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+Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448, 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: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448
+       Volume 18, New Series, July 31, 1852
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: William Chambers
+        Robert Chambers
+
+Release Date: April 20, 2007 [EBook #21193]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                     CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
+
+  CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S
+  INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
+
+
+  No. 448. NEW SERIES.   SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1852.   PRICE 1-1/2_d._
+
+
+
+
+BOOK-WORSHIP.
+
+
+A book belongs in a peculiar manner to the age and nation that produce
+it. It is an emanation of the thought of the time; and if it survive
+to an after-time, it remains as a landmark of the progress of the
+imagination or the intellect. Some books do even more than this: they
+press forward to the future age, and make appeals to its maturer
+genius; but in so doing they still belong to their own--they still
+wear the garb which stamps them as appertaining to a particular epoch.
+Of that epoch, it is true, they are, intellectually, the flower and
+chief; they are the expression of its finer spirit, and serve as a
+link between the two generations of the past and the future; but of
+that future--so much changed in habits, and feelings, and
+knowledge--they can never, even when acting as guides and teachers,
+form an essential part: there is always some bond of sympathy wanting.
+
+A single glance at our own great books will illustrate this--books
+which are constantly reprinted, without which no library can be
+tolerated--which are still, generation after generation, the objects
+of the national worship, and are popularly supposed to afford a
+universal and unfailing standard of excellence in the various
+departments of literature. These books, although pored over as a task
+and a study by the few, are rarely opened and never read by the many:
+they are known the least by those who reverence them most. They are,
+in short, idols, and their worship is not a faith, but a superstition.
+This kind of belief is not shaken even by experience. When a devourer
+of the novels of Scott, for instance, takes up _Tom Jones_, he, after
+a vain attempt to read, may lay it down with a feeling of surprise and
+dissatisfaction; but _Tom Jones_ remains still to his convictions 'an
+epic in prose,' the fiction _par excellence_ of the language. As for
+_Clarissa Harlowe_ and _Sir Charles Grandison_, we have not heard of
+any common reader in our generation who has had the hardihood even to
+open the volumes; but Richardson as well as Fielding retains his
+original niche among the gods of romance; and we find Scott himself
+one of the high-priests of the worship. When wandering once upon the
+continent, we were thrown for several days into the company of an
+English clergyman, who had provided himself, as the best possible
+model in description, with a copy of Spenser; and it was curious to
+observe the pertinacity with which, from time to time, he drew forth
+his treasure, and the weariness with which in a few minutes he
+returned it to his pocket. Yet our reverend friend, we have no doubt,
+went home with his faith in Spenser unshaken, and recommends it to
+this day as the most delightful of all companions for a journey.
+
+In the present century, the French and German critics have begun to
+place this reverential feeling for the 'classics' of a language upon a
+more rational basis. In estimating an author, they throw themselves
+back into the times in which he wrote; they determine his place among
+the spirits of his own age; and ascertain the practical influence his
+works have exercised over those of succeeding generations. In short,
+they judge him relatively, not absolutely; and thus convert an
+unreasoning superstition into a sober faith. We do not require to be
+told that in every book destined to survive its author, there are here
+and there gleams of nature that belong to all time; but the body of
+the work is after the fashion of the age that produced it; and he who
+is unacquainted with the thought of that age, will always judge amiss.
+In England, we are still in the bonds of the last century, and it is
+surprising what an amount of affectation mingles with criticism even
+of the highest pretensions. It is no wonder, then, that common readers
+should be mistaken in their book-worship. To such persons, for all
+their blind reverence, Dante must in reality be a wild beast--a fine
+animal, it is true, but still a wild beast--and our own Milton a
+polemical pedant arguing by the light of poetry. To such readers, the
+spectacle of Ugolino devouring the head of Ruggieri, and wiping his
+jaws with the hair that he might tell his story, cannot fail to give a
+feeling of horror and disgust, which even the glorious wings of
+Dante's angels--the most sublime of all such creations--would fail to
+chase away. The poetry of the Divine Comedy belongs to nature; its
+superstition, intolerance, and fanaticism, to the thirteenth century.
+These last have either passed away from the modern world or they exist
+in new forms, and with the first alone can we have any real healthy
+sympathy.
+
+One of our literary idols is Shakspeare--perhaps the greatest of them
+all; but although the most universal of poets, his works, taken in the
+mass, belong to the age of Queen Elizabeth, not to ours. A critic has
+well said, that if Shakspeare were now living, he would manifest the
+same dramatic power, but under different forms; and his taste, his
+knowledge, and his beliefs would all be different. This, however, is
+not the opinion of the book-worshippers: it is not the poetry alone of
+Shakspeare, but the work bodily, which is preeminent with them; not
+that which is universal in his genius, but that likewise which is
+restricted by the fetters of time and country. The commentators, in
+the same way, find it their business to bring up his shortcomings to
+his ideal character, not to account for their existence by the manners
+and prejudices of his age, or the literary models on which his taste
+was formed. It would be easy to run over, in this way, the list of
+all our great authors, and to shew that book-worship, as
+contradistinguished from a wise and discriminating respect, is nothing
+more than a vulgar superstition.
+
+We are the more inclined to put forth these ideas, at a time when
+reprints are the order of the day--when speculators, with a singular
+blindness, are ready to take hold of almost anything that comes in
+their way without the expense of copyright. It would be far more
+judicious to employ persons of a correct and elegant taste to separate
+the local and temporary from the universal and immortal part of our
+classics, and give us, in an independent form, what belongs to
+ourselves and to all time. A movement was made some years ago in this
+direction by Mr Craik, who printed in one of Charles Knight's
+publications a summary of the _Faëry Queen_, converting the prosaic
+portions into prose, and giving only the true poetry in the rich and
+musical verses of Spenser. A travelling companion like this, we
+venture to assure our clerical friend, would not be pocketed so
+wearily as the original work. The harmony of the divine poet would
+saturate his heart and beam from his eyes; and when wandering where we
+met him, among the storied ruins of the Rhine, he would have by his
+side not the man Spenser, surrounded by the prejudices and rudenesses
+of his age, but the spirit Spenser, discoursing to and with the
+universal heart of nature. Leigh Hunt, with more originality--more of
+the quality men call genius, but a less correct perception of what is
+really wanted--has done the same thing for the great Italian poets;
+and in his sparkling pages Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, and the rest of the
+tuneful train, appear unfettered by the more unpleasing peculiarities
+of their mortal time. But the criticism by which their steps are
+attended, though full of grace and acuteness, is absolute, not
+relative. They are judged by a standard of taste and feeling existing
+in the author's mind: the _Inferno_ is a magnificent caldron of
+everything base and detestable in human nature; and the _Orlando_, a
+paradise of love, beauty, and delight. Dante, the sublime poet, but
+inexorable bigot, meets with little tolerance from Leigh Hunt; while
+Ariosto, exhaustless in his wealth, ardent and exulting--full of the
+same excess of life which in youth sends the blood dancing and boiling
+through the veins--has his warmest sympathy. This kind of criticism is
+but a new form of the error we have pointed out; for both poets
+receive his homage--the one praised in the spontaneous outpourings of
+his heart, the other served with the rites of devil-worship.
+
+When we talk of the great authors of one generation pressing forward
+to claim the sympathy of the _maturer_ genius of the next, we mean
+precisely what we say. We are well aware that some of the great
+writers we have casually mentioned have no equals in the present
+world; yet the present world is more mature in point of taste than
+their own. That is the reason why they _are_ great authors now. Some
+books last for a season, some for a generation, some for an age, or
+two, or more; always dropping off when the time they reach outstrips
+them. One of these lost treasures is sometimes reprinted; but if this
+is done in the hope of a renewed popularity, the speculation is sure
+to fail. Curious and studious men, it is true, are gratified by the
+reproduction; but the general reader would prefer a book of his own
+generation, using the former as materials, and separating its immortal
+part from its perishing body.
+
+And the general reader, be it remembered, is virtually the age. It is
+for him the studious think, the imaginative invent, the tuneful sing:
+beyond him there is no appeal but to the future. He is superstitious,
+as we have seen, but his gods are few and traditional. He determines
+to make a stand somewhere; and it is necessary for him to do so, if he
+would not encumber his literary Olympus with a Hindoo-like pantheon of
+millions. But how voracious is this general reader in regard to the
+effusions of his own day! What will become of the myriads of books
+that have passed through our own unworthy hands? How many of them will
+survive to the next generation? How many will continue to float still
+further down the stream of time? How many will attain the honour of
+the apotheosis? And will they coexist in this exalted state with the
+old objects of worship? This last is a pregnant question; for each
+generation will in all probability furnish its quota of the great
+books of the language, and, if so, a reform in the superstition we
+have exposed is no longer a matter of mere expedience, but of
+necessity. We are aware that all this will be pronounced rank heresy
+by those who assume the style of critics, who usually make a
+prodigious outcry when a great author is mutilated, even by expunging
+a word which modern decency excludes from the vocabulary of social and
+family intercourse. This word, however--supposing it to represent the
+mortal and perishing part of an author's productions--belongs not to
+him, but to his age; not to the intellectual man, but to the external
+and fleeting manners of his day and generation. Such critics usually
+take credit to themselves for a peculiarly large and liberal spirit;
+but there seems to us, on the contrary, to be something mean and
+restricted in views that regard the man as an individual, not as a
+portion of the genius which belongs to the world. Yet, even as an
+individual, the man is safe in his entirety, for there is no project
+of cancelling the printed works extant in our libraries, public and
+private. The true question simply is: Are great authors to be allowed
+to become practically obsolete--and many of them have become so
+already--while we stand upon the delicacies and ceremonies of
+Book-worship?
+
+
+
+
+OUR TERRACE.
+
+
+London has been often compared to a wilderness--a wilderness of brick,
+and so in one sense it is; because you may live in London all the days
+of your life if you choose--and, indeed, if you don't choose, if you
+happen to be very poor--without exciting observation, or provoking any
+further questioning than is comprised in a demand for accurate
+guidance from one place to another, a demand which might be made upon
+you in an Arabian desert, if there you chanced to meet a stranger. But
+London is something else besides a wilderness--indeed it is everything
+else. It is a great world, containing a thousand little worlds in its
+bosom; and pop yourself down in it in any quarter you will, you are
+sure to find yourself in the centre of some peculiar microcosm
+distinguished from all others by features more or less characteristic.
+
+One such little world we have lived in for a round number of years;
+and as we imagine it presents a picture by no means disagreeable to
+look upon, we will introduce the reader, with his permission, into its
+very limited circle, and chronicle its history for one day as
+faithfully as it is possible for anything to do, short of the
+Daguerreotype and the tax-gatherer. Our Terrace, then--for that is our
+little world--is situated in one of the northern, southern, eastern,
+or western suburbs--we have reasons for not being particular--at the
+distance of two miles and three-quarters from the black dome of St
+Paul's. It consists of thirty genteel-looking second-rate houses,
+standing upon a veritable terrace, at least three feet above the level
+of the carriage-way, and having small gardens enclosed in iron
+palisades in front of them. The garden gates open upon a pavement of
+nine feet in width; the carriage-road is thirty feet across; and on
+the opposite side is another but lower terrace, surmounted with
+handsome semi-detached villas, with ample flower-gardens both in front
+and rear, those in the front being planted, but rather sparingly, with
+limes, birches, and a few specimens of the white-ash, which in
+summertime overshadow the pavement, and shelter a passing pedestrian
+when caught in a shower. At one end of Our Terrace, there is a
+respectable butcher's shop, a public-house, and a shop which is
+perpetually changing owners, and making desperate attempts to
+establish itself as something or other, without any particular
+partiality for any particular line of business. It has been by turns a
+print-shop, a stationer's, a circulating library, a toy-shop, a
+Berlin-wool shop, a music and musical-instrument shop, a haberdasher's
+shop, a snuff and cigar shop, and one other thing which has escaped
+our memory--and all within the last seven years. Each retiring
+speculator has left his stock-in-trade, along with the good-will, to
+his successor; and at the present moment it is a combination of shops,
+where everything you don't want is to be found in a state of
+dilapidation, together with a very hungry-looking proprietor, who, for
+want of customers upon whom to exercise his ingenuity, pulls away all
+day long upon the accordion to the tune of _We're a' noddin'_. The
+other end of Our Terrace has its butcher, its public-house, its
+grocer, and a small furniture-shop, doing a small trade, under the
+charge of a very small boy. Let thus much suffice for the physiology
+of our subject. We proceed to record its history, as it may be read by
+any one of the inhabitants who chooses to spend the waking hours of a
+single day in perusing it from his parlour window.
+
+It is a fine morning in the middle of June, and the clock of the
+church at the end of the road is about striking seven, when the
+parlour shutters and the street doors of the terrace begin to open one
+by one. By a quarter past, the servant-girls, having lighted their
+fires, and put the kettle on to boil for breakfast, are ostensibly
+busy in sweeping the pathways of the small front-gardens, but are
+actually enjoying a simultaneous gossip together over the garden
+railings--a fleeting pleasure, which must be nipped in the bud,
+because master goes to town at half-past eight, and his boots are not
+yet cleaned, or his breakfast prepared. Now the bedroom-bell rings,
+which means hot water; and this is no sooner up, than mistress is
+down, and breakfast is laid in the parlour. At a quarter before eight,
+the eggs are boiled, and the bacon toasted, and the first serious
+business of the day is in course of transaction. Mr Jones of No. 9, Mr
+Robinson of No. 10, and Mr Brown of No. 11, are bound to be at their
+several posts in the city at nine o'clock; and having swallowed a
+hasty breakfast, they may be seen, before half-past eight has chimed,
+walking up and down the terrace chatting together, and wondering
+whether 'that Smith,' as usual, means to keep the omnibus waiting this
+morning, or whether he will come forth in time. Precisely as the half
+hour strikes, the tin horn of the omnibus sounds its shrill blast, and
+the vehicle is seen rattling round the corner, stopping one moment at
+No. 28, to take up Mr Johnson. On it comes, with a fresh blast, to
+where the commercial trio are waiting for it; out rushes Smith, wiping
+his mouth, and the 'bus,' swallowing up the whole four, rumbles and
+trumpets on to take up Thompson, Jackson, and Richardson, who, cigars
+in mouth, are waiting at a distance of forty paces off to ascend the
+roof. An hour later, a second omnibus comes by on the same benevolent
+errand, for the accommodation of those gentlemen, more favoured by
+fortune, who are not expected to be at the post of business until the
+hour of ten. As Our Terrace does not stand in a direct omnibus route,
+these are all the 'buses' that will pass in the course of the day. The
+gentlemen whom they convey every morning to town are regular
+customers, and the vehicles diverge from their regular course in order
+to pick them up at their own doors.
+
+About half-past nine, or from that to a quarter to ten, comes the
+postman with his first delivery of letters for the day. Our Terrace is
+the most toilsome part of his beat, for having to serve both sides of
+the way, his progress is very like that of a ship at sea sailing
+against the wind. R'tat he goes on our side, then down he jumps into
+the road--B'bang on the other side--tacks about again, and serves the
+terrace--off again, and serves the villas, and so on till he has
+fairly epistolised both sides of the way, and vanished round the
+corner. The vision of his gold band and red collar is anxiously looked
+for in the morning by many a fair face, which a watchful observer may
+see furtively peering through the drawing-room window-curtains. After
+he has departed, and the well-to-do merchants and employers who reside
+in the villas opposite have had time to look over their
+correspondence, come sundry neat turn-outs from the stables and
+coach-houses in the rear of the villas: a light, high gig, drawn by a
+frisky grey, into which leaps young Oversea the shipbroker--a
+comfortable, cushioned four-wheel drawn by a pair of bay ponies, into
+which old Discount climbs heavily, followed perhaps by his two
+daughters, bound on a shopping-visit to the city--and a spicy-looking,
+rattling trap, with a pawing horse, which has a decided objection to
+standing still, for Mr Goadall, the wealthy cattle-drover. These, with
+other vehicles of less note, all roll off the ground by a quarter
+after ten o'clock or so; and the ladies and their servants, with some
+few exceptions, are left in undisputed possession of home, while not a
+footfall of man or beast is heard in the sunshiny quiet of the street.
+
+The quiet, however, is broken before long by a peculiar and suggestive
+cry. We do not hear it yet ourselves, but Stalker, our black cat and
+familiar, has caught the well-known accents, and with a characteristic
+crooning noise, and a stiff, perpendicular erection of tail, he sidles
+towards the door, demanding, as plainly as possible, to be let out.
+Yes, it is the cats-meat man. 'Ca' me-e-et--me-yet--me-e-yet!' fills
+the morning air, and arouses exactly thirty responsive feline
+voices--for there is a cat to every house--and points thirty aspiring
+tails to the zenith. As many hungry tabbies, sables, and
+tortoise-shells as can get out of doors, are trooping together with
+arched backs upon the pavement, following the little pony-cart, the
+cats' commissariat equipage, and each one, anxious for his daily
+allowance, contributing most musically his quota to the general
+concert. We do not know how it is, but the cats-meat man is the most
+unerring and punctual of all those peripatetic functionaries who
+undertake to cater for the consumption of the public. The baker, the
+butcher, the grocer, the butterman, the fishmonger, and the coster,
+occasionally forget your necessities, or omit to call for your
+orders--the cats-meat man never. Other traders, too, dispense their
+stock by a sliding-scale, and are sometimes out of stock altogether:
+Pussy's provider, on the contrary, sticks to one price from year's end
+to year's end, and never, in the memory of the oldest Grimalkin, was
+known to disappoint a customer. A half-penny for a cat's breakfast has
+been the regulation-price ever since the horses of the metropolis
+began to submit to the boiling process for the benefit of the feline
+race.
+
+By the time the cats have retired to growl over their allowance in
+private, the daily succession of nomadic industrials begin to lift up
+their voices, and to defile slowly along Our Terrace, stopping now and
+then to execute a job or effect a sale when an opportunity presents
+itself. Our limits will not allow us to notice them all, but we must
+devote a few paragraphs to those without whom our picture would be
+incomplete.
+
+First comes an ingenious lass of two or three-and-twenty, with a
+flaming red shawl, pink ribbons in her bonnet, and the hue of health
+on a rather saucy face. She carries a large basket on her left arm,
+and in her right hand she displays to general admiration a gorgeous
+group of flowers, fashioned twice the size of life, from tissue-paper
+of various colours. She lifts up her voice occasionally as she marches
+slowly along, singing, in a clear accent: 'Flowers--ornamental papers
+for the stove--flowers! paper-flowers!' She is the accredited herald
+of summer--a phenomenon, this year, of very late appearance. We should
+have seen her six weeks ago, if the summer had not declined to appear
+at the usual season. She is the gaudy, party-coloured ephemera of
+street commerce, and will disappear from view in a fortnight's time,
+to be seen no more until the opening summer of '53. Her wares, which
+are manufactured with much taste, and with an eye to the harmony of
+colours, are in much request among the genteel housewives of the
+suburbs. They are exceedingly cheap, considering the skill which must
+be applied in their construction. They are all the work of her own
+hands, and have occupied her time and swallowed up her capital for
+some months past. She enjoys almost a monopoly in her art, and is not
+to be beaten down in the price of her goods. She knows their value,
+and is more independent than an artist dares to be in the presence of
+a patron. Her productions are a pleasant summer substitute for the
+cheerful fire of winter; and it is perhaps well for her that, before
+the close of autumn, the faded hues of the flowers, and the harbour
+they afford to dust, will convert them into waste paper, in spite of
+all the care that may be taken to preserve them.
+
+Paper Poll, as the servants call her, is hardly out of sight, and not
+out of hearing, when a young fellow and his wife come clattering along
+the pavement, appealing to all who may require their good offices in
+the matter of chair-mending. The man is built up in a sort of
+cage-work of chairs stuck about his head and shoulders, and his dirty
+phiz is only half visible through a kind of grill of legs and
+cross-bars. These are partly commissions which, having executed at
+home, he is carrying to their several owners. But as everybody does
+not choose to trust him away with property, he is ready to execute
+orders on the spot; and to this end his wife accompanies him on his
+rounds. She is loaded with a small bag of tools suspended at her
+waist, and a plentiful stock of split-cane under one arm. He will
+weave a new cane-seat to an old chair for 9d., and he will set down
+his load and do it before your eyes in your own garden, if you prefer
+that to intrusting him with it; that is, he will make the bargain, and
+his wife will weave the seat under his supervision, unless there
+happen to be two to be repaired, when husband and wife will work
+together. We have noticed that it is a very silent operation, that of
+weaving chair-bottoms; and that though the couple may be seated for an
+hour and more together rapidly plying the flexible canes, they never
+exchange a word with each other till the task is accomplished.
+Sometimes the wife is left at a customer's door working alone, while
+the husband wanders further on in search of other employment,
+returning by the time she has finished her task. But there are no
+chairs to mend this morning on Our Terrace, and our bamboo friends may
+jog on their way.
+
+Now resounds from a distance the cry of 'All a-growin' an'
+a-blowin'--all a-blowin', a-blowin' here!' and in a few minutes the
+travelling florist makes his appearance, driving before him a
+broad-surfaced handcart, loaded in profusion with exquisite flowers of
+all hues, in full bloom, and, to all appearance, thriving famously. It
+may happen, however, as it has happened to us, that the blossoms now
+so vigorous and blooming, may all drop off on the second or third day;
+and the naked plant, after making a sprawling and almost successful
+attempt to reach the ceiling for a week or so, shall become suddenly
+sapless and withered, the emblem of a broken-down and emaciated
+sot--and, what is more, ruined from the self-same cause, an overdose
+of stimulating fluid. It may happen, on the other hand, that the plant
+shall have suffered no trick of the gardener's trade, and shall bloom
+fairly to the end of its natural term. The commerce in blossoming
+flowers is one of the most uncertain and dangerous speculations in
+which the small street-traders of London can engage. When carried on
+under favourable circumstances, it is one of the most profitable, the
+demand for flowers being constant and increasing; but the whole
+stock-in-trade of a small perambulating capitalist may be ruined by a
+shower of rain, which will spoil their appearance for the market, and
+prevent his selling them before they are overblown. Further, as few of
+these dealers have any means of housing this kind of stock safely
+during the night, they are often compelled to part with them, after an
+unfavourable day, at less than prime cost, to prevent a total loss.
+Still, there are never wanting men of a speculative turn of mind, and
+the cry of 'All a-blowin' an' a-growin'' resounds through the streets
+as long as the season supplies flowers to grow and to blow.
+
+The flower-merchant wheels off, having left a good sprinkling of
+geraniums in our neighbours' windows; and his cousin-german, 'the
+graveller,' comes crawling after him, with his cart and stout horse in
+the middle of the road, while he walks on one side of the pavement,
+and his assistant on the other. This fellow is rather a singular
+character, and one that is to be met with probably nowhere upon the
+face of the earth but in the suburbs of London. He is, _par
+excellence_, the exponent of a feeling which pervades the popular mind
+in the metropolis on the subject of the duty which respectable people
+owe to respectability. It is impossible for a housekeeper in a
+neighbourhood having any claims to gentility, to escape the
+recognition of this feeling in the lower class of industrials. If you
+have a broken window in the front of your house, the travelling
+glazier thinks, to use his own expression, that _you have a right_ to
+have it repaired, and therefore that he, having discovered the
+fracture, has a right to the job of mending it. If your bell-handle is
+out of order or broken off, the travelling bellman thinks he has a
+right to repair it, and bores you, in fact, until you commission him
+to do so--and so on. In the same manner, and on the same principle, so
+soon as the fine weather sets in, and the front-gardens begin to look
+gay, the graveller loads his cart with gravel, and shouldering his
+spade, crawls leisurely through the suburbs with his companion,
+peering into every garden; and wherever he sees that the walks are
+grown dingy or moss-grown, he knocks boldly at the door, and demands
+to be set to work in mending your ways. The best thing you can do is
+to make the bargain and employ him at once; if not, he will be round
+again to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, and bore you into
+consenting at last. You live in a respectable house, and you _have a
+right_ to keep your garden in a respectable condition--and the
+graveller is determined that you shall do so: has he not brought
+gravel to the door on purpose? it will cost you but a shilling or two.
+Thus he lays down the law in his own mind; and sooner or later, as
+sure as fate, he lays down the gravel in your garden.
+
+While the graveller is patting down the pathway round Robinson's
+flower-bed, we hear the well-known cry of a countryman whom we have
+known any time these ten years, and who, with his wife by his side,
+has perambulated the suburbs for the best part of his life. He has
+taken upon himself the patronage of the laundry department, and he
+shoulders a fagot of clothes-poles, ten feet long, with forked
+extremities, all freshly cut from the forest. Coils of new rope for
+drying are hanging upon his arm, and his wife carries a basket well
+stocked with clothes-pins of a superior description, manufactured by
+themselves. The cry of 'Clo'-pole-line-pins' is one long familiar to
+the neighbourhood; and as this honest couple have earned a good
+reputation by a long course of civility and probity, they enjoy the
+advantage of a pretty extensive connection. Their perambulations are
+confined to the suburbs, and it is a question if they ever enter
+London proper from one year's end to another. It is of no use to carry
+clothes-poles and drying-lines where there are no conveniences for
+washing and drying.
+
+Next comes a travelling umbrella-mender, fagoted on the back like the
+man in the moon of the nursery rhyme-book. He is followed at a short
+distance by a travelling tinker, swinging his live-coals in a sort of
+tin censer, and giving utterance to a hoarse and horrible cry,
+intelligible only to the cook who has a leaky sauce-pan. Then comes
+the chamois-leather woman, bundled about with damaged skins, in
+request for the polishing of plate and plated wares. She is one of
+that persevering class who will hardly take 'No' for an answer. It
+takes her a full hour to get through the terrace, for she enters every
+garden, and knocks at every door from No. 1 to No. 30. In the
+winter-time, she pursues an analogous trade, dealing in what may
+strictly be termed the raw material, inasmuch as she then buys and
+cries hare-skins and rabbit-skins. She has, unfortunately, a
+notoriously bad character, and is accused of being addicted to the
+practice of taking tenpence and a hare-skin in exchange for a
+counterfeit shilling.
+
+By this time it is twelve o'clock and past, and Charley Coster, who
+serves the terrace with vegetables, drives up his stout cob to the
+door, and is at the very moment we write bargaining with Betty for new
+potatoes at threepence-half-penny a pound. Betty declares it is a
+scandalous price for potatoes. 'Yes, dear,' says Charley; 'an' another
+scanlous thing is, that I can't sell 'em for no less.' Charley is the
+most affectionate of costers, and is a general favourite with the
+abigails of the terrace. His turn-out is the very model of a
+travelling green-grocer's shop, well stocked with all the fruits and
+vegetables of the season; and he himself is a model of a coster, clean
+shaved, clean shod, and trimly dressed, with a flower in his
+button-hole, an everlasting smile upon his face, and the nattiest of
+neck-ties. The cunning rogue pretends to be smitten with Betty, and
+most likely does the same with all the other Bettys of the
+neighbourhood, to all of whom he chatters incessantly of everything
+and everybody--save and except of the wife and three children waiting
+for him at home. He will leave a good portion of his stock behind him
+when he quits the terrace.
+
+After Charley has disappeared, there is a pause for an hour or two in
+the flow of professionals past Our Terrace. The few pedestrians that
+pass along are chiefly gentlefolks, who have come abroad this fine
+morning for an airing--to take a constitutional, and to pick up an
+appetite for dinner. You may chance to hear the cry of 'Oranges and
+nuts,' or of 'Cod--live cod,' and you may be entertained by a band of
+musicians in a gaily-coloured van patrolling for the purpose of
+advertising the merits of something or other which is to be had for
+nothing at all, or the next thing to it, if you can prevail upon
+yourself to go and fetch it. Perhaps Punch and Judy will pitch their
+little citadel in front of your dwelling; or, more likely still, a
+band of mock Ethiopians, with fiddle, castanets, and banjo, may tempt
+your liberality with a performance of _Uncle Ned_ or _Old Dan Tucker_;
+or a corps of German musicians may trumpet you into a fit of martial
+ardour; or a wandering professor of the German flute soothe you into a
+state of romance.
+
+As the afternoon wears on, the tranquillity grows more profound. The
+villas opposite stand asleep in the sunshine; the sound of a single
+footstep is heard on the pavement; and anon you hear the feeble,
+cracked voice of old Willie, the water-cress man, distinctly
+articulating the cry of 'Water-cresses; fine brown water-cresses;
+royal Albert water-cresses; the best in London--everybody say so.' The
+water-cresses are welcomed on the terrace as an ornament and something
+more to the tea-table; and while tea is getting ready for the
+inhabitants of the terrace, the dwellers in the opposite villas are
+seen returning to dinner. The lame match-man now hobbles along upon
+his crutches, with his little basket of lucifers suspended at his
+side. He is thoroughly deaf and three parts dumb, uttering nothing
+beyond an incomprehensible kind of croak by way of a demand for
+custom. He is a privileged being, whom nobody thinks of interfering
+with. He has the _entrée_ of all the gardens on both sides of the way,
+and is the acknowledged depositary of scraps and remnants of all kinds
+which have made their last appearance upon the dinner or supper table.
+
+About five o'clock, the tinkling note of the muffin-bell strikes
+agreeably upon the ear, suggestive of fragrant souchong and
+bottom-crusts hot, crackling, and unctuous. Now ensues a delicate
+savour in the atmosphere of the terrace kitchens, and it is just at
+its height when Smith, Brown, Jones, and Robinson are seen walking
+briskly up the terrace. They all go in at Smith's, where the
+muffin-man went in about half an hour before, and left half his stock
+behind him. By six o'clock, the lords and ladies of Our Terrace are
+congregated round their tea-urns; and by seven, you may see from one
+of the back-windows a tolerable number of the lords, arrayed in
+dressing-gowns and slippers, and some of them with corpulent
+meerschaums dangling from their mouths, strolling leisurely in the
+gardens in the rear of their dwellings, and amusing themselves with
+their children, whose prattling voices and innocent laughter mingle
+with the twittering of those suburban songsters, the sparrows, and
+with the rustling of the foliage, stirred by the evening breeze. These
+pleasant sounds die away by degrees. Little boys and girls go to bed;
+the gloom of twilight settles down upon the gardens; candles are
+lighted in the drawing-rooms, and from a dozen houses at once
+pianofortes commence their harmony. At No. 12, the drawing-room
+windows are open, though the blinds are down; and the slow-pacing
+policeman pauses in his round, and leans against the iron railings,
+being suddenly brought up by the richly-harmonious strains of a glee
+for three voices: Brown, Jones, and Robinson are doing the _Chough and
+Crow_; and Smith, who prides himself on his semi-grand, which he tunes
+with his own hands once a week, is doing the accompaniment in his best
+style. The merry chorus swells delightfully upon the ear, and is heard
+half way down the terrace: the few foot-passengers who are passing
+stop under the window to listen, till one of them is imprudent enough
+to cry 'Encore,' when down go the windows, and the harmonious sounds
+are shut in from vulgar ears.
+
+It is by this time nearly half-past nine o'clock, and now comes the
+regular nightly 'tramp, tramp' of the police, marching in Indian file,
+and heavily clad in their night-gear. They come to replace the
+guardians of the day by those of the night. One of the number falls
+out of the line on the terrace, where he commences his nocturnal
+wanderings, and guarantees the peace and safety of the inhabitants for
+the succeeding eight hours: the rest tramp onwards to their distant
+stations. The echoes of their iron heels have hardly died away, when
+there is a sudden and almost simultaneous eruption from every
+garden-gate on the terrace of clean-faced, neat-aproned, red-elbowed
+servant-girls, each and all armed with a jug or a brace of jugs, with
+a sprinkling of black bottles among them, and all bound to one or
+other of the public-houses which guard the terrace at either end. It
+is the hour of supper; and the supper-beer, and the after-supper
+nightcaps, for those who indulge in them, have to be procured from the
+publican. This is an occasion upon which Betty scorns to hurry; but
+she takes time by the forelock, starting for the beer as soon as the
+cloth is laid, and before master has finished his pipe, or his game of
+chess, or Miss Clementina her song, in order that she may have leisure
+for a little gossip with No. 7 on the one hand, or No. 9 on the
+other. She goes out without beat of drum, and lets herself in with the
+street-door key without noise, bringing home, besides the desiderated
+beverage, the news of the day, and the projects of next-door for the
+morrow, with, it may be, a plan for the enjoyment of her next monthly
+holiday.
+
+Supper is the last great business of the day upon Our Terrace, which,
+by eleven at night, is lapped in profound repose. The moon rides high
+in mid-sky, and the black shadows of the trees lie motionless on the
+white pavement. Not a footfall is heard abroad; the only sound that is
+audible as you put your head out of the window, to look up at the
+glimmering stars and radiant moon, is the distant and monotonous
+murmur of the great metropolis, varied now and then by the shrill
+scream of a far-off railway-whistle, or the 'cough, cough, cough' of
+the engine of some late train. We are sober folks on the terrace, and
+are generally all snug abed before twelve o'clock. The last sound that
+readies our ears ere we doze off into forgetfulness, is the slow,
+lumbering, earthquaky advance of a huge outward-bound wagon. We hear
+it at the distance of half a mile, and note distinctly the crushing
+and pulverising of every small stone which the broad wheels roll over
+as they sluggishly proceed on their way. It rocks us in our beds as it
+passes the house; and for twenty minutes afterwards, if we are awake
+so long, we are aware that it is groaning heavily onwards, and shaking
+the solid earth in its progress--till it sinks away in silence, or we
+into the land of dreams.
+
+
+
+
+SLAVES IN BRITAIN.
+
+
+It has sometimes been predicted, not without plausibility, that if
+this great empire should sink before the rising genius of some new
+state, when all it has accomplished in arts and arms, and its wealth,
+its literature, its machinery, are forgotten, its struggles for
+humanity in the abolition of negro slavery will stand forth in
+undiminished lustre. All the steps of this mighty operation are
+interesting. It is a peculiarity of England and its institutions, that
+many of the most momentous constitutional conflicts have taken place
+in the courts of law. In despotic countries, this seldom occurs,
+because the rulers can bend the courts of law to their pleasure; but
+here, even under the worst governments, whatever degree of freedom was
+really warranted by law, could be secured by the courts of justice.
+When it was said that the air of Britain was too pure for a slave to
+breathe in--that his shackles fell off whenever he reached her happy
+shore--the sentiment was noble; but the question depended entirely on
+the law and its technical details. The trials resulting in a decision
+against slavery, have thus much interest from the influence they
+exercised on human progress.
+
+There seemed to be every probability that the interesting question,
+whether ownership in slaves continued after they had reached Britain,
+would have been tried in Scotland. In the middle of last century, a Mr
+Sheddan had brought home from Virginia a negro slave to be taught a
+trade. He was baptised, and, learning his trade, began to acquire
+notions of freedom and citizenship. When the master thought he had
+been long enough in Scotland to suit his purpose, the negro was put on
+board a vessel for Virginia. He got a friend, however, to present for
+him a petition to the Court of Session. The professional report of the
+case in _Morison's Dictionary of Decisions_ says: 'The Lords appointed
+counsel for the negro, and ordered memorials, and afterwards a hearing
+in presence, upon the respective claims of liberty and servitude by
+the master and the negro; but during the hearing in presence, the
+negro died, so the point was not determined.' In the English case, to
+which we shall presently advert, it was maintained, that from the
+known temper and opinions of the court, the decision, would
+undoubtedly have been in the negro's favour. At the time when Mr
+Grenville Sharp, to his immortal honour, took up in the courts of law
+the question of personal liberty as a legal right, there was a more
+serious risk of Britain becoming a slave state than it is now easy to
+imagine. There was no chance of negroes being employed in gangs in the
+field or in manufactories, but there was imminent danger of their
+being brought over and kept in multitudes as domestic servants, just
+as they are still in some of the southern states of America. Mr Sharp
+drew attention to the following advertisement in the _Public
+Advertiser_ of 28th March 1769, as one of a kind becoming too common:
+
+'To be sold, a Black Girl, the property of J. B----, eleven years of
+age, who is extremely handy, works at her needle tolerably, and speaks
+English perfectly well; is of an excellent temper and willing
+disposition.
+
+'Inquire of Mr Owen, at the Angel Inn, behind St Clement's Church in
+the Strand.'
+
+Mr Sharp's early conflicts in the law-courts are more romantic than
+the last and decisive one. He and his brother had found a poor
+mendicant negro, called Jonathan Strong, in rags on the streets of
+London. They took him into their service, and after he had become
+plump, strong, and acquainted with his business, the man who had
+brought him from the colonies, an attorney, seeing him behind a
+carriage, set covetous eyes on him. The lad was waylaid on a false
+message to a public-house, seized, and committed to the Compter,
+where, however, he managed to make Mr Sharp acquainted with his
+position. The indefatigable philanthropist had him brought before the
+lord mayor as sitting magistrate. After hearing the case stated, his
+lordship said: 'The lad had not stolen anything, and was not guilty of
+any offence, and was therefore at liberty to go away.' A captain of a
+vessel, saying he had been employed by a person who had just bought
+the youth, to convey him to Jamaica, seized him by the arm as his
+employer's property. A lawyer standing behind Mr Sharp, who seems to
+have been puzzled how to proceed, whispered, 'Charge him.' Sharp
+charged the captain with an assault, and as he would have been
+immediately committed by the lord mayor if he persisted, he let go his
+hold. The philanthropist was threatened with a prosecution for
+abstraction of property, but it was abandoned.
+
+This occurred in 1767. The next important case was that of a negro
+named Lewis. He 'had formerly,' says Mr Sharp's biographer, 'been a
+slave in possession of a Mr Stapylton, who now resided at Chelsea.
+Stapylton, with the aid of two watermen, whom he had hired for that
+purpose, in a dark night seized the person of Lewis, and, after a
+struggle, dragged him on his back into the water, and thence into a
+boat lying in the Thames, where, having first tied his legs, they
+endeavoured to gag him by running a stick into his mouth; and then
+rowing down to a ship bound for Jamaica, whose commander was
+previously engaged in the wicked conspiracy, they put him on board, to
+be sold as a slave on his arrival in the island.' The negro's cries,
+however, were heard; the struggle was witnessed; and information given
+in the quarter whence aid was most likely to come. Mr Sharp lost no
+time in obtaining a writ of habeas corpus. The ship in the meantime
+had sailed from Gravesend, but the officer with the writ was able to
+board her in the Downs. There he saw the negro chained to the mast.
+The captain was at first furious, and determined to resist; but he
+knew the danger of deforcing an officer with, such a writ as a habeas
+corpus, and found it necessary to yield. The writ came up before Lord
+Mansfield. He did not go into the general question of slavery, for
+there was an incidental point on which the case could be decided on
+the side of humanity--the captain and the persons employing him could
+not prove their property in the slave, supposing such property lawful.
+He was not only liberated, but his captors were convicted of assault.
+
+These cases, however, did not decide the wide question, whether it was
+lawful to hold property in negroes in this country. It came at last to
+be solemnly decided in 1771, on a habeas corpus in the King's Bench.
+Affidavits having been made before Lord Mansfield, that a coloured
+man, named Somerset, was confined in irons on board a vessel called
+the _Ann and Mary_, bound for Jamaica, he granted a habeas corpus
+against the captain, to compel him to give an account of his authority
+for keeping the man in custody. Somerset had been a slave in Virginia,
+the property of a Mr Stewart; and the captain of the vessel stated
+that the owner had put him on board, to be conveyed to Jamaica, and
+there sold. In what was called the return to the writ, the
+justification for keeping Somerset in restraint was thus quaintly
+stated:--'That at the time of bringing the said James Somerset from
+Africa, and long before, there were, and from thence hitherto there
+have been, and still are, great numbers of negro slaves in Africa; and
+that during all the time aforesaid, there hath been, and still is a
+trade, carried on by his majesty's subjects from Africa, to his
+majesty's colonies or plantations of Virginia and Jamaica, in America,
+and other colonies and plantations belonging to his majesty in
+America, for the necessary supplying of the foresaid colonies and
+plantations with negro slaves.' It proceeded to relate with the same
+verbosity, that the slaves so brought from Africa 'have been and are
+saleable and sold as goods and chattels; and upon the sale thereof,
+have become, and been, and are, the slaves and property of the
+purchasers thereof.' It was stated that Mr Stewart, who resided in
+Virginia, had Somerset as a domestic slave or valet--that having
+business to transact in London, he took his usual attendant there,
+intending to take him back to Virginia. Somerset, however, made his
+escape; and when he was apprehended, his master, probably believing
+that he would thenceforth be rather a troublesome valet, changed his
+intention, and put the negro into the hands of the captain of a vessel
+bound for Jamaica, that he might be sold there.
+
+The pleadings upon the legality of this proceeding were solemn and
+full. The question was, Whether it was to be held a just inference,
+from the fact of the slave, being undoubtedly by the law of the day
+property in the colonies, that, while his colonial master made a
+temporary stay in Britain, he should be property there also, without
+any direct law to that effect. Had it been a question of inanimate
+goods, there would be no reason why the property should not continue
+in the colonial owner. It would be all one to the inanimate object
+what hands it was in, and regularity and justice would decree that the
+person who was owner of it in one country should be so in another. But
+in these cases there was a separate adverse interest of a very strong
+character. Was the uniformity of this right of possession sufficient
+to overrule another right--that which every man, black or white, had
+to the freedom of his own person, unless there was special law to
+restrain it? The counsel for the negro not only pleaded strongly on
+this his personal right, but on the consequence to the moral condition
+of the British Empire, if the inhabitants of slave countries could
+bring their slaves hither. From the strictness of the laws, and the
+uniformity of the course of justice, if slaves were permitted in
+England, it was the very place where property in them would be most
+secure. Thus the country might become a resort of slaveholders, and
+its boasted purity and freedom would be sadly contaminated. 'If that
+right,' said Mr Hargrave, 'is here recognised, domestic slavery, with
+its horrid train of evils, may be lawfully imported into this country,
+at the discretion of every individual, foreign and native. It will
+come not only from our own colonies, and those of other European
+nations, but from Poland, Russia, Spain, and Turkey--from the coast of
+Barbary, from the western and eastern coasts of Africa--from every
+part of the world where it still continues to torment and dishonour
+the human species.'
+
+The counsel on the other side was the celebrated Mr Dunning,
+afterwards Lord Ashburton, a friend of freedom, who seems to have
+undertaken the cause on notions of professional duty, and without any
+great inclination for it. His first words were: 'It is incumbent on me
+to justify Captain Knowles's detainer of the negro.' He was careful to
+shew, that he did not in the meantime maintain that there was an
+absolute property in Somerset--it was sufficient to shew, that there
+was a sufficient presumption of property to authorise the shipmaster
+in detaining him until the absolute question of right was solemnly
+settled. He proceeded to say: 'It is my misfortune to address an
+audience, the greater part of which I fear are prejudiced the other
+way. But wishes, I am well convinced, will never be allowed by your
+lordships to enter into the determination of the point. This cause
+must be what in fact and law it is. Its fate, I trust, therefore,
+depends on fixed and variable rules, resulting by law from the nature
+of the case. For myself, I would not be understood to intimate a wish
+in favour of slavery by any means; nor, on the other side, to be
+supposed the maintainer of an opinion contrary to my own judgment. I
+am bound in duty to maintain those arguments which are most useful to
+Captain Knowles, as far as is consistent with truth; and if his
+conduct has been agreeable to the laws throughout, I am under a
+further indispensable duty to support it.'
+
+Much reference was made to the ancient laws of villenage, or
+semi-slavery, in Britain. Mr Dunning maintained, that these were
+testimony that a slave was not an utter anomaly in the country. The
+class of villeins had disappeared, and the law regarding them was
+abolished in the reign of Charles II. But he maintained, that there
+was nothing in that circumstance to prohibit others from establishing
+a claim upon separate grounds. He said: 'If the statute of Charles II.
+ever be repealed, the law of villenage revives in its full force.' It
+was stated that there were in Britain 15,000 negroes in the same
+position with Somerset. They had come over as domestics during the
+temporary sojourn of their owner-masters, intending to go back again.
+Then it was observed, that many of the slaves were in ships or in
+colonies which had not special laws for the support of slavery; and by
+the disfranchisement of these, British subjects would lose many
+millions' worth of property, which they believed themselves justly to
+possess.
+
+British justice, however, has held at all times the question of human
+liberty to be superior to considerations of mere expediency. If the
+question be, who gains or loses most, there never can be a doubt that
+the man whose freedom has been reft from him has the greatest of all
+claims for indulgence. Accordingly, Lord Mansfield, the presiding
+judge, looking in the face all the threatened evils to property, held
+that nothing but absolute law could trench on personal freedom. He
+used on the occasion a Latin expression, to the effect that justice
+must be done at whatever cost; it has found its way into use as a
+classical expression, and as no one has been able to find it in any
+Latin author, it is supposed to have been of Lord Mansfield's own
+coining. 'Mr Stewart,' he said, 'advances no claims on contract; he
+rests his whole demand on a right to the negro as slave, and mentions
+the purpose of detainure of him to be the sending him over to be sold
+in Jamaica. If the parties will have judgment, _fiat justitia ruat
+coelum_--Let justice be done whatever be the consequence.' In finally
+delivering judgment, he concluded in these simple but expressive
+terms: 'The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable
+of being introduced, on any reasons, moral or political, but only by
+positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons,
+occasion, and time itself, for which it was created, are erased from
+memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it
+but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from
+the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law
+of England; and therefore the black must be discharged.'
+
+A few years afterwards--in 1778--a case occurred in Scotland, where
+the question of a master's rights over a negro slave in Britain was at
+issue. The right claimed in this case, however, was not of so
+offensive a nature. The master did not claim the power of seizing the
+negro as his property. He maintained, however, that their mutual
+position gave him a right to claim the negro's services, as if he had
+engaged himself as a servant for life. Mr Wedderburn had bought in
+Jamaica a negro named Knight, about twelve years old. He came to
+Scotland as Mr Wedderburn's personal servant, married in the country,
+and for some years seemed contented with his position. Probably at the
+suggestion of some one who wished to try the question, as it had been
+tried in England, Knight went off, avowing his intention of being
+free. Mr Wedderburn applied to a justice of peace, who at once issued
+a warrant for the negro's apprehension. The matter, however, came
+before the sheriff, a professional judge, who decided that the
+colonial laws of slavery do not extend to Scotland, and that personal
+service for life is just another term for slavery. After a tedious
+litigation, this view was affirmed by the Court of Session, and the
+negro was declared free. The case acquired notice from the interest
+taken in it by Dr Johnson, and the frequent mention of it in Boswell's
+well-known work.
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD HOUSEKEEPER'S TALE.
+
+
+After my good and excellent mistress, Mrs Dacre, departed this life
+for a better, it seemed as if nothing ever prospered in the family,
+whom I had the honour of serving in the capacity of confidential
+housekeeper. Mr Dacre became morose and careless of his affairs; his
+sons were a source of great misery to him, pursuing a course of
+reckless extravagance and heartless dissipation; while the five young
+ladies--the youngest of whom, however, had attained the age of
+twenty-four--cared for little else than dress, and visiting, and empty
+show. These five young ladies had not amiable dispositions or gentle
+manners; but they were first-rate horsewomen, laughed and talked very
+loud, and were pronounced fine dashing women. There was another member
+of the family, an orphan niece of my master's, who had greatly
+profited by my lamented lady's teaching and companionship. Miss Marion
+had devoted herself to the sick-room with even more than a daughter's
+love; and for two years she had watched beside the patient sufferer,
+when her more volatile and thoughtless cousins refused to credit the
+approach of death. Miss Marion had just entered her twentieth year;
+life had not been all summer with her; for she remembered scenes of
+privation and distress, ere the decease of her parents left her, their
+only child, to the care of affluent relatives. She was a serious and
+meek, but affectionate creature; of a most goodly countenance and
+graceful carriage; and I used sometimes to think that the Misses Dacre
+were jealous of the admiration she excited, and kept her in the
+background as much as possible. It was not difficult to do this, for
+Miss Marion sought and loved retirement. After Mrs Dacre's decease,
+she had expressed an urgent wish to earn her bread by filling the
+situation of a governess. But the pride of the Dacres revolted at
+this; besides, Miss Marion was a comfort to her uncle, when his
+daughters were absent or occupied. So the dear young lady gave up her
+own wishes, and strove to do all she could for her generous
+benefactor, as she was wont to call my master.
+
+Circumstances, which it were needless to detail, except to say that,
+although I had served _one_ mistress satisfactorily, I found it
+impossible to serve _five_, determined me to resign the situation I
+had creditably filled for so many years. I deeply grieved to leave my
+beloved Miss Marion; and she, sweet, humble soul, on her part, yearned
+towards me, and wept a farewell on my bosom. I betook myself, in the
+first instance, to my brother Thomas Wesley and his wife--a worthy
+couple without children, renting a small farm nearly a hundred miles
+off. A very pleasant, small farm it was, situated in a picturesque
+valley, through which tumbled and foamed a limpid hill-stream, washing
+the roots of fine old trees, and playing all sorts of antics. This
+valley was a resort of quiet anglers, and also of artists during the
+summer season; and Thomas and Martha Wesley often let a neat parlour
+and adjoining bedroom to such respectable, steady people as did not
+object to observe the primitive hours and customs enforced at Fairdown
+Farm. Here I enjoyed the privilege of writing to, and hearing from, my
+dear Miss Marion; and though she never complained, or suffered a
+murmur to escape her, yet from the tenor of her letters I had great
+cause to fear things were all going very wrong at Mr Dacre's, and that
+her own health, always delicate, was giving way beneath the pressure
+of anxiety and unkindness.
+
+In less than six months after I had quitted the family, a climax,
+which I had long anticipated with dread, actually arrived. Mr Dacre,
+suddenly called to his account, was found to have left his temporal
+affairs involved in inextricable and hopeless ruin; and amid the
+general crash and desolation, who was to shield or befriend the poor
+dependent, the orphan niece, Miss Marion? She was rudely cast adrift
+on the cold world; her proffered sympathy and services tauntingly
+rejected by those who had now a hard battle to fight on their own
+account. Broken down in health and spirits, the poor young lady flew
+to me, her humble, early friend, gratefully and eagerly availing
+herself of Thomas Wesley's cordial invitation, to make his house her
+home for the present.
+
+My brother was a kind-hearted, just man; he had once been to see me
+when I lived at Mr Dacre's; and that gentleman, in his palmy days, was
+truly hospitable and generous to all comers. Thomas never forgot his
+reception, and now he was a proud and happy man to be enabled thus to
+offer 'a slight return,' as he modestly said, to one of the family.
+With much concern we all viewed Miss Marion's wan and careworn looks,
+so touching in the young; 'But her dim blue een will get bright again,
+and she'll fill out--never fear,' said Martha Wesley to me, by way of
+comfort and encouragement, 'now we've got her amongst _us_, poor dear.
+I doubt those proud Misses Dacre were not over-tender with such a one
+as sweet Miss Marion'----
+
+'Dame, dame, don't let that tongue of thine wag so fast,' interrupted
+Thomas, for he never liked to hear people ill spoken of behind their
+backs, though he would speak out plainly enough to everybody's face.
+
+A few days after Miss Marion's arrival at Fairdown (it was just at the
+hay-making season, and the earth was very beautiful--birds singing and
+flowers blooming--soft breezes blowing, and musical streamlets
+murmuring rejoicingly in the sunshine), a pedestrian was seen
+advancing leisurely up the valley, coming in a direction from the
+neighbouring town--a distance, however, of some miles, and the nearest
+point where the coach stopped. The stranger, aided in his walk by a
+stout stick, was a short, thickset, elderly man, clad in brown
+habiliments from head to foot: a brown, broad-brimmed beaver, an
+antiquated brown spencer (a brown wig must not be omitted), brown
+gaiters, and brown cloth boots, completed his attire. His linen was
+spotless and fine, his countenance rubicund and benevolent; and when
+he took off his green spectacles, a pair of the clearest and honestest
+brown eyes ever set in mortal's head looked you full in the face. He
+was a nice, comfortable-looking old gentleman; and so Thomas and I
+both thought at the same moment--for Martha was out of the way, and I
+shewed the apartments for her; the stranger, who gave his name as Mr
+Budge, having been directed to our house by the people of the inn
+where the coach stopped, who were kin to Martha, and well-disposed,
+obliging persons.
+
+Mr Budge said he wanted quietness for some weeks, and the recreation
+of fishing; he had come from the turmoil of the great city to relax
+and enjoy himself, and if Thomas Wesley would kindly consent to
+receive him as a lodger, he would feel very much obliged. Never did we
+listen to so pleasant and obliging a mode of speaking; and when Mr
+Budge praised the apartments, and admired the country, the conquest of
+Thomas's heart was complete. 'Besides,' as Martha sagaciously
+remarked, 'it was so much better to have a steady old gentleman like
+this for a lodger, when pretty Miss Marion honoured them as a guest.'
+I thought so too; my dear young lady being so lone and unprotected by
+relatives, we all took double care of her.
+
+So Mr Budge engaged the rooms, and speedily arrived to take
+possession, bringing with him a spick-and-span new fishing-rod and
+basket. He did not know much about fishing, but he enjoyed himself
+just as thoroughly as if he did; and he laughed so good-humouredly at
+his own Cockney blunders, as he called them, that Thomas would have
+been quite angry had any one else presumed to indulge a smile at Mr
+Budge's expense. A pattern lodger in all respects was Mr
+Budge--deferential towards Martha and myself, and from the first
+moment he beheld Miss Marion, regarding her as a superior being, yet
+one to be loved by a mortal for all that. Mr Budge was not a
+particularly communicative individual himself, though we opined from
+various observations, that, although not rich, he was comfortably off:
+but somehow or other, without appearing in the least inquisitive, he
+managed to obtain the minutest information he required. In this way,
+he learned all the particulars respecting Miss Marion; and gathered
+also from me, my own desire of obtaining a situation, such as I had
+held at Mr Dacre's, but in a small and well-regulated household. As to
+Miss Marion, the kind old gentleman could never shew kindness enough
+to her; and he watched the returning roses on her fair cheeks with a
+solicitude scarcely exceeded by mine. I never wondered at anybody
+admiring and loving the sweet, patient girl; but Mr Budge's admiration
+and apparent affection so far exceeded the bounds of mere conventional
+kindness in a stranger, that sometimes I even smilingly conjectured he
+had the idea of asking her to become Mrs Budge, for he was a widower,
+as he told us, and childless.
+
+Such an idea, however, had never entered Miss Marion's innocent heart;
+and she, always so grateful for any little attention, was not likely
+to receive with coldness those so cordially lavished on her by her new
+friend, whom she valued as a truly good man, and not for a polished
+exterior, in which Mr Budge was deficient. Nay, so cordial was their
+intimacy, and so much had Miss Marion regained health and
+cheerfulness, that with unwonted sportiveness, on more than one
+occasion she actually hid the ponderous brown snuff-box, usually
+reposing in Mr Budge's capacious pocket, and only produced it when his
+distress became real; whereupon he chuckled and laughed, as if she had
+performed a mighty clever feat, indulging at the same time, however,
+in a double pinch.
+
+Some pleasant weeks to us all had thus glided away, and Miss Marion
+was earnestly consulting me about her project of governessing, her
+health being now so restored; and I, for my part, wanted to execute my
+plans for obtaining a decent livelihood, as I could not think of
+burdening Thomas and Martha any longer, loath as they were for me to
+leave them. Some pleasant weeks, I say, had thus glided away, when Mr
+Budge, with much ceremony and circumlocution, as if he had deeply
+pondered the matter, and considered it very weighty and important,
+made a communication which materially changed and brightened my
+prospects. It was to the effect, that an intimate friend of his, whom
+he had known, he said, all his life, required the immediate services
+of a trustworthy housekeeper, to take the entire responsible charge of
+his house. 'My friend,' continued Mr Budge, tapping his snuff-box
+complacently, his brown eyes twinkling with the pleasure of doing a
+kind act, for his green specs were in their well-worn case at his
+elbow--'My friend is about my age--a sober chap, you see, Mrs Deborah;
+'here a chuckle--'and he has no wife and no child to take care of
+him'--here a slight sigh: 'he has lately bought a beautiful estate,
+called Sorel Park, and it is there you will live, with nobody to
+interfere with you, as the lady-relative who will reside with my
+friend is a most amiable and admirable young lady; and I am sure, Mrs
+Deborah, you will become much attached to her. 'By the by, Mrs
+Deborah,' he continued, after pondering for a moment, 'will you do me
+a favour to use your influence to prevent Miss Marion from accepting
+any appointment for the present, as after you are established at Sorel
+Park, I think I know of a home that may suit her?'
+
+I do not know which I felt most grateful or delighted for--my own
+prospects, or my dear Miss Marion's; though certainly hers were more
+vague and undefined than mine, for the remuneration offered for my
+services was far beyond my expectation, and from Mr Budge's
+description of Sorel Park, it seemed to be altogether a place beyond
+my most sanguine hopes. I said something about Miss Marion, and my
+hope that she might be as fortunate as myself; and Mr Budge, I was
+happy to see, was quite fervent in his response. 'My friend,' said he,
+at the close of the interview, 'will not arrive to take possession of
+Sorel Park until you, Mrs Deborah, have got all things in order; and
+as I know that he is anxious for the time to arrive, the sooner you
+can set out on your journey thither the better. I also must depart
+shortly, but I hope to return hither again.' Important business
+required Mr Budge's personal attention, and with hurried adieus to us
+all, he departed from Fairdown; and in compliance with his request, I
+set off for Sorel Park, leaving my beloved Miss Marion to the care of
+Thomas and Martha for the present.
+
+The owner of this fine place was not as yet known there; for Mr Budge,
+being a managing man, had taken everything upon himself, and issued
+orders with as lordly an air as if there was nobody in the kingdom
+above the little brown man. The head-gardener, and some of the other
+domestics, informed me they had been engaged by Mr Budge himself, who,
+I apprehended, made very free and busy with the concerns of his
+friend. Sorel Park was a princely domain, and there was an air of
+substantial comfort about the dwelling and its appointments, which
+spoke volumes of promise as to domestic arrangements in general. I
+soon found time to write a description of the place to Miss Marion,
+for I knew how interested she was in all that concerned her faithful
+Deborah; and I anxiously awaited the tidings she had promised to
+convey--of Mr Budge having provided as comfortably for her as he had
+for me. I at length received formal notification of the day and hour
+the owner of Sorel Park expected to arrive, accompanied by his female
+relative. This was rather earlier than I had been led to expect; but
+all things being in order for their reception, I felt glad at their
+near approach, for I was strangely troubled and nervous to get this
+introduction over. I was very anxious, too, about my dear Miss
+Marion; for I knew that some weighty reason alone prevented her from
+answering my letter, though what that reason could be, it was
+impossible for me to conjecture.
+
+The momentous day dawned; the hours glided on; and the twilight hour
+deepened. The superior servants and myself stood ready to receive the
+travellers, listening to every sound; and startled, nevertheless, when
+the rapid approach of carriage-wheels betokened their close proximity.
+With something very like disappointment, for which I accused myself of
+ingratitude, I beheld Mr Budge, browner than ever, alight from the
+chariot, carefully assisting a lady, who seemed in delicate health, as
+she was muffled up like a mummy. Mr Budge returned my respectful
+salutation most cordially, and said, with a smile, as he bustled
+forwards to the saloon, where a cheerful fire blazed brightly on the
+hearth--for it was a chill evening: 'I've brought your new mistress
+home, you see, Mrs Deborah; but you want to know where your new master
+is--eigh? Well, come along, and this young lady will tell you all
+about the old fellow.'
+
+I followed them into the apartment; Mr Budge shut the door; the lady
+flung aside her veil, and my own dear, sweet Miss Marion clasped me
+round the neck, and sobbed hysterically in my arms.
+
+'Tell her, my darling,' said Mr Budge, himself quite husky, and
+turning away to wipe off a tear from his ruddy cheek--'tell her, my
+darling, you're the _mistress_ of Sorel Park; and when you've made the
+good soul understand _that_, tell her we'd like a cup of tea before we
+talk about the _master_.'
+
+'O my dear Miss Marion!' was all I could utter; 'what does this mean?
+Am I in a dream?' But it was not a happy dream; for when I had a
+moment to reflect, my very soul was troubled as I thought of the
+sacrifice of all her youthful aspirations, made by that poor, gentle
+creature, for the sake of a secure and comfortable home in this stormy
+world. I could not reconcile myself to the idea of Mr Budge and Marion
+as man and wife; and as I learned, ere we retired to rest that night,
+I had no occasion to do so. Mr Budge was Miss Marion's paternal uncle,
+her mother, Miss Dacre, having married his elder brother. These
+brothers were of respectable birth, but inferior to the Dacres; and
+while the elder never prospered in any undertaking, and finally died
+of a broken heart, the younger, toiling in foreign climes, gradually
+amassed a competency. On returning to his native land, he found his
+brother no more, and the orphan girl he had left behind placed with
+her mother's relatives.
+
+Mr Budge had a great dread of appearing before these proud patrician
+people, who had always openly scorned his deceased brother; and once
+accidentally encountering them at a public _fête_, the contumelious
+bearing of the young ladies towards the little brown gentleman
+deterred him from any nearer approach. No doubt, he argued, his
+brother's daughter was deeply imbued with similar principles, and
+would blush to own a 'Mr Budge' for her uncle! This name he had
+adopted as the condition of inheriting a noble fortune unexpectedly
+bequeathed by a plebeian, but worthy and industrious relative, only a
+few years previous to the period when Providence guided his footsteps
+to Fairdown Farm and Miss Marion.
+
+The moderate competency Mr Budge had hitherto enjoyed, and which he
+had toiled hard for, now augmented to ten times the amount, sorely
+perplexed and troubled him; and after purchasing Sorel Park, he had
+flown from the turmoil of affluence, to seek peace and obscurity for
+awhile, under pretext of pursuing the philosophical recreation of
+angling. How unlike the Misses Dacre was the fair and gracious
+creature he encountered at Fairdown! And not a little the dear old
+gentleman prided himself on his talents for what he called
+diplomacy--arranging his plans, he said, 'just like a book-romance.'
+After my departure, he returned to Fairdown, and confided the
+wonderful tidings to Thomas and Martha Wesley, more cautiously
+imparting them to Miss Marion, whose gentle spirits were more easily
+fluttered by sudden surprise.
+
+For several years, Mr Budge paid an annual visit to Fairdown, when the
+trout-fishing season commenced; and many useful and valuable gifts
+found their way into Thomas's comfortable homestead, presented by dear
+Miss Marion. In the course of time, she became the wife of one worthy
+of her in every respect--their lovely children often sportively
+carrying off the ponderous box of brown rappee, and yet Uncle Budge
+never frowning.
+
+These darlings cluster round my knees, and one, more demure than the
+rest, thoughtfully asks: 'Why is Uncle Budge's hair not snowy white,
+like yours, dear Deb? For Uncle Budge says he is _very_ old, and that
+God will soon call him away from us.'
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURES IN JAPAN.
+
+
+For above two hundred years, the unknown millions of Japan have been
+shut up in their own islands, forbidden, under the severest penalties,
+either to admit foreigners on their shores, or themselves to visit any
+other realm in the world. The Dutch are permitted to send two ships in
+a year to the port of Nangasaki, where they are received with the
+greatest precaution, and subjected to a surveillance even more
+degrading than was that formerly endured by the Europeans at Canton.
+Any other foreigner whom misfortune or inadvertence may land on their
+shores, is doomed to perpetual imprisonment; and even if one of their
+own people should pass twelve months out of the country, he is, on his
+return, kept for life at the capital, and suffered no more to join his
+family, or mingle at large in the business or social intercourse of
+life. In pursuance of this policy, it is believed that the Japanese
+government now holds in captivity several subjects of the United
+States, and it is expected that an armament will be sent to rescue
+them by force.
+
+Since this announcement has been made, and the general expectation has
+been raised that Japan will soon have to submit, like China, to
+surrender its isolation, and enter into relations with the rest of the
+civilised world, there has seasonably appeared an English reprint of a
+work hitherto little known among us--a personal narrative of a
+Japanese captivity of two years and a half, by an officer in the
+Russian navy.[1] If we may judge from its details, our transatlantic
+friends had need to keep all their eyes wide open in dealing with this
+people.
+
+The leading circumstances connected with Captain Golownin's captivity
+were the following:--In the year 1803, the Chamberlain Resanoff was
+sent by the Emperor Alexander, to endeavour to open friendly relations
+with Japan, and sailed from the eastern coasts in a merchant vessel
+belonging to the American Company. But receiving a peremptory message
+of dismissal, and refusal of all intercourse, he returned to Okhotsk,
+and died on his way to St Petersburg. Lieutenant Chwostoff, however,
+who had commanded the vessel, put to sea again on his own
+responsibility, attacked and destroyed several Japanese villages on
+the Kurile Islands, and carried off some of the inhabitants. In the
+year 1811, Captain Golownin, commander of the imperial war-sloop
+_Diana_, lying at Kamtschatka, received orders from head-quarters to
+make a particular survey of the southern Kurile Islands, and the coast
+of Tartary. In pursuance of his instructions, he was sailing without
+any flag near the coast of Eetooroop (Staaten), when he was met by
+some Russian Kuriles, who informed him that they had been seized, and
+were still detained prisoners, on account of the Chwostoff outrage.
+They persuaded the captain to take one of them on board as an
+interpreter, and proceed to Kunashir, to make such explanations as
+might exonerate the Russian government in this matter. The Japanese
+chief of the island further assured the Russians, that they could
+obtain a supply of wood, water, and fresh provisions at Kunashir; and
+he furnished them with a letter to its governor. The reception of the
+_Diana_ at Kunashir was, in the first instance, a vigorous but
+ineffective discharge of guns from the fortress, the walls of which
+were so completely hung with striped cloth, that it was impossible to
+form any opinion of the size or strength of the place. After some
+interchange, however, of allegorical messages, conveyed by means of
+drawings floated in empty casks, Golownin was invited on shore by the
+beckoning of white fans. Concealing three brace of pistols in his
+bosom, and leaving a well-armed boat close to the shore, with orders
+that the men should watch his movements, and act on his slightest
+signal, he ventured on a landing, accompanied by the Kurile Alexei and
+a common sailor. The lieutenant-governor soon appeared. He was in
+complete armour, and attended by two soldiers, one of whom carried his
+long spear, and the other his cap or helmet, which was adorned with a
+figure of the moon. 'It is scarcely possible,' says the narrator, 'to
+conceive anything more ludicrous than the manner in which the governor
+walked. His eyes were cast down and fixed on the earth, and his hands
+pressed closely against his sides, whilst he proceeded at so slow a
+pace, that he scarcely moved one foot beyond the other, and kept his
+feet wide apart. I saluted him after the European fashion, upon which
+he raised his left hand to his forehead, and bowed his whole body
+towards the ground.'
+
+In the conversation that ensued, the governor expressed his regret
+that the ignorance of the Japanese respecting the object of this visit
+should have occasioned them to fire upon the _Diana_. He then closely
+interrogated the captain as to the course and objects of his voyage,
+his name, the name of his emperor, and whether he knew anything of
+Resanoff. On the first of these heads, Golownin deemed it prudent to
+use some deception, and he stated that he was proceeding to St
+Petersburg, from the eastern extremity of the Russian Empire; that
+contrary winds had considerably lengthened his voyage; and that, being
+greatly in want of wood and fresh water, he had been looking on the
+coasts for a safe harbour where these might be procured, and had been
+directed by an officer at Eetooroop to Kunashir. To all the other
+questions, he returned suitable answers, which were carefully written
+down. The conference ended most amicably, and the captain was invited
+to smoke tobacco, and partake of some tea, sagi,[2] and caviar.
+Everything was served on a separate dish, and presented by a different
+individual, armed with a poniard and sabre; and these attendants,
+instead of going away after handing anything to the guests, remained
+standing near, till at length they were surrounded by a formidable
+circle of armed men. Golownin would not stoop to betray alarm or
+distrust, but having brought some French brandy as a present to the
+governor, he desired his sailors to draw a bottle, and took this
+opportunity of repeating his order, that they should hold themselves
+in readiness. There appeared, however, no intention of resorting to
+violence. When he prepared to depart, the governor presented a flask
+of sagi, and some fresh fish, pointing out to him at the same time a
+net which had been cast to procure a larger supply. He also gave him a
+white fan, with which he was to beckon, as a sign of amity, when he
+came on shore again. The whole draught of fish was sent on board in
+the evening.
+
+On the following day, the captain, according to appointment, paid
+another visit on shore, accompanied by two officers, Alexei, and four
+seamen carrying the presents intended for the Japanese. On this
+occasion, the former precautions were dispensed with; the boat was
+hauled up to the shore, and left with one seaman, while the rest of
+the party proceeded to the castle. The result was, that after a
+renewal of the friendly explanations and entertainments of the
+preceding day, the treacherous Japanese threw off the mask, and made
+prisoners of the whole party.
+
+'The first thing done, was to tie our hands behind our backs, and
+conduct us into an extensive but low building, which resembled a
+barrack, and which was situated opposite to the tent in the direction
+of the shore. Here we were placed on our knees, and bound in the
+cruelest manner with cords about the thickness of a finger; and as
+though this were not enough, another binding of smaller cords
+followed, which was still more painful. The Japanese are exceedingly
+expert at this work; and it would appear that they conform to some
+precise regulation in binding their prisoners, for we were all tied
+exactly in the same manner. There was the same number of knots and
+nooses, and all at equal distances, on the cords with which each of us
+was bound. There were loops round our breasts and necks; our elbows
+almost touched each other, and our hands were firmly bound together.
+From these fastenings proceeded a long cord, the end of which was held
+by a Japanese, and which, on the slightest attempt to escape, required
+only to be drawn to make the elbows come in contact with the greatest
+pain, and to tighten the noose about the neck to such a degree as
+almost to produce strangulation. Besides all this, they tied our legs
+in two places--above the knees and above the ankles; they then passed
+ropes from our necks over the cross-beams of the building, and drew
+them so tight, that we found it impossible to move. Their next
+operation was searching our pockets, out of which they took
+everything, and then proceeded very quietly to smoke tobacco. While
+they were binding us, the lieutenant-governor shewed himself twice,
+and pointed to his mouth, to intimate, perhaps, that it was intended
+to feed, not to kill us.'
+
+After some hours, the legs and ankles of the prisoners were partially
+loosed, and preparations were made for removing them to Matsmai, which
+seems to be the head-quarters of government for the Kurile
+dependencies of Japan. The journey, which occupied above a month, was
+performed partly in boats, which were dragged along the shore, and
+even for miles over the land; and partly on foot, the captives being
+marched in file, each led with a cord by a particular conductor, and
+having an armed soldier abreast of him. It was evident, however, that
+whatever was rigorous in their treatment, was not prompted by personal
+feelings of barbarity, but by the stringency of the law, which would
+have made the guards answerable for their prisoners with their own
+lives. They were always addressed with the greatest respect; and, as
+soon as it was deemed safe, their hands, which were in a dreadfully
+lacerated state, were unbound, and surgically treated; but not till
+their persons had been again most carefully searched, that no piece of
+metal might remain about them, lest they might contrive to destroy
+themselves. Suicide is, in Japan, the fashionable mode of terminating
+a life which cannot be prolonged but in circumstances of dishonour: to
+rip up one's own bowels in such a case, wipes away every stain on the
+character. The guards of the Russian captives not only used every
+precaution against this, but carefully watched over their health and
+comfort, carrying them over the shallowest pools and streamlets, lest
+their feet should be wet, and assiduously beating off the gnats and
+flies, which would have been annoying. At every village, crowds of
+both sexes, young and old, turned out to see these unfortunate men;
+but there was nothing like insult or mockery in the demeanour of
+any--pity appeared to be the universal feeling: many begged permission
+from the guards to offer sagi, comfits, fruits, and other delicacies;
+and these were presented often with tears of compassion, as well as
+gestures of respect.
+
+The prison to which Golownin and his companions were finally committed
+had been constructed expressly for their habitation in the town of
+Matsmai. It was a quadrangular wooden building, 25 paces long, 15
+broad, and 12 feet high. Three sides of it were dead-wall, the fourth
+was formed of strong spars. Within this structure were two apartments,
+formed likewise of wooden spars, so as to resemble cages: one was
+appropriated to the officers, the other to the sailors and Alexei. The
+building was surrounded by a high wall or paling, outside of which
+were the kitchen, guard-house, &c., enclosed by another paling. This
+outer enclosure was patrolled by common soldiers; but no one was
+allowed within, except the physician, who visited daily, and the
+orderly officers, who looked through the spars every half-hour. Of
+course, it was rather a cold lodging; but, as winter advanced, a hole
+was dug a few feet from each cage, built round with freestone, and
+filled with sand, upon which charcoal was afterwards kept burning.
+Benches were provided for them to sleep on, and two of the orderlies
+presented them with bear-skins; but the native fashion is to lie on a
+thick, wadded quilt, folded together, and laid on the floor, which,
+even in the poorest dwellings, is covered with soft straw-mats. A
+large wadded dress, made of silk or cotton, according to the
+circumstances of the wearer, serves for bed-clothes--which seem to be
+quite unknown; and while the poorer classes have only a piece of wood
+for a pillow, the richer fasten a cushion on the neat boxes which
+contain their razors, scissors, pomatum, tooth-brushes, and other
+toilet requisites.
+
+But while the comfort of the captives was attended to in many minor
+matters, there was no relaxation of the vigilance used to preclude the
+possibility of self-destruction. They were not allowed scissors or
+knife to cut their nails, but were obliged to thrust their hands
+through the palisades, to get this office performed for them. When
+they were indulged with smoking, it was with a very long pipe held
+between the spars, and furnished with a wooden ball fixed about the
+middle, to prevent its being drawn wholly within the cage.
+
+For weeks together they were brought daily before the bunyo (governor
+of the town, and probably lord-lieutenant of all the Japanese Kurile
+Islands), bound and harnessed like horses as before. The ostensible
+object of these examinations, which frequently lasted the whole day,
+was to ascertain for what purpose they had come near Japan, and what
+they knew of Resanoff and Chwostoff--for a singularly unfortunate
+combination of circumstances had arisen to give colour to the
+suspicion, that some of their party had been connected with that
+expedition. But for one inquiry connected with the case, there were
+fifty that were wholly irrelevant, and prompted by mere curiosity. The
+most trivial questions were put several times and in different forms,
+and every answer was carefully written down. Golownin was often
+puzzled, irritated, and quite at the end of his stock of patience; but
+that of the interrogators appeared interminable. They said, that by
+writing down everything they were told, whether true or false, and
+comparing the various statements they received, they were enabled
+through time to separate truth from fiction, and the practice was very
+improving. At the close of almost every examination, the bunyo
+exhorted them not to despair, but to offer up prayers to Heaven, and
+patiently await the emperor's decision.
+
+Presently new work was found for them. An intelligent young man was
+brought to their prison, to be taught the Russian language. To this
+the captain consented, having no confidence in the Kurile Alexei as an
+interpreter, and being desirous himself to gain some knowledge of
+Japanese. Teske made rapid progress, and soon became a most useful and
+kindly companion to the captives. Books, pens, and paper were now
+allowed them in abundance; and their mode of treatment was every way
+improved. But by and by, they were threatened with more pupils; a
+geometrician and astronomer from the capital was introduced to them,
+and would gladly have been instructed in their mode of taking
+observations. Other learned men were preparing to follow, and it was
+now evident that the intention of the Japanese government was to
+reconcile them to their lot, and retain them for the instruction of
+the nation. Indeed, this appears to be the great secret of the policy
+of detaining for life instead of destroying the hapless foreigners
+that light on these shores; as the avowed motive for tolerating the
+commercial visits of the Dutch is, that they furnish the only news of
+public events that ever reach Japan. Fearful of becoming known to
+other nations for fear of invasion, they are yet greedy of information
+respecting them, and many were the foolish questions they asked
+Golownin about the emperor of Russia, his dress, habitation, forces,
+and territories.
+
+Golownin, on his part, endeavoured to elicit all the information he
+could gain with respect to the numbers, resources, government, and
+religion of this singular people. He found it impossible to ascertain
+the amount of the population; indeed, it seems it would be very
+difficult for the government itself to obtain a census, for millions
+of the poor live abroad in the streets, fields, or woods, having no
+spot which they can call a home. Teske shewed a map of the empire,
+having every town and village marked on it; and though on a very large
+scale, it was thickly covered. He pointed out on it a desert, which is
+considered immense, because litters take a whole day to traverse it,
+and meet with only one village during the journey. It is perhaps
+fifteen miles across. The city of Yedo was usually set down by
+Europeans as containing 1,000,000 inhabitants; but Golownin was
+informed, that it had in its principal streets 280,000 houses, each
+containing from 30 to 40 persons; besides all the small houses and
+huts. This would give in the whole a population of above 10,000,000
+souls--about a fourth part of the estimated population of this
+country! The incorporated society of the blind alone is affirmed to
+include 36,000.
+
+The country, though lying under the same latitudes as Spain and Italy,
+is yet very different from them in climate. At Matsmai, for instance,
+which is on the same parallel as Leghorn, snow falls as abundantly as
+at St Petersburg, and lies in the valleys from November till April.
+Severe frost is uncommon, but cold fogs are exceedingly prevalent. The
+climate, however, is uncommonly diversified, and consequently so are
+the productions, exhibiting in some places the vegetation of the
+frigid zone, and in others that of the tropics.
+
+Rice is the staple production of the soil. It is nearly the only
+article used instead of bread, and the only one from which strong
+liquor is distilled, while its straw serves for many domestic
+purposes. Besides the radishes already mentioned, there is an
+extensive cultivation of various other esculent roots and vegetables.
+There is no coast without fisheries, and there is no marine animal
+that is not used for food, save those which are absolutely poisonous.
+But an uncommonly small quantity suffices for each individual. If a
+Japanese has a handful of rice and a single mouthful of fish, he makes
+a savoury dish with roots, herbs, or mollusca, and it suffices for a
+day's support.
+
+Japan produces both black and green tea; the former is very inferior,
+and used only for quenching thirst; whereas the latter is esteemed a
+luxury, and is presented to company. The best grows in the
+principality of Kioto, where it is carefully cultivated for the use
+both of the temporal and spiritual courts. Tobacco, which was first
+introduced by the European missionaries, has spread astonishingly,
+and is so well manufactured, that our author smoked it with a relish
+he had never felt for a Havana cigar. The Japanese smokes continually,
+and sips tea with his pipe, even rising for it during the night.
+
+All articles of clothing are made of silk or cotton. The former
+appears to be very abundant, as rich dresses of it are worn even by
+the common soldiers on festive days; and it may be seen on people of
+all ranks even in poor towns. The fabrics are at least equal to those
+of China. The cotton of Japan seems to be of the same kind as that of
+our West Indian colonies. It furnishes the ordinary dress of the great
+mass of the people, and also serves all the other purposes for which
+we employ wool, flax, furs, and feathers. The culture of it is, of
+course, very extensive; but the fabrics are all coarse: Golownin could
+hardly make himself believe that his muslin cravat was of this
+material. There is some hemp, which is manufactured into cloth for
+sails, &c.; but cables and ropes, very inferior to ours, are made from
+the bark of a tree called kadyz. This bark likewise supplies materials
+for thread, lamp-wicks, writing-paper, and the coarse paper used for
+pocket-handkerchiefs.
+
+There is no lack of fruit-trees, as the orange, lemon, peach, plum,
+fig, chestnut, and apple; but the vine yields only a small, sour
+grape, perhaps for want of culture. Timber-trees grow only in the
+mountainous districts, which are unfit for cultivation. Camphor is
+produced abundantly in the south, and large quantities of it are
+exported by the Dutch and Chinese. The celebrated varnish of Japan,
+drawn from a tree called silz, is so plentiful, that it is used for
+lacquering the most ordinary utensils. Its natural colour is white,
+but it assumes any that is given to it by mixture. The best varnished
+vessels reflect the face as in a mirror, and hot water may be poured
+into them without occasioning the least smell.
+
+The chief domestic animals are horses and oxen for draught; cats and
+dogs are kept for the same uses as with us; and swine furnish food to
+the few sects who eat flesh. Sheep and goats seem to be quite unknown:
+the Russian captives had to make drawings of the former, to convey
+some idea of the origin of wool.
+
+There are considerable mines of gold and silver in several parts of
+the empire, but the government does not permit them to be all worked,
+for fear of depreciating the value of these metals. They supply, with
+copper, the material of the currency, and are also liberally used in
+the decoration of public buildings, and in the domestic utensils of
+the wealthy. There is a sufficiency of quicksilver, lead, and tin, for
+the wants of the country; and one island is entirely covered with
+sulphur. Copper is very abundant, and of remarkably fine quality. All
+kitchen utensils, tobacco-pipes, and fire-shovels, are made of it; and
+so well made, that our author mentions his tea-kettle as having stood
+on the fire, like all other Japanese kettles, day and night for
+months, without burning into holes. This metal is likewise employed
+for sheathing ships, and covering the joists and flat roofs of houses.
+Iron is less abundant, and much that is used is obtained from the
+Dutch. Nails alone, of which immense numbers are used in all
+carpentry-work, consume a large quantity. Diamonds, cornelians,
+jaspers, some very fine agates, and other precious stones, are found;
+but the natives seem not well to understand polishing them. Pearls are
+abundant; but not being considered ornamental, they are reserved for
+the Chinese market.
+
+Steel and porcelain are the manufactures in which the Japanese chiefly
+excel, besides those in silk-stuffs and lacquered ware already
+mentioned. Their porcelain is far superior to the Chinese, but it is
+scarce and dear. With respect to steel manufactures, the sabres and
+daggers of Japan yield only perhaps to those of Damascus; and Golownin
+says their cabinet-makers' tools might almost be compared with the
+English. In painting, engraving, and printing, they are far behind;
+and they seem to have no knowledge of ship-building or navigation
+beyond what suffices for coasting voyages, though they have
+intelligent and enterprising sailors. There is an immense internal
+traffic, for facilitating which there are good roads and bridges where
+water-carriage is impracticable. These distant Orientals have likewise
+bills of exchange and commercial gazettes. The emperor enjoys a
+monopoly of the foreign commerce.
+
+It is popularly said, that Japan has two emperors--one spiritual, and
+the other temporal. The former, however, having no share in the
+administration of the empire, and seldom even hearing of state
+affairs, is no sovereign according to the ideas we attach to that
+term. He seems to stand much in the same relation to the emperor that
+the popes once did to the sovereigns of Europe. He governs Kioto as a
+small independent state; receives the emperor to an interview once in
+seven years; is consulted by him on extraordinary emergencies;
+receives occasional embassies and presents from him, and bestows his
+blessing in return. His dignity, unlike that of the Roman pontiffs, is
+hereditary, and he is allowed twelve wives, that his race may not
+become extinct. According to Japanese records, the present dynasty,
+including about 130 Kin-reys, has been maintained in a direct line for
+above twenty-four centuries. The person of the Kin-rey is so sacred,
+that no ordinary mortal may see any part of him but his feet, and that
+only once a year; every vessel which he uses must be broken
+immediately; for if another should even by accident eat or drink out
+of it, he must be put to death. Every garment which he wears must be
+manufactured by virgin hands, from the earliest process in the
+preparation of the silk.
+
+The adherents of the aboriginal Japanese religion, of which the
+Kin-rey is the head, adore numerous divinities called Kami, or
+immortal spirits, to whom they offer prayers, flowers, and sometimes
+more substantial gifts. They also worship Kadotski, or saints--mortals
+canonised by the Kin-rey--and build temples in their honour. The laws
+concerning personal and ceremonial purity, which form the principal
+feature of this religion, are exceedingly strict, not unlike those
+imposed on the ancient Jews. There are several orders of priests,
+monks, and nuns, whose austerity, like that of Europe, is maintained
+in theory more than in practice.
+
+Three other creeds, the Brahminical, the Confucian, and that which
+deifies the heavenly bodies, have many adherents; but their priests
+all acknowledge a certain religious supremacy to exist in the Kin-rey.
+There is universal toleration in these matters; every citizen may
+profess what faith he chooses, and change it as often as he chooses,
+without any one inquiring into his reasons; only it must be a
+spontaneous choice, for proselyting is forbidden by law. Christianity
+alone is proscribed, and that on account of the political mischief
+said to have been effected through its adherents in the seventeenth
+century. There is a law, by which no one may hire a servant without
+receiving a certificate of his not being a Christian; and on
+New-Year's Day, which is a great national festival, all the
+inhabitants of Nangasaki are obliged to ascend a staircase, and
+trample on the crucifix, and other insignia of the Romish faith, which
+are laid on the steps as a test. It is said that many perform the act
+in violation of their feelings. So much of the religious state of the
+empire Golownin elicited in conversation with Teske and others; but
+everything on this subject was communicated with evident reluctance;
+and though in the course of the walks which they were permitted to
+take in harness, the Russian captives sometimes saw the interior of
+the temples, they were never permitted to enter while any religious
+rites were celebrated.
+
+With respect to the civil administration of Japan, our author seems to
+have gathered little that was absolutely new to us. The empire
+comprises above 200 states, which are governed as independent
+sovereignties by princes called Damyos, who frame and enforce their
+own laws. Though most of these principalities are very small, some of
+them are powerful: the damyo of Sindai, for instance, visits the
+imperial court with a retinue of 60,000. Their dependence on the
+emperor appears chiefly in their being obliged to maintain a certain
+number of troops, which are at his disposal. Those provinces which
+belong directly to the emperor, are placed under governors called
+Bunyos, whose families reside at the capital as hostages. Every
+province has two bunyos, each of whom spends six months in the
+government and six at Yedo.
+
+The supreme council of the emperor consists of five sovereign princes,
+who decide on all ordinary measures without referring to him. An
+inferior council of fifteen princes or nobles presides over important
+civil and criminal cases. The general laws are few and well known.
+They are very severe; but the judges generally find means of evading
+them where their enforcement would involve a violation of those of
+humanity. In some cases, as in conjugal infidelity or filial impiety,
+individuals are permitted to avenge their own wrong, even to the
+taking of life. Civil cases are generally decided by arbitrators, and
+only when they fail to settle a matter is there recourse to the public
+courts of justice. Taxes are generally paid to the reigning prince or
+emperor, in tithes of the agricultural, manufactured, or other
+productions of the country.
+
+Such were some of the leading particulars ascertained by Golownin
+concerning the social and civil condition of this singular people. He
+says, they always appeared very happy, and their demeanour was
+characterised by lively and polite manners, with the most
+imperturbable good temper. It seems at length to have been through
+fear of a Russian invasion, rather than from any sense of justice,
+that his Japanese majesty, in reply to the importunities of the
+officers of the _Diana_, consented to release the captives, on
+condition of receiving from the Russian government a solemn disavowal
+of having sanctioned the proceedings of Chwostoff. Having obtained
+this, the officers repaired for the fourth time to these unfriendly
+shores, and enjoyed the happiness of embracing their companions, and
+taking them on board.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Japan and the Japanese._ By Captain Golownin. London: Colburn &
+Co. 1852.
+
+[2] Sagi is the strong drink of Japan, distilled from rice.
+
+
+
+
+THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.
+
+                                             _July 1852._
+
+When we shall have a constant supply of pure water--a complete system
+of efficient and innoxious sewers--a service of street hydrants--when
+the Thames shall cease to be the _cloaca maxima_, are questions to
+which, however seriously asked, it is not easy to get an answer. Add
+to these grievances, the delay of proper regulations for abolishing
+intramural interments, and the fact that Smithfield is not to be
+removed further than Copenhagen Fields--a locality already surrounded
+with houses--and it will occasion no surprise that the authorities are
+treated with anything but compliments.
+
+The laying down of an under-sea telegraph wire across the Irish
+Channel, may be taken as a new instance of the indifference consequent
+on familiarity. When the line was laid from Dover to Calais, the whole
+land rang with the fact; but now the sinking of a wire three times the
+length, in a channel three times the width, excites scarcely a remark,
+and seems to be looked on as a matter of course. The wire, which is
+eighty miles in length, is said to weigh eighty tons. It was payed out
+and sunk from the deck of the _Britannia_, at the rate of from three
+to five miles an hour, and was successfully laid, from Holyhead to
+Howth, in from twelve to fifteen hours; and now a message may be
+flashed from Trieste to Galway in a period brief enough to satisfy the
+most impatient. The means of travel to the East, too, are becoming
+tangible in the Egyptian railway, of which some thirty miles are in a
+state of forwardness, besides which a hotel is to be built at Thebes;
+so that travellers, no longer compelled to bivouac in the desert, will
+find a teeming larder and well-aired beds in the land of the Sphinxes.
+And, better still, among a host of beneficial reforms to take place in
+our Customs' administration, there is one which provides that the
+baggage of travellers arriving in the port of London shall be examined
+as they come up the river, instead of being sent to the Custom-house.
+
+By a report of the Astronomer-royal to the Board of Visitors, who have
+lately made their annual inspection of the Greenwich Observatory, we
+are informed, of a singular fact, that observations of the pole-star
+shew that its position varies some three or four seconds on repeating
+the observations at intervals of a few months, and this
+notwithstanding the extreme accuracy of the transit circle. The only
+explanation which can as yet be given for this phenomenon is, that the
+earth, solid as it appears, is liable to slight occasional movements
+or oscillations.
+
+We shall know, in a few weeks, the result of the telegraphic
+correspondence with the Observatory at Paris--one interesting point
+being, as to whether the respective longitudes, as at present
+determined, will be verified by the galvanic test. Besides which,
+Greenwich time is to be sent every day to London, where a pole, with a
+huge sliding-ball, has been fixed on the top of the Telegraph Office,
+near Charing Cross. This ball is to be made to descend at one o'clock
+simultaneously with the well-known ball which surmounts the
+Observatory; and thus scientific inquirers--to say nothing of the
+crowds who will daily throng the footways of the Strand to witness the
+downcome--will be informed of the true time, while, by means of the
+wires, it may be flashed to all parts of the kingdom.
+
+The lecture with which Professor Faraday wound up the course at the
+Royal Institution may be mentioned here, seeing that it adds somewhat
+to our knowledge of the theory and phenomena of magnetism. As usual,
+the lecture-room was crowded; and those who could not understand, had
+at least the satisfaction of being able to say they were present. Mr
+Faraday, who, enlarging upon his view, announced, a short time since,
+that there are such things as magnetic lines of force, now contends
+that these lines have a 'physical character'--a point most
+satisfactorily proved by sundry experiments during the lecture. The
+inquiry is one, as Mr Faraday observes, on the 'very edge of science,'
+trenching on the bounds of speculation; but such as eminently to
+provoke research. The phenomena, he says, 'lead on, by deduction and
+correction, to the discovery of new phenomena; and so cause an
+increase and advancement of real physical truth, which, unlike the
+hypothesis that led to it, becomes fundamental knowledge, not subject
+to change.' A chief point of discussion to which the investigations
+have led is: Whether the phenomena of what we call gravity may not be
+resolvable into those of magnetism--a force acting at a distance, or
+by lines of power. 'There is one question,' continues Mr Faraday, 'in
+relation to gravity, which, if we could ascertain or touch it, would
+greatly enlighten us. It is, whether gravitation requires _time_. If
+it did, it would shew undeniably that a physical agency existed in the
+course of the line of force. It seems equally impossible to prove or
+disprove this point; since there is no capability of suspending,
+changing, or annihilating the power (gravity), or annihilating the
+matter in which the power resides.' The lines of magnetic force may
+have 'a separate existence,' but as yet we are unable to tell whether
+these lines 'are analogous to those of gravitation, acting at a
+distance; or whether, having a physical existence, they are more like
+in their nature to those of electric induction or the electric
+current.' Mr Faraday inclines at present to the latter view. He
+'affirms' the lines of magnetic force from actual experiment, and
+'advocates' their physical nature 'chiefly with a view of stating the
+question of their existence; and though,' he adds, 'I should not have
+raised the argument unless I had thought it both important and likely
+to be answered ultimately in the affirmative, I still hold the opinion
+with some hesitation, with as much, indeed, as accompanies any
+conclusion I endeavour to draw respecting points in the very depths of
+science--as, for instance, one, two, or no electric fluids; or the
+real nature of a ray of light; or the nature of attraction, even that
+of gravity itself; or the general nature of matter.' These are
+profound views; but we may reasonably conclude, that, however obscure
+they may at present appear, they will in time be cleared up and
+further developed by the gifted philosopher from whom they emanate.
+
+Of minor matters which have been more or less talked about, there is
+the Library for the Working-Classes, just opened in the parish of St
+Martin-in-the-Fields--a praiseworthy example for other parishes, but
+not to be followed unless the readers actually exist, and manifest the
+sort of want which books alone can satisfy. A suggestion has been
+made, to use for books in hot climates, where paper is liable to rapid
+decay, the sheet-iron exhibited at Breslau, which is as thin and
+pliant as paper, and can be produced at the rate of more than 7000
+feet to the hundredweight. This would be something new in the
+application of metal. Metallurgy generally is being further
+investigated by Leonhard of Heidelberg, who has just called on
+manufacturers to aid him in his researches, by sending him specimens
+of scoriæ, particularly of those which are crystallised. Then there is
+Mr Hesketh's communication to the Institute of British Architects, 'On
+the Admission of Daylight into Buildings, particularly in the Narrow
+and Confined Localities of Towns;' in which, after shewing that the
+proportion of light admitted to buildings is generally inadequate to
+their cubical contents, and means for estimating the numerical value
+of that which really does enter, he states that the defect may be
+remedied by the use of reflectors, contrived so as to be 'neither
+obstructive nor unsightly.' He explains, that 'a single reflector may
+generally be placed on either the outside or inside of a window or
+skylight, so as to throw the light from the (perhaps small) portion of
+sky which remains unobscured overhead, to any part in which more light
+is required.' Such difficulties of position or construction as present
+themselves, 'may be overcome in almost every case, by, as it were,
+cutting up the single reflector into strips, and arranging them one
+above the other, either in the reveal of the window, or in some other
+part where it will not interfere with ventilation, or the action of
+the sashes.' This is adopting the principle on which improved
+lighthouse reflectors are constructed; and we are told, that 'the
+combinations may be arranged horizontally, vertically, or obliquely,
+according to the positions of the centre of the unobscured portion of
+sky, and of the part into which the light is to be thrown, and
+according to the shape of the opening in which the combination is to
+be placed.' As a case in point, it was mentioned that a reflector 'had
+been fitted to a vault (at the Depôt Wharf, in the Borough) ninety-six
+feet in depth from front to back. The area into which the window opens
+is a semicircle, with a heavy iron-grating over it; and the result is,
+that small print can be easily read at the far end of the vault.' It
+is a fact worth knowing, that reflectors may be so constructed as to
+throw all the available daylight into any required direction; and in
+one instance the reflector may be made to serve at the same time as a
+dwarf venetian window-blind. Instead of wooden splats or laths, flat
+glass tubes or prisms are used, fitted into the usual framework, and
+these being silvered on the inside, throw all the light that falls on
+them into the room, when placed at the proper angle.
+
+Again, the possibility of locomotion without the aid of steam is
+talked about, and the New Yorkers are said to be about to send over a
+large ship driven by Ericsson's caloric engine, which is to prove as
+powerful as vapour at one-half of the cost--a fact of which we shall
+be better able to judge when the vessel really arrives. Then, looking
+across the Channel, we find the Abbé Moigno proposing to construct and
+establish a relief model of Europe in the Bois de Boulogne at Paris,
+of a size to cover several acres, and with the railways of iron, and
+the rivers of water, by which means one of the most interesting and
+instructive of sights would be produced, and the attractions of the
+Trench capital greatly increased. A desirable project--but the cost!
+The Montyon prize of 2000 francs has been awarded to M. Mosson, for
+his method of drying and preserving vegetables for long sea voyages,
+as published a few months ago. M. Naudin states, that a certain kind
+of furze or thistle, of which cattle are very fond, may be made to
+grow without thorns--an important consideration, seeing that at
+present, before it can be used as food, it has to undergo a laborious
+beating, to crush and break the prickles with which it is covered. As
+the plant thrives best on poor soils, which might otherwise lie
+useless, the saving of this labour will be a great benefit to the
+French peasantry; and the more so, as it appears the plant will grow
+in its new state from seed. M. Naudin believes, that the condition of
+other vegetable productions may be varied at pleasure, and promises to
+lay his views shortly before the Académie. M. Lecoq, director of the
+Botanical Garden at Claremont, informs the same body of something
+still more extraordinary, in a communication, entitled 'Two Hundred,
+Five Hundred, or even a Thousand new Vegetables, created _ad
+libitum_.' Having been struck by the fact, that the ass so often feeds
+upon the thistle, he took some specimens of that plant, and, by
+careful experiment, has succeeded in producing for the table 'a
+savoury vegetable, with thorns of the most inoffensive and flexible
+sort.' Whatever be the kind of thistle, however hard and sharp its
+thorns, he has tamed and softened them all, his method of
+transformation being, as he says, none other than exposing the plants
+to different influences of light. Those which grew unsheltered, he
+places in the dark, and _vice versâ_. Familiar examples are given in
+the celery, of which the acrid qualities are removed by keeping off
+the light; while the pungency of cress, parsley, &c., is increased by
+exposure to the sun. M. Lecoq has not yet detailed all his
+experiments; but he asserts that, before long, some of our commonest
+weeds, owing to his modifications, will become as highly esteemed as
+peas or asparagus. Let him shew that his process is one that admits of
+being applied cheaply and on a large scale, and he will not fail of
+his reward.
+
+
+
+
+A QUALIFIED INSTRUCTOR.
+
+
+It will be found that the ripest knowledge is best qualified to
+instruct the most complete ignorance. It is a common mistake to
+suppose that those who know little suffice to inform those who know
+less; that the master who is but a stage before the pupil can, as well
+as another, shew him the way; nay, that there may even be an advantage
+in this near approach between the minds of teacher and of taught;
+since the recollection of recent difficulties, and the vividness of
+fresh acquisition, give to the one a more living interest in the
+progress of the other. Of all educational errors, this is one of the
+gravest. The approximation required between the mind of teacher and of
+taught is not that of a common ignorance, but of mutual sympathy; not
+a partnership in narrowness of understanding, but that thorough
+insight of the one into the other, that orderly analysis of the
+tangled skein of thought; that patient and masterly skill in
+developing conception after conception, with a constant view to a
+remote result, which can only belong to comprehensive knowledge and
+prompt affections. With whatever accuracy the recently initiated may
+give out his new stores, he will rigidly follow the precise method by
+which he made them his own; and will want that variety and fertility
+of resource, that command of the several paths of access to a truth,
+which are given by thorough survey of the whole field on which he
+stands. The instructor needs to have a full perception, not merely of
+the internal contents, but also of the external relations, of that
+which he unfolds; as the astronomer knows but little, if, ignorant of
+the place and laws of moon and sun, he has examined only their
+mountains and their spots. The sense of proportion between the
+different parts and stages of a subject; the appreciation of the size
+and value of every step; the foresight of the direction and magnitude
+of the section that remains, are qualities so essential to the
+teacher, that without them all instruction is but an insult to the
+learner's understanding. And in virtue of these it is that the most
+cultivated minds are usually the most patient, most clear, most
+rationally progressive; most studious of accuracy in details, because
+not impatiently shut up within them as absolutely limiting the view,
+but quietly contemplating them from without in their relation to the
+whole. Neglect and depreciation of intellectual minutiæ are
+characteristics of the ill-informed; and where the granular parts of
+study are thrown away or loosely held, will be found no compact mass
+of knowledge, solid and clear as crystal, but a sandy accumulation,
+bound together by no cohesion, and transmitting no light. And above
+and beyond all the advantages which a higher culture gives in the mere
+system of communicating knowledge, must be placed that indefinable and
+mysterious power which a superior mind always puts forth upon an
+inferior; that living and life-giving action, by which the mental
+forces are strengthened and developed, and a spirit of intelligence is
+produced, far transcending in excellence the acquisition of any
+special ideas. In the task of instruction, so lightly assumed, so
+unworthily esteemed, no amount of wisdom would be superfluous and
+lost; and even the child's elementary teaching would be best
+conducted, were it possible, by Omniscience itself. The more
+comprehensive the range of intellectual view, and the more minute the
+perception of its parts, the greater will be the simplicity of
+conception, the aptitude for exposition, and the directness of access
+to the open and expectant mind. This adaptation to the humblest
+wants is the peculiar triumph of the highest spirit of
+knowledge.--_Martineau's Discourses_.
+
+
+
+
+AN AMERICAN RIVER.
+
+
+The picturesque banks of the river Connecticut are dotted with
+charming little villages, that break here and there upon the sight
+like feathers of light, dancing among the willow leaves; there is such
+a dazzling irregularity of house and hill--so much fairy-like
+confusion of vista, landscape, and settlement. Now we pass a tiny
+white and vine-clad cottage, that looks as if it had been set down
+yesterday; now we sweep majestically by an ambitious young town, with
+its two, three, or half-a-dozen church-spires, sending back the lines
+of narrow light into the water; anon we glide past a forest of
+majestic old trees, that seem to press their topmost buds against the
+fleecy clouds floating in the blue sky; and through these forests we
+catch glimpses of the oriole, dashing through the boughs like a flake
+of fire.--_Yankee Stories, by Howard Paul_.
+
+
+
+
+CHOOSE THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.
+
+
+The sunny side of the street should always be chosen as a residence,
+for its superior healthfulness. In some barracks in Russia, it was
+found that in a wing where no sun penetrated, there occurred three
+cases of sickness for every single case which occurred on that side of
+the building exposed to the sun's rays. All other circumstances were
+equal--such as ventilation, size of apartments, &c., so that no other
+cause for this disproportion seemed to exist. In the Italian cities,
+this practical hint is well known. Malaria seldom attacks the set of
+apartments or houses which are freely open to the sun; while, on the
+opposite side of the street, the summer and autumn are very
+unhealthful, and even dangerous.
+
+
+
+
+A DREAM OF DEATH.
+
+
+    'Where shall we sail to-day?'
+                              Thus said, methought,
+    A Voice--that could be only heard in dreams:
+    And on we glided without mast or oars,
+    A fair strange boat upon a wondrous sea.
+
+    Sudden the land curved inward, to a bay
+    Broad, calm; with gorgeous sea-flowers waving slow
+    Beneath the surface--like rich thoughts that move
+    In the mysterious deep of human hearts.
+
+    But towards the rounded shore's embracing arm,
+    The little waves leaped, singing, to their death;
+    And shadowy trees drooped pensive over them,
+    Like long-fringed lashes over sparkling eyes.
+
+    So still, so fair, so rosy in the dawn
+    Lay that bright bay: yet something seemed to breathe,
+    Or in the air, or trees, or lisping waves,
+    Or from the Voice, ay near as one's own soul--
+
+    '_There was a wreck last night!_'
+                              A wreck?--and where
+    The ship, the crew?--All gone. The monument
+    On which is writ no name, no chronicle,
+    Laid itself o'er them with smooth crystal smile.
+
+    '_Yet was the wreck last night!_'
+                              And, gazing down,
+    Deep down beneath the surface, we were 'ware
+    Of cold dead faces, with their stony eyes
+    Uplooking to the dawn they could not see.
+
+    One stirred with stirring sea-weeds: one lay prone,
+    The tinted fishes glancing o'er his breast:
+    One, caught by floating hair, rocked daintily
+    On the reed-cradle woven by kind Death.
+
+    'The wreck has been,' then said the deep low Voice,
+    (Than which not Gabriel's did diviner sound,
+    Or sweeter--when the stern, meek angel spake:
+    'See that thou worship not! Not me, but God!')
+
+    'The wreck has been, yet all things are at peace,
+    Earth, sea, and sky. The dead, that while we slept
+    Struggled for life, now sleep and fear no storm:
+    O'er them let us not weep when God's heaven smiles.'
+
+    So we sailed on above the diamond sands,
+    Bright sea-flowers, and dead faces white and calm,
+    Till the waves rocked us in the open sea,
+    And the great sun arose upon the world.
+
+
+
+
+THE EXECUTIONER IN ALGERIA.
+
+
+Every day, morning and evening, says our widow, 'I see a Moor pass
+along the street; all his features beam with kindness and serenity. A
+sword, or rather a long yataghan, is slung in his girdle; all the
+Arabs salute him with respect, and press forward to kiss his hand.
+This man is a _chaouch_ or executioner--an office considered so
+honourable in this country, that the person invested with it is
+regarded as a special favourite of Heaven, intrusted with the care of
+facilitating the path of the true believer from this lower world to
+the seventh heaven of Mohammed.--_A Residence in Algeria, by Madame
+Prus_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_Just Published, Price 6d. Paper Cover,_
+
+CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY: forming a LITERARY COMPANION for the
+RAILWAY, the FIRESIDE, or the BUSH.
+
+VOLUME VIII.
+
+To be continued in Monthly Volumes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh.
+Also sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D. N. CHAMBERS, 55 West
+Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street,
+Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to
+MAXWELL & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all
+applications respecting their insertion must be made.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH ***
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448, 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: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448
+       Volume 18, New Series, July 31, 1852
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: William Chambers
+        Robert Chambers
+
+Release Date: April 20, 2007 [EBook #21193]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<h1>CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents">CONTENTS</a></h2>
+
+<div class="contents">
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#BOOK-WORSHIP"><b>BOOK-WORSHIP.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#OUR_TERRACE"><b>OUR TERRACE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#SLAVES_IN_BRITAIN"><b>SLAVES IN BRITAIN.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#THE_OLD_HOUSEKEEPERS_TALE"><b>THE OLD HOUSEKEEPER'S TALE.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#ADVENTURES_IN_JAPAN"><b>ADVENTURES IN JAPAN.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#THINGS_TALKED_OF_IN_LONDON"><b>THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#A_QUALIFIED_INSTRUCTOR"><b>A QUALIFIED INSTRUCTOR.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#AN_AMERICAN_RIVER"><b>AN AMERICAN RIVER.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#CHOOSE_THE_SUNNY_SIDE_OF_THE_STREET"><b>CHOOSE THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#A_DREAM_OF_DEATH"><b>A DREAM OF DEATH.</b></a><br />
+<a href="#THE_EXECUTIONER_IN_ALGERIA"><b>THE EXECUTIONER IN ALGERIA.</b></a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[pg 65]</a></span></p>
+
+<img src="images/banner.png"
+          width="100%"
+          alt="Banner: Chambers' Edinburgh Journal" />
+
+<h4>CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S
+INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &amp;c.</h4>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<table width="100%"
+        summary="Volume, Date and Price">
+<tr>
+<td align="left"><b><span class="sc">No.</span> 448.&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="sc">New Series.</span></b></td>
+<td align="left"><b>SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1852.</b></td>
+<td align="right"><b><span class="sc">Price</span> 1&frac12;<i>d</i>.</b></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+
+<h2><a name="BOOK-WORSHIP" id="BOOK-WORSHIP"></a>BOOK-WORSHIP.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">A book</span> belongs in a peculiar manner to the age and nation that produce
+it. It is an emanation of the thought of the time; and if it survive
+to an after-time, it remains as a landmark of the progress of the
+imagination or the intellect. Some books do even more than this: they
+press forward to the future age, and make appeals to its maturer
+genius; but in so doing they still belong to their own&mdash;they still
+wear the garb which stamps them as appertaining to a particular epoch.
+Of that epoch, it is true, they are, intellectually, the flower and
+chief; they are the expression of its finer spirit, and serve as a
+link between the two generations of the past and the future; but of
+that future&mdash;so much changed in habits, and feelings, and
+knowledge&mdash;they can never, even when acting as guides and teachers,
+form an essential part: there is always some bond of sympathy wanting.</p>
+
+<p>A single glance at our own great books will illustrate this&mdash;books
+which are constantly reprinted, without which no library can be
+tolerated&mdash;which are still, generation after generation, the objects
+of the national worship, and are popularly supposed to afford a
+universal and unfailing standard of excellence in the various
+departments of literature. These books, although pored over as a task
+and a study by the few, are rarely opened and never read by the many:
+they are known the least by those who reverence them most. They are,
+in short, idols, and their worship is not a faith, but a superstition.
+This kind of belief is not shaken even by experience. When a devourer
+of the novels of Scott, for instance, takes up <i>Tom Jones</i>, he, after
+a vain attempt to read, may lay it down with a feeling of surprise and
+dissatisfaction; but <i>Tom Jones</i> remains still to his convictions 'an
+epic in prose,' the fiction <i>par excellence</i> of the language. As for
+<i>Clarissa Harlowe</i> and <i>Sir Charles Grandison</i>, we have not heard of
+any common reader in our generation who has had the hardihood even to
+open the volumes; but Richardson as well as Fielding retains his
+original niche among the gods of romance; and we find Scott himself
+one of the high-priests of the worship. When wandering once upon the
+continent, we were thrown for several days into the company of an
+English clergyman, who had provided himself, as the best possible
+model in description, with a copy of Spenser; and it was curious to
+observe the pertinacity with which, from time to time, he drew forth
+his treasure, and the weariness with which in a few minutes he
+returned it to his pocket. Yet our reverend friend, we have no doubt,
+went home with his faith in Spenser unshaken, and recommends it to
+this day as the most delightful of all companions for a journey.</p>
+
+<p>In the present century, the French and German critics have begun to
+place this reverential feeling for the 'classics' of a language upon a
+more rational basis. In estimating an author, they throw themselves
+back into the times in which he wrote; they determine his place among
+the spirits of his own age; and ascertain the practical influence his
+works have exercised over those of succeeding generations. In short,
+they judge him relatively, not absolutely; and thus convert an
+unreasoning superstition into a sober faith. We do not require to be
+told that in every book destined to survive its author, there are here
+and there gleams of nature that belong to all time; but the body of
+the work is after the fashion of the age that produced it; and he who
+is unacquainted with the thought of that age, will always judge amiss.
+In England, we are still in the bonds of the last century, and it is
+surprising what an amount of affectation mingles with criticism even
+of the highest pretensions. It is no wonder, then, that common readers
+should be mistaken in their book-worship. To such persons, for all
+their blind reverence, Dante must in reality be a wild beast&mdash;a fine
+animal, it is true, but still a wild beast&mdash;and our own Milton a
+polemical pedant arguing by the light of poetry. To such readers, the
+spectacle of Ugolino devouring the head of Ruggieri, and wiping his
+jaws with the hair that he might tell his story, cannot fail to give a
+feeling of horror and disgust, which even the glorious wings of
+Dante's angels&mdash;the most sublime of all such creations&mdash;would fail to
+chase away. The poetry of the Divine Comedy belongs to nature; its
+superstition, intolerance, and fanaticism, to the thirteenth century.
+These last have either passed away from the modern world or they exist
+in new forms, and with the first alone can we have any real healthy
+sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>One of our literary idols is Shakspeare&mdash;perhaps the greatest of them
+all; but although the most universal of poets, his works, taken in the
+mass, belong to the age of Queen Elizabeth, not to ours. A critic has
+well said, that if Shakspeare were now living, he would manifest the
+same dramatic power, but under different forms; and his taste, his
+knowledge, and his beliefs would all be different. This, however, is
+not the opinion of the book-worshippers: it is not the poetry alone of
+Shakspeare, but the work bodily, which is preeminent with them; not
+that which is universal in his genius, but that likewise which is
+restricted by the fetters of time and country. The commentators, in
+the same way, find it their business to bring up his shortcomings to
+his ideal character, not to account for their existence by the manners
+and prejudices of his age, or the literary models on which his taste
+was formed. It would be easy to run over, in this way, the list of
+all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[pg 66]</a></span> our great authors, and to shew that book-worship, as
+contradistinguished from a wise and discriminating respect, is nothing
+more than a vulgar superstition.</p>
+
+<p>We are the more inclined to put forth these ideas, at a time when
+reprints are the order of the day&mdash;when speculators, with a singular
+blindness, are ready to take hold of almost anything that comes in
+their way without the expense of copyright. It would be far more
+judicious to employ persons of a correct and elegant taste to separate
+the local and temporary from the universal and immortal part of our
+classics, and give us, in an independent form, what belongs to
+ourselves and to all time. A movement was made some years ago in this
+direction by Mr Craik, who printed in one of Charles Knight's
+publications a summary of the <i>Fa&euml;ry Queen</i>, converting the prosaic
+portions into prose, and giving only the true poetry in the rich and
+musical verses of Spenser. A travelling companion like this, we
+venture to assure our clerical friend, would not be pocketed so
+wearily as the original work. The harmony of the divine poet would
+saturate his heart and beam from his eyes; and when wandering where we
+met him, among the storied ruins of the Rhine, he would have by his
+side not the man Spenser, surrounded by the prejudices and rudenesses
+of his age, but the spirit Spenser, discoursing to and with the
+universal heart of nature. Leigh Hunt, with more originality&mdash;more of
+the quality men call genius, but a less correct perception of what is
+really wanted&mdash;has done the same thing for the great Italian poets;
+and in his sparkling pages Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, and the rest of the
+tuneful train, appear unfettered by the more unpleasing peculiarities
+of their mortal time. But the criticism by which their steps are
+attended, though full of grace and acuteness, is absolute, not
+relative. They are judged by a standard of taste and feeling existing
+in the author's mind: the <i>Inferno</i> is a magnificent caldron of
+everything base and detestable in human nature; and the <i>Orlando</i>, a
+paradise of love, beauty, and delight. Dante, the sublime poet, but
+inexorable bigot, meets with little tolerance from Leigh Hunt; while
+Ariosto, exhaustless in his wealth, ardent and exulting&mdash;full of the
+same excess of life which in youth sends the blood dancing and boiling
+through the veins&mdash;has his warmest sympathy. This kind of criticism is
+but a new form of the error we have pointed out; for both poets
+receive his homage&mdash;the one praised in the spontaneous outpourings of
+his heart, the other served with the rites of devil-worship.</p>
+
+<p>When we talk of the great authors of one generation pressing forward
+to claim the sympathy of the <i>maturer</i> genius of the next, we mean
+precisely what we say. We are well aware that some of the great
+writers we have casually mentioned have no equals in the present
+world; yet the present world is more mature in point of taste than
+their own. That is the reason why they <i>are</i> great authors now. Some
+books last for a season, some for a generation, some for an age, or
+two, or more; always dropping off when the time they reach outstrips
+them. One of these lost treasures is sometimes reprinted; but if this
+is done in the hope of a renewed popularity, the speculation is sure
+to fail. Curious and studious men, it is true, are gratified by the
+reproduction; but the general reader would prefer a book of his own
+generation, using the former as materials, and separating its immortal
+part from its perishing body.</p>
+
+<p>And the general reader, be it remembered, is virtually the age. It is
+for him the studious think, the imaginative invent, the tuneful sing:
+beyond him there is no appeal but to the future. He is superstitious,
+as we have seen, but his gods are few and traditional. He determines
+to make a stand somewhere; and it is necessary for him to do so, if he
+would not encumber his literary Olympus with a Hindoo-like pantheon of
+millions. But how voracious is this general reader in regard to the
+effusions of his own day! What will become of the myriads of books
+that have passed through our own unworthy hands? How many of them will
+survive to the next generation? How many will continue to float still
+further down the stream of time? How many will attain the honour of
+the apotheosis? And will they coexist in this exalted state with the
+old objects of worship? This last is a pregnant question; for each
+generation will in all probability furnish its quota of the great
+books of the language, and, if so, a reform in the superstition we
+have exposed is no longer a matter of mere expedience, but of
+necessity. We are aware that all this will be pronounced rank heresy
+by those who assume the style of critics, who usually make a
+prodigious outcry when a great author is mutilated, even by expunging
+a word which modern decency excludes from the vocabulary of social and
+family intercourse. This word, however&mdash;supposing it to represent the
+mortal and perishing part of an author's productions&mdash;belongs not to
+him, but to his age; not to the intellectual man, but to the external
+and fleeting manners of his day and generation. Such critics usually
+take credit to themselves for a peculiarly large and liberal spirit;
+but there seems to us, on the contrary, to be something mean and
+restricted in views that regard the man as an individual, not as a
+portion of the genius which belongs to the world. Yet, even as an
+individual, the man is safe in his entirety, for there is no project
+of cancelling the printed works extant in our libraries, public and
+private. The true question simply is: Are great authors to be allowed
+to become practically obsolete&mdash;and many of them have become so
+already&mdash;while we stand upon the delicacies and ceremonies of
+Book-worship?</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="OUR_TERRACE" id="OUR_TERRACE"></a>OUR TERRACE.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">London</span> has been often compared to a wilderness&mdash;a wilderness of brick,
+and so in one sense it is; because you may live in London all the days
+of your life if you choose&mdash;and, indeed, if you don't choose, if you
+happen to be very poor&mdash;without exciting observation, or provoking any
+further questioning than is comprised in a demand for accurate
+guidance from one place to another, a demand which might be made upon
+you in an Arabian desert, if there you chanced to meet a stranger. But
+London is something else besides a wilderness&mdash;indeed it is everything
+else. It is a great world, containing a thousand little worlds in its
+bosom; and pop yourself down in it in any quarter you will, you are
+sure to find yourself in the centre of some peculiar microcosm
+distinguished from all others by features more or less characteristic.</p>
+
+<p>One such little world we have lived in for a round number of years;
+and as we imagine it presents a picture by no means disagreeable to
+look upon, we will introduce the reader, with his permission, into its
+very limited circle, and chronicle its history for one day as
+faithfully as it is possible for anything to do, short of the
+Daguerreotype and the tax-gatherer. Our Terrace, then&mdash;for that is our
+little world&mdash;is situated in one of the northern, southern, eastern,
+or western suburbs&mdash;we have reasons for not being particular&mdash;at the
+distance of two miles and three-quarters from the black dome of St
+Paul's. It consists of thirty genteel-looking second-rate houses,
+standing upon a veritable terrace, at least three feet above the level
+of the carriage-way, and having small gardens enclosed in iron
+palisades in front of them. The garden gates open upon a pavement of
+nine feet in width; the carriage-road is thirty feet across; and on
+the opposite side is another but lower terrace, surmounted with
+handsome semi-detached villas, with ample flower-gardens both in front
+and rear, those in the front being planted, but rather sparingly, with
+limes, birches, and a few specimens of the white-ash, which in
+summertime overshadow the pavement, and shelter a passing pedestrian
+when caught in a shower. At one end<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[pg 67]</a></span> of Our Terrace, there is a
+respectable butcher's shop, a public-house, and a shop which is
+perpetually changing owners, and making desperate attempts to
+establish itself as something or other, without any particular
+partiality for any particular line of business. It has been by turns a
+print-shop, a stationer's, a circulating library, a toy-shop, a
+Berlin-wool shop, a music and musical-instrument shop, a haberdasher's
+shop, a snuff and cigar shop, and one other thing which has escaped
+our memory&mdash;and all within the last seven years. Each retiring
+speculator has left his stock-in-trade, along with the good-will, to
+his successor; and at the present moment it is a combination of shops,
+where everything you don't want is to be found in a state of
+dilapidation, together with a very hungry-looking proprietor, who, for
+want of customers upon whom to exercise his ingenuity, pulls away all
+day long upon the accordion to the tune of <i>We're a' noddin'</i>. The
+other end of Our Terrace has its butcher, its public-house, its
+grocer, and a small furniture-shop, doing a small trade, under the
+charge of a very small boy. Let thus much suffice for the physiology
+of our subject. We proceed to record its history, as it may be read by
+any one of the inhabitants who chooses to spend the waking hours of a
+single day in perusing it from his parlour window.</p>
+
+<p>It is a fine morning in the middle of June, and the clock of the
+church at the end of the road is about striking seven, when the
+parlour shutters and the street doors of the terrace begin to open one
+by one. By a quarter past, the servant-girls, having lighted their
+fires, and put the kettle on to boil for breakfast, are ostensibly
+busy in sweeping the pathways of the small front-gardens, but are
+actually enjoying a simultaneous gossip together over the garden
+railings&mdash;a fleeting pleasure, which must be nipped in the bud,
+because master goes to town at half-past eight, and his boots are not
+yet cleaned, or his breakfast prepared. Now the bedroom-bell rings,
+which means hot water; and this is no sooner up, than mistress is
+down, and breakfast is laid in the parlour. At a quarter before eight,
+the eggs are boiled, and the bacon toasted, and the first serious
+business of the day is in course of transaction. Mr Jones of No. 9, Mr
+Robinson of No. 10, and Mr Brown of No. 11, are bound to be at their
+several posts in the city at nine o'clock; and having swallowed a
+hasty breakfast, they may be seen, before half-past eight has chimed,
+walking up and down the terrace chatting together, and wondering
+whether 'that Smith,' as usual, means to keep the omnibus waiting this
+morning, or whether he will come forth in time. Precisely as the half
+hour strikes, the tin horn of the omnibus sounds its shrill blast, and
+the vehicle is seen rattling round the corner, stopping one moment at
+No. 28, to take up Mr Johnson. On it comes, with a fresh blast, to
+where the commercial trio are waiting for it; out rushes Smith, wiping
+his mouth, and the 'bus,' swallowing up the whole four, rumbles and
+trumpets on to take up Thompson, Jackson, and Richardson, who, cigars
+in mouth, are waiting at a distance of forty paces off to ascend the
+roof. An hour later, a second omnibus comes by on the same benevolent
+errand, for the accommodation of those gentlemen, more favoured by
+fortune, who are not expected to be at the post of business until the
+hour of ten. As Our Terrace does not stand in a direct omnibus route,
+these are all the 'buses' that will pass in the course of the day. The
+gentlemen whom they convey every morning to town are regular
+customers, and the vehicles diverge from their regular course in order
+to pick them up at their own doors.</p>
+
+<p>About half-past nine, or from that to a quarter to ten, comes the
+postman with his first delivery of letters for the day. Our Terrace is
+the most toilsome part of his beat, for having to serve both sides of
+the way, his progress is very like that of a ship at sea sailing
+against the wind. R'tat he goes on our side, then down he jumps into
+the road&mdash;B'bang on the other side&mdash;tacks about again, and serves the
+terrace&mdash;off again, and serves the villas, and so on till he has
+fairly epistolised both sides of the way, and vanished round the
+corner. The vision of his gold band and red collar is anxiously looked
+for in the morning by many a fair face, which a watchful observer may
+see furtively peering through the drawing-room window-curtains. After
+he has departed, and the well-to-do merchants and employers who reside
+in the villas opposite have had time to look over their
+correspondence, come sundry neat turn-outs from the stables and
+coach-houses in the rear of the villas: a light, high gig, drawn by a
+frisky grey, into which leaps young Oversea the shipbroker&mdash;a
+comfortable, cushioned four-wheel drawn by a pair of bay ponies, into
+which old Discount climbs heavily, followed perhaps by his two
+daughters, bound on a shopping-visit to the city&mdash;and a spicy-looking,
+rattling trap, with a pawing horse, which has a decided objection to
+standing still, for Mr Goadall, the wealthy cattle-drover. These, with
+other vehicles of less note, all roll off the ground by a quarter
+after ten o'clock or so; and the ladies and their servants, with some
+few exceptions, are left in undisputed possession of home, while not a
+footfall of man or beast is heard in the sunshiny quiet of the street.</p>
+
+<p>The quiet, however, is broken before long by a peculiar and suggestive
+cry. We do not hear it yet ourselves, but Stalker, our black cat and
+familiar, has caught the well-known accents, and with a characteristic
+crooning noise, and a stiff, perpendicular erection of tail, he sidles
+towards the door, demanding, as plainly as possible, to be let out.
+Yes, it is the cats-meat man. 'Ca' me-e-et&mdash;me-yet&mdash;me-e-yet!' fills
+the morning air, and arouses exactly thirty responsive feline
+voices&mdash;for there is a cat to every house&mdash;and points thirty aspiring
+tails to the zenith. As many hungry tabbies, sables, and
+tortoise-shells as can get out of doors, are trooping together with
+arched backs upon the pavement, following the little pony-cart, the
+cats' commissariat equipage, and each one, anxious for his daily
+allowance, contributing most musically his quota to the general
+concert. We do not know how it is, but the cats-meat man is the most
+unerring and punctual of all those peripatetic functionaries who
+undertake to cater for the consumption of the public. The baker, the
+butcher, the grocer, the butterman, the fishmonger, and the coster,
+occasionally forget your necessities, or omit to call for your
+orders&mdash;the cats-meat man never. Other traders, too, dispense their
+stock by a sliding-scale, and are sometimes out of stock altogether:
+Pussy's provider, on the contrary, sticks to one price from year's end
+to year's end, and never, in the memory of the oldest Grimalkin, was
+known to disappoint a customer. A half-penny for a cat's breakfast has
+been the regulation-price ever since the horses of the metropolis
+began to submit to the boiling process for the benefit of the feline
+race.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the cats have retired to growl over their allowance in
+private, the daily succession of nomadic industrials begin to lift up
+their voices, and to defile slowly along Our Terrace, stopping now and
+then to execute a job or effect a sale when an opportunity presents
+itself. Our limits will not allow us to notice them all, but we must
+devote a few paragraphs to those without whom our picture would be
+incomplete.</p>
+
+<p>First comes an ingenious lass of two or three-and-twenty, with a
+flaming red shawl, pink ribbons in her bonnet, and the hue of health
+on a rather saucy face. She carries a large basket on her left arm,
+and in her right hand she displays to general admiration a gorgeous
+group of flowers, fashioned twice the size of life, from tissue-paper
+of various colours. She lifts up her voice occasionally as she marches
+slowly along, singing, in a clear accent: 'Flowers&mdash;ornamental papers
+for the stove&mdash;flowers!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[pg 68]</a></span> paper-flowers!' She is the accredited herald
+of summer&mdash;a phenomenon, this year, of very late appearance. We should
+have seen her six weeks ago, if the summer had not declined to appear
+at the usual season. She is the gaudy, party-coloured ephemera of
+street commerce, and will disappear from view in a fortnight's time,
+to be seen no more until the opening summer of '53. Her wares, which
+are manufactured with much taste, and with an eye to the harmony of
+colours, are in much request among the genteel housewives of the
+suburbs. They are exceedingly cheap, considering the skill which must
+be applied in their construction. They are all the work of her own
+hands, and have occupied her time and swallowed up her capital for
+some months past. She enjoys almost a monopoly in her art, and is not
+to be beaten down in the price of her goods. She knows their value,
+and is more independent than an artist dares to be in the presence of
+a patron. Her productions are a pleasant summer substitute for the
+cheerful fire of winter; and it is perhaps well for her that, before
+the close of autumn, the faded hues of the flowers, and the harbour
+they afford to dust, will convert them into waste paper, in spite of
+all the care that may be taken to preserve them.</p>
+
+<p>Paper Poll, as the servants call her, is hardly out of sight, and not
+out of hearing, when a young fellow and his wife come clattering along
+the pavement, appealing to all who may require their good offices in
+the matter of chair-mending. The man is built up in a sort of
+cage-work of chairs stuck about his head and shoulders, and his dirty
+phiz is only half visible through a kind of grill of legs and
+cross-bars. These are partly commissions which, having executed at
+home, he is carrying to their several owners. But as everybody does
+not choose to trust him away with property, he is ready to execute
+orders on the spot; and to this end his wife accompanies him on his
+rounds. She is loaded with a small bag of tools suspended at her
+waist, and a plentiful stock of split-cane under one arm. He will
+weave a new cane-seat to an old chair for 9d., and he will set down
+his load and do it before your eyes in your own garden, if you prefer
+that to intrusting him with it; that is, he will make the bargain, and
+his wife will weave the seat under his supervision, unless there
+happen to be two to be repaired, when husband and wife will work
+together. We have noticed that it is a very silent operation, that of
+weaving chair-bottoms; and that though the couple may be seated for an
+hour and more together rapidly plying the flexible canes, they never
+exchange a word with each other till the task is accomplished.
+Sometimes the wife is left at a customer's door working alone, while
+the husband wanders further on in search of other employment,
+returning by the time she has finished her task. But there are no
+chairs to mend this morning on Our Terrace, and our bamboo friends may
+jog on their way.</p>
+
+<p>Now resounds from a distance the cry of 'All a-growin' an'
+a-blowin'&mdash;all a-blowin', a-blowin' here!' and in a few minutes the
+travelling florist makes his appearance, driving before him a
+broad-surfaced handcart, loaded in profusion with exquisite flowers of
+all hues, in full bloom, and, to all appearance, thriving famously. It
+may happen, however, as it has happened to us, that the blossoms now
+so vigorous and blooming, may all drop off on the second or third day;
+and the naked plant, after making a sprawling and almost successful
+attempt to reach the ceiling for a week or so, shall become suddenly
+sapless and withered, the emblem of a broken-down and emaciated
+sot&mdash;and, what is more, ruined from the self-same cause, an overdose
+of stimulating fluid. It may happen, on the other hand, that the plant
+shall have suffered no trick of the gardener's trade, and shall bloom
+fairly to the end of its natural term. The commerce in blossoming
+flowers is one of the most uncertain and dangerous speculations in
+which the small street-traders of London can engage. When carried on
+under favourable circumstances, it is one of the most profitable, the
+demand for flowers being constant and increasing; but the whole
+stock-in-trade of a small perambulating capitalist may be ruined by a
+shower of rain, which will spoil their appearance for the market, and
+prevent his selling them before they are overblown. Further, as few of
+these dealers have any means of housing this kind of stock safely
+during the night, they are often compelled to part with them, after an
+unfavourable day, at less than prime cost, to prevent a total loss.
+Still, there are never wanting men of a speculative turn of mind, and
+the cry of 'All a-blowin' an' a-growin'' resounds through the streets
+as long as the season supplies flowers to grow and to blow.</p>
+
+<p>The flower-merchant wheels off, having left a good sprinkling of
+geraniums in our neighbours' windows; and his cousin-german, 'the
+graveller,' comes crawling after him, with his cart and stout horse in
+the middle of the road, while he walks on one side of the pavement,
+and his assistant on the other. This fellow is rather a singular
+character, and one that is to be met with probably nowhere upon the
+face of the earth but in the suburbs of London. He is, <i>par
+excellence</i>, the exponent of a feeling which pervades the popular mind
+in the metropolis on the subject of the duty which respectable people
+owe to respectability. It is impossible for a housekeeper in a
+neighbourhood having any claims to gentility, to escape the
+recognition of this feeling in the lower class of industrials. If you
+have a broken window in the front of your house, the travelling
+glazier thinks, to use his own expression, that <i>you have a right</i> to
+have it repaired, and therefore that he, having discovered the
+fracture, has a right to the job of mending it. If your bell-handle is
+out of order or broken off, the travelling bellman thinks he has a
+right to repair it, and bores you, in fact, until you commission him
+to do so&mdash;and so on. In the same manner, and on the same principle, so
+soon as the fine weather sets in, and the front-gardens begin to look
+gay, the graveller loads his cart with gravel, and shouldering his
+spade, crawls leisurely through the suburbs with his companion,
+peering into every garden; and wherever he sees that the walks are
+grown dingy or moss-grown, he knocks boldly at the door, and demands
+to be set to work in mending your ways. The best thing you can do is
+to make the bargain and employ him at once; if not, he will be round
+again to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, and bore you into
+consenting at last. You live in a respectable house, and you <i>have a
+right</i> to keep your garden in a respectable condition&mdash;and the
+graveller is determined that you shall do so: has he not brought
+gravel to the door on purpose? it will cost you but a shilling or two.
+Thus he lays down the law in his own mind; and sooner or later, as
+sure as fate, he lays down the gravel in your garden.</p>
+
+<p>While the graveller is patting down the pathway round Robinson's
+flower-bed, we hear the well-known cry of a countryman whom we have
+known any time these ten years, and who, with his wife by his side,
+has perambulated the suburbs for the best part of his life. He has
+taken upon himself the patronage of the laundry department, and he
+shoulders a fagot of clothes-poles, ten feet long, with forked
+extremities, all freshly cut from the forest. Coils of new rope for
+drying are hanging upon his arm, and his wife carries a basket well
+stocked with clothes-pins of a superior description, manufactured by
+themselves. The cry of 'Clo'-pole-line-pins' is one long familiar to
+the neighbourhood; and as this honest couple have earned a good
+reputation by a long course of civility and probity, they enjoy the
+advantage of a pretty extensive connection. Their perambulations are
+confined to the suburbs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[pg 69]</a></span> and it is a question if they ever enter
+London proper from one year's end to another. It is of no use to carry
+clothes-poles and drying-lines where there are no conveniences for
+washing and drying.</p>
+
+<p>Next comes a travelling umbrella-mender, fagoted on the back like the
+man in the moon of the nursery rhyme-book. He is followed at a short
+distance by a travelling tinker, swinging his live-coals in a sort of
+tin censer, and giving utterance to a hoarse and horrible cry,
+intelligible only to the cook who has a leaky sauce-pan. Then comes
+the chamois-leather woman, bundled about with damaged skins, in
+request for the polishing of plate and plated wares. She is one of
+that persevering class who will hardly take 'No' for an answer. It
+takes her a full hour to get through the terrace, for she enters every
+garden, and knocks at every door from No. 1 to No. 30. In the
+winter-time, she pursues an analogous trade, dealing in what may
+strictly be termed the raw material, inasmuch as she then buys and
+cries hare-skins and rabbit-skins. She has, unfortunately, a
+notoriously bad character, and is accused of being addicted to the
+practice of taking tenpence and a hare-skin in exchange for a
+counterfeit shilling.</p>
+
+<p>By this time it is twelve o'clock and past, and Charley Coster, who
+serves the terrace with vegetables, drives up his stout cob to the
+door, and is at the very moment we write bargaining with Betty for new
+potatoes at threepence-half-penny a pound. Betty declares it is a
+scandalous price for potatoes. 'Yes, dear,' says Charley; 'an' another
+scanlous thing is, that I can't sell 'em for no less.' Charley is the
+most affectionate of costers, and is a general favourite with the
+abigails of the terrace. His turn-out is the very model of a
+travelling green-grocer's shop, well stocked with all the fruits and
+vegetables of the season; and he himself is a model of a coster, clean
+shaved, clean shod, and trimly dressed, with a flower in his
+button-hole, an everlasting smile upon his face, and the nattiest of
+neck-ties. The cunning rogue pretends to be smitten with Betty, and
+most likely does the same with all the other Bettys of the
+neighbourhood, to all of whom he chatters incessantly of everything
+and everybody&mdash;save and except of the wife and three children waiting
+for him at home. He will leave a good portion of his stock behind him
+when he quits the terrace.</p>
+
+<p>After Charley has disappeared, there is a pause for an hour or two in
+the flow of professionals past Our Terrace. The few pedestrians that
+pass along are chiefly gentlefolks, who have come abroad this fine
+morning for an airing&mdash;to take a constitutional, and to pick up an
+appetite for dinner. You may chance to hear the cry of 'Oranges and
+nuts,' or of 'Cod&mdash;live cod,' and you may be entertained by a band of
+musicians in a gaily-coloured van patrolling for the purpose of
+advertising the merits of something or other which is to be had for
+nothing at all, or the next thing to it, if you can prevail upon
+yourself to go and fetch it. Perhaps Punch and Judy will pitch their
+little citadel in front of your dwelling; or, more likely still, a
+band of mock Ethiopians, with fiddle, castanets, and banjo, may tempt
+your liberality with a performance of <i>Uncle Ned</i> or <i>Old Dan Tucker</i>;
+or a corps of German musicians may trumpet you into a fit of martial
+ardour; or a wandering professor of the German flute soothe you into a
+state of romance.</p>
+
+<p>As the afternoon wears on, the tranquillity grows more profound. The
+villas opposite stand asleep in the sunshine; the sound of a single
+footstep is heard on the pavement; and anon you hear the feeble,
+cracked voice of old Willie, the water-cress man, distinctly
+articulating the cry of 'Water-cresses; fine brown water-cresses;
+royal Albert water-cresses; the best in London&mdash;everybody say so.' The
+water-cresses are welcomed on the terrace as an ornament and something
+more to the tea-table; and while tea is getting ready for the
+inhabitants of the terrace, the dwellers in the opposite villas are
+seen returning to dinner. The lame match-man now hobbles along upon
+his crutches, with his little basket of lucifers suspended at his
+side. He is thoroughly deaf and three parts dumb, uttering nothing
+beyond an incomprehensible kind of croak by way of a demand for
+custom. He is a privileged being, whom nobody thinks of interfering
+with. He has the <i>entr&eacute;e</i> of all the gardens on both sides of the way,
+and is the acknowledged depositary of scraps and remnants of all kinds
+which have made their last appearance upon the dinner or supper table.</p>
+
+<p>About five o'clock, the tinkling note of the muffin-bell strikes
+agreeably upon the ear, suggestive of fragrant souchong and
+bottom-crusts hot, crackling, and unctuous. Now ensues a delicate
+savour in the atmosphere of the terrace kitchens, and it is just at
+its height when Smith, Brown, Jones, and Robinson are seen walking
+briskly up the terrace. They all go in at Smith's, where the
+muffin-man went in about half an hour before, and left half his stock
+behind him. By six o'clock, the lords and ladies of Our Terrace are
+congregated round their tea-urns; and by seven, you may see from one
+of the back-windows a tolerable number of the lords, arrayed in
+dressing-gowns and slippers, and some of them with corpulent
+meerschaums dangling from their mouths, strolling leisurely in the
+gardens in the rear of their dwellings, and amusing themselves with
+their children, whose prattling voices and innocent laughter mingle
+with the twittering of those suburban songsters, the sparrows, and
+with the rustling of the foliage, stirred by the evening breeze. These
+pleasant sounds die away by degrees. Little boys and girls go to bed;
+the gloom of twilight settles down upon the gardens; candles are
+lighted in the drawing-rooms, and from a dozen houses at once
+pianofortes commence their harmony. At No. 12, the drawing-room
+windows are open, though the blinds are down; and the slow-pacing
+policeman pauses in his round, and leans against the iron railings,
+being suddenly brought up by the richly-harmonious strains of a glee
+for three voices: Brown, Jones, and Robinson are doing the <i>Chough and
+Crow</i>; and Smith, who prides himself on his semi-grand, which he tunes
+with his own hands once a week, is doing the accompaniment in his best
+style. The merry chorus swells delightfully upon the ear, and is heard
+half way down the terrace: the few foot-passengers who are passing
+stop under the window to listen, till one of them is imprudent enough
+to cry 'Encore,' when down go the windows, and the harmonious sounds
+are shut in from vulgar ears.</p>
+
+<p>It is by this time nearly half-past nine o'clock, and now comes the
+regular nightly 'tramp, tramp' of the police, marching in Indian file,
+and heavily clad in their night-gear. They come to replace the
+guardians of the day by those of the night. One of the number falls
+out of the line on the terrace, where he commences his nocturnal
+wanderings, and guarantees the peace and safety of the inhabitants for
+the succeeding eight hours: the rest tramp onwards to their distant
+stations. The echoes of their iron heels have hardly died away, when
+there is a sudden and almost simultaneous eruption from every
+garden-gate on the terrace of clean-faced, neat-aproned, red-elbowed
+servant-girls, each and all armed with a jug or a brace of jugs, with
+a sprinkling of black bottles among them, and all bound to one or
+other of the public-houses which guard the terrace at either end. It
+is the hour of supper; and the supper-beer, and the after-supper
+nightcaps, for those who indulge in them, have to be procured from the
+publican. This is an occasion upon which Betty scorns to hurry; but
+she takes time by the forelock, starting for the beer as soon as the
+cloth is laid, and before master has finished his pipe, or his game of
+chess, or Miss Clementina her song, in order that she may have leisure
+for a little gossip with No. 7 on the one hand, or No. 9 on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[pg 70]</a></span>
+other. She goes out without beat of drum, and lets herself in with the
+street-door key without noise, bringing home, besides the desiderated
+beverage, the news of the day, and the projects of next-door for the
+morrow, with, it may be, a plan for the enjoyment of her next monthly
+holiday.</p>
+
+<p>Supper is the last great business of the day upon Our Terrace, which,
+by eleven at night, is lapped in profound repose. The moon rides high
+in mid-sky, and the black shadows of the trees lie motionless on the
+white pavement. Not a footfall is heard abroad; the only sound that is
+audible as you put your head out of the window, to look up at the
+glimmering stars and radiant moon, is the distant and monotonous
+murmur of the great metropolis, varied now and then by the shrill
+scream of a far-off railway-whistle, or the 'cough, cough, cough' of
+the engine of some late train. We are sober folks on the terrace, and
+are generally all snug abed before twelve o'clock. The last sound that
+readies our ears ere we doze off into forgetfulness, is the slow,
+lumbering, earthquaky advance of a huge outward-bound wagon. We hear
+it at the distance of half a mile, and note distinctly the crushing
+and pulverising of every small stone which the broad wheels roll over
+as they sluggishly proceed on their way. It rocks us in our beds as it
+passes the house; and for twenty minutes afterwards, if we are awake
+so long, we are aware that it is groaning heavily onwards, and shaking
+the solid earth in its progress&mdash;till it sinks away in silence, or we
+into the land of dreams.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="SLAVES_IN_BRITAIN" id="SLAVES_IN_BRITAIN"></a>SLAVES IN BRITAIN.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> has sometimes been predicted, not without plausibility, that if
+this great empire should sink before the rising genius of some new
+state, when all it has accomplished in arts and arms, and its wealth,
+its literature, its machinery, are forgotten, its struggles for
+humanity in the abolition of negro slavery will stand forth in
+undiminished lustre. All the steps of this mighty operation are
+interesting. It is a peculiarity of England and its institutions, that
+many of the most momentous constitutional conflicts have taken place
+in the courts of law. In despotic countries, this seldom occurs,
+because the rulers can bend the courts of law to their pleasure; but
+here, even under the worst governments, whatever degree of freedom was
+really warranted by law, could be secured by the courts of justice.
+When it was said that the air of Britain was too pure for a slave to
+breathe in&mdash;that his shackles fell off whenever he reached her happy
+shore&mdash;the sentiment was noble; but the question depended entirely on
+the law and its technical details. The trials resulting in a decision
+against slavery, have thus much interest from the influence they
+exercised on human progress.</p>
+
+<p>There seemed to be every probability that the interesting question,
+whether ownership in slaves continued after they had reached Britain,
+would have been tried in Scotland. In the middle of last century, a Mr
+Sheddan had brought home from Virginia a negro slave to be taught a
+trade. He was baptised, and, learning his trade, began to acquire
+notions of freedom and citizenship. When the master thought he had
+been long enough in Scotland to suit his purpose, the negro was put on
+board a vessel for Virginia. He got a friend, however, to present for
+him a petition to the Court of Session. The professional report of the
+case in <i>Morison's Dictionary of Decisions</i> says: 'The Lords appointed
+counsel for the negro, and ordered memorials, and afterwards a hearing
+in presence, upon the respective claims of liberty and servitude by
+the master and the negro; but during the hearing in presence, the
+negro died, so the point was not determined.' In the English case, to
+which we shall presently advert, it was maintained, that from the
+known temper and opinions of the court, the decision, would
+undoubtedly have been in the negro's favour. At the time when Mr
+Grenville Sharp, to his immortal honour, took up in the courts of law
+the question of personal liberty as a legal right, there was a more
+serious risk of Britain becoming a slave state than it is now easy to
+imagine. There was no chance of negroes being employed in gangs in the
+field or in manufactories, but there was imminent danger of their
+being brought over and kept in multitudes as domestic servants, just
+as they are still in some of the southern states of America. Mr Sharp
+drew attention to the following advertisement in the <i>Public
+Advertiser</i> of 28th March 1769, as one of a kind becoming too common:</p>
+
+<p>'To be sold, a Black Girl, the property of J. B&mdash;&mdash;, eleven years of
+age, who is extremely handy, works at her needle tolerably, and speaks
+English perfectly well; is of an excellent temper and willing
+disposition.</p>
+
+<p>'Inquire of Mr Owen, at the Angel Inn, behind St Clement's Church in
+the Strand.'</p>
+
+<p>Mr Sharp's early conflicts in the law-courts are more romantic than
+the last and decisive one. He and his brother had found a poor
+mendicant negro, called Jonathan Strong, in rags on the streets of
+London. They took him into their service, and after he had become
+plump, strong, and acquainted with his business, the man who had
+brought him from the colonies, an attorney, seeing him behind a
+carriage, set covetous eyes on him. The lad was waylaid on a false
+message to a public-house, seized, and committed to the Compter,
+where, however, he managed to make Mr Sharp acquainted with his
+position. The indefatigable philanthropist had him brought before the
+lord mayor as sitting magistrate. After hearing the case stated, his
+lordship said: 'The lad had not stolen anything, and was not guilty of
+any offence, and was therefore at liberty to go away.' A captain of a
+vessel, saying he had been employed by a person who had just bought
+the youth, to convey him to Jamaica, seized him by the arm as his
+employer's property. A lawyer standing behind Mr Sharp, who seems to
+have been puzzled how to proceed, whispered, 'Charge him.' Sharp
+charged the captain with an assault, and as he would have been
+immediately committed by the lord mayor if he persisted, he let go his
+hold. The philanthropist was threatened with a prosecution for
+abstraction of property, but it was abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>This occurred in 1767. The next important case was that of a negro
+named Lewis. He 'had formerly,' says Mr Sharp's biographer, 'been a
+slave in possession of a Mr Stapylton, who now resided at Chelsea.
+Stapylton, with the aid of two watermen, whom he had hired for that
+purpose, in a dark night seized the person of Lewis, and, after a
+struggle, dragged him on his back into the water, and thence into a
+boat lying in the Thames, where, having first tied his legs, they
+endeavoured to gag him by running a stick into his mouth; and then
+rowing down to a ship bound for Jamaica, whose commander was
+previously engaged in the wicked conspiracy, they put him on board, to
+be sold as a slave on his arrival in the island.' The negro's cries,
+however, were heard; the struggle was witnessed; and information given
+in the quarter whence aid was most likely to come. Mr Sharp lost no
+time in obtaining a writ of habeas corpus. The ship in the meantime
+had sailed from Gravesend, but the officer with the writ was able to
+board her in the Downs. There he saw the negro chained to the mast.
+The captain was at first furious, and determined to resist; but he
+knew the danger of deforcing an officer with, such a writ as a habeas
+corpus, and found it necessary to yield. The writ came up before Lord
+Mansfield. He did not go into the general question of slavery, for
+there was an incidental point on which the case could be decided on
+the side of humanity&mdash;the captain and the persons employing him could
+not prove their property in the slave, supposing such property lawful.
+He was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[pg 71]</a></span> only liberated, but his captors were convicted of assault.</p>
+
+<p>These cases, however, did not decide the wide question, whether it was
+lawful to hold property in negroes in this country. It came at last to
+be solemnly decided in 1771, on a habeas corpus in the King's Bench.
+Affidavits having been made before Lord Mansfield, that a coloured
+man, named Somerset, was confined in irons on board a vessel called
+the <i>Ann and Mary</i>, bound for Jamaica, he granted a habeas corpus
+against the captain, to compel him to give an account of his authority
+for keeping the man in custody. Somerset had been a slave in Virginia,
+the property of a Mr Stewart; and the captain of the vessel stated
+that the owner had put him on board, to be conveyed to Jamaica, and
+there sold. In what was called the return to the writ, the
+justification for keeping Somerset in restraint was thus quaintly
+stated:&mdash;'That at the time of bringing the said James Somerset from
+Africa, and long before, there were, and from thence hitherto there
+have been, and still are, great numbers of negro slaves in Africa; and
+that during all the time aforesaid, there hath been, and still is a
+trade, carried on by his majesty's subjects from Africa, to his
+majesty's colonies or plantations of Virginia and Jamaica, in America,
+and other colonies and plantations belonging to his majesty in
+America, for the necessary supplying of the foresaid colonies and
+plantations with negro slaves.' It proceeded to relate with the same
+verbosity, that the slaves so brought from Africa 'have been and are
+saleable and sold as goods and chattels; and upon the sale thereof,
+have become, and been, and are, the slaves and property of the
+purchasers thereof.' It was stated that Mr Stewart, who resided in
+Virginia, had Somerset as a domestic slave or valet&mdash;that having
+business to transact in London, he took his usual attendant there,
+intending to take him back to Virginia. Somerset, however, made his
+escape; and when he was apprehended, his master, probably believing
+that he would thenceforth be rather a troublesome valet, changed his
+intention, and put the negro into the hands of the captain of a vessel
+bound for Jamaica, that he might be sold there.</p>
+
+<p>The pleadings upon the legality of this proceeding were solemn and
+full. The question was, Whether it was to be held a just inference,
+from the fact of the slave, being undoubtedly by the law of the day
+property in the colonies, that, while his colonial master made a
+temporary stay in Britain, he should be property there also, without
+any direct law to that effect. Had it been a question of inanimate
+goods, there would be no reason why the property should not continue
+in the colonial owner. It would be all one to the inanimate object
+what hands it was in, and regularity and justice would decree that the
+person who was owner of it in one country should be so in another. But
+in these cases there was a separate adverse interest of a very strong
+character. Was the uniformity of this right of possession sufficient
+to overrule another right&mdash;that which every man, black or white, had
+to the freedom of his own person, unless there was special law to
+restrain it? The counsel for the negro not only pleaded strongly on
+this his personal right, but on the consequence to the moral condition
+of the British Empire, if the inhabitants of slave countries could
+bring their slaves hither. From the strictness of the laws, and the
+uniformity of the course of justice, if slaves were permitted in
+England, it was the very place where property in them would be most
+secure. Thus the country might become a resort of slaveholders, and
+its boasted purity and freedom would be sadly contaminated. 'If that
+right,' said Mr Hargrave, 'is here recognised, domestic slavery, with
+its horrid train of evils, may be lawfully imported into this country,
+at the discretion of every individual, foreign and native. It will
+come not only from our own colonies, and those of other European
+nations, but from Poland, Russia, Spain, and Turkey&mdash;from the coast of
+Barbary, from the western and eastern coasts of Africa&mdash;from every
+part of the world where it still continues to torment and dishonour
+the human species.'</p>
+
+<p>The counsel on the other side was the celebrated Mr Dunning,
+afterwards Lord Ashburton, a friend of freedom, who seems to have
+undertaken the cause on notions of professional duty, and without any
+great inclination for it. His first words were: 'It is incumbent on me
+to justify Captain Knowles's detainer of the negro.' He was careful to
+shew, that he did not in the meantime maintain that there was an
+absolute property in Somerset&mdash;it was sufficient to shew, that there
+was a sufficient presumption of property to authorise the shipmaster
+in detaining him until the absolute question of right was solemnly
+settled. He proceeded to say: 'It is my misfortune to address an
+audience, the greater part of which I fear are prejudiced the other
+way. But wishes, I am well convinced, will never be allowed by your
+lordships to enter into the determination of the point. This cause
+must be what in fact and law it is. Its fate, I trust, therefore,
+depends on fixed and variable rules, resulting by law from the nature
+of the case. For myself, I would not be understood to intimate a wish
+in favour of slavery by any means; nor, on the other side, to be
+supposed the maintainer of an opinion contrary to my own judgment. I
+am bound in duty to maintain those arguments which are most useful to
+Captain Knowles, as far as is consistent with truth; and if his
+conduct has been agreeable to the laws throughout, I am under a
+further indispensable duty to support it.'</p>
+
+<p>Much reference was made to the ancient laws of villenage, or
+semi-slavery, in Britain. Mr Dunning maintained, that these were
+testimony that a slave was not an utter anomaly in the country. The
+class of villeins had disappeared, and the law regarding them was
+abolished in the reign of Charles II. But he maintained, that there
+was nothing in that circumstance to prohibit others from establishing
+a claim upon separate grounds. He said: 'If the statute of Charles II.
+ever be repealed, the law of villenage revives in its full force.' It
+was stated that there were in Britain 15,000 negroes in the same
+position with Somerset. They had come over as domestics during the
+temporary sojourn of their owner-masters, intending to go back again.
+Then it was observed, that many of the slaves were in ships or in
+colonies which had not special laws for the support of slavery; and by
+the disfranchisement of these, British subjects would lose many
+millions' worth of property, which they believed themselves justly to
+possess.</p>
+
+<p>British justice, however, has held at all times the question of human
+liberty to be superior to considerations of mere expediency. If the
+question be, who gains or loses most, there never can be a doubt that
+the man whose freedom has been reft from him has the greatest of all
+claims for indulgence. Accordingly, Lord Mansfield, the presiding
+judge, looking in the face all the threatened evils to property, held
+that nothing but absolute law could trench on personal freedom. He
+used on the occasion a Latin expression, to the effect that justice
+must be done at whatever cost; it has found its way into use as a
+classical expression, and as no one has been able to find it in any
+Latin author, it is supposed to have been of Lord Mansfield's own
+coining. 'Mr Stewart,' he said, 'advances no claims on contract; he
+rests his whole demand on a right to the negro as slave, and mentions
+the purpose of detainure of him to be the sending him over to be sold
+in Jamaica. If the parties will have judgment, <i>fiat justitia ruat
+c&oelig;lum</i>&mdash;Let justice be done whatever be the consequence.' In
+finally delivering judgment, he concluded in these simple but
+expressive terms: 'The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it
+is incapable of being introduced, on any reasons, moral or political,
+but only by positive law, which preserves its force long after the
+reasons, occasion, and time itself, for which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[pg 72]</a></span> it was created, are
+erased from memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to
+support it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may
+follow from the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or
+approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be
+discharged.'</p>
+
+<p>A few years afterwards&mdash;in 1778&mdash;a case occurred in Scotland, where
+the question of a master's rights over a negro slave in Britain was at
+issue. The right claimed in this case, however, was not of so
+offensive a nature. The master did not claim the power of seizing the
+negro as his property. He maintained, however, that their mutual
+position gave him a right to claim the negro's services, as if he had
+engaged himself as a servant for life. Mr Wedderburn had bought in
+Jamaica a negro named Knight, about twelve years old. He came to
+Scotland as Mr Wedderburn's personal servant, married in the country,
+and for some years seemed contented with his position. Probably at the
+suggestion of some one who wished to try the question, as it had been
+tried in England, Knight went off, avowing his intention of being
+free. Mr Wedderburn applied to a justice of peace, who at once issued
+a warrant for the negro's apprehension. The matter, however, came
+before the sheriff, a professional judge, who decided that the
+colonial laws of slavery do not extend to Scotland, and that personal
+service for life is just another term for slavery. After a tedious
+litigation, this view was affirmed by the Court of Session, and the
+negro was declared free. The case acquired notice from the interest
+taken in it by Dr Johnson, and the frequent mention of it in Boswell's
+well-known work.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="THE_OLD_HOUSEKEEPERS_TALE" id="THE_OLD_HOUSEKEEPERS_TALE"></a>THE OLD HOUSEKEEPER'S TALE.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> my good and excellent mistress, Mrs Dacre, departed this life
+for a better, it seemed as if nothing ever prospered in the family,
+whom I had the honour of serving in the capacity of confidential
+housekeeper. Mr Dacre became morose and careless of his affairs; his
+sons were a source of great misery to him, pursuing a course of
+reckless extravagance and heartless dissipation; while the five young
+ladies&mdash;the youngest of whom, however, had attained the age of
+twenty-four&mdash;cared for little else than dress, and visiting, and empty
+show. These five young ladies had not amiable dispositions or gentle
+manners; but they were first-rate horsewomen, laughed and talked very
+loud, and were pronounced fine dashing women. There was another member
+of the family, an orphan niece of my master's, who had greatly
+profited by my lamented lady's teaching and companionship. Miss Marion
+had devoted herself to the sick-room with even more than a daughter's
+love; and for two years she had watched beside the patient sufferer,
+when her more volatile and thoughtless cousins refused to credit the
+approach of death. Miss Marion had just entered her twentieth year;
+life had not been all summer with her; for she remembered scenes of
+privation and distress, ere the decease of her parents left her, their
+only child, to the care of affluent relatives. She was a serious and
+meek, but affectionate creature; of a most goodly countenance and
+graceful carriage; and I used sometimes to think that the Misses Dacre
+were jealous of the admiration she excited, and kept her in the
+background as much as possible. It was not difficult to do this, for
+Miss Marion sought and loved retirement. After Mrs Dacre's decease,
+she had expressed an urgent wish to earn her bread by filling the
+situation of a governess. But the pride of the Dacres revolted at
+this; besides, Miss Marion was a comfort to her uncle, when his
+daughters were absent or occupied. So the dear young lady gave up her
+own wishes, and strove to do all she could for her generous
+benefactor, as she was wont to call my master.</p>
+
+<p>Circumstances, which it were needless to detail, except to say that,
+although I had served <i>one</i> mistress satisfactorily, I found it
+impossible to serve <i>five</i>, determined me to resign the situation I
+had creditably filled for so many years. I deeply grieved to leave my
+beloved Miss Marion; and she, sweet, humble soul, on her part, yearned
+towards me, and wept a farewell on my bosom. I betook myself, in the
+first instance, to my brother Thomas Wesley and his wife&mdash;a worthy
+couple without children, renting a small farm nearly a hundred miles
+off. A very pleasant, small farm it was, situated in a picturesque
+valley, through which tumbled and foamed a limpid hill-stream, washing
+the roots of fine old trees, and playing all sorts of antics. This
+valley was a resort of quiet anglers, and also of artists during the
+summer season; and Thomas and Martha Wesley often let a neat parlour
+and adjoining bedroom to such respectable, steady people as did not
+object to observe the primitive hours and customs enforced at Fairdown
+Farm. Here I enjoyed the privilege of writing to, and hearing from, my
+dear Miss Marion; and though she never complained, or suffered a
+murmur to escape her, yet from the tenor of her letters I had great
+cause to fear things were all going very wrong at Mr Dacre's, and that
+her own health, always delicate, was giving way beneath the pressure
+of anxiety and unkindness.</p>
+
+<p>In less than six months after I had quitted the family, a climax,
+which I had long anticipated with dread, actually arrived. Mr Dacre,
+suddenly called to his account, was found to have left his temporal
+affairs involved in inextricable and hopeless ruin; and amid the
+general crash and desolation, who was to shield or befriend the poor
+dependent, the orphan niece, Miss Marion? She was rudely cast adrift
+on the cold world; her proffered sympathy and services tauntingly
+rejected by those who had now a hard battle to fight on their own
+account. Broken down in health and spirits, the poor young lady flew
+to me, her humble, early friend, gratefully and eagerly availing
+herself of Thomas Wesley's cordial invitation, to make his house her
+home for the present.</p>
+
+<p>My brother was a kind-hearted, just man; he had once been to see me
+when I lived at Mr Dacre's; and that gentleman, in his palmy days, was
+truly hospitable and generous to all comers. Thomas never forgot his
+reception, and now he was a proud and happy man to be enabled thus to
+offer 'a slight return,' as he modestly said, to one of the family.
+With much concern we all viewed Miss Marion's wan and careworn looks,
+so touching in the young; 'But her dim blue een will get bright again,
+and she'll fill out&mdash;never fear,' said Martha Wesley to me, by way of
+comfort and encouragement, 'now we've got her amongst <i>us</i>, poor dear.
+I doubt those proud Misses Dacre were not over-tender with such a one
+as sweet Miss Marion'&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>'Dame, dame, don't let that tongue of thine wag so fast,' interrupted
+Thomas, for he never liked to hear people ill spoken of behind their
+backs, though he would speak out plainly enough to everybody's face.</p>
+
+<p>A few days after Miss Marion's arrival at Fairdown (it was just at the
+hay-making season, and the earth was very beautiful&mdash;birds singing and
+flowers blooming&mdash;soft breezes blowing, and musical streamlets
+murmuring rejoicingly in the sunshine), a pedestrian was seen
+advancing leisurely up the valley, coming in a direction from the
+neighbouring town&mdash;a distance, however, of some miles, and the nearest
+point where the coach stopped. The stranger, aided in his walk by a
+stout stick, was a short, thickset, elderly man, clad in brown
+habiliments from head to foot: a brown, broad-brimmed beaver, an
+antiquated brown spencer (a brown wig must not be omitted), brown
+gaiters, and brown cloth boots, completed his attire. His linen was
+spotless and fine, his countenance rubicund and benevolent; and when
+he took off his green spectacles, a pair of the clearest and honestest
+brown eyes ever set in mortal's head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[pg 73]</a></span> looked you full in the face. He
+was a nice, comfortable-looking old gentleman; and so Thomas and I
+both thought at the same moment&mdash;for Martha was out of the way, and I
+shewed the apartments for her; the stranger, who gave his name as Mr
+Budge, having been directed to our house by the people of the inn
+where the coach stopped, who were kin to Martha, and well-disposed,
+obliging persons.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Budge said he wanted quietness for some weeks, and the recreation
+of fishing; he had come from the turmoil of the great city to relax
+and enjoy himself, and if Thomas Wesley would kindly consent to
+receive him as a lodger, he would feel very much obliged. Never did we
+listen to so pleasant and obliging a mode of speaking; and when Mr
+Budge praised the apartments, and admired the country, the conquest of
+Thomas's heart was complete. 'Besides,' as Martha sagaciously
+remarked, 'it was so much better to have a steady old gentleman like
+this for a lodger, when pretty Miss Marion honoured them as a guest.'
+I thought so too; my dear young lady being so lone and unprotected by
+relatives, we all took double care of her.</p>
+
+<p>So Mr Budge engaged the rooms, and speedily arrived to take
+possession, bringing with him a spick-and-span new fishing-rod and
+basket. He did not know much about fishing, but he enjoyed himself
+just as thoroughly as if he did; and he laughed so good-humouredly at
+his own Cockney blunders, as he called them, that Thomas would have
+been quite angry had any one else presumed to indulge a smile at Mr
+Budge's expense. A pattern lodger in all respects was Mr
+Budge&mdash;deferential towards Martha and myself, and from the first
+moment he beheld Miss Marion, regarding her as a superior being, yet
+one to be loved by a mortal for all that. Mr Budge was not a
+particularly communicative individual himself, though we opined from
+various observations, that, although not rich, he was comfortably off:
+but somehow or other, without appearing in the least inquisitive, he
+managed to obtain the minutest information he required. In this way,
+he learned all the particulars respecting Miss Marion; and gathered
+also from me, my own desire of obtaining a situation, such as I had
+held at Mr Dacre's, but in a small and well-regulated household. As to
+Miss Marion, the kind old gentleman could never shew kindness enough
+to her; and he watched the returning roses on her fair cheeks with a
+solicitude scarcely exceeded by mine. I never wondered at anybody
+admiring and loving the sweet, patient girl; but Mr Budge's admiration
+and apparent affection so far exceeded the bounds of mere conventional
+kindness in a stranger, that sometimes I even smilingly conjectured he
+had the idea of asking her to become Mrs Budge, for he was a widower,
+as he told us, and childless.</p>
+
+<p>Such an idea, however, had never entered Miss Marion's innocent heart;
+and she, always so grateful for any little attention, was not likely
+to receive with coldness those so cordially lavished on her by her new
+friend, whom she valued as a truly good man, and not for a polished
+exterior, in which Mr Budge was deficient. Nay, so cordial was their
+intimacy, and so much had Miss Marion regained health and
+cheerfulness, that with unwonted sportiveness, on more than one
+occasion she actually hid the ponderous brown snuff-box, usually
+reposing in Mr Budge's capacious pocket, and only produced it when his
+distress became real; whereupon he chuckled and laughed, as if she had
+performed a mighty clever feat, indulging at the same time, however,
+in a double pinch.</p>
+
+<p>Some pleasant weeks to us all had thus glided away, and Miss Marion
+was earnestly consulting me about her project of governessing, her
+health being now so restored; and I, for my part, wanted to execute my
+plans for obtaining a decent livelihood, as I could not think of
+burdening Thomas and Martha any longer, loath as they were for me to
+leave them. Some pleasant weeks, I say, had thus glided away, when Mr
+Budge, with much ceremony and circumlocution, as if he had deeply
+pondered the matter, and considered it very weighty and important,
+made a communication which materially changed and brightened my
+prospects. It was to the effect, that an intimate friend of his, whom
+he had known, he said, all his life, required the immediate services
+of a trustworthy housekeeper, to take the entire responsible charge of
+his house. 'My friend,' continued Mr Budge, tapping his snuff-box
+complacently, his brown eyes twinkling with the pleasure of doing a
+kind act, for his green specs were in their well-worn case at his
+elbow&mdash;'My friend is about my age&mdash;a sober chap, you see, Mrs Deborah;
+'here a chuckle&mdash;'and he has no wife and no child to take care of
+him'&mdash;here a slight sigh: 'he has lately bought a beautiful estate,
+called Sorel Park, and it is there you will live, with nobody to
+interfere with you, as the lady-relative who will reside with my
+friend is a most amiable and admirable young lady; and I am sure, Mrs
+Deborah, you will become much attached to her. 'By the by, Mrs
+Deborah,' he continued, after pondering for a moment, 'will you do me
+a favour to use your influence to prevent Miss Marion from accepting
+any appointment for the present, as after you are established at Sorel
+Park, I think I know of a home that may suit her?'</p>
+
+<p>I do not know which I felt most grateful or delighted for&mdash;my own
+prospects, or my dear Miss Marion's; though certainly hers were more
+vague and undefined than mine, for the remuneration offered for my
+services was far beyond my expectation, and from Mr Budge's
+description of Sorel Park, it seemed to be altogether a place beyond
+my most sanguine hopes. I said something about Miss Marion, and my
+hope that she might be as fortunate as myself; and Mr Budge, I was
+happy to see, was quite fervent in his response. 'My friend,' said he,
+at the close of the interview, 'will not arrive to take possession of
+Sorel Park until you, Mrs Deborah, have got all things in order; and
+as I know that he is anxious for the time to arrive, the sooner you
+can set out on your journey thither the better. I also must depart
+shortly, but I hope to return hither again.' Important business
+required Mr Budge's personal attention, and with hurried adieus to us
+all, he departed from Fairdown; and in compliance with his request, I
+set off for Sorel Park, leaving my beloved Miss Marion to the care of
+Thomas and Martha for the present.</p>
+
+<p>The owner of this fine place was not as yet known there; for Mr Budge,
+being a managing man, had taken everything upon himself, and issued
+orders with as lordly an air as if there was nobody in the kingdom
+above the little brown man. The head-gardener, and some of the other
+domestics, informed me they had been engaged by Mr Budge himself, who,
+I apprehended, made very free and busy with the concerns of his
+friend. Sorel Park was a princely domain, and there was an air of
+substantial comfort about the dwelling and its appointments, which
+spoke volumes of promise as to domestic arrangements in general. I
+soon found time to write a description of the place to Miss Marion,
+for I knew how interested she was in all that concerned her faithful
+Deborah; and I anxiously awaited the tidings she had promised to
+convey&mdash;of Mr Budge having provided as comfortably for her as he had
+for me. I at length received formal notification of the day and hour
+the owner of Sorel Park expected to arrive, accompanied by his female
+relative. This was rather earlier than I had been led to expect; but
+all things being in order for their reception, I felt glad at their
+near approach, for I was strangely troubled and nervous to get this
+introduction over. I was very anxious, too, about my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[pg 74]</a></span> dear Miss
+Marion; for I knew that some weighty reason alone prevented her from
+answering my letter, though what that reason could be, it was
+impossible for me to conjecture.</p>
+
+<p>The momentous day dawned; the hours glided on; and the twilight hour
+deepened. The superior servants and myself stood ready to receive the
+travellers, listening to every sound; and startled, nevertheless, when
+the rapid approach of carriage-wheels betokened their close proximity.
+With something very like disappointment, for which I accused myself of
+ingratitude, I beheld Mr Budge, browner than ever, alight from the
+chariot, carefully assisting a lady, who seemed in delicate health, as
+she was muffled up like a mummy. Mr Budge returned my respectful
+salutation most cordially, and said, with a smile, as he bustled
+forwards to the saloon, where a cheerful fire blazed brightly on the
+hearth&mdash;for it was a chill evening: 'I've brought your new mistress
+home, you see, Mrs Deborah; but you want to know where your new master
+is&mdash;eigh? Well, come along, and this young lady will tell you all
+about the old fellow.'</p>
+
+<p>I followed them into the apartment; Mr Budge shut the door; the lady
+flung aside her veil, and my own dear, sweet Miss Marion clasped me
+round the neck, and sobbed hysterically in my arms.</p>
+
+<p>'Tell her, my darling,' said Mr Budge, himself quite husky, and
+turning away to wipe off a tear from his ruddy cheek&mdash;'tell her, my
+darling, you're the <i>mistress</i> of Sorel Park; and when you've made the
+good soul understand <i>that</i>, tell her we'd like a cup of tea before we
+talk about the <i>master</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>'O my dear Miss Marion!' was all I could utter; 'what does this mean?
+Am I in a dream?' But it was not a happy dream; for when I had a
+moment to reflect, my very soul was troubled as I thought of the
+sacrifice of all her youthful aspirations, made by that poor, gentle
+creature, for the sake of a secure and comfortable home in this stormy
+world. I could not reconcile myself to the idea of Mr Budge and Marion
+as man and wife; and as I learned, ere we retired to rest that night,
+I had no occasion to do so. Mr Budge was Miss Marion's paternal uncle,
+her mother, Miss Dacre, having married his elder brother. These
+brothers were of respectable birth, but inferior to the Dacres; and
+while the elder never prospered in any undertaking, and finally died
+of a broken heart, the younger, toiling in foreign climes, gradually
+amassed a competency. On returning to his native land, he found his
+brother no more, and the orphan girl he had left behind placed with
+her mother's relatives.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Budge had a great dread of appearing before these proud patrician
+people, who had always openly scorned his deceased brother; and once
+accidentally encountering them at a public <i>f&ecirc;te</i>, the contumelious
+bearing of the young ladies towards the little brown gentleman
+deterred him from any nearer approach. No doubt, he argued, his
+brother's daughter was deeply imbued with similar principles, and
+would blush to own a 'Mr Budge' for her uncle! This name he had
+adopted as the condition of inheriting a noble fortune unexpectedly
+bequeathed by a plebeian, but worthy and industrious relative, only a
+few years previous to the period when Providence guided his footsteps
+to Fairdown Farm and Miss Marion.</p>
+
+<p>The moderate competency Mr Budge had hitherto enjoyed, and which he
+had toiled hard for, now augmented to ten times the amount, sorely
+perplexed and troubled him; and after purchasing Sorel Park, he had
+flown from the turmoil of affluence, to seek peace and obscurity for
+awhile, under pretext of pursuing the philosophical recreation of
+angling. How unlike the Misses Dacre was the fair and gracious
+creature he encountered at Fairdown! And not a little the dear old
+gentleman prided himself on his talents for what he called
+diplomacy&mdash;arranging his plans, he said, 'just like a book-romance.'
+After my departure, he returned to Fairdown, and confided the
+wonderful tidings to Thomas and Martha Wesley, more cautiously
+imparting them to Miss Marion, whose gentle spirits were more easily
+fluttered by sudden surprise.</p>
+
+<p>For several years, Mr Budge paid an annual visit to Fairdown, when the
+trout-fishing season commenced; and many useful and valuable gifts
+found their way into Thomas's comfortable homestead, presented by dear
+Miss Marion. In the course of time, she became the wife of one worthy
+of her in every respect&mdash;their lovely children often sportively
+carrying off the ponderous box of brown rappee, and yet Uncle Budge
+never frowning.</p>
+
+<p>These darlings cluster round my knees, and one, more demure than the
+rest, thoughtfully asks: 'Why is Uncle Budge's hair not snowy white,
+like yours, dear Deb? For Uncle Budge says he is <i>very</i> old, and that
+God will soon call him away from us.'</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="ADVENTURES_IN_JAPAN" id="ADVENTURES_IN_JAPAN"></a>ADVENTURES IN JAPAN.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">For</span> above two hundred years, the unknown millions of Japan have been
+shut up in their own islands, forbidden, under the severest penalties,
+either to admit foreigners on their shores, or themselves to visit any
+other realm in the world. The Dutch are permitted to send two ships in
+a year to the port of Nangasaki, where they are received with the
+greatest precaution, and subjected to a surveillance even more
+degrading than was that formerly endured by the Europeans at Canton.
+Any other foreigner whom misfortune or inadvertence may land on their
+shores, is doomed to perpetual imprisonment; and even if one of their
+own people should pass twelve months out of the country, he is, on his
+return, kept for life at the capital, and suffered no more to join his
+family, or mingle at large in the business or social intercourse of
+life. In pursuance of this policy, it is believed that the Japanese
+government now holds in captivity several subjects of the United
+States, and it is expected that an armament will be sent to rescue
+them by force.</p>
+
+<p>Since this announcement has been made, and the general expectation has
+been raised that Japan will soon have to submit, like China, to
+surrender its isolation, and enter into relations with the rest of the
+civilised world, there has seasonably appeared an English reprint of a
+work hitherto little known among us&mdash;a personal narrative of a
+Japanese captivity of two years and a half, by an officer in the
+Russian navy.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> If we may judge from its details, our transatlantic
+friends had need to keep all their eyes wide open in dealing with this
+people.</p>
+
+<p>The leading circumstances connected with Captain Golownin's captivity
+were the following:&mdash;In the year 1803, the Chamberlain Resanoff was
+sent by the Emperor Alexander, to endeavour to open friendly relations
+with Japan, and sailed from the eastern coasts in a merchant vessel
+belonging to the American Company. But receiving a peremptory message
+of dismissal, and refusal of all intercourse, he returned to Okhotsk,
+and died on his way to St Petersburg. Lieutenant Chwostoff, however,
+who had commanded the vessel, put to sea again on his own
+responsibility, attacked and destroyed several Japanese villages on
+the Kurile Islands, and carried off some of the inhabitants. In the
+year 1811, Captain Golownin, commander of the imperial war-sloop
+<i>Diana</i>, lying at Kamtschatka, received orders from head-quarters to
+make a particular survey of the southern Kurile Islands, and the coast
+of Tartary. In pursuance of his instructions, he was sailing without
+any flag near the coast of Eetooroop (Staaten), when he was met by
+some Russian Kuriles, who informed him that they had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[pg 75]</a></span> seized, and
+were still detained prisoners, on account of the Chwostoff outrage.
+They persuaded the captain to take one of them on board as an
+interpreter, and proceed to Kunashir, to make such explanations as
+might exonerate the Russian government in this matter. The Japanese
+chief of the island further assured the Russians, that they could
+obtain a supply of wood, water, and fresh provisions at Kunashir; and
+he furnished them with a letter to its governor. The reception of the
+<i>Diana</i> at Kunashir was, in the first instance, a vigorous but
+ineffective discharge of guns from the fortress, the walls of which
+were so completely hung with striped cloth, that it was impossible to
+form any opinion of the size or strength of the place. After some
+interchange, however, of allegorical messages, conveyed by means of
+drawings floated in empty casks, Golownin was invited on shore by the
+beckoning of white fans. Concealing three brace of pistols in his
+bosom, and leaving a well-armed boat close to the shore, with orders
+that the men should watch his movements, and act on his slightest
+signal, he ventured on a landing, accompanied by the Kurile Alexei and
+a common sailor. The lieutenant-governor soon appeared. He was in
+complete armour, and attended by two soldiers, one of whom carried his
+long spear, and the other his cap or helmet, which was adorned with a
+figure of the moon. 'It is scarcely possible,' says the narrator, 'to
+conceive anything more ludicrous than the manner in which the governor
+walked. His eyes were cast down and fixed on the earth, and his hands
+pressed closely against his sides, whilst he proceeded at so slow a
+pace, that he scarcely moved one foot beyond the other, and kept his
+feet wide apart. I saluted him after the European fashion, upon which
+he raised his left hand to his forehead, and bowed his whole body
+towards the ground.'</p>
+
+<p>In the conversation that ensued, the governor expressed his regret
+that the ignorance of the Japanese respecting the object of this visit
+should have occasioned them to fire upon the <i>Diana</i>. He then closely
+interrogated the captain as to the course and objects of his voyage,
+his name, the name of his emperor, and whether he knew anything of
+Resanoff. On the first of these heads, Golownin deemed it prudent to
+use some deception, and he stated that he was proceeding to St
+Petersburg, from the eastern extremity of the Russian Empire; that
+contrary winds had considerably lengthened his voyage; and that, being
+greatly in want of wood and fresh water, he had been looking on the
+coasts for a safe harbour where these might be procured, and had been
+directed by an officer at Eetooroop to Kunashir. To all the other
+questions, he returned suitable answers, which were carefully written
+down. The conference ended most amicably, and the captain was invited
+to smoke tobacco, and partake of some tea, sagi,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and caviar.
+Everything was served on a separate dish, and presented by a different
+individual, armed with a poniard and sabre; and these attendants,
+instead of going away after handing anything to the guests, remained
+standing near, till at length they were surrounded by a formidable
+circle of armed men. Golownin would not stoop to betray alarm or
+distrust, but having brought some French brandy as a present to the
+governor, he desired his sailors to draw a bottle, and took this
+opportunity of repeating his order, that they should hold themselves
+in readiness. There appeared, however, no intention of resorting to
+violence. When he prepared to depart, the governor presented a flask
+of sagi, and some fresh fish, pointing out to him at the same time a
+net which had been cast to procure a larger supply. He also gave him a
+white fan, with which he was to beckon, as a sign of amity, when he
+came on shore again. The whole draught of fish was sent on board in
+the evening.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day, the captain, according to appointment, paid
+another visit on shore, accompanied by two officers, Alexei, and four
+seamen carrying the presents intended for the Japanese. On this
+occasion, the former precautions were dispensed with; the boat was
+hauled up to the shore, and left with one seaman, while the rest of
+the party proceeded to the castle. The result was, that after a
+renewal of the friendly explanations and entertainments of the
+preceding day, the treacherous Japanese threw off the mask, and made
+prisoners of the whole party.</p>
+
+<p>'The first thing done, was to tie our hands behind our backs, and
+conduct us into an extensive but low building, which resembled a
+barrack, and which was situated opposite to the tent in the direction
+of the shore. Here we were placed on our knees, and bound in the
+cruelest manner with cords about the thickness of a finger; and as
+though this were not enough, another binding of smaller cords
+followed, which was still more painful. The Japanese are exceedingly
+expert at this work; and it would appear that they conform to some
+precise regulation in binding their prisoners, for we were all tied
+exactly in the same manner. There was the same number of knots and
+nooses, and all at equal distances, on the cords with which each of us
+was bound. There were loops round our breasts and necks; our elbows
+almost touched each other, and our hands were firmly bound together.
+From these fastenings proceeded a long cord, the end of which was held
+by a Japanese, and which, on the slightest attempt to escape, required
+only to be drawn to make the elbows come in contact with the greatest
+pain, and to tighten the noose about the neck to such a degree as
+almost to produce strangulation. Besides all this, they tied our legs
+in two places&mdash;above the knees and above the ankles; they then passed
+ropes from our necks over the cross-beams of the building, and drew
+them so tight, that we found it impossible to move. Their next
+operation was searching our pockets, out of which they took
+everything, and then proceeded very quietly to smoke tobacco. While
+they were binding us, the lieutenant-governor shewed himself twice,
+and pointed to his mouth, to intimate, perhaps, that it was intended
+to feed, not to kill us.'</p>
+
+<p>After some hours, the legs and ankles of the prisoners were partially
+loosed, and preparations were made for removing them to Matsmai, which
+seems to be the head-quarters of government for the Kurile
+dependencies of Japan. The journey, which occupied above a month, was
+performed partly in boats, which were dragged along the shore, and
+even for miles over the land; and partly on foot, the captives being
+marched in file, each led with a cord by a particular conductor, and
+having an armed soldier abreast of him. It was evident, however, that
+whatever was rigorous in their treatment, was not prompted by personal
+feelings of barbarity, but by the stringency of the law, which would
+have made the guards answerable for their prisoners with their own
+lives. They were always addressed with the greatest respect; and, as
+soon as it was deemed safe, their hands, which were in a dreadfully
+lacerated state, were unbound, and surgically treated; but not till
+their persons had been again most carefully searched, that no piece of
+metal might remain about them, lest they might contrive to destroy
+themselves. Suicide is, in Japan, the fashionable mode of terminating
+a life which cannot be prolonged but in circumstances of dishonour: to
+rip up one's own bowels in such a case, wipes away every stain on the
+character. The guards of the Russian captives not only used every
+precaution against this, but carefully watched over their health and
+comfort, carrying them over the shallowest pools and streamlets, lest
+their feet should be wet, and assiduously beating off the gnats and
+flies, which would have been annoying. At every village, crowds of
+both sexes, young and old, turned out to see these unfortunate men;
+but there was nothing like insult or mockery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[pg 76]</a></span> in the demeanour of
+any&mdash;pity appeared to be the universal feeling: many begged permission
+from the guards to offer sagi, comfits, fruits, and other delicacies;
+and these were presented often with tears of compassion, as well as
+gestures of respect.</p>
+
+<p>The prison to which Golownin and his companions were finally committed
+had been constructed expressly for their habitation in the town of
+Matsmai. It was a quadrangular wooden building, 25 paces long, 15
+broad, and 12 feet high. Three sides of it were dead-wall, the fourth
+was formed of strong spars. Within this structure were two apartments,
+formed likewise of wooden spars, so as to resemble cages: one was
+appropriated to the officers, the other to the sailors and Alexei. The
+building was surrounded by a high wall or paling, outside of which
+were the kitchen, guard-house, &amp;c., enclosed by another paling. This
+outer enclosure was patrolled by common soldiers; but no one was
+allowed within, except the physician, who visited daily, and the
+orderly officers, who looked through the spars every half-hour. Of
+course, it was rather a cold lodging; but, as winter advanced, a hole
+was dug a few feet from each cage, built round with freestone, and
+filled with sand, upon which charcoal was afterwards kept burning.
+Benches were provided for them to sleep on, and two of the orderlies
+presented them with bear-skins; but the native fashion is to lie on a
+thick, wadded quilt, folded together, and laid on the floor, which,
+even in the poorest dwellings, is covered with soft straw-mats. A
+large wadded dress, made of silk or cotton, according to the
+circumstances of the wearer, serves for bed-clothes&mdash;which seem to be
+quite unknown; and while the poorer classes have only a piece of wood
+for a pillow, the richer fasten a cushion on the neat boxes which
+contain their razors, scissors, pomatum, tooth-brushes, and other
+toilet requisites.</p>
+
+<p>But while the comfort of the captives was attended to in many minor
+matters, there was no relaxation of the vigilance used to preclude the
+possibility of self-destruction. They were not allowed scissors or
+knife to cut their nails, but were obliged to thrust their hands
+through the palisades, to get this office performed for them. When
+they were indulged with smoking, it was with a very long pipe held
+between the spars, and furnished with a wooden ball fixed about the
+middle, to prevent its being drawn wholly within the cage.</p>
+
+<p>For weeks together they were brought daily before the bunyo (governor
+of the town, and probably lord-lieutenant of all the Japanese Kurile
+Islands), bound and harnessed like horses as before. The ostensible
+object of these examinations, which frequently lasted the whole day,
+was to ascertain for what purpose they had come near Japan, and what
+they knew of Resanoff and Chwostoff&mdash;for a singularly unfortunate
+combination of circumstances had arisen to give colour to the
+suspicion, that some of their party had been connected with that
+expedition. But for one inquiry connected with the case, there were
+fifty that were wholly irrelevant, and prompted by mere curiosity. The
+most trivial questions were put several times and in different forms,
+and every answer was carefully written down. Golownin was often
+puzzled, irritated, and quite at the end of his stock of patience; but
+that of the interrogators appeared interminable. They said, that by
+writing down everything they were told, whether true or false, and
+comparing the various statements they received, they were enabled
+through time to separate truth from fiction, and the practice was very
+improving. At the close of almost every examination, the bunyo
+exhorted them not to despair, but to offer up prayers to Heaven, and
+patiently await the emperor's decision.</p>
+
+<p>Presently new work was found for them. An intelligent young man was
+brought to their prison, to be taught the Russian language. To this
+the captain consented, having no confidence in the Kurile Alexei as an
+interpreter, and being desirous himself to gain some knowledge of
+Japanese. Teske made rapid progress, and soon became a most useful and
+kindly companion to the captives. Books, pens, and paper were now
+allowed them in abundance; and their mode of treatment was every way
+improved. But by and by, they were threatened with more pupils; a
+geometrician and astronomer from the capital was introduced to them,
+and would gladly have been instructed in their mode of taking
+observations. Other learned men were preparing to follow, and it was
+now evident that the intention of the Japanese government was to
+reconcile them to their lot, and retain them for the instruction of
+the nation. Indeed, this appears to be the great secret of the policy
+of detaining for life instead of destroying the hapless foreigners
+that light on these shores; as the avowed motive for tolerating the
+commercial visits of the Dutch is, that they furnish the only news of
+public events that ever reach Japan. Fearful of becoming known to
+other nations for fear of invasion, they are yet greedy of information
+respecting them, and many were the foolish questions they asked
+Golownin about the emperor of Russia, his dress, habitation, forces,
+and territories.</p>
+
+<p>Golownin, on his part, endeavoured to elicit all the information he
+could gain with respect to the numbers, resources, government, and
+religion of this singular people. He found it impossible to ascertain
+the amount of the population; indeed, it seems it would be very
+difficult for the government itself to obtain a census, for millions
+of the poor live abroad in the streets, fields, or woods, having no
+spot which they can call a home. Teske shewed a map of the empire,
+having every town and village marked on it; and though on a very large
+scale, it was thickly covered. He pointed out on it a desert, which is
+considered immense, because litters take a whole day to traverse it,
+and meet with only one village during the journey. It is perhaps
+fifteen miles across. The city of Yedo was usually set down by
+Europeans as containing 1,000,000 inhabitants; but Golownin was
+informed, that it had in its principal streets 280,000 houses, each
+containing from 30 to 40 persons; besides all the small houses and
+huts. This would give in the whole a population of above 10,000,000
+souls&mdash;about a fourth part of the estimated population of this
+country! The incorporated society of the blind alone is affirmed to
+include 36,000.</p>
+
+<p>The country, though lying under the same latitudes as Spain and Italy,
+is yet very different from them in climate. At Matsmai, for instance,
+which is on the same parallel as Leghorn, snow falls as abundantly as
+at St Petersburg, and lies in the valleys from November till April.
+Severe frost is uncommon, but cold fogs are exceedingly prevalent. The
+climate, however, is uncommonly diversified, and consequently so are
+the productions, exhibiting in some places the vegetation of the
+frigid zone, and in others that of the tropics.</p>
+
+<p>Rice is the staple production of the soil. It is nearly the only
+article used instead of bread, and the only one from which strong
+liquor is distilled, while its straw serves for many domestic
+purposes. Besides the radishes already mentioned, there is an
+extensive cultivation of various other esculent roots and vegetables.
+There is no coast without fisheries, and there is no marine animal
+that is not used for food, save those which are absolutely poisonous.
+But an uncommonly small quantity suffices for each individual. If a
+Japanese has a handful of rice and a single mouthful of fish, he makes
+a savoury dish with roots, herbs, or mollusca, and it suffices for a
+day's support.</p>
+
+<p>Japan produces both black and green tea; the former is very inferior,
+and used only for quenching thirst; whereas the latter is esteemed a
+luxury, and is presented to company. The best grows in the
+principality of Kioto, where it is carefully cultivated for the use
+both of the temporal and spiritual courts. Tobacco, which was first
+introduced by the European missionaries, has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[pg 77]</a></span> spread astonishingly,
+and is so well manufactured, that our author smoked it with a relish
+he had never felt for a Havana cigar. The Japanese smokes continually,
+and sips tea with his pipe, even rising for it during the night.</p>
+
+<p>All articles of clothing are made of silk or cotton. The former
+appears to be very abundant, as rich dresses of it are worn even by
+the common soldiers on festive days; and it may be seen on people of
+all ranks even in poor towns. The fabrics are at least equal to those
+of China. The cotton of Japan seems to be of the same kind as that of
+our West Indian colonies. It furnishes the ordinary dress of the great
+mass of the people, and also serves all the other purposes for which
+we employ wool, flax, furs, and feathers. The culture of it is, of
+course, very extensive; but the fabrics are all coarse: Golownin could
+hardly make himself believe that his muslin cravat was of this
+material. There is some hemp, which is manufactured into cloth for
+sails, &amp;c.; but cables and ropes, very inferior to ours, are made from
+the bark of a tree called kadyz. This bark likewise supplies materials
+for thread, lamp-wicks, writing-paper, and the coarse paper used for
+pocket-handkerchiefs.</p>
+
+<p>There is no lack of fruit-trees, as the orange, lemon, peach, plum,
+fig, chestnut, and apple; but the vine yields only a small, sour
+grape, perhaps for want of culture. Timber-trees grow only in the
+mountainous districts, which are unfit for cultivation. Camphor is
+produced abundantly in the south, and large quantities of it are
+exported by the Dutch and Chinese. The celebrated varnish of Japan,
+drawn from a tree called silz, is so plentiful, that it is used for
+lacquering the most ordinary utensils. Its natural colour is white,
+but it assumes any that is given to it by mixture. The best varnished
+vessels reflect the face as in a mirror, and hot water may be poured
+into them without occasioning the least smell.</p>
+
+<p>The chief domestic animals are horses and oxen for draught; cats and
+dogs are kept for the same uses as with us; and swine furnish food to
+the few sects who eat flesh. Sheep and goats seem to be quite unknown:
+the Russian captives had to make drawings of the former, to convey
+some idea of the origin of wool.</p>
+
+<p>There are considerable mines of gold and silver in several parts of
+the empire, but the government does not permit them to be all worked,
+for fear of depreciating the value of these metals. They supply, with
+copper, the material of the currency, and are also liberally used in
+the decoration of public buildings, and in the domestic utensils of
+the wealthy. There is a sufficiency of quicksilver, lead, and tin, for
+the wants of the country; and one island is entirely covered with
+sulphur. Copper is very abundant, and of remarkably fine quality. All
+kitchen utensils, tobacco-pipes, and fire-shovels, are made of it; and
+so well made, that our author mentions his tea-kettle as having stood
+on the fire, like all other Japanese kettles, day and night for
+months, without burning into holes. This metal is likewise employed
+for sheathing ships, and covering the joists and flat roofs of houses.
+Iron is less abundant, and much that is used is obtained from the
+Dutch. Nails alone, of which immense numbers are used in all
+carpentry-work, consume a large quantity. Diamonds, cornelians,
+jaspers, some very fine agates, and other precious stones, are found;
+but the natives seem not well to understand polishing them. Pearls are
+abundant; but not being considered ornamental, they are reserved for
+the Chinese market.</p>
+
+<p>Steel and porcelain are the manufactures in which the Japanese chiefly
+excel, besides those in silk-stuffs and lacquered ware already
+mentioned. Their porcelain is far superior to the Chinese, but it is
+scarce and dear. With respect to steel manufactures, the sabres and
+daggers of Japan yield only perhaps to those of Damascus; and Golownin
+says their cabinet-makers' tools might almost be compared with the
+English. In painting, engraving, and printing, they are far behind;
+and they seem to have no knowledge of ship-building or navigation
+beyond what suffices for coasting voyages, though they have
+intelligent and enterprising sailors. There is an immense internal
+traffic, for facilitating which there are good roads and bridges where
+water-carriage is impracticable. These distant Orientals have likewise
+bills of exchange and commercial gazettes. The emperor enjoys a
+monopoly of the foreign commerce.</p>
+
+<p>It is popularly said, that Japan has two emperors&mdash;one spiritual, and
+the other temporal. The former, however, having no share in the
+administration of the empire, and seldom even hearing of state
+affairs, is no sovereign according to the ideas we attach to that
+term. He seems to stand much in the same relation to the emperor that
+the popes once did to the sovereigns of Europe. He governs Kioto as a
+small independent state; receives the emperor to an interview once in
+seven years; is consulted by him on extraordinary emergencies;
+receives occasional embassies and presents from him, and bestows his
+blessing in return. His dignity, unlike that of the Roman pontiffs, is
+hereditary, and he is allowed twelve wives, that his race may not
+become extinct. According to Japanese records, the present dynasty,
+including about 130 Kin-reys, has been maintained in a direct line for
+above twenty-four centuries. The person of the Kin-rey is so sacred,
+that no ordinary mortal may see any part of him but his feet, and that
+only once a year; every vessel which he uses must be broken
+immediately; for if another should even by accident eat or drink out
+of it, he must be put to death. Every garment which he wears must be
+manufactured by virgin hands, from the earliest process in the
+preparation of the silk.</p>
+
+<p>The adherents of the aboriginal Japanese religion, of which the
+Kin-rey is the head, adore numerous divinities called Kami, or
+immortal spirits, to whom they offer prayers, flowers, and sometimes
+more substantial gifts. They also worship Kadotski, or saints&mdash;mortals
+canonised by the Kin-rey&mdash;and build temples in their honour. The laws
+concerning personal and ceremonial purity, which form the principal
+feature of this religion, are exceedingly strict, not unlike those
+imposed on the ancient Jews. There are several orders of priests,
+monks, and nuns, whose austerity, like that of Europe, is maintained
+in theory more than in practice.</p>
+
+<p>Three other creeds, the Brahminical, the Confucian, and that which
+deifies the heavenly bodies, have many adherents; but their priests
+all acknowledge a certain religious supremacy to exist in the Kin-rey.
+There is universal toleration in these matters; every citizen may
+profess what faith he chooses, and change it as often as he chooses,
+without any one inquiring into his reasons; only it must be a
+spontaneous choice, for proselyting is forbidden by law. Christianity
+alone is proscribed, and that on account of the political mischief
+said to have been effected through its adherents in the seventeenth
+century. There is a law, by which no one may hire a servant without
+receiving a certificate of his not being a Christian; and on
+New-Year's Day, which is a great national festival, all the
+inhabitants of Nangasaki are obliged to ascend a staircase, and
+trample on the crucifix, and other insignia of the Romish faith, which
+are laid on the steps as a test. It is said that many perform the act
+in violation of their feelings. So much of the religious state of the
+empire Golownin elicited in conversation with Teske and others; but
+everything on this subject was communicated with evident reluctance;
+and though in the course of the walks which they were permitted to
+take in harness, the Russian captives sometimes saw the interior of
+the temples, they were never permitted to enter while any religious
+rites were celebrated.</p>
+
+<p>With respect to the civil administration of Japan, our author seems to
+have gathered little that was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[pg 78]</a></span> absolutely new to us. The empire
+comprises above 200 states, which are governed as independent
+sovereignties by princes called Damyos, who frame and enforce their
+own laws. Though most of these principalities are very small, some of
+them are powerful: the damyo of Sindai, for instance, visits the
+imperial court with a retinue of 60,000. Their dependence on the
+emperor appears chiefly in their being obliged to maintain a certain
+number of troops, which are at his disposal. Those provinces which
+belong directly to the emperor, are placed under governors called
+Bunyos, whose families reside at the capital as hostages. Every
+province has two bunyos, each of whom spends six months in the
+government and six at Yedo.</p>
+
+<p>The supreme council of the emperor consists of five sovereign princes,
+who decide on all ordinary measures without referring to him. An
+inferior council of fifteen princes or nobles presides over important
+civil and criminal cases. The general laws are few and well known.
+They are very severe; but the judges generally find means of evading
+them where their enforcement would involve a violation of those of
+humanity. In some cases, as in conjugal infidelity or filial impiety,
+individuals are permitted to avenge their own wrong, even to the
+taking of life. Civil cases are generally decided by arbitrators, and
+only when they fail to settle a matter is there recourse to the public
+courts of justice. Taxes are generally paid to the reigning prince or
+emperor, in tithes of the agricultural, manufactured, or other
+productions of the country.</p>
+
+<p>Such were some of the leading particulars ascertained by Golownin
+concerning the social and civil condition of this singular people. He
+says, they always appeared very happy, and their demeanour was
+characterised by lively and polite manners, with the most
+imperturbable good temper. It seems at length to have been through
+fear of a Russian invasion, rather than from any sense of justice,
+that his Japanese majesty, in reply to the importunities of the
+officers of the <i>Diana</i>, consented to release the captives, on
+condition of receiving from the Russian government a solemn disavowal
+of having sanctioned the proceedings of Chwostoff. Having obtained
+this, the officers repaired for the fourth time to these unfriendly
+shores, and enjoyed the happiness of embracing their companions, and
+taking them on board.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> <i>Japan and the Japanese.</i> By Captain Golownin. London:
+Colburn &amp; Co. 1852.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Sagi is the strong drink of Japan, distilled from rice.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="THINGS_TALKED_OF_IN_LONDON" id="THINGS_TALKED_OF_IN_LONDON"></a>THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p class="right"><i>July 1852.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> we shall have a constant supply of pure water&mdash;a complete system
+of efficient and innoxious sewers&mdash;a service of street hydrants&mdash;when
+the Thames shall cease to be the <i>cloaca maxima</i>, are questions to
+which, however seriously asked, it is not easy to get an answer. Add
+to these grievances, the delay of proper regulations for abolishing
+intramural interments, and the fact that Smithfield is not to be
+removed further than Copenhagen Fields&mdash;a locality already surrounded
+with houses&mdash;and it will occasion no surprise that the authorities are
+treated with anything but compliments.</p>
+
+<p>The laying down of an under-sea telegraph wire across the Irish
+Channel, may be taken as a new instance of the indifference consequent
+on familiarity. When the line was laid from Dover to Calais, the whole
+land rang with the fact; but now the sinking of a wire three times the
+length, in a channel three times the width, excites scarcely a remark,
+and seems to be looked on as a matter of course. The wire, which is
+eighty miles in length, is said to weigh eighty tons. It was payed out
+and sunk from the deck of the <i>Britannia</i>, at the rate of from three
+to five miles an hour, and was successfully laid, from Holyhead to
+Howth, in from twelve to fifteen hours; and now a message may be
+flashed from Trieste to Galway in a period brief enough to satisfy the
+most impatient. The means of travel to the East, too, are becoming
+tangible in the Egyptian railway, of which some thirty miles are in a
+state of forwardness, besides which a hotel is to be built at Thebes;
+so that travellers, no longer compelled to bivouac in the desert, will
+find a teeming larder and well-aired beds in the land of the Sphinxes.
+And, better still, among a host of beneficial reforms to take place in
+our Customs' administration, there is one which provides that the
+baggage of travellers arriving in the port of London shall be examined
+as they come up the river, instead of being sent to the Custom-house.</p>
+
+<p>By a report of the Astronomer-royal to the Board of Visitors, who have
+lately made their annual inspection of the Greenwich Observatory, we
+are informed, of a singular fact, that observations of the pole-star
+shew that its position varies some three or four seconds on repeating
+the observations at intervals of a few months, and this
+notwithstanding the extreme accuracy of the transit circle. The only
+explanation which can as yet be given for this phenomenon is, that the
+earth, solid as it appears, is liable to slight occasional movements
+or oscillations.</p>
+
+<p>We shall know, in a few weeks, the result of the telegraphic
+correspondence with the Observatory at Paris&mdash;one interesting point
+being, as to whether the respective longitudes, as at present
+determined, will be verified by the galvanic test. Besides which,
+Greenwich time is to be sent every day to London, where a pole, with a
+huge sliding-ball, has been fixed on the top of the Telegraph Office,
+near Charing Cross. This ball is to be made to descend at one o'clock
+simultaneously with the well-known ball which surmounts the
+Observatory; and thus scientific inquirers&mdash;to say nothing of the
+crowds who will daily throng the footways of the Strand to witness the
+downcome&mdash;will be informed of the true time, while, by means of the
+wires, it may be flashed to all parts of the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>The lecture with which Professor Faraday wound up the course at the
+Royal Institution may be mentioned here, seeing that it adds somewhat
+to our knowledge of the theory and phenomena of magnetism. As usual,
+the lecture-room was crowded; and those who could not understand, had
+at least the satisfaction of being able to say they were present. Mr
+Faraday, who, enlarging upon his view, announced, a short time since,
+that there are such things as magnetic lines of force, now contends
+that these lines have a 'physical character'&mdash;a point most
+satisfactorily proved by sundry experiments during the lecture. The
+inquiry is one, as Mr Faraday observes, on the 'very edge of science,'
+trenching on the bounds of speculation; but such as eminently to
+provoke research. The phenomena, he says, 'lead on, by deduction and
+correction, to the discovery of new phenomena; and so cause an
+increase and advancement of real physical truth, which, unlike the
+hypothesis that led to it, becomes fundamental knowledge, not subject
+to change.' A chief point of discussion to which the investigations
+have led is: Whether the phenomena of what we call gravity may not be
+resolvable into those of magnetism&mdash;a force acting at a distance, or
+by lines of power. 'There is one question,' continues Mr Faraday, 'in
+relation to gravity, which, if we could ascertain or touch it, would
+greatly enlighten us. It is, whether gravitation requires <i>time</i>. If
+it did, it would shew undeniably that a physical agency existed in the
+course of the line of force. It seems equally impossible to prove or
+disprove this point; since there is no capability of suspending,
+changing, or annihilating the power (gravity), or annihilating the
+matter in which the power resides.' The lines of magnetic force may
+have 'a separate existence,' but as yet we are unable to tell whether
+these lines 'are analogous to those of gravitation, acting at a
+distance; or whether, having a physical existence, they are more like
+in their nature to those of electric induction or the electric
+current.' Mr<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[pg 79]</a></span> Faraday inclines at present to the latter view. He
+'affirms' the lines of magnetic force from actual experiment, and
+'advocates' their physical nature 'chiefly with a view of stating the
+question of their existence; and though,' he adds, 'I should not have
+raised the argument unless I had thought it both important and likely
+to be answered ultimately in the affirmative, I still hold the opinion
+with some hesitation, with as much, indeed, as accompanies any
+conclusion I endeavour to draw respecting points in the very depths of
+science&mdash;as, for instance, one, two, or no electric fluids; or the
+real nature of a ray of light; or the nature of attraction, even that
+of gravity itself; or the general nature of matter.' These are
+profound views; but we may reasonably conclude, that, however obscure
+they may at present appear, they will in time be cleared up and
+further developed by the gifted philosopher from whom they emanate.</p>
+
+<p>Of minor matters which have been more or less talked about, there is
+the Library for the Working-Classes, just opened in the parish of St
+Martin-in-the-Fields&mdash;a praiseworthy example for other parishes, but
+not to be followed unless the readers actually exist, and manifest the
+sort of want which books alone can satisfy. A suggestion has been
+made, to use for books in hot climates, where paper is liable to rapid
+decay, the sheet-iron exhibited at Breslau, which is as thin and
+pliant as paper, and can be produced at the rate of more than 7000
+feet to the hundredweight. This would be something new in the
+application of metal. Metallurgy generally is being further
+investigated by Leonhard of Heidelberg, who has just called on
+manufacturers to aid him in his researches, by sending him specimens
+of scori&aelig;, particularly of those which are crystallised. Then there is
+Mr Hesketh's communication to the Institute of British Architects, 'On
+the Admission of Daylight into Buildings, particularly in the Narrow
+and Confined Localities of Towns;' in which, after shewing that the
+proportion of light admitted to buildings is generally inadequate to
+their cubical contents, and means for estimating the numerical value
+of that which really does enter, he states that the defect may be
+remedied by the use of reflectors, contrived so as to be 'neither
+obstructive nor unsightly.' He explains, that 'a single reflector may
+generally be placed on either the outside or inside of a window or
+skylight, so as to throw the light from the (perhaps small) portion of
+sky which remains unobscured overhead, to any part in which more light
+is required.' Such difficulties of position or construction as present
+themselves, 'may be overcome in almost every case, by, as it were,
+cutting up the single reflector into strips, and arranging them one
+above the other, either in the reveal of the window, or in some other
+part where it will not interfere with ventilation, or the action of
+the sashes.' This is adopting the principle on which improved
+lighthouse reflectors are constructed; and we are told, that 'the
+combinations may be arranged horizontally, vertically, or obliquely,
+according to the positions of the centre of the unobscured portion of
+sky, and of the part into which the light is to be thrown, and
+according to the shape of the opening in which the combination is to
+be placed.' As a case in point, it was mentioned that a reflector 'had
+been fitted to a vault (at the Dep&ocirc;t Wharf, in the Borough) ninety-six
+feet in depth from front to back. The area into which the window opens
+is a semicircle, with a heavy iron-grating over it; and the result is,
+that small print can be easily read at the far end of the vault.' It
+is a fact worth knowing, that reflectors may be so constructed as to
+throw all the available daylight into any required direction; and in
+one instance the reflector may be made to serve at the same time as a
+dwarf venetian window-blind. Instead of wooden splats or laths, flat
+glass tubes or prisms are used, fitted into the usual framework, and
+these being silvered on the inside, throw all the light that falls on
+them into the room, when placed at the proper angle.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the possibility of locomotion without the aid of steam is
+talked about, and the New Yorkers are said to be about to send over a
+large ship driven by Ericsson's caloric engine, which is to prove as
+powerful as vapour at one-half of the cost&mdash;a fact of which we shall
+be better able to judge when the vessel really arrives. Then, looking
+across the Channel, we find the Abb&eacute; Moigno proposing to construct and
+establish a relief model of Europe in the Bois de Boulogne at Paris,
+of a size to cover several acres, and with the railways of iron, and
+the rivers of water, by which means one of the most interesting and
+instructive of sights would be produced, and the attractions of the
+Trench capital greatly increased. A desirable project&mdash;but the cost!
+The Montyon prize of 2000 francs has been awarded to M. Mosson, for
+his method of drying and preserving vegetables for long sea voyages,
+as published a few months ago. M. Naudin states, that a certain kind
+of furze or thistle, of which cattle are very fond, may be made to
+grow without thorns&mdash;an important consideration, seeing that at
+present, before it can be used as food, it has to undergo a laborious
+beating, to crush and break the prickles with which it is covered. As
+the plant thrives best on poor soils, which might otherwise lie
+useless, the saving of this labour will be a great benefit to the
+French peasantry; and the more so, as it appears the plant will grow
+in its new state from seed. M. Naudin believes, that the condition of
+other vegetable productions may be varied at pleasure, and promises to
+lay his views shortly before the Acad&eacute;mie. M. Lecoq, director of the
+Botanical Garden at Claremont, informs the same body of something
+still more extraordinary, in a communication, entitled 'Two Hundred,
+Five Hundred, or even a Thousand new Vegetables, created <i>ad
+libitum</i>.' Having been struck by the fact, that the ass so often feeds
+upon the thistle, he took some specimens of that plant, and, by
+careful experiment, has succeeded in producing for the table 'a
+savoury vegetable, with thorns of the most inoffensive and flexible
+sort.' Whatever be the kind of thistle, however hard and sharp its
+thorns, he has tamed and softened them all, his method of
+transformation being, as he says, none other than exposing the plants
+to different influences of light. Those which grew unsheltered, he
+places in the dark, and <i>vice vers&acirc;</i>. Familiar examples are given in
+the celery, of which the acrid qualities are removed by keeping off
+the light; while the pungency of cress, parsley, &amp;c., is increased by
+exposure to the sun. M. Lecoq has not yet detailed all his
+experiments; but he asserts that, before long, some of our commonest
+weeds, owing to his modifications, will become as highly esteemed as
+peas or asparagus. Let him shew that his process is one that admits of
+being applied cheaply and on a large scale, and he will not fail of
+his reward.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="A_QUALIFIED_INSTRUCTOR" id="A_QUALIFIED_INSTRUCTOR"></a>A QUALIFIED INSTRUCTOR.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>It will be found that the ripest knowledge is best qualified to
+instruct the most complete ignorance. It is a common mistake to
+suppose that those who know little suffice to inform those who know
+less; that the master who is but a stage before the pupil can, as well
+as another, shew him the way; nay, that there may even be an advantage
+in this near approach between the minds of teacher and of taught;
+since the recollection of recent difficulties, and the vividness of
+fresh acquisition, give to the one a more living interest in the
+progress of the other. Of all educational errors, this is one of the
+gravest. The approximation required between the mind of teacher and of
+taught is not that of a common ignorance, but of mutual sympathy; not
+a partnership in narrowness of understanding, but that thorough
+insight of the one into the other, that orderly analysis of the
+tangled skein of thought; that patient and masterly skill in
+developing conception after conception,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[pg 80]</a></span> with a constant view to a
+remote result, which can only belong to comprehensive knowledge and
+prompt affections. With whatever accuracy the recently initiated may
+give out his new stores, he will rigidly follow the precise method by
+which he made them his own; and will want that variety and fertility
+of resource, that command of the several paths of access to a truth,
+which are given by thorough survey of the whole field on which he
+stands. The instructor needs to have a full perception, not merely of
+the internal contents, but also of the external relations, of that
+which he unfolds; as the astronomer knows but little, if, ignorant of
+the place and laws of moon and sun, he has examined only their
+mountains and their spots. The sense of proportion between the
+different parts and stages of a subject; the appreciation of the size
+and value of every step; the foresight of the direction and magnitude
+of the section that remains, are qualities so essential to the
+teacher, that without them all instruction is but an insult to the
+learner's understanding. And in virtue of these it is that the most
+cultivated minds are usually the most patient, most clear, most
+rationally progressive; most studious of accuracy in details, because
+not impatiently shut up within them as absolutely limiting the view,
+but quietly contemplating them from without in their relation to the
+whole. Neglect and depreciation of intellectual minuti&aelig; are
+characteristics of the ill-informed; and where the granular parts of
+study are thrown away or loosely held, will be found no compact mass
+of knowledge, solid and clear as crystal, but a sandy accumulation,
+bound together by no cohesion, and transmitting no light. And above
+and beyond all the advantages which a higher culture gives in the mere
+system of communicating knowledge, must be placed that indefinable and
+mysterious power which a superior mind always puts forth upon an
+inferior; that living and life-giving action, by which the mental
+forces are strengthened and developed, and a spirit of intelligence is
+produced, far transcending in excellence the acquisition of any
+special ideas. In the task of instruction, so lightly assumed, so
+unworthily esteemed, no amount of wisdom would be superfluous and
+lost; and even the child's elementary teaching would be best
+conducted, were it possible, by Omniscience itself. The more
+comprehensive the range of intellectual view, and the more minute the
+perception of its parts, the greater will be the simplicity of
+conception, the aptitude for exposition, and the directness of access
+to the open and expectant mind. This adaptation to the humblest wants
+is the peculiar triumph of the highest spirit of
+knowledge.&mdash;<i>Martineau's Discourses</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="AN_AMERICAN_RIVER" id="AN_AMERICAN_RIVER"></a>AN AMERICAN RIVER.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>The picturesque banks of the river Connecticut are dotted with
+charming little villages, that break here and there upon the sight
+like feathers of light, dancing among the willow leaves; there is such
+a dazzling irregularity of house and hill&mdash;so much fairy-like
+confusion of vista, landscape, and settlement. Now we pass a tiny
+white and vine-clad cottage, that looks as if it had been set down
+yesterday; now we sweep majestically by an ambitious young town, with
+its two, three, or half-a-dozen church-spires, sending back the lines
+of narrow light into the water; anon we glide past a forest of
+majestic old trees, that seem to press their topmost buds against the
+fleecy clouds floating in the blue sky; and through these forests we
+catch glimpses of the oriole, dashing through the boughs like a flake
+of fire.&mdash;<i>Yankee Stories, by Howard Paul</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHOOSE_THE_SUNNY_SIDE_OF_THE_STREET" id="CHOOSE_THE_SUNNY_SIDE_OF_THE_STREET"></a>CHOOSE THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>The sunny side of the street should always be chosen as a residence,
+for its superior healthfulness. In some barracks in Russia, it was
+found that in a wing where no sun penetrated, there occurred three
+cases of sickness for every single case which occurred on that side of
+the building exposed to the sun's rays. All other circumstances were
+equal&mdash;such as ventilation, size of apartments, &amp;c., so that no other
+cause for this disproportion seemed to exist. In the Italian cities,
+this practical hint is well known. Malaria seldom attacks the set of
+apartments or houses which are freely open to the sun; while, on the
+opposite side of the street, the summer and autumn are very
+unhealthful, and even dangerous.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="A_DREAM_OF_DEATH" id="A_DREAM_OF_DEATH"></a>A DREAM OF DEATH.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'<span class="smcap">Where</span> shall we sail to-day?'<br /></span>
+<span class="i10">Thus said, methought,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Voice&mdash;that could be only heard in dreams:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And on we glided without mast or oars,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A fair strange boat upon a wondrous sea.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Sudden the land curved inward, to a bay<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Broad, calm; with gorgeous sea-flowers waving slow<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Beneath the surface&mdash;like rich thoughts that move<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the mysterious deep of human hearts.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But towards the rounded shore's embracing arm,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The little waves leaped, singing, to their death;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And shadowy trees drooped pensive over them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Like long-fringed lashes over sparkling eyes.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">So still, so fair, so rosy in the dawn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lay that bright bay: yet something seemed to breathe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or in the air, or trees, or lisping waves,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or from the Voice, ay near as one's own soul&mdash;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'<i>There was a wreck last night!</i>'<br /></span>
+<span class="i10">A wreck?&mdash;and where<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The ship, the crew?&mdash;All gone. The monument<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On which is writ no name, no chronicle,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Laid itself o'er them with smooth crystal smile.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'<i>Yet was the wreck last night!</i>'<br /></span>
+<span class="i10">And, gazing down,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Deep down beneath the surface, we were 'ware<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of cold dead faces, with their stony eyes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Uplooking to the dawn they could not see.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">One stirred with stirring sea-weeds: one lay prone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The tinted fishes glancing o'er his breast:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">One, caught by floating hair, rocked daintily<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On the reed-cradle woven by kind Death.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'The wreck has been,' then said the deep low Voice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(Than which not Gabriel's did diviner sound,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or sweeter&mdash;when the stern, meek angel spake:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'See that thou worship not! Not me, but God!')<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'The wreck has been, yet all things are at peace,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Earth, sea, and sky. The dead, that while we slept<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Struggled for life, now sleep and fear no storm:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O'er them let us not weep when God's heaven smiles.'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">So we sailed on above the diamond sands,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bright sea-flowers, and dead faces white and calm,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till the waves rocked us in the open sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the great sun arose upon the world.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="THE_EXECUTIONER_IN_ALGERIA" id="THE_EXECUTIONER_IN_ALGERIA"></a>THE EXECUTIONER IN ALGERIA.</h2>
+
+<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of
+    Contents</a></p>
+
+<p>Every day, morning and evening, says our widow, 'I see a Moor pass
+along the street; all his features beam with kindness and serenity. A
+sword, or rather a long yataghan, is slung in his girdle; all the
+Arabs salute him with respect, and press forward to kiss his hand.
+This man is a <i>chaouch</i> or executioner&mdash;an office considered so
+honourable in this country, that the person invested with it is
+regarded as a special favourite of Heaven, intrusted with the care of
+facilitating the path of the true believer from this lower world to
+the seventh heaven of Mohammed.&mdash;<i>A Residence in Algeria, by Madame
+Prus</i>.</p>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+
+<p class="center"><i>Just Published, Price 6d. Paper Cover,</i></p>
+
+<p>CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY: forming a <span class="smcap">Literary Companion</span> for the
+<span class="smcap">Railway</span>, the <span class="smcap">Fireside</span>, or the <span class="smcap">Bush</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="center">VOLUME VIII.</p>
+
+<p class="center">To be continued in Monthly Volumes.</p>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<p>Printed and Published by W. and <span class="smcap">R. Chambers</span>, High Street, Edinburgh.
+Also sold by <span class="smcap">W. S. Orr</span>, Amen Corner, London; <span class="smcap">D. N. Chambers</span>, 55 West
+Nile Street, Glasgow; and <span class="smcap">J. M'Glashan</span>, 50 Upper Sackville Street,
+Dublin.&mdash;Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to
+<span class="smcap">Maxwell</span> &amp; Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all
+applications respecting their insertion must be made.</p>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448, by Various
+
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+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448, 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: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448
+       Volume 18, New Series, July 31, 1852
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: William Chambers
+        Robert Chambers
+
+Release Date: April 20, 2007 [EBook #21193]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Richard J. Shiffer and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                     CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
+
+  CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S
+  INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
+
+
+  No. 448. NEW SERIES.   SATURDAY, JULY 31, 1852.   PRICE 1-1/2_d._
+
+
+
+
+BOOK-WORSHIP.
+
+
+A book belongs in a peculiar manner to the age and nation that produce
+it. It is an emanation of the thought of the time; and if it survive
+to an after-time, it remains as a landmark of the progress of the
+imagination or the intellect. Some books do even more than this: they
+press forward to the future age, and make appeals to its maturer
+genius; but in so doing they still belong to their own--they still
+wear the garb which stamps them as appertaining to a particular epoch.
+Of that epoch, it is true, they are, intellectually, the flower and
+chief; they are the expression of its finer spirit, and serve as a
+link between the two generations of the past and the future; but of
+that future--so much changed in habits, and feelings, and
+knowledge--they can never, even when acting as guides and teachers,
+form an essential part: there is always some bond of sympathy wanting.
+
+A single glance at our own great books will illustrate this--books
+which are constantly reprinted, without which no library can be
+tolerated--which are still, generation after generation, the objects
+of the national worship, and are popularly supposed to afford a
+universal and unfailing standard of excellence in the various
+departments of literature. These books, although pored over as a task
+and a study by the few, are rarely opened and never read by the many:
+they are known the least by those who reverence them most. They are,
+in short, idols, and their worship is not a faith, but a superstition.
+This kind of belief is not shaken even by experience. When a devourer
+of the novels of Scott, for instance, takes up _Tom Jones_, he, after
+a vain attempt to read, may lay it down with a feeling of surprise and
+dissatisfaction; but _Tom Jones_ remains still to his convictions 'an
+epic in prose,' the fiction _par excellence_ of the language. As for
+_Clarissa Harlowe_ and _Sir Charles Grandison_, we have not heard of
+any common reader in our generation who has had the hardihood even to
+open the volumes; but Richardson as well as Fielding retains his
+original niche among the gods of romance; and we find Scott himself
+one of the high-priests of the worship. When wandering once upon the
+continent, we were thrown for several days into the company of an
+English clergyman, who had provided himself, as the best possible
+model in description, with a copy of Spenser; and it was curious to
+observe the pertinacity with which, from time to time, he drew forth
+his treasure, and the weariness with which in a few minutes he
+returned it to his pocket. Yet our reverend friend, we have no doubt,
+went home with his faith in Spenser unshaken, and recommends it to
+this day as the most delightful of all companions for a journey.
+
+In the present century, the French and German critics have begun to
+place this reverential feeling for the 'classics' of a language upon a
+more rational basis. In estimating an author, they throw themselves
+back into the times in which he wrote; they determine his place among
+the spirits of his own age; and ascertain the practical influence his
+works have exercised over those of succeeding generations. In short,
+they judge him relatively, not absolutely; and thus convert an
+unreasoning superstition into a sober faith. We do not require to be
+told that in every book destined to survive its author, there are here
+and there gleams of nature that belong to all time; but the body of
+the work is after the fashion of the age that produced it; and he who
+is unacquainted with the thought of that age, will always judge amiss.
+In England, we are still in the bonds of the last century, and it is
+surprising what an amount of affectation mingles with criticism even
+of the highest pretensions. It is no wonder, then, that common readers
+should be mistaken in their book-worship. To such persons, for all
+their blind reverence, Dante must in reality be a wild beast--a fine
+animal, it is true, but still a wild beast--and our own Milton a
+polemical pedant arguing by the light of poetry. To such readers, the
+spectacle of Ugolino devouring the head of Ruggieri, and wiping his
+jaws with the hair that he might tell his story, cannot fail to give a
+feeling of horror and disgust, which even the glorious wings of
+Dante's angels--the most sublime of all such creations--would fail to
+chase away. The poetry of the Divine Comedy belongs to nature; its
+superstition, intolerance, and fanaticism, to the thirteenth century.
+These last have either passed away from the modern world or they exist
+in new forms, and with the first alone can we have any real healthy
+sympathy.
+
+One of our literary idols is Shakspeare--perhaps the greatest of them
+all; but although the most universal of poets, his works, taken in the
+mass, belong to the age of Queen Elizabeth, not to ours. A critic has
+well said, that if Shakspeare were now living, he would manifest the
+same dramatic power, but under different forms; and his taste, his
+knowledge, and his beliefs would all be different. This, however, is
+not the opinion of the book-worshippers: it is not the poetry alone of
+Shakspeare, but the work bodily, which is preeminent with them; not
+that which is universal in his genius, but that likewise which is
+restricted by the fetters of time and country. The commentators, in
+the same way, find it their business to bring up his shortcomings to
+his ideal character, not to account for their existence by the manners
+and prejudices of his age, or the literary models on which his taste
+was formed. It would be easy to run over, in this way, the list of
+all our great authors, and to shew that book-worship, as
+contradistinguished from a wise and discriminating respect, is nothing
+more than a vulgar superstition.
+
+We are the more inclined to put forth these ideas, at a time when
+reprints are the order of the day--when speculators, with a singular
+blindness, are ready to take hold of almost anything that comes in
+their way without the expense of copyright. It would be far more
+judicious to employ persons of a correct and elegant taste to separate
+the local and temporary from the universal and immortal part of our
+classics, and give us, in an independent form, what belongs to
+ourselves and to all time. A movement was made some years ago in this
+direction by Mr Craik, who printed in one of Charles Knight's
+publications a summary of the _Faery Queen_, converting the prosaic
+portions into prose, and giving only the true poetry in the rich and
+musical verses of Spenser. A travelling companion like this, we
+venture to assure our clerical friend, would not be pocketed so
+wearily as the original work. The harmony of the divine poet would
+saturate his heart and beam from his eyes; and when wandering where we
+met him, among the storied ruins of the Rhine, he would have by his
+side not the man Spenser, surrounded by the prejudices and rudenesses
+of his age, but the spirit Spenser, discoursing to and with the
+universal heart of nature. Leigh Hunt, with more originality--more of
+the quality men call genius, but a less correct perception of what is
+really wanted--has done the same thing for the great Italian poets;
+and in his sparkling pages Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, and the rest of the
+tuneful train, appear unfettered by the more unpleasing peculiarities
+of their mortal time. But the criticism by which their steps are
+attended, though full of grace and acuteness, is absolute, not
+relative. They are judged by a standard of taste and feeling existing
+in the author's mind: the _Inferno_ is a magnificent caldron of
+everything base and detestable in human nature; and the _Orlando_, a
+paradise of love, beauty, and delight. Dante, the sublime poet, but
+inexorable bigot, meets with little tolerance from Leigh Hunt; while
+Ariosto, exhaustless in his wealth, ardent and exulting--full of the
+same excess of life which in youth sends the blood dancing and boiling
+through the veins--has his warmest sympathy. This kind of criticism is
+but a new form of the error we have pointed out; for both poets
+receive his homage--the one praised in the spontaneous outpourings of
+his heart, the other served with the rites of devil-worship.
+
+When we talk of the great authors of one generation pressing forward
+to claim the sympathy of the _maturer_ genius of the next, we mean
+precisely what we say. We are well aware that some of the great
+writers we have casually mentioned have no equals in the present
+world; yet the present world is more mature in point of taste than
+their own. That is the reason why they _are_ great authors now. Some
+books last for a season, some for a generation, some for an age, or
+two, or more; always dropping off when the time they reach outstrips
+them. One of these lost treasures is sometimes reprinted; but if this
+is done in the hope of a renewed popularity, the speculation is sure
+to fail. Curious and studious men, it is true, are gratified by the
+reproduction; but the general reader would prefer a book of his own
+generation, using the former as materials, and separating its immortal
+part from its perishing body.
+
+And the general reader, be it remembered, is virtually the age. It is
+for him the studious think, the imaginative invent, the tuneful sing:
+beyond him there is no appeal but to the future. He is superstitious,
+as we have seen, but his gods are few and traditional. He determines
+to make a stand somewhere; and it is necessary for him to do so, if he
+would not encumber his literary Olympus with a Hindoo-like pantheon of
+millions. But how voracious is this general reader in regard to the
+effusions of his own day! What will become of the myriads of books
+that have passed through our own unworthy hands? How many of them will
+survive to the next generation? How many will continue to float still
+further down the stream of time? How many will attain the honour of
+the apotheosis? And will they coexist in this exalted state with the
+old objects of worship? This last is a pregnant question; for each
+generation will in all probability furnish its quota of the great
+books of the language, and, if so, a reform in the superstition we
+have exposed is no longer a matter of mere expedience, but of
+necessity. We are aware that all this will be pronounced rank heresy
+by those who assume the style of critics, who usually make a
+prodigious outcry when a great author is mutilated, even by expunging
+a word which modern decency excludes from the vocabulary of social and
+family intercourse. This word, however--supposing it to represent the
+mortal and perishing part of an author's productions--belongs not to
+him, but to his age; not to the intellectual man, but to the external
+and fleeting manners of his day and generation. Such critics usually
+take credit to themselves for a peculiarly large and liberal spirit;
+but there seems to us, on the contrary, to be something mean and
+restricted in views that regard the man as an individual, not as a
+portion of the genius which belongs to the world. Yet, even as an
+individual, the man is safe in his entirety, for there is no project
+of cancelling the printed works extant in our libraries, public and
+private. The true question simply is: Are great authors to be allowed
+to become practically obsolete--and many of them have become so
+already--while we stand upon the delicacies and ceremonies of
+Book-worship?
+
+
+
+
+OUR TERRACE.
+
+
+London has been often compared to a wilderness--a wilderness of brick,
+and so in one sense it is; because you may live in London all the days
+of your life if you choose--and, indeed, if you don't choose, if you
+happen to be very poor--without exciting observation, or provoking any
+further questioning than is comprised in a demand for accurate
+guidance from one place to another, a demand which might be made upon
+you in an Arabian desert, if there you chanced to meet a stranger. But
+London is something else besides a wilderness--indeed it is everything
+else. It is a great world, containing a thousand little worlds in its
+bosom; and pop yourself down in it in any quarter you will, you are
+sure to find yourself in the centre of some peculiar microcosm
+distinguished from all others by features more or less characteristic.
+
+One such little world we have lived in for a round number of years;
+and as we imagine it presents a picture by no means disagreeable to
+look upon, we will introduce the reader, with his permission, into its
+very limited circle, and chronicle its history for one day as
+faithfully as it is possible for anything to do, short of the
+Daguerreotype and the tax-gatherer. Our Terrace, then--for that is our
+little world--is situated in one of the northern, southern, eastern,
+or western suburbs--we have reasons for not being particular--at the
+distance of two miles and three-quarters from the black dome of St
+Paul's. It consists of thirty genteel-looking second-rate houses,
+standing upon a veritable terrace, at least three feet above the level
+of the carriage-way, and having small gardens enclosed in iron
+palisades in front of them. The garden gates open upon a pavement of
+nine feet in width; the carriage-road is thirty feet across; and on
+the opposite side is another but lower terrace, surmounted with
+handsome semi-detached villas, with ample flower-gardens both in front
+and rear, those in the front being planted, but rather sparingly, with
+limes, birches, and a few specimens of the white-ash, which in
+summertime overshadow the pavement, and shelter a passing pedestrian
+when caught in a shower. At one end of Our Terrace, there is a
+respectable butcher's shop, a public-house, and a shop which is
+perpetually changing owners, and making desperate attempts to
+establish itself as something or other, without any particular
+partiality for any particular line of business. It has been by turns a
+print-shop, a stationer's, a circulating library, a toy-shop, a
+Berlin-wool shop, a music and musical-instrument shop, a haberdasher's
+shop, a snuff and cigar shop, and one other thing which has escaped
+our memory--and all within the last seven years. Each retiring
+speculator has left his stock-in-trade, along with the good-will, to
+his successor; and at the present moment it is a combination of shops,
+where everything you don't want is to be found in a state of
+dilapidation, together with a very hungry-looking proprietor, who, for
+want of customers upon whom to exercise his ingenuity, pulls away all
+day long upon the accordion to the tune of _We're a' noddin'_. The
+other end of Our Terrace has its butcher, its public-house, its
+grocer, and a small furniture-shop, doing a small trade, under the
+charge of a very small boy. Let thus much suffice for the physiology
+of our subject. We proceed to record its history, as it may be read by
+any one of the inhabitants who chooses to spend the waking hours of a
+single day in perusing it from his parlour window.
+
+It is a fine morning in the middle of June, and the clock of the
+church at the end of the road is about striking seven, when the
+parlour shutters and the street doors of the terrace begin to open one
+by one. By a quarter past, the servant-girls, having lighted their
+fires, and put the kettle on to boil for breakfast, are ostensibly
+busy in sweeping the pathways of the small front-gardens, but are
+actually enjoying a simultaneous gossip together over the garden
+railings--a fleeting pleasure, which must be nipped in the bud,
+because master goes to town at half-past eight, and his boots are not
+yet cleaned, or his breakfast prepared. Now the bedroom-bell rings,
+which means hot water; and this is no sooner up, than mistress is
+down, and breakfast is laid in the parlour. At a quarter before eight,
+the eggs are boiled, and the bacon toasted, and the first serious
+business of the day is in course of transaction. Mr Jones of No. 9, Mr
+Robinson of No. 10, and Mr Brown of No. 11, are bound to be at their
+several posts in the city at nine o'clock; and having swallowed a
+hasty breakfast, they may be seen, before half-past eight has chimed,
+walking up and down the terrace chatting together, and wondering
+whether 'that Smith,' as usual, means to keep the omnibus waiting this
+morning, or whether he will come forth in time. Precisely as the half
+hour strikes, the tin horn of the omnibus sounds its shrill blast, and
+the vehicle is seen rattling round the corner, stopping one moment at
+No. 28, to take up Mr Johnson. On it comes, with a fresh blast, to
+where the commercial trio are waiting for it; out rushes Smith, wiping
+his mouth, and the 'bus,' swallowing up the whole four, rumbles and
+trumpets on to take up Thompson, Jackson, and Richardson, who, cigars
+in mouth, are waiting at a distance of forty paces off to ascend the
+roof. An hour later, a second omnibus comes by on the same benevolent
+errand, for the accommodation of those gentlemen, more favoured by
+fortune, who are not expected to be at the post of business until the
+hour of ten. As Our Terrace does not stand in a direct omnibus route,
+these are all the 'buses' that will pass in the course of the day. The
+gentlemen whom they convey every morning to town are regular
+customers, and the vehicles diverge from their regular course in order
+to pick them up at their own doors.
+
+About half-past nine, or from that to a quarter to ten, comes the
+postman with his first delivery of letters for the day. Our Terrace is
+the most toilsome part of his beat, for having to serve both sides of
+the way, his progress is very like that of a ship at sea sailing
+against the wind. R'tat he goes on our side, then down he jumps into
+the road--B'bang on the other side--tacks about again, and serves the
+terrace--off again, and serves the villas, and so on till he has
+fairly epistolised both sides of the way, and vanished round the
+corner. The vision of his gold band and red collar is anxiously looked
+for in the morning by many a fair face, which a watchful observer may
+see furtively peering through the drawing-room window-curtains. After
+he has departed, and the well-to-do merchants and employers who reside
+in the villas opposite have had time to look over their
+correspondence, come sundry neat turn-outs from the stables and
+coach-houses in the rear of the villas: a light, high gig, drawn by a
+frisky grey, into which leaps young Oversea the shipbroker--a
+comfortable, cushioned four-wheel drawn by a pair of bay ponies, into
+which old Discount climbs heavily, followed perhaps by his two
+daughters, bound on a shopping-visit to the city--and a spicy-looking,
+rattling trap, with a pawing horse, which has a decided objection to
+standing still, for Mr Goadall, the wealthy cattle-drover. These, with
+other vehicles of less note, all roll off the ground by a quarter
+after ten o'clock or so; and the ladies and their servants, with some
+few exceptions, are left in undisputed possession of home, while not a
+footfall of man or beast is heard in the sunshiny quiet of the street.
+
+The quiet, however, is broken before long by a peculiar and suggestive
+cry. We do not hear it yet ourselves, but Stalker, our black cat and
+familiar, has caught the well-known accents, and with a characteristic
+crooning noise, and a stiff, perpendicular erection of tail, he sidles
+towards the door, demanding, as plainly as possible, to be let out.
+Yes, it is the cats-meat man. 'Ca' me-e-et--me-yet--me-e-yet!' fills
+the morning air, and arouses exactly thirty responsive feline
+voices--for there is a cat to every house--and points thirty aspiring
+tails to the zenith. As many hungry tabbies, sables, and
+tortoise-shells as can get out of doors, are trooping together with
+arched backs upon the pavement, following the little pony-cart, the
+cats' commissariat equipage, and each one, anxious for his daily
+allowance, contributing most musically his quota to the general
+concert. We do not know how it is, but the cats-meat man is the most
+unerring and punctual of all those peripatetic functionaries who
+undertake to cater for the consumption of the public. The baker, the
+butcher, the grocer, the butterman, the fishmonger, and the coster,
+occasionally forget your necessities, or omit to call for your
+orders--the cats-meat man never. Other traders, too, dispense their
+stock by a sliding-scale, and are sometimes out of stock altogether:
+Pussy's provider, on the contrary, sticks to one price from year's end
+to year's end, and never, in the memory of the oldest Grimalkin, was
+known to disappoint a customer. A half-penny for a cat's breakfast has
+been the regulation-price ever since the horses of the metropolis
+began to submit to the boiling process for the benefit of the feline
+race.
+
+By the time the cats have retired to growl over their allowance in
+private, the daily succession of nomadic industrials begin to lift up
+their voices, and to defile slowly along Our Terrace, stopping now and
+then to execute a job or effect a sale when an opportunity presents
+itself. Our limits will not allow us to notice them all, but we must
+devote a few paragraphs to those without whom our picture would be
+incomplete.
+
+First comes an ingenious lass of two or three-and-twenty, with a
+flaming red shawl, pink ribbons in her bonnet, and the hue of health
+on a rather saucy face. She carries a large basket on her left arm,
+and in her right hand she displays to general admiration a gorgeous
+group of flowers, fashioned twice the size of life, from tissue-paper
+of various colours. She lifts up her voice occasionally as she marches
+slowly along, singing, in a clear accent: 'Flowers--ornamental papers
+for the stove--flowers! paper-flowers!' She is the accredited herald
+of summer--a phenomenon, this year, of very late appearance. We should
+have seen her six weeks ago, if the summer had not declined to appear
+at the usual season. She is the gaudy, party-coloured ephemera of
+street commerce, and will disappear from view in a fortnight's time,
+to be seen no more until the opening summer of '53. Her wares, which
+are manufactured with much taste, and with an eye to the harmony of
+colours, are in much request among the genteel housewives of the
+suburbs. They are exceedingly cheap, considering the skill which must
+be applied in their construction. They are all the work of her own
+hands, and have occupied her time and swallowed up her capital for
+some months past. She enjoys almost a monopoly in her art, and is not
+to be beaten down in the price of her goods. She knows their value,
+and is more independent than an artist dares to be in the presence of
+a patron. Her productions are a pleasant summer substitute for the
+cheerful fire of winter; and it is perhaps well for her that, before
+the close of autumn, the faded hues of the flowers, and the harbour
+they afford to dust, will convert them into waste paper, in spite of
+all the care that may be taken to preserve them.
+
+Paper Poll, as the servants call her, is hardly out of sight, and not
+out of hearing, when a young fellow and his wife come clattering along
+the pavement, appealing to all who may require their good offices in
+the matter of chair-mending. The man is built up in a sort of
+cage-work of chairs stuck about his head and shoulders, and his dirty
+phiz is only half visible through a kind of grill of legs and
+cross-bars. These are partly commissions which, having executed at
+home, he is carrying to their several owners. But as everybody does
+not choose to trust him away with property, he is ready to execute
+orders on the spot; and to this end his wife accompanies him on his
+rounds. She is loaded with a small bag of tools suspended at her
+waist, and a plentiful stock of split-cane under one arm. He will
+weave a new cane-seat to an old chair for 9d., and he will set down
+his load and do it before your eyes in your own garden, if you prefer
+that to intrusting him with it; that is, he will make the bargain, and
+his wife will weave the seat under his supervision, unless there
+happen to be two to be repaired, when husband and wife will work
+together. We have noticed that it is a very silent operation, that of
+weaving chair-bottoms; and that though the couple may be seated for an
+hour and more together rapidly plying the flexible canes, they never
+exchange a word with each other till the task is accomplished.
+Sometimes the wife is left at a customer's door working alone, while
+the husband wanders further on in search of other employment,
+returning by the time she has finished her task. But there are no
+chairs to mend this morning on Our Terrace, and our bamboo friends may
+jog on their way.
+
+Now resounds from a distance the cry of 'All a-growin' an'
+a-blowin'--all a-blowin', a-blowin' here!' and in a few minutes the
+travelling florist makes his appearance, driving before him a
+broad-surfaced handcart, loaded in profusion with exquisite flowers of
+all hues, in full bloom, and, to all appearance, thriving famously. It
+may happen, however, as it has happened to us, that the blossoms now
+so vigorous and blooming, may all drop off on the second or third day;
+and the naked plant, after making a sprawling and almost successful
+attempt to reach the ceiling for a week or so, shall become suddenly
+sapless and withered, the emblem of a broken-down and emaciated
+sot--and, what is more, ruined from the self-same cause, an overdose
+of stimulating fluid. It may happen, on the other hand, that the plant
+shall have suffered no trick of the gardener's trade, and shall bloom
+fairly to the end of its natural term. The commerce in blossoming
+flowers is one of the most uncertain and dangerous speculations in
+which the small street-traders of London can engage. When carried on
+under favourable circumstances, it is one of the most profitable, the
+demand for flowers being constant and increasing; but the whole
+stock-in-trade of a small perambulating capitalist may be ruined by a
+shower of rain, which will spoil their appearance for the market, and
+prevent his selling them before they are overblown. Further, as few of
+these dealers have any means of housing this kind of stock safely
+during the night, they are often compelled to part with them, after an
+unfavourable day, at less than prime cost, to prevent a total loss.
+Still, there are never wanting men of a speculative turn of mind, and
+the cry of 'All a-blowin' an' a-growin'' resounds through the streets
+as long as the season supplies flowers to grow and to blow.
+
+The flower-merchant wheels off, having left a good sprinkling of
+geraniums in our neighbours' windows; and his cousin-german, 'the
+graveller,' comes crawling after him, with his cart and stout horse in
+the middle of the road, while he walks on one side of the pavement,
+and his assistant on the other. This fellow is rather a singular
+character, and one that is to be met with probably nowhere upon the
+face of the earth but in the suburbs of London. He is, _par
+excellence_, the exponent of a feeling which pervades the popular mind
+in the metropolis on the subject of the duty which respectable people
+owe to respectability. It is impossible for a housekeeper in a
+neighbourhood having any claims to gentility, to escape the
+recognition of this feeling in the lower class of industrials. If you
+have a broken window in the front of your house, the travelling
+glazier thinks, to use his own expression, that _you have a right_ to
+have it repaired, and therefore that he, having discovered the
+fracture, has a right to the job of mending it. If your bell-handle is
+out of order or broken off, the travelling bellman thinks he has a
+right to repair it, and bores you, in fact, until you commission him
+to do so--and so on. In the same manner, and on the same principle, so
+soon as the fine weather sets in, and the front-gardens begin to look
+gay, the graveller loads his cart with gravel, and shouldering his
+spade, crawls leisurely through the suburbs with his companion,
+peering into every garden; and wherever he sees that the walks are
+grown dingy or moss-grown, he knocks boldly at the door, and demands
+to be set to work in mending your ways. The best thing you can do is
+to make the bargain and employ him at once; if not, he will be round
+again to-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, and bore you into
+consenting at last. You live in a respectable house, and you _have a
+right_ to keep your garden in a respectable condition--and the
+graveller is determined that you shall do so: has he not brought
+gravel to the door on purpose? it will cost you but a shilling or two.
+Thus he lays down the law in his own mind; and sooner or later, as
+sure as fate, he lays down the gravel in your garden.
+
+While the graveller is patting down the pathway round Robinson's
+flower-bed, we hear the well-known cry of a countryman whom we have
+known any time these ten years, and who, with his wife by his side,
+has perambulated the suburbs for the best part of his life. He has
+taken upon himself the patronage of the laundry department, and he
+shoulders a fagot of clothes-poles, ten feet long, with forked
+extremities, all freshly cut from the forest. Coils of new rope for
+drying are hanging upon his arm, and his wife carries a basket well
+stocked with clothes-pins of a superior description, manufactured by
+themselves. The cry of 'Clo'-pole-line-pins' is one long familiar to
+the neighbourhood; and as this honest couple have earned a good
+reputation by a long course of civility and probity, they enjoy the
+advantage of a pretty extensive connection. Their perambulations are
+confined to the suburbs, and it is a question if they ever enter
+London proper from one year's end to another. It is of no use to carry
+clothes-poles and drying-lines where there are no conveniences for
+washing and drying.
+
+Next comes a travelling umbrella-mender, fagoted on the back like the
+man in the moon of the nursery rhyme-book. He is followed at a short
+distance by a travelling tinker, swinging his live-coals in a sort of
+tin censer, and giving utterance to a hoarse and horrible cry,
+intelligible only to the cook who has a leaky sauce-pan. Then comes
+the chamois-leather woman, bundled about with damaged skins, in
+request for the polishing of plate and plated wares. She is one of
+that persevering class who will hardly take 'No' for an answer. It
+takes her a full hour to get through the terrace, for she enters every
+garden, and knocks at every door from No. 1 to No. 30. In the
+winter-time, she pursues an analogous trade, dealing in what may
+strictly be termed the raw material, inasmuch as she then buys and
+cries hare-skins and rabbit-skins. She has, unfortunately, a
+notoriously bad character, and is accused of being addicted to the
+practice of taking tenpence and a hare-skin in exchange for a
+counterfeit shilling.
+
+By this time it is twelve o'clock and past, and Charley Coster, who
+serves the terrace with vegetables, drives up his stout cob to the
+door, and is at the very moment we write bargaining with Betty for new
+potatoes at threepence-half-penny a pound. Betty declares it is a
+scandalous price for potatoes. 'Yes, dear,' says Charley; 'an' another
+scanlous thing is, that I can't sell 'em for no less.' Charley is the
+most affectionate of costers, and is a general favourite with the
+abigails of the terrace. His turn-out is the very model of a
+travelling green-grocer's shop, well stocked with all the fruits and
+vegetables of the season; and he himself is a model of a coster, clean
+shaved, clean shod, and trimly dressed, with a flower in his
+button-hole, an everlasting smile upon his face, and the nattiest of
+neck-ties. The cunning rogue pretends to be smitten with Betty, and
+most likely does the same with all the other Bettys of the
+neighbourhood, to all of whom he chatters incessantly of everything
+and everybody--save and except of the wife and three children waiting
+for him at home. He will leave a good portion of his stock behind him
+when he quits the terrace.
+
+After Charley has disappeared, there is a pause for an hour or two in
+the flow of professionals past Our Terrace. The few pedestrians that
+pass along are chiefly gentlefolks, who have come abroad this fine
+morning for an airing--to take a constitutional, and to pick up an
+appetite for dinner. You may chance to hear the cry of 'Oranges and
+nuts,' or of 'Cod--live cod,' and you may be entertained by a band of
+musicians in a gaily-coloured van patrolling for the purpose of
+advertising the merits of something or other which is to be had for
+nothing at all, or the next thing to it, if you can prevail upon
+yourself to go and fetch it. Perhaps Punch and Judy will pitch their
+little citadel in front of your dwelling; or, more likely still, a
+band of mock Ethiopians, with fiddle, castanets, and banjo, may tempt
+your liberality with a performance of _Uncle Ned_ or _Old Dan Tucker_;
+or a corps of German musicians may trumpet you into a fit of martial
+ardour; or a wandering professor of the German flute soothe you into a
+state of romance.
+
+As the afternoon wears on, the tranquillity grows more profound. The
+villas opposite stand asleep in the sunshine; the sound of a single
+footstep is heard on the pavement; and anon you hear the feeble,
+cracked voice of old Willie, the water-cress man, distinctly
+articulating the cry of 'Water-cresses; fine brown water-cresses;
+royal Albert water-cresses; the best in London--everybody say so.' The
+water-cresses are welcomed on the terrace as an ornament and something
+more to the tea-table; and while tea is getting ready for the
+inhabitants of the terrace, the dwellers in the opposite villas are
+seen returning to dinner. The lame match-man now hobbles along upon
+his crutches, with his little basket of lucifers suspended at his
+side. He is thoroughly deaf and three parts dumb, uttering nothing
+beyond an incomprehensible kind of croak by way of a demand for
+custom. He is a privileged being, whom nobody thinks of interfering
+with. He has the _entree_ of all the gardens on both sides of the way,
+and is the acknowledged depositary of scraps and remnants of all kinds
+which have made their last appearance upon the dinner or supper table.
+
+About five o'clock, the tinkling note of the muffin-bell strikes
+agreeably upon the ear, suggestive of fragrant souchong and
+bottom-crusts hot, crackling, and unctuous. Now ensues a delicate
+savour in the atmosphere of the terrace kitchens, and it is just at
+its height when Smith, Brown, Jones, and Robinson are seen walking
+briskly up the terrace. They all go in at Smith's, where the
+muffin-man went in about half an hour before, and left half his stock
+behind him. By six o'clock, the lords and ladies of Our Terrace are
+congregated round their tea-urns; and by seven, you may see from one
+of the back-windows a tolerable number of the lords, arrayed in
+dressing-gowns and slippers, and some of them with corpulent
+meerschaums dangling from their mouths, strolling leisurely in the
+gardens in the rear of their dwellings, and amusing themselves with
+their children, whose prattling voices and innocent laughter mingle
+with the twittering of those suburban songsters, the sparrows, and
+with the rustling of the foliage, stirred by the evening breeze. These
+pleasant sounds die away by degrees. Little boys and girls go to bed;
+the gloom of twilight settles down upon the gardens; candles are
+lighted in the drawing-rooms, and from a dozen houses at once
+pianofortes commence their harmony. At No. 12, the drawing-room
+windows are open, though the blinds are down; and the slow-pacing
+policeman pauses in his round, and leans against the iron railings,
+being suddenly brought up by the richly-harmonious strains of a glee
+for three voices: Brown, Jones, and Robinson are doing the _Chough and
+Crow_; and Smith, who prides himself on his semi-grand, which he tunes
+with his own hands once a week, is doing the accompaniment in his best
+style. The merry chorus swells delightfully upon the ear, and is heard
+half way down the terrace: the few foot-passengers who are passing
+stop under the window to listen, till one of them is imprudent enough
+to cry 'Encore,' when down go the windows, and the harmonious sounds
+are shut in from vulgar ears.
+
+It is by this time nearly half-past nine o'clock, and now comes the
+regular nightly 'tramp, tramp' of the police, marching in Indian file,
+and heavily clad in their night-gear. They come to replace the
+guardians of the day by those of the night. One of the number falls
+out of the line on the terrace, where he commences his nocturnal
+wanderings, and guarantees the peace and safety of the inhabitants for
+the succeeding eight hours: the rest tramp onwards to their distant
+stations. The echoes of their iron heels have hardly died away, when
+there is a sudden and almost simultaneous eruption from every
+garden-gate on the terrace of clean-faced, neat-aproned, red-elbowed
+servant-girls, each and all armed with a jug or a brace of jugs, with
+a sprinkling of black bottles among them, and all bound to one or
+other of the public-houses which guard the terrace at either end. It
+is the hour of supper; and the supper-beer, and the after-supper
+nightcaps, for those who indulge in them, have to be procured from the
+publican. This is an occasion upon which Betty scorns to hurry; but
+she takes time by the forelock, starting for the beer as soon as the
+cloth is laid, and before master has finished his pipe, or his game of
+chess, or Miss Clementina her song, in order that she may have leisure
+for a little gossip with No. 7 on the one hand, or No. 9 on the
+other. She goes out without beat of drum, and lets herself in with the
+street-door key without noise, bringing home, besides the desiderated
+beverage, the news of the day, and the projects of next-door for the
+morrow, with, it may be, a plan for the enjoyment of her next monthly
+holiday.
+
+Supper is the last great business of the day upon Our Terrace, which,
+by eleven at night, is lapped in profound repose. The moon rides high
+in mid-sky, and the black shadows of the trees lie motionless on the
+white pavement. Not a footfall is heard abroad; the only sound that is
+audible as you put your head out of the window, to look up at the
+glimmering stars and radiant moon, is the distant and monotonous
+murmur of the great metropolis, varied now and then by the shrill
+scream of a far-off railway-whistle, or the 'cough, cough, cough' of
+the engine of some late train. We are sober folks on the terrace, and
+are generally all snug abed before twelve o'clock. The last sound that
+readies our ears ere we doze off into forgetfulness, is the slow,
+lumbering, earthquaky advance of a huge outward-bound wagon. We hear
+it at the distance of half a mile, and note distinctly the crushing
+and pulverising of every small stone which the broad wheels roll over
+as they sluggishly proceed on their way. It rocks us in our beds as it
+passes the house; and for twenty minutes afterwards, if we are awake
+so long, we are aware that it is groaning heavily onwards, and shaking
+the solid earth in its progress--till it sinks away in silence, or we
+into the land of dreams.
+
+
+
+
+SLAVES IN BRITAIN.
+
+
+It has sometimes been predicted, not without plausibility, that if
+this great empire should sink before the rising genius of some new
+state, when all it has accomplished in arts and arms, and its wealth,
+its literature, its machinery, are forgotten, its struggles for
+humanity in the abolition of negro slavery will stand forth in
+undiminished lustre. All the steps of this mighty operation are
+interesting. It is a peculiarity of England and its institutions, that
+many of the most momentous constitutional conflicts have taken place
+in the courts of law. In despotic countries, this seldom occurs,
+because the rulers can bend the courts of law to their pleasure; but
+here, even under the worst governments, whatever degree of freedom was
+really warranted by law, could be secured by the courts of justice.
+When it was said that the air of Britain was too pure for a slave to
+breathe in--that his shackles fell off whenever he reached her happy
+shore--the sentiment was noble; but the question depended entirely on
+the law and its technical details. The trials resulting in a decision
+against slavery, have thus much interest from the influence they
+exercised on human progress.
+
+There seemed to be every probability that the interesting question,
+whether ownership in slaves continued after they had reached Britain,
+would have been tried in Scotland. In the middle of last century, a Mr
+Sheddan had brought home from Virginia a negro slave to be taught a
+trade. He was baptised, and, learning his trade, began to acquire
+notions of freedom and citizenship. When the master thought he had
+been long enough in Scotland to suit his purpose, the negro was put on
+board a vessel for Virginia. He got a friend, however, to present for
+him a petition to the Court of Session. The professional report of the
+case in _Morison's Dictionary of Decisions_ says: 'The Lords appointed
+counsel for the negro, and ordered memorials, and afterwards a hearing
+in presence, upon the respective claims of liberty and servitude by
+the master and the negro; but during the hearing in presence, the
+negro died, so the point was not determined.' In the English case, to
+which we shall presently advert, it was maintained, that from the
+known temper and opinions of the court, the decision, would
+undoubtedly have been in the negro's favour. At the time when Mr
+Grenville Sharp, to his immortal honour, took up in the courts of law
+the question of personal liberty as a legal right, there was a more
+serious risk of Britain becoming a slave state than it is now easy to
+imagine. There was no chance of negroes being employed in gangs in the
+field or in manufactories, but there was imminent danger of their
+being brought over and kept in multitudes as domestic servants, just
+as they are still in some of the southern states of America. Mr Sharp
+drew attention to the following advertisement in the _Public
+Advertiser_ of 28th March 1769, as one of a kind becoming too common:
+
+'To be sold, a Black Girl, the property of J. B----, eleven years of
+age, who is extremely handy, works at her needle tolerably, and speaks
+English perfectly well; is of an excellent temper and willing
+disposition.
+
+'Inquire of Mr Owen, at the Angel Inn, behind St Clement's Church in
+the Strand.'
+
+Mr Sharp's early conflicts in the law-courts are more romantic than
+the last and decisive one. He and his brother had found a poor
+mendicant negro, called Jonathan Strong, in rags on the streets of
+London. They took him into their service, and after he had become
+plump, strong, and acquainted with his business, the man who had
+brought him from the colonies, an attorney, seeing him behind a
+carriage, set covetous eyes on him. The lad was waylaid on a false
+message to a public-house, seized, and committed to the Compter,
+where, however, he managed to make Mr Sharp acquainted with his
+position. The indefatigable philanthropist had him brought before the
+lord mayor as sitting magistrate. After hearing the case stated, his
+lordship said: 'The lad had not stolen anything, and was not guilty of
+any offence, and was therefore at liberty to go away.' A captain of a
+vessel, saying he had been employed by a person who had just bought
+the youth, to convey him to Jamaica, seized him by the arm as his
+employer's property. A lawyer standing behind Mr Sharp, who seems to
+have been puzzled how to proceed, whispered, 'Charge him.' Sharp
+charged the captain with an assault, and as he would have been
+immediately committed by the lord mayor if he persisted, he let go his
+hold. The philanthropist was threatened with a prosecution for
+abstraction of property, but it was abandoned.
+
+This occurred in 1767. The next important case was that of a negro
+named Lewis. He 'had formerly,' says Mr Sharp's biographer, 'been a
+slave in possession of a Mr Stapylton, who now resided at Chelsea.
+Stapylton, with the aid of two watermen, whom he had hired for that
+purpose, in a dark night seized the person of Lewis, and, after a
+struggle, dragged him on his back into the water, and thence into a
+boat lying in the Thames, where, having first tied his legs, they
+endeavoured to gag him by running a stick into his mouth; and then
+rowing down to a ship bound for Jamaica, whose commander was
+previously engaged in the wicked conspiracy, they put him on board, to
+be sold as a slave on his arrival in the island.' The negro's cries,
+however, were heard; the struggle was witnessed; and information given
+in the quarter whence aid was most likely to come. Mr Sharp lost no
+time in obtaining a writ of habeas corpus. The ship in the meantime
+had sailed from Gravesend, but the officer with the writ was able to
+board her in the Downs. There he saw the negro chained to the mast.
+The captain was at first furious, and determined to resist; but he
+knew the danger of deforcing an officer with, such a writ as a habeas
+corpus, and found it necessary to yield. The writ came up before Lord
+Mansfield. He did not go into the general question of slavery, for
+there was an incidental point on which the case could be decided on
+the side of humanity--the captain and the persons employing him could
+not prove their property in the slave, supposing such property lawful.
+He was not only liberated, but his captors were convicted of assault.
+
+These cases, however, did not decide the wide question, whether it was
+lawful to hold property in negroes in this country. It came at last to
+be solemnly decided in 1771, on a habeas corpus in the King's Bench.
+Affidavits having been made before Lord Mansfield, that a coloured
+man, named Somerset, was confined in irons on board a vessel called
+the _Ann and Mary_, bound for Jamaica, he granted a habeas corpus
+against the captain, to compel him to give an account of his authority
+for keeping the man in custody. Somerset had been a slave in Virginia,
+the property of a Mr Stewart; and the captain of the vessel stated
+that the owner had put him on board, to be conveyed to Jamaica, and
+there sold. In what was called the return to the writ, the
+justification for keeping Somerset in restraint was thus quaintly
+stated:--'That at the time of bringing the said James Somerset from
+Africa, and long before, there were, and from thence hitherto there
+have been, and still are, great numbers of negro slaves in Africa; and
+that during all the time aforesaid, there hath been, and still is a
+trade, carried on by his majesty's subjects from Africa, to his
+majesty's colonies or plantations of Virginia and Jamaica, in America,
+and other colonies and plantations belonging to his majesty in
+America, for the necessary supplying of the foresaid colonies and
+plantations with negro slaves.' It proceeded to relate with the same
+verbosity, that the slaves so brought from Africa 'have been and are
+saleable and sold as goods and chattels; and upon the sale thereof,
+have become, and been, and are, the slaves and property of the
+purchasers thereof.' It was stated that Mr Stewart, who resided in
+Virginia, had Somerset as a domestic slave or valet--that having
+business to transact in London, he took his usual attendant there,
+intending to take him back to Virginia. Somerset, however, made his
+escape; and when he was apprehended, his master, probably believing
+that he would thenceforth be rather a troublesome valet, changed his
+intention, and put the negro into the hands of the captain of a vessel
+bound for Jamaica, that he might be sold there.
+
+The pleadings upon the legality of this proceeding were solemn and
+full. The question was, Whether it was to be held a just inference,
+from the fact of the slave, being undoubtedly by the law of the day
+property in the colonies, that, while his colonial master made a
+temporary stay in Britain, he should be property there also, without
+any direct law to that effect. Had it been a question of inanimate
+goods, there would be no reason why the property should not continue
+in the colonial owner. It would be all one to the inanimate object
+what hands it was in, and regularity and justice would decree that the
+person who was owner of it in one country should be so in another. But
+in these cases there was a separate adverse interest of a very strong
+character. Was the uniformity of this right of possession sufficient
+to overrule another right--that which every man, black or white, had
+to the freedom of his own person, unless there was special law to
+restrain it? The counsel for the negro not only pleaded strongly on
+this his personal right, but on the consequence to the moral condition
+of the British Empire, if the inhabitants of slave countries could
+bring their slaves hither. From the strictness of the laws, and the
+uniformity of the course of justice, if slaves were permitted in
+England, it was the very place where property in them would be most
+secure. Thus the country might become a resort of slaveholders, and
+its boasted purity and freedom would be sadly contaminated. 'If that
+right,' said Mr Hargrave, 'is here recognised, domestic slavery, with
+its horrid train of evils, may be lawfully imported into this country,
+at the discretion of every individual, foreign and native. It will
+come not only from our own colonies, and those of other European
+nations, but from Poland, Russia, Spain, and Turkey--from the coast of
+Barbary, from the western and eastern coasts of Africa--from every
+part of the world where it still continues to torment and dishonour
+the human species.'
+
+The counsel on the other side was the celebrated Mr Dunning,
+afterwards Lord Ashburton, a friend of freedom, who seems to have
+undertaken the cause on notions of professional duty, and without any
+great inclination for it. His first words were: 'It is incumbent on me
+to justify Captain Knowles's detainer of the negro.' He was careful to
+shew, that he did not in the meantime maintain that there was an
+absolute property in Somerset--it was sufficient to shew, that there
+was a sufficient presumption of property to authorise the shipmaster
+in detaining him until the absolute question of right was solemnly
+settled. He proceeded to say: 'It is my misfortune to address an
+audience, the greater part of which I fear are prejudiced the other
+way. But wishes, I am well convinced, will never be allowed by your
+lordships to enter into the determination of the point. This cause
+must be what in fact and law it is. Its fate, I trust, therefore,
+depends on fixed and variable rules, resulting by law from the nature
+of the case. For myself, I would not be understood to intimate a wish
+in favour of slavery by any means; nor, on the other side, to be
+supposed the maintainer of an opinion contrary to my own judgment. I
+am bound in duty to maintain those arguments which are most useful to
+Captain Knowles, as far as is consistent with truth; and if his
+conduct has been agreeable to the laws throughout, I am under a
+further indispensable duty to support it.'
+
+Much reference was made to the ancient laws of villenage, or
+semi-slavery, in Britain. Mr Dunning maintained, that these were
+testimony that a slave was not an utter anomaly in the country. The
+class of villeins had disappeared, and the law regarding them was
+abolished in the reign of Charles II. But he maintained, that there
+was nothing in that circumstance to prohibit others from establishing
+a claim upon separate grounds. He said: 'If the statute of Charles II.
+ever be repealed, the law of villenage revives in its full force.' It
+was stated that there were in Britain 15,000 negroes in the same
+position with Somerset. They had come over as domestics during the
+temporary sojourn of their owner-masters, intending to go back again.
+Then it was observed, that many of the slaves were in ships or in
+colonies which had not special laws for the support of slavery; and by
+the disfranchisement of these, British subjects would lose many
+millions' worth of property, which they believed themselves justly to
+possess.
+
+British justice, however, has held at all times the question of human
+liberty to be superior to considerations of mere expediency. If the
+question be, who gains or loses most, there never can be a doubt that
+the man whose freedom has been reft from him has the greatest of all
+claims for indulgence. Accordingly, Lord Mansfield, the presiding
+judge, looking in the face all the threatened evils to property, held
+that nothing but absolute law could trench on personal freedom. He
+used on the occasion a Latin expression, to the effect that justice
+must be done at whatever cost; it has found its way into use as a
+classical expression, and as no one has been able to find it in any
+Latin author, it is supposed to have been of Lord Mansfield's own
+coining. 'Mr Stewart,' he said, 'advances no claims on contract; he
+rests his whole demand on a right to the negro as slave, and mentions
+the purpose of detainure of him to be the sending him over to be sold
+in Jamaica. If the parties will have judgment, _fiat justitia ruat
+coelum_--Let justice be done whatever be the consequence.' In finally
+delivering judgment, he concluded in these simple but expressive
+terms: 'The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable
+of being introduced, on any reasons, moral or political, but only by
+positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons,
+occasion, and time itself, for which it was created, are erased from
+memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it
+but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from
+the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law
+of England; and therefore the black must be discharged.'
+
+A few years afterwards--in 1778--a case occurred in Scotland, where
+the question of a master's rights over a negro slave in Britain was at
+issue. The right claimed in this case, however, was not of so
+offensive a nature. The master did not claim the power of seizing the
+negro as his property. He maintained, however, that their mutual
+position gave him a right to claim the negro's services, as if he had
+engaged himself as a servant for life. Mr Wedderburn had bought in
+Jamaica a negro named Knight, about twelve years old. He came to
+Scotland as Mr Wedderburn's personal servant, married in the country,
+and for some years seemed contented with his position. Probably at the
+suggestion of some one who wished to try the question, as it had been
+tried in England, Knight went off, avowing his intention of being
+free. Mr Wedderburn applied to a justice of peace, who at once issued
+a warrant for the negro's apprehension. The matter, however, came
+before the sheriff, a professional judge, who decided that the
+colonial laws of slavery do not extend to Scotland, and that personal
+service for life is just another term for slavery. After a tedious
+litigation, this view was affirmed by the Court of Session, and the
+negro was declared free. The case acquired notice from the interest
+taken in it by Dr Johnson, and the frequent mention of it in Boswell's
+well-known work.
+
+
+
+
+THE OLD HOUSEKEEPER'S TALE.
+
+
+After my good and excellent mistress, Mrs Dacre, departed this life
+for a better, it seemed as if nothing ever prospered in the family,
+whom I had the honour of serving in the capacity of confidential
+housekeeper. Mr Dacre became morose and careless of his affairs; his
+sons were a source of great misery to him, pursuing a course of
+reckless extravagance and heartless dissipation; while the five young
+ladies--the youngest of whom, however, had attained the age of
+twenty-four--cared for little else than dress, and visiting, and empty
+show. These five young ladies had not amiable dispositions or gentle
+manners; but they were first-rate horsewomen, laughed and talked very
+loud, and were pronounced fine dashing women. There was another member
+of the family, an orphan niece of my master's, who had greatly
+profited by my lamented lady's teaching and companionship. Miss Marion
+had devoted herself to the sick-room with even more than a daughter's
+love; and for two years she had watched beside the patient sufferer,
+when her more volatile and thoughtless cousins refused to credit the
+approach of death. Miss Marion had just entered her twentieth year;
+life had not been all summer with her; for she remembered scenes of
+privation and distress, ere the decease of her parents left her, their
+only child, to the care of affluent relatives. She was a serious and
+meek, but affectionate creature; of a most goodly countenance and
+graceful carriage; and I used sometimes to think that the Misses Dacre
+were jealous of the admiration she excited, and kept her in the
+background as much as possible. It was not difficult to do this, for
+Miss Marion sought and loved retirement. After Mrs Dacre's decease,
+she had expressed an urgent wish to earn her bread by filling the
+situation of a governess. But the pride of the Dacres revolted at
+this; besides, Miss Marion was a comfort to her uncle, when his
+daughters were absent or occupied. So the dear young lady gave up her
+own wishes, and strove to do all she could for her generous
+benefactor, as she was wont to call my master.
+
+Circumstances, which it were needless to detail, except to say that,
+although I had served _one_ mistress satisfactorily, I found it
+impossible to serve _five_, determined me to resign the situation I
+had creditably filled for so many years. I deeply grieved to leave my
+beloved Miss Marion; and she, sweet, humble soul, on her part, yearned
+towards me, and wept a farewell on my bosom. I betook myself, in the
+first instance, to my brother Thomas Wesley and his wife--a worthy
+couple without children, renting a small farm nearly a hundred miles
+off. A very pleasant, small farm it was, situated in a picturesque
+valley, through which tumbled and foamed a limpid hill-stream, washing
+the roots of fine old trees, and playing all sorts of antics. This
+valley was a resort of quiet anglers, and also of artists during the
+summer season; and Thomas and Martha Wesley often let a neat parlour
+and adjoining bedroom to such respectable, steady people as did not
+object to observe the primitive hours and customs enforced at Fairdown
+Farm. Here I enjoyed the privilege of writing to, and hearing from, my
+dear Miss Marion; and though she never complained, or suffered a
+murmur to escape her, yet from the tenor of her letters I had great
+cause to fear things were all going very wrong at Mr Dacre's, and that
+her own health, always delicate, was giving way beneath the pressure
+of anxiety and unkindness.
+
+In less than six months after I had quitted the family, a climax,
+which I had long anticipated with dread, actually arrived. Mr Dacre,
+suddenly called to his account, was found to have left his temporal
+affairs involved in inextricable and hopeless ruin; and amid the
+general crash and desolation, who was to shield or befriend the poor
+dependent, the orphan niece, Miss Marion? She was rudely cast adrift
+on the cold world; her proffered sympathy and services tauntingly
+rejected by those who had now a hard battle to fight on their own
+account. Broken down in health and spirits, the poor young lady flew
+to me, her humble, early friend, gratefully and eagerly availing
+herself of Thomas Wesley's cordial invitation, to make his house her
+home for the present.
+
+My brother was a kind-hearted, just man; he had once been to see me
+when I lived at Mr Dacre's; and that gentleman, in his palmy days, was
+truly hospitable and generous to all comers. Thomas never forgot his
+reception, and now he was a proud and happy man to be enabled thus to
+offer 'a slight return,' as he modestly said, to one of the family.
+With much concern we all viewed Miss Marion's wan and careworn looks,
+so touching in the young; 'But her dim blue een will get bright again,
+and she'll fill out--never fear,' said Martha Wesley to me, by way of
+comfort and encouragement, 'now we've got her amongst _us_, poor dear.
+I doubt those proud Misses Dacre were not over-tender with such a one
+as sweet Miss Marion'----
+
+'Dame, dame, don't let that tongue of thine wag so fast,' interrupted
+Thomas, for he never liked to hear people ill spoken of behind their
+backs, though he would speak out plainly enough to everybody's face.
+
+A few days after Miss Marion's arrival at Fairdown (it was just at the
+hay-making season, and the earth was very beautiful--birds singing and
+flowers blooming--soft breezes blowing, and musical streamlets
+murmuring rejoicingly in the sunshine), a pedestrian was seen
+advancing leisurely up the valley, coming in a direction from the
+neighbouring town--a distance, however, of some miles, and the nearest
+point where the coach stopped. The stranger, aided in his walk by a
+stout stick, was a short, thickset, elderly man, clad in brown
+habiliments from head to foot: a brown, broad-brimmed beaver, an
+antiquated brown spencer (a brown wig must not be omitted), brown
+gaiters, and brown cloth boots, completed his attire. His linen was
+spotless and fine, his countenance rubicund and benevolent; and when
+he took off his green spectacles, a pair of the clearest and honestest
+brown eyes ever set in mortal's head looked you full in the face. He
+was a nice, comfortable-looking old gentleman; and so Thomas and I
+both thought at the same moment--for Martha was out of the way, and I
+shewed the apartments for her; the stranger, who gave his name as Mr
+Budge, having been directed to our house by the people of the inn
+where the coach stopped, who were kin to Martha, and well-disposed,
+obliging persons.
+
+Mr Budge said he wanted quietness for some weeks, and the recreation
+of fishing; he had come from the turmoil of the great city to relax
+and enjoy himself, and if Thomas Wesley would kindly consent to
+receive him as a lodger, he would feel very much obliged. Never did we
+listen to so pleasant and obliging a mode of speaking; and when Mr
+Budge praised the apartments, and admired the country, the conquest of
+Thomas's heart was complete. 'Besides,' as Martha sagaciously
+remarked, 'it was so much better to have a steady old gentleman like
+this for a lodger, when pretty Miss Marion honoured them as a guest.'
+I thought so too; my dear young lady being so lone and unprotected by
+relatives, we all took double care of her.
+
+So Mr Budge engaged the rooms, and speedily arrived to take
+possession, bringing with him a spick-and-span new fishing-rod and
+basket. He did not know much about fishing, but he enjoyed himself
+just as thoroughly as if he did; and he laughed so good-humouredly at
+his own Cockney blunders, as he called them, that Thomas would have
+been quite angry had any one else presumed to indulge a smile at Mr
+Budge's expense. A pattern lodger in all respects was Mr
+Budge--deferential towards Martha and myself, and from the first
+moment he beheld Miss Marion, regarding her as a superior being, yet
+one to be loved by a mortal for all that. Mr Budge was not a
+particularly communicative individual himself, though we opined from
+various observations, that, although not rich, he was comfortably off:
+but somehow or other, without appearing in the least inquisitive, he
+managed to obtain the minutest information he required. In this way,
+he learned all the particulars respecting Miss Marion; and gathered
+also from me, my own desire of obtaining a situation, such as I had
+held at Mr Dacre's, but in a small and well-regulated household. As to
+Miss Marion, the kind old gentleman could never shew kindness enough
+to her; and he watched the returning roses on her fair cheeks with a
+solicitude scarcely exceeded by mine. I never wondered at anybody
+admiring and loving the sweet, patient girl; but Mr Budge's admiration
+and apparent affection so far exceeded the bounds of mere conventional
+kindness in a stranger, that sometimes I even smilingly conjectured he
+had the idea of asking her to become Mrs Budge, for he was a widower,
+as he told us, and childless.
+
+Such an idea, however, had never entered Miss Marion's innocent heart;
+and she, always so grateful for any little attention, was not likely
+to receive with coldness those so cordially lavished on her by her new
+friend, whom she valued as a truly good man, and not for a polished
+exterior, in which Mr Budge was deficient. Nay, so cordial was their
+intimacy, and so much had Miss Marion regained health and
+cheerfulness, that with unwonted sportiveness, on more than one
+occasion she actually hid the ponderous brown snuff-box, usually
+reposing in Mr Budge's capacious pocket, and only produced it when his
+distress became real; whereupon he chuckled and laughed, as if she had
+performed a mighty clever feat, indulging at the same time, however,
+in a double pinch.
+
+Some pleasant weeks to us all had thus glided away, and Miss Marion
+was earnestly consulting me about her project of governessing, her
+health being now so restored; and I, for my part, wanted to execute my
+plans for obtaining a decent livelihood, as I could not think of
+burdening Thomas and Martha any longer, loath as they were for me to
+leave them. Some pleasant weeks, I say, had thus glided away, when Mr
+Budge, with much ceremony and circumlocution, as if he had deeply
+pondered the matter, and considered it very weighty and important,
+made a communication which materially changed and brightened my
+prospects. It was to the effect, that an intimate friend of his, whom
+he had known, he said, all his life, required the immediate services
+of a trustworthy housekeeper, to take the entire responsible charge of
+his house. 'My friend,' continued Mr Budge, tapping his snuff-box
+complacently, his brown eyes twinkling with the pleasure of doing a
+kind act, for his green specs were in their well-worn case at his
+elbow--'My friend is about my age--a sober chap, you see, Mrs Deborah;
+'here a chuckle--'and he has no wife and no child to take care of
+him'--here a slight sigh: 'he has lately bought a beautiful estate,
+called Sorel Park, and it is there you will live, with nobody to
+interfere with you, as the lady-relative who will reside with my
+friend is a most amiable and admirable young lady; and I am sure, Mrs
+Deborah, you will become much attached to her. 'By the by, Mrs
+Deborah,' he continued, after pondering for a moment, 'will you do me
+a favour to use your influence to prevent Miss Marion from accepting
+any appointment for the present, as after you are established at Sorel
+Park, I think I know of a home that may suit her?'
+
+I do not know which I felt most grateful or delighted for--my own
+prospects, or my dear Miss Marion's; though certainly hers were more
+vague and undefined than mine, for the remuneration offered for my
+services was far beyond my expectation, and from Mr Budge's
+description of Sorel Park, it seemed to be altogether a place beyond
+my most sanguine hopes. I said something about Miss Marion, and my
+hope that she might be as fortunate as myself; and Mr Budge, I was
+happy to see, was quite fervent in his response. 'My friend,' said he,
+at the close of the interview, 'will not arrive to take possession of
+Sorel Park until you, Mrs Deborah, have got all things in order; and
+as I know that he is anxious for the time to arrive, the sooner you
+can set out on your journey thither the better. I also must depart
+shortly, but I hope to return hither again.' Important business
+required Mr Budge's personal attention, and with hurried adieus to us
+all, he departed from Fairdown; and in compliance with his request, I
+set off for Sorel Park, leaving my beloved Miss Marion to the care of
+Thomas and Martha for the present.
+
+The owner of this fine place was not as yet known there; for Mr Budge,
+being a managing man, had taken everything upon himself, and issued
+orders with as lordly an air as if there was nobody in the kingdom
+above the little brown man. The head-gardener, and some of the other
+domestics, informed me they had been engaged by Mr Budge himself, who,
+I apprehended, made very free and busy with the concerns of his
+friend. Sorel Park was a princely domain, and there was an air of
+substantial comfort about the dwelling and its appointments, which
+spoke volumes of promise as to domestic arrangements in general. I
+soon found time to write a description of the place to Miss Marion,
+for I knew how interested she was in all that concerned her faithful
+Deborah; and I anxiously awaited the tidings she had promised to
+convey--of Mr Budge having provided as comfortably for her as he had
+for me. I at length received formal notification of the day and hour
+the owner of Sorel Park expected to arrive, accompanied by his female
+relative. This was rather earlier than I had been led to expect; but
+all things being in order for their reception, I felt glad at their
+near approach, for I was strangely troubled and nervous to get this
+introduction over. I was very anxious, too, about my dear Miss
+Marion; for I knew that some weighty reason alone prevented her from
+answering my letter, though what that reason could be, it was
+impossible for me to conjecture.
+
+The momentous day dawned; the hours glided on; and the twilight hour
+deepened. The superior servants and myself stood ready to receive the
+travellers, listening to every sound; and startled, nevertheless, when
+the rapid approach of carriage-wheels betokened their close proximity.
+With something very like disappointment, for which I accused myself of
+ingratitude, I beheld Mr Budge, browner than ever, alight from the
+chariot, carefully assisting a lady, who seemed in delicate health, as
+she was muffled up like a mummy. Mr Budge returned my respectful
+salutation most cordially, and said, with a smile, as he bustled
+forwards to the saloon, where a cheerful fire blazed brightly on the
+hearth--for it was a chill evening: 'I've brought your new mistress
+home, you see, Mrs Deborah; but you want to know where your new master
+is--eigh? Well, come along, and this young lady will tell you all
+about the old fellow.'
+
+I followed them into the apartment; Mr Budge shut the door; the lady
+flung aside her veil, and my own dear, sweet Miss Marion clasped me
+round the neck, and sobbed hysterically in my arms.
+
+'Tell her, my darling,' said Mr Budge, himself quite husky, and
+turning away to wipe off a tear from his ruddy cheek--'tell her, my
+darling, you're the _mistress_ of Sorel Park; and when you've made the
+good soul understand _that_, tell her we'd like a cup of tea before we
+talk about the _master_.'
+
+'O my dear Miss Marion!' was all I could utter; 'what does this mean?
+Am I in a dream?' But it was not a happy dream; for when I had a
+moment to reflect, my very soul was troubled as I thought of the
+sacrifice of all her youthful aspirations, made by that poor, gentle
+creature, for the sake of a secure and comfortable home in this stormy
+world. I could not reconcile myself to the idea of Mr Budge and Marion
+as man and wife; and as I learned, ere we retired to rest that night,
+I had no occasion to do so. Mr Budge was Miss Marion's paternal uncle,
+her mother, Miss Dacre, having married his elder brother. These
+brothers were of respectable birth, but inferior to the Dacres; and
+while the elder never prospered in any undertaking, and finally died
+of a broken heart, the younger, toiling in foreign climes, gradually
+amassed a competency. On returning to his native land, he found his
+brother no more, and the orphan girl he had left behind placed with
+her mother's relatives.
+
+Mr Budge had a great dread of appearing before these proud patrician
+people, who had always openly scorned his deceased brother; and once
+accidentally encountering them at a public _fete_, the contumelious
+bearing of the young ladies towards the little brown gentleman
+deterred him from any nearer approach. No doubt, he argued, his
+brother's daughter was deeply imbued with similar principles, and
+would blush to own a 'Mr Budge' for her uncle! This name he had
+adopted as the condition of inheriting a noble fortune unexpectedly
+bequeathed by a plebeian, but worthy and industrious relative, only a
+few years previous to the period when Providence guided his footsteps
+to Fairdown Farm and Miss Marion.
+
+The moderate competency Mr Budge had hitherto enjoyed, and which he
+had toiled hard for, now augmented to ten times the amount, sorely
+perplexed and troubled him; and after purchasing Sorel Park, he had
+flown from the turmoil of affluence, to seek peace and obscurity for
+awhile, under pretext of pursuing the philosophical recreation of
+angling. How unlike the Misses Dacre was the fair and gracious
+creature he encountered at Fairdown! And not a little the dear old
+gentleman prided himself on his talents for what he called
+diplomacy--arranging his plans, he said, 'just like a book-romance.'
+After my departure, he returned to Fairdown, and confided the
+wonderful tidings to Thomas and Martha Wesley, more cautiously
+imparting them to Miss Marion, whose gentle spirits were more easily
+fluttered by sudden surprise.
+
+For several years, Mr Budge paid an annual visit to Fairdown, when the
+trout-fishing season commenced; and many useful and valuable gifts
+found their way into Thomas's comfortable homestead, presented by dear
+Miss Marion. In the course of time, she became the wife of one worthy
+of her in every respect--their lovely children often sportively
+carrying off the ponderous box of brown rappee, and yet Uncle Budge
+never frowning.
+
+These darlings cluster round my knees, and one, more demure than the
+rest, thoughtfully asks: 'Why is Uncle Budge's hair not snowy white,
+like yours, dear Deb? For Uncle Budge says he is _very_ old, and that
+God will soon call him away from us.'
+
+
+
+
+ADVENTURES IN JAPAN.
+
+
+For above two hundred years, the unknown millions of Japan have been
+shut up in their own islands, forbidden, under the severest penalties,
+either to admit foreigners on their shores, or themselves to visit any
+other realm in the world. The Dutch are permitted to send two ships in
+a year to the port of Nangasaki, where they are received with the
+greatest precaution, and subjected to a surveillance even more
+degrading than was that formerly endured by the Europeans at Canton.
+Any other foreigner whom misfortune or inadvertence may land on their
+shores, is doomed to perpetual imprisonment; and even if one of their
+own people should pass twelve months out of the country, he is, on his
+return, kept for life at the capital, and suffered no more to join his
+family, or mingle at large in the business or social intercourse of
+life. In pursuance of this policy, it is believed that the Japanese
+government now holds in captivity several subjects of the United
+States, and it is expected that an armament will be sent to rescue
+them by force.
+
+Since this announcement has been made, and the general expectation has
+been raised that Japan will soon have to submit, like China, to
+surrender its isolation, and enter into relations with the rest of the
+civilised world, there has seasonably appeared an English reprint of a
+work hitherto little known among us--a personal narrative of a
+Japanese captivity of two years and a half, by an officer in the
+Russian navy.[1] If we may judge from its details, our transatlantic
+friends had need to keep all their eyes wide open in dealing with this
+people.
+
+The leading circumstances connected with Captain Golownin's captivity
+were the following:--In the year 1803, the Chamberlain Resanoff was
+sent by the Emperor Alexander, to endeavour to open friendly relations
+with Japan, and sailed from the eastern coasts in a merchant vessel
+belonging to the American Company. But receiving a peremptory message
+of dismissal, and refusal of all intercourse, he returned to Okhotsk,
+and died on his way to St Petersburg. Lieutenant Chwostoff, however,
+who had commanded the vessel, put to sea again on his own
+responsibility, attacked and destroyed several Japanese villages on
+the Kurile Islands, and carried off some of the inhabitants. In the
+year 1811, Captain Golownin, commander of the imperial war-sloop
+_Diana_, lying at Kamtschatka, received orders from head-quarters to
+make a particular survey of the southern Kurile Islands, and the coast
+of Tartary. In pursuance of his instructions, he was sailing without
+any flag near the coast of Eetooroop (Staaten), when he was met by
+some Russian Kuriles, who informed him that they had been seized, and
+were still detained prisoners, on account of the Chwostoff outrage.
+They persuaded the captain to take one of them on board as an
+interpreter, and proceed to Kunashir, to make such explanations as
+might exonerate the Russian government in this matter. The Japanese
+chief of the island further assured the Russians, that they could
+obtain a supply of wood, water, and fresh provisions at Kunashir; and
+he furnished them with a letter to its governor. The reception of the
+_Diana_ at Kunashir was, in the first instance, a vigorous but
+ineffective discharge of guns from the fortress, the walls of which
+were so completely hung with striped cloth, that it was impossible to
+form any opinion of the size or strength of the place. After some
+interchange, however, of allegorical messages, conveyed by means of
+drawings floated in empty casks, Golownin was invited on shore by the
+beckoning of white fans. Concealing three brace of pistols in his
+bosom, and leaving a well-armed boat close to the shore, with orders
+that the men should watch his movements, and act on his slightest
+signal, he ventured on a landing, accompanied by the Kurile Alexei and
+a common sailor. The lieutenant-governor soon appeared. He was in
+complete armour, and attended by two soldiers, one of whom carried his
+long spear, and the other his cap or helmet, which was adorned with a
+figure of the moon. 'It is scarcely possible,' says the narrator, 'to
+conceive anything more ludicrous than the manner in which the governor
+walked. His eyes were cast down and fixed on the earth, and his hands
+pressed closely against his sides, whilst he proceeded at so slow a
+pace, that he scarcely moved one foot beyond the other, and kept his
+feet wide apart. I saluted him after the European fashion, upon which
+he raised his left hand to his forehead, and bowed his whole body
+towards the ground.'
+
+In the conversation that ensued, the governor expressed his regret
+that the ignorance of the Japanese respecting the object of this visit
+should have occasioned them to fire upon the _Diana_. He then closely
+interrogated the captain as to the course and objects of his voyage,
+his name, the name of his emperor, and whether he knew anything of
+Resanoff. On the first of these heads, Golownin deemed it prudent to
+use some deception, and he stated that he was proceeding to St
+Petersburg, from the eastern extremity of the Russian Empire; that
+contrary winds had considerably lengthened his voyage; and that, being
+greatly in want of wood and fresh water, he had been looking on the
+coasts for a safe harbour where these might be procured, and had been
+directed by an officer at Eetooroop to Kunashir. To all the other
+questions, he returned suitable answers, which were carefully written
+down. The conference ended most amicably, and the captain was invited
+to smoke tobacco, and partake of some tea, sagi,[2] and caviar.
+Everything was served on a separate dish, and presented by a different
+individual, armed with a poniard and sabre; and these attendants,
+instead of going away after handing anything to the guests, remained
+standing near, till at length they were surrounded by a formidable
+circle of armed men. Golownin would not stoop to betray alarm or
+distrust, but having brought some French brandy as a present to the
+governor, he desired his sailors to draw a bottle, and took this
+opportunity of repeating his order, that they should hold themselves
+in readiness. There appeared, however, no intention of resorting to
+violence. When he prepared to depart, the governor presented a flask
+of sagi, and some fresh fish, pointing out to him at the same time a
+net which had been cast to procure a larger supply. He also gave him a
+white fan, with which he was to beckon, as a sign of amity, when he
+came on shore again. The whole draught of fish was sent on board in
+the evening.
+
+On the following day, the captain, according to appointment, paid
+another visit on shore, accompanied by two officers, Alexei, and four
+seamen carrying the presents intended for the Japanese. On this
+occasion, the former precautions were dispensed with; the boat was
+hauled up to the shore, and left with one seaman, while the rest of
+the party proceeded to the castle. The result was, that after a
+renewal of the friendly explanations and entertainments of the
+preceding day, the treacherous Japanese threw off the mask, and made
+prisoners of the whole party.
+
+'The first thing done, was to tie our hands behind our backs, and
+conduct us into an extensive but low building, which resembled a
+barrack, and which was situated opposite to the tent in the direction
+of the shore. Here we were placed on our knees, and bound in the
+cruelest manner with cords about the thickness of a finger; and as
+though this were not enough, another binding of smaller cords
+followed, which was still more painful. The Japanese are exceedingly
+expert at this work; and it would appear that they conform to some
+precise regulation in binding their prisoners, for we were all tied
+exactly in the same manner. There was the same number of knots and
+nooses, and all at equal distances, on the cords with which each of us
+was bound. There were loops round our breasts and necks; our elbows
+almost touched each other, and our hands were firmly bound together.
+From these fastenings proceeded a long cord, the end of which was held
+by a Japanese, and which, on the slightest attempt to escape, required
+only to be drawn to make the elbows come in contact with the greatest
+pain, and to tighten the noose about the neck to such a degree as
+almost to produce strangulation. Besides all this, they tied our legs
+in two places--above the knees and above the ankles; they then passed
+ropes from our necks over the cross-beams of the building, and drew
+them so tight, that we found it impossible to move. Their next
+operation was searching our pockets, out of which they took
+everything, and then proceeded very quietly to smoke tobacco. While
+they were binding us, the lieutenant-governor shewed himself twice,
+and pointed to his mouth, to intimate, perhaps, that it was intended
+to feed, not to kill us.'
+
+After some hours, the legs and ankles of the prisoners were partially
+loosed, and preparations were made for removing them to Matsmai, which
+seems to be the head-quarters of government for the Kurile
+dependencies of Japan. The journey, which occupied above a month, was
+performed partly in boats, which were dragged along the shore, and
+even for miles over the land; and partly on foot, the captives being
+marched in file, each led with a cord by a particular conductor, and
+having an armed soldier abreast of him. It was evident, however, that
+whatever was rigorous in their treatment, was not prompted by personal
+feelings of barbarity, but by the stringency of the law, which would
+have made the guards answerable for their prisoners with their own
+lives. They were always addressed with the greatest respect; and, as
+soon as it was deemed safe, their hands, which were in a dreadfully
+lacerated state, were unbound, and surgically treated; but not till
+their persons had been again most carefully searched, that no piece of
+metal might remain about them, lest they might contrive to destroy
+themselves. Suicide is, in Japan, the fashionable mode of terminating
+a life which cannot be prolonged but in circumstances of dishonour: to
+rip up one's own bowels in such a case, wipes away every stain on the
+character. The guards of the Russian captives not only used every
+precaution against this, but carefully watched over their health and
+comfort, carrying them over the shallowest pools and streamlets, lest
+their feet should be wet, and assiduously beating off the gnats and
+flies, which would have been annoying. At every village, crowds of
+both sexes, young and old, turned out to see these unfortunate men;
+but there was nothing like insult or mockery in the demeanour of
+any--pity appeared to be the universal feeling: many begged permission
+from the guards to offer sagi, comfits, fruits, and other delicacies;
+and these were presented often with tears of compassion, as well as
+gestures of respect.
+
+The prison to which Golownin and his companions were finally committed
+had been constructed expressly for their habitation in the town of
+Matsmai. It was a quadrangular wooden building, 25 paces long, 15
+broad, and 12 feet high. Three sides of it were dead-wall, the fourth
+was formed of strong spars. Within this structure were two apartments,
+formed likewise of wooden spars, so as to resemble cages: one was
+appropriated to the officers, the other to the sailors and Alexei. The
+building was surrounded by a high wall or paling, outside of which
+were the kitchen, guard-house, &c., enclosed by another paling. This
+outer enclosure was patrolled by common soldiers; but no one was
+allowed within, except the physician, who visited daily, and the
+orderly officers, who looked through the spars every half-hour. Of
+course, it was rather a cold lodging; but, as winter advanced, a hole
+was dug a few feet from each cage, built round with freestone, and
+filled with sand, upon which charcoal was afterwards kept burning.
+Benches were provided for them to sleep on, and two of the orderlies
+presented them with bear-skins; but the native fashion is to lie on a
+thick, wadded quilt, folded together, and laid on the floor, which,
+even in the poorest dwellings, is covered with soft straw-mats. A
+large wadded dress, made of silk or cotton, according to the
+circumstances of the wearer, serves for bed-clothes--which seem to be
+quite unknown; and while the poorer classes have only a piece of wood
+for a pillow, the richer fasten a cushion on the neat boxes which
+contain their razors, scissors, pomatum, tooth-brushes, and other
+toilet requisites.
+
+But while the comfort of the captives was attended to in many minor
+matters, there was no relaxation of the vigilance used to preclude the
+possibility of self-destruction. They were not allowed scissors or
+knife to cut their nails, but were obliged to thrust their hands
+through the palisades, to get this office performed for them. When
+they were indulged with smoking, it was with a very long pipe held
+between the spars, and furnished with a wooden ball fixed about the
+middle, to prevent its being drawn wholly within the cage.
+
+For weeks together they were brought daily before the bunyo (governor
+of the town, and probably lord-lieutenant of all the Japanese Kurile
+Islands), bound and harnessed like horses as before. The ostensible
+object of these examinations, which frequently lasted the whole day,
+was to ascertain for what purpose they had come near Japan, and what
+they knew of Resanoff and Chwostoff--for a singularly unfortunate
+combination of circumstances had arisen to give colour to the
+suspicion, that some of their party had been connected with that
+expedition. But for one inquiry connected with the case, there were
+fifty that were wholly irrelevant, and prompted by mere curiosity. The
+most trivial questions were put several times and in different forms,
+and every answer was carefully written down. Golownin was often
+puzzled, irritated, and quite at the end of his stock of patience; but
+that of the interrogators appeared interminable. They said, that by
+writing down everything they were told, whether true or false, and
+comparing the various statements they received, they were enabled
+through time to separate truth from fiction, and the practice was very
+improving. At the close of almost every examination, the bunyo
+exhorted them not to despair, but to offer up prayers to Heaven, and
+patiently await the emperor's decision.
+
+Presently new work was found for them. An intelligent young man was
+brought to their prison, to be taught the Russian language. To this
+the captain consented, having no confidence in the Kurile Alexei as an
+interpreter, and being desirous himself to gain some knowledge of
+Japanese. Teske made rapid progress, and soon became a most useful and
+kindly companion to the captives. Books, pens, and paper were now
+allowed them in abundance; and their mode of treatment was every way
+improved. But by and by, they were threatened with more pupils; a
+geometrician and astronomer from the capital was introduced to them,
+and would gladly have been instructed in their mode of taking
+observations. Other learned men were preparing to follow, and it was
+now evident that the intention of the Japanese government was to
+reconcile them to their lot, and retain them for the instruction of
+the nation. Indeed, this appears to be the great secret of the policy
+of detaining for life instead of destroying the hapless foreigners
+that light on these shores; as the avowed motive for tolerating the
+commercial visits of the Dutch is, that they furnish the only news of
+public events that ever reach Japan. Fearful of becoming known to
+other nations for fear of invasion, they are yet greedy of information
+respecting them, and many were the foolish questions they asked
+Golownin about the emperor of Russia, his dress, habitation, forces,
+and territories.
+
+Golownin, on his part, endeavoured to elicit all the information he
+could gain with respect to the numbers, resources, government, and
+religion of this singular people. He found it impossible to ascertain
+the amount of the population; indeed, it seems it would be very
+difficult for the government itself to obtain a census, for millions
+of the poor live abroad in the streets, fields, or woods, having no
+spot which they can call a home. Teske shewed a map of the empire,
+having every town and village marked on it; and though on a very large
+scale, it was thickly covered. He pointed out on it a desert, which is
+considered immense, because litters take a whole day to traverse it,
+and meet with only one village during the journey. It is perhaps
+fifteen miles across. The city of Yedo was usually set down by
+Europeans as containing 1,000,000 inhabitants; but Golownin was
+informed, that it had in its principal streets 280,000 houses, each
+containing from 30 to 40 persons; besides all the small houses and
+huts. This would give in the whole a population of above 10,000,000
+souls--about a fourth part of the estimated population of this
+country! The incorporated society of the blind alone is affirmed to
+include 36,000.
+
+The country, though lying under the same latitudes as Spain and Italy,
+is yet very different from them in climate. At Matsmai, for instance,
+which is on the same parallel as Leghorn, snow falls as abundantly as
+at St Petersburg, and lies in the valleys from November till April.
+Severe frost is uncommon, but cold fogs are exceedingly prevalent. The
+climate, however, is uncommonly diversified, and consequently so are
+the productions, exhibiting in some places the vegetation of the
+frigid zone, and in others that of the tropics.
+
+Rice is the staple production of the soil. It is nearly the only
+article used instead of bread, and the only one from which strong
+liquor is distilled, while its straw serves for many domestic
+purposes. Besides the radishes already mentioned, there is an
+extensive cultivation of various other esculent roots and vegetables.
+There is no coast without fisheries, and there is no marine animal
+that is not used for food, save those which are absolutely poisonous.
+But an uncommonly small quantity suffices for each individual. If a
+Japanese has a handful of rice and a single mouthful of fish, he makes
+a savoury dish with roots, herbs, or mollusca, and it suffices for a
+day's support.
+
+Japan produces both black and green tea; the former is very inferior,
+and used only for quenching thirst; whereas the latter is esteemed a
+luxury, and is presented to company. The best grows in the
+principality of Kioto, where it is carefully cultivated for the use
+both of the temporal and spiritual courts. Tobacco, which was first
+introduced by the European missionaries, has spread astonishingly,
+and is so well manufactured, that our author smoked it with a relish
+he had never felt for a Havana cigar. The Japanese smokes continually,
+and sips tea with his pipe, even rising for it during the night.
+
+All articles of clothing are made of silk or cotton. The former
+appears to be very abundant, as rich dresses of it are worn even by
+the common soldiers on festive days; and it may be seen on people of
+all ranks even in poor towns. The fabrics are at least equal to those
+of China. The cotton of Japan seems to be of the same kind as that of
+our West Indian colonies. It furnishes the ordinary dress of the great
+mass of the people, and also serves all the other purposes for which
+we employ wool, flax, furs, and feathers. The culture of it is, of
+course, very extensive; but the fabrics are all coarse: Golownin could
+hardly make himself believe that his muslin cravat was of this
+material. There is some hemp, which is manufactured into cloth for
+sails, &c.; but cables and ropes, very inferior to ours, are made from
+the bark of a tree called kadyz. This bark likewise supplies materials
+for thread, lamp-wicks, writing-paper, and the coarse paper used for
+pocket-handkerchiefs.
+
+There is no lack of fruit-trees, as the orange, lemon, peach, plum,
+fig, chestnut, and apple; but the vine yields only a small, sour
+grape, perhaps for want of culture. Timber-trees grow only in the
+mountainous districts, which are unfit for cultivation. Camphor is
+produced abundantly in the south, and large quantities of it are
+exported by the Dutch and Chinese. The celebrated varnish of Japan,
+drawn from a tree called silz, is so plentiful, that it is used for
+lacquering the most ordinary utensils. Its natural colour is white,
+but it assumes any that is given to it by mixture. The best varnished
+vessels reflect the face as in a mirror, and hot water may be poured
+into them without occasioning the least smell.
+
+The chief domestic animals are horses and oxen for draught; cats and
+dogs are kept for the same uses as with us; and swine furnish food to
+the few sects who eat flesh. Sheep and goats seem to be quite unknown:
+the Russian captives had to make drawings of the former, to convey
+some idea of the origin of wool.
+
+There are considerable mines of gold and silver in several parts of
+the empire, but the government does not permit them to be all worked,
+for fear of depreciating the value of these metals. They supply, with
+copper, the material of the currency, and are also liberally used in
+the decoration of public buildings, and in the domestic utensils of
+the wealthy. There is a sufficiency of quicksilver, lead, and tin, for
+the wants of the country; and one island is entirely covered with
+sulphur. Copper is very abundant, and of remarkably fine quality. All
+kitchen utensils, tobacco-pipes, and fire-shovels, are made of it; and
+so well made, that our author mentions his tea-kettle as having stood
+on the fire, like all other Japanese kettles, day and night for
+months, without burning into holes. This metal is likewise employed
+for sheathing ships, and covering the joists and flat roofs of houses.
+Iron is less abundant, and much that is used is obtained from the
+Dutch. Nails alone, of which immense numbers are used in all
+carpentry-work, consume a large quantity. Diamonds, cornelians,
+jaspers, some very fine agates, and other precious stones, are found;
+but the natives seem not well to understand polishing them. Pearls are
+abundant; but not being considered ornamental, they are reserved for
+the Chinese market.
+
+Steel and porcelain are the manufactures in which the Japanese chiefly
+excel, besides those in silk-stuffs and lacquered ware already
+mentioned. Their porcelain is far superior to the Chinese, but it is
+scarce and dear. With respect to steel manufactures, the sabres and
+daggers of Japan yield only perhaps to those of Damascus; and Golownin
+says their cabinet-makers' tools might almost be compared with the
+English. In painting, engraving, and printing, they are far behind;
+and they seem to have no knowledge of ship-building or navigation
+beyond what suffices for coasting voyages, though they have
+intelligent and enterprising sailors. There is an immense internal
+traffic, for facilitating which there are good roads and bridges where
+water-carriage is impracticable. These distant Orientals have likewise
+bills of exchange and commercial gazettes. The emperor enjoys a
+monopoly of the foreign commerce.
+
+It is popularly said, that Japan has two emperors--one spiritual, and
+the other temporal. The former, however, having no share in the
+administration of the empire, and seldom even hearing of state
+affairs, is no sovereign according to the ideas we attach to that
+term. He seems to stand much in the same relation to the emperor that
+the popes once did to the sovereigns of Europe. He governs Kioto as a
+small independent state; receives the emperor to an interview once in
+seven years; is consulted by him on extraordinary emergencies;
+receives occasional embassies and presents from him, and bestows his
+blessing in return. His dignity, unlike that of the Roman pontiffs, is
+hereditary, and he is allowed twelve wives, that his race may not
+become extinct. According to Japanese records, the present dynasty,
+including about 130 Kin-reys, has been maintained in a direct line for
+above twenty-four centuries. The person of the Kin-rey is so sacred,
+that no ordinary mortal may see any part of him but his feet, and that
+only once a year; every vessel which he uses must be broken
+immediately; for if another should even by accident eat or drink out
+of it, he must be put to death. Every garment which he wears must be
+manufactured by virgin hands, from the earliest process in the
+preparation of the silk.
+
+The adherents of the aboriginal Japanese religion, of which the
+Kin-rey is the head, adore numerous divinities called Kami, or
+immortal spirits, to whom they offer prayers, flowers, and sometimes
+more substantial gifts. They also worship Kadotski, or saints--mortals
+canonised by the Kin-rey--and build temples in their honour. The laws
+concerning personal and ceremonial purity, which form the principal
+feature of this religion, are exceedingly strict, not unlike those
+imposed on the ancient Jews. There are several orders of priests,
+monks, and nuns, whose austerity, like that of Europe, is maintained
+in theory more than in practice.
+
+Three other creeds, the Brahminical, the Confucian, and that which
+deifies the heavenly bodies, have many adherents; but their priests
+all acknowledge a certain religious supremacy to exist in the Kin-rey.
+There is universal toleration in these matters; every citizen may
+profess what faith he chooses, and change it as often as he chooses,
+without any one inquiring into his reasons; only it must be a
+spontaneous choice, for proselyting is forbidden by law. Christianity
+alone is proscribed, and that on account of the political mischief
+said to have been effected through its adherents in the seventeenth
+century. There is a law, by which no one may hire a servant without
+receiving a certificate of his not being a Christian; and on
+New-Year's Day, which is a great national festival, all the
+inhabitants of Nangasaki are obliged to ascend a staircase, and
+trample on the crucifix, and other insignia of the Romish faith, which
+are laid on the steps as a test. It is said that many perform the act
+in violation of their feelings. So much of the religious state of the
+empire Golownin elicited in conversation with Teske and others; but
+everything on this subject was communicated with evident reluctance;
+and though in the course of the walks which they were permitted to
+take in harness, the Russian captives sometimes saw the interior of
+the temples, they were never permitted to enter while any religious
+rites were celebrated.
+
+With respect to the civil administration of Japan, our author seems to
+have gathered little that was absolutely new to us. The empire
+comprises above 200 states, which are governed as independent
+sovereignties by princes called Damyos, who frame and enforce their
+own laws. Though most of these principalities are very small, some of
+them are powerful: the damyo of Sindai, for instance, visits the
+imperial court with a retinue of 60,000. Their dependence on the
+emperor appears chiefly in their being obliged to maintain a certain
+number of troops, which are at his disposal. Those provinces which
+belong directly to the emperor, are placed under governors called
+Bunyos, whose families reside at the capital as hostages. Every
+province has two bunyos, each of whom spends six months in the
+government and six at Yedo.
+
+The supreme council of the emperor consists of five sovereign princes,
+who decide on all ordinary measures without referring to him. An
+inferior council of fifteen princes or nobles presides over important
+civil and criminal cases. The general laws are few and well known.
+They are very severe; but the judges generally find means of evading
+them where their enforcement would involve a violation of those of
+humanity. In some cases, as in conjugal infidelity or filial impiety,
+individuals are permitted to avenge their own wrong, even to the
+taking of life. Civil cases are generally decided by arbitrators, and
+only when they fail to settle a matter is there recourse to the public
+courts of justice. Taxes are generally paid to the reigning prince or
+emperor, in tithes of the agricultural, manufactured, or other
+productions of the country.
+
+Such were some of the leading particulars ascertained by Golownin
+concerning the social and civil condition of this singular people. He
+says, they always appeared very happy, and their demeanour was
+characterised by lively and polite manners, with the most
+imperturbable good temper. It seems at length to have been through
+fear of a Russian invasion, rather than from any sense of justice,
+that his Japanese majesty, in reply to the importunities of the
+officers of the _Diana_, consented to release the captives, on
+condition of receiving from the Russian government a solemn disavowal
+of having sanctioned the proceedings of Chwostoff. Having obtained
+this, the officers repaired for the fourth time to these unfriendly
+shores, and enjoyed the happiness of embracing their companions, and
+taking them on board.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] _Japan and the Japanese._ By Captain Golownin. London: Colburn &
+Co. 1852.
+
+[2] Sagi is the strong drink of Japan, distilled from rice.
+
+
+
+
+THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON.
+
+                                             _July 1852._
+
+When we shall have a constant supply of pure water--a complete system
+of efficient and innoxious sewers--a service of street hydrants--when
+the Thames shall cease to be the _cloaca maxima_, are questions to
+which, however seriously asked, it is not easy to get an answer. Add
+to these grievances, the delay of proper regulations for abolishing
+intramural interments, and the fact that Smithfield is not to be
+removed further than Copenhagen Fields--a locality already surrounded
+with houses--and it will occasion no surprise that the authorities are
+treated with anything but compliments.
+
+The laying down of an under-sea telegraph wire across the Irish
+Channel, may be taken as a new instance of the indifference consequent
+on familiarity. When the line was laid from Dover to Calais, the whole
+land rang with the fact; but now the sinking of a wire three times the
+length, in a channel three times the width, excites scarcely a remark,
+and seems to be looked on as a matter of course. The wire, which is
+eighty miles in length, is said to weigh eighty tons. It was payed out
+and sunk from the deck of the _Britannia_, at the rate of from three
+to five miles an hour, and was successfully laid, from Holyhead to
+Howth, in from twelve to fifteen hours; and now a message may be
+flashed from Trieste to Galway in a period brief enough to satisfy the
+most impatient. The means of travel to the East, too, are becoming
+tangible in the Egyptian railway, of which some thirty miles are in a
+state of forwardness, besides which a hotel is to be built at Thebes;
+so that travellers, no longer compelled to bivouac in the desert, will
+find a teeming larder and well-aired beds in the land of the Sphinxes.
+And, better still, among a host of beneficial reforms to take place in
+our Customs' administration, there is one which provides that the
+baggage of travellers arriving in the port of London shall be examined
+as they come up the river, instead of being sent to the Custom-house.
+
+By a report of the Astronomer-royal to the Board of Visitors, who have
+lately made their annual inspection of the Greenwich Observatory, we
+are informed, of a singular fact, that observations of the pole-star
+shew that its position varies some three or four seconds on repeating
+the observations at intervals of a few months, and this
+notwithstanding the extreme accuracy of the transit circle. The only
+explanation which can as yet be given for this phenomenon is, that the
+earth, solid as it appears, is liable to slight occasional movements
+or oscillations.
+
+We shall know, in a few weeks, the result of the telegraphic
+correspondence with the Observatory at Paris--one interesting point
+being, as to whether the respective longitudes, as at present
+determined, will be verified by the galvanic test. Besides which,
+Greenwich time is to be sent every day to London, where a pole, with a
+huge sliding-ball, has been fixed on the top of the Telegraph Office,
+near Charing Cross. This ball is to be made to descend at one o'clock
+simultaneously with the well-known ball which surmounts the
+Observatory; and thus scientific inquirers--to say nothing of the
+crowds who will daily throng the footways of the Strand to witness the
+downcome--will be informed of the true time, while, by means of the
+wires, it may be flashed to all parts of the kingdom.
+
+The lecture with which Professor Faraday wound up the course at the
+Royal Institution may be mentioned here, seeing that it adds somewhat
+to our knowledge of the theory and phenomena of magnetism. As usual,
+the lecture-room was crowded; and those who could not understand, had
+at least the satisfaction of being able to say they were present. Mr
+Faraday, who, enlarging upon his view, announced, a short time since,
+that there are such things as magnetic lines of force, now contends
+that these lines have a 'physical character'--a point most
+satisfactorily proved by sundry experiments during the lecture. The
+inquiry is one, as Mr Faraday observes, on the 'very edge of science,'
+trenching on the bounds of speculation; but such as eminently to
+provoke research. The phenomena, he says, 'lead on, by deduction and
+correction, to the discovery of new phenomena; and so cause an
+increase and advancement of real physical truth, which, unlike the
+hypothesis that led to it, becomes fundamental knowledge, not subject
+to change.' A chief point of discussion to which the investigations
+have led is: Whether the phenomena of what we call gravity may not be
+resolvable into those of magnetism--a force acting at a distance, or
+by lines of power. 'There is one question,' continues Mr Faraday, 'in
+relation to gravity, which, if we could ascertain or touch it, would
+greatly enlighten us. It is, whether gravitation requires _time_. If
+it did, it would shew undeniably that a physical agency existed in the
+course of the line of force. It seems equally impossible to prove or
+disprove this point; since there is no capability of suspending,
+changing, or annihilating the power (gravity), or annihilating the
+matter in which the power resides.' The lines of magnetic force may
+have 'a separate existence,' but as yet we are unable to tell whether
+these lines 'are analogous to those of gravitation, acting at a
+distance; or whether, having a physical existence, they are more like
+in their nature to those of electric induction or the electric
+current.' Mr Faraday inclines at present to the latter view. He
+'affirms' the lines of magnetic force from actual experiment, and
+'advocates' their physical nature 'chiefly with a view of stating the
+question of their existence; and though,' he adds, 'I should not have
+raised the argument unless I had thought it both important and likely
+to be answered ultimately in the affirmative, I still hold the opinion
+with some hesitation, with as much, indeed, as accompanies any
+conclusion I endeavour to draw respecting points in the very depths of
+science--as, for instance, one, two, or no electric fluids; or the
+real nature of a ray of light; or the nature of attraction, even that
+of gravity itself; or the general nature of matter.' These are
+profound views; but we may reasonably conclude, that, however obscure
+they may at present appear, they will in time be cleared up and
+further developed by the gifted philosopher from whom they emanate.
+
+Of minor matters which have been more or less talked about, there is
+the Library for the Working-Classes, just opened in the parish of St
+Martin-in-the-Fields--a praiseworthy example for other parishes, but
+not to be followed unless the readers actually exist, and manifest the
+sort of want which books alone can satisfy. A suggestion has been
+made, to use for books in hot climates, where paper is liable to rapid
+decay, the sheet-iron exhibited at Breslau, which is as thin and
+pliant as paper, and can be produced at the rate of more than 7000
+feet to the hundredweight. This would be something new in the
+application of metal. Metallurgy generally is being further
+investigated by Leonhard of Heidelberg, who has just called on
+manufacturers to aid him in his researches, by sending him specimens
+of scoriae, particularly of those which are crystallised. Then there is
+Mr Hesketh's communication to the Institute of British Architects, 'On
+the Admission of Daylight into Buildings, particularly in the Narrow
+and Confined Localities of Towns;' in which, after shewing that the
+proportion of light admitted to buildings is generally inadequate to
+their cubical contents, and means for estimating the numerical value
+of that which really does enter, he states that the defect may be
+remedied by the use of reflectors, contrived so as to be 'neither
+obstructive nor unsightly.' He explains, that 'a single reflector may
+generally be placed on either the outside or inside of a window or
+skylight, so as to throw the light from the (perhaps small) portion of
+sky which remains unobscured overhead, to any part in which more light
+is required.' Such difficulties of position or construction as present
+themselves, 'may be overcome in almost every case, by, as it were,
+cutting up the single reflector into strips, and arranging them one
+above the other, either in the reveal of the window, or in some other
+part where it will not interfere with ventilation, or the action of
+the sashes.' This is adopting the principle on which improved
+lighthouse reflectors are constructed; and we are told, that 'the
+combinations may be arranged horizontally, vertically, or obliquely,
+according to the positions of the centre of the unobscured portion of
+sky, and of the part into which the light is to be thrown, and
+according to the shape of the opening in which the combination is to
+be placed.' As a case in point, it was mentioned that a reflector 'had
+been fitted to a vault (at the Depot Wharf, in the Borough) ninety-six
+feet in depth from front to back. The area into which the window opens
+is a semicircle, with a heavy iron-grating over it; and the result is,
+that small print can be easily read at the far end of the vault.' It
+is a fact worth knowing, that reflectors may be so constructed as to
+throw all the available daylight into any required direction; and in
+one instance the reflector may be made to serve at the same time as a
+dwarf venetian window-blind. Instead of wooden splats or laths, flat
+glass tubes or prisms are used, fitted into the usual framework, and
+these being silvered on the inside, throw all the light that falls on
+them into the room, when placed at the proper angle.
+
+Again, the possibility of locomotion without the aid of steam is
+talked about, and the New Yorkers are said to be about to send over a
+large ship driven by Ericsson's caloric engine, which is to prove as
+powerful as vapour at one-half of the cost--a fact of which we shall
+be better able to judge when the vessel really arrives. Then, looking
+across the Channel, we find the Abbe Moigno proposing to construct and
+establish a relief model of Europe in the Bois de Boulogne at Paris,
+of a size to cover several acres, and with the railways of iron, and
+the rivers of water, by which means one of the most interesting and
+instructive of sights would be produced, and the attractions of the
+Trench capital greatly increased. A desirable project--but the cost!
+The Montyon prize of 2000 francs has been awarded to M. Mosson, for
+his method of drying and preserving vegetables for long sea voyages,
+as published a few months ago. M. Naudin states, that a certain kind
+of furze or thistle, of which cattle are very fond, may be made to
+grow without thorns--an important consideration, seeing that at
+present, before it can be used as food, it has to undergo a laborious
+beating, to crush and break the prickles with which it is covered. As
+the plant thrives best on poor soils, which might otherwise lie
+useless, the saving of this labour will be a great benefit to the
+French peasantry; and the more so, as it appears the plant will grow
+in its new state from seed. M. Naudin believes, that the condition of
+other vegetable productions may be varied at pleasure, and promises to
+lay his views shortly before the Academie. M. Lecoq, director of the
+Botanical Garden at Claremont, informs the same body of something
+still more extraordinary, in a communication, entitled 'Two Hundred,
+Five Hundred, or even a Thousand new Vegetables, created _ad
+libitum_.' Having been struck by the fact, that the ass so often feeds
+upon the thistle, he took some specimens of that plant, and, by
+careful experiment, has succeeded in producing for the table 'a
+savoury vegetable, with thorns of the most inoffensive and flexible
+sort.' Whatever be the kind of thistle, however hard and sharp its
+thorns, he has tamed and softened them all, his method of
+transformation being, as he says, none other than exposing the plants
+to different influences of light. Those which grew unsheltered, he
+places in the dark, and _vice versa_. Familiar examples are given in
+the celery, of which the acrid qualities are removed by keeping off
+the light; while the pungency of cress, parsley, &c., is increased by
+exposure to the sun. M. Lecoq has not yet detailed all his
+experiments; but he asserts that, before long, some of our commonest
+weeds, owing to his modifications, will become as highly esteemed as
+peas or asparagus. Let him shew that his process is one that admits of
+being applied cheaply and on a large scale, and he will not fail of
+his reward.
+
+
+
+
+A QUALIFIED INSTRUCTOR.
+
+
+It will be found that the ripest knowledge is best qualified to
+instruct the most complete ignorance. It is a common mistake to
+suppose that those who know little suffice to inform those who know
+less; that the master who is but a stage before the pupil can, as well
+as another, shew him the way; nay, that there may even be an advantage
+in this near approach between the minds of teacher and of taught;
+since the recollection of recent difficulties, and the vividness of
+fresh acquisition, give to the one a more living interest in the
+progress of the other. Of all educational errors, this is one of the
+gravest. The approximation required between the mind of teacher and of
+taught is not that of a common ignorance, but of mutual sympathy; not
+a partnership in narrowness of understanding, but that thorough
+insight of the one into the other, that orderly analysis of the
+tangled skein of thought; that patient and masterly skill in
+developing conception after conception, with a constant view to a
+remote result, which can only belong to comprehensive knowledge and
+prompt affections. With whatever accuracy the recently initiated may
+give out his new stores, he will rigidly follow the precise method by
+which he made them his own; and will want that variety and fertility
+of resource, that command of the several paths of access to a truth,
+which are given by thorough survey of the whole field on which he
+stands. The instructor needs to have a full perception, not merely of
+the internal contents, but also of the external relations, of that
+which he unfolds; as the astronomer knows but little, if, ignorant of
+the place and laws of moon and sun, he has examined only their
+mountains and their spots. The sense of proportion between the
+different parts and stages of a subject; the appreciation of the size
+and value of every step; the foresight of the direction and magnitude
+of the section that remains, are qualities so essential to the
+teacher, that without them all instruction is but an insult to the
+learner's understanding. And in virtue of these it is that the most
+cultivated minds are usually the most patient, most clear, most
+rationally progressive; most studious of accuracy in details, because
+not impatiently shut up within them as absolutely limiting the view,
+but quietly contemplating them from without in their relation to the
+whole. Neglect and depreciation of intellectual minutiae are
+characteristics of the ill-informed; and where the granular parts of
+study are thrown away or loosely held, will be found no compact mass
+of knowledge, solid and clear as crystal, but a sandy accumulation,
+bound together by no cohesion, and transmitting no light. And above
+and beyond all the advantages which a higher culture gives in the mere
+system of communicating knowledge, must be placed that indefinable and
+mysterious power which a superior mind always puts forth upon an
+inferior; that living and life-giving action, by which the mental
+forces are strengthened and developed, and a spirit of intelligence is
+produced, far transcending in excellence the acquisition of any
+special ideas. In the task of instruction, so lightly assumed, so
+unworthily esteemed, no amount of wisdom would be superfluous and
+lost; and even the child's elementary teaching would be best
+conducted, were it possible, by Omniscience itself. The more
+comprehensive the range of intellectual view, and the more minute the
+perception of its parts, the greater will be the simplicity of
+conception, the aptitude for exposition, and the directness of access
+to the open and expectant mind. This adaptation to the humblest
+wants is the peculiar triumph of the highest spirit of
+knowledge.--_Martineau's Discourses_.
+
+
+
+
+AN AMERICAN RIVER.
+
+
+The picturesque banks of the river Connecticut are dotted with
+charming little villages, that break here and there upon the sight
+like feathers of light, dancing among the willow leaves; there is such
+a dazzling irregularity of house and hill--so much fairy-like
+confusion of vista, landscape, and settlement. Now we pass a tiny
+white and vine-clad cottage, that looks as if it had been set down
+yesterday; now we sweep majestically by an ambitious young town, with
+its two, three, or half-a-dozen church-spires, sending back the lines
+of narrow light into the water; anon we glide past a forest of
+majestic old trees, that seem to press their topmost buds against the
+fleecy clouds floating in the blue sky; and through these forests we
+catch glimpses of the oriole, dashing through the boughs like a flake
+of fire.--_Yankee Stories, by Howard Paul_.
+
+
+
+
+CHOOSE THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET.
+
+
+The sunny side of the street should always be chosen as a residence,
+for its superior healthfulness. In some barracks in Russia, it was
+found that in a wing where no sun penetrated, there occurred three
+cases of sickness for every single case which occurred on that side of
+the building exposed to the sun's rays. All other circumstances were
+equal--such as ventilation, size of apartments, &c., so that no other
+cause for this disproportion seemed to exist. In the Italian cities,
+this practical hint is well known. Malaria seldom attacks the set of
+apartments or houses which are freely open to the sun; while, on the
+opposite side of the street, the summer and autumn are very
+unhealthful, and even dangerous.
+
+
+
+
+A DREAM OF DEATH.
+
+
+    'Where shall we sail to-day?'
+                              Thus said, methought,
+    A Voice--that could be only heard in dreams:
+    And on we glided without mast or oars,
+    A fair strange boat upon a wondrous sea.
+
+    Sudden the land curved inward, to a bay
+    Broad, calm; with gorgeous sea-flowers waving slow
+    Beneath the surface--like rich thoughts that move
+    In the mysterious deep of human hearts.
+
+    But towards the rounded shore's embracing arm,
+    The little waves leaped, singing, to their death;
+    And shadowy trees drooped pensive over them,
+    Like long-fringed lashes over sparkling eyes.
+
+    So still, so fair, so rosy in the dawn
+    Lay that bright bay: yet something seemed to breathe,
+    Or in the air, or trees, or lisping waves,
+    Or from the Voice, ay near as one's own soul--
+
+    '_There was a wreck last night!_'
+                              A wreck?--and where
+    The ship, the crew?--All gone. The monument
+    On which is writ no name, no chronicle,
+    Laid itself o'er them with smooth crystal smile.
+
+    '_Yet was the wreck last night!_'
+                              And, gazing down,
+    Deep down beneath the surface, we were 'ware
+    Of cold dead faces, with their stony eyes
+    Uplooking to the dawn they could not see.
+
+    One stirred with stirring sea-weeds: one lay prone,
+    The tinted fishes glancing o'er his breast:
+    One, caught by floating hair, rocked daintily
+    On the reed-cradle woven by kind Death.
+
+    'The wreck has been,' then said the deep low Voice,
+    (Than which not Gabriel's did diviner sound,
+    Or sweeter--when the stern, meek angel spake:
+    'See that thou worship not! Not me, but God!')
+
+    'The wreck has been, yet all things are at peace,
+    Earth, sea, and sky. The dead, that while we slept
+    Struggled for life, now sleep and fear no storm:
+    O'er them let us not weep when God's heaven smiles.'
+
+    So we sailed on above the diamond sands,
+    Bright sea-flowers, and dead faces white and calm,
+    Till the waves rocked us in the open sea,
+    And the great sun arose upon the world.
+
+
+
+
+THE EXECUTIONER IN ALGERIA.
+
+
+Every day, morning and evening, says our widow, 'I see a Moor pass
+along the street; all his features beam with kindness and serenity. A
+sword, or rather a long yataghan, is slung in his girdle; all the
+Arabs salute him with respect, and press forward to kiss his hand.
+This man is a _chaouch_ or executioner--an office considered so
+honourable in this country, that the person invested with it is
+regarded as a special favourite of Heaven, intrusted with the care of
+facilitating the path of the true believer from this lower world to
+the seventh heaven of Mohammed.--_A Residence in Algeria, by Madame
+Prus_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_Just Published, Price 6d. Paper Cover,_
+
+CHAMBERS'S POCKET MISCELLANY: forming a LITERARY COMPANION for the
+RAILWAY, the FIRESIDE, or the BUSH.
+
+VOLUME VIII.
+
+To be continued in Monthly Volumes.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh.
+Also sold by W. S. ORR, Amen Corner, London; D. N. CHAMBERS, 55 West
+Nile Street, Glasgow; and J. M'GLASHAN, 50 Upper Sackville Street,
+Dublin.--Advertisements for Monthly Parts are requested to be sent to
+MAXWELL & Co., 31 Nicholas Lane, Lombard Street, London, to whom all
+applications respecting their insertion must be made.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448, by Various
+
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