia_--the diminutive of Anastasia; Nastenka, the same. + Russian caressing names generally end in sia, sha, ousha, or + oushka--as Vasia, (for Ivan;) Andriousha, (Andrei;) + Varpholomeoushka, ( Bartholomew.)"--T.B.S. + + "And the son of Aristotle, affirming and swearing that he was not + deceiving his godmother, drew her, trembling and pale, to the window. + Making the sign of the cross, with a fluttering heart she ventured to + look out--she could not trust her eyes, again she looked out; + confusion! a kind of delighted disappointment, a kind of sweet thrill + running through her blood, never before experienced, fixed her for + some moments to the spot: but when Anastasia recovered herself from + these impressions, she felt ashamed and grieved that she had given + way to them. She already felt a kind of repentance. The sorcerer has + put on a mask, she thought, remembering her father's words: from this + moment she became more frequently pensive." + +We are conducted to the state prisons of Moscow, and introduced to some of +the prisoners whose names have figured in history. We select the following +dialogue as a specimen of the author's power to deal with such matters. +The prisoner is Marpha, the lady of Novogorod, who, by her courage and her +wealth, had laboured to preserve its independence. + + "Here the Great Prince rapped with his staff at a grating; at the + knock there looked out an old roman, who was fervently praying on her + knees. She was dressed in a much-worn high cap, and in a short veil, + poor, but white as new-fallen snow; her silver hair streamed over a + threadbare mantle: it was easy to guess that this was no common woman. + Her features were very regular, in her dim eyes was expressed + intellect, and a kind of stern greatness of soul. She looked proudly + and steadily at the Great Prince. + + "'For whom wert thou praying, Marphousha?' asked the sovereign. + + "'For whom but for the dead!' she sullenly replied. + + "'But for whom in particular, if I may make bold to ask?' + + "'Ask concerning that of my child, thou son of a dog--of him who was + called thy brother, whom thou murderedst--of Novgorod, which thou + hast drowned in blood, and covered with ashes!' + + "'O, ho, ho!... Thou hast not forgotten thy folly, then--Lady of + Novgorod the Great.' + + "'I was such once, my fair lord!' + + "At these words she arose. + + "'Wilt thou not think again?' + + "'Of what?... I said that I was praying for the dead. Thy Moscow, + with all its hovels, can twice a-year be laid in ashes, and twice + built up again. The Tartar hath held it two ages in slavery.... It + pined, it pined away and yet it remains whole. It hath but changed + one bondage for another. But once destroy the queen--Novgorod the + Great--and Novgorod the Great will perish for ever.' + + "'How canst thou tell that?' + + "'Can ye raise up a city of hewn stone in a hundred years?' + + "'I will raise one in a dozen.' + + "'Ay, but this is not in the fairy tale, where 'tis done as soon as + said. Call together the Hanse traders whom thou hast driven away.' + + "'Ha, hucksteress! thou mournest for the traders more than for + Novgorod itself.' + + "'By my huckstering she grew not poor, but rich.' + + "'Let me but jingle a piece of money, and straight will fly the + merchants from all corners of the world, greedy for my grosches.' + + "'Recall the chief citizens whom thou hast exiled to thy towns.' + + "'Cheats, knaves, rebels! they are not worth this!' + + "'When was power in the wrong? Where is the water of life that can + revive those thou hast slain? Even if thou couldst do all this, + liberty, liberty would be no more for Novgorod, Ivan Vassilievitch; + and Novgorod will never rise again! It may live on awhile like + lighted flax, that neither flameth nor goeth out, even as I live in a + dungeon!' + + "'It is thine inflexible obstinacy that hath ruined both of ye. I + should like to have seen how thou wouldst have acted in my place.' + + "'Thou hast done thy work, Great Prince of Moscow, I--mine. Triumph + not over me, in my dungeon, at my last hour.' + + "Marpha Boretzkaia coughed, and her face grew livid; she applied the + end of her veil to her lips, but it was instantly stained with blood, + and Ivan remarked this, though she endeavoured to conceal it. + + "'I am sorry for thee, Marpha,' said the Great Prince in a + compassionate tone. + + "'Sharp is thy glance.... What! doth it delight thee?... Spread this + kerchief over Novgorod.... 'Twill be a rich pall!'... she added with + a smile. + + "'Let me in! let me in!... I cannot bear it.... Let me go in to her!' + cried Andriousha, bursting into tears. + + "On the Great Prince's countenance was mingled compassion and + vexation. He, however, lifted the latch of the door, and let the son + of Aristotle pass in to Boretzkaia. + + "Andrea kissed her hand. Boretzkaia uttered not a word; she + mournfully shook her head, and her warm tears fell upon the boy's + face. + + "'Ask him how many years she can live,' said the Great Prince to + Aristotle, in a whisper. + + "'It is much, much, if she live three months; but, perhaps, 'twill be + only till spring,' answered Antony. 'No medicine can save her: that + blood is a sure herald of death.' + + "This reply was translated to Ivan Vassilievitch in as low a tone as + possible, that Boretzkaia might not hear it; but she waved her hand, + and said calmly--'I knew it long ago'.... + + "'Hearken, Marpha Isakovna, if thou wilt, I will give thee thy + liberty, and send thee into another town.' + + "'Another town ... another place ... God hath willed it so, without + thee!' + + "'I would send thee to Bayjetzkoi-Verkh.' + + "''Tis true, that was our country. If I could but die in my native + land!' + + "'Then God be with thee: there thou mayst say thy prayers, give alms + to the churches; I will order thy treasury to be delivered up to + thee--and remember not the Great Prince of Moscow in anger.' + + "She smiled. Have you ever seen something resembling a smile on the + jaws of a human skull? + + "'Farewell, we shall never meet again,' said the Great Prince. + + "'We shall meet at the judgment-seat of God!' was the last reply of + Boretzkaia." + +The daughter of Obrazetz loved the heretic, who was long unconscious of +the feelings he had inspired, and himself untouched by the mysterious fire +that was consuming the heart of the young Anastasia. But his turn, too, +had come--he, too, had seen and loved; but she knew not of his love--she +hardly knew the nature of her own feelings; sometimes she feared she was +under the influence of magic, or imagined that the anxiety she felt for +the heretic was a holy desire to turn him from the errors of his faith to +save his immortal soul--or, if she knew the truth, she dared not +acknowledge it even to her own heart--far less to any human being. To love +a heretic was a deadly sin; but to save a soul would be acceptable to +God--a holy offering at the footstool of the throne of grace and mercy. +This hope would justify any sacrifice. The great Prince was about to march +against Tver, and Antonio was to accompany him. Could she permit him to +depart without an effort to redeem him from his heresy, or, alas! without +a token of her love? She determined to send him the crucifix she wore +round her neck--a holy and a sacred thing, which it would have been a +deadly sin to part with unless to rescue a soul from perdition--and she +sent it. Her brother, too, was to accompany the army, and had besides, on +his return, to encounter a judicial combat. The soul of the old warrior +Obrazetz was deeply moved by the near approach of his son's departure. One +son had died by his side--he might never see Ivan more, and his heart +yearned to join with him in prayer. "The mercies of God are unaccountable." + + "Trusting in them, Obrazetz proceeded to the oratory, whither, by his + command, he was followed by Khabar and Anastasia. + + "Silently they go, plunged in feelings of awe: they enter the oratory; + the solitary window is curtained; in the obscurity, feebly dispelled + by the mysterious glimmer of the lamp, through the deep stillness, + fitfully broken by the flaring of the taper, they were gazed down + upon from every side by the dark images of the Saviour, the Holy + Mother of God, and the Holy Saints. From them there seems to breathe + a chilly air as of another world: here thou canst not hide thyself + from their glances; from every side they follow thee in the slightest + movement of thy thoughts and feelings. Their wasted faces, feeble + limbs, and withered frames--their flesh macerated by prayer and + fasting--the cross, the agony--all here speaks of the victory of will + over passions. Themselves an example of purity in body and soul, they + demand the same purity from all who enter the oratory, their holy + shrine. + + "To them Anastasia had recourse in the agitation of her heart; from + them she implored aid against the temptations of the Evil One; but + help there was none for her, the weak in will, the devoted to the + passion which she felt for an unearthly tempter. + + Thrice, with crossing and with prayer, did Obrazetz bow before the + images; thrice did his son and daughter bow after him. This pious + preface finished, the old man chanted the psalm--'Whoso dwelleth + under the defence of the Most High.' Thus, even in our own times, + among us in Russia, the pious warrior, when going to battle, almost + always arms himself with this shield of faith. With deep feeling, + Khabar repeated the words after his father. All this prepared + Anastasia for something terrible she trembled like a dove which is + caught by the storm in the open plain, where there is no shelter for + her from the tempest that is ready to burst above her. When they + arose from prayer, Obrazetz took from the shrine a small image of St + George the Victorious, cast in silver, with a ring for suspending it + on the bosom. 'In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the + Holy Ghost!' he said, with a solemn voice, holding the image in his + left hand, and with his right making three signs of the cross--'with + this mercy of God I bless thee, my dear and only son, Ivan, and I + pray that the holy martyr, George, may give thee mastery and victory + over thine enemies: keep this treasure even as the apple of thine eye. + Put it not off from thee in any wise, unless the Lord willeth that + the foe shall take it from thee. I know thee, Ivan, they will not + take it from thee living; but they may from thy corse. Keep in mind at + every season thy father's blessing.' + + "Anastasia turned as white as snow, and trembled in every limb; her + bosom felt oppressed as with a heavy stone, a sound as of hammering + was in her ears. She seemed to hear all the images, one after another, + sternly repeating her father's words. He continued--'It is a great + thing, this blessing. He who remembereth it not, or lightly esteemeth + it, from him shall the heavenly Father turn away his face, and shall + leave him for ever and ever. He shall be cast out from the kingdom of + heaven, and his portion shall be in hell. Keep well my solemn word.' + + "Every accent of Obrazetz fell upon Anastasia's heart like a drop of + molten pitch. She seemed to be summoned before the dreadful + judgment-seat of Christ, to hear her father's curse, and her own + eternal doom. She could restrain herself no longer, and sobbed + bitterly; the light grew dim in her eyes; her feet began to totter. + Obrazetz heard her sobs, and interrupted his exhortation. 'Nastia, + Nastia! what aileth thee?' he enquired, with lively sympathy, of his + daughter, whom he tenderly loved. She had not strength to utter a + word, and fell into her brother's arms. Crossing himself, the boyarin + put back the image into its former place, and then hastened to + sprinkle his child with holy water which always stood ready in the + oratory. Anastasia revived, and when she saw herself surrounded by + her father and brother, in a dark, narrow, sepulchral place, she + uttered a wild cry, and turned her dim eyes around. 'My life, my + darling child, my dove! what aileth thee?' cried the father. + 'Recollect thyself: thou art in the oratory. 'Tis plain some evil eye + hath struck thee. Pray to the Holy Virgin: she, the merciful one, + will save thee from danger.' + + "The father and son bore her to the image of the Mother of God. Her + brother with difficulty raised her arm, and she, all trembling, made + the sign of the cross. Deeply, heavily she sighed, applied her + ice-cold lips to the image, and then signed to them with her hand + that they should carry her out speedily. She fancied that she saw the + Holy Virgin shake her head with a reproachful air. + + "When they had carried Anastasia to her chamber, she felt better." + +Hitherto none had shared her secret thoughts; but the experienced eye of +the widow Selinova had detected the nature of her malady, and she longed +to know the object of her affection. + + "One day, they were sitting alone together, making lace. A kind of + mischievous spirit whispered her to speak of the heretic. Imagine + yourself thrown by destiny on a foreign land. All around you are + speaking in an unknown tongue; their language appears to you a chaos + of wild, strange sounds. Suddenly, amid the crowd, drops a word in + your native language. Does not then a thrill run over your whole + being? does not your heart leap within you? Or place a Russian + peasant at a concert where is displayed all the creative luxury and + all the brilliant difficulties of foreign music. The child of nature + listens with indifference to the incomprehensible sounds; but + suddenly Vorobieva with her nightingale voice trills out--_The cuckoo + from out the firs so dank hath not cuckooed._ Look what a change + comes over the half-asleep listener. Thus it was with Anastasia! Till + this moment Selinova had spoken to her in a strange language, had + only uttered sounds unintelligible to her; but the instant that she + spoke the _native_ word, it touched the heart-string, and all the + chords of her being thrilled as if they were about to burst. + Anastasia trembled, her hands wandered vaguely over her lace cushion, + her face turned deadly pale. She dared not raise her eyes, and + replied at random, absently. + + "'Ah!' thought Selinova, 'that is the right key: that is the point + whence cometh the storm!' + + "Both remained silent. At length Anastasia ventured to glance at her + visitor, in order to see by the expression of her face, whether she + had remarked her confusion. Selinova's eyes were fixed upon her work, + on her face there was not even a shade of suspicion. The crafty widow + intended little by little, imperceptibly, to win the confidence of + the inexperienced girl. + + "'And where then is _he_ gone?' she asked after a short pause, + without naming the person about whom she was enquiring. + + "'He is gone with the Great Prince on the campaign,' answered + Anastasia blushing; then, after a moment's thought she added--'I + suppose thou askedst me about my brother?' + + "'No, my dear, our conversation was about Antony the leech. What a + pity he is a heretic! You will not easily find such another gallant + among our Muscovites. He hath all, both height and beauty: when he + looketh, 'tis as though he gave you large pearls; his locks lie on + his shoulders like the light of dawn; he is as white and rosy as a + young maiden. I wonder whence he had such beauty--whether by the + permission of God, or, not naturally, by the influence of the Evil + One. I could have looked at him--may it not be a sin to say, I could + have gazed at him for ever without being weary!' + + "At these praises Anastasia's pale countenance blushed like the + dawning that heralds the tempest. 'Thou hast then seen him?' asked + the enamoured maiden, in a trembling, dying voice, and breaking off + her work. + + "'I have seen him more than once. I have not only seen him, but + wonder now, my dear--I have visited him in his dwelling!' + + "'The maiden shook her head, her eyes were dimmed with the shade of + pensiveness; a thrill of jealousy, in spite of herself, darted to + her heart. 'What! and didst thou not fear to go to him?' she + said--'Is he not a heretic?' + + "'If thou knewest it, Nastenka, what wouldst thou not do for love?' + + "'Love?' ... exclaimed Anastasia, and her heart bounded violently in + her breast. + + "'Ah if I were not afraid, I would disclose to thee the secret of my + soul.' + + "'Speak, I pray thee, speak! Fear not; see! I call the Mother of God + to witness, thy words shall die with me.' + + "And the maiden, with a quivering hand, signed a large cross. + + "'If so, I will confide in thee what I have never disclosed but to + God. It is not over one blue sea alone that the mist lieth, and the + darksome cloud: it is not over one fair land descendeth the gloomy + autumn night; there was a time when my bosom was loaded with a heavy + sorrow, my rebellious heart lay drowned in woe and care: I loved thy + brother, Ivan Vassilievitch. (The maiden's heart was relieved, she + breathed more freely.) Thou knowest not, my life, my child, what kind + of feeling is that of love, and God grant that thou mayest never know! + The dark night cometh, thou canst not close thine eyes: the bright + dawn breaketh, thou meetest it with tears, and the day is all + weary--O, so weary! There are many men in the fair world, but thou + see'st only one, in thy bower, in the street, in the house of God. A + stone lieth ever on thy breast, and thou canst not shake it off.' + + "Then Selinova wept sincere tears. Her companion listened to her with + eager sympathy: the feelings just depicted were her own. + + * * * * * + + "There was a deep silence. It was broken by the young widow. + + "'Nastenka, my life?' she began in a tone of such touching, such + lively interest, as called for her reluctant confidence. + + "The daughter of Obrazetz glanced at her with eyes full of tears, and + shook her head. + + "'Confide in me, as I have confided in thee,' continued Selinova, + taking her hand and pressing it to her bosom. 'I have lived longer in + the world than thou ... believe me, 'twill give thee ease ... 'tis + clear from every symptom, my love, what thou ailest.' + + "And Anastasia, sobbing, exclaimed at last--'O, my love, my dearest + friend, Praskovia Vladimirovna, take a sharp knife, open my white + breast, look what is the matter there!' + + "'And wherefore need we take the sharp knife, and wherefore need we + open the white breast, or look upon the rebellious heart? Surely, by + thy fair face all can tell, my child, how that fair face hath been + darkened, how the fresh bloom hath faded, and bright eyes grown dull. + After all, 'tis clear thou lovest some wandering falcon, some + stranger youth.' + + "Anastasia answered not a word; she could not speak for tears; and + hid her face in her hands. At last, softened by Selinova's friendly + sympathy, and her assurances that she would be easier if she would + confide her secret to such a faithful friend, she related her love + for the heretic. The episode of the crucifix was omitted in this tale, + which finished, of course, with assurances that she was enchanted, + bewitched. + + "Poor Anastasia! + + "Snowdrop! beautiful flower, thou springest up alone in the bosom of + thy native valley! And the bright sun arises every day to glass + himself in thy morning mirror; and the beaming moon, after a sultry + day, hastens to fan thee with her breezy wing, and the angels of God, + lulling thee by night, spread over thee a starry canopy, such as king + never possessed. Who can tell from what quarter the tempest may bring + from afar, from other lands, the seeds of the ivy, and scatter them + by thy side, and the ivy arises and twines lovingly around thee, and + chokes thee, lovely flower! This is not all: the worm has crawled to + thy root, hath fixed its fang therein, and kills ye both, if some + kind hand save ye not." + +These extracts will enable our readers to judge for themselves of the +merits of M. Lajetchnikoff's style as it appears in Mr Shaw's translation. +A better selection might have been made, had we not been desirous to avoid +any such anticipation of the development of the story as light diminish +its interest; but we are inclined to believe that most of our readers will +agree with us in thinking, that if M. Lajetchnikoff has succeeded in +faithfully illustrating the manners of the age of Ivan the Great, he has +also shown that he possesses brilliancy of fancy, fervour of thought, and +elevation of sentiment, as well as knowledge of the movements of the heart, +revealed only to the few who have been initiated into nature's mysteries. + +He does not appear to be largely gifted with the power of graphic +description, of placing the scenes of nature, or the living figures that +people them, vividly before us--he loves rather to indulge, even to excess, +mystical or passionate thoughts that are born in his own breast, and to +adorn them with garlands woven from the flowers of his fancy; but these +flowers are of native growth, the indigenous productions of the Russian +soil. His images often sound to our ears homely, sometimes even familiar +and mean, but they may be dignified in their native dress. He has no +lively perception of the beauties of external nature; his raptures are +reserved for the wonders of art, for what the human mind can create or +achieve; and, curiously enough, it is architecture that seems to excite in +him the greatest enthusiasm. In illustration of this feeling, we must +still extract an eloquent discourse on the life of the artist, which the +author puts into the mouth of Fioraventi Aristotle--a passage of much +feeling, and, we fear, of too much truth:-- + + "Thou knowest not, Antony, what a life is that of an artist! While + yet a child, he is agitated by heavy incomprehensible thoughts: to + him the sphynx, Genius, hath already proposed its enigmas; in his + bosom the Promethean vulture is already perched, and groweth with his + growth. His comrades are playing and making merry; they are preparing + for their riper years recollections of childhood's days of + paradise--childhood, that never can be but once: the time cometh, and + he remembereth but the tormenting dreams of that age. Youth is at + hand; for others 'tis the time of love, of soft ties, of revelry--the + feast of life; for the artist, none of these. Solitary, flying from + society, he avoideth the maiden, he avoideth joy; plunging into the + loneliness of his soul, he there, with indescribable mourning, with + tears of inspiration, on his knees before his Ideal, imploreth her to + come down upon earth to his frail dwelling. Days and nights he + waiteth, and pineth after unearthly beauty. Woe to him if she doth + not visit him, and yet greater woe to him if she doth! The tender + frame of youth cannot bear her bridal kiss; union with the gods is + fatal to man; and the mortal is annihilated in her embrace. I speak + not of the education, of the mechanic preparation. And here at every + step the Material enchaineth thee, buildeth up barriers before thee: + marketh a formless vein upon thy block of marble, mingling soot with + thy carmine, entangling thy imagination in a net of monstrous rules + and formulas, commandeth thee to be the slave of the house-painter or + of the stone-cutter. And what awaiteth thee, when thou hast come + forth victorious from this mechanic school--when thou hast succeeded + in throwing off the heavy sum of a thousand unnecessary rules, with + which pedantry hath overwhelmed thee--when thou takest as thy guide + only those laws which are so plain and simple?... What awaiteth thee + then? Again the Material! Poverty, need, forced labour, appreciators, + rivals, that ever-hungry flock which flieth upon thee ready to tear + thee in pieces, as soon as it knoweth that thou art a pure possessor + of the gift of God. Thy soul burneth to create, but thy carcass + demandeth a morsel of bread; inspiration veileth her wing, but the + body asketh not only to clothe its nakedness with a decent covering, + but fine cloth, silk, velvet, that it may appear before thy judges in + a proper dress, without which they will not receive thee, thou and + thy productions will die unknown. In order to obtain food, clothes, + thou must _work_: a merchant will order from thee a cellar, a + warehouse; the signore, stables and dog kennels. Now at last thou + hast procured thyself daily bread, a decent habit for thy bones and + flesh: inspiration thirsteth for its nourishment, demanding from thy + soul images and forms. Thou createst, thou art bringing thy Ideal to + fulfilment. How swiftly move the wheels of thy being! Thy existence + is tenfold redoubled, thy pulse is beating as when thou breathest the + atmosphere of high mountains. Thou spendest in one day whole months + of life. How many nights passed without sleep, how many days in + ceaseless chain, all filled with agitation! Or rather, there is nor + day nor night for thee, nor seasons of the year, as for other men. + Thy blood now boileth, then freezeth; the fever of imagination + wasteth thee away. Triumph setteth thee on fire, the fear of failure + maddeneth thee, tearing thee to pieces, tormenting thee with dread of + the judgments of men; then again ariseth the terror of dying with thy + task unfinished. Add, too, the inevitable shade of glory, which + stalketh ever in thy footsteps, and giveth thee not a moment of + repose. This is the period of creation! While creating, thou hast + been dwelling at the footstool of God. Crushed by thy contact with + the hem of his garment, overwhelmed by inspiration from Him whom the + world can scarcely bear, a poor mortal, half alive, half dead, thou + descendest upon earth, and carriest with thee what thou hast created + _there_, in _His_ presence! Mortals surround thy production, judging, + valuing, discussing it in detail; the patron laudeth the ornaments, + the grandeur of the columns, the weight of the work; the distributors + of favour gamble away thy honour, or creep like mice under thy plan, + and nibble at it in the darkness of night. No, my friend, the life of + an artist is the life of a martyr." + +We are so much accustomed to see virtue rewarded and vice punished, that +we might perhaps have been better pleased to have seen this kind of +poetical justice more equitably dispensed; but the cause of virtue is +perhaps as effectually served by making it attractive as by making it +triumphant, and vice is as much discouraged by making it odious or +contemptible as by making it unsuccessful. + +It only remains to say a few words of the translator's labours; and +although we do not pretend to decide on the fidelity of the version he has +given us, or how much his author may have lost or gained in his hands, we +cannot but think that we perceive internal evidence of efforts to be +faithful, even at the hazard of losing perhaps something of more value in +the attempt. However this may be, it is plain that Mr Shaw is himself a +vigorous and eloquent writer of his own language, as the extracts we have +given may vouch. We feel greatly indebted to him for unlocking to us the +stores of Russian fiction, which, if they contain many such works as _The +Heretic_, will well repay the labour of a careful examination. There is +about every thing Russian an air of orientalism which gives a peculiar +character to their dress, their mansions, their manners, their feelings, +their expressions, and their prejudices, which will probably long continue +to distinguish Russian literature on that of the other nations of Europe, +whose steps she has followed, perhaps too implicitly, in her attempts to +overtake them in the race of civilization and intellectual improvement. + + * * * * * + + + + +THRUSH-HUNTING. + +BY ALEXANDER DUMAS. + + +We have heard of certain cooks, the Udes and Vatels of their day, whose +boast it was to manufacture the most sumptuous and luxurious repast out of +coarse and apparently insufficient materials. We will take the liberty of +comparing M. Dumas with one of these artistical _cuisiniers_, possessing in +the highest degree the talent of making much out of little, by the skill +with which it is prepared, and the piquant nature of the condiments +applied. A successful dramatist, as well as a popular romance-writer, his +dialogues have the point and brilliancy, his narrative the vivid terseness, +generally observable in novels written by persons accustomed to dramatic +composition. Confining himself to no particular line of subject, he +rambles through the different departments of light literature in a most +agreeable and desultory manner; to-day a tourist, to-morrow a novelist; +the next day surprising his public by an excursion into the regions of +historical romance, amongst the well-beaten highways and byways of which +he still manages to discover an untrodden path, or to embellish a familiar +one by the sparkle of his wit and industry of his researches. The majority +of his books convey the idea of being written _currente calamo_, and with +little trouble to himself; and these have a lightness and brilliancy +peculiar to their lively author, which cannot fail to recommend them to +all classes of readers. They are like the sketches of a clever artist, who, +with a few bright and bold touches, gives an effect to his subject which +no labour would enable a less talented painter to achieve. But M. Dumas +can produce highly finished pictures as well as brilliant sketches, +although for the present it is one of the latter that we are about to +introduce to our readers. + +Every body knows, or ought to know, that M. Dumas has been in Italy, and +found means to make half a dozen highly amusing volumes out of his rambles +in a country, perhaps, of all others, the most familiar to the inhabitants +of civilized Europe--a country which has been described and re-described +_ad nauseam_, by tourists, loungers, and idlers innumerable. On his way to +the land of lazzaroni he made a pause at Marseilles to visit his friend +Mery, a poet and author of some celebrity; and here he managed to collect +materials for a volume which we can recommend to the perusal of the daily +increasing class of our countrymen who think that a book, although written +in French, may be witty and amusing without being either blasphemous or +indecent. + +We have reason to believe that many persons who have not visited the +south-eastern corner of France, think of it as a "land of the cypress and +myrtle;" where troubadours wander amongst orange groves, or tinkle their +guitars under the shade of the vine and the fig-tree. There is something +in a name, and Provence, if it were only for the sake of its roses, ought, +one would think, to be a smiling and beautiful country. And so part of it +is; but in this part is assuredly not included the district around its +chief city. One hears much of the vineyards and orange groves of the south. +We do not profess to care much about vines, except for the sake of what +they produce; most of the vineyards we ever saw looked very like +plantations of gooseberry bushes, and the best of them were not so +graceful or picturesque as a Kentish hop-ground. As to olives, admirable +as they undoubtedly are when flanking a sparkling jug of claret, we find +little to admire in the stiff, greyish, stunted sort of trees upon which +they think proper to grow. But neither vines nor olives are to be found +around Marseilles. Nothing but dust; dust on the roads, dust in the fields, +dust on every leaf of the parched, unhappy-looking trees that surround the +country-houses of the Marseillais. The fruit and vegetables consumed there +are brought for miles overland, or by water from places on the coast; +flowers are scarce--objecting, probably, to grow in so arid a soil, and in +a heat that, for some months of the year, is perfectly African. Game there +is little or none; notwithstanding which, there are nowhere to be found +more enthusiastic sportsmen than at Marseilles. It is on this hint M. +Dumas speaks. His description of the manner in which the worthy burghers +of Marseilles make war upon the volatiles is rather amusing. + +"Every Marseillais who aspires to the character of a keen sportsman, has +what is termed a _poste a feu_. This is a pit or cave dug in the ground in +the vicinity of a couple of pine-trees, and covered over with branches. In +addition to the pine-trees, it is usual to have _cimeaux_, long spars of +wood, of which two are supported horizontally on the branches of the trees, +and a third planted perpendicularly in the ground. These _cimeaux_ are +intended as a sort of treacherous invitation to the birds to come and rest +themselves. So regularly as Sunday morning arrives, the Marseillais +Cockney installs himself in his pit, arranges a loophole through which he +can see what passes outside, and waits with all imaginable patience. The +question that will naturally be asked, is--What does he wait for? + +"He waits for a thrush, an ortolan, a beccafico, a robin-redbreast, or any +other feathered and diminutive biped. He is not so ambitious as to expect +a quail. Partridges he has heard of; of one, at least, a sort of phoenix, +reproduced from its own ashes, and seen from time to time before an +earthquake, or other great catastrophe. As to the hare, he is well aware +that it is a fabulous animal of the unicorn species. + +"There is a tradition, however, at Marseilles, that during the last three +months of the year, flocks of wild pigeons pass over, on their way from +Africa or Kamschatka, or some other distant country. Within the memory of +man no one has ever seen one of these flights; but it would nevertheless +be deemed heresy to doubt the fact. At this season, therefore, the +sportsman provides himself with tame pigeon, which he fastens by a string +to the _cimeaux_, in such a manner that the poor bird is obliged to keep +perpetually on the wing, not being allowed rope enough to reach a perch. +After three or four Sundays passed in this manner, the unfortunate decoy +dies of a broken heart." + +There is not nearly so much caricature in this picture as our readers may +be disposed to think. Whoever has passed a few weeks of the autumn in a +French provincial town, must have witnessed and laughed at the very +comical proceedings of the _chasseurs_, the high-sounding title assumed by +every Frenchman who ever pointed a gun at a cock-sparrow. One sees them +going forth in the morning in various picturesque and fanciful costumes, +their loins girded with a broad leathern belt, a most capacious game-bag +slung over their shoulder, a fowling-piece of murderous aspect balanced on +their arm; their heads protected from the October sun by every possible +variety of covering, from the Greek skull-cap to the broad-brimmed Spanish +sombrero. Away they go, singly, or by twos and threes, accompanied by a +whole regiment of dogs, for the most part badly bred, and worse broken +curs, which, when they get into the field, go pottering about in a style +that would sorely tempt an English sportsman to bestow upon them the +contents of both barrels. Towards the close of the day, take a stroll +outside the town, and you meet the heroes returning. "Well, what sport?" +"_Pas mal, mon cher_. Not so bad," is the reply, in a tone of +ill-concealed triumph; and plunging his hand into his game-bag, the +chasseur produces--a phthisical snipe, a wood pigeon, an extenuated quail, +and perhaps something which you at first take for a deformed blackbird, +but which turns out to be a water-hen. As far as our own observations go, +we do aver this to be a very handsome average of a French sportsman's +day's shooting. If by chance he has knocked down a red-legged partridge, +(grey ones are very scarce in France,) his exultation knows no bounds. The +day on which such a thing occurs is a red-letter day with him for the rest +of his life. He goes home at once and inscribes the circumstance in the +family archives. + +But this state of things, it will perhaps be urged, may arise from the +scarcity of game in France, as probably as from the sportsman's want of +skill. True; but the worst is to come. After you have duly admired and +examined snipe, pigeon, quail, and water-hen, your friend again rummages +in the depths of his _gibeciere_, and pulls out--what?--a handful of +tomtits and linnets, which he has been picking off every hedge for five +miles round. "_Je me suis rabattu sur le petit gibier_," he says, with a +grin and a shrug, and walks away, a proud man and a happy, leaving you in +admiration of his prowess. + +M. Dumas expresses a wish to make the acquaintance of one of these modern +Nimrods, and his friend Mery arranges a supper, to which he invites a +certain Monsieur Louet, who plays the fourth bass in the orchestra of the +Marseilles theatre. The conversation after supper is a good specimen of +_persiflage_. After doing ample justice to an excellent repast, during +which he had scarcely uttered a word, + +"Monsieur Louet threw himself back in his chair and looked at us all, one +after the other, as if he had only just become aware of our presence, +accompanying his inspection with a smile of the most perfect benevolence; +then, heaving a gentle sigh of satisfaction--'Ma foi! I have made a +capital supper!' exclaimed he. + +"'M. Louet! A cigar?' cried Mery: 'It is good for the digestion.' + +"'Thank you, most illustrious poet!' answered M. Louet; 'I never smoke. It +was not the fashion in my time. Smoking and boots were introduced by the +Cossacks. I always wear shoes, and am faithful to my snuff-box.' + +"So saying, M. Louet produced his box, and offered it round. We all +refused except Mery, who, wishing to flatter him, attacked his weak side. + +"'What delicious snuff, M. Louet! This cannot be the common French snuff?' + +"'Indeed it is--only I doctor it in a particular manner. It is a secret I +learned from a cardinal when I was at Rome.' + +"'Ha! You have been to Rome?' cried I. + +"'Yes, sir; I passed twenty years there.' + +"'M. Louet,' said Mery, 'since you do not smoke, you ought to tell these +gentlemen the story of your thrush-hunt.' + +"'I shall be most happy,' replied M. Louet graciously, 'if you think it +will amuse the company.' + +"'To be sure it will,' cried Mery. 'Gentlemen, you are going to hear the +account of one of the most extraordinary hunts that has taken place since +the days of Nimrod the mighty hunter. I have heard it told twenty times, +and each time with increased pleasure. Another glass of punch, M. Louet. +There! Now begin.--We are all impatience.' + +"'You are aware, gentlemen,' said M. Louet, 'that every Marseillais is +born a sportsman.' + +"'Perfectly true,' interrupted Mery 'it is a physiological phenomenon +which I have never been able to explain; but it is nevertheless quite +true.' + +"'Unfortunately,' continued M. Louet, 'or perhaps I should say fortunately, +we have neither lions nor tigers in the neighbourhood of Marseilles. On +the other hand, we have flights of pigeons.' + +"'There!' cried Mery, 'I told you so. They insist upon it.' + +"'Certainly,' replied M. Louet, visibly vexed; 'and, whatever you may say +to the contrary, the pigeons _do_ pass. Besides, did you not lend me the +other day a book of Mr Cooper's, the _Pioneers_, in which the fact is +authenticated?' + +"'Ah, yes! Authenticated in America.' + +"'Very well! If they pass over America why should they not pass over +Marseilles? The vessels that go from Alexandria and Constantinople to +America often pass here.' + +"'Very true!' replied Mery, thunderstruck by this last argument. 'I have +nothing more to say. M. Louet, your hand. I will never contradict you +again on the subject.' + +"'Sir, every man has a right to his opinion.' + +"'True, but I relinquish mine. Pray go on, M. Louet.' + +"'I was saying, then, that instead of lions and tigers we have flights of +pigeons.' M. Louet paused a moment to see if Mery would contradict him. +Mery nodded his head approvingly. + +"'True,' said he, 'they have flights of pigeons.'" + +Satisfied by this admission M. Louet resumed. + +"'You may easily imagine that at the period of the year when these flights +occur, every sportsman is on the alert; and, as I am only occupied in the +evening at the theatre, I am fortunately able to dispose of my mornings as +I like. It was in 1810 or '11, I was five-and-thirty years of age; that is +to say, gentlemen, rather more active than I am now. I was one morning at +my post, as usual, before daybreak. I had tied my decoy pigeon to the +_cimeaux_, and he was fluttering about like a mad thing, when I fancied I +saw by the light of the stars something perched upon my pine-tree. +Unfortunately it was too dark for me to distinguish whether this something +were a bat or a bird, so I remained quite quiet, waiting for the sun to +rise. At last the sun rose and I saw that it was a bird. I raised my gun +gently to my shoulder, and, when I was sure of my aim, I pulled the +trigger. Sir, I had omitted to discharge my gun on returning from shooting +the evening before. It had been twelve hours loaded, and it hung fire. + +"'Nevertheless I saw by the way in which the bird flew that he was touched. +I followed him with my eyes till he perched again. Then I looked for my +pigeon; but by an extraordinary chance a shot had cut the string which +tied him, and he had flown away. Without a decoy I knew very well it was +no use remaining at the post, so I resolved to follow up the thrush. I +forgot to tell you, gentlemen, that the bird I had fired at was a thrush. + +"'Unluckily I had no dog. When one shoots with a decoy, a dog is worse +than useless--it is a positive nuisance. I was obliged, therefore, to beat +the bushes myself. The thrush had run along the ground, and rose behind me +when I thought I still had him in front. At the sound of his wings I +turned and fired in a hurry. A shot thrown away, as you may suppose. +Nevertheless I saw some feathers fall from him.' + +"'You saw some feathers?' cried Mery. + +"'Yes, sir. I even found one, which I put in my buttonhole.' + +"'In that case,' said Mery, 'the thrush was hit?' + +"'That was my opinion at the time. I had not lost sight of him, and I +continued the pursuit; but the bird was scared, and this time flew away +before I got within range. I fired all the same. There is no saying where +a stray shot may go.' + +"'A stray shot is not enough for a thrush,' said Mery, shaking his head +gravely. 'A thrush is a very hard-lived bird.' + +"'Very true, sir; for I am certain my two first shots had wounded him, and +yet he made a third flight of nearly half a mile. But I had sworn to have +him, and on I went. Impossible to get near him. He led me on, mile after +mile, always flying away as soon as I came within fifty or sixty paces. I +became furious. If I had caught him I think I should have eaten him alive, +and the more so as I was beginning to get very hungry. Fortunately, as I +had calculated on remaining out all day, I had my breakfast and dinner in +my game-bag, and I eat as I went along.' + +"'Pardon me,' said Mery, interrupting M. Louet; 'I have an observation to +make. Observe, my dear Dumas, the difference between the habits of the +human race in northern and southern climes. In the north the sportsman +runs after his game; in the south he waits for it to come to him. In the +first case he takes out an empty bag and brings home a full one; in the +other he takes it out full and brings it home empty. Pray, go on, my dear +M. Louet. I have spoken.' And he recommenced puffing at his cigar. + +"'Where was I?' said M. Louet, who had lost the threat of his narrative +through this interruption. + +"'Speeding over hill and dale in pursuit of your thrush.' + +"'True, sir. I cannot describe to you the state of excitement and +irritation I was in. I began to think of the bird of Prince Camaralzaman, +and to suspect that I, too, might be the victim of some enchantment. I +passed Cassis and La Ciotat, and entered the large plain extending from +Ligne to St. Cyr. I had been fifteen hours on my feet, and I was half dead +with fatigue. I made a vow to Our Lady of La Garde to hang a silver thrush +in her chapel, if she would only assist me to catch the living one I was +following; but she paid no attention to me. Night was coming on, and in +despair I fired my last shot at the accursed bird. I have no doubt he +heard the lead whistle, for this time he flew so far that I lost sight of +him in the twilight. He had gone in the direction of the village of St. +Cyr. Probably he intended to sleep there, and I resolved to do the same. +Fortunately there was to be no performance that night at the Marseilles +theatre.'" + +The worthy basso goes to the inn at St. Cyr, and relates his troubles to +the host, who decides that the object of his pursuit must have halted for +the night in a neighbouring piece of brushwood. By daybreak M. Louet is +again a-foot, accompanied by the innkeeper's dog, Soliman. They soon get +upon the scent of the devoted thrush. + +"'Every body knows that a true sporting dog will follow any one who has a +gun on his shoulder. "Soliman, Soliman!" cried I; and Soliman came. Sir, +the instinct of the dog was remarkable: we had hardly got out of the +village when he made a point--such a point, sir!--his tail out as straight +as a ramrod. There was the thrush, not ten paces from me. I fired both +barrels--Poum! Poum! Powder not worth a rush. I had used all my own the +day before, and this was some I had got from my host. The thrush flew away +unhurt. But Soliman had kept his eye on him, and went straight to the +place where the bird was. Again he made a most beautiful point; but +although I looked with all my eyes, I could not see the thrush. I was +stooping down in this manner, looking for the creature, when suddenly it +flew away, and so fast, that before I got my gun to my shoulder, it was +out of reach. Soliman opened his eyes and stared at me; as much as to say, +"What is the meaning of all this?" The expression of the dog's face made +me feel quit humiliated. I could not help speaking to him. "Never mind," +said I, nodding my head, "you will see next time." You would have thought +the animal understood me. He again began to hunt about. In less than ten +minutes he stopped as if he were cut out of marble. I was determined not +to lose this chance; and I went right before the dog's nose. The bird rose +literally under my feet; but I was so agitated that I fired my first +barrel too soon, and my second too late. The first discharge passed by him +like a single ball; the second was too scattered, and he passed between it. +It was then that a thing happened to me--one of those things which I +should not repeat, but for my attachment to the truth. The dog looked at +me for a moment with a sort of smile upon his countenance: then, coming +close up to me while I was reloading my gun, he lifted his left hind leg, +made water against my gaiter, and then turning round, trotted away in the +direction of his master's house. You may easily suppose, that if it had +been a man who had thus insulted me, I would have had his life, or he +should have had mine. But what could I say, sir, to a dumb beast which God +had not gifted with reason?'" + +This canine insult only acts as a spur to the indefatigable chasseur, who, +dogless as he finds himself, follows up his thrush till he reaches the +town of Hyeres. Here he loses all trace of the bird, but endeavours to +console himself by eating the oranges which grow in the garden of his +hotel. Whilst thus engaged, a thrush perches on a tree beside him, and the +first glance at the creature's profile satisfied him that it is the same +bird whose society he has been rejoicing in the for the last two days. +Unfortunately his gun is in the house, of which the thrush seems to be +aware, for it continues singing and dressing its feathers on a branch +within ten feet of his head. Afraid of losing sight of it, M. Louet waits +till the landlord comes to announce supper, and then desires him to bring +his gun. But there is a punishment of fine and imprisonment for whoever +fires a shot, between sunset and sunrise, within the precincts of the town; +and although the enthusiastic sportsman is willing enough to run this risk, +the hotel-keeper fears to be taken for an accomplice, and refuses to fetch +the gun, threatening to drive away the bird if M. Louet goes for it +himself. At last they come to terms. M. Louet sups and sleeps under the +tree, the bird roosts on the same; and at the first stroke of the matin +bell, mine host appears with the fowling-piece. Our chasseur stretches out +his hand to take it, and--the bird flies away. + +M. Louet throws down the price of his supper, and scales the garden wall +in pursuit. He follows his intended victim the whole of that day, and at +last has the mortification of seeing it carried away before his eyes by a +hawk. Foot-sore and tired, hungry and thirsty, the unfortunate musician +sinks down exhausted by the side of a road. A peasant passes by. + +"'My friend,' said I to him, 'is there any town, village, or house in +this neighbourhood?' + +"'_Gnor si_,' answered he, '_ce la citta di Nizza un miglia avanti_.' + +"The thrush had led me into Italy." + +At Nice M. Louet is in great tribulation. In the course of his long ramble +his money has worked a hole in his pocket, and he discovers that he is +penniless just at the moment that he has established himself at the best +hotel, and ordered supper for three by way of making up for past +privations. He gets out of his difficulties, however, by giving a concert, +which produces him a hundred crowns; and he then embarks for Toulon, on +board the letter of marque, La Vierge des Sept Douleurs, Captain Garnier. + +Once on the water, there is a fine opportunity for a display of French +naval heroism, at the expense, of course, of the unfortunate English, to +whom M. Dumas bears about the same degree of affection that another +dark-complexioned gentleman is said to do to holy water. This is one of M. +Dumas's little peculiarities or affectations, it is difficult to say which. +Wherever it is possible to bring in England and the English, depreciate +them in any way, or turn them into ridicule, M. Dumas invariably does it, +and those passages are frequently the most amusing in his books. In the +present instance, it is a very harmless piece of faufarronade in which he +indulges. + +The armed brig in which M. Louet has embarked, falls in which a squadron +of English men-of-war. Hearing a great bustle upon deck, our musician goes +up to enquire the cause, and finds the captain quietly seated, smoking his +pipe. After the usual salutations-- + +"'M. Louet, have you ever seen a naval combat?' said the captain to me. + +"'Never, sir.' + +"'Would you like to see one?' + +"'Why, captain, to say the truth, there are other things I should better +like to see.' + +"'I am sorry for it; for it you wished to see one, a real good one, your +wish would soon be gratified.' + +"'What! captain,' cried I, feeling myself grow pale; 'you do not mean to +say we are going to have a naval combat? Ha, ha! I see you are joking, +captain.' + +"'Joking, eh? Look yonder. What do you see?' + +"'I see three very fine vessels.' + +"'Count again.' + +"'I see more. Four, five, there are six of them.' + +"'Can you distinguish what there is on the flag of the nearest one? Here, +take the glass.' + +"'I cannot make out very well, but I think I see a harp.' + +"'Exactly.--The Irish harp. In a few minutes they'll play as a tune on it.' + +"'But captain,' said I, 'they are still a long way off, and it appears to +me, that by spreading all those sails which are now furled upon your masts +and yards, you might manage to escape. In your place I should certainly +run away. Excuse me for the suggestion, but it is my opinion as fourth +bass of the Marseilles theatre. If I had the honour to be a sailor, I +should perhaps think differently.'" + +Very sensible advice, too, M. Louet, _we_ should have thought at least, +considering the odds of six to one. But the fire-eating Frenchman thinks +otherwise. + +"'If it were a man, instead of a bass, who made me such a proposal,' +replied the captain, 'I should have had a word or two to say to him about +it. Know, sir, that Captain Garnier _never_ runs away! He fights till his +vessel is riddled like a sieve, then he allows himself to be boarded, and +when his decks are covered with the enemy, he goes into the powder +magazine with his pipe in his mouth, shakes out the burning ashes, and +sends the English on a voyage of discovery upwards.' + +"'And the French?' + +"'The French too.' + +"'And the passengers?' + +"'The passengers likewise.' + +"'At that moment, a small white cloud appeared issuing from the side of +one of the English ships. This was followed by a dull noise like a heavy +blow on the big drum. I saw some splinters fly from the top of the brig's +gunwale, and an artilleryman, who was just then standing on his gun, fell +backwards upon me. 'Come, my friend,' said I, 'mind what you are about.' +And, as he did not stir, I pushed him. He fell upon the deck. I looked at +him with more attention. His head was off. + +"My nerves were so affected by this sight, that five minutes later I found +myself in the ship's hold, without exactly knowing how I had got there." + +Thanks to a storm, the six English men of war manage to escape from the +brig, and when M. Louet ventures to re-appear upon deck, he finds himself +in the Italian port of Piombino, opposite the island of Elba. He has had +enough of the water, and goes on shore, where he bargains with a vetturino +to take him to Florence. A young officer of French hussars, and four +Italians, are his travelling companions. The former, on learning his name +and profession, asks him sundry questions about a certain Mademoiselle +Zephyrine, formerly a dancer at the Marseilles theatre, and in whom he +seems to take a strong interest. + +Bad springs and worse roads render it very difficult to sleep. At last, on +the second night of their journey, M. Louet succeeds in getting up a doze, +out of which he is roused in a very unpleasant manner. We will give his +own account of it. + +"'Two pistol-shots, the flash of which almost burned my face, awoke me. +They were fired by M. Ernest, (the hussar officer.) We were attacked by +banditti.' + +"'_Faccia in terra! Faccia in terra!_' I jumped out of the carriage, and +as I did so, one of the brigands gave me a blow between the shoulders, +that threw me upon my face. My companions were already in that position, +with the exception of M. Ernest, who was defending himself desperately. At +length he was overpowered and made prisoner. + +"My pockets were turned inside out, and my hundred crowns taken away. I +had a diamond ring on my finger, which I hoped they would not observe, and +I turned the stone inside, heartily wishing, as I did so, that it had the +power of Gyges' ring, and could render me invisible. But all was in vain. +The robbers soon found it out. When they had taken every thing from us-- + +"'Is there a musician amongst you?' said he who appeared the chief. + +"Nobody answered. + +"'Well,' repeated he, 'are you all deaf? I asked if any of you knew how to +play on an instrument.' + +"'Pardieu!' said a voice, which I recognized as that of the young officer; +'there's M. Louet, who plays the bass.' + +"I wished myself a hundred feet under ground. + +"'Which is M. Louet?' said the brigand. 'Is it this one?' And, stooping +down, he laid hold of the collar of my shooting-jacket, and lifted me on +my feet. + +"'For Heaven's sake, what do you want with me?' cried I. + +"'Nothing to be so frightened about,' was the answer. 'For a week past we +have been hunting every where for a musician, without being able to find +one. The captain will be delighted to see you.' + +"'What!' cried I, 'are you going to take me to the captain?' + +"'Certainly we are.' + +"'To separate me from my companions?' + +"'What can we do with them? _They_ are not musicians.' + +"'Gentlemen!' cried I, 'for God's sake, help me! do not let me be carried +off in this manner.' + +"'The gentlemen will have the goodness to remain with their noses in the +dust for the space of a quarter of an hour,' said the brigand. 'As to the +officer, tie him to a tree,' continued he, to the four men who were +holding the hussar. 'In a quarter of an hour the postillion will untie him. +Not a minute sooner, if you value your life.' + +"The postillion gave a sort of affirmative grunt, and the robbers now moved +off in the direction of the mountains. I was led between two of them. +After marching for some time, we saw a light in a window, and presently +halted at a little inn on a cross-road. The bandits went up stairs, +excepting two, who remained with me in the kitchen, and one of whom had +appropriated my fowling-piece, and the other my game-bag. As to my diamond +ring and my hundred crowns, they had become perfectly invisible. + +"Presently somebody shouted from above, and my guards, taking me by the +collar, pushed me up stairs, and into a room on the first floor. + +"Seated at a table, upon which was a capital supper and numerous array of +bottles, was the captain of the robbers, a fine-looking man of thirty-five +or forty years of age. He was dressed exactly like a theatrical robber, in +blue velvet, with a red sash and silver buckles. His arm was passed round +the waist of a very pretty girl in the costume of a Roman peasant; that is +to say, an embroidered boddice, short bright-coloured petticoat, and red +stockings. Her feet attracted my attention, they were so beautifully small. +On one of her fingers I saw my diamond ring--a circumstance which, as well +as the company in which I found her, gave me a very indifferent idea of +the young lady's morality. + +"'What countryman are you?' asked the captain. + +"'I am a Frenchman, your excellency.' + +"'So much the better!' cried the young girl. + +"I saw with pleasure that, at any rate, I was amongst people who spoke my +own language. + +"'You are a musician?' + +"'I am fourth bass at the Marseilles theatre.' + +"'Bring this gentleman's bass,' said the captain to one of his men. 'Now, +my little Rina,' said he, turning to his mistress, 'I hope you are ready +to dance." + +"'I always was,' answered she, 'but how could I without music?' + +"'_Non ho trovato l'instrumento_,' said the robber, reappearing at the +door. + +"'What!' cried the captain in a voice of thunder; 'no instrument?' + +"'Captain,' interposed his lieutenant, 'I searched every where, but could +not find even the smallest violoncello.' + +"'_Bestia_!' cried the captain. + +"'Excellency,' I ventured to observe, 'it is not his fault. I had no bass +with me.' + +"'Very well,' said the captain, 'send off five men immediately to Sienna, +Volterra, Grossetto--all over the country. I must have a bass by to-morrow +night.' + +"I could not help thinking I had seen Mademoiselle Rina's face somewhere +before, and I was cudgeling my memory to remember where, when she +addressed the captain. + +"'Tonino,' said she, 'you have not even asked the poor man if he is +hungry.' + +"I was touched by this little attention, and, on the captain's invitation, +I drew a chair to the table, in fear and trembling I acknowledge; but it +was nearly twelve hours since I had eaten any thing, and my hunger was +perfectly canine. Mademoiselle Rina herself had the kindness to pass me +the dishes and fill my glass; so that I had abundant opportunities of +admiring my own ring, which sparkled upon her finger. I began to perceive, +however, that I should not be so badly off as I had expected, and that the +captain was disposed to treat me well. + +"Supper over, I was allowed to retire to a room and a bed that had been +prepared for me. I slept fifteen hours without waking. The robbers had the +politeness not to disturb me till I awakened of my own accord. Then, +however, five of them entered my room, each carrying a bass. I chose the +best, and they made firewood of the others. + +"When I had made my choice, they told me the captain was waiting dinner +for me; and accordingly, on entering the principal room of the inn, I +found a table spread for the captain, Mademoiselle Rina, the lieutenant, +and myself. There were several other tables for the rest of the banditti. +The room was lighted up with at least three hundred wax candles. + +"The dinner was a merry one. The robbers were really very good sort of +people, and the captain was in an excellent humour. When the feasting was +over, + +"'You have not forgotten your promise, Rina, I hope?' said he. + +"'Certainly not,' was the reply. 'In a quarter of an hour I am ready.' + +"So saying, she skipped out of the room. + +"'And you, Signor Musico,' said the captain, 'I hope you are going to +distinguish yourself.' + +"'I will do my best, captain.' + +"'If I am satisfied, you shall have back your hundred crowns.' + +"'And my diamond ring, captain?' + +"'Oh! as to that, no. Besides, you see Rina has got it, and you are too +gallant to wish to take it from her.' + +"At this moment Mademoiselle Rina made her appearance in the costume of a +shepherdess--a boddice of silver, short silk petticoats, and a large +Cashmere shawl twisted round her waist. She was really charming in this +dress. I seized my bass. I fancied myself in the orchestra at Marseilles. + +"'What would you like me to play, Mademoiselle?' + +"'Do you know the shawl-dance in the ballet of _Clary_?' + +"'Certainly; it is my favourite.' + +"I began to play, Rina to dance, and the banditti to applaud. She danced +admirably. The more I looked at her, the more convinced I became that I +had seen her before. + +"She was in the middle of a _pirouette_ when the door opened, and the +innkeeper entering, whispered something in the captain's ear. + +"'_Ove sono_?' said the latter, quietly. 'Where are they?' + +"'A San Dalmazio.' + +"'No nearer? Then there is no hurry.' + +"'What is the matter?' said Rina, executing a magnificent _entrechat_. + +"'Nothing. Only those rascally travellers have given the alarm at Florence, +and the hussars of the Grand-duchess Eliza are looking for us.' + +"'They are too late for the performance,' said Rina, laughing. 'I have +finished my dance.' + +"It was lucky, for the bow had fallen from my hands at the news I had just +heard. Rina made one bound to the door, and then turning, as if she had +been on the stage, curtsied to the audience, and kissed her hand to the +captain. The applause was deafening; I doubt if she had ever had such a +triumph. + +"'And now, to arms!' cried the captain. 'Prepare a horse for Rina and +another for the musician. _We_ will go on foot. The road to Romagna, +remember! Stragglers to rejoin at Chianciano.' + +"For a few minutes all was bustle and preparation. + +"'Here I am,' cried Rina, running in, attired in her Roman peasant's +dress. + +"'_Usseri, Usseri_!' said the innkeeper. + +"'Off with you!' cried the captain, and every one hurried towards the +stairs. + +"'The devil!' said the captain, turning to me, 'you are forgetting your +bass, I think.' + +"I took the bass. I would willingly have crept into it. Two horses stood +ready saddled at the house door. + +"'Well, Monsieur le Musicien,' said Rina, 'do you not help me to get on my +horse? You are not very gallant.' + +"I held out my arm to assist her, and as I did so she put a small piece of +paper into my hand. + +"A cold perspiration stood upon my forehead. What could this paper be? Was +it a billet-doux? Had I been so unfortunate as to make a conquest, which +would render me the rival of the captain? My first impulse was to throw +the note away; but on second thoughts I put it in my pocket. + +"'_Usseri, Usseri_!' cried the innkeeper again, and a noise like that of a +distant galloping was heard. I scrambled on my horse, which two of the +robbers took by the bridle; two others led that of Mademoiselle Rina. The +captain, with his carbine on his shoulder, ran beside his mistress, the +lieutenant accompanied me, and the remainder of the band, consisting of +fifteen or eighteen men, brought up the rear. Five or six shots were fired +some three hundred yards behind us, and the balls whistled in our ears. +'To the left!' cried the captain, and we threw ourselves into a sort of +ravine, at the bottom of which ran a rapid stream. Here we halted and +listened, and heard the hussars gallop furiously past on the high-road. + +"'If they keep on at that pace, they'll soon be at Grossetto,' said the +captain laughing." + +This is the unfortunate musician's first essay in horsemanship, and when, +after twelve hours' march across the country, with his bass strapped upon +his shoulders, he halts at the inn at Chianciano, he is more dead than +alive. He remembers, however, to read Mademoiselle Rina's note. From this, +and a few words which she takes an opportunity of saying to him, he finds +that she is an opera-dancer named Zephyrine, who had had an engagement a +year or two previously at the Marseilles theatre. She had since +transferred herself to the Teatro de la Valle at Rome, where the bandit +captain, Tonino, happening to witness her performance, became enamoured of +her, and laid a plan for carrying her off, which had proved successful. +Her lover, however, Ernest, the same officer of hussars who had been M. +Louet's travelling companion, is in search of her; and, to assist him in +his pursuit, she writes her name, and that of the place they are next +going to, upon the window of each inn they stop at. It was for this +purpose she had secured M. Louet's diamond ring. + +If contrast was Dumas' object in writing this volume, he has certainly +been highly successful in carrying out his intention. Most writers would +have contented themselves with composing the female portion of the +brigands' society, of some dark-browed Italian _contadina_, with flashing +eyes and jetty ringlets, a knife in her garter and a mousquetoon in her +brawny fist, and a dozen crucifixes and amulets round her neck. At most, +one might have expected to meet with some English lady in a green veil, +(all English ladies, who travel, wear green veils,) whose carriage had +been attacked, and herself carried off on the road from Florence to Rome. +But M. Dumas scorns such commonplace _dramatis personae_, and is satisfied +with nothing less than transporting a French ballet-dancer into the +Appenines, with all her paraphernalia of gauze drapery, tinsel decorations, +and opera airs and graces; not forgetting the orchestra, in the person of +the luckless bass player. Yet so ingeniously does he dovetail it all +together, so probable does he make his improbabilities appear, that we +become almost reconciled to the idea of finding Mademoiselle Zephyrine +Taglionizing away upon the filthy floor of a mountain _osteria_, and are +inclined to be astonished that the spectators should not be provided with +bouquets to throw at her upon the conclusion of her performance. + +Several days are passed in running from one place to the other, always +followed by the hussars, from whom the banditti have some narrow escapes. +M. Louet is taken great care of in consideration of his skill as a +musician, and he on his part takes all imaginable care of his bass, which +he looks upon as a sort of a safeguard. At length they arrive at the +castle of Anticoli, a villa which the captain rents from a Roman nobleman, +and where he considers himself in perfect safety. Here M. Louet is +installed in a magnificent apartment, where he finds linen and clothes, of +which he is much in need. His toilet completed, he is conducted to the +drawing-room by a livery servant, who bears a strong resemblance to one of +his friends the banditti. But we will let him tell his story in his own +words. + +"There were three persons in the room into which I was ushered; a young +lady, a very elegantly dressed man, and a French officer. I thought there +must be some mistake, and was walking backwards out of the apartment, when +the lady said-- + +"'My dear M. Louet, where are you going? Do you not mean to dine with us?' + +"'Pardon me,' said I, 'I did not recognise you, Mademoiselle.' + +"'If you prefer it, you shall be served in your apartment,' said the +elegant-looking man. + +"'What, captain,' cried I, 'is it you?' + +"'M. Louet would not be so unkind as to deprive us of his society,' said +the French officer with a polite bow. I turned to thank him for his +civility. It was the lieutenant. It put me in mind of the changes in a +pantomime. + +"'_Al suo commodo_,' said a powdered lackey, opening the folding doors of +a magnificent dining-room. The captain offered his hand to Mademoiselle +Zephyrine. The lieutenant and I followed. + +"'I hope you will be pleased with my cook, my dear M. Louet,' said the +captain, waving me to a chair, and seating himself. 'He is a French artist +of some talent. I have ordered two or three Provencal dishes on purpose +for you.' + +"'Pah! with garlic in them!' said the French officer, taking a pinch of +perfumed snuff out of a gold box. I began to think I was dreaming. + +"'Have you seen the park yet, M. Louet?' asked the captain. + +"'Yes, Excellency, from the window of my room.' + +"'They say it is full of game. Are you fond of shooting?' + +"'I delight in it. Are there any thrushes in the park?' + +"'Thrushes! thousands.' + +"'Bravo! You may reckon upon me, captain, for a supply of game. That is, +if you will order my fowling-piece to be returned to me. I cannot shoot +well with any other. + +"'Agreed,' said the captain. + +"'Tonino,' said Mademoiselle Zephyrine, 'you promised to take me to the +theatre to-morrow. I am curious to see the dancer who has replaced me.' + +"'There is no performance to-morrow,' replied the captain, 'and I am not +sure the carriage is in good condition. But we can take a ride to Tivoli +or Subiaco, if you like.' + +"'Will you come with us, my dear M. Louet?' said Mademoiselle Zephyrine. + +"'Thank you,' replied I; 'I am not accustomed to ride. I would rather have +a day's shooting.' + +"'I will keep M. Louet company,' said the lieutenant. + +"On retiring to my apartment that night, I found my fowling-piece in one +corner, my game-bag in another, and my hundred crowns on the chimney-piece. +Captain Tonino was a man of his word. + +"Whilst I was undressing, the French cook came to know what I would choose +for breakfast. 'Count Villaforte,' he said, 'had ordered that I should be +served in my room, as I was going out shooting.' The captain, it appeared, +had changed his name as well as his dress. + +"The next morning I had just dressed and breakfasted, when the lieutenant +came to fetch me, and I accompanied him down-stairs. In front of the villa +four saddle-horses were being led up and down--one for the captain, one +for Mademoiselle Zephyrine, and the two others for servants. The captain +put a brace of double-barrelled pistols into his holsters, and the +servants did the same. Master and men had a sort of fancy costume, which +allowed them to wear a couteau-de-chasse. The captain saw that I remarked +all these precautions. + +"'The police is shocking in this country, M. Louet,' said he, 'and there +are so many bad characters about, that it is well to be armed.' + +"Mademoiselle Zephyrine looked charming in her riding-habit and hat. + +"'Much pleasure, my dear M. Louet,' said the captain, as he got on his +horse. 'Beaumanoir, take care of M. Louet.' + +"'The best possible care, count.' replied the lieutenant. + +"'The captain and Zephyrine waved their hands, and cantered away, followed +by their servants. + +"'Pardon me, sir,' said I, approaching the lieutenant; 'I believe it was +you whom the count addressed as Beaumanoir.' + +"'It was so.' + +"'I thought the family of Beaumanoir had been extinct.' + +"'Very possible. I revive it, that's all.' + +"'You are perfectly at liberty to do so, sir,' replied I. 'I beg pardon +for the observation.' + +"'Granted, granted, my dear Louet. Would you like a dog, or not?' + +"'Sir, I prefer shooting without a dog. The last I had insulted me most +cruelly, and I should not like the same thing to occur again.' + +"'As you please. Gaetano, untie Romeo.' + +"We commenced our sport. In six shots I killed four thrushes, which +satisfied me that the one which I had followed from Marseilles had been an +enchanted one. Beaumanoir laughed at me. + +"'What!' cried he. 'Do you amuse yourself in firing at such game as that?' + +"'Sir,' replied I, 'at Marseilles the thrush is a very rare animal. I have +seen but one in my life, and it is to that one I owe the advantage of +being in your society.' + +"Here and there I saw gardeners and gamekeepers whose faces were familiar +to me, and who touched their hats as I passed. They looked to me very like +my old friends, the robbers, in a new dress; but I had, of late, seen so +many extraordinary things, that nothing astonished me any longer. + +"The park was very extensive, and enclosed by a high wall, which had light +iron gratings placed here and there, to afford a view of the surrounding +country. I happened to be standing near one of these gratings, when M. +Beaumanoir fired at a pheasant. + +"'_Signore_,' said a countryman, who was passing, '_questo castello e il +castello d'Anticoli?_' + +"'Villager,' I replied, walking towards the grating, 'I do not understand +Italian; speak French, and I shall be happy to answer.' + +"'What! Is it you, M. Louet?' exclaimed the peasant. + +"'Yes, it is,' said I; 'but how do you know my name?' + +"'Hush! I am Ernest, the hussar officer, your travelling companion.' + +"'M. Ernest! Ah! Mademoiselle Zephyrine will be delighted.' + +"'Zephyrine is really here, then?' + +"'Certainly she is. A prisoner like myself.' + +"'And Count Villaforte?' + +"'Is Captain Tonino.' + +"'And the castle?' + +"'A den of thieves.' + +"'That is all I wanted to know. Adieu, my dear Louet. Tell Zephyrine she +shall soon hear from me.' So saying, he plunged into the forest. + +"'Here, Romeo, here!' cried Mr. Beaumanoir to his dog, who was fetching +the bird he had shot. I hastened to him. + +"'A beautiful pheasant!' cried I. 'A fine cock!' + +"'Yes, yes. Who were you talking to, M. Louet?' + +"'To a peasant, who asked me some question, to which I replied, that +unfortunately I did not understand Italian.' + +"'Hum!' said Beaumanoir, with a suspicious side-glance at me. Then, having +loaded his gun, 'We will change places, if you please,' said he. 'There +may be some more peasants passing, and, as I understand Italian, I shall +be able to answer their questions.' + +"'As you like, M. Beaumanoir,' said I. + +"The change was effected; but no more peasants appeared. + +"When we returned to the house, the captain and Zephyrine had not yet come +back from their ride, and I amused myself in my room with my bass, which I +found to be an excellent instrument. I resolved, more than ever, not to +part with it, but to take it back to France with me, if ever I returned to +that country. + +"At the hour of dinner, I repaired to the drawing-room, where I found +Count Villaforte and Mademoiselle Zephyrine. I had scarcely closed the +door, when it was reopened, and the lieutenant put in his head. + +"'Captain!' said he, in a hurried voice. + +"'Who calls me captain? Here there is no captain, my dear Beaumanoir, but +a Count Villaforte.' + +"'Captain, it is a serious matter. One moment, I beg.' + +"The captain left the room. When the door was shut, and I was sure he +could not hear me, I told Zephyrine of my interview with her lover. I had +just finished when the captain reappeared. + +"'Well,' said Zephyrine, running to meet him. 'What makes you look so +blank? Are there bad news?' + +"'Not very good ones.' + +"'Do they come from a sure source?' asked she with an anxiety which this +time was not assumed. + +"'From the surest possible. From one of our friends who is employed in the +police.' + +"'Gracious Heaven! What is going to happen?' + +"'We do not know yet, but it appears we have been traced from Chianciano +to the Osteria Barberini. They only lost the scent behind Mount Gennaro. +My dear Rina, I fear we must give up our visit to the theatre to-morrow.' + +"'But not our dinner to-day, captain, I hope,' said I. + +"'Here is your answer,' said the captain, as the door opened, and a +servant announced that the soup was on the table. + +"The captain and lieutenant dined each with a brace of pistols beside his +plate, and in the anteroom I saw two men armed with carbines. The repast +was a silent one; I did not dine comfortably myself, for I had a sort of +feeling that the catastrophe was approaching, and that made me uneasy. + +"'You will excuse me for leaving you,' said the captain, when dinner was +over; 'but I must go and take measures for our safety. I would advise you +not to undress, M. Louet, for we may have to make a sudden move, and it is +well to be ready.' + +"The lieutenant conducted me to my apartment, and wished me good-night +with great politeness. As he left the room, however, I heard that he +double-locked the door. I had nothing better to do than to throw myself on +my bed, which I did; but for some hours I found it impossible to sleep, on +account of the anxieties and unpleasant thoughts that tormented me. At +last I fell into a troubled slumber. + +"I do not know how long it had lasted, when I was awakened by being +roughly shaken. + +"'Subito! subito!' cried a voice. + +"'What is the matter?' said I, sitting up on the bed. + +"'_Non capisco, seguir me_!' cried the bandit. + +"'And where am I to _seguir_ you?' said I, understanding that he told me +to follow him. + +"'Avanti! Avanti!' + +"'May I take my bass?' I asked. + +"The man made sign in the affirmative, so I put my beloved instrument on +my back, and told him I was ready to follow him. He led me through several +corridors and down a staircase; then, opening a door, we found ourselves +in the park. Day was beginning to dawn. After many turnings and windings, +we entered a copse or thicket, in the depths of which was the opening of a +sort of grotto, where one of the robbers was standing sentry. They pushed +me into this grotto. It was very dark, and I was groping about with +extended arms, when somebody grasped my hand. I was on the point of crying +out; but the hand that held mine was too soft to be that of a brigand. + +"'M. Louet!' said a whispering voice, which I at once recognized. + +"'What is the meaning of all this, Mademoiselle?' asked I, in the same +tone. + +"'The meaning is, that they are surrounded by a regiment, and Ernest is at +the head of it.' + +"'But why are we put into this grotto?' + +"'Because it is the most retired place in the whole park, and consequently +the one least likely to be discovered. Besides there is a door in it, +which communicates probably with some subterraneous passage leading into +the open country.' + +"Just then we heard a musket shot. + +"'Bravo!' cried Zephyrine; 'it is beginning.' + +"There was a running fire, then a whole volley. + +"'Mademoiselle,' said I, 'it appears to me to be increasing very much.' + +"'So much the better,' answered she. + +"She was as brave as a lioness, that young girl. For my part I acknowledge +I felt very uncomfortable. But it appears I was doomed to witness +engagements both by land and sea. + +"'The firing is coming nearer,' said Zephyrine. + +"'I am afraid so, Mademoiselle,' answered I. + +"'On the contrary, you ought to be delighted. It is a sign that the +robbers are flying.' + +"'I had rather they fled in another direction.' + +"There was a loud clamour, and cries as if they were cutting one another's +throats, which, in fact, they were. The shouts and cries were mingled with +the noise of musketry, the sound of the trumpets, and roll of the drum. +There was a strong smell of powder. The fight was evidently going on +within a hundred yards of the grotto. + +"Suddenly there was a deep sigh, then the noise of a fall, and one of the +sentries at the mouth of the cave came rolling to our feet. A random shot +had struck him, and as he just fell in, a ray of light which entered the +grotto, we were able to see him writhing in the agonies of death. +Mademoiselle Zephyrine seized my hands, and I felt that she trembled +violently. + +"'Oh, M. Louet.' said she, 'it is very horrible to see a man die!' + +"At that moment we heard a voice exclaiming--'Stop, cowardly villain! Wait +for me!' + +"'Ernest!' exclaimed Zephyrine. 'It is the voice of Ernest!' + +"As she spoke the captain rushed in, covered with blood. + +"'Zephyrine!' cried he, 'Zephyrine, where are you?' + +"The sudden change from the light of day to the darkness of the cave, +prevented him from seeing us. Zephyrine made me a sign to keep silence. +After remaining for a moment as if dazzled, his eyes got accustomed to the +darkness. He bounded towards us with the spring of a tiger. + +"'Zephyrine, why don't you answer when I call? Come!' + +"He seized her arm, and began dragging her towards the door at the back of +the grotto. + +"'Where are you taking me?' cried the poor girl. + +"'Come with me--come along!' + +"'Never!' cried she, struggling. + +"'What! You won't go with me?' + +"'No; why should I? I detest you. You carried me off by force. I won't +follow you. Ernest, Ernest, here!' + +"'Ernest!' muttered the captain. 'Ha! 'Tis you, then, who betrayed us?' + +"'M. Louet!' cried Zephyrine, 'if you are a man, help me!' + +"I saw the blade of a poniard glitter. I had no weapon, but I seized my +bass by the handle, and, raising it in the air, let it fall with such +violence on the captain's skull, that the back of the instrument was +smashed in and the bandit's head disappeared in the interior of the bass. +Either the violence of the blow, or the novelty of finding his head in a +bass, so astonished the captain that he let go his hold of Zephyrine, at +the same time uttering a roar like that of a mad bull. + +"'Zephyrine! Zephyrine!' cried a voice outside. + +"'Ernest!' answered the young girl, darting out of the grotto. + +"I followed her, terrified at my own exploit. She was already clasped in +the arms of her lover. + +"'In there,' cried the young officer to a party of soldiers who just then +came up. 'He is in there. Bring him out, dead or alive.' + +"They rushed in, but the broken bass was all they found. The captain had +escaped by the other door. + +"On our way to the house we saw ten or twelve dead bodies. One was lying +on the steps leading to the door. + +"'Take away this carrion,' said Ernest. + +"Two soldiers turned the body over. It was the last of the Beaumanoirs. + +"We remained but a few minutes at the house, and then Zephyrine and myself +got into a carriage and set off, escorted by M. Ernest and a dozen men. I +did not forget to carry off my hundred crowns, my fowling-piece, and +game-bag. As to my poor bass, the captain's head had completely spoiled it. + +"After an hour's drive, we came in sight of a large city with an enormous +dome the middle of it. It was Rome. + +"'And did you see the Pope, M. Louet?' + +"'At that time he was at Fontainbleau, but I saw him afterwards, and his +successor too; for M. Ernest got me an appointment as bass-player at the +Teatro de la Valle, and I remained there till the year 1830. When I at +last returned to Marseilles, they did not know me again, and for some time +refused to give me back my place in the orchestra, under pretence that I +was not myself.' + +"'And Mademoiselle Zephyrine?' + +"'I heard that she married M. Ernest, whose other name I never knew, and +that he became a general, and she a very great lady." + +"'And Captain Tonino? Did you hear nothing more of him?' + +"'Three years afterwards he came to the theatre in disguise; was +recognised, arrested, and hung.' + +"'And thus it was, sir,' concluded M. Louet, 'that a thrush led me into +Italy, and caused me to pass twenty years at Rome.'" + +And so ends the thrush-hunt. One word at parting, to qualify any too +sweeping commendation we may have bestowed on M. Dumas in the early part +of this paper. While we fully exonerate his writings from the charge of +grossness, and recognise the absence of those immoral and pernicious +tendencies which disfigure the works of many gifted French writers of the +day, we would yet gladly see him abstain from the somewhat too +Decameronian incidents and narratives with which he occasionally varies +his pages. That he is quite independent of such meretricious aids, is +rendered evident by his entire avoidance of them in some of his books, +which are not on that account a whit the less _piquant_. With this single +reservation, we should hail with pleasure the appearance on our side the +Channel of a few such sprightly and amusing writers as Alexander Dumas. + + * * * * * + + + + +HIGH LIFE IN THE LAST CENTURY.[5] + + [5] _George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, with Memoirs and Notes_. + By T.H. Jesse. 4 vols. + + +The volumes of which we are about to give fragments and anecdotes, contain +a portion of the letters addressed to a man of witty memory, whose +existence was passed almost exclusively among men and women of rank; his +life, in the most expressive sense of the word, West End; and even in that +West End, his chief haunt St James's Street. Parliament and the Clubs +divided his day, and often his night. The brilliant roues, the steady +gamesters, the borough venders, and the lordly ex-members of ex-cabinets, +were the only population of whose living and breathing he suffered himself +to have any cognizance. In reverse of Gray's learned mouse, eating its way +through the folios of an ancient library--and to whom + + "A river or a sea was but a dish of tea, + And a kingdom bread and butter," + +to George Selwyn, the world and all that it inhabits, were concentrated in +Charles Fox, William Pitt, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and the circle of +men of pleasantry, loose lives, and vivacious temperaments, who, with +whatever diminishing lustre, revolved round them. + +Of the City of London, Selwyn probably had heard; for though fixed to one +spot, he was a man fond of collecting curious knowledge; but nothing short +of proof positive can ever convince us that he had passed Temple Bar. He, +of course, knew that there were such things on the globe as merchants and +traders, because their concerns were occasionally talked of in "the House," +where, however, he heard as little as possible about them; for in the +debates of the time he took no part but that of a listener, and even then +he abridged the difficulty, by generally sleeping through the sitting. He +was supposed to be the only rival of Lord North in the happy faculty of +falling into a sound slumber at the moment when any of those dreary +persons, who chiefly speak on such subjects, was on his legs. St James's, +and the talk of St James's, were his business, his pleasures, the exciters +of his wit, and the rewarders of his toil. He had applied the art of +French cookery to the rude material of the world, and refined and reduced +all things into a _sauce piquante_--all its realities were concentrated in +essences; and, disdaining the grosser tastes of mankind, he lived upon the +_aroma_ of high life--an epicure even among epicures; yet not an indolent +enjoyer of the luxuries of his condition, but a keen, restless, and eager +_student_ of pleasurable sensations--an Apicius, polished by the manners, +and furnished with the arts of the most self-enjoying condition of mankind, +that of an English gentleman of fortune in the 18th century. + +We certainly are not the champions of this style of life. We think that +man has other matters to consider than _pates_ and _consommes_, the +flavour of his Burgundy and pines, or even the _bons-mots_ of his friends. +We are afraid that we must, after all, regard the whole Selwyn class as +little better than the brutes in their stables, or on their hearth-rugs; +with the advantage to the brutes of following their natural appetites, +having no twinges of either conscience or the gout, and not being from +time to time stripped by their friends, or plundered by the Jews. The +closing hours of the horse or the dog are also, perhaps, more complacent +in general, and their deaths are less a matter of rejoicing to those who +are to succeed to their mangers and cushions. Of higher and more startling +contemplations, this is not the place to speak. If such men shall yet have +the power of looking down from some remoter planet on their idle, empty, +and self-indulgent course in our own, perhaps they would rejoice to have +exchanged with the lot of him whose bread was earned by the sweat of his +brow, yet who had fulfilled the duties of his station; and whose hand had +been withheld by necessity from that banquet, where all the nobler purposes +of life were forgotten, and where the senses absorbed the higher nature. +Still, we admit that these are topics on which no man ought to judge the +individual with severity. We have spoken only of the class. The individual +may have had virtues of which the world can know nothing; he may have been +liberal, affectionate, and zealous, when his feelings were once awakened; +his purse may have dried many a tear, and soothed many a pulse of secret +suffering. It is, at all events, more kindly to speak of poor human nature +with fellow feeling for those exposed to the strong temptations of fortune, +than to establish an arrogant comparison between the notorious errors of +others, and the secret failures of our own. + +But we have something to settle with Mr Jesse. He is alive, and therefore +may be instructed; he is making books with great rapidity, and therefore +may be advantageously warned of the perils of book-making. The _title_ of +his volumes has altogether deceived us. We shall not charge him with +intending this; but it has unquestionably had the effect. "_George Selwyn_ +and his contemporaries." We opened the volumes, expecting to find our +witty clubbist in every page; George in his full expansion, "in his armour +as he lived;" George, every inch a wit, glittering before us in his full +court suit, in his letters, his anecdotes, his whims, his odd views of +mankind, his caustic sneerings at the glittering world round him; an +epistolary HB., turning every thing into the pleasant food of his pen and +pungency. But we cannot discover any letters from him, excepting a few +very trifling ones of his youth. We have letters from all sorts of persons, +great lords and little, statesmen and travellers, placemen and +place-hunters; and amusing enough many of them are. Walpole furnishes some +sketches, and nothing can be better. In fact the volumes exhibit, not +George Selwyn, the only one whose letters we should have cared to see, but +those who wrote to him. And the disappointment is not the less, that in +those letters constant allusions are made to his "sparkling, delightful, +sportive, characteristic, &c. &c., epistles." Great ladies constantly urge +him to write to _them_. Maids, wives, and widows, pour out a stream of +perpetual laudation. Men of rank, men of letters, men at home, and men +abroad, unite in one common supplication for "London news" _rechauffeed_, +spiced, and served up, by the perfect _cuisinerie_ of George's art of +story-telling; like the horse-leech's two daughters, the cry is, "Give, +give." And this is what we wanted to see. Selwyn, the whole Selwyn, and +nothing but Selwyn. + +It is true that there is a preface which talks in this wise:-- + +It seems to have been one of the peculiarities of George Selwyn, to +preserve not only every letter addressed to him by his correspondents +during the course of his long life, but also the most trifling notes and +memoranda. To this peculiarity, the reader is indebted for whatever +amusement he may derive from the perusal of these volumes. The greater +portion of their contents consists of letters addressed to Selwyn, by +persons who, in their day, moved in the first circles of wit, genius, and +fashion." + +We have thus let Mr Jesse speak for himself. If the public are satisfied, +so let it be. But people seldom read prefaces. The title is the thing, and +that title is, "_George Selwyn_ and his contemporaries." If it had been +"Letters of the contemporaries of George Selwyn," we should have +understood the matter. + +Still we are not at all disposed to quarrel with the volumes. They contain +a great deal of pleasant matter; and the letters are evidently, in general, +the work of a higher order of persons than the world has often an +opportunity of seeing in their deshabille. The Persian proverb, which +accounted for the fragrance of a pebble by its having lain beside the rose, +has been in some degree realized in these pages. They are evidently of the +Selwyn school; and if he is not here witty himself, he is, like the "fat +knight," the cause of wit in others. We are enjoying a part of the feast +which his science had cooked, and then distributed to his friends to +figure as the _chefs-d'oeuvre_ of their own tables. At all events, though +often on trifling subjects, and often not worth preserving, they vindicate +on the whole the claim of English letter-writing to European superiority. +Taking Walpole as the head, and nothing can be happier than his mixture of +keen remark, intelligent knowledge of his time, high-bred ease of language, +and exquisite point and polish of anecdote; his followers, even in these +few volumes, show that there were many men, even in the midst of all the +practical business and nervous agitation of public life, not unworthy of +their master. We have no doubt that there have been hundreds of persons, +and thousands of letters, which might equally contribute to this most +interesting, and sometimes most brilliant, portion of our literature. The +French lay claim to superiority in this as in every thing else; but we +must acknowledge that it is with some toil we have ever read the boasted +letters of De Sevigne--often pointed, and always elegant, they are too +often frivolous, and almost always local. We are sick of the adorable +Grignan, and her "belle chevelure." The letters of Du Deffand, Espinasse, +Roland, and even of De Stael, though always exhibiting ability, are too +hard or too hot, too fierce or too fond, for our tastes; they are also so +evidently intended for any human being except the one to whom they were +addressed, or rather for all human beings--they were so palpably "private +effusions" for the public ear--sentiments stereotyped, and sympathies for +the circulating library--that they possessed as little the interest as the +character of correspondence. + +Voltaire's letters are always spirited. That extraordinary man could do +nothing on which his talent was not marked; but his letters are +epigrammes--all is sacrificed to point, and all is written for the salons +of Paris. What Talleyrand's _might_ be, we can imagine from the singular +subtlety and universal knowledge of that most dexterous player of the most +difficult game which was ever on the diplomatic cards. But as his +definition of the excellence of a letter was--"to say any thing, but mean +nothing," we must give up the hope of his contribution. Grimm's volumes +are, after all, the only collection which belongs to the style of letters +to which we allude. They are amusing and anecdotical, and, in our +conception, by much the most intelligent French correspondence that has +fallen into our hands. But they are too evidently the work of a man +writing as a task, gathering the Parisian news as a part of his profession, +and in fact sending a daily newspaper to his German patron. + +Of the German epistolary literature we have seen nothing which approaches +to the excellence of the English school. The conception is generally vague, +vapourish, and metaphysical. And this predominates absurdly through all +its classes. The poet prides himself on being as much a dreamer in his +prose as in his poetry; the scholar is proud of being perplexed and +pedantic; the statesman is naturally immersed in that problematic style, +which belongs to the secrecy of despotic governments, and to the stiffness +of circles where all is etiquette. But Walpole and his tribe have fashion +wholly to themselves, and possess force without heaviness, and elegance +without effeminacy. + +We are strongly tempted to ask, whether there may not be letters of the +gay, the refined, and the sparkling George Canning. He was constantly +writing; knew every thing and every body; was engaged in all the high +transactions of his time; saw human nature in all possible shades; and was +a man whose talent, though capable of very noble efforts "on compulsion," +yet naturally loved a more level rank of times and things. It is perfectly +true to human experience, that there are minds, which, like caged +nightingales and canary-birds, though their wings were formed with the +faculty of cleaving the clouds, yet pass a perfectly contented existence +within their wires, and sing as cheerfully in return for their water and +seeds, as if they had the range of the horizon. Canning's whole song for +thirty years was in one cage or another, and he sang with equal +cheerfulness in them all. The moral of all this is, that we wish Mr Jesse, +or any one else, to apply himself, without delay, to the depositaries of +George Canning's familiar correspondence, and give his pleasant, piquant, +and graceful letters (for we are sure that they are all these) to the +world. + +Lord Dudley's letters have disappointed every body: but it is to be +observed, that we have only a small portion of them; that they were +written to a college tutor, a not very exciting species of correspondent +at any time, and who in this instance having nothing to give back, and +plodding his way through the well-meant monotony of college news, allowed +poor Lord Dudley not much more chance of brilliancy, than a smart drummer +might have of producing a reveille on an unbraced drum. We must live in +hope. + +Lord Holland, we think, might, as the sailors say, "loom out large." The +life of that ancient Whig having been chiefly employed in telling other +men's stories over his own table--and much better employed, too, than in +talking his original follies in public--a tolerable selection from his +journals might furnish some variety; for when Whigs are cased up no longer +in the stiff braces and battered armour of their clique, they may +occasionally be amusing men. But Walpole still reigns: his whims, his +flirtings, his frivolities will disappear with his old china and trifling +antiquities; but his best letters will always be the best of their kind +among men. + +George Selwyn was a man of fashionable life for the greater part of the +last century, or perhaps we may more justly say, he was a man of +fashionable life for the seventy-two years of his existence; for, from his +cradle, he lived among that higher order of mankind who were entitled to +do nothing, to enjoy themselves, and alternately laugh at, and look down +upon the rest of the world. His family were opulent, and naturally +associated with rank; for his father had been aide-de-camp to the Duke of +Marlborough--a great distinction even in that brilliant age; and his +mother was the daughter of a general officer, and woman of the bedchamber +to Queen Caroline. She is recorded as a woman of talents, and peculiarly +of wit; qualities which seem frequently connected with long life, perhaps +as bearing some relation to that good-humour which undoubtedly tends to +lengthen the days of both man and woman. If the theory be true, that the +intellect of the offspring depends upon the mother, the remarkable wit of +George Selwyn may be adduced in evidence of the position. + +George, born in 1719, was sent, like the sons of all the court gentlemen +of his age and of our own, to Eton. After having there acquired classics, +aristocracy, and cricket, all consummated at Oxford, he proceeded to go +through the last performance of fashionable education, and give himself +the final polish for St James's; he proceeded to make the tour of Europe. +What induced him to recommence his boyhood, by returning to Oxford at the +ripe age of twenty-five, is among the secrets of his career, as also is +the occasion of his being expelled from the university; if that occasion +is not to be found in some of the burlesques of religion which he had +learned amongst the fashionable infidels of the Continent, similar to +those enacted by Wilkes in his infamous monkery. But every thing in his +career equally exhibits the times. At an age when he was fit for nothing +else, he was considered fit to receive the salary of a sinecure; and, at +twenty-one, he was appointed to a brace of offices at the mint. His share +of the duty consisted of his enjoying the weekly dinners of the +establishment, and signing the receipts for his quarter's pay. + +Within a few years more, he came into parliament; and in his thirty-second +year, by the death of his father and elder brother, he succeeded to the +family estates, consisting of three handsome possessions, one of which had +the additional value of returning a member of parliament. Nor was this all; +for his influence in Gloucestershire enabled him to secure, during many +years, his own seat for Gloucester, thus rendering his borough disposable; +and thus, master of a hereditary fortune, an easy sinecurist, the +possessor of two votes, and the influencer of the third--a man of family, +a man of connexion, and a man of the court--George Selwyn began a path +strewed with down and rose leaves. + +In addition to these advantages, George Selwyn evidently possessed a very +remarkable subtlety and pleasantry of understanding; that combination +which alone produced true wit, or which, perhaps, would be the best +definition of wit itself; for subtlety alone may excite uneasy sensations +in the hearer, and pleasantry alone may often be vulgar. But the acuteness +which detects the absurd of things, and the pleasantry which throws a +good-humoured coloring over the acuteness, form all that delights us in +wit. + +If we are to judge by the opinion of his contemporaries, and this is the +true criterion after all, Selwyn's wit must have been of the very first +order in a witty age. Walpole is full of him. Walpole himself, a wit, and +infinitely jealous of every rival in every thing on which he fastened his +fame, from a picture gallery down to a snuff-box, or from a history down +to an epigram, bows down to him with almost Persian idolatry. His letters +are alive with George Selwyn. The _bons-mots_ which Selwyn carelessly +dropped in his morning wall through St James's Street, are carefully +picked up by Walpole, and planted in his correspondence, like exotics in a +greenhouse. The careless brilliancies of conversation, which the one threw +loose about the club-rooms of the Court End, are collected by the other +and reset by this dexterous jeweller, for the sparklings and ornaments of +his stock in trade with posterity. + +Yet it may reconcile those less gifted by nature and fortune to their +mediocrity; to know that those singular advantages by no means constitute +happiness, usefulness, moral dignity, or even public respect. Selwyn, as +the French Abbe said, "had nothing to do, and he did it." His possession +of fortune enabled him to be a lounger through life, and he lounged +accordingly. The conversations of the clubs supplied him with the daily +toys of his mind, and he never sought more substantial employment. Though +nearly fifty years in parliament, he was known only as a silent voter; and, +after a life of seventy-two years, he died, leaving three and twenty +thousand pounds of his savings to a girl who was not his daughter; and the +chief part of his estates to the Duke of Queensberry, an old man already +plethoric with wealth, of which he had never known the use, and already +dying. + +His passion for attending executions was notorious and unaccountable, +except on the ground of that love of excitement which leads others to +drinking or the gaming-table. Those sights, from which human nature +shrinks, appear to have been sought for by Selwyn with an eagerness +resembling enjoyment. This strange propensity was frequently laughed at by +his friends. Alluding to the practice of criminals dropping a handkerchief +as a signal for the executioner, says Walpole, "George never thinks, but +_a la tete tranchee_. He came to town the other day to have a tooth drawn, +and told the man that he would drop his handkerchief for the signal." + +Another characteristic anecdote is told on this subject. When the first +Lord Holland, a man of habitual pleasantry, was confined to his bed, he +heard that Selwyn, who had been an old friend, had called to enquire for +his health. "The next time Mr Selwyn calls," said he, "show him up; if I +am alive, I shall be delighted to see him; and, if I am dead, he will be +delighted to see me." + +Walpole says, after telling a story of one Arthur Moore, "I told this the +other day to George Selwyn, whose passion is to see corpses and executions. +He replied, 'that Arthur Moore had his coffin chained to that of his +mistress.' + +"Said I, 'How do you know?' + +"'Why, I--I saw them the other day in a vault in St Giles's.' + +"George was walking this week in Westminster Abbey, with Lord Abergavenny, +and met the man who shows the tombs. 'Oh, your servant, Mr Selwyn; I +expected to have seen you here the other day, when the old Duke of +Richmond's body was taken up.'" Walpole then mentions Selwyn's going to +see Cornberry, with Lord Abergavenny and a pretty Mrs Frere, who were in +some degree attached to each other. + +"Do you know what you missed in the other room?" said Selwyn to the lady. +"Lord Holland's picture." + +"Well, what is Lord Holland to me?" + +"Why, do you know," said he, "my Lord Holland's body lies in the same +vault, in Kensington church, with my Lord Abergavenny's mother." + +Walpole, speaking of the share which he had in capturing a house-breaker, +says, "I dispatched a courier to White's in search of George Selwyn. It +happened that the drawer who received my message had very lately been +robbed himself, and had the wound fresh in his memory. He stalked up into +the club-room, and with a hollow trembling voice, said, 'Mr Selwyn, Mr +Walpole's compliments to you, and he has got a house-breaker for you.'" + +But some of his practical pleasantries were very amusing. Lady Townshend, +a woman of wit, but, in some points of character, a good deal scandalized, +was supposed to have taken refuge from her recollections in Popery. "On +Sunday last," says Walpole, "as George was strolling home to dinner, he +saw my Lady Townshend's coach stop at Caraccioli's chapel. He watched; saw +her go in; her footman laughed; he followed. She went up to the altar; a +woman brought her a cushion; she knelt, crossed her self, and prayed. He +stole up, and knelt by her. Conceive her face, if you can, when she turned +and found him close to her. In his demure voice, he said, 'Pray, ma'am, +how long has your ladyship left the pale of our church?' She looked furies, +and made no answer. Next day he went to see her, and she turned it off +upon curiosity. But is any thing more natural? No; she certainly means to +go armed with every viaticum: the Church of England in on hand, Methodism +in the other, and the Host in her mouth." + +Every one knows that _bons-mots_ are apt to lose a great deal by +transmission. It has been said that the time is one-half of the merit, and +the manner the other; thus leaving nothing for the wit. But the fact is, +that the wit so often depends upon both, as to leave the best _bon-mot_ +comparatively flat in the recital. With this palliative we may proceed. +Walpole, remarking to Selwyn one day, at a time of considerable popular +discontent, that the measures of government were as feeble and confused as +in the reign of the first Georges, and saying, "There is nothing new under +the sun." "No," replied Selwyn, "nor under the grandson." + +Selwyn one day observing Wilkes, who was constantly verging on libel, +listening attentively to the king's speech, said to him, "May Heaven +preserve the ears you lend!" an allusion to the lines of the _Dunciad_-- + + "Yet, oh, my sons, a father's words attend; + So may the fates preserve the ears you lend." + +The next is better. A man named Charles Fox having been executed, the +celebrated Charles asked Selwyn whether he had been present at the +execution as usual. "No," was the keen reply, "I make a point of never +attending rehearsals." + +Fox and General Fitzpatrick at one time lodged in the house of Mackay, an +oilman in Piccadilly, a singular residence for two men of the first +fashion. Somebody, probably in allusion to their debts, observed that such +lodgers would be the ruin of Mackay. "No," said Selwyn, "it will make his +fortune. He may boast of having the first pickles in London." + +_Nonchalant_ manners were the tone of the time; and to cut one's country +acquaintance (a habit learned among the French _noblesse_) was high +breeding. An old haunter of the pump-room in Bath, who had frequently +conversed with Selwyn in his visits there, meeting him one day in St +James's Street, attempted to approach him with his usual familiarity. +Selwyn passed him as if he had never seen him before. His old acquaintance +followed him, and said, "Sir, you knew me very well in Bath." "Well, sir," +replied Selwyn, "in Bath I may possibly know you again," and walked on. + +When _High Life Below Stairs_ was announced, Selwyn expressed a wish to be +present at its first night. "I shall go," said he, "because I am tired of +low life above stairs." + +One of the waiters at Arthur's had committed a felony, and was sent to +jail. "I am shocked at the committal," said Selwyn; "what a horrid idea +the fellow will give of us to the people in Newgate." + +Bruce's Abyssinian stories were for a long time the laugh of London. +Somebody at a dinner once asked him, whether he had seen any relics of +musical instruments among the Abyssinians, or any thing in the style of +the ancient sculptures of the Thebaid. "I think I saw one lyre there," was +the answer. "Ay," says Selwyn to his neighbour, "and that one left the +country along with him." + +Selwyn did not always spare his friends. When Fox's pecuniary affairs were +in a state of ruin, and a subscription was proposed; one of the +subscribers said that their chief difficulty was to know "how Fox would +take it." Selwyn, who knew that necessity has nothing to do with +delicacies of this order, replied, "Take it, why, quarterly to be sure!" + +Mr. Jesse's anecdotes are generally well told, but their version is +sometimes different from ours. Selwyn was one day walking up St James's +Street with Lord Pembroke, when a couple of sweeps brushed against them. +"Impudent rascals!" exclaimed Lord Pembroke. "The sovereignty of the +people," said Selwyn. "But such dirty dogs," said Pembroke. "Full dress +for the court of St Giles's," said Selwyn, with a bow to their sable +majesties. + +But Selwyn, with all his affability and pleasantry, had his dislikes, and +among them was the celebrated Sheridan. The extraordinary talent and early +fame of that most memorable and unfortunate man, had fixed all eyes upon +him from the moment of his entering into public life; and Selwyn, who had +long sat supreme in wit, probably felt some fears for his throne. At all +events, he determined to keep one place clear from collision with this +dangerous wit; and, on every attempt to put up Sheridan's name for +admission into Brookes's, two black balls were found in the balloting-box, +one of which was traced to Selwyn, while the other was supposed to be that +of Lord Besborough. One ball being sufficient to exclude, the opposition +was fatal; but Fox and his friends were equally determined, on their side, +to introduce Sheridan; and for this purpose a curious, though not very +creditable, artifice was adopted. On the evening of the next ballot, and +while George and Lord Besborough were waiting, with their usual +determination, to blackball the candidate, a chairman in great haste +brought in a note, apparently from Lady Duncannon, to her father-in-law +Lord Besborough, to tell him that his house in Cavendish Square was on +fire, and entreating him to return without a moment's delay. His lordship +instantly quitted the room, and hurried homewards. Immediately after, a +message was sent to George Selwyn that Miss Fagniani, the child whom he +had adopted, and whom he supposed to be his own, was suddenlly seized with +a fit, and that his presence was instantly required. He also obeyed the +summons. Both had no sooner left the room than the ballot was proceeded +with, the two ominous balls were not to be found, and Sheridan was +unanimously chosen. In the midst of the triumph, Selwyn and Lord +Besborough returned, indignant at the trick, but of course unable to find +out its perpetrators. How Sheridan and his friends looked may be imagined. +The whole scene was perfectly dramatic. + +Burke's speeches, which were destined to become the honour of his age, and +the delight of posterity, were sometimes negligently received by the house. +His splendid prolixity, which was fitter for an assembly of philosophers +than an English Parliament, sometimes wearied mere men of business, as +much as his fine metaphysics sometimes perplexed them; and the man who +might have sat between Plato and Aristotle, and been listened to with +congenial delight by both, was often left without an audience. One night, +when Selwyn was hurrying into the lobby with a crowd of members, a +nobleman coming up asked him, "Is the house up?" "No," was the reply, "but +Burke is." + +A model of fashionable life, Selwyn unhappily indulged in that vice which +was presumed to be essential to the man of fashion. The early gaming +propensities of Charles Fox are well known; he was ruined, estate, +personal fortune, sinecures and reversions, and all, before he was five +years in public life--ruined in every possible shape of ruin. There were +times when he could not command a guinea in the world. Yet there were +times when he won immensely. At one sitting he carried off L8000, but in a +few more he lost L11,000. He was a capital whist player; and in the cool +calculation of the clubs on such subjects, it was supposed that he might +have made L4000 a-year, if he had adhered to this profitable direction of +his genius. But, like many other great men, he mistook his forte, and +disdained all but the desperation of hazard. There he lost perpetually and +prodigiously, until he was stripped of every thing, and pauperised for +life. + +It gives a strong conception of the universality of this vice, to find so +timid and girlish a nature as the late William Wilberforce's initiated +into the same career. + +"When I left the University," says Wilberforce, in his later reminiscences, +"so little did I know of general society, that I came up to London stored +with arguments to prove the authenticity of 'Rowley's Poems,' (the +academic and pedantic topic of the day,) and now I was at once immersed in +politics and fashion. The very first time I went to Boodle's, I won +twenty-five guineas of the Duke of Norfolk. I belonged at this time to +five clubs, Miles' and Evans', Brookes', Boodle's, White's, and +Goosetree's. The first time I was at Brookes', scarcely knowing any one, I +joined, from mere shyness, in play at the faro-table, where George Selwyn +kept bank. A friend who knew my inexperience, and regarded me as a victim +dressed out for sacrifice, called to me--'What, Wilberforce, is that you?' +Selwyn quite resented the interference, and turning to him, said in his +most expressive tone--'Oh, sir, don't interrupt Mr Wilberforce, he could +not be better employed.' Nothing could be more harmonious than the style +of those clubs--Fox, Sheridan, Fitzpatrick, and all your leading men +frequented them, and associated upon the easiest terms. You either chatted, +played at cards, or gambled, as you pleased." + +We have no idea of entering into any of the scandals of the time. The +lives of all the men of fashion of that day were habitually profligate. +The "Grand Tour" was of but little service to their morals, and Pope's +sarcastic lines were but too true. + + "He travell'd Europe round, + And gather'd every vice on foreign ground; + Till home return'd, and perfectly well-bred, + With nothing but a solo in his head; + Stolen from a duel, follow'd by a nun, + And, if a borough choose him--not undone." + +But this vice did not descend among the body of the people. It was limited +to the idlers of high life, and even among them it was extinguished by the +cessation of our foreign intercourse at the French revolution; or was at +least so far withdrawn from the public eye, as to avoid offending the +common decencies of a moral people. + +Selwyn was probably more cautious in his habits than his contemporaries, +for he survived almost every man who had begun life with him; and he lived +to a much greater age than the chief of the showy characters who rose into +celebrity during his career. He died at the age of seventy-two, January 25, +1791. He had long relinquished gaming, assigning the very sufficient +reason, "It was too great a consumer of four things--time, health, fortune, +and _thinking_." But what man of his day escaped the gout, and the natural +termination of that torturing disease in dropsy? After seven years' +suffering from both, with occasional intervals of relief, he sank at last. +Walpole, almost the only survivor among his early friends, thus wrote on +the day of his expected death:--"I have lost, or am on the point of losing, +my oldest acquaintance and friend, George Selwyn, who was yesterday at the +extremity. Those misfortunes, though they can be so but for a short time, +are very sensible to the old: but him I loved, not only for his infinite +wit, but for a thousand good qualities." He writes a few days after, "Poor +Selwyn is gone; to my sorrow; and no wonder. Ucalegon feels it." + +Selwyn, with all his pleasantry, had evidently a quick eye for his own +interest. He contrived to remain in parliament for half a century, and he +gathered the emoluments of some half dozen snug sinecures. Among those +were the Registrar of Chancery in Barbadoes, and surveyor-general of the +lands. Thus he lived luxuriously, and died rich. + +Orator Henley is niched in an early part of this correspondence. The +orator was known in the last century as a remarkably dirty fellow in his +apparel, and still more so in his mind. He was the son of a gentleman, and +had received a gentleman's education at St John's, Cambridge. There, or +subsequently, he acquired Hebrew, and even Persian; wrote a tragedy on the +subject of Esther, in which he exhibited considerable poetic powers; and +finished his scholastic fame by a grammar of ten languages! On leaving +college, he took orders, and became a country curate. But the decency of +this life did not suit his habits, and he resolved to try his chance in +London for fortune and fame. Opening a chapel near Newport market, +Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, he harangued twice a-week, on theological subjects +on Sundays, and on the sciences and literature on Wednesdays. The audience +were admitted by a shilling ticket, and the butchers in the neighbourhood +were for a while his great patrons. At length, finding his audience tired +of common sense, he tried, like other charlatans since his day, the effect +of nonsense. His manner was theatrical, his style eccentric, and his +topics varied between extravagance and buffoonery. The history of such +performances is invariably the same--novelty is essential, and novelty +must be attained at all risks. He now professed to reform all literature, +and all religion. But even this ultimately failed him. At length the +butchers deserted him, and, falling from one disgrace to another, he sank +into dirt and debauchery, and died in 1750 at the age of sixty-four, +remembered in the world only by being pilloried in the Dunciad. + + "Embrown'd with native bronze, lo! Henley stands, + Tuning his voice, and balancing his hands; + How fluent nonsense trickles from his tongue, + How sweet the periods neither said nor sung. + Still break the benches, Henley, with thy strain, + While Sherlock, Hare, and Gibson preach in vain." + +The orator's contribution consists but of two notes; the first to Selwyn-- + + "I dine at twelve all the year, but shall be glad to take a glass + with you at the King's Arms any day from four to six. If I have + disobliged Mr Parsons, (who I hear was with you,) or any of you + gentlemen, I never intended it, and ask your pardons. I shall be + proud to oblige my Lord Carteret, or you, or the rest, at any time. + Pray let them see this." + + "J. HENLEY." + +There appears to have been some kind of riot at one of Henley's lectures, +probably a rough burlesque of his manner, in which Selwyn, then a student +of Oxford, made himself conspicuous. At least the letter is addressed to +him. + +"I am accountable for the peace of my congregation; and among the rules +and articles of my consent and conditions as owner and minister, one rule +is, to go out directly, forfeiting what has been given, if any person +cannot or will not preserve those conditions; for the smallest +circumstance of disorder has been inflamed to the highest outrage. The +bishop's nephew began something of the kind two months ago, and made me +retribution; so have others, and I must send an attorney to warn them not +to come whom I suspect hereafter. You have been at his sport before." + +We now come to a man of more importance, Richard Rigby, the "blushing +Rigby" of Junius. He was the son of a linen-draper, who, as factor to the +South Sea Company, acquired considerable property. This, however, his son, +who had adopted public life as his pursuit, rapidly squandered in +electioneering, in pleasure, and the irresistible vice of the time, play. +Frederic, Prince of Wales, was the first object of all needy politicians, +and Rigby for a while attached himself to this feeble personage with all +the zeal of a prospective placeman. But the prince remained too long in +opposition for the fidelity of courtiership, and Rigby glided over to the +Duke of Bedford; who unquestionably exhibited himself a steady and zealous +friend to his new adherent. The duke lent him money to pay his debts; gave +him the secretaryship for Ireland on his appointment to the viceroyalty; +gave him a seat in Parliament for Tavistock; was the means of his being +made a privy counsellor; obtained for him a sinecure of L.4000 a-year; and +at that period when most men are sincere, on his deathbed, appointed Rigby +his executor, and cancelled his bond for the sum which he had originally +lent to him. + +We know few instances of such steady liberality in public life, and the +man who gave, and the man who received those munificent tokens of +confidence, must have had more in them than the world was generally +inclined to believe. The duke has been shot through and through by the +pungent shafts of Junius: and Rigby was covered with mire throughout life +by all the retainers of party. Yet both were evidently capable of strong +friendship, and thus possessed the redeeming quality most unusual in the +selfishness and struggles of political existence. + +Amongst official men, Rigby is recorded as one of the most popular +personages of his time. One art of official popularity, and that too a +most unfailing one, he adopted in a remarkable degree--he kept an +incomparable table. Sir Robert Walpole, one of the shrewdest of men, had +long preserved his popularity by the same means. Rigby's paymastership of +the forces enabled him to support a splendid establishment, and it was his +custom, after the debates in the House of Commons, to invite the ministers +and the pleasantest men of the time, to supper at his apartments in +Whitehall. His wines were exquisite, his cookery was of the most +_recherche_ order; and by the help of a good temper, a broad laugh, +natural joviality, and a keen and perfect knowledge of all that was going +on round him in the world of fashion, he made his parties a delightful +resource to the wearied minds of the Cabinet. + +Wraxall, a very pleasant describer of men and manners, thus sketches +him:--"In Parliament he was invariably habited in a full-dress suit of +clothes, commonly of a dark colour, without lace or embroidery, close +buttoned, with his sword thrust through the pocket. His countenance was +very expressive, but not of genius; still less did it indicate timidity or +modesty. All the comforts of the pay-office seemed to be eloquently +depicted in it; his manner, rough yet frank, admirably set off whatever +sentiments he uttered in Parliament. Like Jenkinson, he borrowed neither +from ancient nor modern authors; his eloquence was altogether his own, +addressed not to the fancy, but to the plain comprehension of his hearers. +There was a happy audacity about him, which must have been the gift of +nature--art could not obtain it by any efforts. He seemed not to fear, nor +even to respect, the House, whose composition he well knew; and to the +members of which assembly he never appeared to give credit for any portion +of virtue, patriotism, or public spirit. Far from concealing those +sentiments, he insinuated, or even pronounced them, without disguise; and +from his lips they neither excited surprise, nor even commonly awaked +reprehension." + +But this flow of prosperity was to have its ebb. The jovial placeman was +to feel the uncertainties of office; and on Lord North's resignation in +1782, and the celebrated Edmund Burke's appointment to the paymastership, +Rigby found himself suddenly called on for a considerable arrear. It had +been the custom to allow the paymaster to make use of the balances in his +hands until they were called for, and this formed an acknowledged and very +important part of his income. But his expenses left him no resource to +meet the demand. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Sir Thomas Rumbold, +the recalled governor of Madras, had just then returned to England, under +investigation by the House of Commons for malpractices in his office. It +was the rumour of the day that Rigby, on the advance of a large sum by +Rumbold, had undertaken to soften the prosecution against him. Whether +this were the fact or not, it is certain that the charges soon ceased to +be pursued, and that Rigby's nephew and heir was soon after married to +Rumbold's daughter. Rigby, who had never been married, died in 1788, in +his sixty-seventh year. + +His letter to Selwyn, in 1745, is characteristic of the man and the time. +"I am just got home from a cock match, where I have won forty pounds in +ready money, and not having dined, am waiting till I hear the rattle of +the coaches from the House of Commons, in order to dine at White's. + +"I held my resolution of not going to the Ridotto till past three o'clock, +when, finding that nobody was willing to sit any longer but Boone, who was +_not able_, I took, as I thought, the least of two evils, and so went +there rather than to bed; but found it so infinitely dull, that I retired +in half an hour. The next morning I heard that there had been extreme deep +play, and that Harry Furnese went drunk from White's at six o'clock, and +won the dear memorable sum of one thousand guineas. + +"I saw Garrick in _Othello_ that same night, in which, I think, he was +very unmeaningly dressed, and succeeded in no degree of comparison with +Quin, except in the second scene, where Iago gives the first suspicions of +Desdemona." + +As the letter does not describe Garrick's dress, we can only suppose it to +have been remarkably absurd, when it could have attracted the censure of +any one accustomed to the stage in the middle of the last century. Nothing +could be more ignorant, unsuitable, or unbecoming, that the whole system +of theatrical costume. Garrick, for example, usually played Macbeth in the +uniform of an officer of the Guards--scarlet coat, cocked hat, and +regulation sword, were the exhibition of the Highland chieftain's wardrobe, +and the period, too, when the Highland dress was perfectly known to the +public eye. It must be acknowledged that we owe the reformation of the +stage, in this important point, to the French. It was commenced by the +celebrated Clairon, and perfected by the not less celebrated Talma. + +"I supped that night, _tete-a-tete_, with Metham, who was d----d angry +with Hubby Bubby (Doddington) for having asked all the Musquetaires to +supper but him. He went to sleep at twelve, and I to White's, where _I +staid till six_. Yesterday I spent a good part of the day with my Lord +Coke at a _cock match_; and went, towards the latter end of Quin's benefit, +to Mariamne. + +"The coaches rattle by fast, and George brings me word the House is up, +and I assure you I am extremely hungry." + +We now come to the name of a man who attained a considerable celebrity in +his own time, but has almost dropped into oblivion in ours, Sir Charles +Hanbury Williams. He was the third son of John Hanbury, Esq., a +Monmouthshire gentleman, and took the name of Williams on succeeding to +the property of his grandfather. His mother was aunt to George Selwyn. +Entering Parliament early in life, he adopted the ministerial side, and +was a steady adherent to Sir Robert Walpole. He had his reward in +ministerial honours, being created a Knight of the Bath; and though Sir +Robert died in 1745, Williams had so far established his court influence, +that he was successively appointed envoy to Saxony, minister at Berlin, +and ambassador at St Petersburg. He was a man of great pleasantry, some +wit, and perpetual verse-making--the name of poetry is not to be stooped +to such compositions as his; but their liveliness and locality, their +application to existing times and persons, and their occasional hits at +politics and principles, made both them and their author popular. But the +fashionable language of the day had tendencies which would not now be +tolerated; and Sir Charles, a fashionable voluptuary, is charged with +having written what none should wish to revive. After a residence of ten +years on the Continent, he fell into a state of illness which deranged his +understanding. From this he recovered, but subsequently relapsed into the +same unhappy state, and died, it was surmised, by his own hand in 1759. +His letter details, in his own flighty style, one of the frolics of +fashion. + +"The town-talk for some time past has been your child, (a note says +'apparently the Honourable John Hobart, afterwards Earl of +Buckinghamshire;') the moment you turned your back he flew out, went to +Lady Tankerville's drum-major, (a rout,) having unfortunately dined that +day with Rigby, who plied his head with too many bumpers, and also made +him a present of some Chinese crackers. Armed in this manner, he entered +the assembly, and resolving to do something that should make a noise, he +gave a string of four and twenty crackers to Lady Lucy Clinton, and bid +her put it in the candle, which she very innocently did, to her and the +whole room's astonishment. But when the first went off she threw the rest +upon the tea-table, where, one after the other, they all went off, with +much noise and not a little stench, to the real joy of most of the women +present, who don't dislike an opportunity of finding fault. Lady Lucy, +indeed, was plentifully abused, and Mr Hobart had his share; and common +fame says he has never had a card since. Few women will curtsy to him; and +I question if he ever will lead any one to their chair again as long as he +lives. I leave you to judge how deeply he feels this wound. Every body +says it would never have happened if you had not retired to your studies; +and you are a little blamed for letting him out alone. He has sunk his +chairman's wages 5s. a-week upon this accident, and intends to turn them +off in Passion week, because he then can go nowhere at all. All private +houses are already shut against him, and at that holy time no public place +is open." + +We have then some letters written in a time of great public anxiety, 1745. + +"All our forces are come from Flanders. The Pretender's second son (Henry +Stuart, afterwards Cardinal of York) is come to Dunkirk, where it is said +there are forty transports. The rebels, it is said, are very +advantageously encamped between two rivers, and are fortifying their camp." + +Another hurried letter says. + +"An express arrives to-day, (Dec. 8th,) while his Majesty was at chapel, +which brought an account of the rebels being close to Derby, and that the +Duke of Cumberland was at Meredan, four miles beyond Coventry observing +their motions." + +Another of the same date, six o'-clock at night, says, "The Tower guns +have not fired to-day. A letter has been received, stating that the rebels +had retreated towards Ashbourne." + +Walpole, in a letter to Sir Horace Mann, on the 9th repeats the news, and +says, "The Highlanders got nine thousand pounds at Derby, and had the +books brought to them, and obliged everybody to give them what they had +subscribed against them. They then retreated a few miles, but returned +again to Derby, got L10,000 more, and plundered the town; they are gone +again, and got back to Leake in Staffordshire, but miserably harassed; +they have left all their cannon behind them, and twenty waggons of sick." + +Nothing can give a stronger example of the changes which may take place in +a country, than the different state of preparation for an invader, +exhibited by England in 1745, and in little more than half a century after. +On the threat of Napoleon's invasion, England exhibited an armed force of +little less than a million, which would have been quadrupled in case of an +actual descent. In 1745, the alarm was extravagant, and almost burlesque. +The Pretender, with but a few thousand men--brave undoubtedly, but almost +wholly unprovided for a campaign--marched into the heart of England, and +reached within a hundred and thirty miles of the capital. But the +enterprise was then felt to be wholly beyond his means. A powerful force +under the Duke of Cumberland was already thrown between him and London. +What was more ominous still, no man of English rank had joined him, London +was firm, the Protestant feeling of the nation, though slowly excited, was +beginning to be roused, by its recollection of the bigotry of James, and +in England, this feeling will always be ultimately victorious. Even if +Charles Edward had arrived in London, and seized the throne, he would have +only had to commence a civil war against the nation. His retreat to the +north saved England from this great calamity, and probably saved himself, +and his adherents in both countries, from a more summary fate than that +which drove his miserable and bigoted father from the throne. + +One of the chief contributors to this correspondence is George James +Williams, familiarly styled Gilly Williams; a man of high life, uncle by +marriage to the minister Lord North, and lucky in the possession of an +opulent office--that of receiver-general of the excise. He, with George +Selwyn and Dick Edgecumbe, who met at Strawberry Hill at certain seasons, +formed what Walpole termed his out-of-town party. Life seems to have +glided smoothly with him, for he lived till 1785, dying at the ripe age of +eighty-six. + +He thus begins:-- + +"Dear George--I congratulate you on the near approach of Parliament, and +figure you before a glass at your rehearsals. I must intimate to you not +to forget to begin closing your periods with a significant stroke of the +breast, and recommend Mr Barry as a pattern, (the actor.) + +"You must observe, in letters from the country, every sentence begins with +being either sorry or glad. Apropos, I am glad to hear B. Bertie (son of +the Duke of Ancaster) is returned from Scarborough, having laid in such a +stock of health and spirits by the waters, as to dedicate the rest of his +days altogether to wine." + +In another letter he says--"I had almost forgot to tell you, that I rode +near ten miles on my way home with the ordinary of Gloucester, and have +several anecdotes of the late burnings and hangings, which I reserve for +your own private ear. I do not know whether he was sensible you had a +partiality for his profession; but he expressed the greatest regard for +you, and I am sure you may command his services." + +Gilly writes from Crome, Lord Coventry's seat in Worcestershire-- + +"Our life here for a while would not displease you, for we eat and drink +well, and the Earl (Coventry) holds a faro-bank every night to us, which +we have as yet plundered considerably. + +"I want to know where to find you, and how long you stay at your +mansion-house; for it would not be pleasant to ride so far only to see +squinting Jenny and the gardener at the end of my journey. I suppose we +shall see you here, where you will find the Countess of Coventry in high +spirits and in great beauty." + +We now come to a brief mention of two women, the most remarkable of their +day for popular admiration, if not for finish and fashion--the Gunnings, +afterwards Lady Coventry and the Duchess of Hamilton. They were the +daughters of an Irish country gentleman, John Gunning, of Castle Coote in +Ireland. On their first appearance at court in England, the elder was in +her nineteenth, and the second in her eighteenth year. They appear to have +excited a most unprecedented sensation in London. Walpole thus writes to +Sir Horace Mann-- + +"You, who knew England in other times, will find it difficult to conceive +what indifference reigns with regard to ministers and their squabbles. The +two Miss Gunnings are twenty times more the subject of conversation than +the two brothers (the Pelhams) and Lord Granville. They are two Irish +girls of no fortune, who are declared the handsomest women alive. I think +there being two so handsome, and both such perfect figures, is their chief +excellence, for, singly, I have seen much handsomer women than either. +However, they can't walk in the Park, or go to Vauxhall, but such crowds +follow them, that they are generally driven away." And this effect lasted; +for, two months after, Walpole writes--"I shall tell you a new story of +the Gunnings, who make more noise than any of their predecessors since the +days of Helen. They went the other day to see Hampton Court. As they were +going into the Beauty room, another company arrived, and the housekeeper +said--'This way, ladies, here are the beauties,' the Gunnings flew into a +passion, and asked her what she meant; they came to see the palace, not to +be shown as sights themselves." + +To the astonishment, and perhaps to the envy, of the fashionable world, +those two unportioned young women made the most splendid matches of the +season. The Duke of Hamilton fell in love with the younger at a masquerade, +and made proposals to her. The marriage was to take place within some +months; but his passion was so vehement, that in two nights after he +insisted on marrying her at the moment. Walpole tells us that he sent for +a clergyman, who however refused to marry them without license or ring. At +this period marriages were frequently performed in a very unceremonious +and unbecoming manner. From the laxity of the law, they were performed at +all hours, frequently in private houses, and sometimes even in jails, by +pretended clergymen. The law, however, was subsequently and properly +reformed. The duke and duchess are said to have been married with a +curtain-ring, at half-past twelve-at night, at May Fair Chapel. This +precipitated the marriage of Lord Coventry, a personage of a grave stamp, +but who had long paid attention to the elder sister Maria. He married her +about three weeks after. Except that we are accustomed to hear of the +frenzy which seizes people in the name of fashion, we should scarcely +believe the effect which those two women, handsome as they were, continued +to produce. On the Duchess of Hamilton's presentation at Court on her +marriage, the crowd was immense; and so great was the curiosity, that the +courtly multitude got on the chairs and tables to look at her. Mobs +gathered round their doors to see them get into their chairs; people +crowded early to the theatres when they heard they were to be there. Lady +Coventry's shoemaker is said to have made a fortune by selling patterns of +her shoe; and on the duchess's going to Scotland, several hundred people +walked about all night round the inn where she slept, on the Yorkshire +road, that they might have a view of her as she went off next morning. + +Yet they appear to have been strangely neglected in their education; +good-humoured and good-natured undoubtedly, but little better than hoydens +after all. Lord Down met Lord and Lady Coventry at Calais, and offered to +send her ladyship a tent-bed, for fear of bugs at the inn. "Oh dear!" said +she, "I had rather be bit to death than lie one night from my dear Cov." + +She is, however, memorable for one _etourderie_, which amused the world +greatly. Old George II., conversing with her on the dulness of the season, +expressed a regret that there had been no masquerades during the year, the +handsome rustic answered him, that she had seen sights enough, and the +only one she wanted to see now was--"a coronation." The king, however, +had the good sense to laugh, and repeated it good-humouredly to his circle +at supper. + +Lady Coventry died a few years after of consumption, at the age of +twenty-seven. It was said that her death was hastened by the habit of +using white lead as a paint, the fashionable custom of the time. The Duke +of Hamilton had died two years before, in 1758, and the duchess became +subsequently the wife of Colonel John Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyle. +The narrative observes the remarkable circumstance, that the untitled +daughter of an Irish commoner should have been the wife of two dukes and +the mother of four. By her first husband she was the mother of James, +seventh duke, and of Douglas, eighth duke, of Hamilton; and by her second +husband, of William, sixth duke, and of Henry, seventh duke, of Argyle. +The duchess, though at the time of Lady Coventry's illness supposed to be +in a consumption, survived for thirty years, dying in 1790. + +Mason the poet commemorated Lady Coventry's death in a long elegy, which +had some repute in those days, when even Hayley was called a poet. They +are dawdling and dulcified to a deplorable degree. + + "Yes, Coventry is dead; attend the strain, + Daughters of Albion, ye that, light as air, + So oft have trips in her fantastic train, + With hearts as gay, and faces half as fair; + For she was fair beyond your highest bloom; + This envy owns, since now her bloom is fled. + &c. &c. &c. + +We have then a sketch of a man of considerable celebrity in his day, Lord +Sandwich. Educated at Eton and Cambridge; on leaving college, he made the +then unusual exertion of a voyage round the Mediterranean, of which a +volume was published by his chaplain on his return. Shortly after, taking +his seat in the House of Lords, he came into ministerial employment as a +Lord of the Admiralty. In 1746, he was appointed minister to the States +General. And from that period, for nearly thirty years, he was employed in +high public offices; was twice an ambassador, three times first Lord of +the Admiralty, and twice Secretary of State. Lord Sandwich's personal +character was at least accused of so much profligacy, that, if the charges +be true, we cannot comprehend how he was suffered to retain employments of +such importance for so many years. Wilkes, who had known him intimately, +describes him, in his letters to the electors of Aylesbury, as "the most +abandoned man of the age." He is even said not to have been a man of +business; yet the Admiralty was a place which can scarcely be managed by +an idler, and the Secretaryship of State, in this country, can never be a +sinecure. He had certainly one quality which is remarkable for +conciliation, and without which no minister, let his talents be what they +may, has ever been personally popular; he was a man of great affability, +and of shrewd wit. The latter was exhibited, in peculiarly cutting style, +to Mr Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland. Eden, sagacious in his generation, +had suddenly ratted to Pitt, adding, however, the monstrous absurdity of +sending a circular to his colleagues by way of justification. Obviously, +nothing could be more silly than an attempt of this order, which could +only add their contempt for his understanding to their contempt for his +conduct. Lord Sandwich's answer was in the most cutting spirit of scorn:-- + +"Sir,--Your letter is now before me, and in a few minutes will be _behind +me_." + +An unhappy circumstance brought Lord Sandwich with painful prominence +before the world. A Miss Ray, a person of some attraction, had +unfortunately lived under his protection for several years. It happened, +however, that a young officer on the recruiting service, who had dined +once or twice at Lord Sandwich's house in the country, thought proper to +pay her some marked attentions, which, after allowing them, as it appears, +to proceed to some extent, she suddenly declined. On this the officer, +whose name was Hackman, and who was evidently of a fantastic and violent +temperament, rushed from England in a state of desperation, flew over to +Ireland, threw up his commission, and took orders in the church. But +instead of adopting the quietude which would have been suitable for his +new profession, the clerical robes seem to have made him more intractable +than the military uniform. After some months of rambling and romance in +Ireland, he rushed over to England again, resolving to conquer or die at +her feet; but the lady still rejected him, and, being alarmed at his +violence, threatened to appeal to Lord Sandwich. There are many +circumstances in the conduct of this unfortunate man, amounting to that +perversion of common sense which, in our times, is fashionably and +foolishly almost sanctioned as monomania. But nothing can be clearer than +the fact, that the most unjustifiable, dangerous, and criminal passion, +may be pampered, until it obtains possession of the whole mind, and leads +to the perpetration of the most atrocious offences against society. The +modern absurdity is, to look, in the violence of the passion for the +excuse of the crime; instead of punishing the crime for the violence of +the passion. We might as well say, that the violences of a drunkard were +more innocent the more furiously he was intoxicated; the whole being a +direct encouragement to excessive guilt. The popular feeling of justice in +the last century, however, was different; robbers and murderers were put +to death as they deserved, and society was relieved without burlesquing +the common understandings of man. Mr Hackman was a murderer, however he +might be a monomaniac, and he was eventually hanged as he deserved. The +trial, which took place in April 1779, excited the most extraordinary +public curiosity. By the statement of the witnesses, it appeared that a Mr +Macnamara, being in the lobby of Covent Garden Theatre when the audience +were coming away, and seeing Miss Ray making her way with some difficulty +through the crowd to her carriage, he went forward with Irish gallantry to +offer her his arm, which she accepted; and as they reached the door of the +carriage, a pistol was fired close to them, when Miss Ray clapped her hand +to her forehead and fell, when instantly another pistol-report followed. +He thought that she had fainted away through fright; but when he raised +her up, he found that she was wounded, and assisted the people in carrying +her into the Shakspeare Tavern; and on Hackman's being seized, and being +asked what could possess him to be guilty of such a deed, his only answer +was to give his name, and say, "It is not a proper place to ask such +questions." It appeared in evidence, that Hackman had been waiting some +time for Miss Ray's coming out of the theatre; that he followed her to the +carriage door, and pulling out two pistols, fired one at the unfortunate +woman, the ball of which went through her brain, and the other at himself, +crying out as he fell, "Kill me--kill me!" + +Of course, after evidence like this, there could be no defence, and none +as attempted. Hackman evidently wished to have died by his own hand; but +having failed there, his purpose was to perish by the law, and plead +guilty. However, on being brought to trial, he said that he now pleaded +not guilty, that he might avoid the appearance of contemning death--an +appearance not suitable to his present condition; that, on second thoughts, +he had considered the plea of guilty as rendering him accessory to a +second peril of his life; and that he thought that he could pay his debt +more effectually to the justice of the country by suffering his offences +to be proved by evidence, and submitting to the forms of a regular trial. +This, though it was penitence too late, was at least decorous language. +His whole conduct on the trial showed that, intemperate as his passions +were, he possessed abilities and feelings worthy of a wiser career, and a +less unhappy termination. Part of his speech was even affecting. + +"I stand here this day," he said, "the most wretched of human beings, and +confess myself criminal in a high degree; yet while I acknowledge, with +shame and repentance, that my determination against my own life was formal +and complete, I protest, with that regard which becomes my situation, that +the will to destroy her who was ever dearer to me than life, was never +mine till a momentary frenzy overpowered me, and induced me to commit the +deed I deplore. Before this dreadful act, I trust, nothing will be found +in the tenor of my life which the common charity of mankind will not +excuse. I have no wish to avoid the punishment which the laws of my +country appoint for my crime; but being already too unhappy to feel a +punishment in death, or a satisfaction in life, I submit myself with +penitence and patience to the disposal and judgment of Almighty God, and +to the consequences of this enquiry into my conduct and intentions." + +After a few minutes' consultation, the jury returned a verdict of guilty, +and he was executed two days after. It is surprising how strong an +interest was felt on this subject by persons of every condition; by the +populace, who loved excitement from whatever quarter it may come; by the +middle order, to whom the romance of the early part of the transaction and +the melancholy catastrophe were subjects of natural impression; and by the +nobility, to whom the character of Miss Ray and the habits of Lord +Sandwich were equally known. + +The Earl of Carlisle thus writes to Selwyn, beginning with a sort of +customary allusion to Selwyn's extraordinary fondness for those displays:-- + +"Hackman, Miss Ray's murderer, is hanged. I attended his execution in +order to give _you_ an account of his behaviour, and from no curiosity of +my own. I am this moment returned from it. Every one enquired after you. +_You have friends_ every where. The poor man behaved with great fortitude; +no appearances of fear were to be perceived, but very evident signs of +contrition and repentance." + +A novel, of some pathos and considerable popularity, was founded on this +unhappy transaction, and "The Letters of Mr Hackman and Miss Ray" long +flourished in the circulating libraries. But the groundwork was vulgar, +mean, and vicious, after all; and, divested of that colouring which +imagination may throw on any event, was degrading and criminal in all its +circumstances. The shame of the wretched woman herself, living in a state +of open criminality from year to year; the grossness of Hackman in his +proposal to make this abandoned woman his wife; the strong probability +that his object might have been the not uncommon, though infinitely vile +one, of obtaining Lord Sandwich's patronage, by relieving him of a +connexion of which that notorious profligate, after nine years, might be +weary--all characterise the earlier portion of their intercourse as +destitute of all pretence to honourable feelings. The catastrophe is +merely the work of an assassin. If there may be some slight allowance for +overwhelming passion, for suddenly excited jealousy, or for remediless +despair, yet those impulses act only to the extent of inflicting injury on +ourselves. No love ever seeks the death of its object. It is then mere +ruffianism, brute cruelty, savage fury; and even this becomes more the act +of a ruffian, when the determination to destroy is formed in cold blood. +Hackman carried two loaded pistols with him to the theatre. What other man +carried loaded pistols there? and what could be his purpose but the one +which he effected, to fire them both, one at the wretched woman, and the +other at himself? The clear case is, that he was neither more nor less +than a furious villain, resolved to have the life of a profligate +milliner's apprentice, who preferred Lord Sandwich's house and carriage, +to Mr Hackman's hovel and going on foot. We shall find that all similar +acts originate in similar motives--lucre, licentiousness, and rage--the +three stimulants of the highwayman, the debauchee, and the ruffian; with +only the distinction, that, in the case of those who murder when they +cannot possess, the three criminalities are combined. + +Even with the execution of the criminal, the excitement did not cease. The +papers of the day tell us, that when the body was conveyed to the +surgeon's hall, so great a crowd was assembled, and the efforts to obtain +entrance were so violent, that caps, gowns, wigs, were torn and cast away +in all directions. Old and young, men, women, and children, were trampled +in the multitude. In the afternoon, the crowd diminished, and several +persons of the better order made their way in, but with not a less +vexatious result; for, on reaching the staircase leading to the theatre, +they found themselves saluted with a shower from some engine worked under +the staircase. This was rather a rough mode of tranquillizing public +excitement, but seems to have been effectual. It was probably a trick of +some of the young surgeons, and excited great indignation at the time. +Hackman was but four-and-twenty, and rather a striking figure. + +The letters to which we have alluded, entitled "Love and Madness," +attracted attention in higher quarters, and even perplexed the +fastidiousness of Walpole himself. In one of his letters of March 1780, he +thus writes:--"Yesterday was published an octavo, pretending to contain +the correspondence of Hackman and Miss Ray. I doubt whether the letters +are genuine, and yet, if fictitious, they are executed well, and enter +into his character. This appears less natural, and yet the editors were +certainly more likely to be in possession of hers than his. It is not +probable that Lord Sandwich should have sent what he found in her +apartments to the press; no account is pretended to be given of how they +came to light." + +After having thus puzzled the dilettanti, it transpired that it was +written by Sir Herbert Croft, Bart. + +Another singular character, who, in connexion with one still more singular, +remarkably occupied the ear and tongue of the _beau monde_ of his day, is +introduced in these volumes. This was Augustus John, Earl of Bristol, +third son of John, Lord Hervey, by the beautiful Mary Lepel. He entered +the sea service at an early age, and prospered as the sons of men of rank +prospered in those days, being made a post-captain in 1747, when he was +but three and twenty years old. Promotion was heaped upon him, and he was +rapidly advanced to the rank of vice-admiral and colonel of marines. He +was, however, said to be a brave and skilful officer. More good fortune +was in store for him; he was placed in the king's household, was a member +of Parliament, was appointed one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and +finally rounded the circle of his honours by succeeding to the earldom of +Bristol. The history of his wife is a continued adventure. Miss Chudleigh, +maid of honour to the Princess of Wales, had, immediately on her +appearance at court, become the observed of all observers. She was +regarded as one of the most beautiful women of her time, was remarkably +quick and witty in her conversation, of a most capricious temper and a +most fantastic imagination--all qualities which naturally rendered her a +topic in every circle of the country. The circumstances of her marriage +rendered her if possible, still more a topic. On a visit at the house of a +relation, she met Lord Bristol, then but a lieutenant in the navy, and +plain Mr Hervey, and disregarding all the formalities of high life, they +were privately married at Lainston, in Northamptonshire. They were, +however, separated the very next day, the lady declaring her determination +never to see her husband's face again. This, of course, produced an ample +fund of conversation of every kind; but the lady returned to court, and +the gentleman returned to his ship, and went to sea. However, they met +again, and the result was, she became a mother. From her determination to +keep her marriage secret, she retired for her accouchement to a secluded +spot in Chelsea, where her child was born, and where it soon after died. + +It may easily be supposed, that the sudden disappearance of so conspicuous +a person from the most conspicuous society, must have given rise to +rumours and ridicule of every kind. She returned to court nevertheless, +and constantly denying her marriage, fought it out with the effrontery +which is so easily forgiven, in fashionable life, to youth, wit, and +beauty. + +Yet she could not quite escape the flying shafts of wit herself. One day +after her return, meeting the memorable Lord Chesterfield--"Think, my +lord," said she, with an air of indignation, "to what lengths the +scandalous chronicle will go, when it absolutely says that I have had +twins." "My dear," said Lord Chesterfield, "I make it a rule never to +believe above half what the world says." + +She now received the attentions of many suitors, extraordinary as the +circumstance may be, when the mystery of her own conduct and the surmises +of the public are considered; and, to make assurance doubly sure, she +determined to extinguish all proof of her hasty marriage. Ascertaining +that the clergyman who had married her was dead, she went to Lainston +church, and contrived to carry away the entry of her marriage from the +register. Some time after this, Miss Chudleigh (for she never would take +her husband's name) married the Duke of Kingston. It was strongly asserted, +though the circumstance is so dishonourable that it can scarcely be +believed, that the silence of the real husband was purchased by the +advance of a large sum of money from the pretended one. The marriage +remained undisturbed until the death of the duke. She then came into +possession of his very large disposable property, and traveled in great +pomp to Rome; but the duke's nephew and heir, having his suspicious of the +fact excited, commenced proceedings against the duchess for bigamy. She +was tried before her peers in Westminster hall, and found guilty of the +offence, in April 1776; but by claiming the privilege of peerage, she was +discharged on payment of the usual fees. + +It is scarcely possible to believe that a man of the rank and profession +of Lord Bristol, could have been base enough to connive at his wife's +marriage with the Duke of Kingston. But there can be no question, that in +the prevalent opinion of the time, he had even taken a large sum of money +for the purpose. In one of Walpole's letters, subsequently to the trial, +he says, "if the Pope expects his duchess back, he must create her one, +for her peers have reduced her to a countess. Her folly and her obstinacy +here appear in the full vigour, at least her faith in the ecclesiastical +court, trusting to the infallibility of which she provoked this trial in +the face of every sort of detection. The living witness of the first +marriage, a register of it fabricated long after by herself, the widow of +the clergyman who married her, many confidants to whom she had entrusted +the secret, and even Hawkins, the surgeon, privy to the birth of the child, +appeared against her. The Lords were tender, and would not probe the +earl's collusion; but the ecclesiastical court, who so readily accepted +their juggle, and sanctified the second match, were brought to shame--they +care not if no reformation follows. The duchess, who could produce nothing +else in her favour, tried the powers of oratory, and made a long oration, +in which she cited the protection of her late mistress, the Princess of +Wales. Her counsel would have curtailed this harangue; but she told them +they might be good lawyers, but did not understand speaking to the +passions. She concluded her rhetoric with a fit, and retired with rage +when convicted of the bigamy." + +The charge to which Walpole alludes, was, that the earl had given her a +bond for L.30,000 not to molest her; but as there was no proof, this gross +charge certainly has no right to be implicitly received. Still it is +unaccountable why he should have suffered her to have married the Duke of +Kingston without any known remonstrance, and why he should have allowed +her to retain the title of the duke's widow until the rightful heir +instituted the proceedings. The earl died in 1779, within three years from +the trial. + +Among the characters which pass through this magic-lantern, is Topham +Beauclerk, so frequently mentioned, and mentioned with praise, in +Boswell's _Johnson_. He seems to have been a man of great elegance of +manner, and peculiarity of that happy talent of conversation whose wit +seems to be spontaneous, and whose anecdotes, however _recherche_, seem to +flow from the subject. "Every thing," remarked Johnson, "comes from +Beauclerk so easily, that it appears to me that I labour when I say a good +thing." + +Beauclerk was the only son of Lord Sydney Beauclerk, a son of Charles, +first Duke of St Albans. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and, +from the moment of his entering fashionable life, was remarked for the +elegance of manner, and the liveliness of conversation, which continued to +be his distinctions to the close of his career. Unfortunately, the fashion +of the time not only allowed, but seems to have almost required, an +irregularity of life which would tarnish the character of any man in our +more decorous day. His unfortunate intercourse with Viscountess +Bolingbroke, better known by her subsequent name of Lady Diana Beauclerk, +produced a divorce, and in two days after a marriage. She was the eldest +daughter of Charles, the second Duke of Marlborough, and was in early life +as distinguished for her beauty, as in later years she was for her wit. + +Johnson in his old age became acquainted with Topham Beauclerk, through +their common friend, Langton, and even the sage and moralist acknowledged +the captivation of his manners. "What a coalition!" said Garrick, when he +heard of their acquaintance, "I shall have my old friend to bail out of +the roundhouse." But whatever might be the elegance of his companion's +laxity, Johnson did not hesitate to rebuke him. Beauclerk, like wits in +general, had a propensity to satire, on which Johnson once took him to +task in this rough style--"You never open your mouth but with the +intention to give pain; and you have now given me pain, not from the power +of what you have said, but from my seeing the intention." At another tine, +applying to him that line of Pope's, slightly altered, he said-- + + 'Thy love of folly, and thy scorn of fools;' + +everything you do shows the one, and every thing you say the other." + +Another rather less intelligible rebuke occurred in his saying, "Thy body +is all vice and thy mind all virtue." As the actions of the body proceed +from the mind, it is difficult to conceive how the one can be impure +without the other. At least Beauclerk did not appear to relish the +distinction, and he was angry at the phrase. However, Johnson's attempt to +appease him was a curious specimen of his magniloquence. "Nay, sir, +Alexander the Great, marching in triumph into Babylon, could not have +desired to have had more said to him." + +Topham Beauclerk had two daughters by Lady Diana, one of whom became Lady +Pembroke. He died at his house in Great Russell Street, then a place of +fashion, in 1780, in his 41st year. + +Selwyn's seat, Matson, in Gloucestershire, received some pretty historical +reminiscences. One of Walpole's letters to Bentley, thus speaks of a visit +to his friend's villa in the autumn of 1753. + +"I staid two days at George Selwyn's house, which lies on Robin Hood's +hill. It is lofty enough for an Alp, yet is a mountain of turf to the very +top, has woods scattered all over it, springs that long to be cascades in +twenty places; and from the summits it beats even Sir George Littleton's +views, by having the city of Gloucester at its foot, and the Severn +widening to the horizon. The house is small but neat; King Charles (the +First,) lay here at the siege, and the Duke of York, with typical fury, +hacked and hewed the windows of his chamber, as a memorandum of his being +there. The fact however being, that both the princes, Charles and James, +who were then mere boys, remained at Matson--a circumstance frequently +mentioned to Selwyn's grandfather by James II., observing:--'My brother +and I were generally shut up in a chamber on the second floor during the +day, where you will find that we have left the marks of our confinement +inscribed with our knives on the ledges of all the windows."' + +The house must have been quite a treasure to Walpole, for he found in it a +good picture of the famous Earl of Leicester, which he had given to Sir +Francis Walsingham; and what makes it very curious, Walpole observes his +age is marked on it fifty-four, in 1752. "I had never been able to +discover before in what year he was born, and here is the very flower-pot +and counterfeit association for which Bishop Sprat was taken up, and the +Duke of Marlborough sent to the Tower." + +It is, however, by no means clear, that this was a "counterfeit +association," though Walpole abandons his usual scepticism on all +disputable points with such facility. The "association" was a plot to +bring back that miserable blockhead and bigot, James II., said to be +signed by Marlborough, the Bishop of Rochester, Lords Salisbury, Cornberry, +and Sir Basil Firebrace. On the information of one Young, the draft of the +plot was found in a flower-pot in the Bishop's house at Bromley. But +fortunately the days of royal terror had passed by. The crown was strong +enough to treat conspiracy with contempt, and the affair was suffered to +fall into oblivion. Yet it is now so notorious that many of the highest +persons in the state were tampering with the exiled family, that the plot +is rendered sufficiently probable. There seems to have been some political +infatuation connected with the name of the Stuarts. Though, excepting the +bravery of Charles I. and the pleasantry of Charles II., they all were +evidently the dullest, most mulish, and most repulsive of mankind; yet +many brave men periled their lives to restore them, and many men of great +distinction hazarded their safety to correspond with them. The "Stuart +Correspondence" was less a breach of loyalty than a libel on the national +understanding. + +On the whole, these volumes are interesting, in many parts--very much so. +The editor has evidently done his best to illustrate and explain. But can +he not discover any remnant of the letters of Selwyn himself? he might +then remove the objection to his title, and please all readers together. + + * * * * * + + + + +NEWS FROM AN EXILED CONTRIBUTOR. + + + MELBOURNE, PORT PHILIP, + NEW SOUTH WALES, _July_ 1, 1843. + + BELOVED AND REV. CHRISTOPHER, + + +You have been pleased many times, in very decided terms, to express your +ever-to-be-respected conviction that I should eventually come to something; +haply to the woolsack--possibly to the gallows; from which prophetic +sentiment, I have naturally inferred that my genius was rare, and that +your eagle eye had discovered it. + +Before my letter reaches your generous shores, twelve months will have +elapsed, most reverend Christopher, since we parted in the Hibernian city. +Then we were as near to one another as firmly grasped hands could render +us; now sixteen thousand miles effectually divide us; and whilst I sit +silently wishing you ages of health and mortal happiness, the mercury of +my thermometer stands lazily at freezing point, whereas your own sprightly +quicksilver rushes up to 92. All things tell me of our separation. We +sailed, as you will find by referring to your pocket-book--for you made a +memorandum at the time--on the 14th day of November last from Cork; +sighted Madeira--about thirty miles abreast--in eight days, and out of +sight of it on the 22d. A fine fair wind was sent to us, and we crossed +the Line, all well, on the 14th of December; then steering pretty far to +westward, we luckily caught the trade-wind, and rounded the Cape in a good +gale on the 15th of January. And here it came on to blow right earnestly; +but we kept the gale for about eight days on our larboard quarter, and we +scudded on our course at a fearful rate. Our mizen mast was carried +away--both our mainsails split--and we smashed a few spars, and lost some +running gear; nothing more serious happened, save the loss of as fine a +young fellow as ever trode shoe-leather--a seaman. He was caught sharply +by one of the ropes that gave way, and it carried him overboard like a +feather. We saw him drop--the sea was running mountains high--we could +render him no assistance; and he perished under our very eyes. The wind, +fortunately for us, continued on either quarter of our ship; and it is a +remarkable fact, and deserving of notice, that, during the whole of our +voyage, we had occasion only _to put the ship about_ TWICE. We cast anchor +in Hobson's Bay, Port Philip on the morning of the 21st of February, +having made our voyage in the short space of ninety-nine days, and the +land within a quarter of an hour of the captain's reckoning. The events of +the passage may be given _paucis verbis_. We had nine _accouchements_ in +the steerage amongst the emigrants, some of them premature from violent +sea-sickness, and seven deaths--all children. + +Our deaths, as I have said, were confined to the children. The adults kept +free from fever; an astonishing fact, when the confinement and closeness of +a steerage birth is taken into account. The voyage was agreeable. We were +good friends in the cabin. The captain, a prudent, temperate man, took his +three glasses of grog per diem, and no more; the first at noon, the second +at dinner, the third and last at _"turn-in_." Your obedient servant, ever +mindful of your strict injunctions, and of your eloquent discourse on +sobriety and self-denial, and believing that he could not do better than +regulate his watch according to the captain's chronometer, followed +precisely the same rule. We maintained a glorious state of health after +the first week; and if all future voyagers would do the same, let them +neither eat nor drink aboard ship to the full extent of their appetites. +This is simple advice, but I reckon it the first great secret which my +nomadic experience enables me to put down for the benefit of my +fellow-creatures; especially on board of a ship, _leave off with an +appetite._ We passed our time--not having the fear of the Ancient Mariner +before our eyes--in shooting albatrosses, Cape pigeons, and the like; in +picking up a porpoise, a bonnitta, or a dolphin. Books, backgammon, and +whist, filled up the measure of the day. _Mem_.--had we been favoured with +less wind, we should have got more porpoises. We speared +many--_first-raters_; but the speed at which we cut along, prevented our +securing them. + +But we have cast anchor. The harbour of Hobson's Bay is a splendid inlet +of the sea. The bay is very narrow at the entrance, but the moment you get +past the Heads, it extends to a breadth of eight or ten miles, and to a +length of twenty-two miles, from the mouth to the anchoring place. The +land around the bay is flat and sandy, and covered with wood almost to the +water's edge. The tree there resembles our common mountain fir: it is +exactly like it in the bark; but it is called by the settlers, _the +she-oak_. I reckon it to be the beef-tree, for it has its appearance when +cut up, is hard, and takes a beautiful polish. Inland, this wood grows to +a considerable height and thickness; but the principal part of the +interior is thickly covered with the various species of the gum and +peppermint trees, many of them of a singularly large growth: but more of +the interior anon. Immediately opposite to the anchorage ground, there is +a pretty little town called _Williamstown_, in which the water-police +magistrate, an old seafaring gentleman, Captain ----, has his residence. +The gallant captain has enough to do with the jolly tars, who invariably +attempt to cut and run as soon as they have got here. A sailor +misconducting himself on the voyage, has at least two months' reflection +in the jail of Williamstown, commencing immediately upon his arrival. The +news of this prison establishment will probably reach England before my +letter. Should it be spoken of in your presence, say that it has been +found absolutely necessary for the protection of shipmasters, and that an +act was passed accordingly for its erection. _Gordon law_, so called after +the first magistrate, is proverbial, and very summary. Every fellow found +drunk gets two hours in the stocks, and he becomes sober there much sooner +than if he had been simply fined five shillings. + +The town of Melbourne is beautifully situated on the face of a hill, in +the hollow of which runs the noble river called the _Yarra-Yarra_, words +which signify in the native language, _"flowing constantly."_ It is +distinguished by its title from the large majority of rivers, which are +nearly _still_, and which, after extending only for a mile or two, form at +length a species of swamp. Such rivers are generally styled _lagoons_. The +_Yarra-Yarra_ is navigable up to the town of Melbourne for ships of a +large size--say 400 tons; but the seven miles of distance being circuitous, +and the banks of sand at the mouth of the river occasionally shifting, the +larger class of ships generally remain at the anchorage ground in the bay, +and discharge by common lighters. At the present moment, from twenty to +thirty very large ships are riding in the bay. A pretty little steamer +plies three times a-day between the towns of Melbourne and +Williamstown--price five shillings, up and down. Another steamer, "The Sea +Horse," plies between Melbourne and Sydney once a fortnight; the passage +is made in three days, and the fares L12 for cabin, L6 for steerage. The +communication is a vast accommodation to this district. The steamer is in +private hands, and did not answer at first; she now carries the mail, and +promises to turn out a profitable _spec_. The coast is very dangerous, and +at _every_ season of the year liable to very violent gales. Even in the +bay the squalls are sudden, violent, and dangerous, and many lives are +lost for want of proper precaution and care, on board of small boats. Only +yesterday, my friend, Mr G----, and three men, were out in a pleasure boat; +in five minutes they were swept off to leeward, the boat was upset, and +they were all drowned. + +Melbourne is perhaps the most surprising place in her Majesty's dominions. +Nothing, in the history of colonization, approaches her as regards the +rapidity of advancement and extent. Six years ago there were not twenty +British subjects on the spot, and at the present hour, Melbourne and its +suburbs boast of a population of ten thousand souls. There are already +built four splendid edifices for public worship--Episcopalians, +Presbyterians, Wesleyans, and Independents, are provided for--and there is +in addition a very large Roman Catholic chapel in the course of erection. +There are three banks all doing excellently well--"The Australasian," "The +Union Bank of Australia," and "Port Philip's Bank"--and there is yet a +good field for another, under prudent management. The rate of discount is +L10 per cent; and the interest given on deposit accounts L7 per cent. The +common rate of interest, given with good mortgage security, is L20 per +cent; and in some instances, where a little risk is taken, L25 and L30. +Bills past due at the bank, are charged L12 per cent. A court of law (by +act of Council) allows L8 per cent on all bills sued upon, with a +discretionary power of extending the rate to L12 per cent, to cover any +damage or loss sustained. There are two Club houses, a Royal Exchange, and +some very large buildings for stores. A spacious new jail is building in a +most commodious situation, and a public court house will soon follow; the +one existing being but small and temporary. The new customhouse, which has +been completed since my arrival is a fine building, and forms one side of +the Market Square. In front of this, and about four hundred yards distant, +stands the wharf. Melbourne rejoices likewise in its theatre, or, as it is +called, "_pavilion_," which place of amusement, however, the governor does +not think proper to license. His refusal is, I believe, very properly +founded upon the questionable condition of the morals of the great body of +the population. Two hours at the police-office any morning, afford a +stranger a tolerably clear insight into this subject generally, and +acquaint him particularly with the over-night deportment of the +Melbournese. The police magistrate holds any thing but a sinecure. We have +three newspapers in Melbourne, namely, _The Patriot_, _The Herald_, and +_Gazette_, each published twice a-week; the first on Monday and Thursday, +the second on Tuesday and Friday, the third on Wednesday and Saturday; so +that we have a newspaper every day. The advertisements are numerous and +varied in matter. I have heard upon good authority that the proprietor of +any one of these journals draws at least L4000 to L5000 per annum from the +profits of them. It is not difficult to account for these enormous gains. +Every thing here is sold by auction, and the advertisements are in +consequence more numerous than they would otherwise be. An auctioneer +alone, in good business, will pay each of the papers about L1000 per annum +for printing and advertising his numerous sales. We have a supreme court +with a suitable establishment of officers. John Walpole Willis, Esq., was +resident judge. He is now amongst you, for, by the slip which carries this +letter, he starts for England, circumstances having occurred that render +it necessary for him to vindicate in person a character which requires no +vindication. The people of Melbourne part with the upright and learned +judge with infinite regret, softened only by the certain hope they +entertain of his immediate return. The resident judge holds civil courts +as in England during the several terms, and criminal courts of general +jail-delivery every month. The pleadings are conducted by barristers at +law, who have been duly admitted in England, Ireland, Scotland, or Isle of +Man. The agents or attorneys and solicitors are those duly admitted at +Sydney, at courts of Westminster in England, High Courts in Ireland, and +_writers to her Majesty's Signet in Scotland_. Others who may have served +a regular apprenticeship of not less than five years to any such agent, +after undergoing a necessary examination, are likewise suffered to +practise as attorneys. The supreme court has been established about twelve +months. Before that time all suits were carried on in Sydney. Conveyances +of land may be prepared by any one, and, before professional men appeared +amongst the settlers, there were some rare specimens of deeds in this +branch of English law. Now they are of course better--and those to which I +have adverted have fortunately paved the way for endless litigation. We +have a sprinkling of military and mounted police; two very large steam +mills for grinding flour and sawing timber; and in a word, all the +concomitants of a large and flourishing city. I should, however, except +the public streets. These are still unpaved, and consequently in wet +weather, in some places, impassable, and in dry weather insufferably dusty. +I have spoken of the sudden squalls which arise often in the Bay. Whilst +one of these prevails, clouds of dust are carried from the streets so +dense that you cannot see half a yard before you. If you are exposed to +the whirlwind, and chance to wear clothes of a dark colour, you issue from +it with the appearance of a man who has been confined in a mill for a week. +A house of furniture well cleaned in the morning, looks at dinner-time as +if it had been coated with dirt for a twelvemonth. Should there be a +sudden mortality among the ladies of Port Philip, it will undoubtedly be +occasioned by this warfare with the dirt, which is carried forward day +after day without any prospect of retreat on either side. + +Having read thus far, you will very likely tap the floor impatiently with +your foot, and say--if you have not said it already--"Well, but what is +the fellow about himself?" Patience, gentle Christopher. I will tell you +now. Upon my arrival with a pocket, as you are aware, not very +inconveniently laden, I kept of course "my eye ahead" for any thing +suitable in the farming way; sheep-stock or cattle. But it would not do. +_Capital_ was required to get a sheep-station, and employment as an +overseer, in consequence of the depression that existed in the markets +_for all kinds of stock_, altogether hopeless. No man is idle here longer +than he can help it, unless he have the wherewithal to look to; and there +are fifty modes of gaining bread here, if a man will turn to them? What +could a briefless barrister do better than throw himself upon the law? I +smelled out the attorneys to begin with. The first with whom I came in +contact was one Mr ----, from a northern county in England. He had been +here only three years, and was already rattling about in his carriage. He +arrived without a shoe to his foot, or a sixpence in his pocket. Another +was my old and respected friend Mr ----, writer to the signet, of +Edinburgh, who had been here about eighteen months, was living like a +gentleman, and on the point of entering a fine new dwelling-house, which +he had himself erected out of his own honourable gains. Upon him I waited, +and from his kindness I obtained all the information I stood in need of; +and not only this, but immediate profitable employment in his office, +which, with his leave, I hold until something offers--whether I shall +claim admission as attorney, solicitor, and proctor, as some have done +before me, or resort to my old calling of advocate, is as yet an undecided +question. I am now in the receipt of more than is necessary for +subsistence, and I shall look before I leap. The rents of houses are +extravagantly high. The poorest tradesmen pay fifteen shillings a-week for +his small house--and he must pay it weekly; the better class of tradesmen +pay twenty and twenty-five shillings, and the higher class from two to +four pounds a-week; for a petty dwelling containing only three rooms and a +kitchen. A small brick cottage held by a friend of mine, and consisting of +sitting-room, bed-room, servant's room, and kitchen, is considered a great +bargain at a hundred pounds per annum. The hours of business are limited +with strictness to seven--_videlicit_, from nine in the morning until four +P.M. You are your own master after four o'clock, and need fear no +business-calls or interruptions. Whilst business, however, is going on, +the excitement and bustle compel me to regard Cheapside on a Saturday +afternoon, as a place of great quietness and an agreeable promenade. +Fellows are riding as hard as they can tear from one end of the town to +the other--cattle are driving to and fro--bullock-drays are crowding from +the interior with wood--auctions are eternally at work--settlers are +coming from their stations, or getting their provisions in. Tradesmen and +mercantile men are hurry-skurrying with their orders. A vast amount of +work is done up to four o'clock, and afterwards all is silence, and the +place looks unlike nothing so much as itself; and yet, notwithstanding all +this bustle, _money_ is altogether out of the question. From what exact +cause or series of causes, I cannot tell you now--but the fact is certain +that the mercantile community here is nearly _bankrupt_. There is a glut +of goods, a superabundance of every thing in the market. It has been +wrongfully supposed in England that every thing would sell here, and the +consequence has been that an overflow of every kind of commodity has +poured in upon us. The supply has doubled and trebled the demand. Upon the +first establishment of these settlements the wants of the people were of +course many, and their prices for stock were so good, and their +speculations in land so profitable and bright, that they could afford the +indulgence of a luxury, no matter what price was asked to purchase it. It +is very different _now_. The staple commodity of this colony is wool. Well, +so long as all the stations or sheep-runs continued unoccupied, and new +settlers arrived, the price of sheep kept naturally very high; but every +station that can command a due supply of water, is now in occupation, and +consequently the demand for stock has ceased. Sheep, which three years ago +sold for twenty-five and eighteen shillings, command now, for first +quality, eight shillings and sixpence only; ordinary quality, six +shillings; and middling as low as five shillings. For cash sale by +sheriff-warrant, I have seen beautiful ewes, free from all disease--2000 +of them--sold for two and sixpence each! Cattle three years ago sold for +ten, twelve, and sometimes fifteen pounds per head. At this moment they +are so plentiful that I could purchase a drove of fat cattle, two to three +hundred head--and some of them weighing eighty stone--for eight pounds a +beast, and that on credit too by approved bill at four months' date. Such +are a few of the reasons why a damper has come over the Port Philip market, +reducing amongst other things the price of wages by nearly a third. +Emigrants continue to pour in, and they stare and are grievously +disappointed at the rate of wages, so very different to that which they +expected. Twelve months since, a single labouring man got forty pounds per +annum, with weekly rations of provisions; now with his rations, he +receives only twenty-five, or at most thirty pounds per annum. Married men +with young families will not be hired at any rate, for they are only +burdens on a station. A good thorough-bred shepherd maintains his price. +He is still in great demand, and may command from sixty to seventy pounds +per annum, with rations, cow's milk, free hut, and a portion of produce of +stock in addition to all, if he chooses to put his wages to that mode of +profit. Women servants were formerly much wanted. They are now at a +discount. The filthy drabs ejected from Ireland are scarcely worth their +meat. I am proud to say it, and you should be proud to hear it, gentle +Christopher, that a Scotch servant, male or female, is forty per cent +above every other in value in this colony. Scotch servants get ahead in +spite of every thing. The Scotch tradesmen have almost all of them made +money; some abundantly. I have met many here from the North who brought +nothing but their energy, moderation, and unconquerable perseverance with +them, and they are affluent, and are becoming daily more so. Donald ----, +who was a servant lad at home, and is now a respected and respectable man +in Melbourne, is independent. He went first to Van Diemen's Land, and came +here some three years ago. "And had you arrived," he said to me the other +day, "at the same time, you might now have been moving home a prosperous +gentleman." However, _nil desperandum_. There is still a fair opportunity +for an industrious man, who above all things has resolution to be SOBER in +his habits. The mischief with the labouring man has been, that having +suddenly discovered his wages to be high in comparison with those he +received in the mother country, he has considered himself entitled to have +a proportionate extra amount of enjoyment at the public-house, where drink +is very high. Good tradesmen would infallibly make money, but for this +great failing. The bullock dray-drivers, certainly the best paid of all +the working men, absolutely think nothing of coming from the Bush into +Melbourne, with twenty or thirty pounds in their pocket, and spending +every farthing of the sum--in _one night_--champagne to the mast-head. The +innkeepers make fortunes rapidly. Shall I tell how much Boniface will draw +in a week? No--for you will not believe me. Certainly as much as many an +innkeeper in a country town would draw in twelve months. An innkeeper's +license to Government is thirty pounds per annum. This entitles him to +keep his house open from six in the morning until eleven o'clock at night; +ten pounds more enables him to have open house during the night; and an +additional ten pounds enables him to keep a billiard table. There are a +great many houses with tables and a number of light houses; but, as I have +hinted before, our police courts exhibit abominations, and a police court +is a good criterion of the morals of a people. In the first formation and +early beginnings of this colony, a man having sheep took up his abode in +the interior, on any spot which he considered suitable and agreeable, and +he was called a _squatter_. Now no individual may pasture sheep or cattle +of any kind without receiving a license from Government, for which he pays +ten pounds annually, and making a return every year of all his stock, +servants, and increase--the license, by the way, not being available +within three miles of Melbourne. The holder of such a license is called a +_settler_. A settler is entitled to cut wood upon his own station or run, +for firing for himself and servants; but if he cut it for sale--and we +have no coal here--he pays, in addition to the ten pounds, three pounds +more per annum for the permission so to do. + +You shall now receive a faithful account of the settling of a settler. +Suppose him to have a station in the interior, or as it is invariably +styled, "in the _Bush_." The distance is forty, fifty, or it may be eighty, +miles from Melbourne, and the stock consists of from four to five thousand +sheep, and from one to two hundred head of cattle. The settler, in all +probability, has been accustomed in early life to good society, has been +well educated and brought up. Living at his station he sees none but his +own servants, his _chere amie_, (always a part of a settler's stock,) and +perhaps a few black natives, not unfrequently hostile visitors. Business +calls the settler to Melbourne; he puts up at his inn; any thing in the +shape of society rejoices his heart, and forthwith he begins "the lark;" +he dines out--gets fuddled, returns to his inn, finds a city friend or two +waiting for him, treats them to champagne, of which, at ten shillings per +bottle, they drink no end. Very well. His horse is in the stable at seven +shillings and sixpence a-night, his own bill varies from six to eight +pounds per diem, and at the end of a fortnight my settler is called upon +to hand over a cheque upon his banker to the tune of a hundred pounds, or, +if he has no bank-account, his promissory note at a very short date. Away +starts the settler back to his solitude; he has given his bill, and he +thinks no more about it; but the bill finds its way quickly into the hands +of an attorney, and in eight days there is an execution out for recovery, +with an addition of ten pounds already incurred in legal expenses. The +sheriff's bailiff rides to the station and demands payment of the whole. +He gets no money, but settler and bailiff return in company to Melbourne: +a friend is applied to; he discounts a bill for the sum required. The +attorney is paid the amount by the hands of the sheriff. The bill once +more becomes due, and is once more dishonoured; expenses run up like +wildfire. This time there is no escape, and a portion of the stock must be +sold to avoid ruin--and it is sold sometimes at a fearful sacrifice. This +is no insulated case. It is the history of nine-tenths of the thoughtless +fellows who dwell away in the Bush. Such gentlemen at the present hour, in +consequence of the depressed state of the stock market, are all but ruined. +Any one of them, who twelve months since purchased his flock of two +thousand sheep at eighteen or five-and-twenty shillings, can only reckon +upon a fourth of the amount in value _now_. It is increase only that +enables him to pay his servants, and he has as much off the wool as +affords him the means of living. The sale of his wethers would not pay for +the tear and wear of bullocks and drays; and if any profit does by any +chance arise, it can be only from occasionally catching a few head of +cattle, which, as they run wild in the woods, the settler can keep no +account of, and only with difficulty secure when they come to a lagoon for +water, where they are watched, because at one time or another they are +certain to appear. Horses are very dear in Melbourne: a useless brute, +which in England would be dear at ten pounds, sells here quickly for +thirty; a good saddle horse will fetch a hundred, and I have seen some +tolerable cart horses sold for fifty and sixty pounds. In a new colony, +where almost all the draught is performed by bullocks, cart horses must +realize a good price. The hire of a horse and cart in Melbourne is, one +pound four shillings for the day. + +In addition to those above spoken of there is another class of settlers, +who were the original stock-holders and land-purchasers in the district. +They have large tracts of country in the Bush, and thousands of sheep and +cattle on then, and all managed by servants and overseers. These +proprietors live at the clubs in Melbourne and constitute what is here +termed the _elite_ of society. A short time ago these gentlemen +entertained the pleasing notion, that there was to be no termination to +the increase and extent of their wealth; and one very young member of the +society was heard to exclaim, in apparent agony at his excessive good +fortune, "upon my soul, I am become most disgustingly rich." But mark the +difference The _elite_ have been living in the most extravagant manner. +They discounted bills at their own pleasure here at ten per cent; and +knowing well that these bills would not be honoured at maturity, they sent +them to London, and cashed them there: with the funds thus raised, they +speculated in the buying of land and stock, hoping to get (as in many +instances they did) at least eighty per cent profit by their transactions. +But now stock has fallen to a trifle; bills are falling due, rushing back +from England under protest--and the bubble bursts. The banks are drawing +in their accommodation, and the _elite_, who were a short time back so +disgustingly rich, are, whilst I write, most disgustingly poor. This is no +imaginative statement; it is a sober fact. But I do not suppose that the +present state of things will last long. Speculation and the rate of +interest must come down. When the human body is disordered, it is a happy +time for the doctor; when the body mercantile is diseased, it is the +attorney's harvest time. If an attorney has any business at all, he must +do well in Melbourne, for his fees are inordinately high. Protesting a +bill is five-and-twenty shillings; noting, half-a-guinea; every letter +demanding payment of account, if under twenty pounds, half-a-guinea; above +twenty and under a hundred pounds, one guinea; above a hundred, two +guineas. Every summons (a summons being a short printed form) before the +supreme court, is charged six guineas; and the clients pay down at once, +without any questions, too glad to do so, provided they can get rid of +their temporary difficulties. Litigation is short and quick. Conveyancing +is downright profit; a deed, however short, conveying a piece of land, +however trifling, costs five guineas. There are no stamps, and the work is +done in an hour. More valuable properties are conveyed by a deed generally +charged nine guineas. My friend ---- has drawn twelve such deeds in his +office in the course of one day; and with these eyes I have seen him earn +six guineas in as many minutes, by appearing at the police-office when a +dispute has arisen between a master and his servant. All quarrels of this +kind are arranged at the police-office, when the amount of wages received +by the servant does not exceed thirty pounds annually. An attorney with +brains cannot fail to get ahead. He has only to use dispatch, and to begin +and continue in one even and undeviating course. Our barristers are few in +number. There are but four of then. There is still a glorious field for a +barrister of talent, and especially if he be conversant with the nicer +points of conveyancing. Any clever barrister up to the business and a good +speaker, might rely upon making immediately at least a thousand a-year; +the community are looking and waiting for such a man. A fellow with no +capital and no profession had better not show his face in Melbourne. It is +a thousand to one against him. Compared to his position that of a labourer +is an enviable one; yet any respectable and intelligent man tolerably well +educated, coming here with four or five hundred pounds in his pocket, may +certainly, in a couple of years, and in twenty different ways, treble that +capital. The best and most promising is the following:--Buy in any +_growing_ part of the town of Melbourne, a small piece of town allotment. +This will cost fifty pounds, upon this you may erect two small brick +cottages, containing each two rooms and a kitchen, and well fitted for a +respectable tradesman. Two hundred and forty pounds will build them up; +thus the whole expense of cottages and ground is two hundred and ninety +pounds at most. Each cottage will, for a moral certainty, let for one +pound five shillings per week, and thus return you a clear rental of +sixty-four pounds per annum, for the sum of one hundred and forty-four +pounds laid out. Some capitalists are not long in discovering this mode of +adding to their fortunes, and it is not surprising that such men, with +ease, get speedily rich. Many individuals are personally known to me who +arrived here with small means a few years back, and who are now receiving +an income of fifteen hundred pounds a-year from houses, which they have +raised upon their profits and by not slow degrees. Their returns are +certain for, mark you, every tradesman pays his rent every Monday morning, +there is no delay. If it be not paid the hour it is due, the landlord is +empowered by law to send a bailiff to the house, to keep him there at an +expense to the tenant of three shillings per day--and to request him, at +the end of five days, to sell off the goods and chattels provided the +demand is still unsatisfied. I know no better investment for capital, be +it large or small, than that of which I speak. There are no taxes, no +ground-rents, and the tenant is bound to keep his premises in repair. If a +mistake has been made in the building of houses, it is because some have +overshot the mark, and built dwellings that are _too large for the +purposes required_; these large houses cost a large sum of money, and +neither let readily nor nearly so high in proportion, as the smaller +houses occupied by the working-classes. + +I am unable to give you an accurate notion of the general appearance of +the country. Speaking in broad terms it is wooded, but not so densely as +on the Sydney side, Van Diemen's Land, or New Zealand. The peculiar and +beautiful feature of this country is the open plain which is found at +every ten or twelve miles spreading itself over a surface not less than +three miles in length and half the distance in breadth. It is as smooth as +a lawn. A magnificent tree rears itself to a great height here and there +upon the sward, on either side of which appears a natural park, the finest +that taste could fashion or art could execute. Nature has done in fact +what no art could accomplish. Gaze upon these grounds, and for a moment +imagine that the enormous bullocks before you, with their fearful horns, +are a gigantic herd of deer, and you have a sight that England, famous for +her parks, shall in vain attempt to rival. But against this royal +scene--set off a melancholy drawback, one which I fear may never be made +good even by the ingenuity and indomitable energy of man. The land has an +awful want of _spring water_. There are a few small holes, called lagoons, +the remains of ancient rivers, met with now and then; and strange to say, +one of such holes will be found to contain salt sea-water, whilst another, +within a very few yards of it, has water quite fresh, or nearly so. In the +former are found large seafish, such as cod, mullet, sea-carp, and a fish +similar to our perch. I an speaking of holes discovered at a distance of a +hundred and twenty miles from the sea, and having no visible communication +with it. In several districts there are large rivers, but their course is +uncertain, and it is impossible to say that any one river empties itself +into the sea. Goulburn is a fine river, and ninety miles from this on the +banks of that river, are found very large lobsters, and other shell-fish. +To stand on an eminence, and to cast your eye down into the valley beyond +and beneath you, is to have an enjoyment which the ardent lover of nature +alone can appreciate. Far as the eye can look, there is uninterrupted +harmony. Splendid plains covered with the fleecy tribe, and here and there +(alas! only but _here_ and _there_) a speck of water, enough to vindicate +nature from the charge of utter neglect--and no more. A glance thrown in +another direction brings to your view an endless tract of country deprived +even of these solitary specks, where the grass grows as high as your knee, +and where no man dare take his flocks and herds for lack of the sweet +element. If the surface of this land were blessed with spring water as +England is, the wealth of this colony would surpass the calculation of any +living man. As it is, who can tell the ultimate effect of this important +deprivation? There are one or two stations, on which spring water has been +discovered, but it is a rare discovery, and dearly prized. In Melbourne +we have no water, but such as is carted by the water barrel carters from +the river _Yarra-Yarra_. Every house has its barrel or hogshead for +holding water. The _Yarra-Yarra_ water is brackish, and causes dysentery. +The complaint is now prevailing. In many parts of the interior puddle +holes are made, and water is thus secured from the heavy rain that falls +in the early part of summer. Water saved in this manner never becomes +putrid. The leaves of the gum-tree fall into the pool abundantly, and not +only give to the water a very peculiar flavour, but preserve it from all +putrefaction. This gum water is safest when boiled with a little tea, and +drunk cold. Every settler in the Bush drinks water in no other way, +and--for want of better things--he takes tea and fresh mutton at least +three times a-day. His bread is a lump of flour and water rolled into a +ball, and placed in hot ashes to bake. The loaf is called "_a damper_." +The country, as far as I have seen it, bears evident marks of great +volcanic change. You meet with a stone, round like a turnip, as hard as +iron, like rusty iron in appearance, and on the outside honey-combed. +There are large beds of it for miles. You then come to the flat country +where the soil surpasses any thing you can conceive in richness, fit for +any cultivation under heaven, and upwards of fifteen feet in depth. Before +I quitted London, I heard that the climate of Australia was fine and +equable, seldom varying, and well suited to a delicate constitution. I am +satisfied that many consumptive persons _live_ here, who in Scotland would +be carried off in a month. You seldom hear a person cough. In church I +have listened in vain for a single _hoste_; no, not even before the +commencement of a psalm do you find the _haughting_ and _clachering_ that +are indispensable in England. All pipes are clear as bell. I noticed this +as a phenomenon on my first arrival. We are now, as you would say, in the +dead of winter; a strange announcement to a British ear in the month of +July. The air is chill in the morning and evening, before sunrise and +after sunset, but during the day the weather is as fine as on the finest +September day in Scotland. Notwithstanding what I have said, I would not +have you ground any theory upon my remarks as yet--or deceive Sir James +Clark, and the rest of the medical gentlemen, who are looking on all sides +of the world for a climate for their hopeless invalids. I have stated +facts, but those which follow are no less authentic. On the 30th and 31st +of December last, the thermometer at the observatory stood in the shade at +70 deg. and 72 deg. noon. On the 1st of January at noon, and up to three +o'clock, P.M., it stood in the shade at 92 deg. and 93 deg. On the 2d it +rose to 95 deg. at noon, and fell at sunset, eight P.M., to 69 deg. In the +middle of the foresaid month of December the thermometer was 86 deg. at +breakfast time, and before dinner down to 63 deg. These memoranda, gained +from undoubted sources, would show the climate--in summer at least--to be +more variable than my reference proves it; yet I am told that even in +summer time you hear of little sickness amongst grown up people. New +comers suffer from dysentery, and children are attacked in the same way. I +have had two visitations, from which I rallied in the course of four and +twenty hours, with the aid of arrow root, port wine, and laudanum. A free +use of vegetables is always dangerous to strangers, and they are obtained +here in perfection. The weather is too hot for apples, pears, and +gooseberries in the summer. Grapes and other English hot-house fruits come +to delicious maturity in the open air. The melons are inconceivably +exquisite, and grow, as they were wont in Paradise before the fall, +without care or trouble spent upon them. The seed is put into the earth; a +little water is given to it at that time, and the thing is done--"_c'est +un fait accompli_." Potatoes grow at any season of the year, and +cauliflowers and turnips spring up almost in a night like mushrooms. There +are some five farms in cultivation around Melbourne, and the crops of +wheat are very fair in quality but fall off in quantity. Thirty bushels +per acre is considered a good crop. Oats grow too much to straw, and are +generally cut in the slot blade, winnowed, and carted to Melbourne and +sold for hay. Rye-grass hay does not answer, and clover is not more +successful; but vetches have just been introduced on a small scale, and +nothing yet grown has succeeded so well as green food for horses and cows. +Hay of fine quality is brought from Van Diemen's Land, but it is very dear. +A cart load of good oaten hay sells here for about forty-five shillings. +Van Diemen's Land hay is at present eleven guineas per ton. + +The aboriginal natives of this colony are a very savage race, and all the +efforts hitherto made by missionaries, protectors, and others, have never +given promise or warrant of effectual civilization. The males are tall, +and of fierce aspect; the skin and hair are exceedingly black--the latter +very smooth. In many instances, the features are striking and good. The +women are slender, and during the summer, naked; in winter, the females in +the immediate neighbourhood procure clothes from the inhabitants of +Melbourne, and cut, as you may suppose, a very original figure. Nothing +will induce the natives to work. They live in the Bush, and the bark of a +large tree forms their habitation. There are three distinct tribes around +us in a circuit of about a hundred miles, and the difference of features +amongst these tribes is easily observed. The three tribes speak three +different languages unintelligible to one another. They meet at different +periods of the year, and hold what they term a "_corroborice_,"--that +is--a dance. Their bodies on these occasions are covered with oil, red +paint, and green leaves. I have seen two hundred at a meeting, but they +assemble double that number at times. The festival concludes in pitched +battle. There is a grand fight with clubs, or arrows and spears. Three or +four are generally killed in the onslaught, and as many of the survivors +as are fortunate enough to get a bite, feast upon the fat of the victims' +hearts. This fat is their richest dainty. Those who are able to form an +opinion on the subject, pronounce the aborigines of this colony to be +_cannibals_. Many of their children disappear, and it is generally +supposed that they are devoured by their friends and acquaintances. In +many districts of the interior, the blacks have lately committed many +depredations amongst the sheep, and many of the devils are shot without +judge or jury. Two natives are now in the jail of Melbourne under sentence +of death, for committing a dreadful murder upon two sailors who were cast +ashore from a whaler. These savages had been for thirteen years under the +instruction of a protector and others. They belonged originally to Van +Diemen's Land, but migrated to a part of this colony called Portland Bay. +They spoke English quite well, yet, notwithstanding all their advantages, +they perpetrated this cruel and cold-blooded murder, and then cunningly +hid the bodies in the ground. They were detected by the merest chance, in +consequence of their having in possession of a few articles which had +formerly belonged to the unhappy mariners. None of the natives is allowed +to carry fire-arms, and a heavy fine is inflicted upon any individual who +is known to give them spirits. They are passionately fond of spirits, and +next to these of _loaf bread_. The females are called by the males +"_Loubras_," and the males are designated "_Coolies_." There is not +promiscuous cohabitation. When a _Coolie_ reaches the age of twenty-one, +he is allowed to choose his own "_Loubra_." Every male who then takes +unto himself a helpmate, loses a front tooth, which is knocked out of him. +The natives generally tattoo their arms and breasts, but not their faces; +many carry a long white wooden pin, or a feather, pierced through the thin +part of the nose; and they all twist kangaroo teeth and the bones of +fishes more or less in their hair. Every thing small and diminutive they +call "_Pickaninnie_," and any thing very good, "_Merri jig_." Their +language is a queer, rattling, hard-sounding gibberish, incomprehensible +to most people; they speak as fast as possible, laugh immoderately at +trifles, and are excellent mimics. Their own children they stile +"_Pickaninnies_." + +From all that I have seen, I do not hesitate to say, that this country +will prove a splendid field for future generations. At the present time, +no man should venture here who is unprepared for many privations and a +numerous list of annoyances. The common necessaries of life he will +certainly find, but none of his ancient and English luxuries. Society is, +as you may guess, very limited. You may acknowledge an _acquaintance_ with +any one, without committing yourself. To say that you know a man +intimately is hazardous; I mean--a man whose friendship you have +cultivated only since your arrival. There are many whom you have known at +home, and whose friendship it is a pride and a pleasure to renew in your +exile. But, as a general rule, "_keep yourself to yourself_" is a +serviceable adage. If it be attended to--_well_. If it be neglected--you +run your head against a stone in less than no time. + +If any man have a competency, let him not travel hither to _enjoy_ it. If +he has a little money, and desires with a little trouble and inconvenience +to double his capital in the shortest possible space of time--let him come +out, and fearlessly. Living is cheap enough as far as the essentials are +concerned. Butcher meat, not surpassed in any part of England, Scotland, +or Ireland, is to be had at twopence per pound; the fine four pound loaf +for sixpence halfpenny; brown sugar, fourpence; white, sixpence; candles, +sixpence per pound; tea, the finest, three shillings the pound; fresh +butter, one shilling and threepence per pound. Wild fowl in abundance. +Vegetables are cheaper than in any part of England. Wines of moderate +price, but not of good quality. Spirits first-rate, and every kind cheaper +than in England, except whisky, which is seventeen and eighteen shillings +per gallon; very old at twenty-one and twenty-two. The wine most wanted +here is claret. A great deal of it is drunk during the summer, but the +quality of it is bad. Fish are abundant in the river and pools, but the +people will not trouble themselves to catch them. However, for +eighteenpence or two shillings, you may get a good dish of mutteel, carp, +or a small fish called "flatties." I have never seen any of the salmon +tribe, or any fish like a sea or river trout. Wild swans--both black and +white--quails, snipes, cranes, and water-hens, are everywhere abundant, +and in the Bush, the varieties of the parrot kind are out of number. +Kangaroos, opossums, and flying-squirrels, are common near the town, and +afford plenty of amusement to the sportsman. No game license required! +_Sunday_ used to be the tradesman's day for shooting, and to a new comer +the proceeding had a very queer appearance. By act of council, Sunday +shooting is prohibited under a heavy penalty, which has been inflicted on +several transgressors, but, like most laws, this is evaded. _Shooting_ is +forbidden, but _hunting_ is not. Accordingly numerous parties sally forth +on the Sabbath to _hunt_ the kangaroo. The dog used for the sport is a +cross between a rough greyhound and a bull; but others follow in the pack. +Every man, woman, and child, keeps a dog. Some families have eight or nine +running over a house, and the natives have them without number. A few +months ago these animals congregated so thickly in the streets, that the +magistrates directed the police to shoot all that were not registered and +had a collar with the owner's name; as many as fifty were killed in a +morning. It costs nothing to feed a dog; the heads of bullocks and the +heads and feet of sheep are either thrown away or given to any one who +asks for them. The _bone manure system_, if brought into operation, would +help to keep the streets from a bony nuisance. _Memorandum_: Let the next +emigrant to this colony bring a good strong fox-hound bitch with him; he +will find it to his advantage. A cross between her and a Newfoundland or +large greyhound would do any thing. There are a couple of fox-hounds here, +but no bitch. It would do your heart good to see the pace at which the +fellows ride. Twenty miles on horseback they think about as much of as we +do of five. There is nothing to obstruct the animals; they are not even +shod, and they fly over the smooth sward. A hundred and twenty miles is +reckoned a journey of a day and a half. A dray, with eight, ten, or twelve +bullocks in it, according, to load, will travel thirty miles a-day. When +the folks travel, they take no shelter in a house or hut for the night. +When night approaches, they alight, and tie their horses to a stump; they +draw down some of the thick branches of the gum-tree, and peel off the +bark of a large tree, kindle a fire with a match, or, for want of this, +rubbing two sticks together, get up a blaze, and fall to sleep beside it. +If the traveller be accompanied by a dray, the tarpauling, is drawn round, +and he sleeps beneath it. + +Not amongst the least of the annoyances found here are the ants. There are +three species of the insect, and they are all very large. Many of them are +an inch long, and they bite confoundedly. A hand bitten by some of the +monsters will swell to the size of a man's head. Along the coast, and in +every house, smaller ants prevail, and fleas innumerable. The number of +the latter, which you shall find upon your blanket any day of the year, is +literally not to be computed. No house is free from this little disturber, +who spares neither age nor sex. I have stood upon the sea beach adorned +with white trousers, which in less than ten minutes have been covered with +hundreds of the vermin. It is an easy transition from the trousers to the +inner legs. But this is nothing when you are used to it. The _grey horse_ +won't live in the colony. So it is said; at all events none are seen; and +I am very sure that every emigrant ship brings its fair stock. It is a +wise ordination that forbids _their_ settling. The _mawk_ fly is +indigenous, and thrives wonderfully, as you shall hear. This fly is very +like our British bluebottle, with a somewhat greener head, and a body +entirely yellow. I have seen two _mawk_ flies strike (as it seemed) a +joint of meat, just as it was removing from the spit, leaving their fly +blows there. Before the joint had been ten minutes upon the table, small +white mawks were moving upon the surface of the meat in considerable +numbers. If by any chance these animals are suffered to accompany the meat +to the safe or larder, in the course of twenty-four hours the small white +mawks increase to the length of one-eighth of an inch, and are found +crawling in hundreds and moving about, as you have observed the yellow +flies buzzing over the old and rotten carcass of a horse that has been +exposed for weeks. In the winter these creatures are, of course, less +troublesome than in summer. Wire meat-covers are in constant use during +the latter season. + +Thus far had got in my epistle, when a torrent of ill news rushed in upon +us, and compelled me to delay my scribble. I am sorry to say, that in +addition to the account which I have already given of the depressed state +of the markets, I must add some dismal intelligence. The markets are in a +deplorable state, and so is the mercantile community in general. Every day +there is a fresh bankruptcy, and the heaviest yet has just taken place. I +cannot but believe that if more emigrant laborers come out just now, they +must starve. Any man with ten or fifteen thousand pounds could buy half of +the district for ready cash. The moneyed men are making fearful hauls as +it is. Let emigration stop for a time, and the markets must look up again. +At the present moment every thing is selling cheaper here than in England; +men's wages are down to the ordinary English rate. So long as the banks +afford seven per cent for deposits, moneyed men will lie in wait for +bargains, and until such present themselves, will lock up the capital +which at first was in circulation through the immense speculations in land +and stock. The men who saw no end to speculation are gone and floored, +every one of them. Will you believe that Messrs ---- sent out three +thousand pounds worth of brandy to Sydney, and so glutted the market that +part of the cargo was bought low enough to make it a good spec to reship +it for England. Such is the fact. There never was a better moment than the +present for a _hit_ in land--sheep are at so low a figure, and settlers so +hard run. The former I still believe will gradually rise; for, on the +Sydney side, the process of boiling down sheep for the sake of the tallow, +has commenced, and if it succeed, as I believe it will, the standard value +of a sheep will be fixed at something like eight shillings. So much for +the fleece and skin, so much for the bones, so much for the kidney fat, +and so much for the tallow or fat recovered by boiling the carcass. The +great object of this colony must be to increase the export produce, and to +bring capital in its place. Wool no doubt is, and will prove to be, the +staple commodity; and in time, the settlers will pay more attention to the +getting up of it, and to the packing. But above all they must speedily rid +themselves of their bloodsuckers, a set of men who charge enormous +commissions for anticipated sales, and what not, amounting to thirty and +forty per cent; a sum that is nothing short of utter ruin to a poor fellow +who has nothing but his wool to depend upon. Had Judge Willis remained +amongst us, he would have rooted out whole nests of these hornets. I have +no fear of the ultimate success of the colonist, if they will but be +faithful to themselves. They have a splendid country, and its capabilities +are now only beginning to be known. Before the end of the present year, +our exports will consist of wool, bark, tallow, gum, hides, furs, and last, +although not least, the finest cured beef in the world. If the latter +article of produce is acknowledged as it deserves to be, and finds and +establishes an _eastern_ market, nothing will prevent the colony from +rising to importance. As far as price is concerned, we can compete with +any country in the world. We have no politics in Port Philip. The +community are far better employed in attending to their commercial affairs. +Let them but persevere honestly and prudently in their course, and they +must do well. + +And so much for my first epistle, honoured Christopher. If it afford you +amusement, you shall hear from me again. I have spoken the truth, and have +writ down simple facts. As such, receive them, and communicate them to +your neighbours. And now, with affectionate remembrances to yourself and +all enquiring friends, + + Believe me, + + Reverend Christopher, + + Your grateful and attached, + + JOHN WILLIAM. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE PROPHECY OF THE TWELVE TRIBES. + + "And Jacob called into his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, + that I may tell you _that_ which shall befall you in the last days. + + "Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken + unto Israel your father." + + --GENESIS, xlix. 1, 2, &c. + + + The Patriarch sat upon his bed-- + His cheek was pale, his eye was dim; + Long years of woe had bow'd his head, + And feeble was the giant limb. + And his twelve mighty sons stood nigh, + In grief--to see their father die! + + But, sudden as the thunder-roll, + A new-born spirit fill'd his frame. + His fainting visage flash'd with soul, + His lip was touch'd with living flame; + And burst, with more than prophet fire, + The stream of Judgment, Love, and Ire. + + "REUBEN,[6] thou spearhead in my side, + Thy father's first-born, and his shame; + Unstable as the rolling tide, + A blight has fall'n upon thy name. + Decay shall follow thee and thine. + Go, outcast of a hallow'd line! + + "SIMEON and LEVI,[7] sons of blood + That still hangs heavy on the land; + Your flocks shall be the robber's food, + Your folds shall blaze beneath his brand. + In swamp and forest shall ye dwell. + Be scatter'd among Israel! + + "JUDAH![8] All hail, thou priest, thou king! + The crown, the glory, shall be thine; + Thine, in the fight, the eagle's wing-- + Thine, on the hill, the oil and wine. + Thou lion! nations shall turn pale + When swells thy roar upon the gale. + + "Judah, my son, ascend the throne, + Till comes from heaven the unborn king-- + The prophesied, the mighty one, + Whose heel shall crush the serpent's sting. + Till earth is paradise again, + And sin is dead, and death is slain! + + "Wide as the surges, ZEBULON,[9] + Thy daring keel shall plough the sea; + Before thee sink proud Sidon's sun, + And strong Issachar toil for thee. + Thou, reaper of his corn and oil, + Lord of the giant and the soil! + + "Whose banner flames in battle's van! + Whose mail is first in slaughter gored! + Thou, subtler than the serpent, DAN,[10] + Prince of the arrow and the sword. + Woe to the Syrian charioteer + When rings the rushing of thy spear! + + "Crush'd to the earth by war and woe, + GAD,[11] shall the cup of bondage drain, + Till bold revenge shall give the blow + That pays the long arrear of pain. + Thy cup shall glow with tyrant-gore, + Thou be my Son--and man once more! + + "Loved NAPHTALI,[12] thy snow-white hind + Shall bask beneath the rose and vine. + Proud ASHER, to the mountain wild + Shall star-like blaze, thy battle-sign. + All bright to both, from birth to tomb, + The heavens all sunshine, earth all bloom! + + "JOSEPH,[13] come near--my son, my son! + Egyptian prince, Egyptian sage, + Child of my first and best-loved one, + Great guardian of thy father's age. + Bring EPHRAIM and MANASSEH nigh, + And let me bless them ere I die. + + "Hear me--Thou GOD of Israel! + Thou, who hast been his living shield, + In the red desert's lion-dell, + In Egypt's famine-stricken field, + In the dark dungeon's chilling stone, + In Pharaoh's chain--by Pharaoh's throne. + + "My son, all blessings be on thee, + Be blest abroad, be blest at home; + Thy nation's strength--her living tree, + The well to which the thirsty come; + Blest be thy valley, blest thy hill, + Thy father's GOD be with thee still! + + "Thou man of blood, thou man of might, + Thy soul shall ravin, BENJAMIN.[14] + Thou wolf by day, thou wolf by night, + Rushing through slaughter, spoil, and sin; + Thine eagle's beak and vulture's wing + Shall curse thy nation with a king!" + + Then ceased the voice, and all was still: + The hand of death was on the frame; + Yet gave the heart one final thrill, + And breathed the dying lip one name. + "Sons, let me rest by Leah's side!" + He raised his brow to heaven--and died. + +HAVILAH. + + [6] The privileges of the _first-born_ passed away from the tribe + of Reuben, and were divided among his brethren. The double portion + of the inheritance was given to Joseph--the priesthood to Levi--and + the sovereignty to Judah. The tribe never rose into national power, + and it was the first which was carried into captivity. + + [7] The massacre of the Shechemites was the crime of the two + brothers. For a long period the tribe of Simeon was depressed; and + its position, on the verge of the Amalekites, always exposed it to + suffering. The Levites, though finally entrusted with the + priesthood, had no inheritance in Palestine: they dwelt scattered + among the tribes. + + [8] The tribe of Judah was distinguished from the beginning of the + nation. It led the van in the march to Palestine. It was the first + appointed to expel the Canaanites. It gave the first judge, Othniel. + It was the tribe of David, and, most glorious of all titles, was + the _Tribe of our_ LORD. + + [9] Zebulon was a maritime tribe, its location extending along the + sea-shore, and stretching to the borders of Sidon. The tribe of + Issachar were located in the country afterwards called Lower + Galilee; were chiefly tillers of the soil; were never distinguished + in the military or civil transactions of the nation, and, as they + dwelt among the Canaanites, seem to have habitually served them for + hire. Issachar is characterised as the "strong ass"--a drudge, + powerful but patient. + + [10] The tribe of Dan were remarkable for the daring of their + exploits in war, and not less so for their stratagems. Their great + chieftain Samson, distinguished alike for strength and subtlety, + might be an emblem of their qualities and history. + + [11] Gad; a tribe engaged in continual and memorable conflicts. + + [12] Naphtali and Asher inhabited the most fertile portions of + Palestine. + + [13] The two tribes Ephraim and Manasseh, descended from Joseph, + possessed the finest portion of the land, along both sides of the + Jordan. The united tribes numbered a larger population than any of + the rest. Besides Joshua, five of the twelve judges of Israel were + of the united tribes. In the formation of the kingdom of Israel, an + Ephraimite was the first king. + + [14] The tribe of Benjamin was conspicuous for valour. But its + turbulence and ferocity wrought its fall, in the great battles + recorded in Judges xix. and xx. Saul was of this fierce tribe. It + was finally lost in that of Judah. + + This great prophecy was delivered about three hundred years before + the conquest of Palestine. + + * * * * * + + + + +A BEWAILMENT FROM BATH; + +OR, POOR OLD MAIDS. + + +Mr Editor!--You have a great name with our sex! CHRISTOPHER NORTH is, in +our flowing cups--of Bohea--"freshly remembered." To you, therefore, as to +the Sir Philip Sidney of modern Arcadia, do I address the voice of my +bewailment. Not from any miserable coveting after the publicities of +printing. All I implore of you is, a punch of your crutch into the very +heart of a matter involving the best interests of my sex! + +You, dear Mr Editor, who have your eyes garnished with Solomon's +spectacles about you, cannot but have perceived on the parlour-tables and +book-shelves of your fair friends--by whose firesides you are courted even +as the good knight, and the _Spectator_, by the Lady Lizards of the days +of Anne--a sudden inundation of tabby-bound volumes, addressed, in +supergilt letters, to the "Wives of England"--the "Daughters of +England"--the "Grandmothers of England." A few, arrayed in modest calf or +embossed linen, address themselves to the sober latitudes of the manse or +parsonage-house. Some treat, without _per_mission, of "Woman's +Mission"--some, in defiance of custom, of her "Duties." From exuberant 4to, +down to the fid-fad concentration of 12mo--from crown demy to diamond +editions--no end to these chartered documentations of the sex! The women +of this favoured kingdom of Queen Victoria, appear to have been +unexpectedly weighed in the balance, and found wanting in morals and +manners; or why this sudden emission of codes of morality? + +No one denies, indeed, that woman has, of late, ris' wonderfully in the +market; or that the weaker sex is coming it amazingly strong. The sceptres +of three of the first kingdoms in Europe are swayed by female hands. The +first writer of young France is a woman. The first astronomer of young +England, _idem_. Mrs Trollope played the Chesterfield and the deuce with +the Yankees. Miss Martineau turned the head of the mighty Brougham. +Mademoiselle d'Angeville ascended Mont Blanc, and Mademoiselle Rachel has +replaced Corneille and Racine on their crumbling pedestals. I might waste +hours of your precious time, sir, in perusing a list of the eminent women +now competing with the rougher sex for the laurels of renown. But you know +it all better than I can tell you. You have done honour due, in your time, +to Joanna Baillie and Mrs Jamieson, to Caroline Southey and Miss Ferrier. +You praised Mrs Butler when she deserved it; and probably esteem Mary +Howitt, and Mary Mitford, and all the other Maries, at their just +value--to say nothing of the Maria of Edgworthstown, so fairly worth them +all. I make no doubt that you were even one of the first to do homage to +the Swedish Richardson, Frederika Bremer; though, having sown your wild +oats, you keep your own counsel anent novel reading. + +You will, therefore, probably sympathize in the general amazement, that, +at a moment when the sex is signalizing itself from pole to pole--when a +Grace Darling obtains the palm for intrepidity--when the Honourable Miss +Grimston's _Prayer-Book_ is read in churches--when Mrs Fry, like hunger, +eats through stone walls to call felons to repentance--when a king has +descended from his throne, and a prince from royal highnesshood, to reward +the virtues of the fair partners to whom they were unable to impart the +rights of the blood-royal--when the fairest specimen of modern sculpture +has been supplied by a female hand, and woman, in short, is at a premium +throughout the universe, all this waste of sermonizing should have been +thrown, like a wet blanket, over her shoulders! + +But this is not enough, dear Mr Editor. I wish to direct your attention +towards an exclusive branch of the grievance. I have no doubt that, in +your earlier years, instead of courting your fair friends, as Burns +appears to have done, with copies of your own works, you used to present +unto them the "_Legacy of Dr Gregory to his Daughters_"--or "_Mrs +Chapone's Letters_," or Miss Bowdler's, or Mrs Trimmer's, appropriately +bound and gilt; and thus apprized of the superabundance of prose provided +for their edification, are prepared to feel, with me, that if they have +not Mrs Barbauld and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded by the +frippery tomes which load the counters of our bazars. _This_ perception +has come of itself. If I could _only_ be fortunate enough to enlarge your +scope of comprehension! + +Mr dear Mr Editor, I am what is called a lone woman. Shakspeare, through +whose recklessness originate half the commonplaces of our land's language, +thought proper to define such a condition as "SINGLE BLESSEDNESS"--though +he aptly enough engrafts it on a thorn! For my part, I cannot enough +admire the theory of certain modern poets, that an angel is an ethereal +being, composed by the interunion in heaven, of two mortals who have been +faithfully attached on earth--and as to "blessedness" being ever "single," +either in this world or the next, I do not believe a word about the matter! +"Happiness," Lord Byron assures us, "was born a twin!" + +I do not mean to complain of my condition--far from it. But I wish to say, +that since, from the small care taken by English parents to double the +condition of their daughters, it is clear the state of "single blessedness" +is of higher account in our own "favoured country" than in any other in +Europe; it certainly behoves the guardians of the public weal to afford +due protection and encouragement to spinsters. + +Every body knows that Great Britain is the very fatherland of old maids. +In Catholic countries, the superfluous daughters of a family are disposed +of in convents and _beguinages_, just as in Turkey and China they are, +still more humanely, drowned. In certain provinces of the east, pigs are +expressly kept, to be turned into the streets at daybreak, for the purpose +of devouring the female infants exposed during the night--thus +benevolently securing them from the after torments of single "blessedness." + +But a far nobler arrangement was made by that greatest of modern +legislators, Napoleon--whose code entitles the daughters of a house to +share, equally with sons, in its property and bequeathments; and in France, +a woman with a dowery is as sure of courtship and marriage, as of death +and burial. Nay, so much is marriage regarded among the French as the +indispensable condition of the human species, that parents proceed as +openly to the task of procuring a proper husband for their daughter, as of +providing her with shoes and stockings. No false delicacy--no pitiful +manoeuvres! The affair is treated like any other negotiation. It is a mere +question of two and two making four, which enables two to make one. How +far more honest than the angling and trickery of English +match-making--which, by keeping men constantly on the defensive, +predisposes them against attractions to which they might otherwise give +way! However, as I said before, I do not wish to complain of my condition. + +I only consider it hard that the interests of the wives of England are to +be exclusively studied, when the unfortunate females who lack the +consolations of matronhood are in so far greater want of sustainment; and +that all the theories of the perfectionizement of the fair sex now issuing +from the press, should purport to instruct young ladies how to qualify +themselves for wives, and wives how to qualify themselves for heaven; and +not a word addressed, either in the way of exhortation, remonstrance, or +applause, to the highly respectable order of the female community whose +cause I have taken on myself to advocate. Have not the wives of England +husbands to whisper wisdom into their ears? Why, then, are _they_ to be +coaxed or lectured by tabby-bound volumes, while _we_ are left neglected +in a corner? _Our_ earthly career, the Lord he knows, is far more +trying--_our_ temptations as much greater, as our pleasures are less; and +it is mortifying indeed to find our behavior a thing so little worth +interference. We may conduct ourselves, it seems, as indecorously as we +think proper, for any thing the united booksellers of the United Kingdom +care to the contrary! + +Not that I very much wonder at literary men regarding the education of +wives as a matter of moment. The worse halves of Socrates, Milton, Hooker, +have been thorns in their sides, urging them into blasphemy against the +sex. But is this a reason, I only ask you, for leaving, like an +uncultivated waste, that holy army of martyrs, the spinsterhood of Great +Britain? + +Mr Editor, act like a man! Speak up for us! Write up for us! Tell these +little writers of little books, that however they may think to secure +dinners and suppers to themselves, by currying favour with the rulers of +the roast, _the greatest of all women have been_ SINGLE! Tell them of our +Virgin Queen, Elizabeth--the patroness of their calling, the protectress +of learning and learned men. Tell them of Joan of Arc, the conqueror of +even English chivalry. Tell them of all the tender mercies of the _Soeurs +de Charite_! Tell them that, from the throne to the hospital, the spinster, +unharassed by the cares of private life, has been found most fruitful in +public virtue. + +Then, perhaps, you will persuade them that we are worth our schooling; and +the "Old Maids of England" may look forward to receive a tabby-bound +manual of their duties, as well as its "Wives." I have really no patience +with the selfish conceit of these married women, who fancy their +well-doing of such importance. See how they were held by the +ancients!--treated like beasts of burden, and denied the privilege of all +mental accomplishment. When the Grecian matrons affected to weep over the +slain, after some victory of Themistocles, the Athenian general bade them +"dry their tears, and practise a single virtue in atonement of all their +weaknesses." It was to their single women the philosophers of the portico +addressed their lessons; not to the domestic drudges, whom they considered +only worthy to inspect the distaffs of their slaves, and produce sons for +the service of the country. + +In Bath, Brighton, and other spinster colonies of this island, the demand +for such a work would be prodigious. The sale of canary-birds and poodles +might suffer a temporary depression in consequence; but this is +comparatively unimportant. Perhaps--who knows--so positive a recognition +of our estate as a definite class of the community, might lead to the long +desiderated establishment of a lay convent, somewhat similar to the +_beguinages_ of Flanders, though less ostensibly subject to religious +law--a convent where single gentlewomen might unite together in their +meals and devotions, under the government of a code of laws set forth in +their tabby-bound Koran. + +Methinks I see it--a modern temple of Vesta, without its tell-tale +fires--square, rectangular, simple, airy, isolated--chaste as Diana and +quiet as the grave--the frescoed walls commemorating the legend of Saint +Ursula and her eleven thousand--the sacrifice of Jephtha's +daughter--Elizabeth Carter translating Epictetus--Harriet Martineau +revising the criminal code. In the hall, dear Editor, should hang the +portrait of Christopher North--in that locality, appropriately, a Kit-cat! + +Ponder upon this! The distinction is worthy consideration. As the +newspapers say, it is an "unprecedented opportunity for investment!" For +the sole Helicon of the institution shall be--"Blackwood's Entire" its +lady abbess-- + +Your humble servant to command, +(for the old maids of England,) + + TABITHA GLUM. + _1st Jan. 1844. + Lansdowne, Bath._ + + * * * * * + + + + +MARSTON; OR, THE MEMOIRS OF A STATESMAN. + +PART VIII. + + "Have I not in my time heard lions roar? + Have I not heard the sea, puft up with wind, + Rage like an angry boar chafed with sweat? + Have I not heard great ordnance in the field, + And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies? + Have I not in the pitched battle heard + Loud 'larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?" + SHAKSPEARE. + + +The action was a series of those grand manoeuvres in which the Prussians +excelled all the other troops of Europe. From the spot on which I stood, +the whole immense plain, to the foot of the defiles of Argonne, was +visible; but the combat, or rather the succession of combats, was fought +along the range of hills at the distance of some miles. These I could +discover only by the roar of the guns, and by an occasional cloud of smoke +rising among the trees. The chief Prussian force stood in columns in the +plain below me, in dark masses, making an occasional movement in advance +from time to time, or sending forth a mounted officer to the troops in +action. Parks of artillery lay formed in the spaces between the columns, +and the baggage, a much more various and curious sight than the troops, +halting in the wide grounds of what seemed some noble mansion, had already +begun to exhibit the appearance of a country fair. Excepting this busy +part of the scene, few things struck me as less like what I had conceived +of actual war, than the quietness of every thing before and around me. The +columns might nearly as well have been streets of rock; and the engagement +in front was so utterly lost to view in the forest, that, except for the +occasional sound of the cannon, I might have looked upon the whole scene +as the immense picture of a quiet Flemish holiday. The landscape was +beautiful. Some showery nights had revived the verdure, of which France +has so seldom to boast in autumn; and the green of the plain almost +rivalled the delicious verdure of home. The chain of hills, extending for +many a league, was covered with one of the most extensive forests of the +kingdom. The colours of this vast mass of foliage were glowing in all the +powerful hues of the declining year, and the clouds, which slowly +descended upon the horizon, with all the tinges of the west burning +through their folds, appeared scarcely more than a loftier portion of +those sheets of gold and purple which shone along the crown of the hills. + +But while I lingered, gazing on the rich and tranquil luxury of the scene, +almost forgetting that there was war in the world, I was suddenly recalled +to a more substantial condition of that world by the sound of a trumpet, +and the arrival of my troop, who had at length struggled up the hill, +evidently surprised at finding me there, when the suttlers were in full +employment within a few hundred yards below. Their petition was unanimous, +to be allowed to refresh themselves and their horses at this rare +opportunity; and their request, though respectful in its words, yet was so +decisive in its tone, that to comply was fully as much my policy as my +inclination. I mounted my horse, and proceeded, according to the humble +"command" of my brave dragoons. This was a most popular movement--the men, +the very horses, evidently rejoiced. The fatigue of our hard riding was +past in a moment--the riders laughed and sang, the chargers snorted and +pranced; and, when we trotted, huzzaing, into the baggage lines, half +their motley crowd evidently conceived that some sovereign prince was come +in fiery haste to make the campaign. We were received with all the +applause that is given by the suttler to all arrivals with a full purse in +the holsters, and a handsome valise, no matter from what source filled, on +the croupe of the charger. But we had scarcely begun to taste the gifts +that fortune had sent us in the shape of huge sausages and brown +bread--the _luxuries!_ for which the soldier of Teutchland wooes the +goddess of war--than we found ourselves ordered to move off the ground, by +the peremptory mandate of a troop of the Royal Guard, who had followed our +movement, more hungry, more thirsty, and more laced and epauleted than +ourselves. The Hulans tossed their lances; and it had nearly been a +business of cold steel, when their officer rode up, to demand the sword of +the presumptuous mutineer who had thus daringly questioned his right to +starve us. While I was deliberating for a moment between the shame of a +forced retreat, and the awkwardness of taking the bull by the horns, in +the shape of the King's Guard, I heard a loud laugh, and my name +pronounced, or rather roared, in the broadest accents of Germany. My +friend Varnhorst was the man. The indefatigable and good-humoured +Varnhorst, who did every thing, and was every where, was shaking my hand +with the honest grasp of his honest nature, and congratulating me on my +return. + +"We have to do with a set of sharp fellow," said he, "in these French; a +regiment of their light cavalry has somehow or other made its way between +the columns of our infantry, and has been picking up stragglers last night. +The duke, with whom you happen to have established a favouritism that +would make you a chamberlain at the court of Brunswick, if you were not +assassinated previously by the envy of the other chamberlains, or pinked +by some lover of the "_dames d'honneur_," was beginning to be uneasy about +you; and, as I had the peculiar good fortune of the Chevalier Marston's +acquaintance, I was sent to pick him up if he had fallen in honourable +combat in the plains of Champagne, or if any fragment of him were +recoverable from the hands of the peasantry, to preserve it for the family +mausoleum." + +I anxiously enquired the news of the army, and the progress of the great +operation which was then going on. + +"We have beaten every thing before us for these three hours," was the +answer. "The resistance in the plain was slight, for the French evidently +intended to make their stand only in the forest. But the duke has pushed +them strongly on the right flank; and, as you may perceive, the attack +goes on in force." He pointed to the entrance of one of the defiles, where +several columns were in movement, and where the smoke of the firing lay +heavily above the trees. He then laid his watch on the table beside our +champagne flask. "The time is come to execute another portion of my orders. +What think you of following me, and seeing a little of the field." + +"Nothing could delight me more. I am perfectly at your service." + +"Then mount, and in five minutes I shall allow you one of the first +officers in Europe, the Count Clairfait, he is a Walloon, 'tis true, and +has the ill luck to be an Austrian brigadier besides, and, to finish his +misfortune, has served only against the Turks. But for all that, if any +man in the army now in the field is fit to succeed to the command, that +man is the Count Clairfait. I only wish that he were a Prussian." + +"Has he had any thing to do in this campaign?" + +"Every thing that has been done. He has commanded the whole advance guard +of the army; and let me whisper this in your ear--if his advice had been +taken a week ago, we should by this time have been smoking our cigars in +the Palais Royal." + +"I am impatient to be introduced to the Comte; let us mount and ride on." +He looked at his watch again. + +"Not for ten minutes to come. If I made my appearance before him five +minutes in advance of the time appointed by my orders, Clairfait would +order me into arrest if I were his grandmother. He is the strictest +disciplinarian between this and the North Pole." + +"A faultless monster himself, I presume." + +"Nearly so; he has but one fault--he is too fond of the sabre and bayonet. +'Charge,' is his word of command. His school was among the Turks, and he +fights _a la Turque_." + +"I should like him the better for it. That dash and daring is the very +thing for success." + +"Ay, ay--edge and point are good things in their way. But they are the +temptations of the general. Frederick's maxim was--The bullet for the +infantry, the spur for the dragoon. The weight of fire is the true test of +infantry, the rapidity of charge is the true test of cavalry. The business +of a general is manoeuvring--to menace masses by greater masses, to throw +the weight of an army on a flank, to pierce a centre while the flanks were +forced to stand and see it beaten; these were Frederick's lessons to his +staff: and if Clairfait shall go on, with his perpetual hand to hand work, +those sharp Frenchmen will soon learn his trade, and perhaps pay him back +in his own coin. But, Halt squadron. Dress--advance in parade order." + +While I was thus taking my first tuition in the art of heroes, we had rode +through a deep ravine, from which, with some difficulty, we had struggled +our way to a space of more level ground. Our disorder on reaching it, +required all the count's ready skill to bring us into a condition fit for +the eye of this formidable Austrian. But before we were complete, a group +of mounted officers were seen coming from a column of glittering lances +and sabres, resting on the distant verge of the plain. My friend +pronounced the name of Clairfait, and I was introduced to the officer who +was afterwards to play so distinguished a part in the gallant and +melancholy history of the Flemish fields. I had pictured to myself the +broad, plump face of the Walloon. I say a countenance, darkened probably +by the sultry exposure of his southern campaigns, but of singular depth +and power. It was impossible to doubt, that within the noble forehead +before me, was lodged an intelligence of the first order. His manners were +cold, yet not uncourteous, and to me he spoke with more than usual +attention. But when he alluded to the proceedings of the day, and was +informed by Varnhorst that the time appointed for his movement was come, I +never saw a more rapid transition from the phlegm of the Netherlander to +the vividness of the man of courage and genius. Waiting with his watch in +his hand for the exact moment appointed in the brief despatch, it had no +sooner arrived than the word was given, and his whole force, composed of +Austrian light infantry and cavalry, moved forward. Nothing could be more +regular than the march for the first half mile; but we then entered a +portion of the forest, or rather its border, thinly scattered over an +extent of broken country: to preserve the regularity of a movement along a +high-road, soon began to be wholly impossible. The officers soon gave up +the attempt in despair, and the troops enjoyed the disorder in the highest +degree. The ground was so intersected with small trenches, cut by the +foresters, that every half dozen yards presented a leap, and the clumps of +bushes made it continually necessary to break the ranks. Wherever I looked, +I now saw nothing but all the animation of an immense skirmish, the use of +sabre and pistol alone excepted. Between two and three thousand cavalry, +mounted on the finest horses of Austria and Turkey, galloping in all +directions, some springing over the rivulets, some dashing through the +thickets, all in the highest spirits, calling out to each other, laughing +at each other's mishaps, their horses in as high spirits as themselves, +bounding, rearing, neighing, springing like deer; trumpets sounding, +standards tossing, officers commanding in tones of helpless authority, to +which no one listened, and at which they themselves often laughed. The +whole, like a vast school broke loose for a holiday; the most joyous, +sportive, and certainly the most showy display that had ever caught my eye. +The view strongly reminded me of some of the magnificent old hunting +pieces by Snyders, the field sports of the Archduke Ferdinand, with the +landscape and horses by Rubens and Jordaens: there we had every thing but +the stag or the boar and the dogs. We had the noble trees, the rich deep +glades, the sunny openings, the masses of green; and all crowded with life. +But how infinitely superior in interest! No holiday sport, nor imperial +pageant, but an army rushing into action; one of the great instruments of +human power and human change called into energy. Thousands of bold lives +about to be periled; a victory about to be achieved, which might fix the +fate of Europe; or perhaps losses to be sustained which might cover the +future generation with clouds; and all this is on the point of being done. +No lazy interval to chill expectancy; within the day, within the hour, nay, +within the next five hundred yards, the decisive moment might be come. + +Still we rushed on; the staff pausing from time to time to listen to the +distant cannonade, and ascertain by its faintness or loudness, the +progress of the attack which had been made on the great centre and right +defiles of the forest. In one of these, while I had ridden up as near as +the broken ground would suffer me, towards Count Clairfait, he made a +gesture to me to look upwards, and I saw, almost for the first time, a +smile on his countenance. I followed the gesture, and saw, what to me was +the novelty of a huge shell, leisurely as it seemed, traversing the air. +The Count and his staff immediately galloped in all directions; but I had +not escaped a hundred yards, when the shell dropped into the spot where I +had been standing, and burst with a tremendous explosion almost +immediately on its touching the ground. The cavalry had dispersed and the +explosion was, I believe, without injury. But this, at least, gave +evidence that the enemy were not far off, and the eagerness of the troops +was excited to the highest pitch: all pressed forward to the front, and +their cries, in all the languages of the frontier of Europe, the voices of +the officers, and the clangour of the bugles and trumpets became an +absolute Babel, but an infinitely bold and joyous one. The yagers were now +ordered to clear the way, and a thousand Tyrolese and Transylvanian +sharpshooters rushed forward to line the border. A heavy firing commenced, +and the order was given to halt the cavalry until the effect of the fire +was produced. This was speedily done; the enemy, evidently in inferior +force and unprepared for this attack, gave way, and the first squadrons +which reached the open ground made a dash among them, and took the greater +part prisoners. + +This whole day was full of splendid exhibitions. On reaching the edge of +the wood, the first object below us as the succession of deep columns +which I had seen some hours before, and which appeared to have been rooted +to the ground ever since. But an aide-de-camp from the circle where the +count stood, darted down on the plain, and, as if a flash of lightning had +awoke them, all were instantly in motion. The columns on the right now +made a sudden rush forward, and to my surprise, four or five strong +brigades, which rapidly followed from the centre, took up their position. + +Varnhorst, who had been beside me during the whole day, now exhibited +great delight. "I told you," said he, "that Clairfait would turn out well. +I see that he has been taught in our school. Observe that manoeuvre;" he +continued his comment with increasing force of gesture--"That was the +Great Frederic's favourite, the oblique formation. The finest invention in +tactics, with that he gained Rosbach, and beat the French and Austrians; +with that he gained the battle of Breslau; and with that he gained the +grand fight of Torgau, and finished the war. Yet the king always said that +he had learned the manoeuvre from Epaminondas, and was only fighting the +battle of Leuctra over again. But look there!" He pointed to a rising +ground, a bluff of the forest ridge, to which a battalion of sharpshooters +were hastening; it had seemed destitute of defence, and the sharpshooters +were already beginning to scramble up its sides; when on the instant a +large body of the enemy which had been covered by the forest, rushed upon +its summit with a shout, and poured down a general volley. The whole +Prussian line returned it by one tremendous discharge. The drums and +trumpets struck up, the battalions and squadrons advanced, singing their +national hymn. The skirmishers poured forward and the battle began. How +shall I speak of what I felt at that moment; the sensation was +indescribable! It was mingled of all feelings but personal. I was absorbed +in that glorious roar, in that bold burst of human struggle, in all that +was wild, ardent, and terrible in the power of man. I had not a thought of +any thing but of the martial pomp and spirit-stilling grandeur of the +scene before me. I was aroused from my contemplations by the loud laugh +of my veteran friend; he was trying the benefit of a large brandy flask, +which I remembered, and with some not very respectful opinion of his +temperance, to have seen him place in one of his holsters at our visit to +the suttlers. He now offered it to me. "You look wretchedly pale," said he; +"our kind of life is too rough for you gentlemen _diplomats_, and you will +find this glass right Nantz, the very best thing, if not the only good +thing, that its country has to give." This took me down from my heroics at +once, the brandy was first-rate, and I found myself restored to the level +of the world at once, and infinitely the better for the operation. We now +followed the advance of the troops. The leading columns had already forced +their way into the entrance of the forest; but it was a forest of three +leagues' depth and twice the number in length, a wooded province, and the +way was fought foot by foot. It is only justice to the French to say, that +they fought well--held the pass boldly--often charged our advance, and +gave way only when they were on the point of being surrounded. But our +superiority of discipline and numbers combined, did not suffer the success +to be for a moment doubtful. Still, as we followed, the battle raged in +the depths of the forest, already as dark as if night had come on--our +only light the incessant illumination of the musketry, and the bursts of +fire from the howitzers and guns. + +As we were standing on the last height at the entrance of the defile, +"Look round," exclaimed Varnhorst, "and take your first lesson in our art, +if you ever adopt the trade of soldiership. The Duke has outwitted the +Frenchman. I suspected something of this sort in the morning, when I first +heard his guns so far to the right. I allow that the enemy may be puzzled +for a while who has five passes to defend, with half a dozen leagues +between them, and a Prussian army in front ready to make him choose. He +has evidently drawn off the strength of his troops to the Duke's point of +attack, and has stripped the wing before us. Clairfait's mass has been +thrown upon it, and the day is our own. Onward." + +The roads and the surrounding glades gave fearful evidence of the +obstinacy of the struggle; but it also gave some curious evidence of the +force of habit in making light of the troubles of life. The cavalry, which +had been comparatively unemployed, from the nature of the service during +the day, had taken advantage of the opportunity to consult their own +comfort as much as possible. On the flank and rear of the infantry the +troopers had taken the whole affair _en amateur_, and had lit their +campfires, cooked their rations, handsomely augmented by the general +spoliation of the hen-coops within many a league. Something like a fair +was established round them by the suttlers; while the shells were actually +falling and many a branch was shattered over their banquets by the shot +which constantly whizzed through the trees. But, "_Vive la fortune!_" Even +the sober Teuton and the rough son of the Bannat could enjoy the few +moments that war gives to festivity, and what the next night or morning +might bring was not suffered to disturb their sense of "schnapps," and +their supper. + +The trampling of horses in our rear, and the galloping of the chasseurs of +the ducal escort, now told us that the generalissimo was at hand. He rode +up in high spirits, received our congratulations with princely courtesy, +and bestowed praises on the troops, and especially on Clairfait, which +made the count's dark features absolutely glow. The whole group rode +together until we reached the open country. A decisive success had +unquestionably been gained; and in war the first success is of proverbial +importance. On this point, the duke laid peculiar weight on the few words +which he could spare to me. + +"M. Marston," he observed, taking me cordially by the hand, "we are +henceforth more than friends, we are camarades. We have been in the field +together; and, with us Prussians, that is a tie for life." + +I made my acknowledgments for his highness's condescension. Business then +took the lead. + +"You will now have a good despatch to transmit to our friends in England. +The Count Clairfait has shown himself worthy of his reputation. I +understand that the enemy's force consisted chiefly of the household +troops of France; if so, we have beaten the best soldiers of the kingdom, +and the rest can give us but little trouble. You will remark upon these +points; and now for Paris." + +A cry, or rather a shout of assent from the circle of officers, echoed the +words, and we all put spurs to our horses, and followed the _cortege_ +through the noble old groves. But before we reached its confines, the +firing had wholly ceased, and the enemy were hurrying down the slope of +the Argonne, and crossing in great disorder a plain which separated them +from their main body. Our light troops and cavalry were dashing in pursuit, +and prisoners were continually taken. From the spot where we halted, the +light of the sinking day showed us the rapid breaking up of the fugitive +column, the guns, one by one, left behind; the muskets thrown away; and +the soldiers scattered, until our telescopes could discover scarcely more +than a remnant reaching the protection of the distant hill. + +We supped that night on the green sward. The duke had invited his own +staff, and that of Clairfait, to his tent, in honour of the day, and I +never spent a gayer evening. His incomparable finish of manners, mingled +with the cordiality which no man could more naturally assume when it was +his pleasure, and his mixture of courtly pleasantry with the bold humour +which campaigning, in some degree, teaches to every one, made him, if +possible, more delightful, to my conception, than even in our first +interview. Towards the close of the supper, which, like every thing else +round him, was worthy of Sardanapalus, he addressed himself to me, and +giving a most gracious personal opinion of what my "services had merited +from the English minister," said that, "limited as his own means of +rewarding zeal and ability might be, he begged of me to retain a slight +memorial of his friendship, and of our day together on the heights of +Argonne." Taking from the hand of Guiscard the riband and star of the +"Order of Merit," the famous order instituted by the Great Frederic, he +placed it round my neck, and proposed my health to the table as a "Knight +of Prussia." + +This was a flattering distinction, and, if I could have had entire faith +in all the complimentary language addressed to me by the sitters at that +stately table, I should have had visions of very magnificent things. But +there is no antidote to vanity equal to an empty purse. If I had been born +to one of the leviathan fortunes of our peerage, I might possibly have +imagined myself possessed of all the talents of mankind, and with all its +distinctions waiting for my acceptance; but I never could forget the grave +lesson that I was a younger son. I sat, like the Roman in his triumph, +with the slave, to lecture him, behind. However, I had a more ample +evidence of the sincerity with which those compliments were paid, in the +higher degree of trust reposed in me from day to day. + +After the repast was ended, and the principal part of the guests had +withdrawn, I was desired to wait for the communication of important +intelligence--Guiscard and Varnhorst being the only officers of the staff +who remained. A variety of papers, taken in the portfolio of one of the +French generals who had fallen in the engagement of the day, were laid +before us, and our little council proceeded to examine them. They were of +a very various kind, and no bad epitome of the mind of a gallant and +crackbrained coxcomb. Reflections on the conduct of the Allied armies, and +conjectures on their future proceedings--both of so fantastic a kind, that +the duke's gravity often gave way, and even the grim Guiscard sometimes +wore a smile. Then came in a letter from some "_confrere_" in Paris, a +tissue of gossip and grumbling, anecdotes of the irregularities of private +life, and merciless abuse of the leaders of party. Interspersed with those +were epistles of a more tender description; from which it appeared that +the general's heart was as capacious as his ambition, and that he +contrived to give his admiration to half a dozen of the _elite_ of +Parisian beauty at a time. Varnhorst was delighted with this portion of +the correspondence; even the presence of the duke could not prevent him +from bursting into explosions of laughter; and he ended by imploring +possession of the whole, as models of his future correspondence, in any +emergency which compelled him to put pen to paper in matters of the sex. +But nearly the last of the documents in the portfolio was one deserving of +all attention. It was a statement of the measures which had been enjoined +by the Republican government for raising the population in arms; and, as +an appendix, the muster-roll of the various corps which were already on +their way to join the army of Dumourier. The duke read this paper with a +countenance from which all gaiety had vanished and handed it to Guiscard +to read aloud. + +"What think you of that, gentlemen?" asked the duke, in his most +deliberate tone. + +Varnhorst, in his usual unhesitating style, said--"It tells us only that +we shall have some more fighting; but, as we are sure to beat them, the +more the better. Your highness knows as well as any man alive, that the +maxim of our great master was, 'Begin the war by fighting as many pitched +battles as you can. Skirmishes teach discipline to the rabble; allow the +higher orders time to escape, the government to tamper, and to encourage +the resistance of all. Pitched battles are thunderbolts; they finish the +business at once; and, like the thunderbolts, they appear to come from a +source which defies resistance by man.'" + +"I think," said Guiscard, with his deep physiognomy still darkening, "that +we lost, what is the most difficult of all things to recover--time." + +The duke bit his lip. "How was it to be helped, Guiscard? _You_ know the +causes of the delay; they were many and stubborn." + +"Ay," was the reply, with an animation, which struck me with surprise, "as +many as the blockheads in Berlin, and as stubborn as the rock under our +feet, or the Aulic council." + +"Well," said the duke, turning to me, with his customary grace of +manner--"What does our friend, the Englishman, say?" + +Of course, I made no pretence to giving a military opinion. I merely said, +"That I had every reliance on the experienced conduct of his highness, and +on the established bravery of his army." + +"The truth is, M. Marston, as Guiscard says, we _have_ lost time, though +it is no fault of ours, and I observe, from these papers, that the enemy +availed themselves of the delay, by bringing up strong corps from every +point. Still, our duty lies plain before us; we _must_ advance, and rescue +the unfortunate royal family--we _must_ tranquillize France, by +overthrowing the rabble influence, which now threatens to subvert all law; +and having done that, we may then retire, with the satisfaction of having +fought without ambition, and been victorious without a wish for +aggrandizement." After a pause, which none attempted to interrupt, he +finished by saying--"I admit that our work is likely to become more +difficult than I had supposed." + +Varnhorst's sanguine nature bore this with visible reluctance. "Pardon me, +your highness, but my opinion is for instant action, whatever may happen. +Let us but move to-morrow morning, and I promise you another battle of +Rosbach within the next twelve hours." The idea was congenial to the +gallantry of the duke; he smiled, and shook the bold speaker by the hand. + +"I see, by these lists," said Guiscard, as he slowly perused the returns, +"that the troops with which we have been engaged to-day amounted to little +more than twenty thousand men, under the new general, Dumourier. They +fought badly, I think. I scarcely expected that they would have fought at +all since the emigration of their officers. Sixteen or eighteen thousand +men are already moving up from Flanders; a strong corps under my old +acquaintance and countryman, Kellerman--and whatever he may be as an +officer, a bolder and braver veteran does not exist--are coming, by forced +marches, from the Rhine; the sea-coast towns are stripped of their +garrisons, to supply a supplementary force; and I should not be surprised +to find that we rather under, than over, calculated the force which will +be in line against us within a week. + +"So be it!" exclaimed Varnhorst, "What are troops without discipline, and +generals without science? Both made to be beaten. The fifty thousand +Prussians with us would march through Europe. I am for the advance. That +was a brilliant dash of Clairfait's this afternoon. Let us match it +to-morrow morning." + +"It was admirable!" replied the duke, with the colour mounting to his +cheek. "Any officer in Europe might envy the decision, the daring, and the +success. His sagacity in discovering the weak point of the enemy's +position, and his skill in its attack, deserve all praise. His flank +movement _was_ perfectly admirable." + +"Well, we have only to try him again," exclaimed Varnhorst, with +increasing animation. "We have turned the position, and taken a thousand +prisoners and some guns. Our men are in high spirits; and, if I were in +command of a corps to-morrow, my only countersign would be--'Paris.'" + +"Varnhorst," said the duke, "you have only anticipated my intention with +regard to yourself. You shall have a command; the three brigades of +Prussian grenadiers shall be given into your charge, and you shall operate +on the flank. It is my wish to make our principal movement in that +direction, and I _know_ you well." + +Varnhorst's gratitude almost denied him words; but his countenance spoke +better than his tongue. + +One of those papers contained a detail of several projects by the leading +members of the Assembly for the government of France. Guiscard, after +bending his wise head over them, pronounced them all equally futile, and +equally tending to democracy. The duke was of the opposite opinion, and +after a glance at the papers, observed--"that he thought some of those +schemes ingenious; but that they so closely resembled the ideas thrown out +in Germany, under the patronage of the Emperor Joseph, as to deprive them +of any strong claim to originality." "No," said he gaily, "I shall never +believe that Frenchmen are changed, until I hear that there is no ballet +in Paris; you might as well tell me, that the Swiss will abjure the money +which makes a part of his distinction, as the Frenchman give up the laced +coat, the powdered queue, and the order of St Louis at his buttonhole. +Those things are the man, they are his mind, his senses, himself. He is a +creation of monarchy--a clever, amusing, ingenious, and brave one; but +rely upon my knowledge of human nature--if French nature be any thing of +the kind--that Paris, a capital without balls, and a government without +embroidery, will disgust him beyond all forgiveness. It is my opinion, +that if democracy were formed to-morrow, it would be danced away in a week; +or if every pedigree in France were burned in this evening's fire, you +would have the Boulevards crowded with marquises and marchionesses before +the month was over. Is my friend _un peu philosophe_?" He laughed at his +own picture of a revolution, and his pleasantry of manner would have made +his sentiments popular on any subject. Still, our long-headed friend, +Guiscard, was not to be convinced. + +"I may have every contempt," said he, in a hurried tone, "for the +shallowness of idlers and talkers attempting to mould men by theories; but +the question whether France is to remain a monarchy or not, is one of the +most pressing importance to your highness's operations. It is only in this +practical sense that I should think of the topic at all. You have taken +the frontier towns, and have beaten the frontier army. Thus, so far as the +regular force of France is concerned, the war is at an end. But then comes +the grand point. A country of thirty millions of people cannot be +conquered, if they can but be roused to resist. All the troops of +Europe--nay, perhaps all the princes of the earth--might perish before +they fully conquered a country so large as France, with so powerful a +population. This seems even to be one of the provisions of Providence +against ambition, that an invasion of a populous country is the most +difficult operation in the world, unless the people welcome the invader. +It gives every ditch the character of a fortress, and every man the spirit +of a soldier. I recollect no instance in European history, where an +established kingdom was conquered by invasion. They all stand at this hour, +as they stood a thousand years ago. In France, we found the people without +leaders, without troops, and without experience in war; of course they +have not resisted our hussars and guns. But they have not joined us. In +any other country of Europe, we should have recruits crowding to ask for +service. But the French farmer shuts up his house; the peasant flies; the +citizen barricades his gates, and gives a cannon-shot for an answer. The +whole land rejects us, if it dares not repel; and, if we conquer, we shall +have to colonize." + +"Well, we must fight them into it," said Varnhorst. + +"Or leave them to fight themselves out of it," I observed--"my national +prejudices not being favourable to reasoning at the point of the bayonet." + +"Or take the chances of the world, and float on wherever the surge carries +us," laughed the duke. + +But Guiscard was still inflexible. His deep eye flashed with a light which +I never could have looked for under those projecting brows. His cheek was +visited by a tinge which argued a passionate interest in the subject; and, +as he spoke, his tongue uttered a nervous and powerful eloquence, which +showed that Guiscard was thrown among camps, while he might have figured +in senates and councils. Of course, at this distance of time, I can offer +but a faint memory of his bold and spontaneous wisdom. + +"I can see no result for France but democracy. This war is like no other +since the fall of the Roman Empire. It is a war of the passions. What man +can calculate the power of those untried elements? I implore your highness +to consider with the deepest caution every step to be taken from this +moment. Europe has no other commander whom it can place in a rank with +yourself; and if you, at the head of the first army of Europe, shall find +it necessary to retreat before the peasantry of France, it will form a +disastrous era in the art of war, and a still more disastrous omen to +every crowned head of Europe." + +The duke looked uneasy. But he merely said with a smile--"My dear Guiscard, +we must keep these sentiments to ourselves in camp. You are a cosmopolite, +and look on these things with too refined a speculation. Like myself, you +have dined and supped with the Diderots and Raynals--pleasant people, no +doubt, but dangerous advisers." + +"I have!" exclaimed his excited hearer; "and neither I, nor any other man, +would have met them without admiring their talents. But I always looked on +their _coterie_ as a sort of moral lunatics, the madder the more light +they have." + +"Our question is simply one of fact," said the duke. + +"Yes, and of a fact on which the fate of Europe hinges at this moment! The +monarchy of France is already cloven down. What wild shape of power is now +to take up its fallen sword? The sovereignty of time, laws, and loyalty +are in the grave, and the funeral rites will be bloody; but what hand is +to make the ground of that grave firm enough to bear the foundations of a +new throne? + +"The heels of our boots and the hoofs of our horses will trample it solid +enough!" exclaimed Varnhorst. + +"The much stronger probability is," replied Guiscard, "that they will +trample it into a mire so deep, that we may reckon the Allied powers +fortunate if they can draw themselves out of it. France is revolutionized +irrecoverably. Three things have been done within the last three months, +any one of which would overthrow the strongest government on the Continent. +By confiscating the property of the nobles, she has set the precedent for +breaking down all property, thrown the prize into the hands of the +populace, and thus, after corrupting them by the robbery, has bound them +by the bribe. By destroying and banishing the persons of the nobility, she +has done more than extinguish an antagonist to the mob--she has swept away +a protector of the people. The provinces will henceforth be helpless; +Paris will be the sovereign, and Paris itself will have the mob for its +master. And by her third step, the ruin of the church, she has given the +death-blow to the few and feeble feelings which acknowledged higher +objects than those of the hour. The pressing point for us, is, how the +Revolution will act upon the military spirit of the nation. The French nay +succumb; but they make good soldiers, they are the only nation in Europe +who have an actual fondness for war, who contemplate it as a pastime, and, +in spite of all their defeats, regard it as their natural path to power." + +"But they fly before our squadrons," observed the duke. + +"Yes, as schoolboys fly before their master, until they are strong enough +to rebel; or as the Indians fled before the lances and horses of Cortes, +until they became accustomed to them. It would be infinitely wiser to +leave the republicans to struggle with each other, than unite them by a +national attack. Mobs, like the wolves, always fall upon the first wounded. +The first faction that receives a blow in those campaigns of the Palais +Royal, will have all the others tearing it to fragments. The custom will +spread; every new drop of blood will let loose a torrent in retaliation; +and when France has thus been drained of her fever, will be the time, +either to restore her, or to paralyse for ever her power of disturbing the +world." + +The sound of a gun from either flank of the army, reminded us that the +hour of the evening hymn had come. It broke up our council. The +incomparable harmony of so many thousand voices ascended into the air; and +at the discharge of another gun, all was still once more. The night had +now fallen, and the fatigues of the day made repose welcome. But the +conversation of the last hour made me anxious to obtain all the knowledge +of the actual state of the country, and the prospects of the campaign, +which could be obtained from Guiscard. Varnhorst, full of a soldier's +impetuosity, was gone to the quarters of his grenadiers, and was busy with +hurried preparations for the morrow. The duke had retired, and, through +the curtains of his tent, I could see the lamps by whose light his +secretaries were in attendance, and with whom he would probably pass the +greater part of the next twelve hours. With Guiscard I continued pacing up +and down in front of our quarters, listening to the observations of a mind +as richly stored, and as original, as I have ever met. He still persisted +in his conviction, "that we had come at the wrong time, either too early +or too late; _before_ the nation had grown weary of anarchy, and _after_ +they had triumphed over the throne. "The rebound," said he energetically, +"will be terrible. Ten times our force would be thrown away in this war. +The army may drive all things before its front; but it will be assailed in +the rear, in the flanks--every where. It is like the lava which I have +seen pour down from Etna into the sea. It drove the tide before it, and +threw the water up in vapour; but they were too powerful for it after all. +And there stands the lava fixed and cold, and there roll the surges once +again, burying it from the sight of man." + +A sudden harmony of trumpets, from various points of the vast encampment, +pierced the ear, and in another moment the whole line of the hills was +crowned with flame. The signal for lighting the fires of the Austrian and +Prussian outposts had been given, and the effect was almost magical. In +this army all things were done with a regularity almost perfect. The +trumpet spoke, and the answer was instantaneous. All comparisons are +feeble to realities of this order--seen, too, while the heart of man is +quickened to enjoy and wonder, and feels scarcely less than a new +existence in the stirring events every where round him. The first +comparison that struck me was the vague one of a shower of stars. The +mountain pinnacles were in a blaze. The general fires of the bivouacs soon +spread through the forest, and down the slopes of the hills, all round to +the horizon. + +The night was fine, the air flowed refreshingly from the verdure of the +immense woods, and the scent of the thyme and flowers of the heath, +pressed by my foot, rose "wooingly on the air." All was calm and odorous. +The flourish of the evening trumpets still continued to swell in the rich +harmonies which German skill alone can breathe, and thoughts of the past +and the future began to steal over my mind. I was once more in England, +gazing on the splendid beauty of Clotilde; and imagining the thousand +forms in which my weary fortunes must be shaped, before I dared offer her +a share in my hopes of happiness. I saw Mariamne once more, with her smile +reminding me of Shakspeare's exquisite picture-- + + "Oh, what a deal of scorn looks beautiful, + In the contempt and anger of that lip!" + +Then came a vision of my early home. The halls of Mortimer castle--the +feebly surviving parent there, whom I still loved--the heartless and +haughty brother--the pomp and pageantry to which he was born; while I was +flung out into the wilderness, like the son of the handmaid, to perish, or, +like him, escape only by a miracle. At that hour, perhaps, there were +revels in the house of my fathers, while their descendant was wandering on +a hill-side, in the midst of hostile armies, exposed to the chances of the +conflict, and possibly only measuring with his pace the extent of his +grave. But while I was thus sinking in heart, my hand, in making some +unconscious gesture, struck the badge of Frederic's order on my bosom. +What trifles change the current of human thoughts! That star threw more +light over my darkness than the thousand constellations that studded the +vault above my head. Success, honours, and public name, filled my mind. I +saw all things, events, and persons through a brilliant haze of hope; and +determining to follow fortune wherever she might lead me, abjured all +thoughts of calamity in my unfriended, yet resolute career. Is it to +consider the matter too curiously, to conceive that the laws of nature +affect the mind? or that the spirit of man resembles an instrument, after +all--an Aeolian harp, which owes all its pulses to the gusts that pass +across its strings, and in which it simply depends upon the stronger or +the feebler breeze, whether it shall smile with joyous and triumphant +chords, or sink into throbs and sounds of sorrow? + +The galloping of horses roused me. It was Guiscard with an escort. "What! +not in your bed yet?" was his hurried salutation. "So much the better; you +will have a showy despatch to send to England to-night. Clairfait has just +outdone himself. He found that the French were retreating, and he followed +them without loss of time. His troops had been so dispersed by the service +of the day, that he could collect but fifteen hundred hussars; and with +these he gallantly set forth to pick up stragglers. His old acquaintance, +Chazot, whom he had beaten the day before, was in command of a rearguard +of ten thousand men. His fifteen hundred brave fellows were now exposed to +ruin; and doubtless, if they had exhibited any show of retreating, they +must have been ruined. But here Clairfait's _a la Turque_ style was +exactly in place. He ordered that not a shot should be fired, but that the +spur and sabre should do the business; and at once plunged into the mass +of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. In five minutes the whole were put to +the rout--guns, baggage, and ammunition taken; and the French +general-in-chief as much stripped of his rearguard, as ever a peacock was +plucked of his tail." + +"Will the duke follow up the blow?" was my enquiry. + +"Beyond doubt. I have just left him giving orders for the advancement of +the whole line at daybreak; and unless M. Dumouier is remarkably on the +alert, we shall have him supping in the camp within the next twenty-four +hours. But you will have better intelligence from himself; for he bade me +prepare you for meeting him, as he rides to the wing from which the march +begins." + +"Excellent news! You and Varnhorst will be field-marshals before the +campaign is over." His countenance changed. + +"No; my course unfortunately lies in a different direction. The duke has +been so perplexed, by the delays continually forced upon him by the +diplomacy of the Allied cabinets, that he has been more than once on the +point of giving up the command. Clairfait's success, and the prospect of +cutting off the retreat of the French, or of getting between them and +Paris, have furnished him with new materials; and I am now on my way to +Berlin, to put matters in the proper point of view. Farewell, Marston, I +am sorry to lose you as a comrade; but we _must_ meet again--no laurels +for _me_ now. The duke must not find me here; he will pass by within the +next five minutes." + +The noble fellow sprang from his horse, and shook my hand with a fervour +which I had not thought to be in his grave and lofty nature. + +"Farewell!" he uttered once more, and threw himself on his saddle, and was +gone. + +I had scarcely lost the sound of his horse's hoofs, as they rattled up the +stony ravine of the hill, when the sound of a strong body of cavalry +announced the approach of the generalissimo. He soon rode up, and +addressed me with his usual courtesy. "I really am afraid, Mr Marston, +that you will think me in a conspiracy to prevent your enjoying a night's +rest, for all our meetings, I think, have been at the 'witching hour!' But +would you think it too much to mount your horse now, and ride with me, +before you send your despatches to your cabinet? I must visit the troops +of the left wing without delay; we can converse on the way." + +I was all obedience, a knight of Prussia, and therefore at his highness's +service. + +"Well, well, I thought so. You English gentlemen are ready for every thing. +In the mean time, while your horse is saddling, look over this letter. +That was a gallant attempt of Clairfait's, and, if we had not been too far +off to support him, we might have pounced upon the main body as +effectually as he did upon the rear. Chazot has escaped, but one of M. +Dumourier's aides-de-camp, a remarkably intelligent fellow, has been taken, +and on him has been found the papers which I beg you to peruse." + +It was a letter from the commander-in-chief to the _Bureau de la Guerre_ +in Paris. + +"MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE,--I write this, after having been on horseback for +eighteen hours. We must have reinforcements without a moment's delay, or +we are lost--the honour of France is lost--France herself is lost. I have +with me less than 20,000 men to defend the road to Paris against 100,000. +The truth must be told--truth becomes a citizen. We have been beaten! I +have been unable to hold the passes of Argonne, and the enemy's hussars +are already scouring the country in my rear. I have sent order upon order +to Kellerman, and all my answer is, that he is preparing to advance; but +he has not stirred a step. I daresay, that he is playing trictrac at Metz +this moment. + +"My march from the Argonne has been a bold manoeuvre, but it has cost us +something. Chazot, to whom I entrusted the protection of the march, and to +whom I had given the strictest orders to keep the enemy's light troops at +a distance, has suffered himself to be entrapped by those experienced +campaigners, and has lost men. Duval fought bravely at the head of his +brigade, and Miranda narrowly escaped being taken, in a dashing attempt to +save the park of artillery. He had a horse killed under him, and was taken +from the field insensible. Macdonald, who takes this, will explain more. +He is a promising officer--give him a step. In the mean time, send me +every man that you can. _France is in danger_." + +"The object now," observed the duke, "will be, to press upon the enemy in +his present state of disorder, until we shall either be enabled to force +him to fight a pitched battle at a disadvantage, or strike in between him +and the capital. And now forward!" + +I mounted, and we rode through the camp--the duke occasionally giving some +order for the morning to the officers commanding the successive divisions, +and conversing with me on the points in discussion between England and the +Allies. He was evidently dissatisfied with continental politics. + +"The king and the emperor are both sincere; but that is more than I can +always say for those about them. We have too many Italians, and even +Frenchmen, at our German courts. They are republicans to a man; and, by +consequence, every important measure is betrayed. I can perceive, in the +manoeuvres of the enemy's general, that he must have been acquainted with +my last despatch from Berlin; and, I am so thoroughly persuaded of the +fact, that I mean to manoeuvre to-morrow on that conviction. The order +from Berlin is, that I shall act upon his flanks. Within two hours after +daylight I shall make a push for his centre; and, breaking through that, +shall separate his wings, and crush them at my leisure. One would think," +said he, pausing, and looking round him with the exaltation of conscious +power, "that the troops had overheard us, and already anticipated a +victory." + +The sight from the knoll, where we drew our bridles, was certainly of the +most striking kind. The fires, which at first I had seen glittering only +on the mountain tops, were now blazing in all quarters; in the cleared +spaces of the forest, on the heaths and in the ravines: the heaps of +fagots gathered for the winter consumption of the cities, by woodmen of +the district, were put in requisition, and the axes of the pioneers laid +many a huge larch and elm on the blaze. Soldiers seldom think much of +those who are to come after them; and the flames shot up among the +thickets with the most unsparing brilliancy. Cheerfulness, too, prevailed; +the sounds of laughter, and gay voices, and songs, arose on every side. +The well-preserved game of this huge hunting-ground, the old vexation of +the French peasant, now fell into hands which had no fear of the galleys +for a shot at a wild boar, or bringing down a partridge. The fires +exhibited many a substantial specimen of forest luxury in the act of +preparation. No man enjoys rest and food like the soldier. A day's +fighting and fasting gives a sense of delight to both, such as the man of +cities can scarcely conceive. No epicure at his most _recherche_ board +ever knew the true pleasure of the senses, equal to the campaigner +stretched upon the grass, until his supper was ready, and then sitting +down to it. I acknowledge, that to me that simple rest, and that simple +meal, often gave a sense of enjoyment which I have never even conceived in +the luxuries of higher life. The instantaneous sleep that followed; the +night without a restless moment; the awaking with all my powers refreshed, +and yet with as complete an unconsciousness of the hours past away, as if +I had lain down but the moment before, and started from night into +sunshine--all belong to the campaigner: he has his troubles, but his +enjoyments are his own, exclusive, delicious, incomparable. + +An officer of the staff now rode up to make a report on some movement of +the division intended to lead in the morning, and the duke gave me +permission to retire. He galloped off in the direction of the column, and +I slowly pursued my way to my quarters. Yet I could not resist many a halt, +to gaze on the singular beauty of the bursts of flame which lighted the +landscape. More than once, it reminded me of the famous Homeric +description of the Trojan bivouac by the ships. All the images were the +same, except that, for the sea, we had the endless meadows of Champagne, +and, for the ships, the remote tents of the enemy. We had the fire, the +exulting troops, the carouse, the picketed horses, the shouts and songs, +the lustre of the autumnal sky, and the bold longings for victory and the +dawn. Even in Pope's feeble translation, the scene is animated-- + + "The troops exulting sate in order round, + And beaming fires illumined all the ground." + +Then follows the famous simile of the moon, suddenly throwing its radiance +over the obscure features of the landscape. + +But Homer, the poet of realities, soon returns to the true material-- + + "So many flames before proud Ilion blaze, + And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays, + A thousand piles the dusky horrors gild, + And shoot a shadowy lustre o'er the field. + Full fifty guards each flaming pile attend, + Whose umber'd arms by fits thick flashes send; + Loud neigh the coursers o'er their heaps of corn, + And ardent warriors wait the rising morn." + +I leave it to others to give the history of this campaign, one of the most +memorable of Europe from its consequences--the tramp of that army roused +the slumbering giant of France. If the Frenchman said of a battle, that it +was like a ball-room, you see little beyond your opposite partner; he +might have said of a campaign, that you scarcely see even so much. The +largeness of the scale is beyond all personal observation. I can answer +only for myself, that I was on horseback before daybreak, and marched in +the midst of columns which had no more doubt of beating up the enemy's +quarters than they had of eating their first meal. All were in the highest +spirits; and the opinions of the staff, among whom the duke had assigned +me a place, were so sanguine, that I felt some concern at their reaching +the ear of the captive aide-de-camp. This induced me to draw him away +gradually from the crowd. I found him lively, as his countrymen generally +are, but exhibiting at once a strength of observation and a frankness of +language which are more uncommon. + +"I admit," said he, "that you have beaten us; but this is the natural +effect of your incomparable discipline. Our army is new, our general new, +every thing new but our imprudence, in venturing to meet your 100,000 with +our 25,000. Yet France is not beaten. In fact, you have not met the French +up to this hour." + +"What!" I exclaimed in surprise; "of what nation are the troops which we +have fought in the Argonne, and are now following through the high-road to +Paris? The Duke of Brunswick will be amused by hearing that he has been +wasting his cannon-shot on spectres." + +"Ah, you English," he replied with a broad laugh, which made me still more +doubt his nation, "are such matter-of-fact people, that you require +substance in every thing. But what are the troops of France? Brave fellows +enough, but not one of them has ever seen a shot fired in his life; even +the few battalions which we had in America saw nothing but hedge-firing. +The men before you have never seen more service than they could find in a +cabaret, or hunting a highwayman. Some of them, I admit, have served their +King in the shape of shouldering their muskets at his palace gates in +Versailles, or marching in a procession of cardinals and confessors to +Notre-Dame. My astonishment is, that at the first shot they did not all +run to their soup, and at the second leave their muskets to take care of +themselves. But they are brave; and, if they once learn to fight, the +pupils will beat the master." + +"You are a philosopher, Monsieur, but, I hope, no prophet. I think I +observe in you something of our English blood after all. You have opinions, +and speak them." + +"Not quite English, nor quite French. My father was a borderer; so not +even exactly either English or Scotch. He took up arms for the son of +James--of course was ruined, as every one was who had to do with Stuart +from the beginning of time--luckily escaped after the crash of Culloden, +entered the Scottish Brigade here, and left to me nothing but his memory, +his sword, and the untarnished name of Macdonald." I bowed to a name so +connected with honour, and the lively aide-de-camp and I became from that +moment, fast friends. After a long and fatiguing march, about noon, in one +of the most sultry days of a British autumn, our advanced guard reached +the front of the enemy's position. The outposts were driven in at once, +and the whole army, as it came up, was formed in order of battle. Rumours +had been spread of large reinforcements being on their way; and the clouds +of dust which rose along the plain, and the confused sound of +baggage-wagons, and heavy guns behind the hills, rendered it probable. +Still the country before us was clear to the eye, and our whole force +moved slowly forward to storm a range of heights, in the shape of a +half-moon, which commanded the field. This was one of the sights which +nothing but war can furnish, and to which no other sight on earth is equal. +The motion, the shouts, the rapidity of all things--the galloping of the +cavalry--the rolling of the parks of artillery--the rush of the light +troops--the pressing march of the battalions--and all glittering with all +the pomps of war, waving standards, flashing sabres, and the blaze thrown +back from the columns' bayonets, that looked like sheets of steel, made me +almost breathless. The aide-de-camp evidently enjoyed the sight as much as +myself, and gave way to that instinct, by which man is a wolf, let the +wise say what they will, and exults in war. But when he heard shots fired +from the range of hills, his countenance changed. + +"There must be some mistake here," he said, with sudden gravity. +"Dumourier could never have intended to hold his position so far in +advance, and so wholly unprotected. Those troops will be lost, and the +whole campaign may be compromised." + +The attack now commenced along the line, and the resistance was evidently +serious. A heavy fire was sustained for some time; but the troops +gradually established themselves on the lower part of the range. "I know +it all now!" exclaimed my agitated companion, after a long look through my +glass: "it is Kellerman's corps," said he, "which ought to have been a +league to the rear of its present position at this moment. He must have +received counter orders since I left him, or been desperately deceived; +another half hour there, and he will never leave those hills but a +prisoner or a corpse." From the shaking of his bridle, and the nervous +quivering of his manly countenance, I saw how eagerly he would have +received permission to bring the French general out of his dilemma. But he +was a man of honour, and I was sure of him. In the midst of a thunder of +cannon, which absolutely seemed to shake the ground under our feet, the +firing suddenly ceased on the enemy's side. The cessation was followed on +ours; there was an extraordinary silence over the field, and probably the +generalissimo expected a flag of truce, or some proposal for the +capitulation of the enemy's corps. But none came; and after a pause, in +which aides-de-camp and orderlies were continually galloping between the +advance and the spot where the duke stood at the head of his staff, the +line moved again, and the hill was in our possession. But Kellerman was +gone; and before our light troops could make any impression on the +squadrons which covered the movement, he had again taken up a position on +the formidable ground which was destined to figure so memorably in the +annals of French soldiership, the heights of Valmy. + +"What think you now, my friend?" was my question. + +"Just what I thought before," was the answer. "We want science, without +which bravery _may_ fail; but we have bravery, without which science +_must_ fail. Kellerman may have been deceived in his first position, but +he has evidently retrieved his error. He has now shortened his distance +from his reinforcements, he has secured one of the most powerful positions +in the country, and unless yon drive him out of it before nightfall, you +might as well storm Ehrenbreitstein, or your own Gibraltar, by morning." + +"Well, the experiment is about to be made, for my glass shows me our +howitzers _en masse_, moving up to cannonade him with grape and canister. +He will have an uneasy bivouac of it." + +"Whether Kellerman can manoeuvre, I do not know. But that he will fight, I +am perfectly sure. He is old, but one of the most daring and firm officers +in our service. If it is in his orders to maintain those heights, he will +hold them to his last cartridge and his last man." + +Our conversation was now lost in the roar of artillery, and after a +tremendous fire of an hour on the French position, which was answered with +equal weight from the heights, a powerful division was sent to assail the +principal battery. The attempt was gallantly made, and the success seemed +infallible, when I heard, through all the roar, the exclamation of +Macdonald, "Brave Steingell!" At the words, he pointed to a heavy column +of infantry hurrying down the ravine in rear of the redoubt. + +"Those are from the camp," he exclaimed, "and a few thousands more will +make the post impregnable." + +The sight of the column seemed to have given renewed vigour to both sides; +for, while the French guns rapidly increased their fire, aided by the +musketry of the newly arrived troops, the Prussian artillerists, then the +first in Europe, threw in their balls in such showers, that the forest, +which hitherto had largely screened the enemy, began to fall in masses; +branch and trunk were swept away, and the ground became as naked of cover +as if it had been stripped by the axe. The troops thus exposed could not +withstand this "iron hail," and they were palpably staggered. The retreat +of a brigade, after suffering immense loss, shook the whole line, and +produced a charge of our dragoons up the hill. I gave an involuntary +glance at Macdonald. He was pale and exhausted; but in another moment his +eye sparkled, his colour came, and I heard him exclaim, "Bravo, Chazot! +All is not lost yet." I saw a group of mounted officers galloping into the +very spot which had been abandoned by the brigade, and followed by the +colours of three or four battalions, which were planted directly under our +fire. "There comes Chazot with his division!" cried the aide-de-camp; +"gallant fellow, let him now make up for his ill fortune! Monsieur +Brunswick will not sleep on the hill of Valmy to-night. He has been unable +to force the centre, and now both flanks are secured: another attack would +cost him ten thousand men. Nor will Monsieur Brunswick sleep on the hills +of Valmy to-morrow. Dumourier was right; there was his Thermopylae. But it +will not be stormed. _Vive la France!_" + +The prediction was nearly true. The unexpected reinforcements, and the +approach of night, determined the generalissimo to abandon the assault for +the time. The fire soon slackened, the troops were withdrawn, and, after a +heavy loss on both sides, both slept upon the field. + +I was roused at midnight from the deep sleep of fatigue, by an order to +attend the duke, who was then holding a council. Varnhorst was my summoner, +and on our way he slightly explained the purpose of his mission. "We are +all in rather bad spirits at the result of to-day's action. The affair +itself was not much, as it was only between detachments, but it shows two +things; that the French are true to their revolutionary nonsense, and that +they can fight. On even ground we have beaten them, and shall beat them +again; but if Champagne gives them cover, what will it be when we get into +the broken country that lies between this and Paris? Still there has been +no rising of the people, and until then, we have nothing to fear for the +event of the campaign." + +"What then have you to fear?" was my question. "What calls the council +to-night?" + +"My good friend," said Varnhorst with a grave smile, which more reminded +me of Guiscard, "remember the Arab apologue, that every man is born with +two strings tied to him, one large and visible, but made of twisted +feathers; the other so fine as to be invisible, but made of twisted steel. +Thus there are few men without a visible motive, which all can see, and an +invisible one--which, however, pulls then just as the puller pleases. +Berlin pulls now, and the duke's glory and the good of Europe must be +sacrificed to policy." + +"But will the king suffer this? Will the emperor stand by and see this +done?" + +"They are both zealous for the liberation of the unfortunate royal family. +But, _entre nous_--and this is a secret which I scarcely dare whisper even +in a French desert--their counsellors have other ideas. Poland is the +prize to which the ministers of both courts look. They know that the +permanent possession of French provinces is impossible. It is against the +will of your great country, against the deepest request of the French king, +and against their own declarations. But Polish seizures would give them +provinces to which nobody has laid claim, and which nobody can envy. The +consequence is, that a negotiation is on foot at this moment to conclude +the war by treaty, and, having ensured the safety of the royal family, to +withdraw the army into Lorraine." + +"Why am I then summoned?" + +"To put your signature to the preliminaries." + +I started with indignation. "They shall wait long enough if they wait till +I sign them. I shall not attend this council." + +"Observe," said Varnhorst, "I have spoken only on conjecture. If I return +without you, my candour will be rewarded by an instant sentence for +Spandau." + +This decided me. I shook my gallant friend by the hand, the cloud passed +from his brow, and we rode together to the council. This was of a more +formal nature than I had yet witnessed. Two officers expressly sent from +Vienna and Berlin, a kind of military envoys, had brought the decisions of +their respective cabinets upon the crisis. The duke said little. He had +lost his gay nonchalance of manners, and was palpably dispirited and +disappointed. His address to me was gracious as ever; but he was more of +the prince and the diplomatist, and less of the soldier. Our sitting +closed with a resolution, to agree upon an armistice, and to make the +immediate release of the king one of the stipulations. I combated the +proposal as long as I could with decorum. I placed, in the strongest light +that I could, the immense impulse which any pause in our advance must give +to the revolutionary spirit in France, or even in Europe--the +impossibility of relying on any negotiation which depended on the will of +the rabble--and, above all, the certainty that the first sign of tardiness +on the part of the Allies would overthrow the monarchy, which was now kept +in existence only by the dread of our arms. I was overruled. The proposal +for the armistice was signed by all present but one--that one myself. And +as we broke up silently and sullenly, at the first glimpse of a cold and +stormy dawn, the fit omen of our future fate, I saw a secretary of the +duke, accompanied by Macdonald, sent off to the headquarters of the enemy. + +All was now over, and I thought of returning to my post at Paris. I spent +the rest of the day in paying parting civilities to my gallant friends, +and ordered my caleche to be in readiness by morning. But my prediction +had been only too true, though I had not calculated on so rapid a +fulfilment. The knowledge of the armistice was no sooner made +public--and, to do the French general justice, he lost neither time nor +opportunity--than it was regarded as a national triumph. The electric +change of public opinion, in this most electric of all countries, raised +the people from a condition of the deepest terror to the highest +confidence. Every man in France was a soldier, and every soldier a hero. +This was the miracle of twenty-four hours. Dumourier's force instantly +swelled to 100,000 men. He might have had a million, if he had asked for +them. The whole country became impassable. Every village poured out its +company of armed peasants; and, notwithstanding the diplomatic cessation +of hostilities, a real, universal, and desperate peasant war broke upon us +on every side. + +After a week of this most harassing warfare, in which we lost ten times +the number of men which it would have cost to march over the bodies of +Dumourier's army to the capital, the order was issued for a general +retreat to the frontier. I remembered Mordecai's letter; but it was now +too late. Even if I could have turned my horse's head to a French post, I +felt myself bound to share the fortunes of the gallant army to which I had +been so closely attached. In the heat of youth, I went even further, and, +as my mission had virtually ceased, and I wore a Prussian order, I took +the _un_diplomatic step of proposing to act as one of the duke's +aides-de-camp until the army had left the enemy's territory. Behold me now, +a hulan of the duke's guard! I found no reason to repent my choice, though +our service was remarkably severe. The present war was chiefly against the +light troops and irregulars of the retreating army--the columns being too +formidable to admit of attack, at least by the multitude. Forty thousand +men, of the main army of France, were appointed to the duty of "seeing us +out of the country." But every attempt at foraging, every movement beyond +the range of our cannon, was instantly met by a peasant skirmish. Every +village approached by our squadrons, exhibited a barricade, from which we +were fired on; every forest produced a succession of sharp encounters; and +the passage of every river required as much precaution, and as often +produced a serious contest, as if we were at open war. Thus we were +perpetually on the wing, and our personal escapes were often of the most +hair-breadth kind. If we passed through a thicket, we were sure to be met +by a discharge of bullets; if we dismounted from our horses to take our +hurried and scanty meal, we found some of them shot at the inn-door; if we +flung ourselves, as tired as hounds after a chase, on the straw of a +village stable, the probability was that we were awakened by finding the +thatch in a blaze. How often we envied the easier life of the battalions! +But there an enemy, more fearful than the peasantry, began to show itself. +The weather had changed to storms of rain and bitter wind; the plains of +Champagne, never famed for fertility, were now as wild and bare as a +Russian steppe. The worst provisions, supplied on the narrowest +scale--above all, disgust, the most fatal canker of the soldier's +soul--spread disease among the ranks; and the roads on which we followed +the march, gave terrible evidence of the havoc that every hour made among +them. The mortality at last became so great, that it seemed not unlikely +that the whole army would thus melt away before it reached the boundary of +this land of death. + +The horror of the scene even struck the peasantry, and whether through +fear of the contagion, or through the uselessness of hunting down men who +were treading to the grave by thousands, the peasantry ceased to follow us. +Yet such was the wretchedness of that hideous progress, that this +cessation of hostility was scarcely a relief. The animation of the +skirmishes, though it often cost life, yet kept the rest more alive; the +strategem, the adventure, the surprise, nay, even the failure and escape, +relieved us from the dreadful monotony of the life, or rather the +half-existence, to which we were now condemned. Our buoyant and brilliant +career was at an end; we were now only the mutes and mourners of a funeral +procession of seventy thousand men. + +I still look back with an indescribable shudder at the scenes which we +were compelled to witness from day to day during that month of misery; for +the march, which began in the first days of October, was protracted till +its end. I had kept up my spirits when many a more vigorous frame had sunk, +and many a maturer mind had desponded; but the perpetual recurrence of the +same dreary spectacles, the dying, and the more fortunate dead, covering +the highways, the fields, and the village streets, at length sank into my +soul. Some recollections of earlier principles, and the memory of my old +friend Vincent, prevented my taking the summary and unhappy means of +ridding myself of my burden, which I saw daily resorted to among the +soldiery--a bullet through the brain, or a bayonet through the heart, +cured all. But, thanks to early impressions, I was determined to wait the +hand of the enemy, or the course of nature. Many a night I lay down beside +my starving charger, with something of a hope that I should never see +another morning; and many a morning, when I dragged my feeble limbs from +the cold and wet ground, I looked round the horizon for the approach of +some enemy's squadron, or peasant band, which might give me an honourable +chance of escape from an existence now no longer endurable. But all was in +vain. For leagues round no living object was visible, except that long +column, silently and slowly winding on through the distance, like an army +of spectres. + +My diminished squadron had at length become almost the only rear-guard. +From a hundred and fifty as fine fellows as ever sat a charger, we were +now reduced to a third. All its officers, youths of the first families of +Prussia, had either been left behind dying in the villages, or had been +laid in the graves by the road-side, and I was now the only commandant. +Perhaps even this circumstance was the means of saving my life. My new +responsibility compelled me to make some exertion; and I felt that, live +or die, I might still earn an honourable name. Even in those darkest hours, +the thought that Clotilde might ask where and how I finished my +ill-fortuned career, and perhaps give a moment's sorrow to one who +remembered her to the last, had its share in restoring me to a sense of +the world. In that sort of fond frenzy, which seems so fantastic when it +is past, but so natural, and is actually so irresistible while it is in +the mind, I wrote down my feelings, wild as they were--my impossible hopes, +and a promise never to forget her while I remained in this world, and, if +there could be an intercourse between the living and the dead, in that +world to which I felt myself hastening. I then bade her a solemn and +heartfelt farewell. Placing the paper in my bosom, with a locket +containing a ringlet of her beautiful hair, which Marianne had contrived +to obtain for me, the only legacy I had to offer, I felt as if I had done +my last duty among mankind. + +Still we wandered on, through a country which had the look of a boundless +cemetery. Not a peasant was met; not a sound of human labour, joy or +sorrow, reached the ear; not a smoke rose from mansion or cottage; all was +still, except when the wind burst in bitter gusts over the plain, or the +almost ceaseless rain swelled into sheets, and sent the rivers roaring +down before us. If the land had never been inhabited, or had been swept of +its inhabitants by an avenging Providence, it could not have been more +solitary. I never conceived the idea of the wilderness before. It was the +intensity of desolation. + +We seemed even to make no progress. We began to think that the scene would +never change. But one evening, when the troop had lain down under the +shelter of a knoll, my sergeant, a fine Hungarian, whose eyes had been +sharpened by hussar service on the Turkish border, aroused me, saying that +he had discovered French horse-tracks in advance of us. We were all +instantly on the alert, the horse-tracks were found to be numerous, and it +was evident that a strong body of the enemy's cavalry had managed to get +in between us and the army. It is true that there was a treaty, in which +the unmolested movement of the duke was an article. But, it might have +been annulled; or the French general might have been inclined to make a +daring experiment on our worn-down battalions; or, at all events, it was +our business to keep him as far off as we could. We were on horseback +immediately. The track led us along the high-road for one or two leagues +and then turned off towards a village on a height at some distance. We now +paused, and the question was, whether to follow the enemy, or to dismount +and try to rest ourselves, and our tired horses, for the night. We had +scarcely come to the decision of unloosing girths, when the sky above the +village showed a sudden glow; and a confused clamour of voices came upon +the wind. Dispatching an orderly to the duke, to inform him of the French +movement, we rode towards the village. We found the road in its immediate +neighbourhood covered with fugitives; who, however, instead of flying from +us with the usual horror of the peasantry, threw themselves beside our +stirrups, hung on our bridles, and implored us with every wild +gesticulation to hasten to the gates. All that I could learn from the +outcries of men, women, and children, was, that their village, or rather +town--for we found it of considerable size--had been the quarters of some +of the Austrian cavalry, and that the officers had given a ball, to which +the leading families had been invited. The ball was charged as a national +crime by the democrats in Paris, and a regiment of horse had been sent to +punish the unfortunate town. + +To attack such a force with fifty worn-out men, was obviously hopeless, +and my hulans, brave as they were, hung down their heads; but a fresh +concourse came rushing from the gates with even louder outcries than +before, and the words, _massacre_ and _conflagration_, were heard with +fearful emphasis. While I pondered for a moment on our want of means, a +fine old man, with his white hair stained with blood from a sabre wound in +his forehead, clung to my charger's neck, and implored me, by the honour +of soldiership, to make but one effort against the revolutionary brigands, +as he termed them. "I am a French officer and noble!" he exclaimed--"I +have served my king, I have a son in the army of Conde, and now the +wretches have seized on my only daughter, my Amalia, and they are carrying +her to their accursed guillotine." I could resist no longer; yet I looked +round despairingly at my force. "Follow me," said the agonized old man; +"one half of the villains are drunk in the cafes already, the other half +are busy in that horrid procession to the axe. I shall take you by a +private way, and you may fall upon them by surprise. You shall find me, +and all who belong to me, sword in hand by your side. Come on; and the God +of battles, and protector of the unhappy, will give you victory." He knelt +at my feet, with his hands upraised.--"For my child's sake!"--he continued +faintly to exclaim--"for my innocent child's sake!" I saw tears fall down +some of our bronzed faces, and I had but one word to utter; but that +was--"Forward!" We followed our guide swiftly and silently through the +narrow streets; and then suddenly emerging into the public square, saw +such a sight of terror as never before met my eyes. + + * * * * * + + + + +SECESSION FROM THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. + + +A great revolution has taken place in Scotland. A greater has been +threatened. Nor is that danger even yet certainly gone by. Upon the +accidents of such events as may arise for the next five years, whether +fitted or not fitted to revive discussions in which many of the +Non-seceders went in various degrees along with the Seceders, depends the +final (and, in a strict sense, the very awful) question, What is to be the +fate of the Scottish church? Lord Aberdeen's Act is well qualified to +tranquillize the agitations of that body; and at an earlier stage, if not +intercepted by Lord Melbourne, might have prevented them in part. But Lord +Aberdeen has no power to stifle a conflagration once thoroughly kindled. +That must depend in a great degree upon the favourable aspect of events +yet in the rear. + +Meantime these great disturbances are not understood in England; and +chiefly on the differences between the two nations as to the language of +their several churches and law courts. The process of ordination and +induction is totally different under the different ecclesiastical +administrations of the two kingdoms. And the church courts of Scotland do +not exist in England. We write, therefore, with an express view to the +better information of England proper. And, with this purpose, we shall +lead the discussion through four capital questions:-- + +I. _What_ is it that has been done by the moving party? + +II. _How_ was it done? By what agencies and influence? + +III. What were the _immediate results_ of these acts? + +IV. What are the _remote results_ yet to be apprehended? + + * * * * * + +I. First, then, WHAT _is it that has been done_? + +Up to the month of May in 1834, the fathers and brothers of the "Kirk" +were in harmony as great as humanity can hope to see. Since May 1834, the +church has been a fierce crater of volcanic agencies, throwing out of her +bosom one-third of her children; and these children are no sooner born +into their earthly atmosphere, than they turn, with unnatural passions, to +the destruction of their brethren. What _can_ be the grounds upon which an +_acharnement_ so deadly has arisen? + +It will read to the ears of a stranger almost as an experiment upon his +credulity, if we tell the simple truth. Being incredible, however, it is +not the less true; and, being monstrous it will yet be recorded in history, +that the Scottish church has split into mortal feuds upon two points +absolutely without interest to the nation: 1st, Upon a demand for creating +clergymen by a new process; 2dly, Upon a demand for Papal latitude of +jurisdiction. Even the order of succession in these things is not without +meaning. Had the second demand stood first, it would have seemed possible +that the two demands might have grown up independently, and so far +conscientiously. But, according to the realities of the case, this is +_not_ possible, the second demand grew _out_ of the first. The interest of +the Seceders, as locked up in their earliest requisition, was that which +prompted their second. Almost every body was contented with the existing +mode of creating the pastoral relation. Search through Christendom, +lengthways and breadthways, there was not a public usage, an institution, +an economy, which more profoundly slept in the sunshine of divine favour +or of civil prosperity, than the peculiar mode authorized and practised in +Scotland of appointing to every parish its several pastor. Here and there +an ultra-Presbyterian spirit might prompt a murmur against it. But the +wise and intelligent approved; and those who had the appropriate--that is, +the religious interest--confessed that it was practically successful. From +whom, then, came the attempt to change? Why, from those only who had an +alien interest, an indirect interest, an interest of ambition in its +subversion. As matters stood in the spring of 1834, the patron of each +benefice, acting under the severest restraints--restraints which (if the +church courts did their duty) left no room or possibility for an unfit man +to creep in, nominated the incumbent. In a spiritual sense, the church had +all power: by refusing, first of all, to "_license_" unqualified persons; +secondly, by refusing to "_admit_" out of these licensed persons such as +might have become warped from the proper standard of pastoral fitness, the +church had a negative voice, all-potential in the creation of clergymen; +the church could exclude whom she pleased. But this contented her not. +Simply to shut out was an ungracious office, though mighty for the +interests of orthodoxy through the land. The children of this world, who +became the agitators of the church, clamoured for something more. They +desired for the church that she should become a lady patroness; that she +should give as well as take away; that she should wield a sceptre, courted +for its bounties, and not merely feared for its austerities. Yet how +should this be accomplished? Openly to translate upon the church the +present power of patrons--_that_ were too revolutionary, that would have +exposed its own object. For the present, therefore, let this device +prevail--let the power nominally be transferred to congregations; let this +be done upon the plea that each congregation understands best what mode of +ministrations tends to its own edification. There lies the semblance of a +Christian plea; the congregation, it is said, has become anxious for +itself; the church has become anxious for the congregation. And then, if +the translation should be effected, the church has already devised a means +for appropriating the power which she has unsettled; for she limits this +power to the communicants at the sacramental table. Now, in Scotland, +though not in England, the character of communicant is notoriously created +or suspended by the clergyman of each parish; so that, by the briefest of +circuits, the church causes the power to revolve into her own hands. + +That was the first change--a change full of Jacobinism; and for which to +be published was to be denounced. It was necessary, therefore, to place +this Jacobin change upon a basis privileged from attack. How should _that_ +be done? The object was to create a new clerical power; to shift the +election of clergymen from the lay hands in which law and usage had lodged +it; and, under a plausible mask of making the election popular, +circuitously to make it ecclesiastical. Yet, if the existing patrons of +church benefices should see themselves suddenly denuded of their rights, +and within a year or two should see these rights settling determinately +into the hands of the clergy, the fraud, the fraudulent purpose, and the +fraudulent machinery, would have stood out in gross proportions too +palpably revealed. In this dilemma the reverend agitators devised a second +scheme. It was a scheme bearing triple harvests; for, at one and the same +time, it furnished the motive which gave a constructive coherency and +meaning to the original purpose, it threw a solemn shadow over the rank +worldliness of that purpose, and it opened a diffusive tendency towards +other purposes of the same nature, as yet undeveloped. The device was this: +in Scotland, as in England, the total process by which a parish clergyman +is created, subdivides itself into several successive acts. The initial +act belongs to the patron of the benefice: he must "_present_"; that is, +he notifies the fact of his having conferred the benefice upon A B, to a +public body which officially takes cognizance of this act; and that body +is, not the particular parish concerned, but the presbytery of the +district in which the parish is seated. Thus far the steps, merely legal, +of the proceedings, were too definite to be easily disturbed. These steps +are sustained by Lord Aberdeen as realities, and even by the +Non-intrusionists were tolerated as formalities. + +But at this point commence other steps not so rigorously defined by law or +usage, nor so absolutely within one uniform interpretation of their value. +In practice they had long sunk into forms. But ancient forms easily lend +themselves to a revivification by meanings and applications, new or old, +under the galvanism of democratic forces. The disturbers of the church, +passing by the act of "presentation" as an obstacle too formidable to be +separately attacked on its own account, made their stand upon one of the +two acts which lie next in succession. It is the regular routine, that the +presbytery, having been warned of the patron's appointment, and having +"received" (in technical language) the presentee--that is, having formally +recognised him in that character--next appoint a day on which he is to +preach before the congregation. This sermon, together with the prayers by +which it is accompanied, constitute the probationary act according to some +views; but, according to the general theory, simply the inaugural act by +which the new pastor places himself officially before his future +parishioners. Decorum, and the sense of proportion, seem to require that +to every commencement of a very weighty relation, imposing new duties, +there should be a corresponding and ceremonial entrance. The new pastor, +until this public introduction, could not be legitimately assumed for +known to the parishioners. And accordingly at this point it was--viz. +subsequently to his authentic publication, as we may call it--that, in the +case of any grievous scandal known to the parish as outstanding against +him, arose the proper opportunity furnished by the church for lodging the +accusation, and for investigating it before the church court. In default, +however, of any grave objection to the presentee, he was next summoned by +the presbytery to what really _was_ a probationary act at their bar; viz. +an examination of his theological sufficiency. But in this it could not be +expected that he should fail, because he must previously have satisfied +the requisitions of the church in his original examination for a license +to preach. Once dismissed with credit from this bar, he was now beyond all +further probation whatsoever; in technical phrase, he was entitled to +"admission." Such were the steps, according to their orderly succession, +by which a man consummated the pastoral tie with any particular parish. +And all of these steps, subsequent to the "_reception_" and inaugural +preaching, were now summarily characterised by the revolutionists as +"spiritual;" for the sake of sequestering them into their own hands. As to +the initiatory act of presentation, _that_ might be secular, and to be +dealt with by a secular law. But the rest were acts which belonged not to +a kingdom of this world. "These," with a new-born scrupulosity never heard +of until the revolution of 1834, clamoured for new casuistries; "these," +said the agitators, "we cannot consent any longer to leave in their state +of collapse as mere inert or ceremonial forms. They must be revivified. By +all means, let the patron present as heretofore. But the acts of +'examination' and 'admission,' _together with power of altogether refusing +to enter upon either_, under a protest against the candidate from a clear +majority of the parishioners--these are acts falling within the spiritual +jurisdiction of the church. And these powers we must, for the future, see +exercised according to spiritual views." + +Here, then, suddenly emerged a perfect ratification for their own previous +revolutionary doctrine upon the creation of parish clergymen. This new +scruple was, in relation to former scruples, a perfect linch-pin for +locking their machinery into cohesion. For vainly would they have sought +to defeat the patron's right of presenting, unless through this sudden +pause and interdict imposed upon the _latter_ acts in the process of +induction, under the pretext that these were acts competent only to a +spiritual jurisdiction. This plea, by its tendency, rounded and secured +all that they had yet advanced in the way of claim. But, at the same tine, +though indispensable negatively, positively it stretched so much further +than any necessity or interest inherent in their present innovations, that +not improbably they faltered and shrank back at first from the +immeasurable field of consequences upon which it opened. Thy would +willingly have accepted less. But, unfortunately, it sometimes happens, +that, to gain as much as is needful in one direction, you must take a +great deal more than you wish for in another. Any principle, which _could_ +carry them over the immediate difficulty, would, by mere necessity, carry +them incalculably beyond it. For if every act bearing in any one direction +a spiritual aspect, showing at any angle a relation to spiritual things, +is therefore to be held spiritual in a sense excluding the interference of +the civil power, there falls to the ground at once the whole fabric of +civil authority in any independent form. Accordingly, we are satisfied +that the claim to a spiritual jurisdiction, in collision with the claims +of the state, would not probably have offered itself to the ambition of +the agitators, otherwise than as a measure ancillary to their earlier +pretension of appointing virtually all parish clergymen. The one claim was +found to be the integration or _sine qua non_ complement of the other. In +order to sustain the power of appointment in their own courts, it was +necessary that they should defeat the patron's power; and, in order to +defeat the patron's power, ranging itself (as sooner or later it would) +under the law of the Land, it was necessary that they should decline that +struggle, by attempting to take the question out of all secular +jurisdictions whatever. + +In this way grew up that twofold revolution which has been convulsing the +Scottish church since 1834; first, the audacious attempt to disturb the +settled mode of appointing the parish clergy, through a silent robbery +perpetrated on the crown and great landed aristocracy, secondly, and in +prosecution of that primary purpose, the far more frantic attempt to renew +in a practical shape the old disputes so often agitating the forum of +Christendom, as to the bounds of civil and spiritual power. + +In our rehearsal of the stages through which the process of induction +ordinarily travels, we have purposely omitted one possible interlude or +parenthesis in the series; not as wishing to conceal it, but for the very +opposite reason. It is right to withdraw from a _representative_ account +of any transaction such varieties of the routine as occur but seldom: in +this way they are more pointedly exposed. Now, having made that +explanation, we go on to inform the Southern reader--than an old +traditionary usage has prevailed in Scotland, but not systematically or +uniformly, of sending to the presentee, through the presbytery, what is +designated a "_call_", subscribed by members of the parish congregation. +This call is simply an invitation to the office of their pastor. It arose +in the disorders of the seventeenth century; but in practice it is +generally admitted to have sunk into a mere formality throughout the +eighteenth century; and the very position which it holds in the succession +of steps, not usually coming forward until _after_ the presentation has +been notified, (supposing that it comes forward at all,) compels us to +regard it in that light. Apparently it bears the same relation to the +patron's act as the Address of the two Houses to the Speech from the +Throne: it is rather a courteous echo to the personal compliment involved +in the presentation, than capable of being regarded as any _original_ act +of invitation. And yet, in defiance of that notorious fact, some people go +so far as to assert, that a call is not good unless where it is subscribed +by a clear majority of the congregation. This is amusing. We have already +explained that, except as a liberal courtesy, the very idea of a call +destined to be inoperative, is and must be moonshine. Yet between two +moonshines, some people, it seems, can tell which is the denser. We have +all heard of Barmecide banquets, where, out of tureens filled to the brim +with--nothing, the fortunate guest was helped to vast messes of--air. For +a hungry guest to take this tantalization in good part, was the sure way +to win the esteem of the noble Barmecide. But the Barmecide himself would +hardly approve of a duel turning upon a comparison between two of his +tureens, question being--which had been the fuller, or of two nihilities +which had been seasoned the more judiciously. Yet this in effect is the +reasoning of those who say that a call, signed by fifty-one persons out of +a hundred, is more valid than another signed only by twenty-six, or by +nobody; it being in the mean time fully understood that neither is valid +in the least possible degree. But if the "_call_" was a Barmecide call, +there was another act open to the congregation which was not so. + +For the English reader must now understand, that over and above the +passive and less invidious mode of discountenancing or forbearing to +countenance a presentee, by withdrawing from the direct "_call_" upon him, +usage has sanctioned another and stronger sort of protest; one which takes +the shape of distinct and clamorous _objections_. We are speaking of the +routine in this place, according to the course which it _did_ travel or +_could_ travel under that law and that practice which furnished the pleas +for complaint. Now, it was upon these "objections," as may well be +supposed, that the main battle arose. Simply to want the "call," being a +mere _zero_, could not much lay hold upon public feeling. It was a case +not fitted for effect. You cannot bring a blank privation strongly before +the public eye. "The 'call' did not take place last week;" well, perhaps +it will take place next week. Or again, if it should never take place, +perhaps it may be religious carelessness on the part of the parish. Many +parishes notoriously feel no interest in their pastor, except as a quiet +member of their community. Consequently, in two of three cases that might +occur, there was nothing to excite the public: the parish had either +agreed with the patron, or had not noticeably dissented. But in the third +case of positive "objections," which (in order to justify themselves as +not frivolous and vexatious) were urged with peculiar emphasis, the +attention of all men was arrested. Newspapers reverberated the fact: +sympathetic groans arose: the patron was an oppressor: the parish was +under persecution: and the poor clergyman, whose case was the most to be +pitied, as being in a measure _endowed_ with a lasting fund of dislike, +had the mortification to find, over and above this resistance from within, +that he bore the name of "intruder" from without. He was supposed by the +fiction of the case to be in league with his patron for the persecution of +a godly parish; whilst in reality the godly parish was persecuting _him_, +and hallooing the world _ab extra_ to join in the hunt. + +In such cases of pretended objections to men who have not been tried, we +need scarcely tell the reader, that usually they are mere cabals and +worldly intrigues. It is next to impossible that any parish or +congregation should sincerely agree in their opinion of a clergyman. What +one man likes in such cases, another man detests. Mr A., with an ardent +nature, and something of a histrionic turn, doats upon a fine rhetorical +display. Mr B., with more simplicity of taste, pronounces this little +better than theatrical ostentation. Mr C. requires a good deal of critical +scholarship. Mr D. quarrels with this as unsuitable to a rustic +congregation. Mrs X., who is "under concern" for sin, demands a searching +and (as she expresses it) a "faithful" style of dealing with consciences. +Mrs Y., an aristocratic lady, who cannot bear to be mixed up in any common +charge together with low people, abominates such words as "sin," and wills +that the parson should confine his "observations" to the "shocking +demoralization of the lower orders." + +Now, having stated the practice of Scottish induction, as it was formerly +sustained in its first stage by law, in its second stage by usage, let us +finish that part of the subject by reporting the _existing_ practice as +regulated in all its stages by law. What law? The law as laid down in Lord +Aberdeen's late Act of Parliament. This statement should, historically +speaking, have found itself under our _third_ head, as being one amongst +the consequences immediately following the final rupture. But it is better +placed at this point; because it closes the whole review of that topic; +and because it reflects light upon the former practice--the practice which +led to the whole mutinous tumult: every alteration forcing more keenly +upon the reader's attention what had been the previous custom, and in what +respect it was held by any man to be a grievance. + +This Act, then, of Lord Aberdeen's, removes all _legal_ effect from the +"_call_." Common sense required _that_. For what was to be done with +patronage? Was it to be sustained, or was it not? If not, then why quarrel +with the Non-intrusionists? Why suffer a schism to take place in the +church? Give legal effect to the "call," and the original cause of quarrel +is gone. For, with respect to the opponents of the Non-intrusionists, +_they_ would bow to the law. On the other hand, if patronage _is_ to be +sustained, then why allow of any lingering or doubtful force to what must +often operate as a conflicting claim? "A call," which carries with it any +legal force, annihilates patronage. Patronage would thus be exercised only +on sufferance. Do we mean then, that a "call" should sink into a pure +fiction of ceremony, like the English _conge-d'elire_ addressed to a dean +and chapter, calling on them to elect a bishop, when all the world knows +that already the see has been filled by a nomination from the crown? Not +at all; a _moral_ weight will still attach to the "call," though no legal +coercion: and, what is chiefly important, all those _doubts_ be removed by +express legislation, which could not but arise between a practice pointing +sometimes in one direction, and sometimes in another, between legal +decisions again upholding one view, whilst something very like legal +prescription was occasionally pleaded for the other. Behold the evil of +written laws not rigorously in harmony with that sort of customary law +founded upon vague tradition or irregular practice. And here, by the way, +arises the place for explaining to the reader that irreconcilable dispute +amongst Parliamentary lawyers as to the question whether Lord Aberdeen's +bill were _enactory_, that is, created a new law, or _declaratory_, that +is, simply expounded an old one. If enactory, then why did the House of +Lords give judgment against those who allowed weight to the "call?" That +might need altering; _that_ might be highly inexpedient; but if it +required a new law to make it illegal, how could those parties be held in +the wrong previously to the new act of legislation? On the other hand, if +declaratory, then show us any old law which made the "call" illegal. The +fact is--that no man can decide whether the act established a new law, or +merely expounded an old one. And the reason why he cannot--is this: the +practice, the usage, which often is the law, had grown up variously during +the troubles of the seventeenth century. In many places political reasons +had dictated that the elders should nominate the incumbent. But the +ancient practice had authorized patronage: by the act of Queen Anne (10th +chap.) it was even formally restored; and yet the patron in known +instances was said to have waived his right in deference to the "call." +But why? Did he do so, in courteous compliance with the parish, as a party +whose _reasonable_ wishes ought, for the sake of all parties, to meet with +attention? Or did he do so, in humble submission to the parish, as having +by their majorities a legal right to the presentation? There lay the +question. The presumptions from antiquity were all against the call. The +more modern practice had occasionally been _for_ it. Now, we all know how +many colourable claims of right are created by prescription. What was the +exact force of the "call," no man could say. In like manner, the exact +character and limit of allowable objections had been ill-defined in +practice, and rested more on a vague tradition than on any settled rule. +This also made it hard to say whether Lord Aberdeen's Act were enactory or +declaratory, a predicament, however, which equally affects all statutes +_for removing doubts_. + +The "call," then, we consider as no longer recognised by law. But did Lord +Aberdeen by that change establish the right of the patron as an +unconditional right? By no means. He made it strictly a conditional right. +The presentee is _now_ a candidate, and no more. He has the most important +vote in his favour, it is true: but that vote may still be set aside, +though still only with the effect of compelling the patron to a new choice. +"_Calls_" are no longer doubtful in their meaning, but "_objections_" have +a fair field laid open to then. All reasonable objections are to be +weighed. But who is to judge whether they _are_ reasonable? The presbytery +of the district. And now pursue the action of the law, and see how little +ground it leaves upon which to hang a complaint. Every body's rights are +secured. Whatever be the event, first of all the presentee cannot complain, +if he is rejected only for proved insufficiency. He is put on his trial as +to these points only: 1. Is he orthodox? 2. Is he of good moral +reputation? 3. Is he sufficiently learned? And note this, (which in fact +Sir James Graham remarked in his official letter to the Assembly,) +strictly speaking, he ought not to be under challenge as respects the +third point; for it is your own fault, the fault of your own licensing +courts (the presbyteries,) if he is not qualified so far. You should not +have created him a licentiate, should not have given him a license to +preach, as must have been done in an earlier stage of his progress, if he +were not learned enough. Once learned, a man is learned for life. As to +the other points, he may change; and _therefore_ it is that an examination +is requisite. But how can _he_ complain, if he is found by an impartial +court of venerable men objectionable on any score? If it were possible, +however, that he should be wronged, he has his appeal. Secondly, how can +the patron complain? _His_ case is the same as his presentee's case; his +injuries the same; his relief the same. Besides, if _his_ man is rejected, +it is not the parish man that takes his place. No; but a second man of +his own choice: and, if again he chooses amiss, who is to blame for +_that_? Thirdly, can the congregation complain? They have a _general_ +interest in their spiritual guide. But as to the preference for +oratory--for loud or musical voice--for peculiar views in religion--these +things are special: they interest but an exceedingly small minority in any +parish; and, what is worse, that which pleases one is often offensive to +another. There are cases in which a parish would reject a man for being a +married man: some of the parish have unmarried daughters. But this case +clearly belongs to the small minority; and we have little doubt that, +where the objections lay "for cause not shown," it was often for _this_ +cause. Fourthly, can the church complain? Her interest is represented, 1, +not by the presentee; 2, not by the patron; 3, not by the congregation; +but 4, by the presbytery. And, whatever the presbytery say, _that_ is +supported. Speaking either for the patron, for the presentee, for the +congregation, or for themselves as conservators of the church, that court +is heard; what more would they have? And thus in turn every interest is +protected. Now the point to be remarked is--that each party in turn has a +separate influence. But on any other plan, giving to one party out of the +four an absolute or unconditional power, no matter which of the four it +be--all the rest have none at all. Lord Aberdeen has reconciled the rights +of patrons for the first time with those of all other parties interested. +Nobody has more than a conditional power. Every body has _that_. And the +patron, as necessity requires, if property is to be protected, has in all +circumstances the reversionary power. + +II. _Secondly_, How _were these things done?_ By what means were the hands +of any party strengthened, so as to find this revolution possible? + +We seek not to refine; but all moral power issues out of moral forces. And +it may be well, therefore, rapidly to sketch the history of religion, +which is the greatest of moral forces, as it sank and rose in this island +through the last two hundred years. + +It is well known that the two great revolutions of the seventeenth +century--that in 1649, accomplished by the Parliament armies, (including +its reaction in 1660,) and secondly, that in 1688-9--did much to unsettle +the religious tone of public morals. Historians and satirists ascribe a +large effect in this change to the personal influence of Charles II., and +the foreign character of his court. We do not share in their views; and +one eminent proof that they are wrong, lies in the following fact--viz. +that the sublimest act of self-sacrifice which the world has ever seen, +arose precisely in the most triumphant season of Charles's career, a time +when the reaction of hatred had not yet neutralized the sunny joyousness +of his Restoration. Surely the reader cannot be at a loss to know what we +mean--the renunciation in one hour, on St Bartholomew's day in 1662, of +two thousand benefices by the non-conforming clergymen of England. In the +same year, occurred a similar renunciation of three hundred and sixty +benefices in Scotland. These great sacrifices, whether called for or not, +argue a great strength in the religious principle at that era. Yet the +decay of external religion towards the close of that century is proved +incontestably. We ourselves are inclined to charge this upon two causes; +first, that the times were controversial and usually it happens--that, +where too much energy is carried into the controversies or intellectual +part of religion, a very diminished fervour attends the culture of its +moral and practical part. This was perhaps one reason; for the dispute +with the Papal church, partly, perhaps, with a secret reference to the +rumoured apostasy of the royal family, was pursued more eagerly in the +latter half of the seventeenth than even in any section of the sixteenth +century. But, doubtless, the main reason was the revolutionary character +of the times. Morality is at all periods fearfully shaken by intestine +wars, and by instability in a government. The actual duration of war in +England was not indeed longer than three and a half years, viz. from +Edgehill fight, in the autumn of 1642, to the defeat of the king's last +force under Sir Jacob Astley at Stow-in-the-wolds in the spring of 1646. +Any other fighting in that century belonged to mere insulated and +discontinuous war. But the insecurity of every government between 1638 and +1702, kept the popular mind in a state of fermentation. Accordingly, Queen +Anne's reign might be said to open upon an irreligious people. This +condition of things was further strengthened by the unavoidable +interweaving at that time of politics with religion. They could not be +kept separate; and the favour shown even by religious people to such +partisan zealots as Dr Sacheverell, evidenced, and at the same time +promoted, the public irreligion. This was the period in which the clergy +thought too little of their duties, but too much of their professional +rights; and if we may credit the indirect report of the contemporary +literature, all apostolic or missionary zeal for the extension of religion, +was in those days a thing unknown. It may seem unaccountable to many, that +the same state of things should have spread in those days to Scotland; but +this is no more than the analogies of all experience entitled us to expect. +Thus we know that the instincts of religious reformation ripened every +where at the same period of the sixteenth century from one end of Europe +to the other; although between most of the European kingdoms there was +nothing like so much intercourse as between England and Scotland in the +eighteenth century. In both countries, a cold and lifeless state of public +religion prevailed up to the American and French Revolutions. These great +events gave a shock every where to the meditative, and, consequently, to +the religious impulses of men. And, in the mean time, an irregular channel +had been already opened to these impulses by the two founders of Methodism. +A century has now passed since Wesley and Whitfield organized a more +spiritual machinery of preaching than could then be found in England, for +the benefit of the poor and labouring classes. These Methodist +institutions prospered, as they were sure of doing, amongst the poor and +the neglected at any time, much more when contrasted with the deep +slumbers of the Established church. And another ground of prosperity soon +arose out of the now expanding manufacturing system. Vast multitudes of +men grew up under that system--humble enough by the quality of their +education to accept with thankfulness the ministrations of Methodism, and +rich enough to react, upon that beneficent institution, by continued +endowments in money. Gradually, even the church herself, that mighty +establishment, under the cold shade of which Methodism had grown up as a +neglected weed, began to acknowledge the power of an extending Methodistic +influence, which originally she had haughtily despised. First, she +murmured; then she grew anxious or fearful; and finally, she began to find +herself invaded or modified from within, by influences springing up from +Methodism. This last effect became more conspicuously evident after the +French Revolution. The church of Scotland, which, as a whole, had +exhibited, with much unobtrusive piety, the same outward torpor as the +church of England during the eighteenth century, betrayed a corresponding +resuscitation about the same time. At the opening of this present century, +both of these national churches began to show a marked rekindling of +religious fervour. In what extent this change in the Scottish church had +been due, mediately or immediately, to Methodism, we do not pretend to +calculate; that is, we do not pretend to settle the proportions. But +_mediately_ the Scottish church must have been affected, because she was +greatly affected by her intercourse with the English church, (as, e.g., in +Bible Societies, Missionary Societies, &c.;) and the English church had +been previously affected by Methodism. _Immediately_ she must also have +been affected by Methodism, because Whitfield had been invited to preach +in Scotland, and _did_ preach in Scotland. But, whatever may have been the +cause of this awakening from slumber in the two established churches of +this island, the fact is so little to be denied, that, in both its aspects, +it is acknowledged by those most interested in denying it. The two +churches slept the sleep of torpor through the eighteenth century; so much +of the fact is acknowledged by their own members. The two churches awoke, +as from a trance, in or just before the dawning of the nineteenth century; +this second half of the fact is acknowledged by their opponents. The +Wesleyan Methodists, that formidable power in England and Wales, who once +reviled the Establishment as the dormitory of spiritual drones, have for +many years hailed a very large section in that establishment--viz., the +section technically known by the name of the Evangelical clergy--as +brothers after their own hearts, and corresponding to their own strictest +model of a spiritual clergy. That section again, the Evangelical section, +in the English church, as men more highly educated, took a direct interest +in the Scottish clergy, upon general principles of liberal interest in all +that could affect religion, beyond what could be expected from the +Methodists. And in this way grew up a considerable action and reaction +between the two classical churches of the British soil. + +Such was the varying condition, when sketched in outline, of the Scottish +and English churches. Two centuries ago, and for half a century beyond +that, we find both churches in a state of trial, of turbulent agitation, +and of sacrifices for conscience which involved every fifth or sixth +beneficiary. Then came a century of languor and the carelessness which +belongs to settled prosperity. And finally, for both has arisen a half +century of new light--new zeal--and, spiritually speaking, of new +prosperity. This deduction it was necessary to bring down, in order to +explain the new power which arose to the Scottish church during the last +generation of suppose thirty years. + +When two powerful establishments, each separately fitted to the genius and +needs of its several people, are pulling together powerfully towards one +great spiritual object, vast must be the results. Our ancestors would have +stood aghast as at some fabulous legend or some mighty miracle, could they +have heard of the scale on which our modern contributions proceed for the +purposes of missions to barbarous nations, of circulating the Scriptures, +(whether through the Bible Society, that is the National Society, or +Provincial Societies,) of translating the Scriptures into languages +scarcely known by name to scholars, of converting Jews, of organizing and +propagating education. Towards these great objects the Scottish clergy had +worked with energy and with little disturbance to their unanimity. +Confidence was universally felt in their piety and in their discretion. +This confidence even reached the supreme rulers of the state. Very much +through ecclesiastical influence, new plans for extending the religious +power of the Scottish church, and indirectly of extending their secular +power, were countenanced by the Government. Jealousy had been disarmed by +the upright conduct of the Scottish clergy, and their remarkable freedom +hitherto from all taint of ambition. It was felt, besides, that the temper +of the Scottish nation was radically indisposed to all intriguing or modes +of temporal ascendency in ecclesiastical bodies. The nation, therefore, +was in some degree held as a guarantee for the discretion of their clergy. +And hence it arose, that much less caution was applied to the first +encroachment of the Non-intrusionists, than would have been applied under +circumstances of more apparent doubt. Hence it arose, that a confidence +from the Scottish nation was extended to this clergy, which too certainly +has been abused. + +In the years 1824-5, Parliament had passed acts "for building additional +places of worship in the highlands and islands of Scotland." These acts +may be looked upon as one section in that general extension of religious +machinery which the British people, by their government and their +legislature, have for many years been promoting. Not, as is ordinarily +said, that the weight of this duty had grown upon them simply through +their own treacherous neglect of it during the latter half of the +eighteenth century; but that no reasonable attention to that duty _could_ +have kept pace with the scale upon which the claims of a new manufacturing +population had increased. In mere equity we must admit--not that the +British nation had fallen behind its duties, (though naturally it might +have done so under the religious torpor prevalent at the original era of +manufacturing extension,) but that the duties had outstripped all human +power of overtaking them. The efforts, however, have been prodigious in +this direction for many years. Amongst those applied to Scotland, it had +been settled by parliament that forty-two new churches should be raised in +the highlands, with an endowment from the Government of L.120 annually for +each incumbent. There were besides more than two hundred chapels of ease +to be founded; and towards this scheme the Scottish public subscribed +largely. The money was entrusted to the clergy. _That_ was right. But mark +what followed. It had been expressly provided by Parliament--that any +district or circumjacent territory, allotted to such parliamentary +churches as the range within which the incumbent was to exercise his +spiritual ministrations, should _not_ be separate parishes for any civil +or legal effects. Here surely the intentions and directions of the +legislature were plain enough, and decisive enough. + +How did the Scottish clergy obey them? They erected all these +jurisdictions into _bona fide_ "parishes," enjoying the plenary rights (as +to church government) of the other parishes, and distinguished from them +in a merely nominal way as parishes _quoad sacra_. There were added at +once to the presbyteries, which are the organs of the church power, 203 +clerical persons for the chapels of ease, and 42 for the highland +churches--making a total of 245 new members. By the constitution of the +Scottish church, an equal number of lay elders (called ruling elders) +accompany the clerical elders. Consequently 490 new members were +introduced at once into that particular class of courts (presbyteries) +which form the electoral bodies in relation to the highest court of +General Assembly. The effect of this change, made in the very teeth of the +law, was twofold. First, it threw into many separate presbyteries a +considerable accession of voters--_all owing their appointments to the +General Assembly_. This would at once give a large bias favourable to +their party views in every election for members to serve in the Assembly. +Even upon an Assembly numerically limited, this innovation would have told +most abusively. But the Assembly was _not_ limited; and therefore the +whole effect was, at the same moment, greatly to extend the electors and +the elected. + +Here, then, was the machinery by which the faction worked. They drew that +power from Scotland rekindled into a temper of religious anxiety, which +they never could have drawn from Scotland lying torpid, as she had lain +through the 18th century. The new machinery, (created by Parliament in +order to meet the wishes of the Scottish nation,) the money of that nation, +the awakened zeal of that nation; all these were employed, honourably in +one sense, that is, not turned aside into private channels for purposes of +individuals, but factiously in the result, as being for the benefit of a +faction; honourably as regarded the open _mode_ of applying such +influence--a mode which did not shrink from exposure; but most +dishonourably, in so far as privileges, which had been conceded altogether +for a spiritual object, were abusively transferred to the furtherance of a +temporal intrigue. Such were the methods by which the new-born ambition of +the clergy moved; and that ambition had become active, simply because it +had suddenly seemed to become practicable. The presbyteries, as being the +effectual electoral bodies, are really the main springs of the +ecclesiastical administration. To govern _them_, was in effect to govern +the church. A new scheme for extending religion, had opened a new avenue +to this control over the presbyteries. That opening was notoriously +unlawful. But not the less, the church faction precipitated themselves +ardently upon it; and but for the faithfulness of the civil courts, they +would never have been dislodged from what they had so suddenly acquired. +Such was the extraordinary leap taken by the Scottish clergy, into a power +of which, hitherto, they had never enjoyed a fraction. It was a movement +_per saltum_, beyond all that history has recorded. At cock-crow, they had +no power at all; when the sun went down, they had gained (if they could +have held) a papal supremacy. And a thing not less memorably strange is, +that even yet the ambitious leaders were not disturbed; what they had +gained was viewed by the public as a collateral gain, indirectly adhering +to a higher object, but forming no part at all of what the clergy had +sought. It required the scrutiny of law courts to unmask and decompose +their true object. The obstinacy of the defence betrayed the real _animus_ +of the attempt. It was an attempt which, in connexion with the _Veto_ Act, +(supposing that to have prospered,) would have laid the whole power of the +church at their feet. What the law had distributed amongst three powers, +patron, parish, and presbytery, would have been concentred in themselves. +The _quoad sacra_ parishes would have riveted their majorities in the +presbyteries; and the presbyteries, under the real action of the _Veto_, +would have appointed nearly every incumbent in Scotland. And this is the +answer to the question, when treated merely in outline--_How were these +things done?_ The religion of the times had created new machineries for +propagating a new religious influence. These fell into the hands of the +clergy; and the temptation to abuse these advantages led them into +revolution. + +III. Having now stated WHAT was done, as well as HOW it was done, let us +estimate the CONSEQUENCES of these acts; under this present, or _third_ +section, reviewing the immediate consequences which have taken effect +already, and under the next section, anticipating the more remote +consequences yet to be expected. + +In the spring of 1834, as we have sufficiently explained, the General +Assembly ventured on the fatal attempt to revolutionize the church, and +(as a preliminary towards _that_) on the attempt to revolutionize the +property of patronage. There lay the extravagance of the attempt; its +short-sightedness, if they did not see its civil tendencies; its audacity, +if they _did_. It was one revolution marching to its object through +another; it was a vote, which, if at all sustained, must entail a long +inheritance of contests with the whole civil polity of Scotland. + + "Heu quantum fati parva tabella vehit!" + +It might seem to strangers a trivial thing, that an obscure court, like +the presbytery, should proceed in the business of induction by one routine +rather than by another; but was it a trivial thing that the power of +appointing clergymen should lapse into this perilous dilemma--either that +it should be intercepted by the Scottish clerical order, and thus, that a +lordly hierarchy should be suddenly created, disposing of incomes which, +in the aggregate, approach to half a million annually; or, on the other +hand, that this dangerous power, if defeated as a clerical power, should +settle into a tenure exquisitely democratic? Was _that_ trivial? Doubtless, +the Scottish ecclesiastical revenues are not equal, nor nearly equal, to +the English; still, it is true, that Scotland, supposing all her benefices +equalized, gives a larger _average_ to each incumbent than England, of the +year 1830. England, in that year, gave an average of L299 to each +beneficiary; Scotland gave an average of L303. That body, therefore, which +wields patronage in Scotland, wields a greater relative power than the +corresponding body in England. Now this body, in Scotland, must finally +have been the _clerus_; but supposing the patronage to have settled +nominally where the Veto Act had placed it, then it would have settled +into the keeping of a fierce democracy. Mr Forsyth has justly remarked, +that in such a case the hired ploughmen of a parish, mercenary hands that +quit their engagements at Martinmas, and _can_ have no filial interest in +the parish, would generally succeed in electing the clergyman. That man +would be elected generally, who had canvassed the parish with the arts and +means of an electioneering candidate; or else, the struggle would lie +between the property and the Jacobinism of the district. + +In respect to Jacobinism, the condition of Scotland is much altered from +what it was; pauperism and great towns have worked "strange defeatures" in +Scottish society. A vast capital has arisen in the west, on a level with +the first-rate capitals of the Continent--with Vienna or with Naples; far +superior in size to Madrid, to Lisbon, to Berlin; more than equal to Rome +and Milan; or again to Munich and Dresden, taken by couples: and in this +point, beyond comparison with any one of these capitals, that whilst +_they_ are connected by slight ties with the circumjacent country, Glasgow +keeps open a communication with the whole land. Vast laboratories of +encouragement to manual skill, too often dissociated from consideration of +character; armies of mechanics, gloomy and restless, having no interfusion +amongst their endless files of any gradations corresponding to a system of +controlling officers; these spectacles, which are permanently offered by +the _castra stativa_ of combined mechanics in Glasgow and its dependencies, +(Paisley, Greenock, &c.,) supported by similar districts, and by turbulent +collieries in other parts of that kingdom, make Scotland, when now +developing her strength, no longer the safe and docile arena for popular +movements which once she was, with a people that were scattered, and +habits that were pastoral. And at this moment, so fearfully increased is +the overbalance of democratic impulses in Scotland, that perhaps in no +European nation--hardly excepting France--has it become more important to +hang weights and retarding forces upon popular movements amongst the +labouring classes. + +This being so, we have never been able to understand the apparent apathy +with which the landed body met the first promulgation of the _Veto_ Act in +May 1834. Of this apathy, two insufficient explanations suggest +themselves:--1st, It seemed a matter of delicacy to confront the General +Assembly, upon a field which they had clamorously challenged for their own. +The question at issue was tempestuously published to Scotland as a +question exclusively spiritual. And by whom was it thus published? The +Southern reader must here not be careless of dates. _At present_, viz. in +1844, those who fulminate such views of spiritual jurisdiction, are simply +dissenters; and those who vehemently withstand them are the church, armed +with the powers of the church. Such are the relations between the parties +in 1844. But in 1834, the revolutionary party were not only _in_ the +church, but (being the majority) they came forward _as_ the church. The +new doctrines presented themselves at first, not as those of a faction, +but of the Scottish kirk assembled in her highest court. The _prestige_ of +that advantage, has vanished since then; for this faction, after first of +all falling into a minority, afterwards ceased to be any part or section +of the church; but in that year 1834, such a _prestige_ did really operate; +and this must be received as one of the reasons which partially explain +the torpor of the landed body. No one liked to move _first_, even amongst +those who meant to move. But another reason we find in the conscientious +scruples of many landholders, who hesitated to move at all upon a question +then insufficiently discussed, and in which their own interest was by so +many degrees the largest. + +These reasons, however, though sufficient for suspense, seem hardly +sufficient for not having solemnly protested against the _Veto_ Act +immediately upon its passing the Assembly. Whatever doubts a few persons +might harbour upon the expediency of such an act, evidently it was +contrary to the law of the land. The General Assembly could have no power +to abrogate a law passed by the three estates of the realm. But probably +it was the deep sense of that truth, which reined up the national +resistance. Sure of a speedy collision between some patron and the +infringers of his right, other parties stood back for the present, to +watch the form which such a collision might assume. + +In that same year of 1834, not many months after the passing of the +Assembly's Act, came on the first case of collision; and some time +subsequently a second. These two cases, Auchterarder and Marnoch, +commenced in the very same steps, but immediately afterwards diverged as +widely as was possible. In both cases, the rights of the patron and of the +presentee were challenged peremptorily; that is to say, in both cases, +parishioners objected to the presentee without reason shown. The conduct +of the people was the same in one case as in the other; that of the two +presbyteries travelled upon lines diametrically opposite. The first case +was that of _Auchterarder_. The parish and the presbytery concerned, both +belonged to Auchterarder; and there the presbytery obeyed the new law of +the Assembly: they rejected the presentee, refusing to take him on trial +of his qualifications; And why? we cannot too often repeat--simply because +a majority of a rustic congregation had rejected him, without attempting +to show reason for his rejection. The Auchterarder presbytery, for _their_ +part in the affair, were prosecuted in the Court of Session by the injured +parties--Lord Kinnoul, the patron, and Mr Young, the presentee. Twice, +upon a different form of action, the Court of Session gave judgment +against the presbytery; twice the case went up by appeal to the Lords; +twice the Lords affirmed the judgment of the court below. In the other +case of _Marnoch_, the presbytery of Strathbogie took precisely the +opposite course. So far from abetting the unjust congregation of rustics, +they rebelled against the new law of the Assembly, and declared, by seven +of their number against three, that they were ready to proceed with the +trial of the presentee, and to induct him (if found qualified) into the +benefice. Upon this, the General Assembly suspended the seven members of +presbytery. By that mode of proceeding, the Assembly fancied that they +should be able to elude the intentions of the presbytery: it being +supposed that, whilst suspended, the presbytery had no power to ordain; +and that, without ordination, there was no possibility of giving induction. +But here the Assembly had miscalculated. Suspension would indeed have had +the effects ascribed to it; but in the mean time, the suspension, as being +originally illegal, was found to be void: and the presentee, on that +ground, obtained a decree from the Court of Session, ordaining the +presbytery of Strathbogie to proceed with the settlement. Three of the ten +members composing this presbytery, resisted; and they were found liable in +expenses. The other seven completed the settlement in the usual form. Here +was plain rebellion; and rebellion triumphant. If this were allowed, all +was gone. What should the Assembly do for the vindication of their +authority? Upon deliberation, they deposed the contumacious presbytery +from their functions as clergymen, and declared their churches vacant. But +this sentence was found to be a _brutum fulmen_; the crime was no crime, +the punishment turned out no punishment: and a minority, even in this very +Assembly, declared publicly that they would not consent to regard this +sentence as any sentence at all, but would act in all respects as if no +such sentence had been carried by vote. _Within_ their own high Court of +Assembly, it is, however, difficult to see how this refusal to recognise a +sentence voted by a majority could be valid. Outside, the civil courts +came into play; but within the Assembly, surely its own laws and votes +prevailed. However, this distinction could bring little comfort to the +Assembly at present; for the illegality of the deposal was now past all +dispute; and the attempt to punish, or even ruin, a number of professional +brethren for not enforcing a by-law, when the by-law itself had been found +irreconcilable to the law of the land, greatly displease the public, as +vindictive, oppressive, and useless to the purposes of the Assembly. + +Nothing was gained except the putting on record an implacability that was +_confessedly_ impotent. This was the very lunacy of malice. Mortifying it +might certainly seem for the members of a supreme court, like the General +Assembly, to be baffled by those of a subordinate court: but still, since +each party must be regarded as representing far larger interests than any +personal to themselves, trying on either side, not the energies of their +separate wits, but the available resources of law in one of its obscurer +chapters, there really seemed no more room for humiliation to the one +party, or for triumph to the other, than there is amongst reasonable men +in the result from a game, where the game is one exclusively of chance. + +From this period it is probably that the faction of Non-intrusionists +resolved upon abandoning the church. It was the one sole resource left for +sustaining their own importance to men who were now sinking fast in public +estimation. At the latter end of 1842, they summoned a convocation in +Edinburgh. The discussions were private; but it was generally understood +that at this time they concerted a plan for going out from the church, in +the event of their failing to alarm the Government by the notification of +this design. We do not pretend to any knowledge of secrets. What is known +to every body is--that on the annual meeting of the General Assembly, in +May 1843, the great body of the Non-intrusionists moved out in procession. +The sort of theatrical interest which gathered round the Seceders for a +few hurried days in May, was of a kind which should naturally have made +wise men both ashamed and disgusted. It was the merest effervescence from +that state of excitement which is nursed by novelty, by expectation, by +the vague anticipation of a "scene," possibly of a quarrel, together with +the natural interest in _seeing_ men whose names had been long before the +public in books and periodical journals. + +The first measure of the Seceders was to form themselves into a +pseudo-General Assembly. When there are two suns visible, or two moons, +the real one and its duplicate, we call the mock sun a _parhelios_, and +the mock moon a _paraselene_. On that principle, we must call this mock +Assembly a _para-synodos_. Rarely, indeed, can we applaud the Seceders in +the fabrication of names. They distinguish as _quoad sacra_ parishes those +which were peculiarly _quoad politica_ parishes; for in that view only +they had been interesting to the Non-intrusionists. Again, they style +themselves _The Free Church_, by way of taunting the other side with being +a servile church. But how are they any church at all? By the courtesies of +Europe, and according to usage, a church means a religious incorporation, +protected and privileged by the State. Those who are not so privileged are +usually content with the title of Separatists, Dissenters, or +Nonconformists. No wise man will see either good sense or dignity in +assuming titles not appropriate. The very position and aspect towards the +church (legally so called) which has been assumed by the +Non-intrusionists--viz. the position of protestors against that body, not +merely as bearing, amongst other features, a certain relation to the State, +but specifically _because_ they bear that relation, makes it incongruous, +and even absurd, for these Dissenters to denominate themselves a "church." +But there is another objection to this denomination--the "Free Church" +have no peculiar and separate Confession of Faith. Nobody knows what are +their _credenda_--what they hold indispensable for fellow-membership, +either as to faith in mysteries or in moral doctrines. Now, if they +reply--"Oh! as to that, we adopt for our faith all that ever we _did_ +profess when members of the Scottish kirk"--then in effect they are hardly +so much as a dissenting body, except in some elliptic sense. There is a +grievous _hiatus_ in their own title-deeds and archives; they supply it by +referring people to the muniment chest of the kirk. Would it not be a +scandal to a Protestant church if she should say to communicants--"We have +no sacramental vessels, or even ritual; but you may borrow both from Papal +Rome." Not only, however, is the Kirk to _lend_ her Confession, &c.; but +even then a plain rustic will not be able to guess how many parts in his +Confession are or may be affected by the "reformation" of the +Non-intrusionists. Surely, he will think, if this reformation were so vast +that it drove them out of the national church, absolutely exploded them, +then it follows that it must have interveined and _indirectly_ modified +innumerable questions: a difference that was punctually limited to this +one or these two clauses, could not be such a difference as justified a +rupture. Besides, if they have altered this one or these two clauses, or +have altered their interpretation, how is any man to know (except from a +distinct Confession of Faith) that they have not even _directly_ altered +much more? Notoriety through newspapers is surely no ground to stand upon +in religion. And now it appears that the unlettered rustic needs two +guides--one to show him exactly how much they have altered, whether two +points or two hundred, as well as _which_ two or two hundred; another to +teach him how far these original changes may have carried with them +secondary changes as consequences into other parts of the Christian system. +One of the known changes, viz. the doctrine of popular election as the +proper qualification for parish clergymen, possibility is not fitted to +expand itself or ramify, except by analogy. But the other change, the +infinity which has been suddenly turned off like a jet of gas, or like the +rushing of wind through the tubes of an organ, upon the doctrine and +application of _spirituality_, seems fitted for derivative effects that +are innumerable. Consequently, we say of the Non-intrusionists--not only +that they are no church; but that they are not even any separate body of +Dissenters, until they have published a "Confession" or a _revised_ +edition of the Scottish Confession. + +IV. Lastly, we have to sum and to appreciate the _ultimate_ consequences +of these things. Let us pursue them to the end of the vista.--First in +order stands the dreadful shock to the National Church Establishment; and +that is twofold: it is a shock from without, acting through opinion, and a +shock from within, acting through the contagion of example. Each case is +separately perfect. Through the opinion of men standing _outside_ of the +church, the church herself suffers wrong in her authority. Through the +contagion of sympathy stealing over men _inside_ of the church, peril +arises of other shocks in a second series, which would so exhaust the +church by reiterated convulsions, as to leave her virtually dismembered +and shattered for all her great national functions. + +As to that evil which acts through opinion, it works by a machinery, viz. +the press and social centralization in great cities, which in these days +is perfect. Right or wrong, justified or _not_ justified by the acts of +the majority, it is certain that every public body--how much more then, a +body charged with the responsibility of upholding the truth in its +standards!--suffers dreadfully in the world's opinion by any feud, schism, +or shadow of change among its members. This is what the New Testament, a +code of philosophy fertile in new ideas, first introduced under the name +of _scandal_; that is, any occasion of serious offence ministered to the +weak or to the sceptical by differences irreconcilable in the acts or the +opinions of those whom they are bound to regard as spiritual authorities. +Now here in Scotland, is a feud past all arbitration: here is a schism no +longer theoretic, neither beginning nor ending in mere speculation: here +is a change of doctrine, _on one side or the other_, which throws a sad +umbrage of doubt and perplexity over the pastoral relation of the church +to every parish in Scotland. Less confidence there must always be +henceforward in great religious incorporations. Was there any such +incorporation reputed to be more internally harmonious than the Scottish +church? None has been so tempestuously agitated. Was any church more +deeply pledged to the spirit of meekness? None has split asunder so +irreconcilably. As to the grounds of quarrel, could any questions or +speculations be found so little fitted for a popular intemperance? Yet no +breach of unity has ever propagated itself by steps so sudden and +irrevocable. One short decennium has comprehended within its circuit the +beginning and the end of this unparalleled hurricane. In 1834, the first +light augury of mischief skirted the horizon--a cloud no bigger than a +man's hand. In 1843 the evil had "travelled on from birth to birth." +Already it had failed in what may be called one conspiracy; already it had +entered upon a second, viz. to rear up an _Anti-Kirk_, or spurious +establishment, which should twist itself with snake-like folds about the +legal establishment; surmount it as a Roman _vinea_ surmounted the +fortifications which it beleaguered; and which, under whatsoever practical +issue for the contest, should at any rate overlook, molest, and insult the +true church for ever. Even this brief period of development would have +been briefer, had not the law courts interposed many delays. Demurs of law +process imposed checks upon the uncharitable haste of the _odium +theologicum_. And though in a question of schism it would be a _petitio +principii_ for a neutral censor to assume that either party had been +originally in error, yet it is within our competence to say, that the +Seceders it was whose bigotry carried the dispute to that sad issue of a +final separation. The establishment would have been well content to stop +short of that consummation: and temperaments might have been found, +compromises both safe and honourable, had the minority built less of their +reversionary hopes upon the policy of a fanciful martyrdom. Martyrs they +insisted upon becoming: and that they _might_ be martyrs, it was necessary +for them to secede. That Europe thinks at present with less reverence of +Protestant institutions than it did ten years ago, is due to one of these +institutions in particular; viz. to the Scottish kirk, and specifically to +the minority in that body. They it was who spurned all mutual toleration, +all brotherly indulgence from either side to what it regarded as error in +the other. Consequently upon _their_ consciences lies the responsibility +of having weakened the pillars of the Reformed churches throughout +Christendom. + +Had those abuses been really such, which the Seceders denounced, were it +possible that a primary law of pure Christianity had been set aside for +generations, how came it that evils so gross had stirred no whispers of +reproach before 1834? How came it that no aurora of early light, no +prelusive murmurs of scrupulosity even from themselves, had run before +this wild levanter of change? Heretofore or now there must have been huge +error on their own showing. Heretofore they must have been traitorously +below their duty, or now mutinously beyond it. + +Such conclusions are irresistible; and upon any path, seceding or not +seceding, they menace the worldly credit of ecclesiastical bodies. That +evil is now past remedy. As for the other evil, that which acts upon +church establishments, not through simple failure in the guarantees of +public opinion, but through their own internal vices of composition; here +undeniably we see a chasm traversing the Scottish church from the very +gates to the centre. And unhappily the same chasm, which marks a division +of the church internally, is a link connecting it externally with the +Seceders. For how stands the case? Did the Scottish Kirk, at the last +crisis, divide broadly into two mutually excluding sections? Was there one +of these bisections which said _Yes_, whilst the other responded _No_? Was +the affirmative and negative shared between them as between the black +chessmen and the white? Not so; and unhappily not so. The two extremes +there were, but these shaded off into each other. Many were the _nuances_; +multiplied the combinations. Here stood a section that had voted for all +the changes, with two or three exceptions; there stood another that went +the _whole_ length as to this change, but no part of the way as to that; +between these sections arose others that had voted arbitrarily, or +_eclectically_, that is, by no law generally recognised. And behind this +eclectic school were grouped others who had voted for all novelties up to +a certain day, but after _that_ had refused to go further with a movement +party whose tendencies they had begun to distrust. In this last case, +therefore, the divisional line fell upon no principle, but upon the +accident of having, at that particular moment, first seen grounds of +conscientious alarm. The principles upon which men had divided were +various, and these various principles were variously combined. But, on the +other hand, those who have gone out were the men who approved totally, not +partially--unconditionally, not within limits--up to the end, and not to a +given day. Consequently those who stayed in comprehended all the shades +and degrees which the men of violence excluded. The Seceders were +unanimous to a man, and of necessity; for he who approves the last act, +the extreme act, which is naturally the most violent act, _a fortiori_ +approves all lesser acts. But the establishment, by parity of reason, +retained upon its rolls all the degrees, all the modifications, all who +had exercised a wise discretion, who, in so great a cause, had thought it +a point of religion to be cautious; whose casuistry had moved in the +harness of peace, and who had preferred an interest of conscience to a +triumph of partisanship. We honour them for that policy; but we cannot +hide from ourselves, that the very principle which makes such a policy +honourable at the moment, makes it dangerous in reversion. For he who +avows that, upon public motives, he once resisted a temptation to schism, +makes known by that avowal that he still harbours in his mind the germ of +such a temptation; and to that scruple, which once he resisted, hereafter +he may see reason for yielding. The principles of schism, which for the +moment were suppressed, are still latent in the church. It is urged that, +in quest of unity, many of these men _succeeded_ in resisting the +instincts of dissension at the moment of crisis. True: But this might be +because they presumed on winning from their own party equal concessions by +means less violent than schism; or because they attached less weight to +the principle concerned, than they may see cause for attaching upon future +considerations; or because they would not allow themselves to sanction the +cause of the late Secession, by going out in company with men whose +principles they adopted only in part, or whose manner of supporting those +principles they abhorred. Universally it is evident, that little stress is +to be laid on a negative act; simply to have declined going out with the +Seceders proves nothing, for it is equivocal. It is an act which may cover +indifferently a marked hostility to the Secession party, or an absolute +friendliness, but a friendliness not quite equal to so extreme a test. And, +again, this negative act may be equivocal in a different way; the +friendliness may not only have existed, but may have existed in strength +sufficient for any test whatever; not the principles of the Seceders, but +their Jacobinical mode of asserting them, may have proved the true nerve +of the repulsion to many. What is it that we wish the English reader to +collect from these distinctions? Simply that the danger is not yet gone +past. The earthquake, says a great poet, when speaking of the general +tendency in all dangers to come round by successive and reiterated shocks-- + + "The earthquake is not satisfied at once." + +All dangers which lie deeply seated are recurrent dangers; they intermit, +only as the revolving lamps of a lighthouse are periodically eclipsed. The +General Assembly of 1843, when closing her gates upon the Seceders, shut +_in_, perhaps, more of the infected than at that time she succeeded in +shutting _out_. As respected the opinion of the world outside, it seemed +advisable to shut out the least number possible; for in proportion to the +number of the Seceders, was the danger that they should carry with them an +authentic impression in their favour. On the other hand, as respected a +greater danger, (the danger from internal contagion,) it seemed advisable +that the church should have shut out (if she could) very many of those who, +for the present, adhered to her. The broader the separation, and the more +absolute, between the church and the secession, so much the less anxiety +there would have survived lest the rent should spread. That the anxiety in +this respect is not visionary, the reader may satisfy himself by looking +over a remarkable pamphlet, which professes by its title to separate the +_wheat from the chaff_. By the "wheat," in the view of this writer, is +meant the aggregate of those who persevered in their recusant policy up to +the practical result of secession. All who stopped short of that +consummation, (on whatever plea,) are the "chaff." The writer is something +of an incendiary, or something of a fanatic; but he is consistent with +regard to his own principles, and so elaborately careful in his details as +to extort admiration of his energy and of his patience in research. + +But the reason for which we notice this pamphlet, is, with a view to the +proof of that large intestine mischief which still lingers behind in the +vitals of the Scottish establishment. No proof, in a question of that +nature, _can_ be so showy and _ostensive_ to a stranger, as that which is +supplied by this vindictive pamphlet. For every past vote recording a +scruple, is the pledge of a scruple still existing, though for the moment +suppressed. Since the secession, nearly 450 new men may have entered the +church. This supplementary body has probably diluted the strength of the +revolutionary principles. But they also may, perhaps, have partaken to +some extent in the contagion of these principles. True, there is this +guarantee for caution, on the part of these new men, that as yet they are +pledged to nothing; and that, seeing experimentally how fearfully many of +their older brethren are now likely to be fettered by the past, they have +every possible motive for reserve, in committing themselves, either by +their votes or by their pens. In _their_ situation, there is a special +inducement to prudence, because there is a prospect, that for _them_ +prudence is in time to be effectual. But for many of the older men, +prudence comes too late. They are already fettered. And what we are now +pointing out to the attention of our readers, is, that by the past, by the +absolute votes of the past, too sorrowfully it is made evident, that the +Scottish church is deeply tainted with the principles of the secession. +These germs of evil and of revolution, speaking of them in a _personal_ +sense, cannot be purged off entirely until one generation shall have +passed away. But, speaking of them as _principles_ capable of vegetation, +these germs may or may not expand into whole forests of evil, according to +the accidents of coming events, whether fitted to tranquillize our billowy +aspects of society; or, on the other hand, largely to fertilize the many +occasions of agitation, which political fermentations are too sure to +throw off. Let this chance turn out as it may, we repeat for the +information of Southerns--that the church, by shutting off the persons of +particular agitators, has not shut off the principles of agitation; and +that the _cordon sanataire_, supposing the spontaneous exile of the +Non-intrusionists to be regarded in that light, was not drawn about the +church until the disease had spread widely _within_ the lines. + +Past votes may not absolutely pledge a man to a future course of action; +warned in time, such a man may stand neutral in practice; but thus far +they poison the fountains of wholesome unanimity--that, if a man can evade +the necessity of squaring particular _actions_ to his past opinions, at +least he must find himself tempted to square his opinions themselves, or +his counsels, to such past opinions as he may too notoriously have placed +on record by his votes. + +But, if such are the continual dangers from reactions in the establishment, +so long as men survive in that establishment who feel upbraided by past +votes, and so long as enemies survive who will not suffer these +upbraidings to slumber--dangers which much mutual forbearance and charity +can alone disarm; on the other hand, how much profounder is the +inconsistency to which the Free church is doomed!--They have rent the +unity of that church, to which they had pledged their faith--but on what +plea? On the plea, that in cases purely spiritual, they could not in +conscience submit to the award of the secular magistrate. Yet how merely +impracticable is this principle, as an abiding principle of action! +Churches, that is, the charge of particular congregations, will be with +_them_ (as with other religious communities) the means of livelihood. +Grounds innumerable will arise for excluding, or attempting to exclude, +each other from these official stations. No possible form regulating the +business of ordination, or of induction, can anticipate the infinite +objections which may arise. But no man interested in such a case, will +submit to a judge appointed by insufficient authority. Daily bread for his +family, is what few men will resign without a struggle. And that struggle +will of necessity come for final adjudication to the law courts of the +land, whose interference in any question affecting a spiritual interest, +the Free church has for ever pledged herself to refuse. But in the case +supposed, she will not have the power to refuse it. She will be cited +before the tribunals, and can elude that citation in no way but by +surrendering the point in litigation; and if she should adopt the notion, +that it is better for her to do _that_, than to acknowledge a sufficient +authority in the court by pleading at its bar, upon this principle once +made public, she will soon be stripped of every thing, and will cease to +be a church at all. She cannot continue to be a depository of any faith, +or a champion of any doctrines, if she lose the means of defending her own +incorporations. But how can she maintain the defenders of her rights or +the dispensers of her truths, if she refuses, upon immutable principle, to +call in the aid of the magistrate on behalf of rights, which, under any +aspect, regard spiritual relations? Attempting to maintain these rights by +private arbitration within a forum of her own, she will soon find such +arbitration not binding at all upon the party who conceives himself +aggrieved. The issue will be as in Mr O'Connell's courts, where the +parties played at going to law; from the moment when they ceased to play, +and no longer "made believe" to be disputing, the award of the judge +became as entire a mockery, as any stage mimicry of such a transaction. + +This should be the natural catastrophe of the case, and the probable +evasion of that destructive consummation, to which she is carried by her +principles, will be--that, as soon as her feelings of rancour shall have +cooled down these principles will silently drop out of use; and the very +reason will be suffered to perish for which she ever became a dissenting +body. With this however, we, that stand outside, are noways concerned. But +an evil, in which we _are_ concerned, is the headlong tendency of the Free +church, and of all churches adulterating with her principle, to an issue +not merely dangerous in a political sense, but ruinous n an anti-social +sense. The artifice of the Free church lies in pleading a spiritual +relation of any case whatever, whether of doing or suffering, whether +positive or negative as a reason for taking it out of all civil control. +Now we may illustrate the peril of this artifice, by a reality at this +time impending over society in Ireland. Dr Higgins, titular bishop of +Ardagh, has undertaken, upon this very plea of a spiritual power not +amenable to civil control, a sort of warfare with Government, upon the +question of their power to suspend or defeat the O'Connell agitation. For, +says he, if Government should succeed in thus intercepting the direct +power of haranguing mobs in open assemblies, then will I harangue them, +and cause then to be harangued, in the same spirit, upon the same topics, +from the altar or the pulpit. An immediate extension of this principle +would be--that every disaffected clergyman in the three kingdoms, would +lecture his congregation upon the duty of paying no taxes. This he would +denominate passive resistance; and resistance to bad government would +become, in his language, the most sacred of duties. In any argument with +such a man, he would be found immediately falling back upon the principle +of the Free church: he would insist upon it as a spiritual right, as a +case entirely between his conscience and God, whether he should press to +an extremity any and every doctrine, though tending to the instant +disorganization of society. To lecture against war, and against taxes as +directly supporting war, would wear a most colourable air of truth amongst +all weak-minded persons. And these would soon appear to have been but the +first elements of confusion under the improved views of spiritual rights. +The doctrines of the _Levellers_ in Cromwell's time, of the _Anabaptists_ +in Luther's time, would exalt themselves upon the ruins of society, if +governments were weak enough to recognise these spiritual claims in the +feeblest of their initial advances. If it were possible to suppose such +chimeras prevailing, the natural redress would soon be seen to lie through +secret tribunals, like those of the dreadful _Fehmgericht_ in the middle +ages. It would be absurd, however, seriously to pursue these anti-social +chimeras through their consequences. Stern remedies would summarily crush +so monstrous an evil. Our purpose is answered, when the necessity of such +insupportable consequences is shown to link itself with that distinction +upon which the Free church has laid the foundations of its own +establishment. Once for all, there is no act or function belonging to an +officer of a church, which is faces. And every examination of the case +convinces us more and more that the Seceders took up the old papal +distinction, as to acts spiritual or not spiritual, not under any delusion +less or more, but under a simple necessity of finding some evasion or +other which should meet and embody the whole rancour of the moment. + +But beyond any other evil consequence prepared by the Free Church, is the +appalling spirit of Jacobinism which accompanies their whole conduct, and +which latterly has avowed itself in their words. The case began +Jacobinically, for it began in attacks upon the rights of property. But +since the defeat of this faction by the law courts, language seems to fail +them, for the expression of their hatred and affected scorn towards the +leading nobility of Scotland. Yet why? The case lies in the narrowest +compass. The Duke of Sutherland, and other great landholders, had refused +sites for their new churches. Upon this occurred a strong fact, and strong +in both directions; first, for the Seceders; secondly, upon better +information, _against_ them. The _Record_ newspaper, a religious journal, +ably and conscientiously conducted, took part with the Secession, and very +energetically; for they denounced the noble duke's refusal of land as an +act of "persecution;" and upon this principle--that, in a county where his +grace was pretty nearly the sole landed proprietor, to refuse land +(assuming that a fair price had been tendered for it) was in effect to +show such intolerance as might easily tend to the suppression of truth. +Intolerance, however, is not persecution; and, if it were, the casuistry +of the question is open still to much discussion. But this is not +necessary; for the ground is altogether shifted when the duke's reason for +refusing the land comes to be stated: he had refused it, not +unconditionally, not in the spirit of Non-intrusion courts' "_without +reason shown_," but on this unanswerable argument--that the whole efforts +of the new church were pointed (and professedly pointed) to the one object +of destroying the establishment, and "sweeping it from the land." Could +any guardian of public interests, under so wicked a threat, hesitate as to +the line of his duty? By granting the land to parties uttering such +menaces, the Duke of Sutherland would have made himself an accomplice in +the unchristian conspiracy. Meantime, next after this fact, it is the +strongest defence which we can offer for the duke--that in a day or two +after this charge of "persecution," the _Record_ was forced to attack the +Seceders in terms which indirectly defended the duke. And this, not in any +spirit of levity, but under mere conscientious constraint. For no journal +has entered so powerfully or so eloquently into the defence of the general +principle involved in the Secession, (although questioning its expediency,) +as this particular _Record_. Consequently any word of condemnation from so +earnest a friend, comes against the Seceders with triple emphasis. And +this is shown in the tone of the expostulations addressed to the _Record_ +by some of the Secession leaders. It spares us, indeed, all necessity of +quoting the vile language uttered by members of the Free Church Assembly, +if we say, that the _neutral_ witnesses of such un-Christian outrages have +murmured, remonstrated, protested, in every direction; and that Dr +Macfarlane, who has since corresponded with the Duke of Sutherland upon +the whole case--viz. upon the petition for land, as affected by the +shocking menaces of the Seceders--has, in no other way, been able to evade +the double mischief of undertaking a defence for the indefensible, and at +the same time of losing the land irretrievably, than by affecting an +unconsciousness of language used by his party little suited to his own +sacred calling, or to the noble simplicities of Christianity. Certainly it +is unhappy for the Seceders, that the only disavowal of the most fiendish +sentiments heard in our days, has come from an individual not authorized, +or at all commissioned by his party--from an individual not showing any +readiness to face the whole charges, disingenuously dissembling the worst +of them, and finally offering his very feeble disclaimer, which +equivocates between a denial and a palliation--not until _after_ he found +himself in the position of a petitioner for favours. + +Specifically the great evil of our days, is the abiding temptation, in +every direction, to popular discontent, to agitation, and to systematic +sedition. Now, we say it with sorrow, that from no other incendiaries have +we heard sentiments so wild, fierce, or maliciously democratic, as from +the leaders of the Secession. It was the Reform Bill of 1832, and the +accompanying agitation, which first suggested the _veto_ agitation of 1834, +and prescribed its tone. From all classes of our population in turn, there +have come forward individuals to disgrace themselves by volunteering their +aid to the chief conspirators of the age. We have earls, we have +marquesses, coming forward as Corn-League agents; we have magistrates by +scores angling for popularity as Repealers. But these have been private +parties, insulated, disconnected, disowned. When we hear of Christianity +prostituted to the service of Jacobinism--of divinity becoming the +handmaid to insurrection--and of clergymen in masses offering themselves +as promoters of anarchy, we go back in thought to that ominous +organization of irreligion, which gave its most fearful aspects to the +French Revolution. + +Other evils are in the rear as likely to arise out of the _funds_ provided +for the new Seceders, were the distribution of those funds confessedly +unobjectionable, but more immediately under the present murmurs against +that distribution. There are two funds: one subscribed expressly for the +building of churches, the other limited to the "sustentation" of +incumbents. And the complaint is--that this latter fund has been invaded +for purposes connected with the first. The reader can easily see the +motive to this injustice: it is a motive of ambition. Far more display of +power is made by the annunciation to the world of six hundred churches +built, than of any difference this way or that in the comfort and decorous +condition of the clergy. This last is a domestic feature of the case, not +fitted for public effect. But the number of the churches will resound +through Europe. Meantime, _at present_, the allowance to the great body of +Seceding clergy averages but L80 a-year; and the allegation is--that, but +for the improper interference with the fund on the motive stated, it would +have averaged L150 a-year. If any where a town parish has raised a much +larger provision for its pastor, even _that_ has now become a part of the +general grievance. For it is said that all such special contributions +ought to have been thrown into one general fund--liable to one general +principle of distribution. Yet again, will even this fund, partially as it +seems to have been divided, continue to be available? Much of it lies in +annual subscriptions: now, in the next generation of subscribers, a son +will possibly not adopt the views of his father; but assuredly he will not +adopt his father's zeal. Here however, (though this is not probable,) +there may arise some compensatory cases of subscribers altogether new. But +another question is pressing for decision, which menaces a frightful shock +to the schismatical church: female agency has been hitherto all potent in +promoting the subscriptions; and a demand has been made in +consequence--that women shall be allowed to vote in the church courts. +Grant this demand--for it cannot be evaded--and what becomes of the model +for church government as handed down from John Knox and Calvin? Refuse it, +and what becomes of the future subscriptions? + +But these are evils, it may be said, only for the Seceders. Not so: we are +all interested in the respectability of the national teachers, whatever be +their denomination: we are all interested in the maintenance of a high +standard for theological education. These objects are likely to suffer at +any rate. But it is even a worse result which we may count on from the +changes, that a practical approximation is thus already made to what is +technically known as Voluntaryism. The "_United Secession_," that is the +old collective body of Scottish Dissenters, who, having no regular +provision, are carried into this voluntary system, already exult that this +consummation of the case cannot be far off. Indeed, so far as the Seceders +are dependent upon _annual_ subscriptions, and coupling that relation to +the public with the great doctrine of these Seceders, that congregations +are universally to appoint their own pastors, we do not see how such an +issue is open to evasion. The leaders of the new Secession all protest +against Voluntaryism: but to that complexion of things they travel rapidly +by the mere mechanic action of their dependent (or semi-dependent) +situation, combined with one of their two characteristic principles. + +The same United Secession journal openly anticipates another and more +diffusive result from this great movement; viz. the general disruption of +church establishments. We trust that this anticipation will be signally +defeated. And yet there is one view of the case which saddens us when we +turn our eyes in that direction. Among the reasonings and expostulations +of the Schismatic church, one that struck us as the most eminently +hypocritical, and ludicrously so, was this: "You ought," said they, when +addressing the Government, and exposing the error of the law proceedings, +"to have stripped us of the temporalities arising from the church, stipend, +glebe, parsonage, but not of the spiritual functions. We had no right to +the emoluments of our stations, when the law courts had decided against us +but we _had_ a right to the laborious duties of the stations." No gravity +could refuse to smile at this complaint--verbally so much in the spirit of +primitive Christianity, yet in its tendency so insidious. For could it be +possible that a competitor introduced by the law, and leaving the duties +of the pastoral office to the old incumbent, but pocketing the salary, +should not be hooted on the public roads by many who might otherwise have +taken no part in the feud? This specious claim was a sure and brief way to +secure the hatefulness of their successors. Now, we cannot conceal from +ourselves that something like this invidious condition of things might be +realized under two further revolutions. We have said, that a second schism +in the Scottish church is not impossible. It is also but too possible that +Puseyism nay yet rend the English establishment by a similar convulsion. +But in such contingencies, we should see a very large proportion of the +spiritual teachers in both nations actually parading to the public eye, +and rehearsing something very like the treacherous proposal of the late +Seceders, viz. the spectacle of one party performing much of the difficult +duties, and another party enjoying the main emoluments. This would be a +most unfair mode of recommending Voluntaryism. Falling in with the +infirmities of many in these days, such a spectacle would give probably a +fatal bias to that system in our popular and Parliamentary counsels. This +would move the sorrow of the Seceders themselves: for they have protested +against the theory of all Voluntaries with a vehemence which that party +even complain of as excessive. Their leaders have many times avowed, that +any system which should leave to men in general the estimate of their own +religious wants as a pecuniary interest, would be fatal to the Christian +tone of our national morals. Checked and overawed by the example of an +establishment, the Voluntaries themselves are far more fervent in their +Christian exertions than they could be when liberated from that contrast. +The religious spirit of both England and Scotland under such a change +would droop for generations. And in that one evil, let us hope, the +remotest and least probable of the many evils threatened by the late +schism, these nations would have reason by comparison almost to forget the +rest. + + * * * * * + + + + +SITTING FOR A PORTRAIT + + +What could induce you, my dear Eusebius, to commit yourself into the hands +of a portrait-painter? And so, you ask me to go with you. Are you afraid, +that you want me to keep you in countenance, where I shall be sure to put +you out? You ask too petitioningly, as if you suspected I should refuse to +attend your _execution_; for you are going to be _be-headed_, and soon +will it be circulated through your village, that you have had your _head +taken off_: I will not go with you--it would spoil all. You are afraid to +trust the painter. You think he may be a physiognomist, and will hit some +characteristic which you would quietly let slip his notice; and you +flatter yourself that I might help to mislead him. Are you afraid of being +made too amiable, or too plain? No, no! You are not vain. Whence comes +this vagary?--well, we shall all know in good time. Were I to be with you, +I should talk--perhaps maliciously--on purpose to see how your features +would unsettle and shift themselves to the vagrant humour, that though one +would know another from habit, and their old acquaintanceship, the painter +would never be able to keep them steadily together. I should laugh to see +every lineament "going ahead," and art "non compos." + +I will, however, venture to put down some plain directions how you are to +sit. First, let me tell you how you are not to sit. Don't, in your horror +of a sentimental amiable look, put on yourself the air of a Diogenes, or +you will be like nothing human--and if you shun Diogenes, you may put on +the likeness of a still greater fool. No man living can look more wise +than you; but if you fall out with wisdom, or would in your whim throw +contempt on it, no one can better play the fool. You are the laughing or +crying Philosopher at pleasure--but sit as neither, for in either +character you will set the painter's house in a roar. I fear the very +plaster figures in it will set you off--to see yourself in such motley +company, with Bacchus and Hercules, and Jupiter and Saturn, with his +marble children to devour. You will look Homer and Socrates in the face; +and I know will make antics, throw out, and show fight to the Gladiator. +This may be, if your painter, as many of them do, affect the antique; but +if he be another sort of guess person, it may be worse still with you. You +may not have to make your bow to a Venus Anadyomene--but how will you be +able to face the whole Muggletonian synod? Imagine the "Complete Body," +from the Evangelical Magazine, framed and glazed, round the walls, and all +looking at you in the condemned cell. Against this you must prepare; for +many country artists prefer this line to the antique. It is their +connexion--and should you make a mistake and go to the wrong man, you +will most assuredly be added to the Convocation, if not put to head a +controversy as frontispiece. It will be in vain for you to say, "Fronti +nulla fides;" "[Greek: gnothi seauton]" before you get there, or nobody +will know you. Take care lest your physiognomy be canvassed by many more +besides the painter. Are you prepared to have your every lineament +scrutinized by every body? to hear behind a screen the disparagement of +your lips, your eyes thought deceitful, and, in addition, a sentence of +general ugliness passed upon you? So you must stoop to paint-pots, have +daubs of reds, and yellows, and greys perked up against your nose for +comparison. Your man may be a fancy mesmerizer, or mesmerize you, now that +it is flying about like an epidemic, without knowing it. If he can, he +will surely do it, to keep you still: that is the way to get a good sitter. +Eusebius in a _coma_! answering all comers, like one of the heads in the +play of Macbeth! But I was to tell you how to sit--that is the way, get +into a _coma_--that will be the painter's best chance of having you; or, +when he has been working for hours, he may find you a Proteus, and that +you have slipped through his fingers after all his toil to catch you. I +will tell you what happened to a painter of my acquaintance. A dentist sat +to him two days--the third the painter worked away very hard--looked at +the picture, then at his sitter. "Why, sir," said he; "I find I have been +all wrong--what can it be? Why, sir, your mouth is not at all like what it +was yesterday." "Ah! ah! I will tell you vat it ees," replied the French +dentist; "ah! good--my mouse is not de same--no indeed--yesterday I did +have my jaw in, but I did lend it out to a lady this day." Don't you think +of this now while you are sitting. You know the trick Garrick played the +painter, who, foiled in his attempt, started up, and said--"You must be +Garrick or the d----!" Then as to attitude, 'tis ten to one but you will +be put into one which will be quite uncomfortable to you. One, perhaps, +after a pattern. I should advise you to resist this--and sit easy--if you +can. Don't put your hand in your waistcoat, and one arm akimbo, like a +Captain Macheath, however he may entreat you; and don't be made looking up, +like a martyr, which some wonderfully affect; and don't be made turn your +head round, as if it was in disgust with the body; and don't let your +stomach be more conspicuous than the head, like a cucumber running to seed. +Don't let him put your arm up, as in command, or accompanied with a rapt +look as if you were listening to the music of the spheres; don't thrust +out your foot conspicuously, as if you meant to advertise the blacking. +Some artists are given to fancy attitudes such as best set off the coats, +they are but nature's journeymen at the faces; don't fancy that the cut, +colour, or cloth of your coat will exempt you from the penalty of their +practice. Why, Eusebius, they have lay-figures, and dress them just as you +see them at the tailor's or perfumer's; and one of these things will be +put up for you--a mannikin for Eusebius! In such hands the coat is by far +the best piece of work, you may be sure your _own_ won't be taken for a +pattern. You will despise it when you see it, and it will be one you can +never change--it will defy vamping. You may be at any time new varnished +whenever after generations shall wish to see how like a dancing-master the +old gentleman must have looked. It is enough to make you a dancing bear +now to think of it. Others, again, equip you with fur and make you look +as if you were in the Hudson's Bay Company. Luckily for you, flowered +dressing-gowns are out, or you might have been represented a Mantelini. +What can you be doing! It is difficult to put you in your positions. There +are some that will turn you about and about a half an hour or more before +they begin, as they would a horse at the fair--ay, and look in your mouth +too. If they cannot get you otherwise into an attitude, they will shampoo +you into one. And, remember, all this they will do, because they have not +the skill to paint any one sitting quite easy. Don't have a roll in your +hand--that always signifies a member of Parliament. Don't have your finger +on a book--that would be a pedantry you could not endure. I cannot imagine +what you will do with your hands. Ten to one, however, but the painter +leaves then out or copies them out of some print when you are gone. This +will be picking and stealing that you will have no hand in. What to do +with any one's hands is a most difficult thing to say--too many do not +know what to do with them themselves; and, under the suffering of sitting, +I think you will be one of them. If there is a child in the room, you will +be making rabbits with your fingers. Then you are at the mercy of the +painter's privilege--the foreground and background. If you have the common +fate, your head will be stuck upon a red curtain, a watered pattern. If +your man has used up his carmine, you will be standing in a fine colonnade, +waiting with the utmost patience for the burst of a thunder cloud that +makes the marble column stand out conspicuously, and there will be a +distant park scene; and thus you will represent the landed interest: or +you will perhaps have your glove in your hand--a device adopted by some, +to intimate that they are hand and glove with all the neighbouring gentry. +And it is a common thing to have a new hat and a walking-cane upon a +marble table. This shows the sitter has the use of his legs, which +otherwise might be doubted, and is therefore judicious. If you are +supposed to be in the open air, you will not know at first sight that you +are so represented, until you have learned the painter's hieroglyphic for +trees. You will find them to be angular sorts of sticks, with red and +yellow flag-rags flapping about; and ten to one but you have a murky sky, +and no hat on your head; but as to such a country as you ever walked in, +or ever saw, don't expect to see such a one as a background to your +picture, and you will readily console yourself that you are turning your +back upon it. If you are painted in a library, books are cheap--so that +the artist can afford to throw you in a silver inkstand into the bargain, +and a pen--such a pen! the goose wouldn't know it that bred it--and +perhaps an open letter to answer, with your name on the cover. If you are +made answering the letter, that will never be like you--perhaps it would +be more like if the letter should be unopened. Now, do not flatter +yourself; Eusebius, that all these things are matters of choice with you. +"_Non omnia possumus omnes_," is the regular rule of the profession; some +stick to the curtain all their lives, from sheer inability to set it--to +draw it aside. You remember the sign-painter that went about painting red +lions, and his reply to a refractory landlord who insisted upon a white +lamb. "You may have a white lamb if you please, but when all is said and +done, it will be a great deal more like a red lion." And I am sorry to say, +the faces too, are not unfrequently in this predicament, for they have a +wonderful family likeness, and these run much by counties. A painter has +often been known totally to fail, by quitting his beat. There is certainly +an advantage in this; for if any gentleman should be so unfortunate as to +have no ancestors, he may pick up at random, in any given county in +England, a number that will very well match, and all look like +blood-relations. There is an instance where this resemblance was greatly +improved, by the advice of an itinerant of the profession, who, at a very +moderate price, put wigs on all the Vandyks. And there you see some danger, +Eusebius, that--be represented how you may--you are not sure of keeping +your condition ten years; you may have, by that time, a hussar cap put +upon your unconscious head. But portraits fare far worse than that. + +I remember, when a boy, walking with an elderly gentleman, and passing a +broker's stall, there was the portrait of a fine florid gentleman in +regimentals; he stopped to look at it--he might have bought it for a few +shillings. After we had gone away,--"that," said he, "is the portrait of +my wife's great uncle--member for the county, and colonel of militia: you +see how he is degraded to these steps." "Why do you not rescue him?" said +I. "Because he left me nothing," was the reply. A relative of mine, an old +lady, hit upon a happy device; the example is worth following. Her husband +was the last of his race, for she had no children. She took all the family +portraits out of their frames, rolled up all the pictures, and put them in +the coffin with the deceased. No one was more honourably accompanied to +the grave--and so he slept with his fathers. It has not, to be sure, +Eusebius, much to do with your portrait, but thinking of these family +portraits, one is led on to think of their persons, &c.; so I must tell +you what struck me as a singular instance of the _'sic nos non nobis.'_ I +went with a cousin, upon a sort of pilgrimage at some distance, to visit +some family monuments. There was one large handsome marble one in the +chancel. You will never guess how it had been treated. A vicar's wife had +died, and the disconsolate widower had caused a square marble tablet, with +the inscription of his wife's virtues, to be actually inserted in the Very +centre of our family monument: and yet you, by sitting for your portrait, +hope to be handed down unmutilated to generations to come,--yes, they will +come, and you will be a mark for the boys to shoot peas at--that is, if +you remain at all in the family--you may be transferred to the wench's +garret, or the public-house, and have a pipe popped through the canvass +into your mouth, to make you look ridiculous. I really think you have a +chance of being purchased, to be hung up in the club parlour as pictorial +president of the Odd-Fellows. Why should you be exempt from what kings are +subject to? The "king's head" is a sign in many a highway, to countenance +ill-living. You too, will be bought at a broker's--have your name changed +without your consent--and be adopted into a family whereof you would +heartily despise the whole kith and kin. If pride has not a fall in the +portraits of the great and noble, where shall we find it?" + +A painter once told me, that he assisted one of the meanest of low rich +men, to collect some family portraits; he recommended to him a fine +Velasquez. "Velasquez!--who's he?" said the head of his family. "It is a +superb picture, sir--a genuine portrait by the Spaniard, and doubtless, of +some Spanish nobleman. "Then," said he, "I won't have it; I'll have no +Spanish blood contaminate my family, sir." "Spanish blood," rejected by +the plebeian! I have known better men than you, Eusebius--excuse the +comparison--vamped up and engraved upon the spur of the moment, for +celebrated highwaymen or bloody murderers. But this digression won't help +you out in your sitting. Let me see what the learned say upon the +subject--what advice shall we get from the man of academies. Here we have +him, Gerrard Larresse; you may be sure that he treats of portrait-painting, +and with importance enough too. Here it is--"Of Portraiture." But that is +far too plan. We must have an emblem:-- + + "Emblem touching the handling of portraits." + +"Nature with her many breasts, is in a sitting posture. Near her stands a +little child, lifting her garment off her shoulders. On the other side +stands Truth, holding a mirror before her, wherein she views herself down +to the middle, and is seemingly surprised at it. On the frame of this +glass, are seen a _gilt pallet and pencils. Truth has a book and palm +branch_ in her hand." What do you think of that, Eusebius, for a position? +But why Nature or Truth should be surprised at viewing herself down to the +middle, I cannot imagine. It evidently won't do to surprise you in that +manner. Poor Gerrard, I see, thinks it a great condescension in him to +speak of portrait-painting at all; he calls it, "departing from the +essence of art, and subjecting (the painter) to all the defects of nature." +Hear that, Eusebius! you are to sit to be a specimen of the _defects_ of +nature. He is indignant that "such great masters as Vandyke, Lely, Van Loo, +the old and young Bakker, and others," possessed of great talents, +postponed what is noble and beautiful to what is more ordinary. There you +are again, Eusebius, with your ordinary visage, unworthy such men as the +old and young Bakker, whoever they were. But since there must be portraits, +he could endure the method of the ancients, who, "used to cause those from +whom the commonwealth had received extraordinary benefits, either in war +or civil affairs, or for eminence in religion, to be represented in marble +or metal, or in a picture, that the sight of them, by those honours, might +be a spur to posterity to emulate the same virtues. This honour was first +begun with their deities; afterwards it was paid to heroes, and of +consequence to philosophers, orators, religious men, and others, not only +to perpetuate their virtues, but also to embalm their names and memories. +But now it goes further; a person of any condition whatsoever, have he but +as much money as the painter asks, must sit for his picture. This is a +great abuse, and sprung from as laudable a cause." + +Are you not ashamed to sit after that? He is not, however, without his +indulgences. He will allow something to a lover and a husband. + +"Has a citizen's wife but an only babe? he is drawn at half a year old; at +ten years old he sits again; and for the last time in his twenty-fifth +year, in order to show her tender folly: and then she stands wondering how +a man can so alter in that time. Is not this a weighty reason? a +reprovable custom, if painters did not gain by it. But again, portraits +are allowable, when a lover is absent from his mistress, that they may +send each other their pictures, to cherish and increase their loves; a man +and wife parted so may do the same." You undertake, you perceive, a matter +of some responsibility--you must account to your conscience for the act of +sitting for your picture. Then there is a chapter upon defects, which, as +I suppose he presumes people don't know themselves, he catalogues pretty +fully, till you are quite out of humour with poor human nature. The +defects are "natural ones--accidental ones--usual ones." Natural--"a wry +face, squint eyes, wry mouth, nose," &c. Accidental. "Loss of an eye, a +cut on the cheek, or other part of the face, pits of the small-pox and the +like." Usual. "Contraction of the eyes and mouth, or closing or gaping of +the latter, or drawing it in somewhat to this or that side, upwards or +downwards," &c. As for other bodily infirmities, how many have wry necks, +hunchbacks, bandy legs--withered or short arms, or one shorter than +another; dead or lame hands or fingers." Now, are you so sure of the +absence of all these defects, that you venture? You must think yourself an +Adonis, and not think that you are to be flattered, by having any very +considerable number of your defects hid. "The necessary ones ought to be +seen, because they _help the likeness_; such as a wry face, squint eyes, +low forehead, thinness, and fatness; a wry neck, too short or too long a +nose; wrinkles between the eyes; ruddiness or paleness of the cheeks, or +lips; pimples or warts about the mouth; and such like." After this, it is +right you should know that "Nature abhors deformity." Nay, that we always +endeavour to hide our own--and which do you mean to hide, or do you intend +to come out perfect? I daresay you can discover some little habits of your +own, Eusebius, free from vanity as you are, that tend to these little +concealments! Do you remember how a foolish man lost a considerable sum of +money once, by forgetting this human propensity? He had lost some money to +little K---- of Bath, the deformed gambler--and being netted at his loss, +thought to pique the winner. "I'll wager," said he, "L50, I'll point out +the worst leg in company."--"Done," said K---- to his astonishment. "The +man does not know himself," thought he, for there sat K---- crouched up +all shapes by the fireside. The wagerer, to win his bet, at once cried, +"Why, that," pointing to K----'s leg, which was extended towards the grate. +"No," said K---- quietly unfolding the other from beneath the chair, and +showing it, "that's worse." By which you may learn the fact--that every +man puts his best leg foremost. But we must not quit our friend Gerard yet. +I like his grave conceit. I rejoice to find him giving the painters a rap +over their knuckles. He says, Eusebius, that they are fond of having +"smutty pictures" in their rooms; and roundly tells them, that though fine +pictures are necessary, there is no need of their having such subjects as +"Mars and Venus, and Joseph and Potiphar's Wife." Now, though I do not +think our moderns offend much in this respect--the hint is good--and some +exhibit studies from models about their rooms, that evidently sat without +their stays. Gerard was the man for contrivances--here is a capital one. +He does not quite approve of painting a wooden leg; but if it be to be +done, see with what skill even that in the hands of a Gerard may be +dignified--and the painter absolved, "lege solutus." "But if the hero +insist upon the introducing of such a leg, on a supposition that 'tis an +honour to have lost a limb in his country's service, the painter must then +comply with his desires; or _else contrive it lying on a table covered +with red velvet_." But capital as this is, it is not all. He quite revels +in contrivances; "if he desire it after the antique manner, it must be +contrived in a bas-relief, wherein the occasion of it may be represented; +or it may hang near him on a wall, with its buckles and straps, as is done +in hunting equipages; or else it may be placed among the ornaments of +architecture, to be more in view." You see he scorns to hide it--has +worked up his imagination to conceive all possible ways of showing it; +depend upon it he longed to paint a wooden leg, to which the face should +be the appendage, the leg the portrait. "Hoc ligno," not "hoc signo +vinces." But here Gerard bounces--giving an instance of a gentleman "who, +being drawn in little, and comparing the smallness of the eyes with his +own, asked the painter whether he had such? However, in complaisance, and +for his pleasure, he desired that one eye at least might be as big as his +own, the other to remain as it was." Fie, Gerard! you have spoiled your +emblem by taking the mirror out of truth's hand. + +He is particular about postures and backgrounds. "It will not be improper +to treat also about easiness and sedateness in posture, opposed to stir +and bustle, and the contrary--namely, that the picture of a gentlewoman of +repute, who, in a grave and sedate manner, turns towards that of her +husband, hanging near it, gets a great decorum by _moving and stirring +hind-works_, whether by means of waving trees, or crossing architecture of +stone and wood, or any thing else that the master thinks will best +_contrast_, or oppose, the _sedate posture of his principal figure_." Here +you see Eusebius, how hind-works tend to keep up a _bustle_! "And because +these are things of consequence, and may not be plainly apprehended by +every one," he explains himself by ten figures in one plate--and such +figures! As a sitter, he would place you very much above the eye--that is, +technically speaking, adopt a low horizon; "because--the because is a +because--because it's certain that when we see any painted figure, or +object, in a place where the life can be expected, as standing on the +ground, leaning over a balcony or balustrade, or out at a window, &c., it +deceives the eye, and by being seen unawares, (though expected,) causes +sometimes a pleasing mistake; or it frightens and surprises others, when +they meet with it unexpectedly, at such places as aforesaid, and where +there is _any likelihood_ for it." Your artist will probably put you on an +inverted box, and sitting in a great chair, probably covered with red +morocco leather, in which you will not be at home, and in any manner +comfortable. We see this deal box sometimes converted into a marble step, +as a step to a throne, and such it is in one of the pictures of the Queen; +but it is so ill coloured, that it looks for all the world like a great +cheese; it should be sent to the farmers who made the Queen the cheese +present, to show the pride of England walking upon the "fat of the land." +He presents us with many methods of showing the different characters of +persons to be painted, some of which will be novel to you. For instance, +you would not expect directions to represent a secretary of state with the +accompaniments of a goose. "With a secretary the statue of Harpocrates, +and in tapestry or bas-relief, the story of Alexander shutting +Hephaestion's mouth with a seal-ring; also the emblem of fidelity, or a +goose with a stone in its bill." Methinks the director, or governor, of +the East India Company, must look very small beside his bedizened +accessory, meant to represent Company. "She is to be an heroine with a +scollop of mother-of-pearl on her head, in the nature of an helmet, and +thereon a coral branch; a breast ornament of scales; pearls and corals +about her neck; buskins on her legs, with two dolphins conjoined head to +head, adorned with sea-shells; two large shells on her shoulders, a +trident in her hand, and her clothing a long mantle; a landskip behind her +of an Indian prospect, with palm and cocoa trees, some figures of _blacks_, +and elephant's teeth. This figure also suits an admiral, or commander at +sea, when a sea-fight is introduced instead of a landskip." Such a figure +may, indeed, be more at home at sea, and such a one may have been that +famous lady, whose captain so "very much applauded her," and + + "Made her the first lieutenant + Of the gallant Thunder Bomb." + +Not a painter of the present day, it seems, knows how to paint the clergy. +Mr Pickersgill has done quite common things, and simply shown the cloth +and the band--that is poor device. See how Gerard would have it done. +Every clergyman should be a Dr Beattie. "With a divine agrees the statue +of truth, represented in a Christian-like manner, or else this same emblem +in one of his hands, and his other on his breast, besides tapestries, +bas-reliefs, or paintings, and some Christian emblems of the true faith; +and representation of the Old and New Testament--in the offskip a temple." +All the portraits of the great duke are defective, inasmuch as none of +them have "Mars in a niche," or Victory sitting on a trophy, or a statue +of Hercules. You probably have no idea what a great personage is a +"sea-insurer." He is accompanied by Arion on a dolphin; and in a picture a +sea-haven, with a ship under sail making towards it; on the shore the +figure of Fortune, and (who are, think you, the "supercargoes?") over the +cargo "Castor and Pollux." In this mode of portrait-painting it would be +absolutely necessary to go back to the old plan of putting the names +underneath the personages; and even then, though you write under such, +this is Castor, this Pollux, and this the sea-insurer, it will ever puzzle +the whole ship's crew to conjecture how they came there together. Gerard +admits we cannot paint what we have not seen, and by example rather +condemns his own recommendations. Fewer have seen Castor and Pollux, than +have seen a lion, and he says men cannot paint what they have not seen. +"As was the case of a certain Westphalian, who, representing Daniel in the +lions' den, and having never seen a lion, he painted hogs instead of lions, +and wrote underneath, 'These should be lions.'" + +By this time, Eusebius, you ought to know how to sit, if you have not made +up your mind not to sit at all. You need not, however, be much alarmed +about the emblems--modern masters cut all that matter short. They won't +throw in any superfluous work, you may be sure of that, unless you should +sit to Landseer, and he will paint your dog, and throw in your superfluous +self for nothing. You would be like Mercury with the statuary, mortified +to find his own image thrown into the bargain. + +Besides your own defects, you have to encounter the painter's. His +unsteady, uncertain hand, may add an inch to your nose before you are +aware of it. It is quite notorious that few painters paint both eyes of +the same size; and after your utmost efforts to look straight in his face, +he may make you squint for ever, and not see that he has done so. Unless +he be himself a sensible man, he will be sure to make you look like a fool. +Then, what is like to-day will be unlike to-morrow. His megillups will +change, so that in six months you may look like a copper Indian; or the +colours may fade, and leave you the ghost of what you were. Again, he may +paint you lamentably like, odiously like, yet give you a sinister +expression, or at least an unpleasant one. Then, if you remonstrate, he is +offended; if you refuse to take it, he writes you word that if not paid +for and removed by next Tuesday, he will add a tail to it, and dispose of +it to Mr Polito. Did not Hogarth do something of this kind? If he please +himself he may not satisfy you, and if you are satisfied, none of your +friends are, who take an opportunity of the portrait to say sarcastic +things of you. For in that respect you may be most like your picture, or +it most like you, for every body will have some fault to find with it. Why, +don't you remember but last year some _friends_ poked out the eye from a +portrait, even after it had been on the exhibition walls. Then, what with +the cleaning and varnishing, you have to go through as many disorders as +when you were a child. You will have the picture-cleaner's measles. It was +not long ago, I saw a picture in a most extraordinary state; and, on +enquiry, I found that the cook of the house had rubbed it over with fat of +bacon to make it bear out, and that she had learned it at a great house, +where there is a fine collection, which are thus bacon'd twice every year. +You are sure not to keep even your present good looks, but will become +smoked and dirty. Then must you be cleaned, and there is an even chance +that in doing it they put out at least one of your eyes, (I saw both eyes +taken out of a Correggio,) and the new one to be put in will never match +the other. The ills that flesh is heir to, are nothing to the ills its +representative is heir to. At best, the very change of fashion in dress +will make you look quizzical in a few years. For you are going to sit when +dress is most unbecoming, and it is only by custom that the eye is +reconciled to it, so that all the painted present generation must look +ridiculous in the eyes of posterity. Don't have your name put on the +canvass; then you may console yourself that, in all these mortal chances +and changes, whatever happens to it, you will not be known. I have one +before me now with the name and all particulars in large gilt letters. +Happily this ostentation is out; you may therefore hope, when the evil day +comes, _fallere_, to escape notice. I hope the painter will give you that +bold audacious look which may stare the beholder in the face, and deny +your own identity; no small advantage, for doubtless the "[Greek: semata +lugra]" of Bellerophon was but his portrait, which, by a hang-look +expression, intimatd death. Your painter may be ignorant of phrenology, +and, without knowing it, may give you some detestable bumps; and your +picture may be borrowed to lecture upon, at inns and institutions, and +anecdotes rummaged up or forged, to match the painter's doing--the bumps +he has given you. + +You must not, however, on this account, think too ill of the poor painter. +He is subject to human infirmities--so are you--and his hand and eye are +not always in tune. He has, too, to deal with all sorts of people--many +difficult enough to please. You know the fable of the painter who would +please everybody, and pleased nobody. You sitters are a whimsical set, +and most provokingly shift your features and position, and always expect +miracles, at a moment, too; you are here to-day, and must be off to-morrow. +It is nothing, to you that paint won't dry for you, so even that must be +forced, and you are rather varnished in than painted, and no wonder if +your faces go to pieces, and you become mealy almost as soon as you have +had the life's blood in you, and that with the best carmine. And often you +take upon yourselves to tell the painter what to do, as if you knew +yourselves better than he, though he has been staring at nothing but you +for an hour or two at a time, perhaps. You ask him, too, perpetually what +feature he is now doing, that you may call up a look. You screw up your +mouths, and try to put all the shine you can into your eyes, till, from +continual effort, they look like those of a shotten herring; and yet you +expect all to be like what you are in your ordinary way. After he has +begun to paint your hair, you throw it about with your hands in all +directions but the right, and all his work is to begin over again. You +have no notion how ignorant of yourselves you are. I happened to call, +some time since, upon a painter with whom I am on intimate terms. I found +him in a roar of laughter, and quite alone. "What is the matter?" said I. +"Matter!" replied he; "why, here has Mr B. been sitting to me these four +days following, and at last, about half an hour ago, he, sitting in that +chair, puts up his hand to me, thus, with 'Stop a moment, Mr Painter; I +don't know whether you have noticed it or not, but it is right that I +should tell you that _I have a slight_ cast in my eye.' You know Mr B., a +worthy good man, but he has the very worst gimlet eye I ever beheld." Yes, +and only _slightly_ knew it, Eusebius. And I have to say, he thought his +defect wondrously exaggerated, when, for the first time, he saw it on +canvas; and perhaps all his family noticed it there, whom custom had +reconciled into but little observation of it, and the painter was +considered no friend of the family. For the poor artist is expected to +please all down to the youngest child, and perhaps that one most, for she +often rules the rest. And people do not too much consider the _feelings_ +of painters. I knew an artist, a great humorist, who spent much time at +the court at Lisbon. He had to paint a child, I believe the Prince of the +Brazils. I remember, as if I saw him act the scene but yesterday, and it +is many years ago. Well, the maid of honour, or whatever was her title, +brought the child into the room, and remained some time, but at length +left him alone with the painter. When he found himself only in this +company, his pride took the alarm. He put on great airs, frowned, pouted, +looked disdainful, superbly swelling, and got off the chair, retreating +slowly, scornfully. The artist, who was a great mimic, imitated his every +gesture, and, with some extravagance, frowned as he frowned, swelled as he +swelled, blew out his breath as the child did, advanced as he retreated, +till the child at length found himself pinned in the corner, at which the +artist put on such a ridiculous expression, that risible nature could +stand it no longer; pride was conquered by humour, and from that hour they +were on the most familiar terms. It was not an ill-done thing of our Henry +VIII. when he made one of his noble courtiers apologize to Holbein for +some slight, bidding him, at the same time, to know that he could make a +hundred such as he, but it was past his power to make a Holbein. And you +know how a great monarch picked up Titian's pencil which had fallen. How +greatly did Alexander honour Apelles, in that he would suffer none else to +paint his portrait. And when the painter, by drawing his Campaspe, fell in +love with her, he presented her to him. It is a bad policy, Eusebius, to +put slights upon these men--and it is more, it is ungenerous; they may +revenge themselves upon you whenever they please, and give you a black eye +too, that will never get right again. They can in effigy, put every limb +out of joint; and you being no anatomist, may only see that you look ill, +and know not where you went wrong. All you sitters expect to be flattered, +and very little flattery do you bestow. Perversely, you won't even see +your own likenesses. Take, for instance, the following scene, which I had +from a miniature painter:--A man upwards of forty years of age, had been +sitting to him--one of as little pretensions as you can well imagine; you +would have thought it impossible that he could have had an homoeopathic +proportion of vanity--of personal vanity at least; but it turned out +otherwise. He was described as a greasy bilious man, with a peculiarly +conventicle aspect--that is, one that affects a union of gravity and love. +"Well, sir," said the painter, "that will do--I think I have been very +fortunate in your likeness." The man looks at it, and says nothing, puts +on an expression of disappointment. "What! don't you think it like, sir?" +says the artist. "Why--ye-ee-s, it is li-i-ke--but----" "But what sir?--I +think it exactly like. I wish you would tell me where it is not like?" +"Why, I'd rather you should find it out yourself. Have the goodness to +look at me."--And here my friend the painter declared, that he put on a +most detestably affected grin of amiability.--"Well, sir, upon my word, I +don't see any fault at all; it seems to me as like as it can be; I wish +you'd be so good as to tell me what you mean." "Oh, sir, I'd rather +not--I'd rather you should find it out yourself--look again." "I can't see +any difference, sir; so if you don't tell me, it can't be altered." "Well +then, with reluctance, if I must tell you, I don't think you have given my +_sweet expression about the eyes_." Oh, Eusebius, Eusebius, what a mock +you would have made of that man; you would have flouted his vanity about +his ears for him gloriously; I would have given a crown to have had him +sit to you, and you should have let me be by, to attend your colours. How +we would have bedaubed the fellow before he had left the room, with his +sweet eyes! But there, your patient painter must endure all that, and not +give a hint that he disagrees in the opinion: or if he speak his mind on +the occasion, he may as well quit the town, for under the influence of +those sweet eyes, nor man, woman, nor child, will come to sit to him. And +consider, Eusebius, their misery in having such sitters at all. They are +not Apollos, and Venuses, nor Adonises, that knock at painters' doors. Not +one in a hundred has even a tolerably pleasant face. I certainly once knew +a rough-dealing artist, who told a gentleman very plainly--"Sir, I do not +paint remarkably ugly people." But he came to no good. Not but that a +clever fellow might do something of this kind with management, with good +effect; get the reputation of being a painter of "beauties," with a little +skill, make beauties of every body, and stoutly maintain that he never +will have any others sit to him. I am not quite certain, that something of +this kind has been practised, or I do not think I should have the art to +invent it. All those who sit during a courtship, to present their +portraits as lovers, I look upon it come as professed cheats, and mean to +be most egregiously flattered; and if the thing succeeds through the +painter's skill, within six months after the marriage, he, the painter, is +called the cheat, and the portrait not in the least like. So easy is it to +get out of repute, by doing your best to please them with a little +flattery. You will never get into a book of beauty, Eusebius. Hitherto, +the list runs in the female line. The male will soon come in, depend upon +it. + +Have a little pity upon the poor artist, who would, but cannot, +flatter--who is conscious of his inability to put in those blandishments +that shall give a grace to ugliness--from whose hand unmitigated ugliness +becomes uglier--who, at length, driven from towns, where people begin to +see this, as a dauber, takes refuge among the farm houses; at first paints +the farmers and their wives, their ugly faces stretching to the very edge +of the frames, and is at last reduced to paint the favourite cow, or the +fat ox--the prodigal (alas! no; the simply miserable, in mistaking his +profession) feeding the swine, and with them, and they not over-proud of +his doings. Then there is another poor, self-deluded character among the +tribe. I have the man in my eye at this moment. It is not long since I +paid him a visit to see a great historical composition, which I had been +requested to look at. It was the most miserable of all miserable daubs; +yet so conspicuously set off with colours and hardness, that the eye could +not escape it. It was a most determined eye-sore. The quiet, the modest +demeanour of the young man at first deceived me; I ventured to find some +trifling fault. The artist was up--still his manner was quiet--somewhat, +in truth, contemptuously so; but, as for modesty, I doubt not he was +modest in every other matter relating to himself; but, in art, he as +calmly talked of himself, Michael Angelo, and Raffaelle, as a trio--that +two had obtained immortality of fame, and that he sought the same, and, he +trusted, by the same means, and believed with similar powers: as calmly +did he speak in this manner, as if it were a thing long settled in his own +mind and in fate--and in the manner of an indulgent communication. He +lamented the lack of taste and knowledge in the world; that so little was +real art appreciated, that he was obliged to submit to the drudgery of +portrait. _Submit!_--and such portraits. Poor fellow! how long will he get +sitters to _submit_? I have recently heard the fate of one of his great +compositions. He had persuaded the vicar and church-wardens of a parish to +accept a picture. He attended the putting it up. It was a fine old church. +With the quietest conceit, he had a fine east window blocked up to receive +the picture--had the tables of Commandments mutilated, and thrust up in a +corner--damaged the wall to give effect to the picture--and really +believed that he was conferring an honour and benefit upon the +parishioners and the county. Soon, however, men of better taste and sense +began to cry out. The incumbent died. His successor related to me the +shocking occurrence of the picture. He had it removed, and the damage done +to the edifice repaired. And what became of the grand historical? The +church-warden alone, who, in the pride of his heart and ignorance, had +paid the poor artist for the colours, gladly took the picture. His account +of it was, that it was so powerful in his small room, as to affect several +ladies to tears--and that he had covered it with a thin gauze, to keep +down _the fierceness of the sentiment_; for it was too affecting. Now, +here is a man, who, if you should happen to sit to him, will think it the +greatest condescension to take your picture, and will paint you such as +you never would wish to be seen or known. There is a predilection now for +schools of design; and the world will teem with these poor creatures. + +Many there are, however, who, having considerable ability, have much to +struggle against--who love the profession of art, and with that +unaccountable giving themselves up to it, are quite unfit for any other +occupation in life, yet, from adverse circumstances--ill health, strange +temperaments--do not succeed. Many years ago, I knew a very interesting +young man, and a very industrious one, too, of very considerable ability +as a painter, but not, at that time, of portraits. While hard at work, +getting just enough to live by, he was seized with an illness that +threatened rapid consumption. The kind physician who gratuitously visited +him, told him one day--"You cannot live here. I do not say that you have a +year of safety in this climate, or a month of safety, but you have not +weeks. You must instantly go to a warmer climate." Ill, and without means, +beyond the few pounds he could gather from his hasty breaking-up, he had +courage to look on the cheerful side of things, and went off in the first +vessel to the West Indies. I saw him afterwards. He gave me a history of +his adventures. He went from island to island--became portrait-painter--a +painter of scenes--of any thing that might offer; by good conduct, +urbanity, gentleness, and industry, was respected, liked, and patronized; +lived, and sent home a thousand pounds or two--came to England to see his +friends for a few months. I saw him on his way to them. He was then in +health and spirits--told me the many events of the few years--and in six +weeks the climate killed him. But the anecdote of his turning +portrait-painter is what I have to tell. On the passage, they touched at +one of the islands, and he found but very little money in his pocket; and, +while others went off to hotels, or estates of friends, he went his way +quietly to seek out cheap lodgings. He found such, which the good woman +told him he could have in three hours. He afterwards learned that she +waited that time for the then tenant _to die in the bed which he was to +occupy_. Walking away to pass the time, he met some of his fellow +passengers, who asked him if he had been to see the governor. He had not. +They told him it was necessary he should go. So thither he went. Now, the +governor asked him, "What brought him out to the West Indies?" He replied, +that he came as an artist. "An artist!" said the governor. "That is a +novelty indeed. Have you any specimens? I should like to see them." Now, +among his things, he had a miniature of himself, painted by a man who +attained eminence in the profession, and whom I knew well. Here, with an +ingenuousness characteristic of the man, he acknowledged to me how, +starvation staring him in the face, _he_ stared in the governor's; and the +governor being rather a hard-featured man, whose likeness, though he had +never taken a portrait, he thought he could hit; when the governor admired +the miniature, and asked him, "If it was his?" he did not resist the +temptation, and said, "Yes." Upon which the governor sat to him. Then +others sat to him; and so he left the island, with a replenished purse, +and from that time became a portrait-painter. If the poor fellow had been +the veriest dauber, you, Eusebius, would have sat to him twenty times over, +and have told all the country round quite as great a fib as he did the +governor, that he was a very Raffaelle in outline, and Titian in coloring. +And what shall the "recording angel" do? Poor fellow! he had no conceit. + +But you, Eusebius, need not trust or give your countenance, in the way of +the art to any man because you like his history or his manners. A thing +you are very likely to do in spite of this advice, though you multiply +portraits for "Saracen's Heads." + +Foolish artists themselves, who affect to talk of the great style, and set +themselves up as geniuses, speak slightingly of portrait-painting, as +degrading--as pandering to vanity, &c. I verily believe, that half this +common cant arose from jealousy of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Degradation +indeed!--as if Raffaelle and Titian, and Vandyk and Reynolds, degraded the +art, or were degraded by their practice; and as to pandering to +vanity--view it in another light, and it is feeding affection. + +I knew a painter, who honourably refused to paint a lady's picture, when +he waited upon her on purpose, sent by some injudicious friends to take +her portrait in her last days. She had been a woman of great +celebrity--she received the painter--but, with a weakness, pointed first +to one side of the room where were portraits of earls and bishops, saying, +"these are or were all my particular friends"--and then to the other side +of the room, to a well filled library--"and these are all my works." "Now," +said the painter to me, "I did not think it fair to her reputation to take +her portrait--and she had had many taken at better times." Here was one +who would not pander to vanity. After all, it is astonishing how few +flattering painters there have been. Even he who made Venus, Minerva, and +Juno, starting with astonishment at the presence of Queen Elizabeth, +certainly made her by far the ugliest of the quartette. You may see the +picture at Hampton Court. She must have been difficult to please, for she +insisted upon being painted without shadow. "Glorious Gloriana" was to be +the sun of female beauty. She is quite as well as some in "The Book." For +modern "beauty" manufacturers make beauty to consist in silliness or +sentimentality. + +Do you believe in the story of the origin of portrait--the Grecian maid +and her lover? I cannot--for I have often tried my hand, and such frights +were the result, that it would have been a cure for love. + +For lack of the art of portrait-painting, we have really no idea what +mankind were like before the time of our Eighth Harry. What we see could +not possibly be likenesses, because they are not humanity. But in +Holbein's heads, such as the royal collection, published by Chamberlaine, +we begin to see what men and women were. What our early Henrys and Edwards +were: what the court or the people were, we cannot know; they are buried +in the night of art, like the brave who lived before the time of Agamemnon. +Perhaps it is quite as well--"_omne ignotum pro mirifico_"--and who would +lose the pleasure of wonder and conjecture, with all its imaginary +phantasmagoria? We might have a mesmeric _coma_ that might put us in +possession of the past, if it can of the future--and gratify curiosity +wofully at the expense of what is more valuable than that kind of truth. A +mesmeric painter may take the portrait of Helen of Troy, and you may knock +at your twenty neighbours' doors, and find perhaps a greater beauty, +especially if chronology be trusted as to her age at the Trojan war. Would +you like to see a veritable portrait of Angelica--or of your Orlando in +his madness? + +The great portrait-painter--the sun, in his diurnal course all over the +world, may be, for aught we know, photographing mankind, and registering +us, too; and, if we are to judge from the specimens we do see, the +collection cannot be very flattering. Who dares call the sun a flatterer? + + "... Solem quis dicere falsum + Audeat?" + +At the very moment that you are sitting to your man, to be set off with +smirk and smile and the graces of art, you are perhaps making a most +formidable impression elsewhere. You would not like to + + "Look upon this picture, _and_ on this." + +Some poor country people have an unaccountable dislike to having their +portraits taken. Savages think them second selves, and that may be +bewitched and punished; possibly something of this feeling may be at the +bottom of the dislike. I was once sketching in a country village, and an +old woman went by, and I put her into the picture. Some, looking over me, +called out to her that her likeness was taken. She cried, because she had +not her best cap and gown on. I was once positively driven from a cottage +door, because a woman thought I was "taking her off." I know not but that +it was a commendable wish in the old woman to appear decent before the +world, and so might have been the fine lady's wish-- + + "Betty, put on a little red, + One surely need not look a fright when dead." + +We choose to be satirical, and call it vanity; but put both anecdotes +into tolerably good grave Latin, and name them Portia and Lucretia, and +we should have as fine a sentiment as the boasted one of the hero +endeavouring to fall decently. There may be but little difference, and +that only just what we, in our humours, choose to make it. I am sure you, +Eusebius, will stand up for the old village crone, and the fine lady, +too. But the fraternity of the brush, if they do now and then promote +vanity, much more commonly gratify affection. Private portraits seem to +me to be things so sacred, that they ought not to survive the immediate +family or friends for whose gratification they are painted. I much like +the idea of burying them at last. I will show you how estimable these +things sometimes are. You remember a portrait I have--a gentleman in a +dress of blue and gold--in crayon. Did I ever tell you the anecdote +respecting him? If not, you shall have it, as I had from my father. If +you recollect the picture, you must recollect that it is of a very +handsome man. His horses took fright, the carriage was overturned, and he +was killed upon the spot. The property came to my father. One day an +unknown lady, in a handsome equipage, stopped at his door, and, in an +interview with him, requested a portrait of this very person, not the one +you have seen, but another in oil-colour, and of that the head only. My +father cut it out, and gave it to her. Many, many years afterwards it was +returned to him by an unknown hand, with an account of the accident that +caused the death, pasted on the back; and it is now in my possession. The +lady was never known. No, Eusebius, we must not deny portrait-painters, +nor portrait painting. It is the line in which we excel--and that we have +above all others patronized, and had great men too arise from our +encouragement--Who are so rich in Vandyks as we are? And some we have had +better than the world allowed them to be--Sir Peter Lely was occasionally +an admirable painter--though Sir Joshua did say, "We must go beyond him +now." There was Sir Joshua himself, and Gainsborough--would that either +were alive to take you, Eusebius, though I were to pay for the sitting. I +think too, that I should have given the preference to Gainsborough--it +would have been so true. Did you ever see his portrait of Foote?--so +unaffected--it must be like. I won't be invidious by naming any, where we +have so many able portrait-painters--but if you have not fixed upon your +man, come to me, and I will tell half-a-dozen, and we will go to them, +and you shall judge for yourself--and if you like miniature, there are +those who will make what is small great. What wonderful power Cooper had +in this way. I recently had in my hands a wondrous and marvellous +portrait of Andrew Marvell by him. The sturdy honest Andrew. This man +Cooper, had such wonderful largeness of style, of execution too, even in +his highest finished small oil pictures--such as in this of Andrew +Marvell. We had an age, certainly, of very bad taste, and it was not +extinct in the days of Sir Joshua and Gainsborough; nay, sometimes under +both of these, I am sorry to say, it was even made worse. The age of +shepherds and shepherdesses--in the case of Gainsborough, brought down to +downright rustics. This, of making the sitters affect to be what they +were not, was bad enough--and it was any thing but poetical. But it was +infinitely worse in the itinerants of the day--and is very well ridiculed +by Goldsmith, who lived much among painters, in his Vicar of Wakefield +and family sitting for the family picture. We have happily quite got out +of that folly. But we are getting into one of most unpoetical +pageantry--portrait likenesses. We have not seen yet a good portrait of +Wellington, and the Queen, or the Prince; and if they must send their +portraits to foreign courts, let them be advised to learn, if they know +not yet how, and we are told they do, to paint them themselves. Montaigne +tells us, that he was present one day at Bar-le-duc, when King Francis +the Second, for a memorial of Rene, King of Sicily, was presented with a +picture the king had drawn of himself. Some how or other, kings and +queens are apt to have too many trappings about them; and the man is +often chosen to paint, who paints velvets and satins best, and faces the +worst. That is the reason we have them so ill done; and even if the faces +are well painted, they are overpowered by the ostentation of the dress. +Now, the Venetian portrait-painters contrived to keep down the glare of +all this ornament, to make it even more rich, but not obtruding. I +remember seeing a portrait of our queen, where, in a large bonnet, her +face looked like a small pip in the midst of an orange. It would be a +good thing, too, if you could contrive to spend a week or so in company +with your painter before you sit, that he may know you. Many a +characteristic may he lose, for want of knowing that it is a +characteristic; and may give you that in expression which does not belong +to you, while he may miss "your sweet expression about your eyes." He may +purse up your large and generous mouth, because you may screw it for a +moment to keep some ill-timed conceit from bolting out, and, besides +missing that noble feature, may give you an expression of a caution that +is not yours. A painter the other day, as I am assured, in a country +town, made a great mistake in a characteristic, and it was discovered by +a country farmer. It was the portrait of a lawyer--an attorney, who, from +humble pretensions, had made a good deal of money, and enlarged thereby +his pretensions, but somehow or other not very much enlarged his +respectability. To his pretensions was added that of having his portrait +put up in the parlour, as large as life. There it is, very flashy and +very true--one hand in his breast, the other in his small-clothes' +pocket. It is market-day--the country clients are called in--opinions are +passed--the family present, and all complimentary--such as, "Never saw +such a likeness in the course of all my born days. As like 'un as he can +stare." "Well, sure enough, there he is." But at last--there is one +dissentient! "'Tain't like--not very--no, 'tain't," said a heavy +middle-aged farmer, with rather a dry look, too, about his mouth, and a +moist one at the corner of his eye, and who knew the attorney well. All +were upon him. "Not like!--How not like? Say where is it not like?" "Why, +don't you see," said the man, "he's got his hand in his breeches' pocket. +It would be as like again if he had his hand in any other body's pocket." +The family portrait was removed, especially as, after this, many came on +purpose to see it; and so the attorney was lowered a peg, and the farmer +obtained the reputation of a connoisseur. + +But it is high time, Eusebius, that I should dismiss you and +portrait-painting, or you will think your thus sitting to me worse than +sitting for your picture; which picture, if it be of my Eusebius as I know +him and love him, will ever be a living speaking likeness, but if it be +one but of outward feature and resemblance, it will soon pass off to make +up the accumulation of dead lumber--while do you, Eusebius, as you are, +_vive valeque_. + + * * * * * + + + + +MY FRIEND. + + + Wouldst thou be friend of mine?-- + Thou must be quick and bold + When the right is to be done, + And the truth is to be told; + + Wearing no friend-like smile + When thine heart is hot within, + Making no truce with fraud or guile, + No compromise with sin. + + Open of eye and speech, + Open of heart and hand, + Holding thine own but as in trust + For thy great brother-band. + + Patient and stout to bear, + Yet bearing not for ever; + Gentle to rule, and slow to bind, + Like lightning to deliver! + + True to thy fatherland, + True to thine own true love; + True to thine altar and thy creed, + And thy good God above. + + But with no bigot scorn + For faith sincere as thine, + Though less of form attend the prayer, + Or more of pomp the shrine; + + Remembering Him who spake + The word that cannot lie, + "Where two or three in my name meet + There in the midst am I!" + + I bar thee not from faults-- + God wot, it were in vain! + Inalienable heritage + Since that primeval slain! + + The wisest have been fools-- + The surest stumbled sore: + _Strive_ thou to stand--or fall'n arise, + I ask thee not for more! + + This do, and thou shalt knit + Closely my heart to thine; + Next the dear love of God above, + Such Friend on earth, be mine! + + O.O. + +LONDON, _January_ 1844. + + * * * * * + +THE LAND OF SLAVES. + + "Le printemps--le printemps!"--_Berenger_. + + + 'Twas a sunny holiday, + Scene, Killarney--time, last May; + In the fields the rustic throng, + Every linnet in full song, + Not a cloud to threaten rain, + As I walk'd with lovely Jane. + + While we wander'd round the bay, + Came the gayest of the gay, + Pouring from a painted barge, + Anchor'd by the flowery marge; + Sporting round its cliffs and caves:-- + Ireland is the land of slaves! + + Next we met an infant group, + Never was a happier troop; + Dancing o'er the primrose plain. + "Joyous infancy!" said Jane; + "Free from care as winds and waves." + --"No, my darling, _these_ are slaves!" + + On we walk'd--a garden shade + Show'd us matron, man, and maid, + Laughing, talking, _all_ coquetting, + "Here," said Jane, "I see no fretting: + Mammon makes but fools or knaves." + --"No, my darling, _these_ are slaves!" + + On we walk'd--we saw a dome, + Fill'd with furious dupes of Rome, + Ranting of the sword and chain. + "Let us run away," said Jane: + "How that horrid rebel raves!" + --"No, my darling, _these_ are slaves!" + + As we ran, a monster-crowd + Stopp'd us, uttering vengeance loud; + Giving nobles to the halter, + Cursing England's throne and altar, + Brandishing their pikes and staves. + "Love," said Jane, "are all _these_ slaves?" + +[Greek: Aion] + + * * * * * + +THE PRIEST'S BURIAL. + + + He is dead!--he died of a broken heart, + Of a frighten'd soul, and a frenzied brain: + He died--of playing a desperate part + For folly; which others play'd for gain. + Yet o'er his turf the rebels rave! + Be silent, wretches!--spare the grave! + + He is dead!--bewilder'd, betray'd, beguiled; + Swept on by faction's fiery blast. + In its blood-stain'd track, a fool, a child! + His doom is fix'd--his lot is cast. + Yet scowls by his bier earth's blackest knave. + Be silent, wretches!--spare the grave! + + They dress'd the cold clay in mimic state, + And the peasants came crowding round; + And many a vow of revenge and hate + In that hour on their souls was bound-- + Oh! ruthless creed, that never forgave! + Be silent, wretches!--spare the grave! + + They bore him along by the village road, + And they yell'd at the village spire! + And they laid him at rest in his long abode, + In a storm of revenge and ire; + And round him their furious banners wave. + Be silent, wretches!--spare the grave! + + Then o'er him the bigot chant was sung, + And was said the bigot prayer, + And wild hearts with many a thought were stung, + That left its venom there, + To madden in many a midnight cave. + Be silent, wretches!--spare the grave! + + All is done; he is buried--the crowd depart, + He is laid in his kindred clay, + There, freed from the torture that ate his heart, + He rests, till the last great day. + O THOU! who alone canst defend and save, + Wake Ireland wise from this lowly grave. + +[Greek: Aion.] + + * * * * * + +PRUDENCE. + + "Bide your time."--_Rebel Song_. + + + Bide your time--bide your time! + Patience is the true sublime. + Heroes, bottle up your tears; + Wait for ten, or ten score, years. + Shrink from blows, but rage in rhyme: + Bide your time--bide your time! + + Bide your time--bide your time! + Snakes are safest in their slime. + Sages look before they leap; + Heroes, to your hovels creep. + Christmas loves pantomime: + Bide your time--bide your time! + + Bide your time--bide your time! + "Shoulder arms"--but never prime. + Keep your skins from Saxon lead; + Plunder paupers for your bread. + Popish begging is no crime: + Bide your time--bide your time! + +[Greek: Aion.] + + * * * * * + + + + +FREE TRADE AND PROTECTION + +Whoever has travelled in the highlands of Scotland, or the mountains of +Wales, must have observed the remarkable difference which exists between +artificial plantations, and the natural woods of the country. Planted _all +at once_, the former grow up of uniform height, and all their trees +present nearly the same form and symmetry. Sown at different periods, with +centuries between their growth, the latter exhibit every variety of age +and form, from the decaying patriarchs of the forest, which have survived +the blasts of some hundred years, to the infant sapling, which is only +beginning to shoot under the shelter of a projecting rock or stem. Nor is +the difference less remarkable in the room which is severally afforded for +growth, in the artificial plantations and in the wilds of nature. The +larches or firs, in the stiff and angular enclosure, are always crowded +together; and if not thinned by the care of the woodsman, will inevitably +choke each other, or shoot up thin and unhealthy, in consequence of their +close proximity to each other, and the dense mass of foliage which +overshadows the upper part of the wood. But no such danger need be +apprehended In the natural forest. No woodman is called to thin its +denizens. No forester's eye is required to tell which should be left, and +which cut away, in the vast array. In the ceaseless warfare of the weaker +with the stronger, the feeble plants are entirely destroyed. In vain the +infant sapling attempts to contend with the old oak, the branches of which +overshadow its growth--it is speedily crushed in the struggle. Nor are the +means of removing the useless remains less effectual. The hand of nature +insensibly clears the waste of its incumbrances; the weakness of time +brings them to the ground when their allotted period is expired; and youth, +as in the generations of men, springs beside the decay of age, and finds +ample room for its expansion over the fallen remains of its paternal stems. + +The difference between the artificial plantation and the natural wood, +illustrates the distinction between the imaginary communities which the +political economist expects to see grow up, in conformity with his +theories, and acting in obedience to his dictates, and the nations of +flesh and blood which exist around us, of which we form a part, and which +are immediately affected by ill-judged or inapplicable measures of +commercial regulation. Nations were planted by the hand of nature; they +were not sown, nor their place allotted by human foresight. They exist +often close to each other, and under apparently the same physical +circumstances, under every possible variety of character, age, and period +of growth. The difference even between those ruled by the same government, +and inhabited apparently by the same race, is prodigious. Who could +suppose that the Dutchman, methodical, calculating, persevering, was next +neighbour to the fiery, war-like, and impetuous Frenchman? Or that the +southern and western Irish, vehement, impassioned, and volatile, came from +the same stock which pervades the whole west of Britain? England, for +centuries the abode of industry, effort, and opulence, is subject to the +same government, and situated in the same latitude as Ireland, where +indolence is almost universal, wealth rare, and manufactures in general +unknown. Russia, ignorant, united, and ever victorious, adjoins Poland, +weak, distracted, and ever vanquished; and Prussia has risen with +unheard-of rapidity in national strength, and every branch of industry, at +the very time when Spain was fast relapsing into slavery and barbarism. + +Familiar as these truths are to all they seem to have been, in an +unaccountable manner, forgotten by our modern political economists; and +the oblivion of them is the principal cause of the remarkable failure +which has attended the application to practice of all their theories. They +invariably forget the different age of nations; they overlook the +essential difference between communities with different national character, +or in different stages of manufacturing or commercial advancement, and +fall into the fatal error of supposing that one general system is to be +readily embraced by, and found applicable to, a cluster of nations +existing under every possible variety of physical, social, and political +circumstances. Fixing their eyes upon their own country, or rather upon +the peculiar interest to which they belong in their own country, they +reason as if all mankind were placed in the same circumstances, and would +be benefited by the arrangements which they find advantageous. They forget +that all nations were not planted at the same time, nor in the same soil; +that the difference in their age, the inequality in their growth, the +variety in their texture, is as great as in the trees of the forest, the +seeds of which have been scattered by the hand of nature; that the +incessant warfare of the weaker with the stronger, exists not less in the +social than the physical world; and that all systems founded on the +oblivion of that continued contest, must ever be traversed by the +strongest of all moral laws--the instinct of SELF-PRESERVATION. + +We have said that the modern theories when applied to practice, have, in a +remarkable manner, failed. In saying so, we have chiefly in view the +acknowledged failure of the strenuous efforts made by England, during the +last twenty years, to effect an interchange in the advantages of free +trade, and the entire disappointment which has attended the long +establishment, on a great scale, of the reciprocity system. To the first +we shall advert in the present paper; the second will furnish ample room +for reflection in another. + +The abstract principles on which the doctrines of free trade are founded, +are these; and we put it to the warmest advocates of those principles, +whether they are not fairly stated. All nations were not intended by +nature, nor are they fitted by their physical circumstances, to excel in +the same branches of industry; and it is the variety in the production +which they severally can bring to maturity, which at once imposes the +necessity for, and occasions the profit of, commercial intercourse. +Nothing, therefore, can be so unwise as to attempt, either by arbitrary +regulations, to create a branch of industry in a country for which it is +not intended by nature, or to retain it in that branch where it is created +by forced prohibitions. Banish all restrictions, therefore, from commerce; +let every nation apply itself to that particular branch of industry for +which it is adapted by nature, and receive in exchange the produce of +other countries, raised, in like manner, in conformity with their natural +capabilities. Then will the industry of each people be turned into the +channel most advantageous and lucrative to itself; each will enjoy the +immense advantage of purchasing the commodities it requires at the +cheapest possible rate; hopeless or absurd hot-bed attempts to force +extraneous industry will cease; and, in the mutual interchange of the +surplus produce of each, the foundation will be laid of an advantageous +and durable commercial intercourse. England, on this principle, should not +attempt to raise wine, nor France iron or cotton goods; but the calicoes +and hardware of Great Britain should be exchanged for the wines and fruits +of France: both nations will thus be enriched, and a vast commercial +traffic grow up, which, being founded on mutual interest and attended with +mutual advantage, may be expected to be durable, and to extinguish, in the +end, the rivalry of their respective people, or the jealousy of their +several governments. + +Such is the theory of free trade; and it may be admitted it wears at first +sight a seducing and agreeable aspect. Let us now enquire how far +experience, the great test of truth, has verified its doctrines, or +demonstrated its practicability. To illustrate this matter, we shall have +recourse to no mean or doubtful authority; we shall have recourse to the +statement of an enlightened but candid contemporary, whose advocating of a +moderate system of free trade has excited no small anxiety in the British +empire; and which report, from the information and ability it displays, +has assigned to the present accomplished head of the Board of Trade. + +The efforts made in Great Britain to introduce a general system of free +trade, especially within the last three years, are thus enumerated in the +_Foreign and Colonial Review_. + +"England, without gaining or asking a single boon from any foreign country, +has-- + +"1. Reduced by about one-half the duties upon foreign corn. + +"2. By nearly the same amount, the duties on foreign timber. + +"3. Has removed her prohibitions against the importation of cattle and +other animals for food, and has fixed upon them duties, ranging on the +average at about ten per cent _ad valorem_. + +"4. Has made flesh meat admissible. + +"5. Has reduced the duty on salt provisions for home consumption by +one-third, and one-half; and has placed them on a footing of entire +equality with the British article for the supply of the whole marine +frequenting her ports. + +"6. Has lowered her duties on vegetables and seeds in general to one-half, +one-sixth, and even one-twelfth (in the case of that most important +esculent the potatoe) of what they formerly were. + +"7. Has made all _great_ articles of manufacture, except silk, which is +reserved for future negotiations, admissible at duties of ten, twelve and +a half, and fifteen per cent, and only in some few instances so much as +twenty per cent. + +"8. Upon some minor articles of manufacture, where our people lie under +heavy disadvantages in obtaining the raw material, and where their habits +have been formed in their particular occupation, wholly under the shelter, +and therefore upon the responsibility of the law, she has retained duties +in some cases as high as thirty per cent _ad valorem_, but yet has reduced +them to rates insignificant in comparison with those formerly charged. + +"9. In her colonies, she has fixed the ordinary rules of differential +duties upon foreign productions at four and seven per cent, with +exceptions altogether trifling in amount, on which a higher charge has +been laid for special reasons. + +"10. She has withdrawn the prohibition to export machinery, except so far +as regards the linen manufacture, and the spinning of the yarns employed +in it. + +"11. With regard to many other articles, such as butter and cheese, indeed, +with regard to all articles to which the simple and essential interests of +the revenue will allow the same rules to be applied--it has been declared +that they are only temporarily exempted from the operations of those rules, +and it is well understood, that no time will be allowed to pass, except +such as is necessary, before the work is completed; and lastly, + +"12. She has not even excluded from the benefit of these reductions the +very countries under whose simultaneous enactments, of a hostile character, +she is at this moment suffering: these advantages will be enjoyed by the +tar and cordage of Russia; by the corn and timber, the woollens, linens, +and hosiery of northern Germany; by the gloves, the boots and shoes, the +light writing-papers, the perfumery, the corks, the straw-hats, the +cottons and cambrics, the dressed skins, the thrown silk, and even (from +an incidental charge with respect to the charge of duty on the bottles) +the wines of France; by the salt provisions, the ashes, the turpentine, +the rice, the furs and skins, the sperm oil of America; and she in +particular may expect to derive advantage from the alteration in our +colonial import duties upon the great articles of flour, salt, provisions, +fish and lumber."[15] + + [15] _Foreign and Colonial Review_, Vol. i. p. 235. + +Such have been the sacrifices which Great Britain has recently made in +order to secure a system of free commercial enterprise throughout the +world. Let us now enquire what return she has met with for these +concessions; and the recent occurrences in this respect are detailed in +the same unexceptionable authority. + +"Within the last year, France has passed an ordinance, doubling the duty +on linen yarns--a measure hostile enough, had it been uniform in its +application to all countries; but, lest there should be any ambiguity +about its meaning, she has actually left open her Belgian frontier to that +article at the former duty, on the condition that Belgium should levy the +high French duty in her custom-houses, so as to prevent the transit of the +British yarns through that country. To this disreputable and humiliating +proposal, Belgium has consented. Again, amidst the loudest professions +from the Prussian government, of an anxiety to advance the relaxation of +commercial restrictions, that government has, nevertheless, adopted a +proceeding not less hostile or mischievous than the measure of France with +regard to linen yarns. The Congress of the Deputies of the Zollverein, at +Stuttgard, have in a new tariff, which was to take effect on the 1st of +January, besides some minor alterations of an unfavourable kind, decreed, +upon the proposal of Prussia, that goods mixed of cotton and wool, if of +more than one colour, shall pay fifty thalers the centner, instead of +thirty; that is, instead of a very high, shall be liable to an exorbitant, +and, as it may prove, a prohibitory duty. Next, America, as all our +readers must be aware, has, after a struggle, passed a tariff, subverting +altogether the arrangement established by the Compromise Act of 1833, and +imposing upon the various descriptions of manufactured goods rates of duty +varying from thirty to forty and fifty per cent and upwards, which have +had the effect of stopping a great portion of the shipments of cotton +goods to that country from Great Britain during the past autumn, and, +without doubt, have added greatly to the distresses of our manufacturing +population. Besides these greater instances, Russia, according to her wont +in such matters, and Spain, have published, within the test fifteen months, +new tariffs, of which it is difficult to say whether they are still worse +than, or only as execrably bad, as those which they succeeded, but, in the +close rivalry between the old and the new, the latter seem, upon the whole, +entitled to the palm of prohibitive rigour. And Portugal, likewise, has +augmented the duties payable upon certain classes of her imports, by a +measure of the recent date of March 1841, and by another of last year. In +the mean time, Spain has concluded a treaty with Belgium for the admission +of her linens. And the king of Prussia has effected an arrangement with +the czar, which, in certain particulars, secures, upon his own frontier, a +relaxation of the iron strictness of the Russian system. England has +concluded no commercial treaty with any of these powers; and the +negotiation with France, which the measures of Lord Palmerston interrupted +in 1840, at the very period of its ripeness, appears still to +slumber--owing, we believe, in part, to the prevalence of an anti-Anglican +feeling in that country, which, for the credit of common sense and of +human nature, we trust will be temporary; but much more to the high +protective notions, and the political activity and influence of the French +manufacturers, which overawe an administration far less strong, we regret +to say, than it deserves." + +Our recent attempts, therefore, to introduce a general system of free +trade among nations have proved a signal failure, on the admission of the +most enlightened advocates for that species of policy. Nor have our +earlier efforts been more successful. Mr Huskisson, as it is well known, +introduced, full twenty years ago, the system of free trade, and repealed +the navigation laws, in the hope of making the Northern Powers of Europe +more favourable to the admission of British manufactures, and materially +reduced the duties on French silks, watches, wines, and jewellery, in the +hope that the Government of that country would see the expedience of +making a corresponding reduction in the duties levied on our staple +manufactures in the French harbours. But after twenty years' experience of +these concessions on our part, the French Government are so far from +evincing a disposition to meet us with a similar conciliatory policy, that +they have done just the reverse. Scarce a year has elapsed without some +additional duty being imposed on our fabrics in their harbours; and the +great reductions contained in Sir R. Peel's tariff were immediately met, +as already noticed, by the imposition of an additional and very heavy duty +on British linens. Nay, so far has the free trade system been from +enlarging the market for our manufactures in Europe, that after twenty +years' experience of its effects, and an increase over Europe generally of +fully a third in numbers, and at least a half in wealth, it is an +ascertained fact, that our exports to the European-States _are less than +they were forty years ago_.[16] "That part of our commerce," says Mr +Porter, himself a decided free trader, "which, being carried on with the +rich and civilized inhabitants of European nations, should present the +greatest field for extension, will be seen to have fallen off in a +remarkable degree. The annual average exports to the whole of Europe were +_less in value by nearly twenty per cent_, on an average of five years, +from 1832 to 1836, _than they were during the five years that followed the +close of the war;_ and it affords strong evidence of the unsatisfactory +footing on which our trading regulations with Europe are established, that +our exports to the United States of America, which, with their population +of 12,000,000, (in 1837,) are situated 3000 miles from us across the +Atlantic, have amounted to more than half the sum of our shipments to the +whole of Europe, with a population fifteen times as great as that of the +United States of America, and with an abundance of productions suited to +our wants, which they are naturally desirous of exchanging for the produce +of our mines and looms."[17] + + [16] _Foreign and Colonial Review_, Vol. i. p. 233. + + [17] Porter's _Progress of the Nation_, Vol. i. p. 101. + +This was written by Mr Porter in 1837; but while subsequent times have +evinced an increased anxiety on the part of this country to extend the +principles of free trade, they have been met by such increased +determination on the part of the European governments to _resist the +system,_ and adhere more rigorously to their protecting policy, that the +disproportion is now universal, and is every day becoming more remarkable. +The following table will show that our exports to Europe, notwithstanding +our twelve reciprocity treaties with its maritime powers, and unceasing +efforts to give a practical exemplification of the principles of free +trade, are stationary or declining.[18] + + [18] Table showing the date and value of Exports of British Iron + Manufacturers to Europe in the afore-mentioned years. + + Northern Europe. Southern Europe. Total. + 1814 L14,113,773 L12,753,816 L26,867,589 + 1815 11,791,692 8,764,552 20,556,544 + 1816 11,369,086 7,284,467 18,653,555 + 1817 11,408,083 9,685,491 19,093,574 + 1818 11,809,243 7,639,139 19,448,382 + 1819 9,805,397 6,896,287 16,601,684 + 1820 11,289,891 7,139,042 18,428,433 + + 1833 9,313,549 5,686,949 15,000,498 + 1834 9,505,892 8,501,141 18,007,033 + 1835 10,303,316 8,161,117 18,464,433 + 1836 9,999,861 9,011,205 19,000,066 + 1837 11,097,436 7,789,126 18,187,662 + 1838 11,258,473 9,481,372 20,739,845 + 1839 11,991,236 9,376,241 21,367,477 + + +In one particular instance, the entire failure of the free trade system to +procure any corresponding return from the very continental states whose +harbours it was chiefly intended to open, has been singularly conspicuous. +In February 1821 the reciprocity system, in regard to shipping, was +introduced by Mr Huskisson, and acted upon by the legislature; and the +following reason was assigned by that eminent man for deviating from the +old navigation laws of Cromwell, which had so long constituted the +strength of the British navy. Mr Huskisson maintained--"That the period +had now arrived, when it had become indispensable to introduce a more +liberal system in regard to the admission of foreign shipping into our +harbours, if we would avoid the total exclusion of our manufacturers into +their harbours. The exclusive system did admirably well, as long as we +alone acted upon it; when foreign nations were content to take our goods, +though we excluded their shipping. But they had now become sensible of +the impolicy of such a system, and, right or wrong, were resolved to +resist it. Prussia, in particular, had resisted all the anxious endeavours +of this country, to effect the introduction of goods of our manufacture, +on favourable terms, into her harbours; and the reason assigned was, that +the navigation laws excluded her shipping from ours. The reciprocity +system has been rendered indispensable by the prohibitory system, which +the other European powers have adopted. The only means of meeting the +heavy duties they have imposed on our goods and shipping, is to place our +duties upon a system of perfect reciprocity with theirs. Foreign nations +have no advantage over us in the carrying trade: from the London report, +it clearly appeared, that the ships of Norway, Sweden, Russia, Prussia, +France, and Holland, cannot compete with British, either in long or short +voyages. But at any rate, the repeal of our discriminating duties has +become matter of necessity, if we would propose any trade with these +countries."[19] + + [19] Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, February 13, 1823; and Annual + Register, 1823, p. 104. + + Table showing the British and Foreign tonnage, with Sweden, Norway, + Denmark, and Prussia, since 1823, when the reciprocity system began, + in each of the following years:-- + + SWEDEN. NORWAY. DENMARK. PRUSSIA. +Years British Foreign British Foreign British Foreign British Foreign + Tons. Tons Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. Tons. +1821 23,005 8,508 13,855 61,342 5,312 3,969 79,590 37,720 +1822 20,799 13,692 13,377 87,974 7,096 3,910 102,847 58,270 +1823 20,986 22,529 13,122 117,015 4,413 4,795 81,202 86,013 +1824 17,074 40,092 11,419 135,272 6,738 23,689 94,664 151,621 +1825 15,906 53,141 14,825 157,910 15,158 50,943 189,214 182,752 +1826 11,829 16,939 15,603 90,726 22,000 56,544 119,060 120,589 +1827 11,719 21,822 13,945 96,420 10,825 52,456 150,718 109,184 +1828 14,877 24,700 10,826 85,771 17,464 49,293 133,753 99,195 +1829 16,536 25,046 9,985 86,205 24,576 53,390 125,918 127,861 +1830 12,116 23,158 6,459 84,585 12,210 51,420 102,758 139,646 +1831 11,450 39,689 4,518 114,865 6,552 62,190 83,908 140,532 +1832 8,335 25,755 3,798 82,155 7,268 35,772 62,079 89,187 +1833 10,009 29,454 5,901 98,931 6,840 38,620 41,735 108,753 +1834 15,353 35,910 6,403 98,303 5,691 53,282 32,021 118,111 +1835 12,036 35,061 2,592 95,049 6,007 49,008 25,514 124,144 +1836 10,865 42,439 1,573 12,875 2,152 51,907 42,567 174,439 +1837 7,608 42,602 1,035 88,004 5,357 55,961 67,566 145,742 +1838 10,425 38,991 1,364 110,817 3,466 57,554 86,734 175,643 +1839 8,359 42,270 2,582 109,228 5,535 106,960 111,470 229,208 +1840 11,933 53,337 3,166 114,241 6,327 103,067 112,709 237,984 + + --PORTER'S Part. Tables. + +Such were Mr Huskisson's reasons. They were grounded on alleged necessity. +He said in substance:--"The navigation laws are very good things; and if +we could only persuade other nations to take our goods, while we virtually +shut out their shipping, it would, doubtless, be very advisable to +continue the present system. But you can no longer do this. Foreign +nations see the undue advantage which has been so long obtained of them. +They insist upon an exchange of interests. We, as the richer and the more +powerful, are called on to make the first advances. We must relinquish our +navigation laws in favor of their staple manufacture, shipping, if we +would induce them to admit, on favourable terms, our staple article, +cotton goods." These were Mr Huskisson's principles; and it may be +admitted that, in the abstract, they were well-founded, for all commercial +intercourse, to be beneficial and lasting, must be founded on a mutual +exchange of advantages. But, in carrying into execution this principle, +he committed a fatal mistake, which has already endangered, without the +slightest advantage, and, if persevered in, may ultimately destroy the +commercial superiority of Great Britain. He virtually repealed, by the 4 +Geo. IV. c. 77 and the 5 Geo. IV. c. 1, the navigation laws, by +authorizing the King, by an order in council, to permit the exportation +and importation of goods in foreign vessels, on payment of the same duties +as where chargeable on British vessels, in favour of those countries which +did not levy discriminating duties on British vessels bringing goods into +their harbours, and to levy on the vessels of such countries the same +tonnage duties as they charged on British vessels. This was, in effect, +to say--We will admit your vessels on the same terms on which you admit +ours; and nothing, at first sight, could seem more equitable. + +But, nevertheless, this system involved a fatal mistake, the pernicious +effects of which have now been amply demonstrated by experience, and which +lies at the bottom of the whole modern doctrines of free trade. _It +stipulates for no advantages corresponding to the concession made_, and +thus the reciprocity was on one side only. Mr Huskisson repealed, in +favour of the Baltic powers, the British navigation laws; that is, he +threw open to Baltic competition, without any protection, the British +shipping interest: but _he forgot to exact from them any corresponding +favour for British iron or cotton goods in the Baltic harbours_. He +said--"We will admit your shipping on the same terms on which you admit +ours." What he should have said is--"We will admit your shipping into our +harbors on the same term you admit _our cotton goods_ into your harbours." +This would have been real reciprocity, because each side would have given +free ingress to that staple commodity in which its neighbor had the +advantage; and thus the most important branch of industry of each would +have been secured an inlet into the other's territories. The British +tonnage might have been driven out of the Baltic trade by the shipowners +of Denmark and Norway, but the Prussian cotton manufacturers would have +been crushed by the British. It might then have come to be a question of +whether the upholding of our shipping interest or the extension of our +cotton manufactures was the most advisable policy. But no such question +need be considered now. We have gained nothing by exposing our shipping +interest to the ruinous competition of the Baltic vessels. The Danish, +Norwegian and Prussian ships have come into our harbours, but the British +cotton and iron goods have not entered theirs. The reciprocity system has +been all on one side. After having been twenty years in operation, it has +failed in producing _the smallest concession_ in favour of British +manufactures, or producing in those states with whom the reciprocity +treaties were concluded, the _smallest extension of British exports_. +Since we so kindly permitted it, they have taken every thing and given +nothing. They have done worse. They have taken good and returned evil. The +vast concession contained in the repeal of our navigation laws, has been +answered by the enhanced duties contained in the Prussian Zollverein. +Twenty-six millions of Germans have been arrayed under a commercial league, +which, by levying duties, practically varying from thirty to fifty, though +nominally only ten _per cent_, effectually excludes British manufactures; +and, after twenty years' experience, our exports are only a few hundred +thousands a year, and our exports of cotton manufactures _only a few +hundreds a year_, to the whole States of Northern Europe, in favour of +whom the navigation laws were swept away, and an irreparable wound +inflicted on British maritime interests, and in whose wants Mr Huskisson +anticipated a vast market for our manufacturing industry, and an ample +compensation for the diminution of our shipping interest. + +Nature has established this great and all-important distinction between +the effects of wealth and national age on the productions of agriculture +and of manufactures. The reason is this:--If capital, machinery, and +knowledge, conferred the same immediate and decisive advantage on +agricultural that they do on manufacturing industry, old and +densely-peopled states would possess an undue superiority over the ruder +and more thinly-inhabited ones; the multiplication of the human race would +become excessive in the seats in which it had first taken root, and the +desert parts of the world would never, but under the pressure of absolute +necessity, be explored. The first command of God to man, "Be fruitful, and +multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it," would be frustrated. +The apprehensions of the Malthusians as to an excessive increase of +mankind, with its attendant dangers, would be realized in particular +places, while nineteen-twentieths of the earth lay neglected in a state of +nature. The desert would be left alone in its glory. The world would be +covered with huge and densely-peopled excrescences--with Babylons, Romes, +and Londons--in which wealth, power, and corruption were securely and +permanently intrenched, and from which the human race would ne'er diverge +but under the pressure of absolute impossibility to wrench a subsistence +from their over-peopled vicinities. + +These dangers, threatening alike to the moral character and material +welfare of nations, are completely prevented by the simple law, the +operations of which we every day see around us--viz. that wealth, +civilization, and knowledge, add rapidly and indefinitely to the powers of +manufacturing and commercial, but comparatively slowly to those of +agricultural industry. This simple circumstance effectually provides for +the dispersion of the human race, and the check of an undue growth in +particular communities. The old state can always undersell the young one +in manufactures, but it is everlastingly undersold by them in agriculture. +Thus the equalization of industry is introduced, the dispersion of the +human race secured, and a limit put to the perilous multiplication of its +members in particular communities. The old state can never rival the young +ones around it in raising subsistence; the young ones can never rival the +old one in manufactured articles. Either a free trade takes place between +them, or restrictions are established. If the commercial intercourse +between them is unrestricted, agriculture is destroyed, and with it +national strength is undermined in the old state, and manufactures are +nipped in the bud in the young ones. If restrictions prevail, and a war of +tariffs is introduced, the agriculture of the old state, and with it its +national strength, is preserved, but its export of manufactures to the +adjoining states is checked, and they establish growing fabrics for +themselves. Whichever effect takes place, the object of nature in the +equalization of industry, the limitation of aged communities, and the +dispersion of mankind, is gained, in the first, by the ruin of the old +empire from the decay of its agricultural resources; in the second, by the +check given to its manufacturing prowess, and the transference of +mercantile industry to its younger rivals. + +Generally the interests and necessities of the young states introduce a +prohibitory system to exclude the manufactures of the old one; and it is +this necessity which England is now experiencing, and vainly endeavours to +obviate, by introducing a system of free trade. But in one memorable +instance, and one only, the preponderance of a particular power rendered +this impossible, and illustrated on a great scale, and over the whole +civilized world, for a course of centuries, the effects of a perfect +freedom of trade. The Roman empire, spreading as it did round the shores +of the Mediterranean, afforded the utmost facilities for a great internal +traffic; while the equal policy of the emperors, and indeed the necessity +of their situation, introduced a perfect freedom in the interchange of +commodities between every part of their vast dominions. And what was the +result? Why, that the agriculture of Italy was destroyed--that 300,000 +acres in the champaign of Naples alone reverted to a state of nature, and +were tenanted only by wild-boars and buffaloes, before a single barbarian +had crossed the Alps--that the Grecian cities were entirely maintained by +grain from the plains of Podolia--and the mistress of the world, according +to the plaintive expression of the Roman annalist, depended for her +subsistence on the floods of the Nile.[20] Not the corruption of manners, +not the tyranny of the Caesars, occasioned the ruin of the empire, for +they affected only a limited class of the people; but the practical +working of free trade, joined to domestic slavery, which destroyed the +agricultural population of the heart of the empire, and left only +effeminate urban multitudes to contend with the hardy barbarians of the +north. + + [20] Tacitus, Vol. xiv. p. 21; Michelet's _Hist. de France,_ + Vol. i. p. 217. + +The advocates of free trade are not insensible to the superior advantages +of the rising over the old state in agriculture, and of the latter over +the former in manufactures. On the contrary, it is a secret but clear +sense of the reality of this distinction, which causes them so strenuously +to contend for the removal of all restrictions. They hope, by so doing, to +effect a great extension of their sales in foreign countries, without, as +they pretend, creating any diminution in their own. But the views which +have now been given show that this is a vain conceit, and demonstrate how +it has happened, that the more strenuously England contends for the +principles of free trade, and the more energetically that she carries them +into practice, the more decided is the resistance which she meets on +foreign states in the attempt, and the more rigorously do they act on the +principles of protection. It is because they are striving to become +manufacturing and commercial communities that they do this--it is a clear +sense of the ruin which awaits them, if deluged with British goods, which +makes them so strenuous in their system of exclusion. The more that we +open our trade, the more will they close theirs. They think, and not +without reason, that we advocate unrestricted commercial intercourse only +because it would be profitable to us, and deprecate our old system of +exclusion only because it has now been turned against ourselves. "Now, +then," say they, "is the time, when England is suffering under the system +of exclusion, which we have at length had sense enough to borrow from her, +to draw closer the bonds of that system, and complete the glorious work of +our own elevation on her ruins. Our policy is clearly chalked out by hers; +we have only to do what she deprecates, and we are sure to be right." It +is evident that these views will be permanently entertained by them, +because they are founded on the strongest of all instincts that of +self-preservation. When we cease to be a great manufacturing nation, when +we are no longer formidable rivals, they will open their harbours; but not +till then. In striving to introduce a system of free trade, therefore, we +gratuitously inflict a severe wound on our domestic industry, without any +chance even of a compensation in that which is destined for the foreign +markets. We let in their goods into our harbours, but we do not obtain +admission, nor will we ever obtain admission, for ours into theirs. The +reciprocity is, and ever must be, all on one side. + +It is by mistaking the dominant influence among the continental states, +that so large a portion of the community are deceived on this subject. +They say, if we take their grain and cattle, they will take our cotton +goods; that their system of exclusion is entirely a consequence of, and +retaliation for, ours. Can they produce a single instance in which our +concessions in favour of their rude produce have led to a corresponding +return in favour of ours? How can it be so, when, in all old states, the +monied is the prevailing interest which sways the determinations of +government? The landholders, separated from each other, without capital, +almost all burdened with debt, are no match in the domestic struggle for +the manufacturing and commercial interests. Their superiority is founded +on a very clear footing--the same which has rendered the British House of +Commons omnipotent. _They hold the purse._ It is their loans which support +the credit of Government; it is by the customs which their imports pay +that the public revenue is to be chiefly raised. The more popular that +governments become, the more strongly will their influences appear in the +war of tariffs. If pure democracies were established in all the +neighbouring states, we would be met in then all by a duty of sixty per +cent. Witness the American tariff of 1842, and the progressive increases +of duties against us since the popular revolutions we have fostered and +encouraged in France, Belgium, and Portugal. + +Is, then, a free and unrestrained system of commercial intercourse +impossible between nations, and must it ever end in a war of tariffs and +the pacific infliction of mutual injury? We consider it is impossible +between two nations, both manufacturing, or aspiring to be so, and in the +same, or nearly the same, age and social circumstances. It is mere folly +to attempt it; because interests which must clash, are continually arising +on both parts, and reciprocity, if attempted, is on one side only. With +such nations, the only wisdom is, to conclude treaties, not of reciprocity, +but of _commerce_; that is, treaties in which, in consideration of certain +branches of our manufactures being admitted on favourable terms, we agree +to admit certain articles of their produce on equally advantageous +conditions. Thus, a treaty, by which we agreed to admit, for a moderate +duty, the wines of France, which we can never rival, in return for their +admitting our iron and cotton goods on similar terns, would be a measure +of equal benefit to both countries. It would be as wise a measure as Mr +Huskisson's reduction of the duties on French silks, gloves, and clocks, +was a gratuitous and unwarranted injury to staple branches of our own +industry. The only countries to which the reciprocity system is really +applicable, are distant states in an early state of civilization, whose +natural products are essentially different from our own, and whose stage +of advancement is not such as to have made them enter on the career of +manufacture, of jealousy, and of tariffs. Colonies unite all these +advantages; and it is in them that the real sources of our strength, and +the only secure markets for our produce, are to be found; but that subject, +so vast, so interesting, so vital to our individual and national +advancement, must be reserved for a future occasion. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine -- +Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH *** + +***** This file should be named 16293.txt or 16293.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/9/16293/ + +Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals; Jon +Ingram, Allen Siddle and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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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