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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36124-8.txt b/36124-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2fae1a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/36124-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15170 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, +August, 1851, 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: The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, August, 1851 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 16, 2011 [EBook #36124] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + + + +THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE + +Of Literature, Science, and Art. + + +VOLUME IV + +AUGUST TO DECEMBER, 1851. + +NEW-YORK: +STRINGER & TOWNSEND, 222 BROADWAY. +FOR SALE BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. +BY THE NUMBER, 25 CTS.; THE VOLUME, $1; THE YEAR, $3. + +Transcriber's note: Contents for entire volume 4 in this text. However +this text contains only issue Vol. 4, No. 1. Minor typos have been +corrected and footnotes moved to the end of the article. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE FOURTH VOLUME. + + +The conclusion of the Fourth Volume of a periodical may be accepted as +a sign of its permanent establishment. The proprietors of the +INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE have the satisfaction of believing that, while +there has been a steady increase of sales, ever since the publication +of the first number of this work, there has likewise been as regular +an augmentation of its interest, value, and adaptation to the wants of +the reading portion of our community. While essentially an Eclectic, +relying very much for success on a reproduction of judiciously +selected and fairly acknowledged Foreign Literature, it has contained +from month to month such an amount of New Articles as justified its +claim to consideration as an Original Miscellany. And in choosing from +European publications, articles to reprint or to translate for these +pages, care has been taken not only to avoid that vein of +licentiousness in morals, and skepticism in religion, which in so +lamentable a degree characterize a large portion of the popular +literature of this age, but also to extract from foreign periodicals +that American element with which the rising importance of our country +has caused so many of them to be infused; so that, notwithstanding the +fact that more than half the contents of the INTERNATIONAL are from +the minds of Europeans, the Magazine is essentially more _American_ +than any other now published. + +For the future, the publishers have made arrangements that will insure +very decided and desirable improvements, which will be more fully +disclosed in the first number of the ensuing volume; eminent original +writers will be added to our list of contributors; from Germany, +France, and Great Britain, we have increased our literary resources; +and more attention will be given to the pictorial illustration of such +subjects as may be advantageously treated in engravings. Among those +authors whose contributions have appeared in the INTERNATIONAL +hitherto, we may mention: + +MISS FENIMORE COOPER, +MISS ALICE CAREY, +MRS. E. OAKES SMITH, +MRS. M. E. HEWITT, +MRS. ALICE B. NEAL, +BISHOP SPENCER, +HENRY AUSTIN LAYARD, +PARKE GODWIN, +JOHN R. THOMPSON, +W. C. RICHARDS, +W. GILMORE SIMMS, +BAYARD TAYLOR, +ROBERT HENRY STODDARD, +ALFRED B. STREET, +THOMAS EWBANK, +E. W. ELLSWORTH, +G. P. R. JAMES, +DR. JOHN W. FRANCIS, +MAUNSELL B. FIELD, +DR. STARBUCK MAYO, +JOHN E. WARREN, +A. OAKEY HALL, +HORACE GREELEY, +RICHARD B. KIMBALL, +THE AUTHOR OF "NILE NOTES," +THE AUTHOR OF "HARRY FRANCO." +REV. J. C. RICHMOND, +REV. H. W. PARKER, +JAMES T. FIELDS, +R. S. CHILTON. + +The foreign writers, from whom we have selected, need not be +enumerated; they embrace the principal living masters of literary art; +and we shall continue to avail ourselves of their new productions as +largely as justice to them and the advantage and pleasure of our +readers may seem to justify. + +NEW-YORK, December 1, 1851. + + + + +CONTENTS: + +VOLUME IV. AUGUST TO DECEMBER, 1851. + + +Alred.--_By Elmina W. Carey_, 27 + +Alexander, Last days of the Emperor.--_A. Dumas_, 233 + +America, as Abused by a German, 448 + +American Intercommunication, 461 + +American Literature, Studies of.--_Philarete Chasles_, 163 + +American and European Scenery Compared.--_By the late J. F. Cooper_, 625 + +Anacreon. Twentieth Ode of.--_By Mary E. Hewitt_, 20 + +Animal Magnetism. Christopher North on, 27 + +Ariadne.--_By William C. Bennett_, 315 + +Autumn Ballad, An.--_By W. A. Sutliffe_, 598 + +August Reverie.--_By A. Oakey Hall_, 477 + +Art Expression. 401 + +Arts among the Aztecs and Indians.--_By Thomas Ewbank._ (Ten +Engravings.) 307 + +_Arts, the Fine._--Monuments to Public Men in Europe and America, +130.--Mosaics for the Emperor of Russia, 130.--Tenarani, the Italian +Sculptor, 131.--Group by Herr Kiss, 131.--English and American +Portrait Painters, 131--Mr. Pyne's English Landscapes, 131.--Paintings +by British Officers in Canada, 131.--Ovation to Rauch at Berlin, +131.--Healy's Picture of Webster's Reply to Hayne, +131.--Newly-discovered Raphael, 131.--Daguerreotypes, 131.--Letter +from Hiram Powers, 279.--Monument to Wordsworth, 279.--Monument to +Weber, 279.--Works of Cornelius, 279.--Greenonga's Group for the +Capital, 279.--The Twelve Virgins of Raphael, 279.--Tributes by Greece +to her Benefactors, 279.--Paul Delaroche, 417.--Winterhalter, +417.--New Scriptures in the Crystal Palace, 417.--London Art-Union, +417.--American Art-Union. 417.--Powers's Eve, 417.--Leutze, 417.--The +London Art-Journal on the Engravings of the American Art-Union. +561.--The Philadelphia Art-Union, 561.--The Western Art-Union, +562.--Mr. Healy's Picture of Webster's Reply to Hayne, 562.--Mr. +Lentze's Washington Crossing the Delaware, 562--Illustrations of +Martin Luther, 562.--Lentze's Washington. 743.--Colossal Statue of +Washington at Munich, 703.--Kaulbach's Frescoes, 703.--Cadame's +Compositions of the Seasons, 703.--Portraits of Bishop White and +Daniel Webster, 703. + +_Authors and Books._--The Story of Talns, and the Sardonic Laughter, +by Merehlen, 122.--A German Treatise on Free Trade, 122.--Curious +Medical Works in Germany, 122.--Weiseler on the Theatre, +122.--Woodcuts of celebrated Masters, 123.--Recent German Poetry, +123.--Venedy's Schleswig-Holstein in 1850, 123.--Souvenirs of Early +Germans, 123.--Gutzkow, Reimer, and Gubitz. 123.--Mundi's Macchiavelli +and the Course of European Policy, 123.--New German Novels, +124.--Baner's Documents respecting the Monastery of Arnsburg, +121.--Mss. of Peter Schlemil, 124.--Professor O. L. B. Wohl's Poetic +and Prosaic Home Treasury, 124.--German opinion of Miss Weber, +124.--Professor Zahn at Pompeii, 124.--Barthohl's History of German +Cities, 124.--Cornell on Feurebach, 125.--New Book of the Planets by +Ernst, 125.--Waldmeister's Bridal Tour, 125.--German version of George +Copyway's Book, 125.--German Survey of American Institutions, +125.--Russian Literature, 125.--Jewish Professors in Austria, +125.--Dumas's new Works, 125.--Madame Reybaud, 125.--New Volume of +Thier's History of the Empire, 125.--Mignet's Life of Mary Queen of +Scots, 126.--Cormenin on the Revision of the Constitution, +126.--Literary Episodes in the East, by Marcellus, 126.--Victor Hugo. +126.--Madame Bocarme, 126.--Signatures to Articles in the French +Journals, 126.--Arago's loss of sight, 126.--George Sand to Dumas, +127.--Vacherot on the Philosophical School of Alexandria, 127.--Mss. +of Rousseau, 127.--Unpublished works of Balzac, 127.--M. Nisard, +127.--M. Gautier, 127.--Guizot's History of Representative Government, +127.--Mademoiselle de Belle Isle, 127.--Rev. T. W. Shelton, in +Sharpe's Magazine, 127.--Rev. Charles Kingsley, author of Alton Locke, +127.--Bowring's Translation of Schiller, 128.--New English Poems, +128.--New Novel by Warren, 128.--Judge Woodbury's Works, 128.--The +North American Review, 128--Life of Judge Story, 123.--Contributions +to the History of the West, by Lyman C. Draper, 129.--The Dublin +University Magazine on Streets Frontenac, 129.--Mrs. Southworth in +England. 129.--Return of Mrs. Mowatt, 129.--Miss Beecher's new Work on +the Writings of Women, 129.--Ludwig Feuerback, 268.--August Kopish on +the Monument to Frederic the Great, 269.--The _Janus_ Review, +269.--Franz Kugler on the Theatre, 269.--Von Muller's History of the +Swiss Confederation, 269.--Memoir of Bretschneider, 269.--Dr. Worth, +269.--Herr Christern's Book Store, 269.--German Periodicals, 270.--The +Hungarian Refugees in Turkey, 270.--The Youth of Thorwaldsen, +270.--Old and New Songs and Fables for Children, 270.--Convention of +Sclavic Scholars, 270.--German Translation of Milton's Areopagitica, +270.--Eccentricities of German Medical Literature, 271.--German Poems, +271.--Shakspeare in Sweden, 271.--Neander's Lectures, 271.--George +Sand and her Husband, 271.--New work by Comte, 271.--Lamartine's New +History, 271.--Michelet's _Legendes de la Democratie_, 272.--Guizot's +History of Representative Government, 272.--Prudhon's Idea of +Revolution, 272.--Miss Martineau and her Master, 272.--Rumored +Discoveries of Greek MSS, 272.--Bunsen on the supposed MS. of Origen, +272.--New English Poems, 272.--Herodotus and the Discoveries of +Nineveh, 273.--Sir James Stephen's History of France, 273.--J. S. +Buckingham, 273.--Mrs. Jamieson, 273.--New Books of Travels, 273.--Dr. +Wilkinson and Henry James, 273.--New Novels, 273.--New Books on the +Apocalypse, 274.--Finchman on Ship Building, 274.--The Grenville +Papers, 274.--Sir W. Parish on Buenos Ayres, 274.--Works of Bishop +Whately, 274.--Macaulay's New Volumes, 274.--Poems of Edith May, +274.--Ware's European Capitals, 274.--New Romance by Thomas H. Shreve, +274.--More about American Reviews, 275.--Poem on Woman, by J. W. +Ward, 275.--Novellettes of Musicians, 275.--Dr. Huntington's Alban, +276.--Simms's Poetical Works, 276.--Dr. Tyng and Bickersteth, +276.--Mr. Putnam's forthcoming Souvenir Books, 276.--Kitto's Biblical +Cyclopedia, 276.--Episodes of Insect Life, 276.--History of Oneida +County, 276.--Mrs. Nichols's Poem's, 276.--New Translations of the +Bible, 277.--Sale of Dr. Jarvis's Library, 277.--Ik Marvell's New +Work, 277.--Mr. Longfellow's New Poem, 277.--Books on the Mechanic +Arts, 278.--Dr. Wainwright's Work on Egypt, 278.--Mr. Jefferson's MSS. +Work on Grammar, 278.--Dr. Williams on the Lord's Prayer, 278.--Works +of John Adams, 278.--Publications of James Munroe, 278.--German +Magazines, 403.--German Poets, 403, 405.--Freilegrath, 403.--New +edition of Brockhaus' Lexicon, 403.--German View of Lamartine, +403.--Prutz in a Novel, 403.--Stahl on Paris, 404.--Kohler on Ancient +Cameos, &c., 404.--Children's Picture Books, 404.--Latin Life of +Zumpt, 404.--New work by Robert Remak, 405.--The German Element in +English Language, 405.--Count Blumberg on the Higher Classes, +405.--Auerbach's German Evenings, 405.--Gailhabaud's Monuments of +Architecture, 405.--A Life Spent in Studying Thrushes, 405.--Gust's +Bibliotheca Biographia Lutherana, 405.--New work on Monarchy, +405.--New German Works on the Middle Ages, 406.--Konig and Gelzer on +Luther, 406.--The Bible and the Almanac, 406.--Austrian Biographical +Dictionary, 406.--New Book by Hans Andersen, 406--Zeise, the Danish +Novelist, 407.--Poems of Tegner, 407.--Bohemian Songs, 407.--Italian +Histories of To-day, 407.--Bible Plays by Wiese, 408.--Colins on +Socialism, 408.--Memoirs by Captain Laconte, 408.--Villemarque's +Breton Poems, 408.--Perrymond _vs._ Thiers, 408.--The French Orators, +408.--Histories of the Reformation in France, 408.--M. Guizot, +409.--Jules Janin, 409.--Montbeillard on Spinoza, 409.--Punishment of +a Socialist Dramatist, 409.--Marriage of "Bon Gaultier," 409.--Visits +to De Quincy and Burns's Sister, 410.--The "Baroness Von Beck," +410.--Thackeray's New Novel, 410.--Literary Pensions in England, +410.--Tributes to James Montgomery, 410.--New editor of the +Westminster Review, 410.--New Lives of Mary, Queen of Scots, +411.--Publications of Moore & Co., of Cincinnati, 411.--Rivers of the +Bible, 411.--Mexican Documents collected by the Abbé Bourbourg, +412.--Mr. Schoolcraft and the Publishers, 412.--Mr. Simms's New +Tragedy, 412.--Dr. Albro's Life of Shepherd, the Puritan, 412.--New +Edition of Fielding, 413.--Theory of Human Progression, 413.--The Nile +Boat, 413.--Kitto's Bible Illustrations, 413.--Poore's Life of +Napoleon, 413.--Indications of the Creator, by George Taylor, +413.--Parkman's History of Pontiac, 413.--De Quiney's Works, +413.--Mrs. Judson, 413.--Hart's Female Prose Writers of America, +414.--Mrs. Lee's Memoirs of Buckminster, 415.--Rochefoucauld, +415.--Dr. Huntington and his Novels, Letters, and Life, 415.--New +Works in Press by the Harpers, 415.--By Redfield, do., 416.--New Work +by Dr. Boardman, 416.--Carl Immerman's Letters on the Theatre, +551.--Kohl's last book of Travels, 551.--L'Eco d'Italia, +551.--Narcissa Zwichowska, 551.--Baron Baerst on Cooking, +551.--Brinckle's-Butterfly Book, 552.--Stein's History of the Social +Movement in France, 552.--Dr. Schleiden's Work on Animalculæ, +552.--History of Education, by Kranse, 552.--Handbook of Catholic +Pulpit Eloquence, 552.--Popular Songs of Southern Russia, +552.--Hogarth's Works in Germany, 552.--Dr. Andree's Work on America, +553.--Studies of German Lore, 553.--Hase's New Prophets, +553.--Wanderings in Slavonia, 553.--A reply to the Countess +Hahn-Hahn's last book, 554.--A Review of Lamartine's Parasite History, +554.--Humboldt's Kosmos, 554.--History of Polish Literature, +554.--Russian Archaeology, 554.--Siegfried Weiss on German Trade +Policy, 554.--Periodicals in Asia, 554.--German Translation of +Hawthorne, 554.--The German Universities, 555.--New German Poems, +555.--Literary Statistics of Poland, 555.--Work on Russia by +Tegoborski, 555.--Ritter's History of Philosophy, 555.--De Flotte on +the Sovereignty of the People, 555.--Nineveh, 555.--New Series of +Eugene Sue's Mysteries of the People, 556.--Second Part of Michelet's +History of the French Revolution, 556.--Julian's History of Porcelain +Manufacture, 556.--Felix de Verneihl on the Cologne Cathedral, +556.--Andre Cochat on French Workingmen's Associations, 556.--New +edition of George Sand's Works, 556.--Letter from Alexander Dumas, +556.--Alfred de Musset, 557.--Translations of Comte's Philosophy, +557.--Jules Janin's new Romance, 557.--Ferdinand Hiller, 557.--James +T. Fields, 557.--New Histories of the Mexican War, 557.--Horace Mann +on the Sphere of Woman, 557.--General Morris not guilty of Plagiarism, +558.--Torrey's Translation of Neander, 558.--Translations of Dante, +559.--Alice Carey's Recollections of Our Neighborhood in the West, +559.--Modern Miracles, by Henry Ingalls, 559.--New Novel by Mr. James +and Mr. Field, 559.--History of the German Reformed Church, +559.--Professor Hackett's Commentary on the Acts, 559.--The Whale, by +Herman Melville, 559.--Mr. Herbert's work on Ancient Battles, &c., +560.--Glances at Europe, by H. Greeley, 560.--Hungary and Kossuth, +560.--Richard B. Kimball, 560.--Mr. Judd's Margaret, 560.--Pendant to +Professor Creasy's _Decisive Battles of the World_, +693.--Correspondence respecting the Thirty Years' War, 693.--German +collection of English Songs, 693.--German Philologists, 693.--Weil's +History of the Califs, 693.--The Germans in Bohemia, 693.--Andree's +Work on America, 694.--Works on Spinoza, 694.--New Goethean +Literature, 694.--The British Empire in Europe, by Meidinger, +694.--The Play of the Resurrection, 694.--German History of French +Literature, 694.--New work on German Knighthood, &c., 694.--German +Romanee in the 18th Century, 695.--Madame Blaze de Bury's New Novel, +695.--Richter's History of the Evangelical German Churches, +695.--German Life of Sir Robert Peel, 695.--Zimmermann on the English +Revolution, 695.--History of Norway, 695.--Reguly, the Hungarian +Traveller, 695.--Political Notabililities of Hungary, 695.--Speeches, +&c., by King William of Prussia, 695.--Pictures from the North, +695.--History of the Swiss Confederation, 695.--Bem's System of +Chronology, by Miss Peabody, 695.--French Almanacs, 695.--M. +Croce-Spinelli's Work on Popular Government, 696.--Works by the Paris +Asiatic Society, 696.--Cæsar Daly on Parisian Architecture, +696.--Fignier's Modern Discoveries, 696.--The _Annuaire des Deux +Mondes_, 696.--Calvin's Inedited Letters, 697.--Lacretelle, +697.--Critical Studies of Socialism, 697.--Memoirs of Mademoiselle +Mars, 697.--The Institute of France, 697.--Grille on the War in La +Vendee, 697.--History of the Bourgeoisie of Paris, 697.--_Archives des +Missions Scientifiques_, &c., 697.--Travels in Africa, 698.--Spirit of +New Roman Catholic Literature, 698.--Garcin de Tassy on Mr. +Salisbury's Unpublished Arabic Documents, 699.--New Travels in +Palestine, 698.--The Abaddie Travellers, 699.--French, English, and +American Missionaries, as Scholars, 699.--The Westminster Review, +699.--A Grandson of Robert Burns, 699.--Friends in Council, &c., by +Mr. Helps, 699.--New English Announcements, 700.--New Dissenters' +College, 700.--Sir Charles Lyell and the "Free Thinkers," 700.--Prof. +Wilson, 700.--Miss Kirkland's Evening Book, 700.--Works by Mrs. Lee, +701.--Mr. Boyd's edition of Young's Night Thoughts, 702.--"Injustice +to the South," 702.--Splendid American Gift Books for 1852, 703.--New +American Works in Press, 703, &c. British Humorists.--_By W. M. +Thackeray_, 24 + +Boker, George II.--_By Bayard Taylor_. (Portrait.) 156 + +Bohemian Glass. (Six Engravings.) 291 + +Ballad of Sir John Franklin.--_By George H. Boker_, 473 + +Bryant, and his Works, William Cullen. (Portrait.) 588 + +Bull Fight at Ronda, 681 + +Calvin Colton, Rev., and his Works. (Portrait.) 1 + +Castle of Belvor: An Incident in the Life of Arago, 41 + +Count Monte-Leone. (Concluded), 42, 202, 327, 500 + +China, Our Phantom Ship, 67 + +Chest of Drawers.--_By an Attorney_, 73 + +Cicada, The.--_By H. J. Crate_, 164 + +Charlemagne, Times of.--_By Sir Francis Palgrave_, 169 + +Calhoun, Private Life of John C.--_By Miss M. Bates_, 173 + +Copenhagen, 238 + +Cooper, J. F., Portrait and View of his Residence, _Frontispiece_. + +Cooke, Sketch of Philip Pendleton. (Portrait.) 300 + +Chamois Hunting, 344 + +Cleopatra's Needle, 367 + +Cheap Postage System, 370 + +Country Gentleman at Home.--_By C. A. Bristed_, 389 + +Cooper, Reminiscences of J. Fenimore.--_By Dr. Francis_, 458 + +Cooper, Public Honors to the Memory of Mr., 456 + +Chimes, The.--_By E. W. Ellsworth_, 487 + +Carlyle's Life of John Sterling, 599 + +Calcutta: Social, Industrial, Political, 611 + +Captain and the Negro, The, 646 + +Crebillon, the French Æschylus, 520 + +Dramatic Fragments.--_By R. H. Stoddard_, 17 + +Decorative Arts in America, 171 + +Deserted Mansion, 227 + +Dirge for an Infant--_By R. S. Chilton_, 487 + +Death in Youth.--_By H. W. Parker_, 598 + +Dutch Governors of Niew Amsterdam.--_By J. R. Brodhead_, 597 + +Drinking Experiences: A Temperance Lecture by "Nimrod," 621 + +_Deaths, Recent._--General Arbuckle, 139.--Mrs. Thomas Sheridan, +139.--Bishop Carlson, 139.--Sir J. E. Dalzell, 139.--Chevalier Parisot +de Guyrmont, 139.--General James Miller, 140.--General Uminski, +140.--Viscount Melville, 140.--Mr. Dyce Sombre, 140.--Bishop Medrano, +140.--The Earl of Shaftesbury, 141.--Mr. Thomas Wright Hill, +142.--Melchior Boisserée, 142.--Christian Tieck, the Sculptor, +142.--Rev. Stephen Olin, D.D., 282.--Baron de Leideni, 282.--Edward +Quillinan, 282.--Harriet Lee, 282.--Dr. Julius, 282.--Rev. Azariah +Smith, 282.--General Henry A. S. Dearborn, 283.--D. M. Mon, 228, +283.--General Sir Roger Sheafe, 283.--M. Daguerre, (Portrait), +283.--Rev. Dr. Lingard, (Portrait), 285.--Marshal Sebastian, 287.--J. +Fenimore Cooper, 428.--Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, 428.--Judge Beverly +Tucker, 428.--Levi Woodbury, 429.--General McClure, 429.--Lorenz +Ocken, 429.--Count Killmansegge, 430.--H. E. G. Paulus, 430.--Joseph +Rusiecki, 430.--John Gottfried Gruber, 430.--The Earl of Clare, +431.--Sir Henry Jardine, 431.--Mrs. Sherwood, 572.--Rev. James H. +Hotchkiss, 572.--General Henry Whitney, 572.--Commodore Warrington, +572.--Professor Kidd, 573.--The Earl of Donoughmore, 573.--William +Nicol, 574.--Mr. Freeman, the Missionary, 574.--James Richardson, +574.--William Willshire, 574.--J. R. Dubois, 575.--Gustav Carlin, +575.--Archibald Alexander, D. D., 705.--J. Kearney Rogers, M.D., +705.--Rev. Wm. Croswell, D.D., 706.--Granville Sharpe Pattison, M.D., +706.--Mr. Stephens, author of _The Manuscripts of Erdeley_, 706.--Mr. +Gutzlaff, the Missionary, 707.--Don Manuel Godoy, the Prince of the +Peace, 708.--George Baker, 708.--M. de Savigny, 708.--Archbishop +Wingard, 708.--Samuel Beaseley, author of _The Roué_, 708.--H. P. +Borrell, 708.--James Tyler, R. D., 708.--Emma Martin, 709.--Yar +Mohammed, 709.--Alexander Lee, 710.--Prince Frederick of Prussia, 710. + +Exile's Sunset Song.--_By John R. Thompson_, 26 + +Egypt, The last Joseph in, 185 + +English in America.--_By the author of "Sam Slick,"_ 186 + +Egypt under Abbas Pasha,--_By Bayle St. John_, 259 + +Earthquake in Europe, The Last, 467 + +Fleischmann, Herr, on Life in America, 158 + +Fallen Genius.--_By Miss Alice Carey_, 288 + +Flying Artist, 398 + +Franklin, Inedited Letter of Dr., 472 + +Fragments from a New Volume of Poems.--_By Thomas L. Beddoes_, 550 + +French Flower Girl, The, 641 + +Fragments of a Poem.--_By H. W. Parker_, 189 + +Great Fair at Rochester. (Fifteen Engravings.) 438 + +Gold-Quartz and Society in California, 472 + +Greenwood.--_By Maunsell B. Field_, 476 + +Ghost Story of Normandy, 512 + +Gerard, and the Baron Munchausen, in Africa, M. Jules, 587 + +German Handbook of America, 598 + +Gondolettas: Two Songs.--_By Alice B. Neal_, 597 + +Hahn-Hahn, The Countess Ida, 17 + +History of a Rose, 117 + +Huntington, Dr., on Copyright, 308 + +Heroines of History: Laura.--_By Mary E. Hewitt_, 480 + +Habits of Frederick the Great, 528 + +Herman Melville's New Novel of "The Whale," 602 + +_Historical Review of the Month._--The United States: Elections, &c., +567.--Foreign Relations, 567.--Mexico, 568.--South American States, +568.--Great Britain, 568.--France, Italy, Russia, &c., 569.--The East, +&c., 569.--The American Elections, 704.--Kossuth in England, +704.--Europe, and the East, 704. + +Imaginary Conversations at Warsaw.--_By Walter Savage Landor_, 98 + +In the Harem.--_By R. H. Stoddard_, 164 + +Illustrations of Motives, 280 + +International Copyright, 386 + +Jules Janin and the Paris Feuilletonistes, 18 + +Jungle Recollection.--_By Captain Hardbargain_, 110 + +Jews in China, 264 + +Jefferson, Mr., on the Study of the Anglo-Saxon Language, 468 + +Landscapes, Swedish.--_By Hans Christian Andersen_, 20 + +London, Paris, and New-York, 100 + +Ladies' Fashions. (Illustrated.) 142, 288, 431, 575, 710 + +Latham, on the People of the Mosketo Kingdom, 471 + +My Novel: or, Varieties in English Life.--_By Sir E. Bulwer + Lytton_, 80, 243, 371, 534, 688 + +Moir, David Macbeth.--_By George Gilfillan_, 233 + +Music.--_By H. W. Parker_, 327 + +Meeting of the Vegetarians, 402 + +Newspaper Poets: Charles Weldon, 201 + +Nauvoo and Deseret: The Mormons. (Six Engravings.) 577 + +_Noctes Amicitiæ._--English Opinions of the "American Department" in +the Crystal Palace, 563.--Ridiculous Convention of Women, at +Worcester, 563.--Bloomerism in London, 563.--Defenders of the Catholic +Practices, 563.--Anecdote of Tom Cook, 563.--Capital Anecdote of +Charles XII, 564.--A Superfluous Amount of Name, 564.--G. P. R. James +in the Law Courts, 564.--Nursery Rhymes, 564.--The London Printers, +564.--The Japanese and French Civilization, 565.--Extraordinary +Suicides in Paris, 565, &c. + +October.--_By Alice Carey_, 371 + +Obelisks of Egypt, 469 + +Old Man's Death, The.--_By Alice Carey_, 529 + +Ottoman History, The Three Eras of, 643 + +Parodies, A Chapter of, 23 + +Passages in the Life of a Dutch Poet, 65 + +Phantasy, A.--_By R. H. Stoddard_, 169 + +Paris, Reminiscences of, from 1817 to 1851, 182 + +Poulailler, the Robber, 216 + +Questions from a worn-out Lorgnette.--_By O. A. Hall_, 187 + +Reminiscence, A.--_By Alice Carey_, 360 + +Remarkable Prophecy, 474 + +Revolutions in Russia.--_By Alexander Dumas_, 616 + +Story Without A Name.--_By G. P. R. James, Esq._, + (Concluded), 28, 189, 316, 487, 604 + +Stuart of Dunleath, 119 + +Sailors, Institutions for, in New-York. (Six Engravings.) 145 + +Scenes in the Old Dominion (Six Engravings.) 151 + +Styles of Philosophies.--_By Rev. J. R. Morell_, 180 + +Shadow of Lucy Hutchinson, 239 + +Saxe, John G., and his Satires. (Portrait.) 289 + +Sandwich Islands To-Day. (Two Engravings.) 298 + +Shadow of Margery Paston, 363 + +Saint Escarpacio's Bones.--_From the French_, 483 + +Sonnets: Truth--The Future, 499 + +Sliding Scales of Despair, 592 + +Songs of the Cascade.--_By A. Oakey Hall_, 602 + +Spendthrift's Daughter: In Six Chapters, The, 664 + +_Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies._--The +British Association, 137.--Asiatic Society, 137.--Paris Geographical +Society, 137.--Royal Society of Literature, 137.--Paris Academy of +Sciences, 138.--London Royal Institution, 138.--Berlin Academy of +Sciences, 138.--Improvements in Photographs, 138.--Colonel Rawlinson +on the last Discoveries of Nineveh and Babylon, 426.--New attempts to +discover Perpetual Motion, 426.--Document respecting the discovery of +Steam Navigation at Venice, 427.--English Athletes, compared with +Greek Statues, 427.--Discoveries at Memphis, 427.--Scientific +Conventions, 427.--The Russian Academy, 571.--Scientific Congress in +France, 571.--Paris Academy of Sciences, 571.--Ethnological Society, +571. + +Trot on the Island.--_By C. Astor Bristed_, 54 + +To the Author of Eothen.--_By Barry Cornwall_, 315 + +The King and the Outlaw.--_By an Old Contributor_, 482 + +Verses.--_By R. H. Stoddard_, 22 + +Visit to the "Maid of Athens," 116 + +Visit to the late Dr. Lingard.--_By Rev. J. C. Richmond_, 172 + +Veneer, Fraser's Magazine on English, 306 + +Visit to the Aberdeen Comb-Works, 856 + +Vagaries of the Imagination, 638 + +Veiled Picture: A Traveller's Story, The, 648 + +Watering Places, A Glance at the. (Fifteen Engravings.) 4 + +Webster, Noah, LL. D. (Portrait and birthplace.) 12 + +Waterloo, Tricks on Travellers at, 164 + +Wives of Southey, Coleridge, and Lovell, 241 + +Wallace, William Ross. (Portrait.) 444 + +Windsor Castle and its Associations. (Two Engravings.) 585 + + + + +THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE + +_Of Literature, Art, and Science._ + +Vol. IV. NEW-YORK, AUGUST 1, 1851. No. I. + + + + +REV. CALVIN COLTON. + +[Illustration] + + +Mr. Colton is a man of very decided abilities, voluminous and various +in their manifestation, and assiduously cultivated during a long life, +in which he has never failed of the curiosity, ambition, and industry +of a learner. The untiring freshness and hopefulness of his spirit is +shown by his undertaking the study of the French language not more +than three or four years ago, and obtaining such a mastery of it as to +read with delight its most abstruse authors, and to preach in it with +fluency and even with eloquence. It is characteristic of him that he +is always earnest, and that he considers whatever he has to do worthy +of his best abilities, so that in writing of theology, economy, +polity, or manners, he arrays in order for each particular subject all +the forces of his understanding, and makes its discussion their +measure and illustration. He has been in an eminent degree devoted to +literature as a profession, and although he has produced works which +may be deemed unfortunate in design or defective in execution, it must +be admitted that he is entitled to a highly respectable position as a +thinker and as a writer, and that in opinion and in affairs he has +exercised a steady and large influence. + +He was born in Long Meadow, Massachusetts, graduated at Yale College +in 1812, studied divinity at Andover, and in 1815 took orders in the +Presbyterian church. For several years he was settled in the village +of Batavia in western New-York, but his voice failing in 1826, he +became a contributor to several of the principal periodicals occupied +with religion and learning, and in the summer of 1831, after an +extended tour through the western states and territories, proceeded to +London, as a correspondent of the New-York Observer. + +In England, he led a life of remarkable literary activity. In 1832 he +published a _Manual for Emigrants to America_, which had a large sale +among the middling classes; and _The History and Character of American +Revivals of Religion_, of which there were two or three editions. In +1833, in a volume entitled _The Americans, by an American in London_, +he replied, with an unanswerable display of facts, to the libels on +this country by British travellers and reviewers; and published _The +American Cottager_, a religious narrative. _A Tour of the American +Lakes and among the Indians of the North-West Territory_, in two +volumes, and _Church and State in America_, a vindication of the +religious character of the country and the voluntary principle for the +support of religion, in reply to the Bishop of London, who had +endeavored to show that the United States were going back to paganism +because the church was not here connected with the state. + +Returning to New-York, in 1835, he published _Four Years in Great +Britain_, in two volumes, which were soon after reprinted, with some +additions, in a more popular form. In 1836 he gave to the public +anonymously, _Protestant Jesuitism_, a criticism of the constitution, +extreme opinion, and unwise action of many of the benevolent and +religious societies; and having taken orders in the Episcopal church, +_Thoughts on the Religious State of the Country, and Reasons for +preferring Episcopacy_, a work which was much read and the cause of +much critical observation in Great Britain as well as in the United +States. + +From that time Mr. Colton has written very little on any subject +intimately connected with religion, but directing his attention to +public affairs, has been as conspicuous in the state as he was +previously in the church. In 1838 he published _Abolition a Sedition_, +and _Abolition and Colonization Contrasted_, in which he contended +with equal earnestness and ability that the entire subject of slavery +is beyond the limits of the proper action of the national government, +and that there is no justification of its discussion, except in the +states where slavery is established, or for the wise and really +philanthropic purpose of promoting African Colonization. In 1839 he +again took up the argument of our social relations with Great Britain, +in a work written in Philadelphia, but published in London, under the +title of _A Voice from America to England, By an American Gentleman_. +The plan was judicious: it was not so much to express opinions as to +state facts which should compel opinions in the adverse audience he +addressed. While mainly defensive, he was at the same time bravely +critical. He contended that in its constitution our government was +republican and not democratic, but that the extraordinary force of +public opinion among us has made it democratic in fact. A large +portion of the work was devoted to the several ecclesiastical polities +existing here, which he treated with singular freedom and originality, +so that the frequent impertinences of ignorant laymen and +obtrusively-meddling women, in the affairs of churches, rendering the +clerical profession humiliating and difficult to a person of manly +character and cultivation, were stated without any hesitation or +attempt at concealment. The entire performance is still attractive for +frequent sound observation upon institutions, judicious criticism of +manners, happy illustration, and good humor, and its opportune +appearance was advantageous to the best fame of the country. + +In 1840 he made a more distinct and powerful impression than ever +before, by the publication of _The Crisis of the Country, American +Jacobinism_, and _One Presidential Term_, a series of tracts under the +name of "Junius," which were circulated in all the states by thousands +and hundreds of thousands, and were supposed to have had great +influence in the overthrow of the democratic administration. In 1842 +he edited at Washington a paper called _The True Whig_, and in 1843 +and 1844 he brought out a second series, embracing ten publications, +still more popular than the first, of the _Junius Tracts_. + +In the autumn of the latter year, when the fortunes of the whig party +seemed to be entirely broken, when full half the nation felt a +personal grief for the defeat of a leader, added to the mortification +of political discomfiture, Mr. Colton determined to write the life of +the chief he had followed with unwavering admiration and unfaltering +activity. Casting aside all other cares, so that his every thought +might be given to the work until its completion, he set out for +Kentucky, where he was sure of the friendly assistance of Mr. Clay in +whatever concerned the investigation of facts. In November, 1844, he +reached Lexington, where Mr. Clay laid open to him the stores of his +correspondence, and the documentary history of his career. The work +was finished in the spring of 1846, and published in two large +octavos; and so great was the demand for it, that the first impression +of five thousand copies was sold in six months. It is unquestionably +an able performance, and from the circumstances under which it was +composed and the conclusiveness of some of its arguments it is +probable that it will always be regarded as a valuable portion of the +material for contemporary political history; but, it appears to me +very unequal in execution, and signally unfortunate in design, if +considered either as a biography or a history. For the subjective +rather than the chronological arrangement of the facts in it there is +however this defence, that it rendered the work much more easy of +citation, and therefore more valuable as a magazine for partisan +controversy. The influence it obtained may be illustrated by reference +to a single point: for a quarter of a century the staple of +declamation against Mr. Clay, the opposition which thrice cost him the +presidency, was his supposed bargain with John Quincy Adams; but since +the appearance of Mr. Colton's exposition of this subject any person +in an intelligent society would forfeit the consideration given to a +gentleman who should repeat the charge. + +For several years the attention of Mr. Colton had been more and more +attracted to the literature and philosophy of political economy. In +1846 he printed his first work in which it is formally treated, _The +Rights of Labor_, in which he asserted, illustrated, and with +unanswerable logic vindicated the American doctrine of the privileges +and dignity of Industry; and in 1848 he gave to the world his last and +most important work, _Public Economy for the United States_. From the +formation of the first system of society the subjects embraced in this +production have employed the most powerful intellects of all nations. +But though illustrated by the liveliest genius and the profoundest +reflection, they have not until recently assumed even the forms of +science. We cannot tell what formulæ of economical truth passed from +existence in the lost books of Aristotle. The father of the +peripatetic philosophy undoubtedly brought to public economics the +severe method which enabled him to construct so much of the +everlasting science of which the history goes back to his times; but +whatever direction he gave to the subject, by the investigation of its +ultimate principles and their phenomena, his successors, and the +writers upon it since the revival of learning, have generally been +guided by empirical laws, which in an especial degree have obtained in +regard to the economy of commerce. Scarcely any of the literature or +reflection upon the subject has gone behind the bold hypotheses of +free trade theorists, which have been as unsubstantial as the fanciful +systems of the universe swept from existence by the demonstrations of +Newton. Not only have economical systems generally been made up of +unproven hypotheses, but they have rarely evinced any such clear +apprehension and constructive ability as are essential in the +formation and statement of principles; and down to the chaos of Mr. +Mills's last essay there is scarcely a volume on political economy +which rewards the wearied attention with any more than a vague +understanding of the shadowy design that existed in the author's +brain. + +In the eminently original and scientific work of Mr. Colton we see +economy subjected to fundamental and ultimate methods of investigation +of which the results have a mathematical certainty. We have new facts, +new reasonings, new deductions; and if the paramount ideas are not +altogether original, they are discovered by original processes, and +their previous existence is but an illustration of the truth that the +instinctive perspicacity of the common mind often surpasses the +logical faculty in recognizing laws before they are discovered from +elements and relations. Mr. Colton has not rejected the title +"_political_ economy" because he proposed to enter a different field, +or because the subject and argument have no relation to politics, but +chiefly because the term has been so much abused in the rude agitation +of what are commonly called politics, that he does not think it +comports with the dignity of the theme; and the second part of his +title is adopted from a conviction that the economical principles of +states _are to be deduced from their separate experience and adapted +to their individual condition_. The task which he proposed to himself +is, the exhibition of the merits of the protective and free trade +systems as they apply to the United States. He expresses at the outset +his opinion that the settlement of the question is one of the most +desirable, and will be one of the most important results which remain +to be achieved in the progress of the country; and we can assure him +that the accomplishment of it will be rewarded by the best approval of +these times, and an enduring name. The second chapter of his work is a +statement of the new points which it embraces. By new points he does +not mean that all thus described are entirely original, though many of +them are so; but that on account of the importance of the places he +has assigned them as compared with those they occupy in other works of +the kind, they are entitled to be presented as new. Many of them +involve fundamental and pervading principles that have not hitherto +appeared in speculations on the subject, but which are destined to an +important influence in its discussion. Some of the most prominent are, +that public economy is the application of knowledge, derived from +experience, to given positions, interests and institutions, for the +increase of wealth; that it has never been reduced to a science, and +that the propositions of which it has been for the most part composed, +down to this time, are empirical; that protective duties in the United +States are not taxes, and that a protective system rescues the country +from a system of foreign taxation; that popular education is a +fundamental element of public economy; that freedom is a thing of +commercial value, and that the history of freedom for all time, shows +it to be identical with protection. + +Recently the renewal of his voice has enabled Mr. Colton to devote +more attention to the favorite pursuit of his life, and he is a very +frequent preacher, in French or English. He resides in New-York. + + + + +A GLANCE AT THE WATERING PLACES. + +[Illustration: THE YOUNG MARRIED GENTLEMAN WHO "COULD NOT POSSIBLY GO +TO THE SPRINGS."] + + +All the gay world of the cities, and even of the villages and country +homes, who can do so, by the first of August are "going," or "gone," +as Mr. John Keese says of a last invoice, to the watering places, and +other summer resorts, which serve as fairs for the disposal of +valueless time and "remainders" of marriageable daughters. With the +crowds intent on speculation are a few invalids, a few students of +human nature, and the common proportion of mere lookers-on, who have +no purpose but to be amused. Times have changed, manners have changed, +since Paulding gave us his _Mirror for Travellers_, though Saratoga +still maintains the ascendency she was then acquiring, and for certain +inalienable natural advantages is likely to do so for a part at least +of every season. + +New-York is the grand rendezvous: once settled in our hotels, the +splendid Astor, the comfortable American, the busy Irving, the gay +New-York, or the quiet Union Place or Clarendon, the stranger has +little desire to go further, until the last and imperative demands of +Fashion compel him to abandon the study of those noble institutions we +described in the last _International_, and to forego the observation +of those great public works in which the energy of our rich men has +flowered, or those appointments of Providence which render New-York a +rival of Dublin, Naples, or Constantinople, in scenic magnificence. + +Many indeed who come from distant parts of the country, linger all +summer in the vicinity of the city, in the hottest days quitting +Broadway for a sail or drive, to the Bath House, Rockaway, Coney +Island, New Brighton, Long Branch, or Fort Hamilton, where they dine, +or perhaps stay over night. At Fort Hamilton, indeed, Mr. Clapp is apt +to keep those who venture into his hotel, with its luxurious tables, +pleasant rooms, cool breezes from the ocean, and fair sights in all +directions, for a much longer time; and every one of these places, in +the hot months, has attractions that would make a visitor at the Spas +of France, Germany, or Italy, could he wake in them, think he had +eluded the watchful guard St. Peter keeps at the gateway of another +retirement, to the which, it may be feared, the gay world has far less +anxiety to go. + +[Illustration: FORT HAMILTON HOUSE, LONG ISLAND.] + +[Illustration: PROPOSED SUMMER HOTEL AT THE HIGHLANDS OF NEVERSINK.] + +Ascending the Hudson, from the social metropolis of this continent, to +which all "capitals" of states or nations, from Patagonia to +Greenland, are in some way subject and tributary, the traveller finds +the palace in which he rides, continually near embowered pavilions for +the public, and clusters of private residences, which but add to their +enjoyableness. Cozzens's Hotel at West Point, is perhaps as well +known as any house of the same class in the world, and its picturesque +situation, as well as the admirable manner in which it is kept, will +preserve for it a place in the list of favorite resorts. The Catskill +Mountain House, in the midst of grand and peculiar scenery, on the +verge of a rock two thousand and five hundred feet above the +Hudson--seen with its various fleets at a distance from the long +colonnade--is thronged even more than West Point. There are other +pleasant houses on the river, and many turn from its various points to +visit newer or less crowded places than Saratoga along the lines of +the western railroads, as Trenton Falls, Sharon Springs, or Avon, or +further still, the towns by the borders of the great lakes. + +[Illustration: CATSKILL MOUNTAIN HOUSE.] + +[Illustration: HOTEL AT TRENTON FALLS.] + +Saratoga is now for several weeks the gayest scene of all. At the +United States Hotel, with its fine grounds, are the leaders of +fashion; at Congress Hall, with its clean and quiet rooms and +unsurpassed _cuisine_, are representatives of the substantial families +that have had grandfathers, and in the dozen or twenty smaller houses +about the village are "all sorts and conditions of men," and eke of +women. With drives, dinners, flirtations, drinking of drinks, and, +once in a long while, imbibitions of a little congress water, all goes +merry as a marriage bell--except with ladies of uncertain ages who are +disappointed of that blessed music--until the Grand Ball gives signal +for departure to other places. + +[Illustration: SARATOGA SPRINGS.] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: THE NOTCH HOUSE, WHITE MOUNTAINS.] + +From Saratoga parties go northward to Lake George, (for which region, +of the most romantic beauty, they should be prepared by a perusal of +Dudley Bean's admirable sketch of its revolutionary history;) and down +the Champlain toward Montreal, whence they return by way of the +Ontario and Niagara Falls (where our engraver Orr's _Pictorial Guide +Book_ is indispensable to the best enjoyment), or go through the +glorious hills of northern Vermont and New Hampshire to the White +Mountains. All the last grand region has been most truthfully and +effectively represented in a small folio volume of drawings from +nature, by Isaac Sprague, described by William Oakes, and published in +Boston by Crosby & Nichols. We commend the book to summer tourists. + +[Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS.] + +[Illustration: OCEAN HOUSE, NEWPORT.] + +A considerable proportion of the guests who are at Saratoga in the +earlier part of the season, proceed to Newport in time for the Fancy +Ball which every year closes the campaign there. Newport increases in +attractions. Its historical associations, fine atmosphere, beautiful +position, and facilities for sea-bathing, fishing, sailing, riding, +and other amusements, are continually drawing to its neighborhood new +families, whose cottages add much to the beauty of the town, as they +themselves to the pleasantness of its society; and for transient +visitors no place in the world has better hotels or boarding-houses. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, VIRGINIA.] + +After the season closes at Newport, and from her Ocean House the last +unwilling traveller has taken his way, strewn with regrets, many +linger at the more quiet summer haunts scattered through New-England +and New-York, particularly at the rural and luxurious hotel of +Lebanon--a country palace which a king might covet--filled always with +good society; or go southward to the Virginia Springs, which have many +attractions peculiar to themselves, and with their unique pastimes, +their tournaments, field sports, &c., happily vary a summer's life +commenced at the more northern watering places. + +[Illustration: COLUMBIA HALL, LEBANON SPRINGS.] + +[Illustration: MOULTRIE HOUSE, SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, NEAR CHARLESTON.] + +The South Carolinians have this year seceded from the northern +resorts, and those who do not go from Charleston to the up-country or +to Georgia, may well be content with Captain Payne's spacious and +splendid hotel on Sullivan's Island--the coolest and most agreeable +place by the seaside we have visited, north or south, for years. From +the south, and indeed from all parts of the country, parties go more +and more every year to the Mammoth Cave, (of which we have in store a +particular and profusely illustrated account), and up the great rivers +and lakes of the west, all along which, first-class hotels, +steamboats, &c., render travel as easy and delightful as on the old +summer routes in the middle and eastern states. + +--Thus we have taken our readers--some of whom haply cannot this +season go by other ways--the circuit of the principal scenes of +enjoyment to which the denizens of the hot cities are intent to escape +through July, August, and September. If any have till this time +hesitated where to go, possibly we have aided them to an election: +certainly, we have led them cheaply along the fashionable tour. + +[Illustration: MAMMOTH CAVE HOTEL.] + + + + +NOAH WEBSTER. + +[Illustration] + + +The above portrait of the author of _The American Spelling-Book_, of +which there have been sold thirty millions of copies, and of the +_American Dictionary_, of which his publishers have hopes of selling +as great a number, is very life-like; it is from a painting by +Professor Morse, and the last time we saw the veteran scholar and +schoolmaster, he wore the very expression caught by that always +successful artist. Noah Webster's is the most universally familiar +name in our history; every body, from first to second childhood, from +end to end and side to side of the continent, knows it as well as his +own; and he who made it so famous was worthy of his reputation. + +Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut, October 16th, 1758. He +was a descendant, in the fourth generation, of John Webster, one of +the first settlers of Hartford, and afterwards governor of the colony. +In 1774 he was admitted to Yale College. His studies were frequently +interrupted during the Revolution, and for a time he himself served as +a volunteer in the army, with his father and two brothers. He +graduated, with honor, in 1778, in the same class with Joel Barlow, +Oliver Wolcott, Uriah Tracy, and other distinguished men, and +immediately opened a school, residing meanwhile in the family of +Oliver Ellsworth, afterward chief justice of the United States. He +soon commenced the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in +1781; but the poverty and unsettled state of the country prevented any +immediate success in the courts, and he resumed the business of +instruction in 1782, at Goshen, Orange county, New-York. It was here +that he began the preparation of books for the schools. He was led to +do so in despondency of success in his profession; but it changed the +course of his life. Having exhibited the rude sketch of his initial +effort to Mr. Madison (afterwards President), and Dr. Stanhope Smith, +Professor in Princeton college, he was encouraged by them to publish +the "First Part of a Grammatical Institute of the English Language." +The second and third parts of the series soon followed. A generation +has not passed since some of these books were occasionally seen in New +England. It may be that here and there a copy may still be lurking in +the garret of some ancient family, or on the dusty shelves of a +collector of antiquities. There is no more striking contrast than that +suggested by a comparison of Webster's "Third Part," as it was +familiarly styled, with the admirably printed school books now in +every family. Webster's were the first school books published in the +United States. In 1847 twenty-four million copies of the Spelling Book +had been sold, and for several years the demand for it has been at the +rate of a million a year. + +Dr. Webster did not confine his attention to his own publications; but +having learned that a copy of Winthrop's Journal was in the +possession of Governor Trumbull, he caused it to be transcribed and +published at his own risk. In this way was given to the public one of +the most important memorials of our early history, and the first +example furnished of printing the documents, and other materials, +illustrative of our original experience. Mr. Webster was poor, and the +country had never yet evinced any disposition to encourage enterprises +of this sort; but he had always a confidence that it was safe to do +what was right and necessary, and therefore disregarded in this, as in +many other cases, the opinions of his friends that he would incur +inevitable loss. + +The peace of 1783 involved the whole country in political agitation, +at certain points of which the calmest and wisest well nigh despaired +of the republic. At that time the influence of the pen was greater +than ever before. It seemed that the decision of principles which were +to last for centuries was dependent on the force of a single argument, +or the earnestness of one appeal. In this conflict the ambitious and +self-relying spirit of Mr. Webster led him to take an active part, and +from the peace till the close of Washington's administration, he was +an industrious and efficient writer. No period in the history of this +country was ever more critical; in none were so many principles +subjected to experiment, in none was discussion more able, exhausting, +and high-toned. + +The first topic which engaged Mr. Webster's attention was the decision +of Congress to remunerate the army, then recently disbanded. This +measure was violently opposed in all parts of the country. Meetings +were held to organize resistance to the law, and two-thirds of the +towns of Connecticut were represented in a convention for this +purpose. Mr. Webster was then twenty-five years of age, but he +contributed to the leading paper of the state a series of essays, +signed HONORIUS, which induced a decisive change in the public +feeling; and he received for his important services the thanks of +Governor Trumbull. In the winter of 1784--5 he published a tract, +_Sketches of American Policy_, in which he advanced the doctrine, that +to meet the crisis and secure the prosperity of the whole country, a +government should be organized that would act, not upon the states, +but directly on the people, vesting in Congress full authority to +execute its own acts. A copy of this essay was presented by the author +to Washington, and it is believed that it contained the first distinct +proposal of the new constitution. About the same time, he exerted +himself successfully for what was then called an "International +Copyright" law between the several sovereign states; and at a later +period he spent a winter in Washington, to procure an extension of the +period for which a copyright might be enjoyed. In 1785, he prepared a +series of lectures on the English language, which he delivered in the +larger towns, and in 1789 published, under the title of _Dissertations +on the English Language_. In 1787-8, he spent the winter in +Philadelphia, as a teacher. The convention called to frame the new +constitution was in session during a part of the year, and after its +labors were completed, Mr. Webster undertook to recommend the result +to the then doubtful favor of the people. This he did in a tract, +entitled _An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal +Constitution_. In the next year he established in New-York _The +American Magazine_, but it was unsuccessful. In 1789 he opened a +law-office in Hartford, and his reputation, diligence, and abilities, +insured business and profits. He was now married to Miss Greenleaf, of +Boston, and enjoyed the advantage of one of the most brilliant +literary circles of the country, consisting of Joel Barlow, Lemuel +Hopkins, John Trumbull, and others who at that time were eminent for +their capacities. + +But the political excitement of 1793, caused by the proclamation of +neutrality, disturbed his plans, and brought him again into the arena +of affairs. The sympathy for the new French republic, natural and +pardonable as it was, overran all limits of reason. The popularity and +influence of Washington were hardly sufficient for the repression of +disorder and violence, and an armed espousal of the cause of the +French. Mr. Webster was solicited to devote himself to the support of +the administration, and means were furnished for the establishment by +him of a daily paper in New-York. He accordingly commenced _The +Minerva_, and soon after, a semi-weekly, _The Herald_, which +ultimately received the names which they now retain, of _The +Commercial Advertiser_, and _The New-York Spectator_. + +Another agitation soon followed, if possible, still more +alarming--that which grew out of Jay's Treaty with England. The +discussions to which this gave rise were earnest, often angry and +vituperative, but always able, enlisting the most accomplished men of +the country. In these discussions Mr. Webster was, as might have been +anticipated, remarkably active. A series of papers by him, under the +signature of CURTIUS, had an unquestionable influence on the whole +nation. They were extensively reprinted and afterwards collected in a +volume. Mr. Rufus King said to Mr. Jay, that they had done more than +any others to allay the popular opposition to the treaty. During these +conflicts, Mr. Webster often encountered as an antagonist the +celebrated William Cobbett, at that time conducting a journal in +Philadelphia, distinguished alike for ability and for unscrupulous +violence. + +While Mr. Webster lived in New-York, the yellow fever prevailed in +this city and in Philadelphia, and he wrote a minute and comprehensive +_History of Pestilential Diseases_, in two volumes, which was +published in New-York and in London. It attracted much attention in +its time, and was referred to with interest during the subsequent +prevalence of the cholera. He also published in 1802 an able treatise +on _The Rights of Neutral Nations in time of War_, occasioned by the +interference of the French government with the shipping of the world, +and its seizure of American vessels, under the proclamation of a +blockade. He also published _Historical Notices of the Origin and +State of Banking Institutions and Insurance Offices_, a work of +authority and popularity. + +In 1798 he removed to New Haven, but retained the direction of his +paper at New-York for several years. After disposing of his interest +in it he devoted the remainder of his life to literary pursuits. + +His first work was a _Philosophical and Practical English Grammar_, +printed in 1807. It was in many respects original, acute, and +excellently fitted for the purposes of instruction. It was, however, +only one of the studies for his subsequent and far more important +performance. For more than twenty years he had been a close student of +the elements and sources of the English language; he had gradually, as +his various occupations permitted, accumulated and arranged materials +for its exposition, and he now felt himself at liberty to forego all +other pursuits and ambitions to devote himself for the remainder of +his life to the great labors which have made his name so honorably +eminent in the history of the intellectual advances of his country and +of the Saxon family. The preparation of a Dictionary, under any +circumstances, must be regarded as a very formidable task, involving +even for an enthusiast the most dry and wearying researches, +unenlivened by any of the pleasing excitements which vary the monotony +and relieve the tedium of ordinary literary pursuits. Mr. Webster from +the beginning had a just conception of the duties and difficulties +before him; he was assured that no superficial study or careless +execution would command or in any degree deserve approval, in one who +followed in the track of Johnson. He was not disposed to make the work +of that great man a basis for his own; to be simply an editor, whose +duties should be fulfilled by additions of the new words and new +definitions introduced in seventy years; he determined to make a new +and altogether original work; to study the English language in the +writings of its most distinguished authors, to inquire into its actual +usage in conversation and public discourse, not by loosely gathered +and ill arranged groups of synonymes, but by a clear and precise +statement of meanings, illustrated, whenever it should be necessary, +by various instances. In this work, Johnson had made a beginning; he +first conceived the plan of defining by descriptions, instead of +synonymes; and he had introduced into his larger dictionary quotations +from the best authors. But his work, valuable as it was, was +imperfect, even in regard to the words current in his time, and which +he succeeded in collecting. But, if Johnson had perfectly accomplished +his design, the lapse of seventy years of such extraordinary and +various activity in every department of human action and aspiration, +would have rendered a New Dictionary indispensable. New sciences and +arts had been discovered, which, in their manifold applications to +industry, had changed or wonderfully augmented the technology and +common speech of every class and description of workers. New +experiments had been made in governments; new institutions had been +introduced; literature had assumed new forms; and speculation, with +perfect freedom and gigantic force, had forged new weapons for its new +endeavors. The necessity for a new Dictionary of the English language, +indeed is, demonstrated in the simple fact that the first edition of +Webster's great work contained twelve thousand words not in Johnson; +the second, thirty thousand. This statement does not, however, give a +just impression of the difference between Johnson and Webster, or of +the actual labor which Webster performed. The new definitions, many of +which were fruits, not more of patient research than of nice +discrimination, the arrangement of these definitions, so as to exhibit +the history of words as it had been slowly developed, cost the author +an amount of toil which can with difficulty be measured. We hazard +little concerning the importance or difficulties of the work, when we +quote the remark of Coleridge, that the history of a word is often +more important than that of a campaign. + +The etymology of the language, was a subject to which he devoted much +attention, and in which he made great advances. To qualify himself for +tracing the derivations of English words, he studied some twenty +languages, and wrote out a synopsis of the leading words of each, and +incorporated the chief results of this extraordinary investigation in +the very full and instructive statement of words of similar imports, +which in the larger Dictionary is prefixed to English words, and which +he prepared for the press also, as a separate work, of about half the +size of the _American Dictionary_, entitled "_A Synopsis of Words in +Twenty Languages_," which is still unpublished. + +In 1812, he removed to Amherst, in Massachusetts, where he devoted ten +years entirely to these labors. He returned to New Haven in 1822; in +the following year he received from Yale College the degree of LL. D., +and in the spring of 1824 he proceeded to Paris to consult in the +_Bibliothèque du Roi_ some works not accessible in this country, and +then went to England and passed eight months in the libraries of the +University of Cambridge. + +Returning to America, he made arrangements for the publication of his +great work, and it finally appeared, near the end of 1826, in an +edition of twenty-five hundred copies, in two quarto volumes, which +were sold at twenty dollars per copy. An edition of three thousand +copies was soon after printed in England. + +Dr. Webster was now seventy years of age, and he considered his +life-task accomplished; but habits of literary occupation had become +fixed and necessary, and after a few months he began to rewrite his +_History of the United States for Schools_. In 1840 he published a +second edition of the _Dictionary_, in two octavo volumes; in 1843, _A +Collection of Papers, on Political, Literary and Moral Subjects_, +selected from his various writings in early life; and in 1847 another +edition of the _American Dictionary_ appeared, after a thorough +revision of it by Professor Goodrich, of Yale College. In this edition +very large additions were made, amounting to a fifth of the whole +work. There were new words, and new definitions, when needed; careful +attention was bestowed on technical terms of science and art; and it +was made a general cyclopædia of knowledge. Yet by employing a finer +type, and adopting a close yet clear style of printing, the original +work, with all these copious additions, was brought within the compass +of a single quarto, which has been styled the finest specimen of +book-manufacture ever produced in America. A revised edition of the +abridgement was issued at the same time, and both volumes have had a +circulation which evinces the general appreciation of their value. +Several of the New England states, we believe, have furnished a copy +of the quarto Dictionary to every school district within their limits, +and the legislature of New-York, during its recent session, passed a +law for the distribution of some thousands of copies in the school +districts of this state also. Whatever may be said of the Dictionary +by Dr. WEBSTER, it will not be questioned by the disinterested scholar +that it is one of the most extraordinary and honorable monuments of +well-directed intellectual labor of which we have any account in the +histories of literature or learning. It is as great an advance from +the work of Dr. Johnson, as that was from the wretched vocabularies of +the English language which existed before his time; and so accurate +and exhausting has been the investigation which it displays that no +rival work is likely to take its place until sufficient time has +elapsed for the language itself to pass into a new condition. + +[Illustration: THE BIRTHPLACE OF NOAH WEBSTER.] + +Much has been said of Dr. Webster's innovations, but for the most +part, by persons altogether ignorant of the philosophy of languages in +general, as well as of the character and condition of the English +language. Dr. Webster attempted, and with eminent success, to reduce +the English language to order, and to subject it to the operation of +principles. The changes which he made, though in a few instances, +necessary for consistency, striking, are much less numerous than is +commonly supposed, and even to scholars, with whom the study of +languages is not a _specialité_, they would not be very apparent but +for the frequent attempts which are made to prejudice the public +against the work. An amusing illustration of this fact occurred a few +years ago, when, a concerted assault upon the Dictionary having been +made, and sustained for some time, a distinguished author who had a +new book in the press of the Harpers, was alarmed by intelligence that +they intended to adopt for it Webster's orthography. He wrote to +these publishers his apprehensions that the success of his +performance and his own good reputation could not fail of exceeding +injury, if their design should be executed, and begged them to adopt +some other work as a medium for the display of the Websterian +innovations. The Harpers replied that he might select his own +standard; they believed he had, perhaps unconsciously, followed +Webster in his _manuscript_, and that the several productions of his +which they had published in previous years had all been printed +according to Webster's Dictionary, which was the guide used in their +printing offices. + +The incidents of Dr. Webster's life after the publication of the +second edition of his Dictionary, in 1840, were few and unimportant. +Indeed, with that effort he regarded his public life as brought to a +close. He passed through a serene old age, which was terminated by a +peaceful death, on the twenty-eighth of May, 1843, when he was in the +eighty-fifth year of his age. + + + + +DR. MERLE D'AUBIGNE AND THE ENGLISH CHURCH. + + +The celebrated German historian, Dr. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, is now in +England, and in consequence of certain proceedings growing out of his +occupation of an Episcopal pulpit recently, he has published a letter +to the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the general subject of the +exclusion of continental Protestant ministers from the pulpits of +English churches. He is aware that, in consequence of the Act of +Uniformity, there are churches which cannot be opened to those +ministers, but he hopes that this law of exclusion will be repealed. +"It is no longer in harmony with the spirit and the wants of the +church in the age in which we live." The Calvinistic historian +expresses his conviction that the reëstablishment of the Annual +Convocation would not reform the Church. The Convocation has been for +more than a century deprived of its powers, and it is to Parliament +that the question now belongs. He says: + + "Why should I not express to you, my lord, a desire which I + have long had in my heart? This desire is, that being + surrounded by ministers and members of the Church the most + enlightened and most devoted to God and to his word, you + should digest and present to Parliament a plan, not to + _effect_ (_sic_) a reform of the Church, but to _establish + the authority_ (_sic_) which should be charged with its + reform and government. It seems to me that the best way + would be to establish a body similar to that which governs + the Episcopal church of America, composed of three chambers, + that of the bishops, that of the presbyters, and that of the + members of the Church, the two latter being ordinarily + united in one. The Americans of the United States have + received so much from you (they have received every thing, + even their very existence), why should you not take + something from them? I am convinced that sooner or later a + reform _must_ take place in the government of the Church of + England: it is important that it should be done well. I + think that there would be some hope of its being + accomplished in a good sense, if it were done while you, my + lord, are Primate of the Church, and while Victoria is Queen + of England." + +Every thing seems to tend to an entire revolution in the British +ecclesiastical system, and the coöperation of Dr. Merle and other +continental writers with those who are agitating the subject in +England--demanding the separation of the church from the state--makes +the prospect of such a separation more imminent than it has ever been +hitherto. + + + + +THE EXILE'S SUNSET SONG. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE + +BY J. R. THOMPSON. + + + When from thy side, love, + In silence and gloom, + Half broken-hearted + Fate tore me away, + All humbled in pride, love, + I thought in my doom, + That Hope had departed + For ever and aye! + + But Fate may not banish + From memory's store, + That blissful communion + Of years that are flown, + Nor make yet to vanish + The lustre which o'er + Our fond thoughts of union, + So tenderly shone. + + And still o'er the ocean + My fancy takes flight, + Where oft I see gleaming + Thy figure afar; + And I think with emotion, + That sometimes at night, + We watch the same beaming + And tremulous star. + + The sunsets so golden. + That stream round me here, + But call up thy shadow + The landscape between: + And when in the olden + Dim season so dear, + It tripped o'er the meadow + With step of a queen. + + As the light of the moon, love, + Like snow softly falls, + And rests on the mountain, + And silvers the sea, + That midnight in June, love, + My mem'ry recalls, + When up to the fountain + I clambered with thee. + + How sweetly the river + Reflected the ray + Of moon through the willows + Or sun o'er the hill: + Does the moonbeam there quiver, + The sunset there play, + Upon its gay billows + As splendidly still? + + My spirit is weary-- + An exile I grieve, + When morn's early voices + A glad song proclaim, + And the faint Miserere + Of nature at eve, + To me but rejoices + To murmer thy name. + + Yet Hope, reappearing, + A vision unfolds, + Of rapture together + In joy's happy reign, + When love all endearing + The full eye beholds, + We'll walk o'er the heather + At sunset again. + +RICHMOND, Va. + + + + +DRAMATIC FRAGMENTS. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, + +BY R. H. STODDARD. + + +THE GAME OF CHESS. + + We played at chess, Bianca and myself, + One afternoon, but neither won the game, + Both absent-minded, thinking of our hearts + Moving the ivory pawns from black to white, + Shifted to little purpose round the board; + Sometimes we quite forgot it in a sigh + And then remembered it, and moved again; + Looking the while along the slopes beyond, + Barred by blue peaks, the fountain, and the grove + Where lovers sat in shadow, back again, + With sideway glances in each other's eyes; + Unknowingly I made a lucky move, + Whereby I checked my mate, and gained a queen; + My couch drew nearer hers, I took her hand-- + A soft white hand that gave itself away-- + Told o'er the simple story of my love, + In simplest phrases which are always best, + And prayed her if she loved me in return-- + A fabled doubt--to give her heart to me; + And then, and there, above that game of chess, + Not finished yet, in maiden trustfulness, + She gave me, what I knew was mine, her heart! + + +FROM A PLAY. + + Alas! I think of you the live-long day, + Plying my needle by the little stand, + And wish that we had never, never met, + Or I were dead, or you were married off, + Though that would kill me; I lay down my work, + And take the lute you gave me, but the strings + Have grown so tuneless that I cannot play; + I sing the favorite airs we used to sing, + The sweet old tunes we love, and weep aloud! + I sought forgetfulness, and tried to-day + To read a chapter in the Holy Book; + I could not see a line, I only read + The solemn sonnets that you sent to me: + Nor can I pray as I was wont to do, + For you come in between me and the Lord, + And when I strive to lift my soul above, + My wits are wandering, and I sob your name! + And nights, when I am lying on my bed, + (I hope such thoughts are not unmaidenly,) + I think of you, and fall asleep, and dream + I am your own, your wedded, happy wife,-- + But that can never, never be on earth! + + + + +THE COUNTESS IDA HAHN-HAHN. + + +We gave in the last _International_ a short notice of "_Von Babylon +nach Jerusalem_" (A Journey from Babylon to Jerusalem), by Ida, +Countess of Hahn-Hahn, in which she declares her conversion to +Christianity and Catholicism. What the Germans themselves think of +this work may be gathered from the following brief review, which has +just fallen under our notice in the _Central Blatt_. The article is +curious, from the "intensely German" style and spirit in which it is +written, though we cannot very warmly commend either. + +"The above-mentioned work," which contains an account of the +conversion of its celebrated authoress to the Catholic belief, says +the critic, "presents a sad picture of the complete decay and +dissolution of a _void subjectivity_ (a vacant mind). + +"The writer falls a sacrifice to her exclusive, aristocratic position +in society. Without occupying any place in the world, won and +maintained by personal ability, and consequently without a +well-grounded moral standard, she wanders like a homeless being from +land to land, every where influenced, 'as far as it agreed with her +disposition,' by her momentary interests, and thus rendering apparent +the barrenness of her soul. But this had been developed at an early +period. 'That this feeling (that of joy) was occasionally accompanied +by the deepest discontent, appearing as an unearthly _ennui_--and that +over it swept the darkest melancholy, will be readily intelligible to +every one, for they are the twin sisters of the fortune of this +world.' 'And occasionally it was a kind of heroism, in that I sat +myself down, and--wrote a romance. Was it finished, I travelled--did I +return, I described the tour--was there a time when the book was +complete and circumstances did not permit of travelling, I took with +raging appetite to reading--and when I no longer wrote, no longer +travelled, and could no longer read for any determined +purpose--because I had none--I knew not what to do with my time. I +could not create illusions, and say to myself, Try this! try that! +perhaps the world hath yet somewhat hidden for thee--the call of +Knowledge is incessant. No, no! she hath nothing. Well--what then? +God? There stood the Word, the One, the Eternal.' Thereupon she reads +the greater and lesser catechisms of Luther, the creeds of the +evangelic reformed church, and the decrees and canons of the Council +of Trent. 'But only the Catholic church hath under roof and proof +brought her dogma-buildings to a tower, provided with the +lightning-rod of authority.' Thereupon she determines, 'I asked no +human being for explanation, information, or counsel--not even +myself.' Three months after, on the first day of January, 1850, she +wrote to the Cardinal Prince-Bishop of Breslau, to beg of him aid in +her entrance to the church. + +"The moral vacancy displayed in these quotations corresponds with the +shallow manner and half romantic, half French style of the book. +Though the first part be written in a fresher and livelier style than +the second, there is still not to be found in the whole a single +well-determined and clearly-impressed thought, and whenever we imagine +that we have hit upon such a thing, straightway we find whirling forth +the dust-clouds of an obscure, phrase-laden, highly affected +sentimental feeling, which, without any real energy, stirs itself up +with repeated 'ohs!' and 'ahs!' and other forced sighs and artificial +aids. In place of such thoughts we find a shallow and occasionally +insupportably wearisome speech on the ideal of Catholicism, or 'the +heathenish abomination in art and literature, which, after the fall of +Byzantium was transported thence to Italy, and there received with +that love which impels sensuous mortals to joyfully draw into the +sphere of his life the new and glittering, because it promises fresh +and shining pleasures.'(!) In another place she speaks of the +reformers as 'miserable, narrow-minded heads, who should have chosen +other ground whereon to exercise their love of quarrelling;' while +the second half of her book is confined almost exclusively to the +democrats, and the events which took place from 1847 to 1849. In this +part the authoress displays the greatest want of intellect, and is +sadly wearisome; but her frivolity of manners and morals appears most +repulsive in her account of the Reformation. None of the +Catholics--not even Cochlæus himself--has so far degraded himself as +to interpret in such a vulgar manner the deeds of the reformers (more +particularly Luther's) as is here done by--a lady! + +"If the Countess places at the conclusion of her work the words 'Soli +Deo Gloria,' this is merely in accordance with a Catholic custom, and +by no means meant in earnest, since the work is more particularly +adapted to flatter the vanity and self-conceit of its composer, who +cannot imagine why she should suffer the disgrace to belong to the +German nation. A vain, coquettish self-regard, an affected, +aristocratic-noble nonchalance, and a contradicting, heresy-accusing +confidence of judgment, meet us on every side, and render us +completely opposed to the pretence and moral vacancy of this book." + +These are bitter words, and bitterly spoken, when thus applied to a +woman. The reader will in their perusal remember that the writer is +evidently influenced by a deep feeling against all that savors of +conservatism in politics, and shares in an unusual degree the popular +German feeling against _emancipiste Frauen_, or women who strive +against the bonds which the customs of society have imposed on the +sex,--a feeling, which, however creditable it may be when applied to +undue extravagances of manners or morals, should be carefully guarded +against when it threatens an unconditional restraint of every exertion +of feminine genius and talent. + + + + +JULES JANIN, AND THE PARIS FEUILLETONISTES. + + +Jules Janin, whose name, of so constant recurrence in the contemporary +history of light literature, artistic criticism, and _feuilleton_, is +the Prince Royal of the brilliant court of gifted, tasteful, witty and +_spirituel_ writers, who compose the body of Parisian +_feuilletonistes_. These are men who write, not because they have any +thing especial to say--for their peculiar function is to say nothing, +in a pointed and brilliant manner--but because they love leisure and +luxury, the opera, pictures, and beautiful ballet girls, and must +themselves make the golden lining to their purses, which they can do +by the very simple process of weaving the similar lining of their +brains into a _feuilleton_. They are often scholars, men of fine +cultivation and genius, whose tastes however are so imperious, and who +enjoy so much the ease thus facilely achieved, that they accomplish no +great work, win no lasting name. Of course the _feuilletonist_ proper +is to be distinguished from the author or novelist who publishes a +work in the _Feuilleton_, as Lamartine his _Confidences_, and Sue and +Dumas and George Sand, their romances. We propose now to follow +briefly the sparkling career of JULES JANIN as the type of the life, +character, and success of the _feuilletonistes_. + +He came to Paris, a Jew: as Meyerbeer, Heine, Grisi, Rachel, and the +long luminous list of contemporary artists who have made fame in +Paris, are Jews. He supported himself by teaching--doing nothing, but +very conscious that he could do something--at all events he could +lecture upon the Syrian language, if for a week he could prepare +himself. Then he wrote in little theatrical papers, and received +twenty-five francs a month. But in 1830 he happily succeeded to his +present position in the _Journal des Debats_. He is now a rich man. He +gives splendid soirees in his saloons glittering with oriental luxury, +and artists and authors bow before him. Like Henry Heine, his +contemporary, whom he as much resembles in talent as in manner, he +declared now for the Republic and Freedom, now for the Church and +King, until his connection with the _Debats_ impressed upon him the +conservative seal. He since loudly declaims for public +morality--against the prostitution of the press; but his early works +were the most licentious of any that have swarmed from the fertile +French genius of social protestantism. His first novel, published in +1829, _The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman_, is the history of a +prostitute, from the brothel, to the murder of her child, and her +execution, garnished with Byronic sentimentalities upon the +transitoriness of things temporal. + +Jules Janin's next work was one of the most instructive illustrations +of the character of French romance at that period when literary +feeling and taste seemed to reach the artificial point that is +artistically achieved by the melo-dramas of Chatham-street and the +Strand. We record it as a literary curiosity, as the work of a "fast" +Frenchman, a Parisian Vivian Grey, on a small scale. It is called _The +Penitent_, and was published in 1830. It opens with a marriage. The +bride, who has been violently dancing, retires, overcome with sleep, +and the husband in his rage at her sleepiness smothers her. It is +nominally supposed that she has been stricken with apoplexy, but a +Jesuit, who meditates many mysteries, understands the whole matter, +yet observes the most discreet silence. The young man, who is somewhat +conscience-pricked, still persists in profligacy, until he is +overwhelmed by remorse, and rushes to the church to receive +absolution. He seeks a trusty confessor, and of course finds the old +Jesuit; but as he finds it difficult to obtain access to him, makes +the acquaintance of a girl, with whom the Jesuit has some kind of +relation, and in order to win her to his will, seduces her! Then comes +the Jesuit and begins to fulminate excommunications and damnations. +But the youth bursts into a passionate strain of repentance, and is +told by the old Jesuit, that the difficulty in his case, is a +religious one, that in fact the murder was "a circumstance" arising +from his irreligious state, and that by genuine repentance the matter +will be arranged. _Presto_: The youth repents and enters the church, +is made Bishop and proceeds through an endless course of fat capon and +Château Margaux to an edifying end! + +The boldest efforts of young France and young Germany, are feeble by +the side of this extraordinary effort. His earlier tales, which are +somewhat in the style of Hoffmann, Jules Janin published in the year +1833, under the title of _Fantastic Tales_, and a series of works of +less size and importance followed, until the series of papers, half +fiction, half fact, which, in the novel form, treated a great variety +of historico-literary subjects. His last romance is the _Nun of +Toulouse_, written during the revolution of '48. It sparkles with the +same sprightly skepticism and spiritual coquetry that distinguished +his earlier works, yet he celebrates in it those beautiful times, the +"old times," in which the serenity of faith was never ruffled by +impertinent thought; and in his recent letters from the Great +Exhibition, he indulges in the same strain, and sighs for the +magnificence of the monarchy. + +But his weekly contributions to the _Debats_, the rapid dashing review +of the dramatic novelties and incidents in a metropolis where alone a +living drama survives, and which he serves up garnished with the most +felicitous verbal graces and the most charming intellectual conceits, +every Monday morning--these are the flowers whence the brilliant Jules +Janin builds the honey hive of his reputation. He has decreed the +fashion of the _Feuilleton_, and the other Parisian critics flash and +snap and sparkle, as much like Jules Janin as possible. Their articles +are the streak of _light_ in the dimness of the preponderating +political literature of the week. They hold high holiday at the bottom +of the page, although the history of revolutions, and woes, and the +rumors of wars and impending millenniums may throw their sombre +shadows along the columns above. They raise their banner of a +butterfly's wing, emblazoned with _Vive la Bagatelle_, and march on to +the tournament of wit and beauty. They belong to France; their game is +the gambol of the exuberance of French genius. They are more than +witty, they are _spirituel_; and they have more than talent, they have +taste. + +In a day of such rapid and facile printing as ours, this department of +literary labor was a necessity. Every man who has a conceit and can +write, may parade it before the world. In the mass of pleasant +common-place, what is _bizarre_ may supplant the symmetrically +beautiful. To seize therefore what every man saw, and with nimble +fingers to weave a transparent tissue of gorgeous words through which +every man's impressions of what he saw look large and graceful and +piquant--to sum up a vaudeville in a _bon mot_, and a ballet in a +voluptuous trope,--_voila! c'est fait_, you have the recipe of a +successful _feuilletoniste_. Hence, the influence of these writers, +upon _words_, has been remarkable. The French language, long so +precise, is now among the most dissolute of tongues. It reels through +the columns of a _feuilleton_, drunk and dim-eyed with expletives and +exaggerations and beatified adjectives, so that, fascinated with the +casket, you quite forget the jewel. The language of dramatic and +operatic criticism in Paris is now inexplicable to any one but an +_habitué_. If you should tell John Bull, who wishes to go to the +opera, that Alboni's singing is _pyramidale_, he would expect to see +the fair and fat contralto sharpened to a point at top,--but, I grant, +if you should call it "jolly" or "stunning," he would entirely +comprehend that you meant to express your admiration in superlatives. + +I must not longer gossip as these gay gossips do, these fanciful +_feuilletonistes_, nor seek more deeply to draw the outline of these +rainbow bubbles upon the stream of the time, whether it flow turbid or +transparent. One cannot live upon sugar and nutmeg, or even upon +allspice. But our friends are a literary phenomenon not to be omitted, +and if you love the Muses, you will not omit to snuff the azure +incense offered weekly by the _feuilletonistes_. + +Jules Janin shall show us out of this article as he ushered us in. The +Great Mogul of the _Feuilleton_ had purchased a carriage whose luxury, +and taste of appointment, and perfection of footman, was unsurpassed +in the Champs Elysée. But the gods are jealous and the +_feuilletonistes_ have thus the highest authority for jealousy. So, on +one evening when the exquisite equipage awaited its master at the +grand opera, a crowd of lesser critical luminaries gathered around it, +and both reviled and envied the fortunate owner. While they were thus +engaged, the great critic came out of the opera house and saw his +contemporaries engaged in longing and envious remark. Now tact is the +sublimest secret of success--and smilingly Jules Janin advanced +cheerily, greeted his friends cordially, and piled into the carriage +all of them who lived in his neighborhood. + +They naturally reserved the seat of honor for the owner, but this +great General seizing the most inimical of all the party who lived in +a quarter of the city farthest from his own home, pushed him into the +vacant seat, ordered his coachman to set him down first, and then +humming the finale of the opera, lighted a cigar and sauntered +leisurely down the street. It was like Jules Janin to make his own +marriage the subject of a _Feuilleton_. In his case the man and the +_feuilletoniste_ are the same. + + + + +ODE XX. OF ANACREON. + +TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MADAME DACIER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL +MAGAZINE, + +BY MARY E. HEWITT. + + + Niobé, maddened by her woes, of yore. + The gods in pity turned to marble fair; + And wretched Progné, doomed for evermore, + Changed to a swallow wings the upper air. + + But ah! would Love, whom I, enslaved, obey, + By his sweet power transform me, I would be + The mirror in thy hand, if thus, alway, + Thy gentle eyes would fondly turn on me. + + Or, I would be the perfume that reveals + Its fragrance 'mid the tresses of thy hair; + Or, that soft veil which o'er thy bosom steals, + And jealous, hides the ivory treasure there. + + Or I would be the robe that round thee flows, + The zone that circles thee with fond caress; + The rivulet that with thy beauty glows, + And to its breast enclasps thy loveliness. + + Or I were blest those envied pearls to be + That closely thus thy swan-white neck entwine; + Or e'en to be the sandal, pressed by thee, + Were, for thy lover, destiny divine. + + + + +SWEDISH LANDSCAPES: BY HERR ANDERSEN. + + +In the last _International_ we gave some characteristic historical +sketches from Hans Christian Andersen's latest and most delightful +book, the _Pictures of Sweden_; but the inspiration of nature is more +powerful with him than that of history, and he is never so felicitous +as when painting the scenery of his native country, though he has +certainly indulged, to a greater extent than a sober taste can +approve, in that passion for the fantastic and visionary, which has +been but too visibly manifested in some of his later and slighter +works. Our readers, however, shall judge for themselves. The forests +of Sweden and its rivers give the most noticeable features to its +landscape. This is how they appeared to Andersen--the forest first: + + "We are a long way over the elv. We have left the + corn-fields behind, and have just come into the forest, + where we halt at that small inn which is ornamented over the + doors and windows with green branches for the midsummer + festival. The whole kitchen is hung round with branches of + birch and the berries of the mountain ash; the oat cakes + hang on long poles under the ceiling; the berries are + suspended above the head of the old woman who is just + scouring her brass kettle bright. + + "The tap-room, where the peasants sit and carouse, is just + as finely hung round with green. Midsummer raises its leafy + arbor every where, yet it is most flush in the forest which + extends for miles around. Our road goes for miles through + that forest, without seeing a house, or the possibility of + meeting travellers, driving, riding, or walking. Come! The + ostler puts fresh horses to the carriage; come with us into + the large woody desert: we have a regular trodden way to + travel, the air is clear, here is summer's warmth and the + fragrance of birch and lime. It is an up-and-downhill road, + always bending, and so, ever changing, but yet always + forest-scenery--the close, thick forest. We pass small + lakes, which lie so still and deep, as if they concealed + night and sleep under their dark, glassy surfaces. + + "We are now on a forest plain, where only charred stumps of + trees are to be seen; this long tract is black, burnt, and + deserted, not a bird flies over it. Tall, hanging birches + now greet us again; a squirrel springs playfully across the + road, and up into the tree; we cast our eyes searchingly + over the wood-grown mountain side, which slopes so far, far + forward, but not a trace of a house is to be seen: nowhere + does that bluish smoke-cloud rise, that shows us, here are + fellow-men. The sun shines warm; the flies dance around the + horses, settle on them, fly off again, and dance as though + it were to qualify themselves for resting and being still. + They perhaps think, 'Nothing is going on without us: there + is no life while we are doing nothing.' They think, as many + persons think, and do not remember that time's horses always + fly onward with us! + + "How solitary is it here! so delightfully solitary! one is + so entirely alone with God and one's self. As the sunlight + streams forth over the earth, and over the extensive + solitary forests, so does God's Spirit stream over and into + mankind; ideas and thoughts unfold themselves--endless, + inexhaustible, as He is--as the magnet which apportions its + powers to the steel, and itself loses nothing thereby. As + our journey through the forest scenery here along the + extended solitary road, so, travelling on the great high + road of thought, ideas pass through our head. Strange, rich + caravans pass by from the works of poets, from the home of + memory, strange and novel; for capricious fancy gives birth + to them at the moment. There comes a procession of pious + children with waving flags and joyous songs; there come + dancing Menades, the blood's wild Bacchantes. The sun pours + down hot in the open forest; it is as if the Southern summer + had laid itself up here to rest in Scandinavian forest + solitude, and sought itself out a glade where it might lie + in the sun's hot beams and sleep; hence this stillness as if + it were night. Not a bird is heard to twitter, not a pine + tree moves. Of what does the Southern summer dream here in + the North, amongst pines and fragrant birches? + + "In the writings of the olden time, from the classic soil of + the South, are sagas of mighty fairies, who, in the skins of + swans, flew towards the North, to the Hyperboreans' land, to + the east of the north winds; up there, in the deep still + lakes, they bathed themselves, and acquired a renewed form. + We are in the forest by these deep lakes; we see swans in + flocks fly over us, and swim upon the rapid elv and on the + still waters...." + + "Woodland solitude! what images dost thou not present to our + thoughts! Woodland solitude! through thy vaulted halls + people now pass in the summer time with cattle and domestic + utensils; children and old men go to the solitary pasture + where echo dwells, where the national song springs forth + with the wild mountain flower! Dost thou see the procession? + Paint it if thou canst! The broad wooden cart, laden high + with chests and barrels, with jars and with crockery. The + bright copper kettle and the tin dish shine in the sun. The + old grandmother sits at the top of the load, and holds her + spinning wheel, which complete the pyramid. The father + drives the horse, the mother carries the youngest child on + her back, sewed up in a skin, and the procession moves on + step by step. The cattle are driven by the half-grown + children; they have stuck a birch branch between one of the + cows' horns, but she does not appear to be proud of her + finery; she goes the same quiet pace as the others, and + lashes the saucy flies with her tail. If the night becomes + cold on this solitary pasture, there is fuel enough; here + the tree falls of itself from old age, and lies and rots. + + "But take especial care of the fire--fear the fire-spirit in + the forest desert! He comes from the unextinguishable pile; + he comes from the thunder-cloud, riding on the blue + lightning's flame, which kindles the thick, dry moss of the + earth: trees and bushes are kindled; the flames run from + tree to tree, it is like a snow-storm of fire! the flames + leap to the tops of the trees. What a crackling and roaring, + as if it were the ocean in its course! The birds fly upward + in flocks, and fall down suffocated by the smoke; the + animals flee, or, encircled by the fire, are consumed in it! + Hear their cries and roars of agony! The howling of the wolf + and the bear, dost thou know it? A calm rainy day, and the + forest-plains themselves alone are able to confine the fiery + sea, and the burnt forest stands charred, with black trunks + and black stumps of trees, as we saw them here in the forest + by the broad high-road. On this road we continue to travel, + but it becomes worse and worse; it is, properly speaking, no + road at all, but it is about to become one. Large stones lie + half dug up, and we drive past them; large trees are cast + down, and obstruct our way, and therefore we must descend + from the carriage. The horses are taken out, and the + peasants help to lift and push the carriage forward over + ditches and opened paths. The sun now ceases to shine; some + few rain-drops fall, and now it is a steady rain. But how it + causes the birch to shed its fragrance! At a distance there + are huts erected of loose trunks of trees and fresh green + boughs, and in each there is a large fire burning. See where + the blue smoke curls through the green leafy roof; peasants + are within at work, hammering and forging; here they have + their meals. They are now laying a mine in order to blast a + rock, and the pine and birch emit a finer fragrance. It is + delightful in the forest." + +So say we. It is delightful in the forest; not less so on the +torrent-river of Scandinavia: + + "Before Homer sang, there were heroes; but they are not + known, no poet celebrated their fame. It is just so with the + beauties of nature; they must be brought into notice by + words and delineations, be brought before the eyes of the + multitude; get a sort of world's patent for what they are. + The elvs of the North have rushed and whirled along for + thousands of years in unknown beauty. The world's great + high-road does not take this direction; no steam-packet + conveys the traveller comfortably along the streams of the + Dal-elvs; fall on fall makes sluices indispensable and + invaluable. Schubert is, as yet, the only stranger who has + written about the magnificence and southern beauty of + Dalecarlia, and spoken of its greatness. + + "Clear as the waves of the sea does the mighty elv stream in + endless windings through forest deserts and varying plains, + sometimes extending its deep bed, sometimes confining it, + reflecting the bending trees and the red-painted + block-houses of solitary towns, and sometimes rushing like a + cataract over immense blocks of rock. + + "Miles apart from one another, out of the ridge of mountains + between Sweden and Norway, come the east and west Dal-elvs, + which first become confluent and have one bed above Balstad. + They have taken up rivers and lakes in their waters. Do but + visit this place! here are pictorial riches to be found: the + most picturesque landscapes, dizzyingly grand, smilingly + pastoral, idyllic; one is drawn onward up to the very source + of the elv, the bubbling well above Finman's hut; one feels + a desire to follow every branch of the stream that the river + takes in. + + "The first mighty fall, Njupesker's Cataract, is seen by the + Norwegian frontier in Semasog. The mountain stream rushes + perpendicularly from the rock to a depth of seventy fathoms. + + "We pause in the dark forest, where the elv seems to collect + within itself nature's whole deep gravity. The stream rolls + its clear waters over a porphyry soil, where the mill-wheel + is driven, and the gigantic porphyry bowls and sarcophagi + are polished. + + "We follow the stream through Siljan's lake, where + superstition sees the water-sprite swim like the sea-horse, + with a mane of green seaweed; and where the aërial images + present visions of witchcraft in the warm summer day. + + "We sail on the stream from Siljan's lake under the weeping + willows of the parsonage, where the swans assemble in + flocks; we glide along slowly with horses and carriages on + the great ferry-boat, away over the rapid current under + Balstad's picturesque shore. Here the elv widens and rolls + its billows majestically in a woodland landscape, as large + and extended as if it were in North America. + + "We see the rushing, rapid stream under Avista's yellow clay + declivities; the yellow water falls, like fluid amber, in + picturesque cataracts before the copper works, where + rainbow-colored tongues of fire shoot themselves upwards, + and the hammer's blow on the copper-plates resound to the + monotonous, roaring rumble of the elv-fall." + +And so on, past the famous fall down which the waters gush, ere they +lose themselves in the waters of the Baltic. One glimpse more ere they +reach their resting-place. We take them up as they are circling the +garden of a trim Swedish manor-house: + + "The garden itself was a piece of enchantment. There stood + three transplanted beech trees, and they throve well. The + sharp north wind had rounded off the tops of the wild + chestnut trees of the avenue in a singular manner; they + looked as if they had been under the gardener's shears. + Golden yellow oranges hung in the conservatory; the splendid + Southern exotics had to-day got the windows half open, so + that the artificial warmth met the fresh, warm, sunny air of + the Northern summer. + + "The branch of the Dal-elv which goes round the garden is + strewn with small islands, where beautiful hanging birches + and fir-trees grow in Scandinavian splendor. There are small + islands with green, silent groves; there are small islands + with rich grass, tall brakens, variegated bell flowers, and + cowslips. No Turkey carpet has fresher colors. The stream + between these islands and holmes is sometimes rapid, deep, + and clear; sometimes like a broad rivulet with silky green + rushes, water lilies, and brown feathered reeds; sometimes + it is a brook with a stony ground, and now it spreads itself + out in a large, still mill-dam. + + "Here is a landscape in midsummer for the games of the + river-sprites, and the dancers of the elves and fairies! + There, in the lustre of the full moon, the dryads can tell + their tales, the water-sprites seize the golden harp, and + believe that one can be blessed, at least for one single + night, like this. + + "On the other side of Ens Bruck is the main stream--the full + Dal-elv. Do you hear the monotonous rumble? It is not from + Elvkarleby Fall that it reaches hither; it is close by; it + is from Laa Foss in which lies Ash Island: the elv streams + and rushes over the leaping salmon. + + "Let us sit here, between the fragments of rock by the + shore, in the red evening sunlight, which sheds a golden + lustre on the waters of the Dal-elv. + + "Glorious river! But a few seconds' work hast thou to do in + the mills yonder, and thou rushest foaming on over + Elvkarleby's rocks, down into the deep bed of the river, + which leads thee to the Baltic--thy eternity." + +We could fill half our number with passages just as beautiful; but +will leave the rest of the poet's landscapes till some American +publisher brings out the book. We must nevertheless quote one picture +of a different kind. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin;" +and the sorrows of the palace and the cottage alike find their level +and their rest in the grave. The "Mute Book" speaks with a moving +eloquence to those who can read it aright: + + "By the high-road into the forest there stood a solitary + farm-house. One way lay right through the farm-yard; the sun + shone; all the windows were open; there was life and bustle + within, but in the yard, in an arbor of flowering lilacs, + there stood an open coffin. The corpse had been placed out + here, and it was to be buried that forenoon. No one stood + by, and wept over that dead man; no one hung sorrowfully + over him. His face was covered with a white cloth, and under + his head there lay a large, thick book, every leaf of which + was a whole sheet of gray paper, and, between each, lay + withered flowers, deposited and forgotten,--a whole + herbarium, gathered in different places. He himself had + requested that it should be laid in the grave with him. A + chapter of his life was blended with every flower! 'Who is + that dead man?' we asked, and the answer was, 'The old + student from Upsala. They say he was once very clever; he + knew the learned languages, could sing and write verses too; + but then there was something that went wrong, and so he gave + both his thoughts and himself up to drinking spirits, and, + as his health suffered by it, he came out here into the + country, where they paid for his board and lodging. He was + as gentle as a child when the dark humor did not come over + him, for then he was strong, and ran about in the forest + like a hunted deer; but when we got him home, we persuaded + him to look into the book with the dry plants. Then he would + sit the whole day, and look at one plant, and then at + another, and many a time the tears ran down his cheeks. God + knows what he then thought! But he begged that he might have + the book with him in his coffin; and now it lies there, and + the lid will soon be fastened down, and then he will take + his peaceful rest in the grave!' + + "They raised the winding sheet. There was peace in the face + of the dead. A sunbeam fell on it; a swallow, in its + arrow-flight, darted into the new-made arbor, and in its + flight circled twittering over the dead man's head. + + "How strange it is!--we all assuredly know it--to take out + old letters from the days of one's youth, and read them: a + whole life, as it were, then rises up, with all its hopes + and all its troubles. How many of those with whom we, in + their time, lived so devotedly, are now even as the dead to + us, and yet they still live! But we have not thought of them + for many years--them whom we once thought we should always + cling to, and share our mutual joys and sorrows with! + + "The withered oak-leaf in the book here, is a memorial of + the friend--the friend of his school days--the friend for + life. He fixed this leaf on the student's cap, in the + greenwood, when the vow of friendship was concluded for the + whole life. Where does he now live? The leaf is preserved; + friendship forgotten. Here is a foreign conservatory plant, + too fine for the gardens of the North. It looks as if there + still were fragrance in it. _She_ gave it to him--she, the + lady of that noble garden! + + "Here is the marsh-lotus, which, he himself has plucked and + watered with salt tears--the marsh-lotus from the fresh + waters! And here is a nettle; what do its leaves say! What + did he think on plucking it?--on preserving it? Here are + lilies of the valley, from the woodland solitudes; here are + honeysuckles from the village ale-house flower-pot; and here + the bare, sharp blade of grass. The flowering lilac bends + its fresh, fragrant clusters over the dead man's head; the + swallow again flies past--'qui-vit! qui-vit!' Now the men + come with nails and hammer; the lid is placed over the + corpse, whose head rests on the 'Mute + Book'--preserved--forgotten!" + +The book, to those who are not repelled by a certain quaintness of +manner from the enjoyment of a work of true genius, will form a +permanent and delightful addition to those pictures of many lands +which the enterprise and accomplishment of modern travellers is +creating for the delight of those whose range of locomotion is bounded +by the limits of their own country, or by the four walls of a sick +chamber. + +Andersen has grown old in years, and with age he has increase of art, +but he was never younger in spirit, and his genius never blossomed +with more freshness and beauty. + + + + +VERSES + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, + +BY R. H. STODDARD. + + + My desk is heaped with niceties + From tropic lands divine, + But this is braver far than all-- + A flask of Chian wine! + + Brim up my golden drinking-cup, + And reach a dish of fruit, + And then unlock my cabinet, + And hand me out my lute; + + For when these luxuries have fed + And filled my brain with light, + I must compose a nuptial song, + To suit my bridal night! + + + + +A CHAPTER OF PARODIES. + + +Parodies have been much in vogue in almost every age; among the +Greeks, Latins, Germans, French, and English, it has been among the +commonest of literary pleasantries to turn verses into ridicule by +applying them to a purpose never dreamed of by their authors, or to +burlesque serious pieces by affecting to observe the same rhymes, +words, and cadences. The wicked arts of Charles the Second's time thus +made fun of the hymns of the Roundheads, and pious people have since +turned the tables by adapting to good uses the profane airs and +sensual songs of the opera house. Of the class of puns, parodies have +in the scale of art a much higher rank, and occasionally they furnish +specimens of genuine poetry. Among the best we have ever seen are a +considerable number attributed to Miss Phebe Carey, of Ohio; they are +rich in quaint and natural humor, and as a London critic describes +them, "wonderfully American." In its way, we have seen nothing better +than this reflex of Bayard Taylor's poem of "Manuela." + + +MARTHA HOPKINS. + +A BALLAD OF INDIANA. + + From the kitchen, Martha Hopkins, as she stood there making pies, + Southward looks along the turnpike, with her hand above her eyes; + Where along the distant hill-side, her yearling heifer feeds, + And a little grass is growing in a mighty sight of weeds. + + All the air is full of noises, for there isn't any school, + And boys, with turned-up pantaloons, are wading in the pool; + Blithely frisk, unnumbered chickens cackling for they cannot laugh, + Where the airy summits brighten, nimbly leaps the little calf. + + Gentle eyes of Martha Hopkins! tell me wherefore do ye gaze + On the ground that's being furrowed for the planting of the maize? + Tell me wherefore down the valley, ye have traced the turnpike's way, + Far beyond the cattle pasture, and the brick-yard with its clay? + + Ah! the dog-wood tree may blossom, and the door-yard grass may shine, + With the tears of amber dropping from the washing on the line; + And the morning's breath of balsam, lightly brush her freckled cheek,-- + Little recketh Martha Hopkins of the tales of spring they speak. + + When the summer's burning solstice on the scanty harvest glowed, + She had watched a man on horseback riding down the turnpike road; + Many times she saw him turning, looking backward quite forlorn, + Till amid her tears she lost him, in the shadow of the barn. + + Ere supper-time was over, he had passed the kiln of brick, + Crossed the rushing Yellow River and had forded quite a creek, + And his flat-boat load was taken, at the time for pork and beans, + With the traders of the Wabash, to the wharf at New Orleans. + + Therefore watches Martha Hopkins--holding in her hands the pans, + When the sound of distant footsteps seems exactly like a man's; + Not a wind the stove-pipe rattles, nor a door behind her jars, + But she seems to hear the rattle of his letting down the bars. + + Often sees she men on horseback, coming down the turnpike rough, + But they come not as John Jackson, she can see it well enough; + Well she knows the sober trotting of the sorrel horse he keeps, + As he jogs along at leisure with his head down like a sheep's. + + She would know him 'mid a thousand, by his home-made coat and vest; + By his socks, which were blue woollen, such as farmers wear out west; + By the color of his trousers, and his saddle, which was spread + By a blanket which was taken for that purpose from the bed. + + None like he the yoke of hickory, on the unbroke ox can throw, + None amid his father's corn-fields use like him the spade and hoe; + And at all the apple-cuttings, few indeed the men are seen, + That can dance with him the polka, touch with him the violin. + + He has said to Martha Hopkins, and she thinks she hears him now, + For she knows as well as can be, that he meant to keep his vow, + When the buck-eye tree has blossomed, and your uncle plants his corn, + Shall the bells of Indiana usher in the wedding morn. + + He has pictured his relations, each in Sunday hat and gown, + And he thinks he'll get a carriage, and they'll spend a day in town; + That their love will newly kindle, and what comfort it will give, + To sit down to the first breakfast, in the cabin where they'll live. + + Tender eyes of Martha Hopkins! what has got you in such scrape, + 'Tis a tear that falls to glitter on the ruffle of her cape, + Ah! the eye of love may brighten, to be certain what it sees, + One man looks much like another, when half hidden by the trees. + + But her eager eyes rekindle, she forgets the pies and bread, + As she sees a man on horseback, round the corner of the shed. + Now tie on another apron, get the comb and smooth your hair, + 'Tis the sorrel horse that gallops, 'tis John Jackson's self that's there! + +Here is one scarcely less happy upon Mr. Willis's "Better Moments:" + + +WORSER MOMENTS. + + That fellow's voice! how often steals + Its cadence o'er my lonely days! + Like something sent on wagon wheels, + Or packed in an unconscious chaise. + I might forget the words he said + When all the children fret and cry, + But when I get them off to bed, + His gentle tone comes stealing by-- + And years of matrimony flee, + And leave me sitting on his knee. + + The times he came to court a spell, + The tender things he said to me, + Make me remember mighty well + My hopes that he'd propose to me. + My face is uglier, and perhaps + Time and the comb have thinned my hair; + And plain and common are the caps, + And dresses that I have to wear-- + But memory is ever yet + With all that fellow's flat'ries writ. + + I have been out at milking-time + Beneath a dull and rainy sky, + When in the barn 'twas time to feed, + And calves were bawling lustily-- + When scattered hay, and sheaves of oats, + And yellow corn-ears, sound and hard, + And all that makes the cattle pass + With wilder richness through the yard-- + When all was hateful, then have I, + With friends who had to help me milk, + Talked of his wife most spitefully, + And how he kept her dressed in silk; + And when the cattle, running there, + Threw over me a shower of mud, + That fellow's voice came on the air, + Like the light chewing of the cud-- + And resting near some spreckled cow, + The spirit of a woman's spite, + I've poured a low and fervent vow, + To make him, if I had the might, + Live all his life-time just as hard, + And milk his cows in such a yard. + + I have been out to pick up wood + When night was stealing from the dawn, + Before the fire was burning good, + Or I had put the kettle on + The little stove--when babes were waking + With a low murmur in the beds, + And melody by fits was breaking + Above their little yellow heads-- + And this when I was up perhaps + From a few short and troubled naps-- + And when the sun sprang scorchingly + And freely up, and made us stifle, + And fell upon each hill and tree + The bullets from his subtle rifle-- + I say a voice has thrilled me then, + Hard by that solemn pile of wood, + Or creeping from the silent glen, + Like something on the unfledged brood, + Hath stricken me, and I have pressed + Close in my arms my load of chips, + And pouring forth the hatefulest + Of words that ever passed my lips, + Have felt my woman's spirit rush + On me, as on that milking night, + And, yielding to the blessed gush + Of my ungovernable spite, + Have risen up, the wed, the old, + Scolding as hard as I could scold. + +And in the same vein "The Annoyer," in which is imitated one of the +most delicate pieces of sentiment and fancy which Willis has given us: + + +THE ANNOYER. + + "Common as light is love, + And its familiar voice wearies not ever."--SHELLEY. + + Love knoweth every body's house, + And every human haunt, + And comes unbidden, every where, + Like people we don't want. + The turnpike roads and little creeks + Are written with love's words, + And you hear his voice like a thousand bricks + In the lowing of the herds. + + He peeps into the teamster's heart, + From his Buena Vista's rim, + And the cracking whips of many men + Can never frighten him. + He'll come to his cart in the weary night, + When he's dreaming of his craft; + And he'll float to his eye in the morning light, + Like a man on a river raft. + + He hears the sound of the cooper's adz, + And makes him too his dupe, + For he sighs in his ear from the shaving pile + As he hammers on the hoop. + The little girl, the beardless boy, + The men that walk or stand, + He will get them all in his mighty arms + Like the grasp of your very hand. + + The shoemaker bangs above his bench, + And ponders his shining awl, + For love is under the lap-stone hid, + And a spell is on the wall. + It heaves the sole where he drives the pegs, + And speaks in every blow, + 'Till the last is dropped from his crafty hand, + And his foot hangs bare below. + + He blurs the prints which the shopmen sell, + And intrudes on the hatter's trade, + And profanes the hostler's stable-yard + In the shape of a chamber-maid. + In the darkest night, and the bright daylight, + Knowing that he can win, + In every home of good-looking folks + Will human love come in. + +The next is from Poe's "Annabel Lee:" + + +SAMUEL BROWN. + + It was many and many a year ago, + In a dwelling down in town, + That a fellow there lived whom you may know + By the name of Samuel Brown; + And this fellow he lived with no other thought + Than to our house to come down. + + I was a child and he was a child, + In that dwelling down in town, + But we loved with a love that was more than love, + I and my Samuel Brown-- + With a love that the ladies coveted, + Me and Samuel Brown. + + And this was the reason that, long ago, + To that dwelling down in town, + A girl came out of her carriage, courting + My beautiful Samuel Brown; + So that her high-bred kinsman came + And bore away Samuel Brown, + And shut him up in a dwelling-house, + In a street quite up in town. + + The ladies, not half so happy up there, + Went envying me and Brown; + Yes! that was the reason, (as all men know, + In this dwelling down in town,) + That the girl came out of the carriage by night + Coquetting and getting my Samuel Brown. + + But our love is more artful by far than the love + Of those who are older than we-- + Of many far wiser than we-- + And neither the girls that are living above, + Nor the girls that are down in town, + Can ever discover my soul from the soul + Of the beautiful Samuel Brown. + + For the morn never shines without bringing me lines + From my beautiful Samuel Brown; + And the night is never dark, but I sit in the park + With my beautiful Samuel Brown. + And often by day, I walk down in Broadway, + With my darling, my darling, my life, and my stay, + To our dwelling down in town, + To our house in the street down town. + +The two poems that have been most parodied in this country are the +"Woodman spare that tree," of General Morris, and Poe's "Raven." There +have been an incredible number of burlesques of the former, and of the +latter we have seen a collection of seventeen, some of which are +scarcely less clever than the original performance. + + + + +THE BRITISH HUMORISTS: DESCRIBED + +BY MR. THACKERAY. + + +In the last _International_, we gave sketches of the first and second +of the series of lectures Mr. Thackeray is now delivering in London, a +series which we may regard with more interest because it is to be +repeated in Boston, New-York, and other American cities. The subjects +of the lectures already noticed were SWIFT, CONGREVE, and ADDISON. The +third lecture was upon + + SIR RICHARD STEELE. + + "Having," says the _Times_, "to deal with a personage whose + character was any thing but perfection, Mr. Thackeray + started with a good-humored declamation against perfection + in general. A perfect man would be intolerable--he could not + laugh and he could not cry, neither could he hate nor even + love, for love itself implied an unjust preference of one + person over another, which was so far an imperfection. The + interest which a man takes in the progress of his own boy at + school, while he is indifferent about other boys who are + probably better and more clever, his choice that a death + should occur in his neighbor's house rather than in his own, + and various traits of a similar kind, are all so many + manifestations of selfishness, and therefore so many removes + from perfection. + + "After this preface, Mr. Thackeray discoursed upon Steele's + career at school. At the Charter-house he distinguished + himself as a good-natured _mauvais sujet_--idle beyond the + average mark. By his scholastic acquisitions he gave little + satisfaction to his masters, and was flogged more frequently + than any boy in the school. Moreover, he was in debt to all + the vendors of juvenile delicacies in the neighborhood; and, + if any boy came to school with money to lend, Dick Steele + was certain to appear as the person to borrow. These facts, + given with much minuteness, were followed by an assertion on + the part of the lecturer that he had no authority for them + whatever. It was an admitted truth that 'the child is the + father of the man,' and on this principle he felt he had a + right, from his intimate knowledge of Captain Steele, to + deduce what sort of a personage Master Dicky Steele was + likely to be. + + "This bit of mock biography gave the key-note to the entire + lecture. While Mr. Thackeray admitted that Steele was a far + less brilliant man than any who had formed the subjects of + the preceding discourses, and far less entitled to + admiration than Addison, he spoke of him in a tone of warmer + affection than he had displayed when talking of the great + Joseph. He dilated with unction on Steele's many follies and + vices--his strange medley of piety and debauchery, his + inordinate love of dress, his insensibility as to the duty + of meeting pecuniary obligations; he even read an + ill-natured description by John Dennis, remarking that it + was substantially true, but at the same time he constantly + kept before the minds of his hearers the kindliness of + Steele's heart. He did not call upon them to worship him as + a moral being or as a talent, aware that many others much + more deserved such honor, but he exhorted them to love him + as a friend: 'If Steele is not a friend, he is nothing.' + + "The great number of letters which Steele wrote to his wife, + and which are still extant, furnished Mr. Thackeray with + much of the knowledge he possessed as to the character of + his hero. With these he could pursue him through every + variety of joy and sorrow, difficulty and triumph, and, as + they were evidently written for none but her to whom they + were addressed, he could be sure that the writer spoke from + his own heart. On the literary productions of Steele, Mr. + Thackeray dwelt very little, but he pointed out in them this + peculiarity, that the author showed a reverence for woman + unknown to his contemporaries. Swift hated women just as he + hated men; Congreve regarded them as so many fortresses to + be conquered by a superior general; even Addison sneered at + them with a gentle sneer; but Steele really spoke of them in + a tone of affectionate respect, and this gives a charm to + his comedies not to be found in more brilliant productions. + + "Mr. Thackeray took occasion to illustrate by these extracts + the characteristic differences of Swift, Addison, and + Steele. He had already drawn a ludicrous picture of the + relative positions of Steele and Addison, remarking that the + latter had been through life to the former what a 'head boy' + is to an inferior boy at school. Now by Swift's poem on the + 'Day of Judgment'--an extract from the _Spectator_, + containing Addison's reflections in Westminster Abbey--and a + passage from Steele, he showed how the subject of Death was + treated by the three writers. Swift's poem savagely treats + as fools all who pretend to know any thing beyond the grave, + including the teachers of the several sects. Addison's tone + was kinder, but, while he was benevolent in his skepticism, + he came to nearly the same result as the ferocious Dean. + Steele, on the other hand, was content to remember, as his + first grief, the death of his father, when he was five years + old, and the dignified sorrow of his mother. + + "By way of an additional comical apology for the foibles of + Steele, Mr. Thackeray concluded his lecture by remarking on + the atrocities of the age when poor Dick lived,--an age when + young ladies, at dinner, actually put their knives into + their mouths. The social peculiarities of the period he + illustrated by a sort of summary of Swift's _Polite + Conversation_, which led up to an ironical praise of the + nineteenth century, as a century whose anomalies are + unknown." + +The fourth lecture on the humorists was of Prior, Gay, and Pope, Mr. +Thackeray choosing to consider Pope, who was not a humorist, but a +wit, the greatest humorist of all: + + MATHEW PRIOR. + + "Prior he characterizes as the foremost of lucky wits, + abounding in good nature and acuteness. He loved--he + drank--he sang. Some verses at Cambridge first rendered him + an object of notice, and by the 'City Mouse and Country + Mouse,' which, jointly with Montague, he wrote against + Dryden, and which, Mr. Thackeray ironically asserted, all + his hearers knew, of course, by heart, he gained the post of + Secretary to the Embassy at the Hague, in accordance with + the usage then prevalent of rewarding a talent for correct + alcaics or biting epigrams with important diplomatic + appointments. However, his fortune was but transient, since + he fell with his patron Montague. As a poet, Mr. Thackeray + praised Prior highly, calling him the most charming of + English lyrists, and comparing him with Horace on one side + and Moore on the other. At the same time he referred to a + certain statement that Prior, after he had spent the evening + with the first men of the day, would retire to Long-acre to + smoke a pipe with two very intimate acquaintances--a soldier + and his wife--adding that many of his writings seemed to be + under the influence of his Long-acre friends." + + + JOHN GAY. + + "Gay was pointed out as a remarkable instance of kindliness + and good humor, gaining the love even of the most savage + wits of the day, and incurring the hatred of none. The + ferocious giant Swift loved him as the Brobdignag loved + Gulliver, and was afraid to open the packet which contained + the tidings of his death. This kindliness is an especial + feature in Gay's writings, even in his _Beggars' Opera_, and + as Rubini was said to have, 'une larme dans la voix,' so was + there in all that Gay produced a tone of the gentlest + pathos. This peculiarity he illustrated by reading the well + known story of the two devoted lovers struck dead by + lightning. As for Gay's life, it was easy enough. He failed, + indeed, to make his fortune, but he led a comfortable + existence with his noble patrons the Duke and Duchess of + Queensbury, living like a little round French _abbé_, eating + and drinking well and growing more melancholy as he + increased in fat." + + + ALEXANDER POPE. + + "For a guaranty of Pope's merits, Mr. Thackeray especially + referred to the _Rape of the Lock_ and the _Dunciad_. He + insisted on his claims to admiration as a great literary + artist, always bent on the perfection of his work and gladly + adopting the thoughts of others if they would serve to + complete his own. This peculiarity of carefulness was early + shown in the fact that Pope began by imitation. The five + happiest years of his life were devoted to the study of the + best authors, especially poets, and the intellectual + enjoyment was heightened by the feeling that genius was + throbbing in his heart and awakening within him dreams of + future glory. He too should sing--he too should love. Of + love, indeed, Pope did not make a great deal, and as his + addresses to Lady Wortley Montague were a failure, so was + his first amour a sham love for a sham mistress. A + particular pleasure in reading the works of Pope consists in + the fact that they bring the reader into the very best + company--a company whose manners are, to be sure, a little + stiff and stately, and whose voices are pitched somewhat + beyond the ordinary conversation key, but there is something + ennobling about them. _Apropos_ of this peculiarity, Mr. + Thackeray took occasion to dwell with great unction on the + advantages of high society, and said, for the benefit of any + young hearer who might be present, 'Young hearer, keep + company with your betters.' Addison, as we have seen, is Mr. + Thackeray's moral hero. He considers, however, that he has + one great blemish in his dislike of Alexander Pope. The + young poet was too conscious of his own powers to be a mere + attendant at the Court of King Joseph, and King Joseph did + not like this independence. The support given by the Addison + _clique_ to Tickell's translation of Homer might naturally + enough be construed by the Pope faction as proceeding from + an ungenerous wish to depreciate their chieftain's version, + and they might easily suppose that what was emulation in + Tickell was envy in Addison. The verses which Pope wrote on + this occasion and sent to Addison, had the satisfactory + effect that the great Joseph was civil ever afterwards. But + still Mr. Thackeray surmised that their sting was never + forgotten, and that the saintly Addison might be painted as + a Sebastian, with this one arrow sticking in him. + + "The causes that led to the writing of the _Dunciad_ were + laid down, chiefly with a view of justifying the author, + though Mr. Thackeray admitted that Pope's arrows are so + sharp, and his slaughter so wholesale, that the reader's + sympathies are often enlisted on the side of the devoted + inhabitants of Grub-street. The vile jokes and libels that + were aimed against the illustrious poet, and the paltry + allusions to his personal defects, were brought forward as + sufficient motives; and the lecturer dwelt with admiration + on the personal courage which the "gallant little cripple" + displayed when the indignant dunces threatened him with + corporeal chastisement. At the same time, he declared it his + conviction that the _Dunciad_ had done the greatest possible + harm to the literary profession. Prior to its publication + there were great prizes for literary men in the shape of + government appointments and the like; but Pope, a lover of + high society--a man so refined that he kept thin while his + friends grew fat--hated the rank and file of literature, and + if there was one point in his assailants on which he dwelt + with savage partiality, it was their abject poverty. He it + was who brought the notion of a vile Grub-street before the + minds of the general public; he it was who created such + associations as author and rags--author and dirt--author and + gin. The occupation of authorship became ignoble through his + graphic descriptions of misery, and the literary profession + was for a long time destroyed. + + "Pope's well known affection for his mother, on which Mr. + Thackeray feelingly expatiated, and the love which his + friends entertained for him, were introduced as a + sentimental relief in describing the character of a man + whose career Mr. Thackeray compared to that of a great + general, obtaining his end by a series of brilliant + conquests." + + + HOGARTH, SMOLLETT, AND FIELDING. + + "In his fifth lecture," says the _Leader_, "Mr. Thackeray + dwelt at great length on Hogarth, and pointed out how much + of his success lay in the simple conventional morals of his + works; gave a graphic analysis of the _Marriage à la Mode_ + and the _Idle and Industrious Apprentices_; and humorously + set forth Hogarth's pretensions to the sublime in historical + painting. Smollett was dismissed in a few pleasant + paragraphs. Fielding called out the hearty admiration of the + author of _Vanity Fair_; and amidst the panegyric there were + some admirable passages, notably one on the scorn and hatred + Richardson and Fielding unaffectedly felt for each other, + and the sincerity which may animate even the most + contemptuous criticism. The opinions Thackeray stamps with + his authority, we constantly find open to question; but it + is not as a Course of Criticism that these Lectures have + their inexpressible charm, and it would be possible for a + man to dissent _in toto_ from the views put forth, while at + the same time he held them to be among the most delightful + lectures he ever listened to." + + + STERNE AND GOLDSMITH. + + In the sixth and last lecture of the course, Mr. Thackeray's + subjects were Sterne and Goldsmith. He stigmatized severely + all Sterne's relations with women, showed up the sham + sensibility which wept through his writings, dwelt on the + perilous thing it was to make a market of one's sorrows, and + sell the deepest experiences of one's life at so much per + volume, and wound up with an emphatic condemnation of the + pruriency of Sterne's writings, contrasting that pruriency + with the purity of Dickens. All the generosity, sweetness, + and improvidence of Goldsmith's Irish nature were earnestly + and genially presented. + +This course of lectures has been described as "a review of the +humorists, by their master," but Mr. Thackeray is not a humorist--at +least humor is not his distinguishing quality; he is a cold satirist, +sneering at humanity, and in all his writings never exhibiting a spark +of the genial fire which should commend an author to the affections of +his readers. Gentlemen may be amused by him--he may be even +punctilious and sincere in the observance of all honorable +conduct--but judging him by his works, he is one of the last men +living whom any person with the instincts of a gentleman would admit +to his friendship. Some of his books are amazingly clever, but others, +as the _Kickleburys on the Rhine_, are but unredeemable vulgarity. He +has been taken up very much by the snobs--a class somewhat remarkable +for misapprehensions of their real relations--and we find the snobs of +this country as well as of England lauding the satirist as an enemy of +their own peculiar caste. This is a mistake: Mr. Thackeray has painted +to the life the sentimental snob, indeed, but he is himself a chief of +a different and far less endurable class in this division of the +race--_the snob cynical and supercilious_. + + + + +ALRED. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, + +BY ELMINA WALDO CAREY. + + + Do you remember, Alred dear, + The peach-tree's cool and ample shade, + Where first our hearts learned love and fear, + And vows of constancy were made? + + The peach-tree stands there, now as then, + Its shadow just as dim and mild, + And over all the sacred glen + The vines of strawberries run wild. + + Still all about the water's edge + Beds of green flags in beauty lie, + And, sloping towards the elder-hedge, + Are fields of graceful waving rye. + + But, Alred dear, not by our feet + Will the round clover-heads be pressed, + For years must pass before we meet + In that dear valley of the west. + + Sometimes my heart is filled with fear, + Yet if not, Alred, in that land, + 'Tis bliss to know, in some bright sphere + You'll wait to take my trembling hand. + + + + +CHRISTOPHER NORTH ON ANIMAL MAGNETISM. + + +The July number of _Blackwood's Magazine_ has a long paper under the +title of _What is Mesmerism?_ in which the question is discussed with +ingenuity, apparent candor, and occasional eloquence. The editor, +however, does not altogether agree with his contributor, and adds to +the article the following postscript. Undoubtedly a large proportion +of the "professors of magnetism" are mere mountebanks, and the +pretenders to clairvoyance may in all cases probably be set down as +knaves, or as very ignorant or feeble-minded persons. Nevertheless, we +cannot quite agree with Professor Wilson in all his propositions: + + WHAT IS MESMERISM? + + "It must be admitted that our excellent correspondent has + set forth the claims of 'Adolphe' and 'Alexis,' and similar + interesting abstractions, to the powers of omnipresence and + omniscience, with great candor and becoming gravity. We are + sorry that we cannot follow what many of our readers may + consider so excellent an example. We have no faith in those + dear creatures without surnames: we have no faith in animal + magnetism, either in its lesser or in its larger + pretensions; but we have an unbounded faith in the + imbecility, infatuation, vanity, credulity, and knavery of + which human nature is capable. And we are of opinion that + there is not a single well-authenticated mesmeric phenomenon + which is not fully explicable by the operation of one or + more of these causes, or of the whole of them taken in + conjunction. + + "The question in regard to mesmerism is two-fold: _first_, + how is the mesmeric prostration to be accounted for? and + _secondly_, how is it to be disposed of? It may be accounted + for, we conceive, by the natural tendencies just recited, + without its being necessary to postulate any new or unknown + agency; it may be disposed of by the influence of public + opinion, which would very soon put a stop to these pitiable + exhibitions, and very soon extinguish the magnetizer's power + and the patient's susceptibility, if it were but to visit + the performers with the contempt and reprobation they + deserve. A few words on each of these heads may not be out + of place, as a qualifying postscript to the foregoing + letter, which, in our opinion, treats the mesmeric + superstition with far too much indulgence. + + "I. The existence of any physical force or fluid in man or + in nature, by which the mesmeric phenomena are induced, has + been distinctly disproved by every carefully conducted + experiment. _No person was ever magnetized when totally + unsuspicious of the operation of which he was the subject._ + This is conclusive; because a physical agent, which never + does, _of itself_ and unheralded, produce any effect, is no + physical agent at all. Then, again, let certain persons be + prepared for the magnetic condition, and aware of what is + expected of them, and the effects are equally produced, + whether the intended influence be exerted or not. It seems + simply ridiculous to postulate an _odylic_ (we should like + to be favored with the derivation of this word) fluid to + account for phenomena which show themselves just as + conspicuously when no such fluid is or can be in operation. + + "But it is argued by some of the advocates of mesmeric + influence, that their agent, though perhaps not physical, is + at any rate moral--that the will, or some spiritual energy + on the part of the mesmerist, is the power by which his + victims are entranced and rendered obedient to his bidding. + Here, too, all the well-authenticated cases establish a + totally different conclusion. They prove that the will or + spiritual power of the mesmerist has _of itself_ no + ascendency or control whatsoever over the body or mind of + his victim. Every well-guarded series of experiments has + exhibited the mesmerist and his patient at cross-purposes + with each other--the patient frequently doing those things + which the mesmerist was desirous he should not do, and not + doing those things which the operator was desirous he should + do. As for the buffoonery begotten by mesmerism on + phrenology, this exhibition can scarcely be expected to + provoke much astonishment, or credence, or comment, except + among professional artists themselves-- + + 'Like Katterfelto, with their hair on end, + At their own wonders, _wondering for their bread_!' + + "The true explanation of mesmerism is to be found, as we + have said, in the weakness or infatuation of human nature + itself. No other causes are at all necessary to account for + the mesmeric prostration. There is far more craziness, both + physical and moral, in man than he usually gives himself + credit for. The reservoir of human folly may be in a great + measure occult, but it is always full; and all that + silliness, whether of body or mind, at any time wants, is + _to get its cue_. + + "These general remarks are of course more applicable to some + individuals than they are to others. In soft and weak + natures, where the nervous system is subject to cataleptic + seizures, mental and bodily prostration is frequently almost + the normal condition. Such of our readers as may have + frequented mesmeric exhibitions must have observed a kind of + _semi-humanity_ visible in the expression and demeanor of + most of the subjects whom the professional operators carry + about with them. These poor creatures are at all times ready + to imbibe the magnetic stupefaction, because it is only by + an effort that they are ever free from it. There is always + at work within them an occult tendency to + self-abandonment--an unintentional proclivity to + aberration, imitation, and deceit, which only requires a + signal to precipitate its morbid deposits. This + constitutional infirmity of body and of mind furnishes to + the mesmerist a basis for his operations, and is the source + of all the wonders which he works. + + "It is only in the case of individuals who, without being + fatuous, are hovering on the verge of fatuity, that the + magnetic phenomena and the mesmeric prostration can be + admitted to be in any considerable degree real. Real to a + certain extent they may be; marvellous they certainly are + not. Imbecility of the nervous system, a ready abandonment + of the will, a facility in relinquishing every endowment + which makes man _human_--these intelligible causes, eked out + by a vanity and cunning which are always inherent in natures + of an inferior type, are quite sufficient to account for the + effects of the mesmeric manipulations on subjects of + peculiar softness and pliancy. + + "In those persons of a better organized structure, who yield + themselves up to the mesmeric degradation, the physical + causes are less operative; but the moral causes are still + more influential. In all cases the prostration is + self-induced. But in the subjects of whom we have spoken, it + is mainly induced by physical depravity, although moral + frailties concur to bring about the condition. In persons of + a superior type, the condition is mainly due to moral + causes, although physical imbecility has some share in + facilitating the result. These people have much vanity, much + curiosity, and much credulity, together with a _weak_ + imagination--that is to say, an imagination which is easily + excited by circumstances which would produce no effect upon + people of stronger imaginative powers. Their vanity shows + itself in the desire _to astonish others_, and get + themselves talked about. They think it rather creditable to + be susceptible subjects. It is a point in their favor! Their + credulity and curiosity take the form of a powerful wish _to + be astonished themselves_. Why should they be excluded from + a land of wonders which others are permitted to enter? The + first step is now taken. They are ready for the sacrifice, + which various motives concur to render agreeable. They + resign themselves passively, mind and body, into the hands + of the manipulator; and by his passes and grimaces, they are + cowed pleasurably, bullied delightfully, into _so much_ of + the condition which their inclinations are bent upon + attaining, as justifies them, they think, in laying claim to + the _whole_ condition, without bringing them under the + imputation of being downright impostors. _Downright_ + impostors they unquestionably are not. We believe that their + condition is frequently, though to a very limited extent, + _real_. We must also consider, that, in a matter of this + kind, which is so deeply imbued with the ridiculous, a + mesmeric patient may, and doubtless often does, justify to + his own conscience a considerable deviation from the truth, + on the ground of waggery or hoaxing. Why should an audience, + which has the patience to put up with such spectacles, not + be fooled to the top of its bent? + + "II. How, then, is the miserable nonsense to be disposed of? + It can only be put a stop to by the force of public opinion, + guided of course by reason and truth. Let it be announced + from all authoritative quarters that the magnetic + sensibility is only another name for an unsound condition of + the mental and bodily functions--that it may be always + accepted as an infallible index of the position which an + individual occupies in the scale of humanity--that its + manifestation (when real) invariably betokens a _physique_ + and a _morale_ greatly below the average, and a character to + which no respect can be attached. Let this + announcement--which is the undoubted truth--be made by all + respectable organs of public opinion, and by all who are in + any way concerned in the diffusion of knowledge, or in the + instruction of the rising generation, and the magnetic + superstition will rapidly decline. Let this--the correct and + scientific explanation of the phenomena--be understood and + considered carefully by all young people of both sexes, and + the mesmeric ranks will be speedily thinned of their + recruits. Our young friends who may have been entrapped into + this infatuation by want of due consideration, will be wiser + for the future. If they allow themselves to be experimented + upon, they will at any rate take care not to disgrace + themselves by yielding to the follies to which they may be + solicited both from within and from without; and we are much + mistaken if, when they know what the penalty is, they will + abandon themselves to a disgusting condition which is + characteristic only of the most abject specimens of our + species." + + + + +A STORY WITHOUT A NAME.[1] + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE, + +BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ. + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +John Ayliffe, as we may now once more very righteously call him, was +seated in the great hall of the old house of the Hastings family. Very +different indeed was the appearance of that large chamber now from +that which it had presented when Sir Philip Hastings was in +possession. All the old, solid, gloomy-looking furniture, which +formerly had given it an air of baronial dignity, and which Sir Philip +had guarded as preciously as if every antique chair and knotted table +had been an heir-loom, was now removed, and rich flaunting things of +gaudy colors substituted. Damask, and silk, and velvet, and gilt +ornaments in the style of France, were there in abundance, and had it +not been for the arches overhead, and the stone walls and narrow +windows around, the old hall might have passed for the saloon of some +newly-enriched financier of Paris. + +The young man sat at table alone--not that he was by any means fond of +solitude, for on the contrary he would have fain filled his house with +company--but for some reason or another, which he could not divine, he +found the old country gentlemen in the neighborhood somewhat shy of +his society. His wealth, his ostentation, his luxury--for he had begun +his new career with tremendous vehemence--had no effect upon them. +They looked upon him as somewhat vulgar, and treated him with mere +cold, supercilious civility as an upstart. There was one gentleman of +good family, indeed, at some distance, who had hung a good deal about +courts, had withered and impoverished himself, and reduced both his +mind and his fortune in place-hunting, and who had a large family of +daughters, to whom the society of John Ayliffe was the more +acceptable, and who not unfrequently rode over and dined with +him--nay, took a bed at the Hall. But that day he had not been over, +and although upon the calculation of chances, one might have augured +two to one John Ayliffe would ultimately marry one of the daughters, +yet at this period he was not very much smitten with any of them, and +was contemplating seriously a visit to London, where he thought his +origin would be unknown, and his wealth would procure him every sort +of enjoyment. + +Two servants were in the Hall, handing him the dishes. Well-cooked +viands were on the table, and rich wine. Every thing which John +Ayliffe in his sensual aspirations had anticipated from the possession +of riches was there--except happiness, and that was wanting. To sit +and feed, and feel one's self a scoundrel--to drink deep draughts, +were it of nectar, for the purpose of drowning the thought of our own +baseness--to lie upon the softest bed, and prop the head with the +downiest pillow, with the knowledge that all we possess is the fruit +of crime, can never give happiness--surely not, even to the most +depraved. + +That eating and drinking, however, was now one of John Ayliffe's chief +resources--drinking especially. He did not actually get intoxicated +every night before he went to bed, but he always drank to a sufficient +excess to cloud his faculties, to obfuscate his mind. He rather liked +to feel himself in that sort of dizzy state where the outlines of all +objects become indistinct, and thought itself puts on the same hazy +aspect. + +The servants had learned his habits already, and were very willing to +humor them; for they derived their own advantage therefrom. Thus, on +the present occasion, as soon as the meal was over, and the dishes +were removed, and the dessert put upon the table--a dessert consisting +principally of sweetmeats, for which he had a great fondness, with +stimulants to thirst. Added to these were two bottles of the most +potent wine in his cellar, with a store of clean glasses, and a jug of +water, destined to stand unmoved in the middle of the table. + +After this process it was customary never to disturb him, till, with a +somewhat wavering step, he found his way up to his bedroom. But on the +night of which I am speaking, John Ayliffe had not finished his fourth +glass after dinner, and was in the unhappy stage, which, with some +men, precedes the exhilarating stage of drunkenness, when the butler +ventured to enter with a letter in his hand. + +"I beg pardon for intruding, sir," he said, "but Mr. Cherrydew has +sent up a man on horseback from Hartwell with this letter, because +there is marked upon it, 'to be delivered with the greatest possible +haste.'" + +"Curse him!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, "I wish he would obey the orders +I give him. Why the devil does he plague me with letters at this time +of night?--there, give it to me, and go away," and taking the letter +from the man's hand, he threw it down on the table beside him, as if +it were not his intention to read it that night. Probably, indeed, it +was not; for he muttered as he looked at the address, "She wants more +money, I dare say, to pay for some trash or another. How greedy these +women are. The parson preached the other day about the horse-leech's +daughter. By ---- I think I have got the horse-leech's mother!" and he +laughed stupidly, not perceiving that, the point of his sarcasm +touched himself. + +He drank another glass of wine, and then looked at the letter again; +but at length, after yet another glass, curiosity got the better of +his moodiness, and he opened the epistle. + +The first sight of the contents dispelled not only his indifference +but the effects of the wine he had taken, and he read the letter with +an eager and a haggard eye. The substance was as follows: + +"MY DEAREST BOY: + +"All is lost and discovered. I can but write you a very short account +of the things that have been happening here, for I am under what these +people call the surveillance of the police. I have got a few minutes, +however, and I will pay the maid secretly to give this to the post. +Never was such a time as I have had this morning. Four men have been +here, and among them Atkinson, who lived just down below at the +cottage with the gray shutters. He knew me in a minute, and told +everybody who I was. But that is not the worst of it, for they have +got a commissioner of police with him--a terrible looking man, who +took as much snuff as Mr. Jenkins, the justice of peace. They had got +all sorts of information in England about me, and you, and every body, +and they came to me to give them more, and cross-questioned me in a +terrible manner; and that ugly old Commissioner, in his black coat and +great wig, took my keys, and opened all the drawers and places. What +could I do to stop them? So they got all your letters to me; because I +could not bear to burn my dear boy's letters, and that letter from old +Sir John to my poor father, which I once showed you. So when they got +all these, there was no use of trying to conceal it any more, and, +besides, they might have sent me to the Bastile or the Tower of +London. So every thing has come out, and the best thing you can do is +to take whatever money you have got, or can get, and run away as fast +as possible, and come over here and take me away. One of them was as +fine a man as ever I saw, and quite gentleman, though very severe. + +"Pray, my dear John, don't lose a moment's time, but run away before +they catch you; for they know every thing now, depend upon it, and +nothing will stop them from hanging you or sending you to the colonies +that you can do; for they have got all the proofs, and I could see by +their faces that they wanted nothing more; and if they do, my heart +will be quite broken, that is, if they hang you or send you to the +colonies, where you will have to work like a slave, and a man standing +over you with a whip, beating your bare back very likely. So run away, +and come to your afflicted mother." + +She did not seem to have been quite sure what name to sign, for she +first put "Brown," but then changed the word to "Hastings," and then +again to "Ayliffe." There were two or three postscripts, but they were +of no great importance, and John Ayliffe did not take the trouble of +reading them. The terms he bestowed upon his mother--not in the +secrecy of his heart, but aloud and fiercely--were any thing but +filial, and his burst of rage lasted full five minutes before it was +succeeded by the natural fear and trepidation which the intelligence +he had received might well excite. Then, however, his terror became +extreme. The color, usually high, and now heightened both by rage and +wine, left his cheeks, and, as he read over some parts of his mother's +letter again, he trembled violently. + +"She has told all," he repeated to himself, "she has told all--and +most likely has added from his own fancy. They have got all my letters +too, which the fool did not burn. What did I say, I wonder? Too +much--too much, I am sure. Heaven and earth, what will come of it! +Would to God I had not listened to that rascal Shanks! Where should I +go now for advice? It must not be to him. He would only betray and +ruin me--make me the scape-goat--pretend that I had deceived him, I +dare say. Oh, he is a precious villain, and Mrs. Hazleton knows that +too well to trust him even with a pitiful mortgage--Mrs. Hazleton--I +will go to her. She is always kind to me, and she is devilish clever +too--knows a good deal more than Shanks if she did but understand the +law--I will go to her--she will tell me how to manage." + +No time was to be lost. Ride as hard as he could it would take him +more than an hour to reach Mrs. Hazleton's house, and it was already +late. He ordered a horse to be saddled instantly, ran to his bedroom, +drew on his boots, and then, descending to the hall, stood swearing at +the slowness of the groom till the sound of hoofs made him run to the +door. In a moment he was in the saddle and away, much to the +astonishment of the servants, who puzzled themselves a little as to +what intelligence their young master could have received, and then +proceeded to console themselves according to the laws and ordinances +of the servants' hall in such cases made and provided. The wine he had +left upon the table disappeared with great celerity, and the butler, +who was a man of precision, arrayed a good number of small silver +articles and valuable trinkets in such a way as to be packed up and +removed with great facility and secrecy. + +In the meanwhile John Ayliffe rode on at a furious pace, avoiding a +road which would have led him close by Mr. Shanks's dwelling, and +reached Mrs. Hazleton's door about nine o'clock. + +That lady was sitting in a small room behind the drawing-room, which I +have already mentioned, where John Ayliffe was announced once more as +Sir John Hastings. But Mrs. Hazleton, in personal appearance at least, +was much changed since she was first introduced to the reader. She was +still wonderfully handsome. She had still that indescribable air of +calm, high-bred dignity which we are often foolishly inclined to +ascribe to noble feelings and a high heart; but which--where it is not +an art, an acquirement--only indicates, I am inclined to believe, when +it has any moral reference at all, strength of character and great +self-reliance. But Mrs. Hazleton was older--looked older a good +deal--more so than the time which had passed would alone account for. +The passions of the last two or three years had worn her sadly, and +probably the struggle to conceal those passions had worn her as much. +Nevertheless, she had grown somewhat fat under their influence, and a +wrinkle here and there in the fair skin was contradicted by the +plumpness of her figure. + +She rose with quiet, easy grace to meet her young guest, and held out +her hand to him, saying, "Really, my dear Sir John, you must not pay +me such late visits or I shall have scandal busying herself with my +good name." + +But even as she spoke she perceived the traces of violent agitation +which had not yet departed from John Ayliffe's visage, and she added, +"What is the matter? Has any thing gone wrong?" + +"Every thing is going to the devil, I believe," said John Ayliffe, as +soon as the servant had closed the door. "They have found out my +mother at St. Germain." + +He paused there to see what effect this first intelligence would +produce, and it was very great; for Mrs. Hazleton well knew that upon +the concealment of his mother's existence had depended one of the +principal points in his suit against Sir Philip Hastings. What was +going on in her mind, however, appeared not in her countenance. She +paused in silence, indeed, for a moment or two, and then said in her +sweet musical voice, "Well, Sir John, is that all?" + +"Enough too, dear Mrs. Hazleton!" replied the young man. "Why you +surely remember that it was judged absolutely necessary she should be +supposed dead--you yourself said, when we were talking of it, 'Send +her to France.' Don't you remember?" + +"No I do not," answered Mrs. Hazleton, thoughtfully; "and if I did it +could only be intended to save the poor thing from all the torment of +being cross-examined in a court of justice." + +"Ay, she has been cross-examined enough in France nevertheless," said +the young man bitterly, "and she has told every thing, Mrs. +Hazleton--all that she knew, and I dare say all that she guessed." + +This news was somewhat more interesting than even the former; it +touched Mrs. Hazleton personally to a certain extent, for all that +Jane Ayliffe knew and all that she guessed might comprise a great deal +that Mrs. Hazleton would not have liked the world to know or guess +either. She retained all her presence of mind however, and replied +quite quietly "Really, Sir John, I cannot at all form a judgment of +these things, or give you either assistance or advice, as I am anxious +to do, unless you explain the whole matter fully and clearly. What has +your mother done which seems to have affected you so much? Let me hear +the whole details, then I can judge and speak with some show of +reason. But calm yourself, calm yourself, my dear sir. We often at the +first glance of any unpleasant intelligence take fright, and thinking +the danger ten times greater than it really is, run into worse dangers +in trying to avoid it. Let me hear all, I say, and then I will +consider what is to be done." + +Now Mrs. Hazleton had already, from what she had just heard, +determined precisely and entirely what she would do. She had divined +in an instant that the artful game in which John Ayliffe had been +engaged, and in which she herself had taken a hand, was played out, +and that he was the loser; but it was a very important object with her +to ascertain if possible how far she herself had been compromised by +the revelations of Mrs. Ayliffe. This was the motive of her gentle +questions; for at heart she did not feel the least gentle. + +On the other hand John Ayliffe was somewhat angry. All frightened +people are angry when they find others a great deal less frightened +than themselves. Drawing forth his mother's letter then, he thrust it +towards Mrs. Hazleton, almost rudely, saying, "Read that, madam, and +you'll soon see all the details that you could wish for." + +Mrs. Hazleton did read it from end to end, postscript and all, and she +saw with infinite satisfaction and delight, that her own name was +never once mentioned in the whole course of that delectable epistle. +As she read that part of the letter, however, in which Mrs. Ayliffe +referred to the very handsome gentlemanly man who had been one of her +unwished for visitors, Mrs. Hazleton said within herself, "This is +Marlow; Marlow has done this!" and tenfold bitterness took possession +of her heart. She folded up the letter with neat propriety, however, +and handed it back to John Ayliffe, saying, in her very sweetest +tones, "Well, I do not think this so very bad as you seem to imagine. +They have found out that your mother is still living, and that is all. +They cannot make much of that." + +"Not much of that!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, now nearly driven to +frenzy, "what if they convict me of perjury for swearing she was +dead?" + +"Did you swear she was dead?" exclaimed Mrs. Hazleton with an +exceedingly well assumed look of profound astonishment. + +"To be sure I did," he answered. "Why you proposed that she should be +sent away yourself, and Shanks drew out the affidavit." + +A mingled look of consternation and indignation came into Mrs. +Hazleton's beautiful face; but before she could make any reply he went +on, thinking he had frightened her, which was in itself a satisfaction +and a sort of triumph. + +"Ay, that you did," he said, "and not only that, but you advanced me +all the money to carry on the suit, and I am told that that is +punishable by law. Besides, you knew quite well of the leaf being torn +out of the register, so we are in the same basket I can tell you, Mrs. +Hazleton." + +"Sir, you insult me," said the lady, rising with an air of imperious +dignity. "The charity which induced me to advance you different sums +of money, without knowing what they were to be applied to--and I can +prove that some of them were applied to very different purposes than a +suit at law--has been misunderstood, I see. Had I advanced them to +carry on this suit, they would have been paid to your and my lawyer, +not to yourself. Not a word more, if you please! You have mistaken my +character as well as my motives, if you suppose that I will suffer you +to remain here one moment after you have insulted me by the very +thought that I was any sharer in your nefarious transactions." She +spoke in a loud shrill tone, knowing that the servants were in the +hall hard by, and then she added, "Save me the pain, sir, of ordering +some of the men to put you out of the house by quitting it directly." + +"Oh, yes, I will go, I will go," cried John Ayliffe, now quite +maddened, "I will go to the devil, and you too, madam," and he burst +out of the room, leaving the door open behind him. + +"I can compassionate misfortune," cried Mrs. Hazleton, raising her +voice to the very highest pitch for the benefit of others, "but I will +have nothing to do with roguery and fraud," and as she heard his +horse's feet clatter over the terrace, she heartily wished he might +break his neck before he passed the park gates. How far she was +satisfied, and how far she was not, must be shown in another chapter. + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +John Ayliffe got out of the park gates quite safely, though he rode +down the slope covered with loose stones, as if he had no +consideration for his own neck or his horse's knees. He was in a state +of desperation, however, and feared little at that moment what became +of himself or any thing else. With fierce and angry eagerness he +revolved in his own mind the circumstances of his situation, the +conduct of Mrs. Hazleton, the folly, as he was pleased to term it, of +his mother, the crimes which he had himself committed, and he found no +place of refuge in all the dreary waste of thought. Every thing around +looked menacing and terrible, and the world within was all dark and +stormy. + +He pushed his horse some way on the road which he had come, but +suddenly a new thought struck him. He resolved to seek advice and aid +from one whom he had previously determined to avoid. "I will go to +Shanks," he said to himself, "he at least is in the same basket with +myself. He must work with me, for if my mother has been fool enough to +keep my letters, I have been wise enough to keep his--perhaps +something may be done after all. If not, he shall go along with me, +and we will try if we cannot bring that woman in too. He can prove all +her sayings and doings." Thus thinking, he turned his horse's head +towards the lawyer's house, and rode as hard as he could go till he +reached it. + +Mr. Shanks was enjoying life over a quiet comfortable bowl of punch in +a little room which looked much more tidy and comfortable, than it had +done twelve or eighteen months before. Mr. Shanks had been well paid. +Mr. Shanks had taken care of himself. No small portion of back rents +and costs had gone into the pockets of Mr. Shanks. Mr. Shanks was all +that he had ever desired to be, an opulent man. Moreover, he was one +of those happily constituted mortals who knew the true use of +wealth--to make it a means of enjoyment. He had no scruples of +conscience--not he. He little cared how the money came, so that it +found its way into his pocket. He was not a man to let his mind be +troubled by any unpleasant remembrances; for he had a maxim that every +man's duty was to do the very best he could for his client, and that +every man's first client was himself. + +He heard a horse stop at his door, and having made up his mind to end +the night comfortably, to finish his punch and go to bed, he might +perhaps have been a little annoyed, had he not consoled himself with +the thought that the call must be upon business of importance, and he +had no idea of business of importance unconnected with that of a large +fee. + +"To draw a will, I'll bet any money," said Mr. Shanks to himself; "it +is either old Sir Peter, dying of indigestion, and sent for me when +he's no longer able to speak, or John Ayliffe broken his neck leaping +over a five-barred gate--John Ayliffe, bless us all, Sir John Hastings +I should have said." + +But the natural voice of John Ayliffe, asking for him in a loud +impatient tone, dispelled these visions of his fancy, and in another +moment the young man was in the room. + +"Ah, Sir John, very glad to see you, very glad to see you," said Mr. +Shanks, shaking his visitor's hand, and knocking out the ashes of his +pipe upon the hob; "just come in pudding time, my dear sir--just in +time for a glass of punch--bring some more lemons and some sugar, +Betty. A glass of punch will do you good. It is rather cold to-night." + +"As hot as h--l," answered John Ayliffe, sharply; "but I'll have the +punch notwithstanding," and he seated himself while the maid proceeded +to fulfil her master's orders. + +Mr. Shanks evidently saw that something had gone wrong with his young +and distinguished client, but anticipating no evil, he was led to +consider whether it was any thing referring to a litter of puppies, a +favorite horse, a fire at the hall, a robbery, or a want of some more +ready money. + +At length, however, the fresh lemons and sugar were brought, and the +door closed, before which time John Ayliffe had helped himself to +almost all the punch which he had found remaining in the bowl. It was +not much, but it was strong, and Mr. Shanks applied himself to the +preparation of some more medicine of the same sort. John Ayliffe +suffered him to finish before he said any thing to disturb him, not +from any abstract reverence for the office which Mr. Shanks was +fulfilling, or for love of the beverage he was brewing, but simply +because John Ayliffe began to find that he might as well consider his +course a little. Consideration seldom served him very much, and in the +present instance, after he had labored hard to find out the best way +of breaking the matter, his impetuosity as usual got the better of +him, and he thrust his mother's letter into Mr. Shanks's hand, out of +which as a preliminary he took the ladle and helped himself to another +glass of punch. + +The consternation of Mr. Shanks, as he read Mrs. Ayliffe's letter, +stood out in strong opposition to Mrs. Hazleton's sweet calmness. He +was evidently as much terrified as his client; for Mr. Shanks did not +forget that he had written Mrs. Ayliffe two letters since she was +abroad, and as she had kept her son's epistles, Mr. Shanks argued that +it was very likely she had kept his also. Their contents, taken alone, +might amount to very little, but looked at in conjunction with other +circumstances might amount to a great deal. + +True, Mr. Shanks had avoided, as far as he could, any discussions in +regard to the more delicate secrets of his profession in the presence +of Mrs. Ayliffe, of whose discretion he was not as firmly convinced as +he could have desired; but it was not always possible to do so, +especially when he had been obliged to seek John Ayliffe in haste at +her house; and now the memories of many long and dangerous +conversations which had occurred in her presence, spread themselves +out before his eyes in a regular row, like items on the leaves of a +ledger. + +"Good God!" he cried, "what has she done?" + +"Every thing she ought not to have done, of course!" replied John +Ayliffe, replenishing his glass, "but the question now is, Shanks, +what are we to do? That is the great question just now." + +"It is indeed," answered Mr. Shanks, in great agitation; "this is very +awkward, very awkward indeed." + +"I know that," answered John Ayliffe, laconically. + +"Well but, sir, what is to be done?" asked Mr. Shanks, fidgeting +uneasily about the table. + +"That is what I come to ask you, not to tell you," answered the young +man; "you see, Shanks, you and I are exactly in the same case, only I +have more to lose than you have. But whatever happens to me will +happen to you, depend upon it. I am not going to be the only one, +whatever Mrs. Hazleton may think." + +Shanks caught at Mrs. Hazleton's name; "Ay, that's a good thought," he +said, "we had better go and consult her. Let us put our three heads +together, and we may beat them yet--perhaps." + +"No use of going to her," answered John Ayliffe, bitterly; "I have +been to her, and she is a thorough vixen. She cried off having any +thing to do with me, and when I just told her quietly that she ought +to help me out of the scrape because she had a hand in getting me into +it, she flew at my throat like a terrier bitch with a litter of +puppies, barked me out of the house as if I had been a beggar, and +called me almost rogue and swindler in the hearing of her own +servants." + +Mr. Shanks smiled--he could not refrain from smiling with a feeling of +admiration and respect, even in that moment of bitter apprehension, at +the decision, skill, and wisdom of Mrs. Hazleton's conduct. He +approved of her highly; but he perceived quite plainly that it would +not do for him to play the same game. A hope--a feeble hope--light +through a loop-hole, came in upon him in regard to the future, +suggested by Mrs. Hazleton's conduct. He thought that if he could but +clear away some difficulties, he too might throw all blame upon John +Ayliffe, and shovel the load of infamy from his own shoulders to those +of his client; but to effect this, it was not only necessary that he +should soothe John Ayliffe, but that he should provide for his safety +and escape. Recriminations he was aware were very dangerous things, +and that unless a man takes care that it shall not be in the power or +for the interest of a fellow rogue to say _tu quoque_, the effort to +place the burden on his shoulders only injures him without making our +own case a bit better. It was therefore requisite for his purposes +that he should deprive John Ayliffe of all interest or object in +criminating him; but foolish knaves are very often difficult to deal +with, and he knew his young client to be eminent in that class. +Wishing for a little time to consider, he took occasion to ask one or +two meaningless questions, without at all attending to the replies. + +"When did this letter arrive here?" he inquired. + +"This very night," answered John Ayliffe, "not three hours ago." + +"Do you think she has really told all?" asked Mr. Shanks. + +"All, and a great deal more," replied the young man. + +"How long has she been at St. Germain?" said the lawyer. + +"What the devil does that signify?" said John Ayliffe, growing +impatient. + +"A great deal, a great deal," replied Mr. Shanks, sagely. "Take some +more punch. You see perhaps we can prove that you and I really thought +her dead at the time the affidavit was made." + +"Devilish difficult that," said John Ayliffe, taking the punch. "She +wrote to me about some more money just at that time, and I was obliged +to answer her letter and send it, so that if they have got the letters +that won't pass." + +"We'll try at least," said Mr. Shanks in a bolder tone. + +"Ay, but in trying we may burn our fingers worse than ever," said the +young man. "I do not want to be tried for perjury and conspiracy, and +sent to the colonies with the palm of my hand burnt out, whatever you +may do, Shanks." + +"No, no, that would never do," replied the lawyer. "The first thing to +be done, my dear Sir John, is to provide for your safety, and that can +only be done by your getting out of the way for a time. It is very +natural that a young gentleman of fortune like yourself should go to +travel, and not at all unlikely that he should do so without letting +any one know where he is for a few months. That will be the best plan +for you--you must go and travel. They can't well be on the look-out +for you yet, and you can get away quite safely to-morrow morning. You +need not say where you are going, and by that means you will save both +yourself and the property too; for they can't proceed against you in +any way when you are absent." + +John Ayliffe was not sufficiently versed in the laws of the land to +perceive that Mr. Shanks was telling him a falsehood. "That's a good +thought," he said; "if I can live abroad and keep hold of the rents we +shall be safe enough." + +"Certainly, certainly," said Mr. Shanks, "that is the only plan. Then +let them file their bills, or bring their actions or what not. They +cannot compel you to answer if you are not within the realm." + +Mr. Shanks was calling him all the time, in his own mind, a +jolter-headed ass, but John Ayliffe did not perceive it, and replied +with a touch of good feeling, perhaps inspired by the punch, "But what +is to become of you, Shanks?" + +"Oh, I will stay and face it out," replied the lawyer, "with a bold +front. If we do not peach of each other they cannot do much against +us. Mrs. Hazleton dare not commit us, for by so doing she would commit +herself; and your mother's story will not avail very much. As to the +letters, which is the worst part of the business, we must try and +explain those away; but clearly the first thing for you to do is to +get out of England as soon as possible. You can go and see your mother +secretly, and if you can but get her to prevaricate a little in her +testimony it will knock it all up." + +"Oh, she'll prevaricate enough if they do but press her hard," said +John Ayliffe. "She gets so frightened at the least thing she does'nt +know what she says. But the worst of it is, Shanks, I have not got +money enough to go. I have not got above a hundred guineas in the +house." + +Mr. Shanks paused and hesitated. It was a very great object with him +to get John Ayliffe out of the country, in order that he might say any +thing he liked of John Ayliffe when his back was turned, but it was +also a very great object with him to keep all the money he had got. He +did not like to part with one sixpence of it. After a few moments' +thought, however, he recollected that a thousand pounds' worth of +plate had come down from London for the young man within the last two +months, and he thought he might make a profitable arrangement. + +"I have got three hundred pounds in the house," he said, "all in good +gold, but I can really hardly afford to part with it. However, rather +than injure you, Sir John, I will let you have it if you will give me +the custody of your plate till your return, just that I may have +something to show if any one presses me for money." + +The predominant desire of John Ayliffe's mind, at that moment, was to +get out of England as fast as possible, and he was too much blinded by +fear and anxiety to perceive that the great desire of Mr. Shanks was +to get him out. But there was one impediment. The sum of four hundred +pounds thus placed at his command would, some years before, have +appeared the Indies to him, but now, with vastly expanded ideas with +regard to expense, it seemed a drop of water in the ocean. "Three +hundred pounds. Shanks," he said, "what's the use of three hundred +pounds? It would not keep me a month." + +"God bless my soul!" said Mr. Shanks, horrified at such a notion, "why +it would keep me a whole year, and more too. Moreover, things are +cheaper there than they are here; and besides you have got all those +jewels, and knick-knacks, and things, which cost you at least a couple +of thousand pounds. They would sell for a great deal." + +"Come, come, Shanks," said the young man, "you must make it five +hundred guineas. I know you've got them in your strong box here." + +Shanks shook his head, and John Ayliffe added sullenly, "Then I'll +stay and fight it out too. I won't go and be a beggar in a foreign +land." + +Shanks did not like the idea of his staying, and after some farther +discussion a compromise was effected. Mr. Shanks agreed to advance +four hundred pounds. John Ayliffe was to make over to him, as a +pledge, the whole of his plate, and not to object to a memorandum to +that effect being drawn up immediately, and dated a month before. The +young man was to set off the very next day, in the pleasant gray of +the morning, driving his own carriage and horses, which he was to sell +as soon as he got a convenient distance from his house, and Mr. Shanks +was to take the very best possible care of his interests during his +absence. + +John Ayliffe's spirits rose at the conclusion of this transaction. He +calculated that with one thing or another he should have sufficient +money to last him a year, and that was quite as far as his thoughts or +expectations went. A long, long year! What does youth care for any +thing beyond a year? It seems the very end of life to pant in +expectation, and indeed, and in truth, it is very often too long for +fate. + +"Next year I will"--Pause, young man! there is a deep pitfall in the +way. Between you and another year may be death. Next year thou wilt do +nothing--thou wilt be nothing. + +His spirits rose. He put the money into his pocket, and, with more wit +than he thought, called it "light heaviness," and then he sat down and +smoked a pipe, while Mr. Shanks drew up the paper; and then he drank +punch, and made more, and drank that too, so that when the paper +giving Mr. Shanks a lien upon the silver was completed, and when a +dull neighbor had been called in to see him sign his name, it needed a +witness indeed to prove that that name was John Ayliffe's writing. + +By this time he would very willingly have treated the company to a +song, so complete had been the change which punch and new prospects +had effected; but Mr. Shanks besought him to be quiet, hinting that +the neighbor, though as deaf as a post and blind as a mole, would +think him as the celebrated sow of the psalmist. Thereupon John +Ayliffe went forth and got his horse out of the stable, mounted upon +his back, and rode lolling at a sauntering pace through the end of +the town in which Mr. Shanks's house was situated. When he got more +into the country he began to trot, then let the horse fall into a walk +again, and then he beat him for going slow. Thus alternately +galloping, walking, and trotting, he rode on till he was two or three +hundred yards past the gates of what was called the Court, where the +family of Sir Philip Hastings now lived. It was rather a dark part of +the road, and there was something white in the hedge--some linen put +out to dry, or a milestone. John Ayliffe was going at a quick pace at +that moment, and the horse suddenly shied at this white +apparition--not only shied, but started, wheeled round, and ran back. +John Ayliffe kept his seat, notwithstanding his tipsiness, but he +struck the furious horse over the head, and pulled the rein violently. +The animal plunged--reared--the young man gave the rein a furious tug, +and over went the horse upon the road, with his driver under him. + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +There was a man lay upon the road in the darkness of the night for +some five or six minutes, and a horse galloped away snorting, with a +broken bridle hanging at his head, on the way towards the park of Sir +Philip Hastings. Had any carriage come along, the man who was lying +there must have been run over; for the night was exceedingly dark, and +the road narrow. All was still and silent, however. No one was seen +moving--not a sound was heard except the distant clack of a water-mill +which lay further down the valley. There was a candle in a cottage +window at about a hundred yards' distance, which shot a dim and feeble +ray athwart the road, but shed no light on the spot where the man lay. +At the end of about six minutes, a sort of convulsive movement showed +that life was not yet extinct in his frame--a sort of heave of the +chest, and a sudden twitch of the arm; and a minute or two after, John +Ayliffe raised himself on his elbow, and put his hand to his head. + +"Curse the brute," he said, in a wandering sort of way, "I wonder, +Shanks, you don't--damn it, where am I?--what's the matter? My side +and leg are cursed sore, and my head all running round." + +He remained in the same position for a moment or two more, and then +got upon his feet; but the instant he did so he fell to the ground +again with a deep groan, exclaiming, "By ----, my leg's broken, and I +believe my ribs too. How the devil shall I get out of this scrape? +Here I may lie and die, without any body ever coming near me. That is +old Jenny Best's cottage, I believe. I wonder if I could make the old +canting wretch hear," and he raised his voice to shout, but the pain +was too great. His ribs were indeed broken, and pressing upon his +lungs, and all that he could do was to lie still and groan. + +About a quarter of an hour after, however, a stout, middle-aged +man--rather, perhaps, in the decline of life--came by, carrying a +hand-basket, plodding at a slow and weary pace as if he had had a long +walk. + +"Who's that? Is any one there?" said a feeble voice, as he approached; +and he ran up, exclaiming, "Gracious me, what is the matter? Are you +hurt, sir? What has happened?" + +"Is that you, Best?" said the feeble voice of John Ayliffe, "my horse +has reared and fallen over with me. My leg is broken, and the bone +poking through, and my ribs are broken too, I think." + +"Stay a minute, Sir John," said the good countryman, "and I'll get +help, and we'll carry you up to the Hall." + +"No, no," answered John Ayliffe, who had now had time for thought, +"get a mattress, or a door, or something, and carry me into your +cottage. If your son is at home, he and you can carry me. Don't send +for strangers." + +"I dare say he is at home, sir," replied the man. "He's a good lad, +sir, and comes home as soon as his work's done. I will go and see. I +won't be a minute." + +He was as good as his word, and in less than a minute returned with +his son, bringing a lantern and a straw mattress. + +Not without inflicting great pain, and drawing forth many a heavy +groan, the old man and the young one placed John Ayliffe on the +paliasse, and carried him into the cottage, where he was laid upon +young Best's bed in the back room. Good Jenny Best, as John Ayliffe +had called her--an excellent creature as ever lived--was all kindness +and attention, although to say truth the suffering man had not shown +any great kindness to her and hers in his days of prosperity. She was +eager to send off her son immediately for the surgeon, and did so in +the end; but to the surprise of the whole of the little cottage party, +it was not without a great deal of reluctance and hesitation that John +Ayliffe suffered this to be done. They showed him, however, that he +must die or lose his limb if surgical assistance was not immediately +procured, and he ultimately consented, but told the young man +repeatedly not to mention his name even to the surgeon on any account, +but simply to say that a gentleman had been thrown by his horse, and +brought into the cottage with his thigh broken. He cautioned father +and mother too not to mention the accident to any one till he was well +again, alluding vaguely to reasons that he had for wishing to conceal +it. + +"But, Sir John," replied Best himself, "your horse will go home, +depend upon it, and your servants will not know where you are, and +there will be a fuss about you all over the country." + +"Well, then, let them make a fuss," said John Ayliffe, impatiently. "I +don't care--I will not have it mentioned." + +All this seemed very strange to the good man and his wife, but they +could only open their eyes and stare, without venturing farther to +oppose the wishes of their guest. + +It seemed a very long time before the surgeon made his appearance, but +at length the sound of a horse's feet coming fast, could be +distinguished, and two minutes after the surgeon was in the room. He +was a very good man, though not the most skilful of his profession, +and he was really shocked and confounded when he saw the state of Sir +John Hastings, as he called him. Wanting confidence in himself, he +would fain have sent off immediately for farther assistance, but John +Ayliffe would not hear of such a thing, and the good man went to work +to set the broken limb as best he might, and relieve the anguish of +the sufferer. So severe, however, were the injuries which had been +received, that notwithstanding a strong constitution, as yet but +little impaired by debauchery, the patient was given over by the +surgeon in his own mind from the first. He remained with him, watching +him all night, which passed nearly without sleep on the part of John +Ayliffe; and in the course of the long waking hours he took an +opportunity of enjoining secrecy upon the surgeon as to the accident +which had happened to him, and the place where he was lying. Not less +surprised was the worthy man than the cottager and his wife had been +at the young gentleman's exceeding anxiety for concealment, and as his +licentious habits were no secret in the country round, they all +naturally concluded that the misfortune which had overtaken him had +occurred in the course of some adventure more dangerous and +disgraceful than usual. + +Towards morning John Ayliffe fell into a sort of semi-sleep, restless +and perturbed, speaking often without reason having guidance of his +words, and uttering many things which, though disjointed and often +indistinct, showed the good man who had watched by him that the mind +was as much affected as the body. He woke confused and wandering about +eight o'clock, but speedily returned to consciousness of his +situation, and insisted, notwithstanding the pain he was suffering, +upon examining the money which was in his pockets to see that it was +all right. Vain precaution! He was never destined to need it more. + +Shortly after the surgeon left him, but returned at night again to +watch by his bedside. The bodily symptoms which he now perceived would +have led him to believe that a cure was possible, but there was a deep +depression of mind, a heavy irritable sombreness, from the result of +which the surgeon augured much evil. He saw that there was some +terrible weight upon the young man's heart, but whether it was fear or +remorse or disappointment he could not tell, and more than once he +repeated to himself, "He wants a priest as much as a physician." + +Again the surgeon would often argue with himself in regard to the +propriety of telling him the very dangerous state in which he was. "He +may at any time become delirious," he said, "and lose all power of +making those dispositions and arrangements which, I dare say, have +never been thought of in the time of health and prosperity. Then, +again, his house and all that it contains is left entirely in the +hands of servants--a bad set too, as ever existed, who are just as +likely to plunder and destroy as not; but on the other hand, if I tell +him it may only increase his dejection and cut off all hope of +recovery. Really I do not know what to do. Perhaps it would be better +to wait awhile, and if I should see more unfavorable symptoms and no +chance left, it will then be time enough to tell him his true +situation and prepare his mind for the result." + +Another restless, feverish night passed, another troubled sleep +towards morning, and then John Ayliffe woke with a start, exclaiming, +"You did not tell them I was here--lying here unable to stir, unable +to move--I told you not, I told you not. By ----" and then he looked +round, and seeing none but the surgeon in the room, relapsed into +silence. + +The surgeon felt his pulse, examined the bandages, and saw that a +considerable and unfavorable change had taken place; but yet he +hesitated. He was one of those men who shrink from the task of telling +unpleasant truths. He was of a gentle and a kindly disposition, which +even the necessary cruelties of surgery had not been able to harden. + +"He may say what he likes," he said, "I must have some advice as to +how I should act. I will go and talk with the parson about the matter. +Though a little lacking in the knowledge of the world, yet Dixwell is +a good man and a sincere Christian. I will see him as I go home, but +make him promise secrecy in the first place, as this young baronet is +so terribly afraid of the unfortunate affair being known. He will die, +I am afraid, and that before very long, and I am sure he is not in a +fit state for death." With this resolution he said some soothing words +to his patient, gave him what he called a composing draught, and sent +for his horse from a neighboring farm-house, where he had lodged it +for the night. He then rode at a quiet, thoughtful pace to the +parsonage house at the gates of the park, and quickly walked in. Mr. +Dixwell was at breakfast, reading slowly one of the broad sheets of +the day as an especial treat, for they seldom found their way into his +quiet rectory; but he was very glad to see the surgeon, with whom he +often contrived to have a pleasant little chat in regard to the +affairs of the neighborhood. + +"Ah, Mr. Short, very glad to see you, my good friend. How go things +in your part of the world? We are rather in a little bustle here, +though I think it is no great matter." + +"What is it, Mr. Dixwell?" asked the surgeon. + +"Only that wild young man, Sir John Hastings," said the clergyman, +"left his house suddenly on horseback the night before last, and has +never returned. But he is accustomed to do all manner of strange +things, and has often been out two or three nights before without any +one knowing where he was. The butler came down and spoke to me about +it, but I think there was a good deal of affectation in his alarm, for +when I asked him he owned his master had once been away for a whole +week." + +"Has his horse come back?" asked the surgeon. + +"Not that I know of," replied Mr. Dixwell. "I suppose the man would +have mentioned it if such had been the case. But what is going on at +Hartwell?" + +"Nothing particular," said the surgeon, "only Mrs. Harrison brought to +bed of twins on Saturday night at twenty minutes past eleven. I think +all those Harrisons have twins--but I have something to talk to you +about, my good friend, a sort of case of conscience I want to put to +you. Only you must promise me profound secrecy." + +Mr. Dixwell laughed--"What, under the seal of confession?" he said. +"Well, well, I am no papist, as you know, Short, but I'll promise and +do better than any papist does, keep my word when I have promised +without mental reservation." + +"I know you will, my good friend," answered the surgeon, "and this is +no jesting matter, I can assure you. Now listen, my good friend, +listen. Not many evenings ago, I was sent for suddenly to attend a +young man who had met with an accident, a very terrible accident too. +He had a compound fracture of the thigh, three of his ribs broken, and +his head a good deal knocked about, but the cranium uninjured. I had +at first tolerable hope of his recovery; but he is getting much worse +and I fear that he will die." + +"Well, you can't help that," said Mr. Dixwell, "men will die in spite +of all you can do, Short, just as they will sin in spite of all I can +say." + +"Ay, there's the rub," said the surgeon. "I fear he has sinned a very +tolerably sufficient quantity, and I can see that there is something +or another weighing very heavy on his mind, which is even doing great +harm to his body." + +"I will go and see him, I will go and see him," said Mr. Dixwell, "it +will do him good in all ways to unburden his conscience, and to hear +the comfortable words of the gospel." + +"But the case is, Mr. Dixwell," said Short, "that he has positively +forbidden me to let any of his friends know where he lies, or to speak +of the accident to any one." + +"Pooh, nonsense," said the clergyman, "if a man has fractured his +skull and you thought it fit to trepan him, would you ask him whether +he liked it or not? If the young man is near death, and his conscience +is burdened, I am the physician who should be sent for rather than +you." + +"I fancy his conscience is burdened a good deal," said Mr. Short, +thoughtfully; "nay, I cannot help thinking that he was engaged in some +very bad act at the time this happened, both from his anxiety to +conceal from every body where he now lies, and from various words he +has dropped, sometimes in his sleep, sometimes when waking confused +and half delirious. What puzzles me is, whether I should tell him his +actual situation or not." + +"Tell him, tell him by all means," said Mr. Dixwell, "why should you +not tell him?" + +"Simply because I think that it will depress his mind still more," +replied the surgeon, "and that may tend to deprive him even of the +very small chance that exists of recovery." + +"The soul is of more value than the body," replied the clergyman, +earnestly; "if he be the man you depict, my friend, he should have as +much time as possible to prepare--he should have time to repent--ay, +and to atone. Tell him by all means, or let me know where he is to be +found, and I will tell him." + +"That I must not do," said Mr. Short, "for I am under a sort of +promise not to tell; but if you really think that I ought to tell him +myself, I will go back and do it." + +"If I really think!" exclaimed Mr. Dixwell, "I have not the slightest +doubt of it. It is your bounden duty if you be a Christian. Not only +tell him, my good friend, but urge him strongly to send for some +minister of religion. Though friends may fail him, and he may not wish +to see them--though all worldly supports may give way beneath him, and +he may find no strengthening--though all earthly hopes may pass away, +and give him no mortal cheer, the gospel of Christ can never fail to +support, and strengthen, and comfort, and elevate. The sooner he knows +that his tenement of clay is falling to the dust of which it was +raised, the better will be his readiness to quit it, and it is wise, +most wise, to shake ourselves free altogether from the dust and +crumbling ruins of this temporal state, ere they fall upon our heads +and bear us down to the same destruction as themselves." + +"Well, well, I will go back and tell him," said Mr. Short, and bidding +the good rector adieu, he once more mounted his horse and rode away. + +Now Mr. Dixwell was an excellent good man, but he was not without +certain foibles, especially those that sometimes accompany +considerable simplicity of character. "I will see which way he takes," +said Mr. Dixwell, "and go and visit the young man myself if I can find +him out;" and accordingly he marched up stairs to his bedroom, which +commanded a somewhat extensive prospect of the country, and traced +the surgeon, as he trotted slowly and thoughtfully along. He could not +actually see the cottage of the Bests, but he perceived that the +surgeon there passed over the brow of the hill, and after waiting for +several minutes, he did not catch any horseman rising upon the +opposite slope over which the road was continued. Now there was no +cross road in the hollow and only three houses, and therefore Mr. +Dixwell naturally concluded that to one of those three houses the +surgeon had gone. + +In the mean while, Mr. Short rode on unconscious that his movements +were observed, and meditating with a troubled mind upon the best means +of conveying the terrible intelligence he had to communicate. He did +not like the task at all; but yet he resolved to perform it manfully, +and dismounting at the cottage door, he went in again. There was +nobody within but the sick man and good old Jenny Best. The old woman +was at the moment in the outer room, and when she saw the surgeon she +shook her head, and said in a low voice, "Ah, dear, I am glad you have +come back again, sir, he does not seem right at all." + +"Who's that?" said the voice of John Ayliffe; and going in, Mr. Short +closed the doors between the two rooms. + +"There, don't shut that door," said John Ayliffe, "it is so infernally +close--I don't feel at all well, Mr. Short--I don't know what's the +matter with me. It's just as if I had got no heart. I think a glass of +brandy would do me good." + +"It would kill you," said the surgeon. + +"Well," said the young man, "I'm not sure that would not be best for +me--come," he continued sharply, "tell me how long I am to lie here on +my back?" + +"That I cannot tell, Sir John," replied the surgeon, "but at all +events, supposing that you do recover, and that every thing goes well, +you could not hope to move for two or three months." + +"Supposing I was to recover!" repeated John Ayliffe in a low tone, as +if the idea of approaching death had then, for the first time, struck +him as something real and tangible, and not a mere name. He paused +silently for an instant, and then asked almost fiercely, "what brought +you back?" + +"Why, Sir John, I thought it might be better for us to have a little +conversation," said the surgeon. "I can't help being afraid, Sir John, +that you may have a great number of things to settle, and that not +anticipating such a very severe accident, your affairs may want a good +deal of arranging. Now the event of all sickness is uncertain, and an +accident such as this especially. It is my duty to inform you," he +continued, rising in resolution and energy as he proceeded, "that your +case is by no means free from danger--very great danger indeed." + +"Do you mean to say that I am dying?" asked John Ayliffe, in a hoarse +voice. + +"No, no, not exactly dying," said the surgeon, putting his hand upon +his pulse, "not dying I trust just yet, but--" + +"But I shall die, you mean?" cried the other. + +"I think it not at all improbable," answered the surgeon, gravely, +"that the case may have a fatal result." + +"Curse fatal results," cried John Ayliffe, giving way to a burst of +fury; "why the devil do you come back to tell me such things and make +me wretched? If I am to die, why can't you let me die quietly and know +nothing about it?" + +"Why, Sir John, I thought that you might have many matters to settle," +answered the surgeon somewhat irritated, "and that your temporal and +your spiritual welfare also required you should know your real +situation." + +"Spiritual d----d nonsense!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, furiously; "I +dare say it's all by your folly and stupidity that I am likely to die +at all. Why I hear of men breaking their legs and their ribs every day +and being none the worse for it." + +"Why, Sir John, if you do not like my advice you need not have it," +answered the surgeon; "I earnestly wished to send for other +assistance, and you would not let me." + +"There, go away, go away and leave me," said John Ayliffe; but as the +surgeon took up his hat and walked towards the door, he added, "come +again at night. You shall be well paid for it, never fear." + +Mr. Short made no reply, but walked out of the room. + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +Solitude and silence, and bitter thought are great tamers of the human +heart. "As ye sow, so shall ye reap," says the Apostle, and John +Ayliffe was now forced to put in the sickle. Death was before his +eyes, looming large and dark and terrible, like the rock of adamant in +the fairy tale, against which the bark of the adventurous mariner was +sure to be dashed. Death for the first time presented itself to his +mind in all its grim reality. Previously it had seemed with him a +thing hardly worth considering--inevitable--appointed to all men--to +every thing that lives and breathes--no more to man than to the sheep, +or the ox, or any other of the beasts that perish. He had contemplated +it merely as death--as the extinction of being--as the goal of a +career--as the end of a chase where one might lie down and rest, and +forget the labor and the clamor and the trouble of the course. He had +never in thought looked beyond the boundary--he had hardly asked +himself if there was aught beyond. He had satisfied himself by saying, +as so many men do, "Every man must die some time or another," and had +never asked his own heart, "What is it to die?" + +But now death presented itself under a new aspect; cold and stern, +relentless and mysterious, saying in a low solemn tone, "I am the +guide. Follow me there. Whither I lead thou knowest not, nor seest +what shall befall thee. The earth-worm and the mole fret but the +earthly garment of the man; the flesh, and the bones, and the beauty +go down to dust, and ashes, and corruption. The man comes with me to a +land undeclared--to a presence infinitely awful--to judgment and to +fate; for on this side of the dark portal through which I am the +guide, there is no such thing as fate. It lies beyond the grave, and +thither thou must come without delay." + +He had heard of immortality, but he had never thought of it. He had +been told of another world, but he had never rightly believed in it. +The thought of a just judge, and of an eternal doom, had been +presented to him in many shapes, but he had never received it; and he +had lived and acted, and thought and felt, as if there were neither +eternity, nor judgment, nor punishment. But in that dread hour the +deep-rooted, inexplicable conviction of a God and immortality, +implanted in the hearts of all men, and only crushed down in the +breasts of any by the dust of vanity and the lumber of the world, rose +up and bore its fruits according to the soil. They were all bitter. If +there were another life, a judgment, an eternity of weal or woe, what +was to be his fate? How should he meet the terrors of the +judgment-seat--he who had never prayed from boyhood--he who through +life had never sought God--he who had done in every act something that +conscience reproved, and that religion forbade? + +Every moment as he lay there and thought, the terrors of the vast +unbounded future grew greater and more awful. The contemplation almost +drove him to frenzy, and he actually made an effort to rise from his +bed, but fell back again with a deep groan. The sound caught the ear +of good Jenny Best, and running in she asked if he wanted any thing. + +"Stay with me, stay with me," said the unhappy young man, "I cannot +bear this--it is very terrible--I am dying, Mrs. Best, I am dying." + +Mrs. Best shook her head with a melancholy look; but whether from +blunted feelings, from the hard and painful life which they endured, +or from a sense that there is to be compensation somewhere, and that +any change must be for the better, or cannot be much worse than the +life of this earth, or from want of active imagination, the poorer and +less educated classes I have generally remarked view death and all its +accessories with less of awe, if not of dread, than those who have +been surrounded by luxuries, and perhaps have used every effort to +keep the contemplation of the last dread scene afar, till it is +actually forced upon their notice. Her words were homely, and though +intended to comfort did not give much consolation to the dying man. + +"Ah well, sir, it is very sad," she said, "to die so young; though +every one must die sooner or later, and it makes but little difference +whether it be now or then. Life is not so long to look back at, sir, +as to look forward to, and when one dies young one is spared many a +thing. I recollect my poor eldest son who is gone, when he lay dying +just like you in that very bed, and I was taking on sadly, he said to +me, 'Mother don't cry so. It's just as well for me to go now when I've +not done much mischief or suffered much sorrow.' He was as good a +young man as ever lived; and so Mr. Dixwell said; for the parson used +to come and see him every day, and that was a great comfort and +consolation to the poor boy." + +"Was it?" said John Ayliffe, thoughtfully. "How long did he know he +was dying?" + +"Not much above a week, sir," said Mrs. Best; "for till Mr. Dixwell +told him, he always thought he would get better. We knew it a long +time however, for he had been in a decline a year, and his father had +been laying by money for the funeral three months before he died. So +when it was all over we put him by quite comfortable." + +"Put him by!" said John Ayliffe. + +"Yes, sir, we buried him, I mean," answered Mrs. Best. "That's our way +of talking. But Mr. Dixwell had been to see him long before. He knew +that he was dying, and he wouldn't tell him as long as there was any +hope; for he said it was not necessary--that he had never seen any one +better prepared to meet his Maker than poor Robert, and that it was no +use to disturb him about the matter till it came very near." + +"Ah, Dixwell is a wise man and a good man," said John Ayliffe. "I +should very much like to see him." + +"I can run for him in a minute sir," said Dame Best, but John Ayliffe +replied, in a faint voice, "No, no, don't, don't on any account." + +In the mean while, the very person of whom they were speaking had +descended from the up-stairs room, finished his breakfast in order to +give the surgeon time to fulfil his errand, and then putting on his +three-cornered hat had walked out to ascertain at what house Mr. Short +had stopped. The first place at which he inquired was the farm-house +at which the good surgeon had stabled his horse on the preceding +night. Entering by the kitchen door, he found the good woman of the +place bustling about amongst pots and pans and maidservants, and other +utensils, and though she received him with much reverence, she did not +for a moment cease her work. + +"Well, Dame," he said, "I hope you're all well here." + +"Quite well, your reverence--Betty, empty that pail." + +"Why, I've seen Mr. Short come down here," said the parson, "and I +thought somebody might be ill." + +"Very kind, your reverence--mind you don't spill it.--No, it warn't +here. It's some young man down at Jenny Best's, who's baddish, I +fancy, for the Doctor stabled his horse here last night." + +"I am glad to hear none of you are ill," said Mr. Dixwell, and bidding +her good morning, he walked away straight to the cottage where John +Ayliffe lay. There was no one in the outer room, and the good +clergyman, privileged by his cloth, walked straight on into the room +beyond, and stood by the bedside of the dying man before any one was +aware of his presence. + +Mr. Dixwell was not so much surprised to see there on that bed of +death the face of him he called Sir John Hastings, as might be +supposed. The character which the surgeon had given of his patient, +the mysterious absence of the young man from the Hall, and the very +circumstance of his unwillingness to have his name and the place where +he was lying known, had all lent a suspicion of the truth. John +Ayliffe's eyes were shut at the moment he entered, and he seemed +dozing, though in truth sleep was far away. But the little movement of +Mr. Dixwell towards his bedside, and of Mrs. Best giving place for the +clergyman to sit down, caused him to open his eyes, and his first +exclamation was, "Ah, Dixwell! so that damned fellow Short has +betrayed me, and told when I ordered him not." + +"Swear not at all," said Mr. Dixwell. "Short has not betrayed you, Sir +John. I came here by accident, merely hearing there was a young man +lying ill here, but without knowing actually that it was you, although +your absence from home has caused considerable uneasiness. I am very +sorry to see you in such a state. How did all this happen?" + +"I will not tell you, nor answer a single word," replied John Ayliffe, +"unless you promise not to say a word of my being here to any one. I +know you will keep your word if you say so, and Jenny Best too--won't +you, Jenny?--but I doubt that fellow Short." + +"You need not doubt him, Sir John," said the clergyman; "for he is +very discreet. As for me, I will promise, and will keep my word; for I +see not what good it could be to reveal it to any body if you dislike +it. You will be more tenderly nursed here, I am sure, than you would +be by unprincipled, dissolute servants, and since your poor mother's +death--" + +John Ayliffe groaned heavily, and the clergyman stopped. The next +moment, however, the young man said, "Then you do promise, do you?" + +"I do," replied Mr. Dixwell. "I will not at all reveal the facts +without your consent." + +"Well, then, sit down, and let us be alone together for a bit," said +John Ayliffe, and Mrs. Best quietly quitted the room and shut the +door. + +John Ayliffe turned his languid eyes anxiously upon the clergyman, +saying, "I think I am dying, Mr. Dixwell." + +He would fain have had a contradiction or even a ray of earthly hope; +but he got none; for it was evident to the eyes of Mr. Dixwell, +accustomed as he had been for many years to attend by the bed of +sickness and see the last spark of life go out, that John Ayliffe was +a dying man--that he might live hours, nay days; but that the +irrevocable summons had been given, that he was within the shadow of +the arch, and must pass through! + +"I am afraid you are, Sir John," he replied, "but I trust that God +will still afford you time to make preparation for the great change +about to take place, and by his grace I will help you to the utmost in +my power." + +John Ayliffe was silent, and closed his eyes again. Nor was he the +first to speak; for after having waited for several minutes, Mr. +Dixwell resumed, saying in a grave but kindly tone, "I am afraid, Sir +John, you have not hitherto given much thought to the subject which is +now so sadly fixed upon you. We must make haste, my good sir; we must +not lose a moment." + +"Then do you think I am going to die so soon?" asked the young man +with a look of horror; for it cost him a hard and terrible struggle to +bring his mind to grasp the thought of death being inevitable and nigh +at hand. He could hardly conceive it--he could hardly believe it--that +he who had so lately been full of life and health, who had been +scheming schemes, and laying out plans, and had looked upon futurity +as a certain possession--that he was to die in a few short hours; but +whenever the wilful heart would have rebelled against the sentence, +and struggle to resist it, sensations which he had never felt before, +told him in a voice not to be mistaken, "It must be so!" + +"No one can tell," replied Mr. Dixwell, "how soon it may be, or how +long God may spare you; but one thing is certain, Sir John, that years +with you have now dwindled down into days, and that days may very +likely be shortened to hours. But had you still years to live, I +should say the same thing, that no time is to be lost; too much has +been lost already." + +John Ayliffe did not comprehend him in the least. He could not grasp +the idea as yet of a whole life being made a preparation for death, +and looked vacantly in the clergyman's face, utterly confounded at the +thought. + +Mr. Dixwell had a very difficult task before him--one of the most +difficult he had ever undertaken; for he had not only to arouse the +conscience, but to awaken the intellect to things importing all to the +soul's salvation, which had never been either felt or believed, or +comprehended before. At first too, there was the natural repugnance +and resistance of a wilful, selfish, over-indulged heart to receive +painful or terrible truths, and even when the obstacle was overcome, +the young man's utter ignorance of religion and want of moral feeling +proved another almost insurmountable. He found that the only access to +John Ayliffe's heart was by the road of terror, and without scruple he +painted in stern and fearful colors the awful state of the impenitent +spirit called suddenly into the presence of its God. With an unpitying +hand he stripped away all self-delusions from the young man's mind and +laid his condition before him, and his future state in all their dark +and terrible reality. + +This is not intended for what is called a religious book, and +therefore I must pass over the arguments he used, and the course he +proceeded in. Suffice it that he labored earnestly for two hours to +awaken something like repentance in the bosom of John Ayliffe, and he +succeeded in the end better than the beginning had promised. When +thoroughly convinced of the moral danger of his situation, John +Ayliffe began to listen more eagerly, to reply more humbly, and to +seek earnestly for some consolation beyond the earth. His depression +and despair, as terrible truths became known to him were just in +proportion to his careless boldness and audacity while he had remained +in wilful ignorance, and as soon as Mr. Dixwell saw that all the +clinging to earthly expectations was gone--that every frail support of +mortal thoughts was taken away, he began to give him gleams of hope +from another world, and had the satisfaction of finding that the +doubts and terrors which remained arose from the consciousness of his +own sins and crimes, the heavy load of which he felt for the first +time. He told him that repentance was never too late--he showed, him +that Christ himself had stamped that great truth with a mark that +could not be mistaken in his pardon of the dying thief upon the cross, +and while he exhorted him to examine himself strictly, and to make +sure that what he felt was real repentance, and not the mere fear of +death which so many mistake for it in their last hours, he assured him +that if he could feel certain of that fact, and trust in his Saviour, +he might comfort himself and rest in good hope. That done, he resolved +to leave the young man to himself for a few hours that he might +meditate and try the great question he had propounded with his own +heart. He called in Mistress Best, however, and told her that if +during his absence Sir John wished her to read to him, it would be a +great kindness to read certain passages of Scripture which he pointed +out in the house Bible. The good woman very willingly undertook the +task, and shortly after the clergyman was gone John Ayliffe applied to +hear the words of that book against which he had previously shut his +ears. He found comfort and consolation and guidance therein; for Mr. +Dixwell, who, on the one subject which had been the study of his life +was wise as well as learned, had selected judiciously such passages as +tend to inspire hope without diminishing penitence. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Continued from page 488, vol. iii. + + + + +THE CASTLE OF BELVER. + +AN INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF ARAGO. + + +The castle of Belver is the state prison of the island of Majorca. The +Rev. Henry Christmas, F.R.S., has just published in London three +volumes entitled _The Shores and Islands of the Mediterranean_, in +which he gives the following account of the confinement within its +walls of the illustrious Arago: + + "Charged by the Emperor Napoleon with the admeasurement of + the meridian, Arago was in 1808 in Majorca, and occupying a + cottage on the mountain called Clot de Galatzo, when the + news came to the island of the recent events at Madrid, and + the carrying away of the king. The populace of Palma, never + very favorably disposed towards the French, and altogether + incapable of comprehending either the merits or the mission + of Arago, easily mistook the great astronomer for a + political spy, and exasperated at the insult offered to + their king and country, determined to take a signal + vengeance on the only Frenchman within their power. They + took their way in great numbers towards the mountain on + which Arago had taken up his abode, fortified in their + belief of his evil designs by the fact that he frequently + made fires on the mountain-side, and which they took for + signals to an imaginary French fleet just about to land an + army for the reduction of the island. + + "The mountain rises just above the coast on which Don Jaime + the Conqueror made his descent, and thus it will seem that + the islanders were not destitute of some grounds for the + suspicions which they entertained, nor without some + palliating circumstances in the outrage which they + contemplated. It was, however, happily only a design, for M. + Arago, warned in time, left his mountain, and directed his + steps towards Palma. The person who advertised him of his + peril was a man named Damian, the pilot of the brig placed + by the Spanish Government at the disposal of the + philosopher. Himself a Majorcan, he was taken into the + counsel of the plotters, and was thus enabled to save the + life of his master. + + "Dressed in the clothes of a common seaman, with which + Damian had provided him, he met on his way the mob, who were + bent on his destruction, and who stopped him to inquire + about that _maldito gabacho_, of whom they meant to rid the + island. As he spoke the language of the country fluently, he + gave them that kind of information which was most desirable + both to him and to them, and as soon as he arrived at Palma, + he made his way to the Spanish brig; but the captain, Don + Manual de Vacaro, a Catalonian, (his name ought to be known, + to his disgrace, as well as that of Damian to his credit,) + absolutely refused to take the astronomer to Barcelona, + alleging that he was at Palma for a specific purpose, and + could not leave without orders from his Government. When + Arago pointed out the danger which threatened his life, and + of which the captain was as well aware as himself, the + latter coolly pointed out a chest, in which he proposed + that M. Arago should take refuge. To this Arago replied by + measuring the chest, and showing that there was not room for + him in the inside. The next day a frantic mob was assembled + on the shore, and it became clear that it was their + intention to board the brig. Alarmed now for himself as well + as for his colleague, Don Manual assured Arago that he would + not answer for his life, and recommended him to constitute + himself a prisoner in the castle of Belver, offering to + conduct him hither in one of the ship's boats. Seeing what + kind of a man, as well as what kind of a mob, he had to do + with, Arago accepted the proposal, and just arrived time + enough to hear the castle gates closed against his furious + pursuers. It seems that all the motions of those on board + were watched from the shore, and as soon as the boat was + seen to depart, and to take the direction of Belver, the + populace poured forth, towards the castle, and had not Arago + been a little in advance, his life would have been + sacrificed.... He was there as a prisoner two months. + + "During that time he was told, and he seems to have believed + the report, that the monks in the island had attempted to + bribe the soldiers to poison him, but that the latter would + not consent. It is likely enough that monks, considered as + monks, would think it rather meritorious than otherwise to + destroy a Frenchman, and a free-thinker, but it would be + less probable of Majorcan monks than of any other, and + poisoning is not the custom of the island. At the same time + the very vehement feeling of the people against him, might + put it into the minds of the monks to use monastic arts, and + there is an additional probability given to the notion by + the conduct of the Captain-general, who, after two months of + captivity, sent a message to the prisoner that he would do + well to make his escape, and that if he did, it would be + winked at. Arago took this excellent advice, sent for M. + Rodriguez, who had been appointed by the Spanish Government + to aid him in his scientific labors, and by his aid opened a + communication with Damian. This worthy man procured a + fishing-boat, and took him to Algiers, not daring to land + him in France or Spain, and absolutely refusing very large + offers made to him for that purpose." + + + + +THE COUNT MONTE-LEONE: OR, THE SPY IN SOCIETY.[2] + +TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM THE FRENCH OF +M. DE ST. GEORGES. + + +XVI.--MADEMOISELLE CREPINEAU'S LOVER. + +About the end of May, 1819, on one of those bright sunny days which +bring out the blossoms of the lilac, make invalids strong, and young +girls healthy, the Duchess of Palma was sitting in the garden of her +hotel, in the same place and under the same tree in which we saw her +take refuge, to conceal her sorrow and tears, a few months before, on +the evening of the brilliant festival when all the principal +personages of our story met. A general languor and oppression with +complete weakness, the ordinary consequences of her unhappy attempt to +commit suicide, had ensued. The deep distress which gnawed at her +heart added moral to physical tortures. The Duke of Palma at last +perceived the deep indifference of La Felina towards him, and without +divining the cause, said that having married without love, all his +cares and tenderness had not sufficed to win her heart. He therefore +said, that he should be a fool to devote himself any longer to her, +and to consecrate his life to a woman to whom, notwithstanding the +prejudices of the world, he had given his title and name, without +having, as yet, received the most trifling acknowledgment in return! + +Yet young, immensely rich, volatile and handsome, it was probable that +the Duke would not look in vain for some one to console him for the +severity of his Duchess. Like many other persons in Paris, the Duke +lived _en garçon_ with two houses, two establishments, and, morally +speaking, two wives. His second wife was a celebrated _danseuse_ of +the Royal Academy of Music, Mlle. G., known as a very agreeably thin +woman, and arms rather larger than the true academic +proportions--which, however, enabled her to entwine her partner, with +an _undulous grace_ that highly excited the old _habitués_ of the +opera. The reign of Louis XVIII. was also emphatically the reign of +the _danseuses_. Princes, marshals, generals, and nobles, selected +their mistresses in the _seraglio_ of the opera. The reign of these +ladies was, however, almost _emphyteotic_, that is to say, permanent, +and often resulted in the consecration of illegitimate pleasures. MM. +de Lauraguais, de Conti, de Letoriers, and others, would have laughed +at this. The external life of the Duke was full of attention to the +Duchess, with whom he dined regularly. He never, however, breakfasted +at the embassy, nor was he there except at his regular receptions. The +pious people who had been so shocked at his marriage, took care to say +that the Duchess's conduct was the sole cause of her husband's +misbehavior. There was nothing, though, in the world to sustain this; +for no one had the slightest idea of the secret _liaison_ of +Monte-Leone and the embassadress. That was a transient affair, and the +shores of the _Lago di Como_ alone had been witnesses of it. Some +excuse, however, was indispensably necessary for him. + +La Felina, as isolated as ever, then sat in a beautiful garden which +overlooked the _Champs Elysées_, on the morning we have described. Her +face was pale and wearied, and her eyes red from want of sleep. With +her head resting on her chest, she seemed a prey to the greatest +sorrow. Just then they came to tell her of the visit of Taddeo Rovero. + +"At last," said she, gladly, "I will know all." + +Taddeo was close behind the servant who had announced him. He could +not repress his surprise, when he saw how changed the Duchess was. The +latter saw it and said, "You did not expect, signor, to see an old and +ugly woman instead of her you once thought, so beautiful. I have, +however, suffered a great deal during the three months you have been +away. Without meaning to reproach you, let me say it is three months +since I saw you." + +"Ah! Signora, to me you may assume any guise you please; for neither +my eyes, nor heart, distinguish any alteration." + +"So much the better," said the Duchess with a smile, "for you are +perhaps the only person who think me as beautiful as once was. It is +something to be thought beautiful when we are not. What, though, is +come over you? Why have you been so long in Italy?" + +"Alas! Signora, bad inducements took me from Paris and from yourself." + +"All they say, then, is true?" said the Duchess, making Taddeo sit by +her; "the Marquise de Maulear has lost her husband? She is a widow?" +said she, sadly, and with an effort. + +"The Marquis died three months since at Rome," said Taddeo. + +"It is terrible," said the ambassadress, "public rumor said so--I, +though, live so much alone that I know nothing more. Excuse me, if I +inquire into family secrets--were it not for the interest I entertain +for your sister and yourself, I would not do so--" + +"The death of the Marquis," said Taddeo, "is really a family secret. +There is no reason, however, why you should not know it. I am aware to +whom I confide it, and have no hesitation in doing so. My story will +be brief. The Marquis and I set out for Rome three months ago, to +receive the estate of my uncle, Cardinal Felippo Justiniani. We met +with many difficulties, but eventually received it. The total was a +million of francs, in bonds of the principal bankers of Rome. The half +of this sum was paid in cash. I was in mourning, and did not go into +society. Besides," added Taddeo, looking tenderly at La Felina, "I had +left my heart in Paris--and society and the Carnival pleasures had no +charms for me. The Marquis seemed more anxious for amusement than +propriety permitted. A few days after having received the half of our +inheritance, of which the Marquis had possession, I was surprised to +hear that he had not returned home at night. I did not, however, dare +to question him; for I thought that he had been tempted by some +pleasure party and might be unwilling to answer me. I pretended not to +be aware that he was away. For several successive nights this +occurred, and at last I ventured to speak to him, telling him what +danger he exposed himself to, by straying thus in the streets of Rome. +'I am well armed,' said he, 'and can protect myself against robbers.' +Day after day the Marquis seemed more and more engaged. He avoided me, +and scarcely ever returned home. One day he was absent. Afraid lest he +might have been attacked in the night, I went to the French minister's +and caused a minute search to be made--and learned that my +brother-in-law had put an end to his own life. He had been enticed by +some of his French friends into a gaming house, which foreign +speculators had obtained leave to open during the Carnival, and had +there lost the five hundred thousand francs which belonged to his +wife. In his despair he had drowned himself in the Tiber." + +"This is terrible," said the Duchess, "are you sure this is so?" + +"Too sure," said Taddeo, "for not long after, the discovery of the +body put all beyond doubt. These, Signora, are the facts of the case; +though to save the Marquise's honor we attribute his death to a +natural cause." + +"I thank you, Signor, for your confidence; especially since it gives +me a right to pity the sister you love so well, yet more--and also to +console you for the death of M. de Maulear. But when did you return?" + +"A few days ago. I was forced to remain yet longer in Rome to get +possession of the remnant of the Cardinal's fortune. My mother also +came to Rome to tell Aminta of her misfortune." + +"How cruelly the young _Marquise_ must suffer," said the Duchess; "how +she must need compassion and care!" + +"She will have ours; and her father-in-law, overcoming his own sorrow, +is as tender and fond of her as ever." + +"Then," said the Duchess, concealing a distress she could not lay +aside, "she yet has true and excellent friends--the Count Monte-Leone, +for instance, who was so fond of her--" + +"The Count," said Taddeo, looking strangely at the Duchess, who did +not meet his glance, "was received a few days ago by the Marquise." + +"He will make up for lost time," said La Felina, bitterly, "for now, +or perhaps some day, his old hopes may again arise, and perhaps be +realized." + +Taddeo understood why she spoke thus. For a long time his forbearance +had been pushed to extremities, and this passion of the Duchess for +his friend had given rise to new tortures, too severe to repress the +idea of vengeance. He was cruel and barbarous; but he had too severely +suffered from La Felina. By a violent course, also, he perhaps wished +to crush the love which tortured him. + +He remarked: "Even though I afflict you, I must say your fancy is +likely enough to be realized. The Count possesses rank and a spotless +reputation--for without the latter--" + +"With but the latter," said the Duchess, "he could not enter our +family." + +"Certainly, the Count prepares the Marquise for a future courtship by +very constant visits now." + +"He comes every day to the Hotel to see the Prince and myself. My +sister loves to hear him speak of Italy, of which you know he talks so +well." + +La Felina could bear no more. She gave her hand to Taddeo, and with a +voice trembling with emotion said: "For the present, adieu! You owe me +some compensation for your long absence, and if the lonely life I +lead does not afflict you, if you are not too much afraid of an +anchorite, come to see me, and you will find me always glad to see +you." + +Taddeo kissed her hand and left her, almost repenting in his generous +mind that he had spoken as he did. He was fully avenged, for the +Duchess's grief was so great that she felt her heart grow chilled, her +limbs stiffen, and her eyes close. Her conversation with Taddeo soon +returned to her mind, and she uttered a cry of agony. Her _femme de +chambre_ bore her to the Hotel. When alone in her room she said to +herself: "He swore to me that he would never be her lover. She may now +be his wife. Ah!" continued she, "with cruel and sombre fury, it would +have been better for both of us had he let me die." + +"Tell him who waits to come," said she to the servant. + +The woman left, and soon after came in with a man whom the Duchess +made sit beside her. The woman left the room. We will leave the +Duchess with the stranger and go to No. 13 _rue de Babylonne_, where +one month after we shall find Mlle. Celestine Crepineau, a prey to the +tenderest emotions. We must say for about two months the heart of that +lady had been speaking. This lady's heart, like that of old +thorough-bred horses, of whom we read every once in a while, had a +return of ardor, and laid aside all its ascetic devotion to become +intense living and burning, as it had been in youth. This was the sure +premonition of old age. If anything could justify this resurrection, +it is what we are about to tell. + +A new star shone in _la rue de Babylonne_. A beautiful stranger +calling himself a Spaniard, a statement made probable by his dark +complexion, sun-burnt brow, black hair, and brilliant eyes, +established himself in a modest garret of No. 12, just opposite the +house of the _hangman_, now occupied by Matheus. The charming Spaniard +had no decided profession. His dress was that of an artisan in his +Sunday best: and his velvet vest covered a prominent and Herculean +_torso_. He was tall; and walked squarely on his large feet; a +circumstance which made Mlle. Crepineau think him majestic. He said he +was a bear-hunter from the Pyrenees, who had been forced to expatriate +himself because _in a duel he had wounded the governor of his +province_. It may be imagined that so rare a profession excited much +admiration among the natives of _la rue Babylonne_, especially as the +famous Nimrod passed his time at the door of No. 12, under the pretext +that he was accustomed to the pure mountain air, and that he did not +wish any of the neighbors anxious to make inquiries about his terrible +profession, to have the trouble of asking for him. At one of these +hall-door entertainments one summer night, the handsome Nuñez saw and +captivated Mlle. Celestine Crepineau. Do not let any one fancy the +modest girl had given any encouragement to the stranger. They had +restricted themselves to glances, _double entendres_, and the +countless amiable pioneers of the army of Cupid. Mlle. Crepineau saw +the stranger come every day to assist her in opening the heavy door of +No. 13. Nuñez took charge of the watering pot of which the +commissaries are so fond, and dispersed an agreeable freshness in +front of the house during the warm hours of the day, to protect, he +said, the color and complexion of his mistress. Often Mlle. +Celestine's nerves were refreshed by a delicate perfume which strayed +through the bars of her lodge, and on inquiry saw a sprig of some +sweet and odorous plant which had been placed there by the Spaniard. +At last Mlle. Crepineau gave him permission to visit her. This was an +important favor, and was the passage of the rubicon. By doing so, +Celestine placed her reputation in the power of her evil-disposed +neighbors. She was, however, in love. "Besides," said she, with noble +pride, "my conscience sustains me, and envy will fall abashed before +the sacred torch of hymen." This _respectable_ phrase was the last +remnant of the romances of Ducray-Dumenil, the first books Celestine +ever read when she was cook of the advocate her god-father. + +But this interesting love passion was suddenly brought to a close by a +very painful circumstance for the vanity of the young lady. Whether +Mlle. Crepineau had laced herself more tightly even than usual, or +that in aspirations after sylphic grace, she had been rather too +active when Señor Nuñez was by--she was seized one fine day with a +pain in the small of her back, translatable only by the word +rheumatism--a constant attendant of her delicate organization. A +forced construction was put on the pain--which became a cold or a +strain, but she had, in spite of the effort to get rid of it by an +_euphonism_, to go to bed. Then the devotion of the Spaniard became +heroic. He was unwilling that Mlle. Celestine should intrust any one +else with her daily occupation, and undertook to replace her in the +menage of Doctor Matheus. The proposition did not awaken much of the +doctor's gratitude; and though he accepted the substitute, he promised +to watch him very closely. One morning the doctor was forced to leave +very suddenly, just as the Spaniard was cleaning and dusting the +consultation room. Matheus had been sent for by the Duke d'Harcourt, +and apprehending some new indisposition of his young patient, Von +Apsberg, for the first time left the Señor Nuñez in his room. + +For a few moments, the Spaniard continued his occupation. When, +however, he saw the doctor leave, and from the window saw him turn +down the _rue de Bac_, he said, "Now what I have so long sought for is +in my grasp." Looking on every side of the room, lifting up the +papers, opening the portfolios and examining the furniture, he +discovered a secret drawer in a bureau, within which he found a key. + +"Here," said he, "is the key of the laboratory--of the mysterious room +in which I shall find all I need. This is it," said he, looking +anxiously at the key, "I know it by its shape." Hurrying to the third +floor of the house, he paused at the door. His hand trembled--the key +entered--turned--the wards moved, and the stranger entered the +laboratory. + +The table which, when we paid our first visit to Matheus, was covered +with maps, pamphlets, etc., now had nothing on it. "All is locked up," +said the man. "I have bad luck." He soon, however, aroused himself, +and taking a ball of wax from his pocket, and pointing to a massive +secretary, said, "There they are--there are their plans and papers, +their lists and names." Approaching the secretary again, he took an +exact impression of the lock, and also made a copy of the key of the +laboratory. He then uttered a cry of joy. "I have them all," said he. +"I am their master, and not one of the accursed Carbonari can escape +me." He then left the room as expeditiously as he had entered, went to +the first story, replaced the key where he had found it in the secret +drawer, and hurried to find Mlle. Celestine Crepineau, who had become +very uneasy about her lover. + + +XVIII. RUIN. + +A few days after the pretended bear-hunter, the handsome Spaniard, +adored by the amiable Mlle. Crepineau, had gone stealthily into the +studio of Dr. Matheus to obtain possession of the secrets of the +Carbonari, our three friends Taddeo Rovero, Von Apsberg, and the +Vicomte d'Harcourt, were at the Count's hotel. The house of +Monte-Leone was in Verneuil street. It was small, mysterious, and +recherché. The court-yard was of modest size, with turf in the centre, +and sanded walks around it. The steps had a balcony at the top and +several marble vases, from which grew geraniums in summer and heath in +the winter. It was a regular bachelor's house, having every thing +demanded by the exigencies of a tenant of that condition. It had all +the broad, tall, low, narrow, visible, and invisible doors, for +troublesome cases and exits, for the actors and actresses of the every +day drama of the life of a young, rich, and independent man. No love +drama was ever performed, though, on this theatre. One of another and +more brilliant kind was being prepared. He gave a dinner to young men, +a regular one, without a single woman. Men alone were welcomed by the +noble Amphytrion. The house was furnished as luxuriously as possible, +for only recently have people conceived the happy idea of making +dining-rooms comfortable. Of this our fathers were entirely ignorant. +Once people eat much or little, well or badly; they breakfasted, +dined, or took tea--that was all. They sat on straw or hair chairs; +they were warmed by bad stoves, the smell of which was intolerable; +the feet rested on marble blocks, bright, but cold as ice. Such was +the gastronomical trilogy of Parisians. The large hotels, and even the +smaller establishments of our renowned libertines had a more splendid +refectory, which, however, was not more favorable to the comfort of +the guests. The dark and rich tapestries which hung on the walls, the +marble on the floor, the pictures, though by Boucher or Watteau, were +artistic and costly, but nothing less than the eyes of La Guimard, the +lips of Sophie Arnould, those of La Maupin or La Duthé, could warm +those cold arenas, where Bernis, Larenaudie, Fronsac, Bouret, and +Beaujon sacrificed to Comus in the company of the Loves. Now all is +changed. Not only gastronomy, but the art of living well has been +discovered not to exist alone in wines and cookery, and it has become +a proverb, that "beans in china are better than truffles in +earthenware." In 1819 Count Monte-Leone had a presentiment of our +taste in 1848, and he was therefore spoken of as a foreign sybarite, +whose extravagant tastes never would be imitated. Though people +blamed, they envied, and _tried to imitate_. + +The dining-room of the Count, therefore, glittered with lights, and +around a table filled with the rarest glass, from which was exhaled +the perfume of a dinner fit for Lucullus, were about a dozen men, some +of whom, Matheus, Taddeo, and d'Harcourt, we know already. The others, +of whom we will hereafter speak more fully, were famous Carbonari, the +founders of the French order, General A...., the banker H...., Count +de Ch...., the merchant Ober, the _Avocat_ C...., and the illustrious +Professor C.... Two of these gentlemen had come from Italy, and +brought to Monte-Leone new orders from the central Venta of Naples, +and also curious details about the progress or rather maturity of +Carbonarism in the Two Sicilies and the neighboring countries. It had +however been by common consent determined among the guests that none +of the grave secrets of the order should be revealed at their joyous +repast--that political questions should be postponed to more serious +conferences: not that the members were not satisfied of the prudence +of each other, but inquisitive ears hovered around this table, and +with the exception of those of the prudent old Giacomo none could be +trusted. There was especial reason for this, as vague rumors had for +some time made the Carbonari distrustful. It was said that the +Minister of Police had placed Count Monte-Leone under the strictest +surveillance in consequence of his previous history. The objects of +this dinner, which beyond doubt was subjected to some particular +notice, was to prove that all the persons assembled were men of +pleasure, and not agents of discord or conspirators. + +"To our host," said d'Harcourt, filling his glass, "to his loves and +conquests!" + +"You will get drunk," said one of the guests, "if you drink to all of +his conquests." + +"All calumny," said Matheus. "The conversion of St. Augustine is no +miracle since that of Monte-Leone. The gallant Italian is now a fresh +anchorite, avoiding the pomps of Satan and the opera in this +_Thebais_. With his friends he atones for past errors." + +"The fact is, no one knows any thing about the Count's amours," said +one of the guests. + +"Well, then," said another, "that for one in society, as Monte-Leone +is, he makes bad use of his eyes. The very mention of his Neapolitan +adventures would turn the heads of ten Parisian women." + +"You are wrong, my dear B....," said the Count. "The women of Paris +are not so headlong as you think. They reason with their hearts, and +pay attention to convenances without regard to inclination. Besides, +the man they love occupies only the second place in their hearts. +_They_ come first and _he_ afterwards. Often, too, the toilette +occupies the second place with amusements and pleasures. They prefer +the attention of one to the love of all. _Liasons_ in France are +elegant, _recherché_, and refined. They never violate good taste, and +even in their despair French women are charming. They quarrel behind a +fan, tear a bouquet to pieces, and shred the lace of a handkerchief. +They weep, and stop soon enough not to stain the eyes, and when they +have fainting-fits, are very careful not to disturb their curls. Great +suffering just stops short of a nervous attack, and fury never breaks +either china bracelets or jewelry, though it is merciless on lovers' +miniatures. Three months after, if the offended lady meet the +gentleman in a drawing-room, she will ask the person next her, 'Pray +tell me who that gentleman is, I think I have seen him somewhere.' In +Spain and Italy they avenge themselves, and do not pardon men who are +inconstant until they too are false. Woe to him whose love is the +first to end. He henceforth has but the storm and the thunder-bolt. +Hatred and vengeance--the first is found in France--women in Italy +kill. I tell you your countrywomen are not romantic, and suffer +themselves to be led astray only after due reflection." + +"Well, for my own part," said d'Harcourt to Monte-Leone, "I know a +woman who adores you in secret, who never speaks of you without +blushing, who looks down when your name is mentioned, and who looks up +when she sees you." + +Taddeo looked at the Vicomte with surprise. Two names occurred to him, +that of the Duchess, and yet of another person. Monte-Leone, like +Taddeo, was afraid that the young fool, whose greatest virtue was not +temperance, would be indiscreet. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "the Vicomte is about to be stupid. In the name +of our friendship I beg him to be silent." + +"Bah, bah!" said d'Harcourt, becoming yet more excited, and draining +his glass of champagne, _in vino veritas_. "The proof of what I say is +that Monte-Leone is afraid. I shall name the victim of the passion he +has inspired. I wish to reinstate him in your eyes, for he has +represented himself as deserted and abandoned by the fair sex, when +one of the fairest adores him, and would sacrifice name and rank for +him." + +"Vicomte," said Monte-Leone, enraged and rising, "do not make me +forget my intimacy with you of five years' duration." + +"You will not forget it--you will like me all the better for what I am +about to say. Besides it is nothing but humanity. You would not let +the poor woman die when you can save her?" + +"Again I ask you to stop," said Monte-Leone. + +"You are too late," said the Vicomte, taking another glass of wine. "I +drink to the Attala, the Ariana, the Psyche of our illustrious host, +to a charming widow we all admire, to _Madame de Bruneval_." + +One shout of joy burst from all. Monte-Leone felt a burden of trouble +lifted from him, and Taddeo breathed more freely. + +"Gentlemen," said Monte-Leone, resuming his _sangfroid_, "I protest +that I was not aware of the happiness with which I am menaced. Though +I do justice to the precious qualities of Mme. de Bruneval--to her +lofty virtue, with which all of you are familiar--I should be afraid +of following in the footsteps of the illustrious dead. Since, however, +the widow has been spoken of, I will propose a toast to the speedy +cure of her heart, provided I am not expected to become its surgeon." + +All drank; and amid the sound of their laughter, Giacomo entered, and +on a salver handed the Count a letter. "It is from Naples," said he; +and having opened, he read it. As he did so he grew pale. + +"Any bad news?" said Matheus. + +"No," said Monte-Leone, with an effort to restrain himself; "no, my +friends"--taking advantage of the temporary absence of the servants, +who had placed the dessert on the table, and who then retired, as is +the custom in all well regulated households--"No bad news to our +cause. This letter is on private business. I have another toast," said +he, in a lower tone. "To the brethren who are my guests to-day!" + +"To the absent!" said Taddeo. + +"Well, well," said Dr. Matheus, looking uneasily around; "let us have +done with toasts. As a doctor, I may speak. Too many of this kind may +endanger _our lives_," added he, emphasizing the last words. "Let us +enjoy the pleasures heaven has granted us. Our first masters in good +cheer, the Greeks and Romans, surrounded their tables with flowers and +crowned their cups with roses. Let us laugh, then, my friends, at +fools, intriguers, and apostates. Let us laugh at each other, and +especially at unreasonable d'Harcourt, who can drown his own mind in a +single bottle of champagne, and which makes him about as sensible as a +fly." + +The sallies and follies of after dinner followed this pompous harangue +of Matheus. Had any one witnessed this scene, they would have fancied +the actors a party of young mousquetaires of the regency, rather than +conspirators who aspired to convulse the world. When the guests of +Monte-Leone were gone, and only d'Harcourt, Matheus, and Taddeo +remained, the Count took his dispatch out of his bosom, and bade the +latter read it. It was as follows: + + + "NAPLES, September 10, 1819. + + "COUNT:--I am sorry to inform you that the banker Antonio + Lamberti, to whom you had confided your fortune, and with + whom you bade me deposit the price of your palace, sold for + six hundred thousand francs, has failed, and fled with all + your fortune. + + "Your respectful attorney, + + "GUISEPPE FARNUCCI." + + + +The three friends embraced Monte-Leone, and Von Apsberg said, "You +knew this, yet could share our gayety. Did you not say yourself +laughter is as necessary for digestion as it is to the heart?" + +"I fulfilled my duties of host to the letter. I needed all my courage, +though, having lost more than my fortune--my happiness. The morning's +papers will announce the failure of Antonio Lamberti, and all Paris +will know of the ruin of the brilliant Count Monte-Leone." + +With fortune, the Count had also lost the hope of happiness. The +widowhood of the Marquise de Maulear had revived all his hopes, as La +Felina had foreseen, and his rank and title enabled him again to +aspire to Aminta's hand. All this prospect his misfortune annihilated. +What had he to offer now to Aminta? The name, the eclat of which he +could sustain no longer--an existence endangered by a political plot, +the triumph of which was far from certain--sumptuous tastes, which he +would not be permitted to gratify--privations, especially cruel as +they would follow closely on luxury and opulence, of which he had, so +to say, built himself a temple. + +Ten months had passed by since the Marquis's death, and the grief of +his widow had been most sincere. Though Aminta had never entertained a +very profound love for her husband, she had been much attached to him +from a reason common enough: she was strong and he unusually weak. +When, therefore, a terrible vice had seized on him, and sought, as it +were, to wrest him from her arms, not a reproach had been uttered by +Aminta against the sacrifice of her money and his neglect to an +ignoble propensity. She forgave the gamester who was faithful to her, +and had wept over him when she would have had no tears for the +unfaithful husband. This soul so full of love was not slumbering in +the arms of marriage. The energetical character which Aminta had often +exhibited would, had it found traits of manhood properly expanded in +her husband, have possibly modified her feelings, if he had possessed +that burning imagination, that secret imagination which creates deep +love, and for which too she seemed to have been created. She might +have said this. She was too chaste to do so. Yet sometimes, in her +long and dreamy solitudes, an image rose before her, especially when +her husband was away. She dreamed of an exalted love, full of ardor +and devotion, indomitable courage, sacrifice of life to duty, a noble +and generous soul, which divined her own, and linked itself to it. All +this assumed the form of the man she had rejected, of whom she had +been afraid, and for her ingratitude to whom she now blushed. + +The Count had been received by Aminta, in the early months of her +widowhood, but he had refrained, from respectful motives, to allude to +his feelings. His visits to the Marquise were short and ceremonious, +feeling that love should not be veiled by the crape of mourning. Like +the Prince de Maulear, and all Paris in fact, Aminta had heard of the +Count's misfortune, and the blow made a deep impression on her. The +absence of the Count became prolonged. He had not visited her since +his misfortune, and she could not but feel a deep interest for him to +whom fate reserved such severe trials. One evening, when she was more +melancholy than usual, and sat in the saloon with her head leaning on +her hand, and dreaming over the incidents of her life in which +Monte-Leone had figured, she thought without remorse of scenes it had +been once her duty to forget. A stifled sigh escaped from her bosom, +and a kind of moan near her induced her to shake off her reverie. She +saw Scorpione lying at her feet as he used to, and looking fixedly and +sadly at her. + +Tonio, whom, like the children of Sorrento, we have often called +Scorpione, after having wandered along the sea-shore at the time of +Aminta's marriage, had been found exhausted on the sands, and been +taken to Signora Rovero, on the very day that Aminta set out for +France. Since then, vegetating rather than living with the mother of +Aminta, Signora Rovero was unwilling to trust her daughter's preserver +to servants, when she heard of the death of her son-in-law. Signora +Rovero had such delicate health as to be unable to bear the climate of +Paris, and had six months before returned to Italy; but Tonio was +unwilling to leave her, and yielding to his mute prayers, Aminta had +consented for him to remain, for his sufferings to save her had made a +deep impression on her. Tonio was in fact but the shadow of himself, +the soul alone seeming to support him. Even his soul was changed. +Fearful and timid when with Aminta, the passion the unfortunate boy +had once experienced for her became humble and respectful submission. +His very mind became extinct; and the only glimmerings of it now +seemed to be a kind of instinctive sympathy with his mistress. He +smiled when the Marquise did, and that was but rarely. He wept when +tears hung on her eyelids. When he looked as we have described at +Aminta, her sadness was perfectly mirrored on his face. Scorpione was, +in fact, less than man, and more than a brute--he was an idiot. + +"You suffer, because I suffer," said Aminta. + +He replied, "Yes." + +By one of those ideas which take possession of the time, but which it +shrinks to confess, she said in a weak and almost tender voice to the +idiot, as children do to toys, "If I were happy, would you be?" +Scorpione looked fixedly at her, as if trying to understand her; and +she added, "If any one loved me, and I loved him also, would you wish +me to be happy?" blushing as she spoke. + +Heavy tears rolled down his cheeks, and he said, taking Aminta's hand, +"Yes." + +"Poor child!" said she, with tears also, "once he loved me for his own +sake--now he loves me for my own." + +"Yes," said the idiot, hiding his face with his hands. + +Just then the Prince de Maulear was announced. + + +XVIII. THE KING. + +The Prince adored his daughter-in-law, and with tears in his eyes he +besought Signora Rovero not to take her from him. "Remember," said he, +"that I am old, and have but a few years more to live before I reach +the end of my journey, to which the death of my unfortunate son has +brought me years nearer. Do not, Signora, deprive me of the only being +I love on earth. Make this sacrifice to Rovero's friend. In his name I +ask you to do so. Have a little patience with the old man, and let +Aminta close his eyes. I will soon restore her to you." + +The mother made this sacrifice to the broken-hearted father, who +almost on his knees besought her to give him her daughter to replace +his lost son. In his suffering the Prince seemed to become doubly fond +of the young woman. Her own father could not have been more anxious to +spare her pain and to satisfy her least desires. + +"She is my Antigone," said he, proudly, to all who met him leaning on +the Marquise's arm. "I am, though, happier than Oedipus, for I can +look at and admire her." + +"When the Prince came into the drawing-room of his daughter he seemed +excited. The Marquise bade Scorpione leave her, and the idiot crawled +rather than walked to the door, through which he disappeared; not, +however, until he had cast one glance on the young woman, as if to +become satisfied that her features expressed neither menace nor anger. + +"Good and kind as ever," said the Prince to Aminta; "you certainly +appear to advantage with that hideous and deformed being. No one but a +person generous as you are would keep so awful a being by you." + +"To do so, father, I need only appeal to memory, and that will aid me. +I cannot forget that I am indebted to him for my life, and above all, +for the boon of being loved by you." + +"Certainly," said the Prince, "I know all that; but you might take +care of and watch over him, and make his life pleasant, without +keeping him ever before you. I, who am not at all timid, assure you +that I never see him without apprehension at your feet, hugging the +fire like a serpent to quicken the icy blood in his veins." + +"I will send him away if you wish me to." + +"I wish you to do as you please. That you know well enough, my child. +Keep the Scorpione, as you sometimes call him, and nurse up any +horrible monster you please besides, and I will think it charming, or +at least will not reproach you. My dear child, I have few amusements +for you, and now your life must be sad indeed." + +"No, no! dear father, I do not complain. The hotel is only sad when +you are not here." + +"Alas!" said the Prince, "there can be found but little interest in +one as old as I am, and so unhappy too. Listen to me, Aminta, it is +cruel to make children die before their parents. It reverses the order +of nature to see the flower wither while the parent stem is green. I +spoke to you of fate, because I was unwilling to mention God. Grief +makes us pious. I dare not object to your decrees." + +"Have you not yet a daughter?" said Aminta, passing her arm around the +Prince's neck; "have you not a daughter who loves you?" + +"Yes, yes, _my daughter_." The Prince laid an emphasis on the last +word. "You are now my only child, and I wish to secure your happiness; +and for that purpose will consecrate to you the remnant of my life. +Yet I do not know what to do." + +The young woman blushed--for perhaps she could have made a suggestion. +The Prince, though, did not remark it, and continued: + +"Our life is sadder even than it was. The friends of this world are +like bees who hover only around flowers when they bloom, and scorn +those which begin to wither. They avoid this house--" + +"All friends do not act thus," said Aminta, concealing her emotion; +"one of them, one who pleases you most, whom you love, Signor +Monte-Leone, often comes hither to see you alone--" + +"To see me?" said the Prince, looking shrewdly at his daughter-in-law; +"perhaps he comes to see you. Since, however, his misfortune, the +Count never comes near us. Perhaps he judges us incorrectly. He may +have fancied the loss of fortune involved the sacrifice of our +friendship. It is a bad judgment, and I say it with regret, of a bad +heart." + +"Ah father," said Aminta, "the Count must have had another reason to +keep him away." + +"Certainly," said M. de Maulear, "but these reasons have not kept him +from seeing me. During the last fortnight, I have been ten times to +his house. I am, however, glad he has acted thus, for his conduct will +diminish my sorrow at his departure--" + +"His departure?" said Aminta, unable to restrain an expression of +surprise. + +"His departure for Italy," said the Prince; "he was ordered this +morning, by the French government, to leave France within twenty-four +hours." + +"And why?" said Aminta. + +"He is accused," said Maulear, "of being concerned in some conspiracy +contrary to the safety of the country." + +"Ah, my God!" said the young woman, "then he is exiled and expelled +from the kingdom." + +"Decidedly; and he is forbidden ever to return." + +Aminta, as she heard these words, felt as if her heart would burst. +The Prince saw her agitation. + +"What is the matter my child?" said he. "Why are you so sad?" + +"Nothing, nothing, but a nervous attack, to which I am used." + +Maulear looked at the Marquise for a few moments, and then said: "My +child, there is no true love without confidence. My love gives me +sacred rights over you. Do not be afraid to confide in me. Let not +even the memory of the departed restrain you. You are twenty years of +age; and your life has not approached its end. I am now about to tell +you what I have often intended to: your happiness is the main object +of my life, and never forget that, whatever may be your name, I shall +always look on you as a daughter!" + +Aminta threw herself into the Prince's arms and hid there her tears of +gratitude and her blushes. De Maulear took his beautiful +daughter-in-law on his knee, as he would have taken a child, and then +lifting up Aminta's head with exquisite kindness, said: "Does he love +you?" + +"He did before I was married," said the young woman, looking down. + +"And since then?" + +"He has never spoken of love." + +"He should not have done so," said the Prince; "often, though, the +eyes say such things; and his, probably, are not inexpressive." + +Aminta did not reply. + +"All is clear," said the Prince; "the Count avoids us from a sentiment +of delicacy which does him honor. He has no longer reason to hope, +being ruined, for what, when rich, he would have given his life and +fortune." + +"He will go," said Aminta faintly. + +"He will not, he shall not go. This conspiracy is, after all, only one +of the phantoms ever arising before a terrified government. If the +really revolutionary mind of Count Monte-Leone has involved him, I +will promise to make him listen to reason, especially if you will aid +me--as for this order to leave so abruptly, I hope my arm is long +enough to interpose." + +"What then will you do?" asked Aminta, anxiously. + +"_Parbleu!_ I will go to the King himself--not to the ministers, but +to the KING--to GOD, not to the saints. Mind, for the proverb's sake +alone I apply that word to those gentry. The King is an old friend, a +brother in exile. I never asked a favor of him, though he has often +asked me to do so. We will see if he will refuse me." + +"But," said Aminta, "time is short." + +"Then," said the Prince, "to-morrow morning I will go to the +Tuileries, and we will see what the minister will say when he hears +Louis XVIII. say, _I will!_" + +"Think you he will say so?" + +"He must," said the Prince, kissing her; "for you and I say, _we +will_. What a woman wills----To-morrow you shall have good news." He +went away.... + +At that time the appearance of the Tuileries was very imposing. To the +forms of the empire had succeeded the more luxurious and aristocratic +ones of the restoration. + +The stern military garb of the Imperial Guard, and of the Dragoons of +the Empress, was replaced by the brilliant uniforms of the King's +body-guards, of the _hundred Swiss_, an old name now replaced by the +almost grotesque appellation of the _Gardes à pied ordinaires du corps +du roi_, a species of giants, commanded by the Count of Tisseuil, a +person only about four feet high, but an excellent soldier for all +that. Then came the Swiss, the Royal guard, and on days of public +ceremonies, the _Gardes de la Manche_, whose duty had special relation +to the religious ceremonies of the chapel of the palace. The reception +rooms, the great gallery, the hall of the marshals, glittered with +embroidered dresses, _cordons_, collars and orders of every kind, both +French and foreign. There were the stars of the empire--those of the +monarchy--Russian, English, Austrian, Italian--the stars of all +Europe. A large portion of the continent was in Paris. This portion +was the most brilliant of all; for having tasted of Parisian +refinement it was not at all anxious to return home. His majesty +Louis XVIII., dressed in blue and wearing the royal cordon of the +Saint Esprit, with his hair _a l'oisseu-royal_, and his legs hidden in +broad pantaloons, which concealed their size, with his feet in shoes +of buckskin, and pleasant and agreeable as ever, had been rolled by +his footman from the room where he breakfasted, to his study. MM. de +Blacas, d'Escars, and de Damas, his gentlemen in waiting, and many +courtiers, had followed his majesty's chair to the very door of his +study, where they paused. Then the human horses, who dragged the +chair, having turned him around _on his own pivot_, bore him into the +recesses of the room. The object of the manoeuvre we have described +was to place the King vis-a-vis to his courtiers, to whom he bowed +graciously. This was a signal for them to leave. The doors then closed +with not a little noise, and this was all the public knew of royal +life. Private matters, interviews with the ministers, audiences, had +particular modes of entrance leading to the King's rooms and office. +The latter was the sanctuary of royal thought, where great and petty +acts were consummated, and where many confessions and audiences had +been heard and given. There this literary King, better educated than +half of his academy, had made commentaries on many learned Latins, +especially on Horace. The King appropriated several hours of every day +to study. To derange the distribution of this time, to take him from +Juvenal, Tacitus, or Cicero, to discuss a plan of Villèle or Angles, +was almost high treason. One person alone dared to do this, and this +person was above law. The reason was, he was more powerful than the +King, having even majesty in subjection. The name of this man was +Father Elysée. It was his business to keep the King alive. This was, +as will be seen, a very important matter. + +This man went into the King's room without notice, and without even +tapping at his door. He did so, by virtue of the sovereign power of +the patient over the invalid--by virtue of science over suffering +humanity. The King, however, sometimes used to say, when Elysée made a +very _brusque_ entrance: "_I only wish one thing, that disease may not +break in on me brusquely as you do_." + +As a fine and acute courtier, as an old slouth-hound of the palace +with a keen scent, the Prince de Maulear went to Father Elysée for the +purpose of obtaining a speedy audience. + +"Is it you?" said the King, behind whom opened a door looking into the +reception room. + +"Yes," said the doctor, "I wish your majesty would not pay too much +attention to your Latin and study. Nothing injures the digestive +organs like study, especially after meals. Mind and matter then +contend, and the body is almost always overcome." + +"If I had to do only with my old friends, Horace and Petronius," said +the King, "my digestion would be all right. Unfortunately I have found +a few modern subjects well calculated to annoy Master Gaster--for the +vermin of Juvenal and Persius would be honey of Hymethus compared with +the bile of the books I speak of--" + +The King pointed out to the doctor a few open pamphlets which lay +about the table. + +"_Norman Letters. The Man in the Grey Coat_--MINERVA," said the +doctor, looking at them; "who dared to bring these books hither?" + +"My majesty dared. I am as good a doctor as you are, but I have more +patients. I have a whole nation to cure, and to administer a tonic we +must at least be aware of the debility. Look hither," said the King, +"here is an antidote to poison. _The Conservative_, edited by the most +learned doctors of the political faculty--by de Chateaubriand, de +Bonald, de Villèle, Fiévée. Castelbajac, and a certain Abbé de +Lamennais, an eloquent, sharp, and able man, I am sure, who has, +though, one fault, he is a greater royalist than his King." + +"And may I venture to ask your majesty how the works of Etienne, Jay, +Jony and company, came hither?" + +"Smuggled in," said Louis XVIII., with a smile; "F----, one of my +_valets de chambre_, whom I have placed at the head of what I call my +secret ministry, brings them to me. The fellow has taste. He said to +me the other day: '_I have something devilish good here. The +scoundrels do not spare your majesty_.' But," continued the King, "no +man can be great to his valet or his physician, and I will therefore +confess that the works of these liberal gentlemen trouble my digestion +not a little, and I wish my good friend the Duke d'Escars to bring me +back that _purée de cailles truffées_, of which he is the inventor. He +is the Prince of Gourmands." + +"Then," said Père Elysée, glad to be able thus to pass to the +principal object of his visit, "I am just in time to amuse your +majesty, and to announce the visit of one of your best friends--the +Prince de Maulear." + +"Just in time," said the King; "he is a gentleman of the old school, +and has chosen _for fifty years_ to be such. He yet believes in a King +of France, fully, perhaps more fully, than he does in God. He is a +true enemy of the Jacobins and Revolutionists. Tell him to come in, +doctor, and we will be able to bear up against the attacks of the +authors of those books." + +The doctor soon brought the Prince de Maulear, and then left. + +"Come in, my dear Prince," said the King; "you do not spoil your +friends, and I see you too rarely, as I see others too frequently, to +be able to forget you." + +Kings, however unpleasant they may be, have this analogy with the sun, +all come to warm themselves by his rays. + +"I thank your majesty for your kind reception." + +"You were my friend and shared my exile." + +"It was a sad season," said the Prince, sitting on the chair the King +pushed towards him. + +"Not so, Prince; then we had no cares and no enemies, above all we had +no court. We were independent, calm, and happy." + +"Perhaps you had health, but you had no crown." + +"Think you that a great misfortune?" + +"Perhaps not to your majesty, but it was to France." + +"How? Does our friend the Prince de Maulear, contrary to every +expectation, become a flatterer in his old age? In what part of the +Tuileries did he contract that disease? Listen, my dear de Maulear. +You as well as I know that _love of France_ is but a word. Once in +France, people loved the King--now, though, France above all other +things loves itself. This love is, if you please, egotistical, but +after all it is the only real positive good in this selfish age. Mind +I speak only of the owners, and therefore conservatives of the +kingdom. The other portion of the kingdom, anxious at any risk to +acquire, estimates the country cheaply. A few faithful hearts who +welcomed me as a Messiah expected for twenty years, true and noble +believers, looked on my return as the realization of their long and +secret hopes. To the majority of my people the Bourbon lily has been +only the olive-branch of peace purchased by twenty years of war. This +peace I would not have brought back by the bayonets of the Austrians +and Russians. But God, Buonaparte, and the Allies, so willed it. You +see, my dear Prince, that I am not mistaken in relation to my +subjects' love, and that the gems of a crown do not conceal its +thorns." + +"The King," said M. de Maulear, "at least deigns to reckon me among +the faithful subjects of whom he spoke just now?" + +"Yes, yes," said the King, "among the most faithful and most +disinterested. When I came back, there was established a very +partition of offices and places, or honors, titles, crosses and stars, +in which you took no part. Now you know you are one of those to whom I +could refuse nothing." + +"Well," said the Prince, "your majesty gives me courage to make one +request, to obtain which I come hither." + +"Bah!" said the King, "speak out my old friend, if the matter depends +on me--" + +"Cannot the King do any thing?" said the Prince. + +"The King can do very little," said Louis XVIII. + +"When your majesty says 'I will--'" + +"Others say, 'We will not.'" + +"Who will dare to use such language?" + +"The true Kings of France--the ministers--for they are responsible +while I am not. To tell the fact, though, I have credit with them and +will use it--" + +"Yet the King is King," said the Prince. + +"Ah, Prince!" said Louis XVIII, "I see plainly enough that you do not +read my books. What could you say worse to an author? Open the charter +and look--here it is: '_He reigns, but does not govern_.' This is my +Bible, my code--and I can accuse no one but myself, if I do sigh +sometimes. For all this emanates from me, and was conceived and +written by my own hand. Unfortunately," said he, with bitterness, "in +France every thing is interpreted literally." + +"The favor I ask your majesty to grant me will I hope be within your +reserved powers. Count Monte-Leone, a noble Neapolitan of my +acquaintance, has been accused, beyond doubt unjustly, of political +plots, and been abruptly ordered to leave France. I come to ask the +king to remit this mortification." + +"Ah, ah!" said Louis XVIII, gravely, "an anarchist. This is serious, +very serious. Perhaps the safety of the monarchy depends on this, as +the _Timid_[3] say. My dear brother retails a conspiracy a day to me; +perhaps, after all, he is not far wrong. I will see, Prince. I will +examine and consult a very important personage, without whom I cannot +act." + +"Will his Majesty," said the usher, who had just arrived, "receive the +prime minister?" + +"Exactly," said the King, "that is the person of whom I spoke." + +"Go in there," said the King to the Prince, pointing to the +waiting-room. "You shall have my, or rather his, answer, in a quarter +of an hour. The result though will be the same." + +The Prince obeyed, and his excellency the prime minister was received. + + +XIX. A REVELATION. + +The audience the King gave his prime minister lasted nearly an hour. +M. de Maulear began to grow impatient at his long delay, when the +usher came to tell him the King waited for him.... + +When the Prince entered, Louis XVIII. had a smile on his lips. A +skilful observer of countenances would however have remarked a shade +of malice. + +"You are then very fond of Count Monte-Leone?" said the King to the +Prince, again telling him to be seated. + +"Very, Sire," said the Prince. "Signor Monte-Leone is really a +nobleman, with old blood, a kind heart, brilliant mind, and elegant +manners. One of a race now rare. If your Majesty would but permit me +to present him to you--" + +"No, no," said the King; "I had rather not. Besides," continued he, +"with his reputation as a dreamer and a revolutionist, as an enemy of +our cousin Fernando of Naples--" + +"The Count is in the way of conversion, Sire; and if the important +person to whom your Majesty yields will suffer us to keep the Count in +Paris, I am sure we will soon be able to restore him to favor." + +"The _important person_," said Louis, with a smile, "was very much +inclined to send your dear friend to his own country. New information +in relation to this honorable and loyal noble," continued the King, +"has completely changed the intentions entertained in relation to +him." + +"Indeed," said the Prince, with delight; "and will your Majesty deign +to tell me what this information is?" + +"No, no, my dear friend. This is strictly a political question, which +cannot be divulged. One thing is certain, the Italian is no longer our +enemy, but is devoted to us. He is a lamb in a lion's hide. Not only +will we keep him in France, but will grant him immunity for all he may +do in future and has done as yet. Thus you see," said the King, "I +have done more than you asked." + +"Such kindness," said the Prince, "overwhelms me with pleasure and +gratitude." + +"Ah, Prince," said the King, ironically, "how you love your friends! +Yet distrust your heart in relation to these Italians. They are +cunning, and sometimes treacherous, but always mild and winning, so as +to lead astray our French honesty. They do not wear at their belt +their most dangerous stiletto, but have another between their jaws +which is often poisoned. God keep me from saying this of your dear +Count. I would not hurt him at all, but on the other hand wish him to +be well received and to be honored every where. This advice, however, +I wish you to consider general, and not with reference to any +particular case." + +"Count Monte-Leone," continued the Prince, "is worthy of your +Majesty's kindest wishes. He has only the noble qualities of his +nation, energy, enthusiasm, and courage. His is an exalted mind, which +a cruel family sorrow may for a time have led astray, but I will +answer for him as I would for myself." + +"Ah," said the King, "that is indeed saying much." + +"Not enough for his merit. I would be proud if I resembled him." + +At this the King could not repress his laughter, and the Prince looked +at him with surprise, and almost with anger. The King soon resumed. +"Excuse me, Prince, but you exhibited so extravagant an anxiety--no, +no, virtuous as Monte-Leone may be, I like you as you are. Do not +therefore envy his devotion, great as that may be to us. I like yours +best." + +"I will then tell the Count," said the Prince, "the favor your Majesty +has deigned to grant him." + +"No, no--not I. With affairs of that kind I have nothing to do. I +leave that honor to the minister. Adieu, Prince," said he, "and come +soon to see me again. Then ask something of me which may be worth +granting." The Prince bowed respectfully, and left. + +"Excellent man," said Louis XVIII., as he left. "He would have been +surprised had I told him.... That Italian has bewitched him...." + +On the evening before the day on which this scene took place, a man +wrote in his office by the light of a shaded lamp, which made every +thing but half visible. It was ten o'clock. A door opened, and an +officer of one of the courts appeared. M. H...., the chief of the +political police of whom we have already spoken, lifted up his head. + +"What is the matter? and who is now come to interrupt me?" said he, +with marked ill-humor. + +The officer who had come in, and who was a _Huissier_, said, "'The +Stranger,' and as Monsieur receives him always--" + +"Let him come in," said M. H...., eagerly. "You were right to announce +him." + +The person whom we have previously seen with a mask at the house of M. +H...., entered, and looked carefully around to see that he was with +the Chief of Police alone. Many months had passed, and all we have +described had taken place. For since then, we have gone, like a sound +logician, backwards, in order to expose our _data_ distinctly before +we proceed to define their consequences. Now the first appearance of +the masked man in the cabinet of M. H.... coincided with the painful +scene in which Taddeo Rovero had crushed the hopes of the Duchess of +Palma by revealing to her the probability of the marriage of +Monte-Leone and Aminta. + +"Monsieur," said the stranger to M. H...., "have I kept my promise?" + +"Yes," said H.... + +"Have I unfolded the plot of Carbonarism?" + +"You have satisfied me of the existence of the French Venta, and of +their identity with those of Italy and Spain. We have written to the +police of those nations, and all was discovered to be exact, so that +in a few days the governments of those countries will have acted." + +"Have I named you the chief Carbonari in Paris?" + +"You have." + +"Have I given you their secret notes and books?" + +"In relation to that, I am but partially satisfied, but I do not need +the copies but the documents themselves, in the handwriting of their +authors." + +"You will have them--but there is an Italian proverb, _Chi va piano, +va sano! e chi va sano, va lontano_. I told you the fruit was not yet +ripe. I think, however, the time is approaching to gather it, and in a +month I will--" + +"But," said H...., "does not this delay endanger all? May they not +act, while we pause?" + +"Do you wish to know by your own observation who are the +conspirators?" said the stranger. + +"I do," said H.... + +"Do you wish to see--to hear them?" + +"Yes, and to arrest them." + +"Not yet--it is too soon. While your fowlers entrapped a few +fledgelings the rest of the covey would escape." + +"How can I see and hear them?" + +"I alone can enable you to do so, or rather not I, but the person +whose agent I am." + +"And when?" said M. H...., impatiently. + +"In three days. It is, however, first necessary to repair a grave +error which endangers all our hopes." + +"What fault?" + +"The Minister of the Interior," continued the man, "has ordered three +foreigners, a German, a Spaniard, and an Italian, to leave France. +Those persons are Dr. Spellman of Berlin, the Duke D.... of Madrid, +and Count Monte-Leone of Naples." + +"True," said M. H.... "This is at the request of the ministers of +those three nations." + +"Well," said the mysterious man, "it must be at once revoked." + +"Why?" + +"Because, if one of these men leave Paris, you have nothing to expect +from me." + +"What say you?" asked H...., with surprise. + +"I am," said the stranger, in a low tone, "as I told you, the agent of +one of those strangers. In his name alone I can tell you what you are +so anxious to know--without him I can do nothing. The elevated +position of this man, his rank, his connection with Carbonarism, +enable him to hear and know all. Without him I am reduced to silence +and inertness; for I repeat to you, that he is the thought of which I +am the action. Destroy him, and the other is valueless, and you return +to ignorance--become especially dangerous as the time approaches for +the mine to explode beneath your feet and those of the French +monarchy." + +"Why not name that man? why does he not name himself?" + +"Because he wishes to preserve his reputation--because he would rather +die than avow his services." + +"Ah, indeed!" said H.... "The matter is difficult. The minister will +not revoke these orders: for, while one of the men ceases to be an +enemy of the country, the other two yet are." + +"More than two--twenty of the most powerful, and two hundred thousand +others to follow them." + +"But what interest," asked M. H...., who hoped to arrive by a round +about way at a discovery of the one of the three, the presence of whom +was so necessary at Paris. "What reason can your _patron_ have to +serve us, if he asks for neither gold, place, nor favor?" + +"A far deeper interest than any of them. That I can confide to +you--revenge." + +"On whom?" + +"His associates--ungrateful men, who have humiliated him in his +self-esteem." + +"How?" + +"That is my secret and his." + +"Well," said H...., "I can understand that. Hatred and revenge make as +many informers as cupidity. Our criminal archives prove that." + +"Well, to the purpose." + +"All three will leave Paris to-morrow." + +"Then with one of them will go the safety of France. His name must be +a mystery. Revoke the orders, so that our man may remain, unless you +prefer by their departure to break the only thread to guide you in +this inextricable labyrinth." + +"But you are here," said H...., unable to repress his anger, and +wearied of the bravado and menaces of the man. "What can be obtained +neither by money nor by persuasion, is often to be had by rigor." + +"Very well, Monsieur," said the stranger. "I forgot I was in a country +of treason, and you forget that you swore to use neither violence nor +trickery. You can act as you please. I will however tell you what will +be the result of your investigations. I am an humble man, and belong +to my employer as the body does to the soul, as the hand does to the +arm. It will be useless to follow me, for I have no objection to tell +you whither I go. You may inquire into my past life; that will be +vain, for I will tell you all. You may inquire into my resources, but +you will lose your time, for I will satisfy you myself. There, +however, you will lose your guide--all else will be a mystery to you, +my relations with this man being of such a nature that God alone knows +them. They can be penetrated only by my consent." + +"Listen to me," said M. H...., changing his tone: "I was wrong--I was +wrong to menace you, for I am weak, and you are strong. I have +nothing, and you have every thing. I have only control of a few people +whom I suspect, unauthenticated documents, and mere suspicions. In a +time when party spirit runs as high as it does now, after the too +frequent mistakes of our police, we must act on facts and evidence. I +see that I need you. My power, however, gives way to that of another, +and the minister alone can revoke the order of expulsion. Perhaps I +may be able to cause him to revoke it, but I must enforce that demand +by a serious motive, and must satisfy him of the necessity of +resisting the demands of the allied sovereigns, and of keeping two +dangerous men in Paris as the price of one useful one. I now +understand the meaning of the mystery which surrounds your patron, +and to prevent suspicion there must be three pardons. Give me then an +argument which cannot be contradicted. Give me the name which you now +keep secret. You know that I have kept my first oath with you, and I +swear the minister alone shall be informed of the secret." + +As he listened to M. H..., the stranger thought profoundly. He then +seemed to adopt an energetic resolution, and uttered these strange +words--"True, the higher the eminence from which a body falls, the +more crushing the blow." + +"What do you say?" said H... + +"That your idea is correct, and changes my plan. When I came hither, I +thought your will alone could correct the mistake which has been made. +I now see it cannot, and have made up my mind. Sit there," said he to +H...., who was astonished at his unceremonious tone, "sit there." He +pointed out an arm-chair before the desk. + +"What do you want now?" said H.... + +"What the favor you have asked from me authorizes me to demand. An +arm," said he, "the blows of which cannot be parried. I wish you to +sign me a letter of mark or a pass, as you please to call it, which +permits those whom you employ to pass without disturbance." + +"Beautiful!" said M. H...., with a smile; "now I understand you." + +He wrote: "I recognize as a member of my police, employed by me, +Monsieur...." He paused, and looked anxiously at the stranger. The +latter leaned towards the Chief of Police, and in so low a tone that +H.... could scarcely hear him, uttered a name which made the latter +drop his pen. He however rallied himself, and wrote down the name. +This document he afterwards authenticated by the seal of the police, +and gave to the stranger. + +"This is well," said the latter, as he received it. "Now be quick, for +time presses, and the three persons will in a few hours have left +Paris."... + +When the man had left, and was alone, an atrocious smile appeared on +his lips. This smile, however, was interrupted by an acute pain in his +left arm. Then taking the paper which H.... had given him, he placed +it on the wound, and said, "This is a cure for a wound I thought +incurable--for steel and poison." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Continued from page 504, vol. iii. + +[3] At this time one or the ultra-royalist factions, called _Les +Timides_. + + + + +From Fraser's Magazine. + +A TROT ON THE ISLAND. + +BY CHARLES ASTOR BRISTED. + + +Ashburner did leave Oldport, after all, before the end of the season, +being persuaded to accompany a countryman and schoolmate of his (whom +he had last seen two years before in Connaught, and who now happened +to pass a day at Oldport, on his way Canada-ward from the south) in a +trip to the White Mountains of New-Hampshire; though his American +acquaintances, especially the ladies, tried hard to dissuade him from +starting before the grand fancy ball, with which the season +terminated, assuring him that most of "our set" would come back, if +only for that one night, and that it would be a very splendid affair, +and so forth. Nature had more charms for him than art, and he went +away to New Hampshire, making an appointment with Benson by letter to +meet him at Ravenswood early in September. But a traveller cannot make +sure of his movements a fortnight ahead. On his return from the White +Mountains, Ashburner had his pocket picked at a railway station (these +little incidents of highly civilized life are beginning to happen now +and then in America. The inhabitants repudiate any native agency +therein, and attribute them all to the swell-mob emigrants from +England), and, in consequence, was obliged to retrace his steps as far +as New-York to visit his banker. Almost the first person he ran +against in the street was Harry Benson. + +"This _is_ an unexpected pleasure!" exclaimed the New-Yorker. "I never +thought to see you here, and you, I presume didn't expect to see me." +Ashburner explained his mishap. "Well, I meant to go straight over to +Ravenswood after the ball, but we had to come home--all of us this +time--on business. Lots of French furniture arrived for our town +house. Mrs. B. couldn't rest till she had seen it all herself, and had +it properly arranged. So here have I been five days, fussing, and +paying, and swearing (legally, you understand, not profanely) at the +custom-house, and then 'hazing'--what you call slanging upholsterers; +and now that the work is all over, I mean to take a little play, and +am just going over to see Lady Suffolk and Trustee trot on the island. +Come along. It's a beautiful drive of eight miles, and I have a +top-wagon. It is to meet me at the Park in a quarter of an hour." +Ashburner assented. "I want to buy some cigars; you have no objection +to accompany me a moment." + +So they turned down one of the cross-streets running out of the lower +part of Broadway (which, it may be here mentioned, for the benefit of +English readers and writers, is not called _the_ Broadway), and +entered a store five or six stories high, with two or three different +firms on each floor; and Benson led the way up something between a +ladder and a staircase into a small office, with "Bleecker Brothers" +dimly visible on a tin plate over the door. Three-fourths of the +apartment were filled up with all manner of inviting samples, every +wine, liquor, and liqueur under the sun, in every variety of bottle or +vial, thick with the dust of years, or open for immediate tasting; and +through the dingy panes of a half glass door a multitudinous array of +bottles might be seen loading the numerous shelves of a large +store-room beyond. In a small clearing at one corner, where a small +desk was kept in countenance by a small table, and three or four old +chairs, with a background of shelves groaning under the choicest +brands of the fragrant weed, sat the presiding deities of the +place--the two little Bleeckers--the dark brother of thirty-five, and +the light brother of twenty, like two sketches of the same man in +chalk and charcoal; both elegantly dressed--white trousers, patent +leather shoes, exuberant cravats, massive chains, and all the usual +paraphernalia of young New-York--altogether looking as much in place +as a couple of butterflies in an ant-hill. + +"Good morning, gentlemen," said Benson. "Here's our friend Ashburner," +and he pushed forward the Englishman. The brothers rose, laid down the +morning journals over which they had been lounging, and welcomed the +stranger to their place of business. "What's the news this morning?" + +"Nothing at all, I believe," replied the elder. "South Carolina has +been threatening to dissolve the Union again--and that's no news. +Stay, did you see this about Bishop Hughes and Sam Thunderbolt, the +Native American member of Congress from Pennsylvania?" + +"I haven't seen even a newspaper for the last three days." + +"Well, '+ John of New-York,'--_cross John_, as your brother Carl used +to call him--was in the same rail-car with Thunderbolt, coming from +Philadelphia to New-York; and the Congressman didn't know who he was, +but probably suspected he was a priest." + +"Yes, you can generally tell a priest by his looks. Even an +intelligent horse will do that. Once I was riding with one of our +bishops near Boston, and his nag shied suddenly at a man in a +broad-brimmed hat. Says the right reverend (we don't call 'em 'my +lord' in this country, you know, Ashburner), 'I shouldn't wonder if +that was a Romish priest;' and we looked again, and it was. There was +a Protestant horse for you! What a treasure he would have been to an +Orangeman!" + +"So Thunderbolt began to abuse the Roman Catholics generally, and the +priests particularly, and that brawling bigot Johnny Hughes most +particularly. Hughes, who is a wary man, polite and self-possessed, +sat through it all without saying a word; till another gentleman in +the car asked Thunderbolt if he knew who that was opposite him. He +didn't know. 'It's Bishop Hughes,' says the other, in a half whisper. +'Are you Bishop Hughes?' exclaims the native, quite off his guard. +'They call me so,' answered the other, with a quiet smile, expecting +to enjoy the humiliating confusion of his denouncer; and the other +passengers shared in the expectation, and were prepared for a titter +at Thunderbolt's expense. But instead of attempting any apology, or +showing any further embarrassment, he pulled out an eyeglass, and +after looking at the Jesuit through it for some time, thus announced +the result of his inspection--'Oh, you are, are you? Well, you're just +the kind of looking loafer I should have expected Johnny Hughes to +be.'" + +"I don't believe Hughes was much disconcerted either," said the elder +brother; "he doesn't lose his balance easily. I never heard of his +being put out but once, and that was when Governor Bouck met him. He +was a jolly old Dutchman, Mr. Ashburner, who used to go about +electioneering, and asking every man he came across--how he was, and +how his wife and family were. When Bishop Hughes was introduced to +him, they thought the governor would know enough to vary the usual +question a little; but he didn't, and asked after the Romish bishop's +wife and family with all possible innocence; and Hughes, for once in +his life, was nonplussed what to answer." + +"Ah, but you haven't told the end of that," put in Benson. "When the +governor's friends tried to explain to him the mistake he had made, +and the category the Romish ecclesiastics were in, he said, 'O yas, I +see, I should have asked after de children only, and said nossing +about de woman.' As you say, Hughes generally has his wits about him, +no doubt. He played our custom-house a trick that they will not forget +in a hurry. Soon after General Harrison and the Whigs came in, and +Curtis was made collector of our port, there arrived a great lot of +what the French call _articles de religion_, robes, crucifixes, and +various ornaments, for Hughes' cathedral. Now these were all French +goods, and subject to duty, and a notification to that effect was sent +to the proper quarter. Down comes Hughes in a great rage. 'Mr. Curtis, +Mr. Curtis, we never had to do this before. Your predecessor, Mr. +Hoyt, always let our articles of religion in free of duty.' 'Can't +help what my predecessor, Mr. Hoyt, used to do,' says Curtis; 'the law +is so and so, as I understand it, and these articles are subject to +duty. If you like, you may pay the duties under protest, and bring a +suit against Uncle Sam[4] to recover the money.' (You see, the Loco +Focos had always favored the Romish priests to get the Irish vote. The +Whigs didn't in those days--it was before our side had been corrupted +by Seward, and such miserable demagogues; and Curtis wasn't sorry to +see his political opponent the Bishop in a tight place.) After Hughes +had blustered awhile, and found it did no good, he tried the other +tack, and began to expostulate. 'Is there no way at all, Mr. Curtis,' +says he, 'by which these articles may be passed, free of duty?' 'None +at all,' says the other, 'unless'--and he paused, hardly knowing +whether it would do to hint at such a thing, even in jest--'unless, +bishop, you are willing to swear that these are _tools of your +trade_.' 'And sure they are that!' quoth Hughes, snapping him up, +'bring on your book;' and he had the goods sworn through in less than +no time, before Curtis could recover himself." + +"Not a bad hit," said the Englishman. "Tools of his trade! So they +were, sure enough; but one would not have expected him to own it so +coolly." + +"Unless there was something to be got by it," continued Benson. "Now +this is true--every word of it, though it _has_ been in the +newspapers; and the way I came to find it out was this. One day I saw +in the advertising columns of the _Blunder and Bluster_, a circular +from the _Secretary of the Treasury_, stating that 'crucifixes, +whether of silver or copper, images, silk and velvet vestments, and +theological books, did not come under the head of _tools of trade_, +but were subject to duty.' It was a funny looking notice, and there +was evidently something behind it; so I took the trouble to inquire, +and found that the cause of the order was this clever stroke of +Hughes. Going to the trot to-day?" + +The younger brother was going, and it was near the time when he +expected his wagon. Dicky wasn't. He had given up trots ten years +ago--thought them low. + +"Give me a few cigars before we go," said Benson. "What have you here +that's first rate? Carbagal, Firmezas, Antiguëdad. H--m. I'll take a +dozen Firmezas, and you may send me the rest of the box." + +"Don't you want some champagne--veritable Cordon Bleu--only fourteen +dollars a dozen, and a discount if you take six cases?" + +"And if you wish to secure some tall Lafitte, we bought some odd +bottles at old Van Zandt's sale the other day. You remember drinking +that wine at Wilson's last summer?" + +Benson remembered it perfectly, and would take the Lafitte by all +means. "Put that down, Mr. Snipes;" and for the first time, Ashburner +was aware of the clerk--a very young gentleman, who appeared from +behind the desk, and booked the order at it. "And how about the +champagne?" + +"_J'y penserai._ Time to go. _Vamos._" And Benson carried off his +friend. + +"You were a little taken aback, weren't you?" he asked, as they went +in quest of the wagon. "When you saw these men figuring in the German +cotillion, and helping to lead the fashion at Oldport, you hardly +expected to encounter them in such a place. Well, now, let me tell you +something that will astonish you yet more. So far from its being +against these brothers in society that they are, what you would call +in plain English a superior order of grocers, it is positively in +their favor; that is to say, they are more respected, better received, +and stand a better chance of marrying well, than if they did nothing. +They might do nothing if they chose. They had enough to live very well +on _en garçon_. The Bleeckers are of our best known and most +thoroughly respectable families. The sons had no taste for books; they +have a very good taste for wine and cigars, and have undertaken what +they are best fit for. It's better than being nominal lawyers?" + +"Pecuniarily, no doubt; but is it as good for the whole development of +the man? Was it you, or your friend Harrison, who instanced Richard +Bleecker as a man who had made no progress in any thing manly for +fifteen years?" + +"That is the fault of his natural disposition, which would not be +bettered by his making believe to be a professional man, or being an +avowedly idle one. He is frivolous and ornamental for a part of his +time--during the rest, he has his business to occupy him. If he had +not that, he would spend all his time in elegant idleness, and know no +more than he does now. His pursuits bring him in money, which will be +a comfort to his wife and family when he marries--though, to be sure, +he is rather ancient for that; a single man at thirty-five is with us +a confirmed old bachelor. But his brother is in a fair way to form a +nice establishment." + +"Now tell me another thing. Suppose the Bleeckers had chosen to become +jewellers, or merchant tailors--they might be good judges of either +business, and make money by it--how would that affect their position?" + +"Unfavorably, I confess," replied Benson. "But we Gothamites have so +thorough a respect for, and appreciation of, good wine and cigars, +that the importation of them is considered particularly laudable." + +Any further discussion was stopped by their arrival at that dreary +triangular square (_more hibernico loqui_) called the Park, where +Benson's wagon awaited him--not the red-wheeled one; this vehicle was +of a uniform dark green, furnished with a top (a desirable appendage +when the thermometer stands 85° in the shade,) and lined throughout +with drab. The ponies were carefully enveloped to the very tips of +their ears in white fly-nets. As the groom saw Benson approaching, he +put himself and the top through a series of queer evolutions, which +ended in the latter being lowered--a very necessary operation, to +allow any one to get in with comfort; and after Benson and Ashburner +were in, he put it up again with some ado, and then went his way, the +concern only holding two. Then Benson turned the wagon round by +backing and locking, and making it undergo a series of contortions as +if he wanted to double it up into itself, and run over himself with +his own wheels, and drove to the Fulton Ferry; for to arrive at the +Centreville Course on Long Island--familiarly designated as _the_ +island--you first pass through Brooklyn, that trans-Hudsonian suburb +of New York, which thirty years ago was a miserable little village, +and now contains upwards of ninety thousand inhabitants. + +"And how did the ball go off?" asked Ashburner, as they rolled up the +main avenue of Brooklyn, at the slowest possible trot, according to +the well known rule, always to take a fast horse easy over pavement. +On board the ferry-boat there had not been much conversation, the +horses being so worried by the flies as to require all Benson's +attention. + +"Oh, it was rather a _fiasco_, but we had some fun. Some predicted +that the fashionables would come back, but they didn't, except a few +of the young men; and all of our set that were there threatened to go +out of costume; but then we recollected that would have been a very +Irish way of serving out Mr. Grabster, as by the established +regulation in such cases, we should have had to pay double for +tickets; so most of us took sailors' or firemen's dresses--the +cheapest and commonest disguises we could get; and the ladies made +some trivial addition to their ordinary ball-dresses--a wreath or a +few extra flowers--and called themselves brides, or Floras, and so on. +And some of the crack Bostonians blasphemed the expense, and went in +plain clothes. So we had the consolation of making fun of all the +outsiders, and their attempts at costume--such supernumeraries as most +of them were! And none of the _comme-il-faut_ people would serve on +the committee, so Grabster had nobody to get up the room in proper +style, and it looked like a 'Ripton' ball-room; and _The Sewer_ +reporters were there, in all their glory. The Irishman had borrowed or +stolen a uniform somewhere, and the Frenchman was appropriately +arrayed in red as a devil, and he went about taking notes of all the +people's dresses, especially the ladies'; and as our ladies were not +in costume, he thought he must have something to do with them, and so +presented some of them with bouquets, which they wouldn't take, of +course; and the young men trod on his toes and elbowed him off till he +swore he would put them all in his paper. And we danced away, +notwithstanding _The Sewer_ and all its works. Tom Edwards was +accoutred as Mose the fireman, and Sumner had an old French +_débardeur_ dress of his, just the thing for the occasion, only his +shoes were too big; and after tripping up himself and his partner four +times, he kicked them off clean into the orchestra, and fearfully +aggravated the fiddlers; and he took it as coolly as he does every +thing--put on a pair of ordinary boots, and was polking away again in +five minutes. And we kept it up till two in the morning, polka +chiefly, with a sprinkling of _deuxtemps_, and then had a very bad +supper, and some very bad wine, of Mr. Grabster's providing--genuine +New Jersey champagne. How we looked after the dancing! Sumner's +_débardeur_ shirt might have been wrung out, it was so wet; and Mrs. +Harrison--she had got herself up as Undine--was dripping enough for +half-a-dozen water-nymphs; and Miss Friskin had a shiny green silk +dress; we had been polking together, and my white waistcoat, and +pants, and cravat, were all stained green, as if I had been playing +with a gigantic butterfly. And then after supper, when there was no +one but our German cotillion set left, and just as we had put the +chairs in order, the musicians struck work, and would not play any +more (you know what an impracticable, conceited, obstinate brute a +third-rate German musician is), saying they were only bound to play +just so long; so I gave them a good slanging in their own tongue (I +know German enough to blow up a man, and a fine strong language it is +for the purpose); and White swore it was too bad, and Edwards tried to +make them a conciliatory speech--only he was too tipsy to talk +straight; and Sumner offered them fifty dollars to go on playing. +Thereupon, up and spake the big bass-viol,--'We ton't want your money; +we want to be dreated like chentlemens;' and then Frank lost his +temper. 'I'll treat you,' says he; and with that he delivered right +and left into the bass-viol, and knocked him through his own +instrument; and then some one knocked Sumner over the head with a +trombone;--then we all set to, and gave the musicians their change (we +owed them a little before, for it wasn't the first time they had been +saucy to us,) and we thrashed them essentially, and comminuted a few +of their instruments. And half-a-dozen of the Irish waiters came out, +with their sleeves rolled up, to fight for the honor of the house, and +protect Mr. Grabster's property--meaning the musicians, I +suppose;--and Haralson of Alabama, one of your regular +six-feet-two-in-his-stockings South Western men, who had come North to +learn the polka, and become civilized--Haralson pulled out a Bowie and +swore he would whistle them up if they didn't make themselves scarce. +By Jove! you should have seen the Paddies scud! And I caught _The +Sewer_ reporter (the Irish one) in the _mêlée_, and let him have a +kick that landed him in the middle of the floor, telling him he might +put that into his next letter, and afterwards go to a place worse even +than _The Sewer_ office. Then, after all the enemy were fairly routed, +we adjourned to my parlor. I had some good champagne of my own, and a +_pâté_ or two, and some Firmezas, and we held a jolly revel till four +o'clock, and then the ladies retired, and we quiet married men did the +same, and the boys went to fight the tiger, and Edwards lost 1400 +dollars, and some of them took to running foot-races for a bet on the +post-road. Haralson outran all the rest--and his senses too--and was +found next evening about five miles up the road with no coat or hat, +and one stocking off and the other stocking on, like my son John in +the nursery rhyme, and his watch and purse gone. And _The Sewer_ and +_Inexpressible_ said that it was the most brilliant ball that had +occurred within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. And that's a +pretty fair synopsis of the whole proceedings." + +By this time they were off the pavement,--a change very sensible and +desirable to man and horse, for an American pavement is something +beyond imagination or description, and must be experienced to be +understood. The ponies, without waiting for the word, went off on +their long steady stroke at three-quarters speed, and though the day +was warm and the road heavy, stepped over the first three miles in +twelve minutes, as Benson took care to show Ashburner by his watch. +They challenged wagon after wagon, but no one seemed inclined to race +at this stage of the proceedings, and they glided quietly by every +thing. Only once was heard the sound of competing feet, when a black +pacer swept up, with two tall wheels behind him, and a man +mysteriously balanced between them. "After the sulky is manners," said +Harry, slackening his speed, and giving the pacer a wide berth; and +the man on the wheels whizzed by like a mammoth insect, and was soon +lost to view amid a cloud of dust. + +And now they arrived at a tavern where the owners of "fast crabs" were +wont to repose, to water their horses, and brandy-and-water +themselves. The former operation is performed very sparingly, the +supply of liquid afforded to the animals consisting merely of a +spongeful passed through their mouths; the latter is usually conducted +on more liberal principles. But as our friends felt no immediate +desire to liquor, Benson amused himself while the horses rested by +putting down his top, for the sky had slightly clouded over,--a +favorable circumstance, he remarked, for the trot. Just as he was +starting his ponies, with a chirrup, a tandem developed itself from +under the shed, and its driver greeted him with a friendly nod. + +"Good afternoon, Mr. Losing," quoth Harry, raising his whip-hand in +answer to the salute; then, _sotto voce_ to Ashburner, "a Long-Island +fancy man: lots of money, and no end of fast horses." + +Mr. Losing had a thin hatchety face, and a very yellow complexion, +with hair and beard to match. He wore a yellow straw-hat, and a +yellowish-gray summer paletot, with yellowish-brown linen trousers. +His light gig (of the kind technically called a double-sulky) was +painted a dingy yellow-ochre; the horses were duns, the fly-nets drab, +and what little harness there was, retained the original law-calf +color of its leather; in short, the whole concern had a general +pervading air of dun, which but for the known wealth of its owner +might have been suggestive of unpleasant Joe-Millerisms. The only +exception was his companion, a gay horse-dealer and jockey, who acted +as amateur groom on this occasion. Mr. Van Eyck had sufficient +diversity of color in his dress to relieve the monotony of a whole +landscape,--blue coat and gilt buttons, lilac waistcoat and ditto, red +cravat and red-striped check shirt, white hat and trousers. His +apparel might have been a second-hand suit of Bird Simpson's. As the +gig came out close at the wheels of the wagon, the two whips +interchanged glances, as much as to say, "Here's at you!" and "Come +on!" and Losing tightened his reins; then, as his leader ranged up +alongside Benson's horses, the latter drew up his lines also, and the +teams went off together. + +A good team race is more exciting to both the lookers-on and the +performers than any contest of single horses; there is twice as much +noise, twice as much skill in driving, and apparently greater speed, +though in reality less. Neither had started at the top of their gait, +but they kept gradually and proportionally crowding the pace, till +they were going about seventeen miles an hour, and at that rate they +kept for the first half-mile exactly in the same relative position as +they had started. No one spoke a word; the close contact of horses in +double harness excites them so, that they require checking rather than +encouragement; but Benson with a rein in his hand was feeling every +inch of his ponies, and watching every inch of the road. Losing sat +like a statue, and his horses seemed to go of themselves. Then, as the +ground began to rise, Losing drew gradually ahead, or rather Benson's +team came back to him; still it was inch by inch; in the next quarter +the wheeler instead of the leader was alongside the other team, and +that was all Losing had gained. Then Harry, with some management, got +both reins into one hand, and lifted his nags a little with the whip. +At the same time Losing altered his hold for the first time, and shook +up his horses. There was a corresponding increase of speed in both +parties, which kept them in the same respective position, and so they +struggled on for a little while longer, till just before the road +descended again, Benson made another effort to recover his lost +ground. In so doing, he imprudently loosened his hold too much, and +his off horse went up. + +The moment Firefly lost his feet Benson threw his whole weight upon +the horses, and hauled them across the road, close in behind Losing's +gig, the break having lost him just a length, so that when they struck +into their trot again they were at the Long-Islander's wheel. Down the +hill they went, faster than ever; the wagon could not gain an inch on +the gig, or the gig shake the wagon off. But Losing had manifestly the +best of it, as all his dust went into the face of Benson and +Ashburner, enveloping and powdering them and their equipage +completely. Their only consolation was, that they were bestowing a +similar one on every wagon that they passed. As both teams were +footing their very best, Benson's only chance of getting by was in +case one of the tandems should happen to break, a chance which he +kept ready to take advantage of. By and by the leader went up, but +Losing, who had his horses under perfect command, let him run a little +way, and caught him again into his trot without losing any thing. +Nevertheless Benson, who had seen the break, made a push to go by, and +with a great shout crowded his team up to the wheeler, but there they +broke,--this time both horses,--and before he could bring them down he +was two lengths in the rear. Then Losing drew on one side, and +slackened his speed, and Benson also pulled up almost to a walk. + +"His double sulky is lighter than my wagon," said Harry, "even without +the top, and the top makes fifty pounds difference. The machine is +built a little heavier than the average, purposely because it rides +easier, and shakes the horses less when there are inequalities in the +road, so that besides being pleasanter to go in, a team can take it +along about as fast as any thing lighter for a short brush, but when +the horses are so nearly equal, and you have some miles to go on a +heavy road, the extra weight tells. However, it is no disgrace to be +beaten by Losing, any way, for his horses are his study and +_specialité_. Every fortnight the bolts and screws of his wagon are +re-arranged; his collars fit like gloves; he has a particular kind of +watering-pot made on purpose to water his horses' legs. Every trifle +is rigorously attended to. You ought to visit his, or some other +sporting man's stable here, just to note the difference between that +sort of thing with us and with you. Instead of hunters and +steeple-chasers, you will see fine trotters together that can all beat +2´ 50´´." + +The road happened just then to be pretty clear, so they proceeded +leisurely for some miles further, till just as they were quitting the +turnpike for a lane which led to the course, the rattle of wheels and +the shouts of drivers came up behind them. Benson, not disposed to +swallow any more of other people's dust if he could help it, waked up +his horses at once, and they clattered along the lane, up hill and +down, and over a railroad track, and past numerous wagons, at a faster +rate than ever. "_Do_ get out of the way!" shouted Henry to one +primitive gentleman, with a very tired horse, who was occupying +exactly the centre of the road. "You go to ----." The individual +addressed was probably about to say something very bad, when Benson, +who was a moral man, and had the strongest wheels, cut short any +possible profanity for the moment by driving slap into him, and +knocking him into the ditch, with the loss of a spoke or two. This +collision hardly delayed their speed an instant; and though some of +the pursuers were evidently gaining, no one overhauled them for +three-quarters of a mile, at the end of which Starlight and Firefly +swept proudly up to the course, with a long train in their rear. + +All the vicinity of the Centreville Course--not the stables and sheds +merely, but the lanes leading to it, the open ground about it, the +whole adjacent country, one might almost say--was covered with wagons +stowed together as closely as cattle in a market. If it had been +raining wagons and trotters the night before just over the place, like +showers of frogs that country editors short of copy fill a column +with, or if they had grown up there ready harnessed, there could not +have been a more plentiful supply. Wagons, wagons, wagons everywhere, +of all weights, from a hundred and eighty pounds to four hundred, with +here and there a sulky for variety--horses of all styles, colors, and +merits--no sign of a servant or groom of any kind, but a number of +boys, mostly blackies, about one to every ten horses, who earned a few +shillings by looking after the animals, and watching the carpets, +sheets, and fly-nets. The only other movables, the long-handled +short-lashed whips, were invariably carried off by their proprietors. +Whips and umbrellas are common property in America; they are an +exception to the ordinary law of _meum_ and _tuum_, and strictly +subject to socialist rules. Woe to the owner of either who lets his +property go one second out of his sight! + +"Now then, Snowball!" quoth Benson, as a young gentleman of color +rushed up on the full grin, stimulated to extra activity by the +recollection of the past and the vision of prospective +"quarters,"--"take care of the fliers, and don't let any one steal +their tails! I ought to tell you," he continued to Ashburner, leading +the way towards the big, dilapidated,[5] unpainted, barn-like +structure, which appeared to be the rear of the grandstand, "you won't +find any gentlemen here--that is, not above half-a-dozen at most." + +"I was just wondering whether we should see any ladies." + +Benson pointed over his left shoulder; and they planked their dollar +a-piece at the entrance. + +Ashburner's first impression, when fairly inside, was that he had +never seen such a collection of disreputable looking characters in +broad daylight, and under the open sky. All up the rough broad steps, +that were used indifferently to sit or stand upon; all around the +oyster and liquor stands, that filled the recess under the steps; all +over the ground between the stand and the track, was a throng of low, +shabby, dirty men, different in their ages, sizes, and professions; +for some were farmers, some country tavern-keepers, some city ditto, +some horse-dealers, some gamblers, and some loafers in general; but +alike in their slang and "rowdy" aspect. There is something peculiarly +disagreeable in an American crowd, from the fact that no class has +any distinctive dress. The gentleman and the working-man, or the +"loafer," wear clothes of the same kind, only in one case they are new +and clean, in the other, old and dirty. The ragged dress-coats and +crownless beavers of the Irish peasants have long been the admiration +of travellers; now, elevate these second-hand garments a stage or two +in the scale of preservation--let the coats be not ragged, but shabby, +worn in seam, and greasy in collar; the hats whole, but napless at +edge, and bent in brim; supply them with old trousers of the last +fashion but six, and you have the general costume of a crowd like the +present. But ordinary collections of the [Greek: oi polloi] are +relieved by the very superior appearance of the women; pretty in their +youth, lady-like and stylish even when prematurely faded, always +dressed respectably, and frequently dressed in good taste, they form a +startling relief and contrast to their cavaliers; and not only the +stranger, but the native gentleman, is continually surprised at the +difference, and says to himself, "Where in the world could such nice +women pick up those snobs?" Here, where there is not a woman within a +mile (unless that suspicious carriage in the corner contains some gay +friends of Tom Edwards'), the congregated male loaferism of these +people, without even a decent looking dog among them, is enough to +make a man button his pockets instinctively. + +Amid this wilderness of vagabonds may be seen grouped together at the +further corner of the stand the representatives of the gentlemanly +interest, numbering, as Benson had predicted, about half-a-dozen. +Losing, with his yellow blouse and moustache to match; Tom Edwards, in +a white hat and trousers, and black velvet coat; Harrison, slovenly in +his attire, and looking almost as coarse as any of the rowdies about, +till he raises his head, and shows his intelligent eyes; Bleecker, who +had just arrived; and a few specimens of Young New-York like him. +Benson carries his friend that way, and introduces him in due form to +the Long Islander, who receives him with an elaborate bow. Ashburner +offers a cigar to Losing, who accepts the weed with a nod of +acknowledgment (for he rarely opens his mouth except to put something +into it, or to make a bet), and offers one of his in return, which +Ashburner trying, excoriates his lips at the first whiff, and is +obliged to throw it away after the third, for Charley Losing has +strong tastes, will rather drink brandy than wine, any day, and smokes +tobacco that would knock an ordinary man down. + +The stranger glances his eye over the scene of action. A barouche and +four does not differ more from a trotting wagon, or a blood courser +from a Canadian pacer, than an English race-course from an American +"track." It is an ellipse of hard ground, like a good and smooth piece +of road, with some variations of ascent and descent. The distance +round is calculated at a mile, according to the scope of turning +requisite for a horse before a sulky--that being the most usual form +of trotting; for a saddle-horse that has the pole,[6] it comes +practically to a little less; for a harness-horse (especially if to a +wagon) with an outside place, to a little, or sometimes a good deal +more. Around the inclosure, within the track (which looks as if it +were trying hard to grow grass and couldn't), a few wagons, which +obtained entrance by special favor, are walking about; they belong to +the few men who have brought their grooms with them. Harrison's pet +trotter is there, a magnificent long-tailed bay, as big as a +carriage-horse, equal to 2´ 50´´ on the road before that wagon, and +worth fifteen hundred dollars, it is said. Just inside the track, and +opposite the main stand outside, is a little shanty of a judge's +stand, and marshalled in front of it are half a dozen notorious +pugilists, and similar characters, who, doubtless on the good old +principle of "set a thief," &c., are enrolled for the occasion as +special constables, with very special and formidable white bludgeons +to keep order, and precise suits of black cloth to augment their +dignity. + +"To come off at three o'clock," said the handbills. It is now +thirty-five minutes past three, and no signs of beginning. An American +horse and an American woman always keep you waiting an hour at least. +One of the judges comes forward, and raps on the front of the stand +with a primitive bit of wood resembling a broken boot-jack. "Bring out +your horses!" People look towards the yard on the left. Here is one of +them just led out; they pull off his sheets, his driver climbs up into +the little seat behind him. He comes down part of the stand at a +moderate gait. Hurrah for old Twenty-miles-an-hour! Trustee! Trustee! + +The old chestnut is half-blood; but you would never guess it from his +personal appearance, so chunky, and thick-limbed, and sober-looking is +he. His action is uneven, and seemingly laborious; you would not think +him capable of covering _one_ mile in three minutes, much less of +performing twenty at the same rate. No wonder he hobbles a little +behind, for his back sinews are swelled, and his legs scarred and +disfigured--the traces of injuries received in his youth, when a cart +ran into him, and cut him almost to pieces. Veterinary surgeons, who +delight in such relics, will show you pieces of sinew taken from him +after the accident. That was six or seven years ago: since then he has +solved a problem for the trotting world. + +"There," says Benson, with a little touch of triumph, "is the only +horse in the world that ever trotted twenty miles in an hour. I saw +it done myself. He was driven nearly two miles before he started, to +warm him up, and make him limber. When the word was given, he made a +skip, and though his driver, not the same that he has now, caught him +before he was fairly off his feet, he was more than three minutes +doing the first mile, which looked well for the backers of time; but +as the old fellow went on, he did every mile better than the +preceding, and the last in the best time of all, winning with nearly +half a minute to spare." + +"Has the experiment been often tried?" + +"Not more than two or three times, I believe; and the horses who +attempted it broke down in the eighteenth or nineteenth mile. +Nevertheless, I think that within the last twelve years we have had +two or three horses beside Trustee who could have accomplished the +feat; but as such a horse is worth two thousand dollars and upwards, a +heavy bet would be required to tempt a man to risk killing or ruining +his animal; and our sporting men, though they bet frequently, are not +in the habit of betting largely. That is one reason why it has not +been tried oftener; and I am inclined to think that there is another +and a better motive. The owner of a splendid horse does not like to +risk his life; and it is a risk of life to attempt to trot him twenty +miles an hour." + +Pit, pat! pit, pat! The old mare is coming down to the score. A very +ordinary looking animal in repose, the magnificence of her action +converts her into a beauty when moving. How evenly her feet rise and +fall, regularly as a machine, though she is nearly at the top of her +speed! She carries her head down, and her neck stretched out, and from +the tip of her nose to the end of her long white tail, that streams +out in the breeze made by her own progress, you might draw a straight +line, so true and right forward does she travel. Perched over her +tail, between those two tall, slender wheels, sits her owner, David +Bryan, the only man that ever handles her, in something like a jockey +costume, blue velvet jacket and cap to match, and his white hair, +whiter than his horse's tail, streaming in the wind--a respectable and +almost venerable looking man; but a hard boy for all that, say the +knowing ones. Great applause from the Long Island men, who swear by +"the Lady," and are always ready to "stake their pile" on her, for her +owner is a Long-Islander, and she is a Suffolk county, Long-Island +mare. Some eight years ago Lady Suffolk was bought out of a baker's +cart for 112 dollars, and since then she has won for "Dave" upwards of +30,000 dollars. That is what the possessor of a fast trotter most +prides himself on--to have bought the animal for a song on the +strength of his own eye for his points, and then developed him into a +"flier." When a colt is bred from a trotting stallion, put into +training at three or four years old, and sold the first time for a +high price, if he turns out well there is no particular wonder or +merit in it; if he does not, the disappointment is extreme. + +Ah, here comes Pelham at last--a clean little bay, stepping roundly, +and lifting his legs well; you might call it a perfect action, if we +had not just seen Lady Suffolk go by--but _so_ wicked about the head +and eyes! Behind the little horse sits a big Irishman, in his shirt +sleeves; and they are hauling away at each other, pull Pat, pull +Pelham, as if the man wanted to jerk the horse's head off, and the +horse to draw the man's arms out. You see the driver is holding by +little loops fastened to the reins, to prevent his grasp from +slipping. Pelham is a young horse for a trotter, say seven years old, +and has already done the fastest mile ever made in harness; but his +temper is terribly uncertain, and to-day he seems to be in a +particularly bad humor. + +Trustee, who requires much warming up, goes all round the track, +increasing his speed as he goes, till he has reached pretty nearly his +limit. Pelham also completes the circuit, but more leisurely. The Lady +trots about a quarter of a mile, then walks a little, and then brushes +back. Her returning is even faster and prettier than her going. "2´ +33´´," says Losing, speaking for the first time, as she crosses the +score (the line in front of the judge's stand). His eye is such that, +given the horse and the track, he can tell the pace at a glance within +half a second. + +The gentry about are beginning to bet on their respective favorites, +and some upon time--trifling amounts generally--five, ten, or twenty +dollars; and there is much pulling out, and counting, and depositing +of greasy notes. Bang! goes the broken boot-jack again. This time it +is not "Bring _out_ your horses!" but "Bring _up_ your horses!"--a +requisition which the drivers comply with by turning _away_ from the +stand. This is to get a start, a _flying start_ being the rule, which +obviously favors the backers of time, and is, in some respects, fairer +to the horses, but is very apt to create confusion and delay, +especially when three or four horses are entered. So it happens in the +present instance: half way up the quarter, the horses turn, not all +together, but just as they happen to be; and off they go, some slower +and some faster, trying to fall into line as they approach the score. +"Come back!" It's no go, this time; Pelham has broken up, and is +spreading himself all over the track. Trustee, too, is a length or +more behind the gray mare, and evidently in no hurry. They all go +back, the mare last, as she was half-way down the other quarter before +the recall was understood. + +"What a beauty she is!" says Harry. "And she has the pole too." + +"Will you bet two to three on her against the field?" asks Edwards, +who knew very well that Trustee is the favorite. Benson declines. +"Then will you go on time? Will you bet on 7´ 42´´, or that they don't +beat 7´ 47´´" (three mile heats, you will recollect, reader). No, +Harry won't bet at all; so Edwards turns to Losing. "Will you bet +three to five in hundreds on the Lady?" Losing will. They neither +plank the money, nor book the bet, but the thing is understood. + +Pelham's driver has begged the judges to give the word, even if he is +two lengths behind; he would rather do that than have his horse +worried by false starts. So this time, perhaps, they will get off. Not +yet! Bryan's mare breaks up just before they come to the score. +Harrison hints that he broke her on purpose, because Trustee was +likely to have about a neck advantage of him in the start. "Of course +they never go the first time," says Benson, "and very seldom the +second." + +"I saw nine false starts once, at Harlaem," says Bleecker, "where +there were but three horses. Better luck next time." + +It is better luck. Pelham lays in the rear full two lengths, but +Trustee and the mare come up nose and nose to the score, going at a +great pace. "Go!" At the word Trustee breaks. "Bah! take him away! +Where's Brydges?" The superior skill of his former driver, is +painfully remembered by the horse's friends. But he soon recovers, and +catches his trot about two lengths behind the mare, and as much in +advance of Pelham; for the little bay is going very badly, seems to +have no trot in him, and his driver dares not hurry him. In these +respective positions they complete the first quarter. + +As they approach the half mile, the distance renders their movements +indistinct, and their speed, positive or relative, difficult to +determine. You can only make out their position. Pelham continues to +lose, and Trustee has gained a little; but the gray mare keeps the +lead gallantly. + +"I like a trot," says Benson, "because you can watch the horses so +long. In a race they go by like a flash, once and again, and it's all +over." + +In the next quarter they are almost lost to view, and then they appear +again coming home, and you begin once more to appreciate the rate at +which they are coming. Still it is not the very best pace; the Lady is +taking it rather easy, as if conscious of having it all her own way; +and her driver looks as careless and comfortable as if he were only +taking her out to exercise, when she glides past the stand. + +"2´ 35´´," says Losing. He doesn't need to look at his watch; but +there is great comparing of stop-watches among the other men for the +time of the first mile. Hardly half a length behind is Trustee; he has +been gradually creeping up without any signs of being hurried, and, +clumsily as he goes, gets over the ground without heating himself. + +"John Case knows what he's about, after all," Edwards observes, "He +takes his time, and so does the old horse; wait another round, and, at +the third mile, they'll be _there_." + +"But where's Pelham? Is he lost? No, there he comes; and, Castor and +Pollux, what a burst! Something has waked him up after the other +horses have passed the stand, and while he is yet four or five lengths +from it. There's a brush for you! Did you ever see a horse foot it +so?--as if all the ideas of running that he may ever have had in his +life were arrested, and fastened down into his trot. How he is closing +up the gap! If he can hold to that stroke he will be ahead of the +field before the first quarter of this second mile is out. A mighty +clamor arises, shouts from his enemies, who want to break him, cheers +from his injudicious friends. There, he has lapped Trustee--he has +passed him; tearing at the bit harder than ever, he closes with Lady +Suffolk. Bryan does not begin to thrash his mare yet, he only shows +the whip over her; but yells like a madman at her, and at Pelham, +whose driver holds on to him as a drowning man holds on to a rope. +They are going side by side at a terrific pace. It can't last; one of +them must go up. The bay horse does go up just at the quarter pole, +having made that quarter, Benson says, in the remarkably short time of +thirty-six seconds and a half." + +Pelham's driver can't jerk him across the track; by doing so, he would +foul Trustee, who is just behind; so he has to let the chestnut go by, +and then sets himself to work to bring down his unruly animal; no easy +matter--for Pelham, frightened by the shouting, and excited by the +noise of the wheels, plunges about in a manner that threatens to spill +or break down the sulky; and twice, after being brought almost to a +full stop, goes off again on a canter. Good bye, little horse! there's +no more chance for you. By this time, the Lady is nearly a quarter of +a mile ahead, and going faster than ever. Somehow or other, Trustee +has increased his speed too, and is just where he was, a short +half-length behind her. The way in which he hangs on to the mare +begins to frighten the Long-Islanders a little, but they comfort +themselves with the hope that she has something left, and can let out +some spare foot in the third mile, or whenever it may be necessary. + +Some forty seconds more elapse; a period of time that goes like a +flash when you are training your own flier, or "brushing" on the road, +but seems long enough when you are waiting for horses to come round, +and then they appear once more coming home. The mare is still leading, +with her beautiful, steady, unfaltering stroke; but she is by no means +so fresh-looking as when she started; many a dark line of sweat marks +her white hide. Close behind her comes Trustee; the half-length gap +has disappeared, and his nose is ready to touch Bryan's jacket. There +is hardly a wet hair discernible on him; he goes perfectly at his +ease, and seems to be in hand. "He has her now," is the general +exclamation, "and can pass her when he pleases." As the mare crosses +the score, (in 2´ 34´´, according to Edwards's stop-watch,) Bryan +"looks over his left shoulder," like the knights in old ballads, and +becomes aware for the first time that the horse at his wheel is not +Pelham, as he had supposed, but Trustee. + +The old fellow is another man. His air of careless security has +changed to one of intense excitement. Slash! slash! slash! falls the +long whip, with half a dozen frantic cuts and an appropriate garnish +of yells. Almost any other trotter would go off in a run at one such +salute, to say nothing of five or six; but the old mare, who "has no +break in her," merely understands them as gentle intimations to go +faster--and she does go faster. How her legs double up, and what a +rush she has made! There is a gap of three lengths between her and +Trustee. He never hurries himself, but goes on steadily as ever. See, +as he passes, how he straddles behind like an old cow, and yet how +dexterously he paddles himself along, as it were, with one hind foot. +What a mixture of ugliness and efficiency his action is! At the first +quarter the Lady has come back to him. Three times during this, the +last and decisive mile, is the performance repeated. You may hear +Bryan's voice and whip completely across the course, as he hurries his +mare away from the pursuer; but each succeeding time the temporary gap +is shorter and sooner closed. + +Now they are coming down the straight stretch home. The mare leads +yet. Case appears to be talking to his horse, and encouraging him; if +it is so, you cannot hear him, for the tremendous row Lady Suffolk's +driver is making. She had the pole at starting, has kept it +throughout, and Trustee must pass her on the outside. This +circumstance is her only hope of winning. All her owner's exertions, +and all the encouraging shouts of her friends, which she now hears +greeting her from the stand, cannot enable her to shake off Trustee, +but if she can only maintain her lead for six or seven lengths more, +it is enough. The chestnut is directly in her rear; every blow gets a +little more out of her. Half the short interval to the goal is passed, +when Trustee diverges from his straight course, and shows his head +along side Bryan's wheel. Catching his horse short, Case puts his whip +upon him for the first time, shakes him up with a great shout, and +crowds him past the mare, winning the heat by a length. + +The little bay was so far behind at the end of the second mile, that +no one took any notice of him, and he was supposed to have dropped out +somewhere on the road. His position, however, was much improved on the +third mile; still, as there was a strong probability of his being shut +out, the judges dispatched one of their number to the distance-post +with a flag; a very proper proceeding, only they thought of it rather +late, for the judge arrived there only just before Pelham, and also +just before Trustee crossed the score; in fact, the three events were +all but simultaneous; the judge dropped the flag in Pelham's face, and +Pelham in return nearly ran over the judge. This episode attracted no +attention at the time of its occurrence, all eyes being directed to +the leading horses; but now it affords materials for a nice little +row, Pelham's driver protesting violently against the distance. There +is much thronging, and vociferating, and swearing about the judge's +stand, into which our burly Irishman endeavors to force his way. One +of the specials favors him with a rap on the head, that would astonish +a hippopotamus. Pat doesn't seem to mind it, but he understands it +well enough (the argument is just suited to his capacity), and remains +tolerably quiet. Finally, it is proclaimed that "Trustee wins the heat +in 7´ 45´´, and Pelham is distanced." + +"Best three miles ever made in harness," says Harrison, "except when +Dutchman did it in 7´ 41´´." + +Edwards doubts the fact, and they bet about it, and will write to the +_Spirit of the Times_ (the American _Bell's Life_). + +Ashburner and Benson descended from the stand. The horses, panting and +pouring with sweat, are rubbed and scraped by their attendants, three +or four to each. Then they are clothed, and walked up and down +quietly. They have a rest of nominally half-an-hour, and practically +at least forty minutes. Some of the crowd are eating oysters, more +drinking brandy and water, and a still greater number "loafing" about +without any particular employment. There are two or three +thimble-riggers on the ground, but they seem to be in a barren county; +nobody there is green enough for them; the very small boys take sights +at them. There is a tradition that Edwards once in his younger days +tried his fortune with them. He looked so dandified, green, and +innocent, that they let him win five dollars the first time, and then, +on the rigger's proposing to bet a hundred, his supposed victim +applied the finger of scorn to the nose of derision, and strutted off +with his V.,[7] to the great amusement of the bystanders. Tom is very +proud of this story, and likes to tell it himself. That, and his +paying a French actress with a check when he had nothing at his +banker's, are two of the great exploits of his life. + +"This _is_ rather a low assemblage, certainly," says Ashburner, after +he has contemplated it from several points of view, and observed a +great many different points of character. "Do they ever have races +here?" + +"Yes, every spring and fall, here, or on the Union Course adjoining. +They are rather more decently attended, but not over respectable, much +less fashionable. At the South, it is different; there ladies go, and +the club races are some of the most marked features of their city +life. I recollect when I was a boy, that these trotting matches were +nice things, and gentlemen used to enter their own horses; but +gradually they have gone down hill to what they are now, and the names +of the best trotters are associated with the hardest characters and +the most disreputable species of balls." + +"And when they race, do the horses run on ground like _this_?" asked +Ashburner, stamping on the track, which was as hard as Macadam. + +"Precisely on this, and run four-mile heats, too, and five of them +sometimes." + +"_Five_ four-mile heats on ground like this?" The Englishman looked +incredulous. + +"Exactly. It has happened that each of three has won a heat, and then +there was one dead heat. You will remember, though, that we run old +horses, not colts. There is no extra weight for age; they begin at +four or five years old, and go on till twelve or fourteen." + +"But they must be very liable to accidents, going on such hard soil." + +"Yes, they do break their legs sometimes, but not often. Our horses +are tougher than yours." + +As they stroll about, Benson points out several celebrated fliers that +have gained admission inside of the stand, but prefer remaining +outside the track; some pretty well worn-out and _emeriti_ like +Ripton, an old rival of Lady Suffolk (the mare has outlasted most of +her early contemporaries), some in their prime, like the trotting +stallion, Black Hawk, beautifully formed as any blood-horse, but +singularly marked, being white-stockinged all round to the knee. +"There," says Harry, "is a fellow that belies the old horse-dealer's +rhyme: + + 'Four white legs and a white nose, + Take him away, and throw him to the crows.'" + Time is up, and they return to the stand. Edwards is bantering +Losing, and asks him if he will repeat his bet on this heat. He will +fast enough, and double it on the final result. Edwards wants nothing +better. + +This time, for a wonder, the horses got off at the first start, and a +tremendous pace they make, altogether too much for Trustee, who is +carried off his feet in the first half-quarter, and the Lady goes +ahead three, four, five lengths, and has taken the pole before he can +recover. Bryan continues to crowd the pace. The mare comes round to +the score in 2´ 33´´, leading by four lengths, and her driver +threshing her already. "She can't stand it," say the knowing ones; +"she must drop out soon." But she doesn't drop out in the second mile +at least, for at the end of that, she is still three lengths in +advance, and Trustee does not appear so fresh as he did last heat. The +Long-Islanders are exultant, and the sporting men look shy. When they +come home in the last quarter, the chestnut has only taken one length +out of the gap; nevertheless, he goes for the outside, and makes the +best rush he can. It's no use. He can't get near her; breaks up again, +and crosses the score a long way behind. Much manifestation of +boisterous joy among the farmers. Edwards looks sold, and something +like a smile passes over Losing's unimpassioned countenance. It is +plain sailing for the judges this time. "Lady Suffolk has the heat in +7' 49´´," and there is no mistake or dispute about it. + +Another long pause. Eight minutes' sport and three quarters of an hour +intermission among such a company begins to be rather dull work. All +the topics of interest afforded by the place have been exhausted. +Harrison and Benson begin to talk stocks and investments; the +juveniles are comparing their watering place experiences during the +summer. Ashburner says nothing, and smokes an indefinite number of +cigars; Losing says rather less, and smokes more. Edwards has +disappeared; gone, possibly, to talk to the doubtful carriages. It is +growing dark before they are ready for the third and decisive heat. + +One false start, and at the second trial they are off. The mare has +the inside, in right of having won the preceding heat. She crowds the +pace from the start, as usual; but Trustee is better handled this +time, and does not break. Case allows the Lady to lead him by three +lengths, and keeps his horse at a steady gait, in quiet pursuit of +her. For two miles their positions are unaltered; Bryan's friends +cheer him vociferously every time as he comes round; he replies by a +flourish of his long whip and additional shouts to his mare. In the +third mile, Trustee begins to creep up, and in the third quarter of +it, just before he gets out of sight from the stand, is only a length +and a half behind. When they appear again, there are plenty of anxious +lookers-out; and men like our friend Edwards, who have a thousand or +more at stake on the result, cannot altogether restrain their +emotions. Here they come close enough together! Trustee has lapped the +mare on the outside; his head is opposite the front rim of her wheel. +Bryan shouts and whips like one possessed; Case's small voice is also +lifted up to encourage Trustee. The chestnut is gaining, but only inch +by inch, and they are nearly home. Now Case has lifted him with the +whip, and he makes a rush and is at her shoulder. Now he will have +her. Oh, dear, he has gone up! Hurrah for the old gray! Stay! Case has +caught him beautifully; he is on his trot again opposite her wheel. +One desperate effort on the part of man and horse, and Trustee shoots +by the mare; but not till after she has crossed the score. Lady +Suffolk is quite done up; she could not go another quarter; but she +has held out long enough to win the heat and the money. + +And now, as it was somewhere in the neighborhood of seven, and neither +Ashburner nor Benson had eaten any thing since eight in the morning, +they began to feel very much inclined for dinner, or supper, or +something of the sort; and the team travelled back quite as fast as it +was safe to go by twilight; a little faster, the Englishman might have +thought, if he had not been so hungry. Then, after crossing the +Brooklyn ferry, Benson announced his intention of putting up his +horses for the night at a livery stable, and himself at Ashburner's +hotel, as it was still a long drive for that time of night to +Devilshoof; which being agreed upon, they next dived into an oyster +cellar, of which there are about two to a block all along Broadway, +and ordered an unlimited supply of the agreeable shellfish, +broiled;--_oyster chops_, Ashburner used to call them; and the term +gives a stranger a pretty good idea of what these large oysters look +like, cooked as they are with crumbs, exactly in the style of a +_cotelette panée_. And they make very nice eating, too; only they +promote thirst and induce the consumption of numerous glasses of +champagne or brandy and water, as the case may be. Whether this be an +objection to them or not, is matter of opinion. Then having adjourned +to Ashburner's apartment in the fifth story of the Manhattan hotel (it +was a room with an alcove, French fashion), and smoked numerous +Firmezas there, the Englishman turned in for the night; and Benson, +who had no notion of paying for a bed when he could get a sofa for +nothing, disposed himself at full length upon Ashburner's, without +taking off any thing except his hat, and was fast asleep in less time +than it would take _The Sewer_ to tell a lie. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] The United States government, (U. S.) + +[5] A very critical friend wants to know if the term _dilapidated_ +can, with strict propriety, be applied to a _wooden_ building. + +[6] A horse will "go the pole" in such a time, means that he will go +in double harness. A horse "has the pole," means that he has drawn the +place nearest the inside boundary fence of the track. + +[7] A five-dollar bill is so called from the designation in Roman +numerals upon it. + + + + +From Chamber's Edinburgh Journal. + +PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF A DUTCH POET. + + +The name of Wilhelm Bilderdyk is scarcely known beyond the boundaries +of his own country; and yet those who are conversant with the Dutch +language place him in a very high rank as a poet. The publication of +his first poem, _Elicus_, formed quite an era in the history of Dutch +literature. It was speedily followed by a faithful and spirited +translation of the _Oedipus_ of Sophocles, and versions of other +Greek writers. Besides his imaginative pursuits, he engaged with ardor +in the study of geology, and almost rivalled Cuvier in his +acquaintance with natural history. War and invasion, however, +interrupted the labors of Bilderdyk. He quitted Holland, travelled +through Germany, crossed over to England, and finally spent some time +amongst the Scottish Highlands, where he employed himself in +translating Ossian's poems into Dutch verse. He then went to the +principality of Brunswick, and there composed a very extraordinary +work, _The Maladies of Wise Men_, a poem whose mild, lofty sublimity, +unearthly interest, and grasp of gloomy thought, entitle it to rank +with the Inferno of Dante. + +Bilderdyk at length was able to return to his country. Louis Napoleon, +who then reigned at the Hague, chose him as his instructor in the +Dutch language, and named him president of the second class in the +Institute of Amsterdam. About this time he married a beautiful and +clever girl, named Wilhelmina; and for several years they enjoyed +together as perfect happiness as this world can give--she occupied in +domestic and maternal duties, and he adding to his fame and fortune by +the publication of several works. But at length death visited their +dwelling, and removed within a brief space three lovely children. +Their loss was commemorated in two poems--_Winter Flowers_, and _The +Farewell_. Not long afterwards, public misfortune came to aggravate +his private sorrows. Louis Napoleon left Holland, and Bilderdyk took +refuge at Groningen, where he stayed for some time, and then, +rejecting a liberal offer of employment made him by William of Orange, +he set out for France, accompanied by his wife. + +When they entered the diligence, they found it occupied but by one +person, a young female of mild and engaging appearance. No sooner did +the heavy machine begin to move than she began to scream, and +testified the most absurd degree of terror. Public carriages then were +certainly far inferior, both in safety and accommodation, to those of +modern times; yet the probable amount of danger to be apprehended did +not by any means justify the excessive apprehension manifested by the +fair traveller. On arriving at Brussels, the lady was so much overcome +that she announced her intention of stopping some days in that city to +recruit her strength before venturing again to encounter the perils of +a diligence; and taking leave of Bilderdyk and his wife, she +gratefully thanked the latter for the kind attention she had shown her +during the journey. The two Hollanders proceeded on their way to +Paris, laughing heartily from time to time at the foolish cowardice of +a woman who saw a precipice in every rut, and a certain overturn in +every jolt of the wheels. + +Arrived at their journey's end, the travellers took up their abode in +a humble dwelling in the Rue Richelieu, and commenced with the utmost +delight visiting all the wonderful things in Paris. Bilderdyk soon +found himself completely in his element. He breakfasted with Cuvier at +the Jardin des Plantes, passed his afternoon at the Bibliothèque +Richelieu, dined in the Faubourg St. Germain with Dr. Alibert, and +finished the evening at the play or the opera. One day he and his wife +were given excellent places for witnessing the ascent in a balloon of +a young woman, Mme. Blanchard, whose reckless courage enabled her to +undertake aërial voyages, despite the sad fate which befell Pilastre +de Rosiers, her own husband, and several other aëronauts. Our +Hollanders amused themselves for some time with watching the process +of inflating the balloon, and following with their eyes the course of +the tiny messenger-balloons sent up to ascertain the direction of the +upper currents of wind. At length all is ready, the band strikes up a +lively air, and Mme. Blanchard, dressed in white and crowned with +roses, appears, holding a small gay flag in her hand. With the most +graceful composure she placed herself in the boat, the cords were +loosed, and the courageous adventuress, borne rapidly upwards in her +perilous vehicle, soon appeared like a dark spot in the sky. + +When he returned to his lodging, Bilderdyk composed a poem in honor of +the brave woman who adventured her life so boldly, rivalling the free +birds of heaven in her flight, and beholding the stars face to face. +Next morning he hastened to get his production printed, and without +considering that Mme. Blanchard most likely did not understand Dutch, +he repaired to her lodgings with a copy of the poem in his hand, +intending to ask permission to present it to her. He was courteously +invited to enter the drawing-room, and there, to his great amazement, +he found himself _tête-à-tête_ with the silly, frightened lady, whose +nervous tremors in the Brussels diligence had afforded so much +amusement to him and his wife. Surprised and disconcerted, he was +beginning to apologize, when the lady interrupted him. + +"Monsieur," she said, "you are not mistaken. I am Mme. Blanchard. You +see how possible it is for the same person to be cowardly in a coach, +and courageous in a balloon." + +A good deal of conversation ensued, the poem was timidly offered, and +graciously accepted; and the fair aëronaut accepted an invitation to +dine that day with Bilderdyk and his wife. In the course of the +evening Mme. Blanchard related to them some curious circumstances in +her life. Her mother kept a humble wayside inn near La Rochelle, while +her father worked in the fields. One day a balloon descended near +their door, and out of it was taken a man, severely but not +dangerously bruised. Her parents received him with the utmost +hospitality, and supplied him with all the comforts they could give. +He had no money wherewith to repay them, but as he was about to +depart, he remarked that the mistress of the house was very near her +confinement, and he said: "Listen, and mark my words. Fortune cannot +always desert me. In sixteen years, if alive, I will return hither. If +the child who will soon be born to you should be a boy, I will then +adopt him; if a girl, I will marry her!" + +The worthy peasants laughed heartily at this strange method of paying +a bill; and although they allowed their guest to depart, they +certainly built very little on his promise. The aëronaut, however, +kept his word, and at the end of sixteen years re-appeared at the inn, +then inhabited by only a fair young girl, very lately left an orphan. +She willingly accepted Jean Pierre Blanchard as a husband, and for a +short time they lived happily together; but during an ascent which he +made in Holland, he was seized with apoplexy, and fell to the ground +from a height of sixty feet. The unhappy aëronaut was not killed on +the spot, but lingered for some time in frightful torture, carefully +and fondly attended by his wife, whom at length he left a young and +penniless widow. + +Marie Madeleine Blanchard, despite her natural timidity, resolved to +adopt her husband's perilous profession. Pride and necessity combined +do wonders; and not only did she succeed in maintaining perfect +composure while in the air, but she also displayed wonderful presence +of mind during the time of danger. On one occasion she ascended in her +balloon from Nantes, intending to come down at about four leagues from +that town, in what she believed to be a large meadow. While rapidly +descending, the cordage of the balloon became entangled in the +branches of a tree, and she found herself suspended over a vast green +marsh, whose treacherous mud would infallibly ingulf her. Drawn to the +spot by her cries, several peasants came to her assistance, and with +considerable difficulty and danger succeeded in placing her on terra +firma. + +On the day following the one on which she dined with M. and Mme. +Bilderdyk, Mme. Blanchard left Paris, promising her two friends, as +she bade them farewell, that she would soon return. Time passed on, +however, and they heard nothing of her. They were preparing to return +to Holland, when some of Bilderdyk's countrymen residing in Paris +resolved to give him a banquet on the eve of his departure. + +The entertainment took place at a celebrated restaurant, situated at +the angle formed by the Rue Cauchat and the Rue de Provence. While +enjoying themselves at table, the guests suddenly perceived the +windows darkened by the passing of some large black object. With one +accord they rose and ran out: a woman lay on the pavement, pale, +crushed, and dead. Bilderdyk gave a cry--it was Mme. Blanchard! In +what a guise to meet her again! Encouraged by the constant impunity of +her perilous ascensions, the unhappy aëronaut (the word I believe has +no feminine), finding a formidable rival in Mlle. Garnerin, resolved +to surpass her in daring by augmenting the risk of her aërial voyages. +For this purpose she lighted up her balloon car with colored lamps, +and carried with her a supply of fireworks. On the sixth of July, +1819, she rose from amid a vast concourse of spectators. The balloon +caught in one of the trees in the Champs-Elysées, but without +regarding the augury, Mme. Blanchard threw out ballast, and as she +rose rapidly in the air she spilled a quantity of lighting spirits of +wine, and then sent off rockets and Roman candles. Suddenly, with +horror, the mass of upturned eyes beheld the balloon take fire. One +piercing shriek from above mingled with the affrighted cries of the +crowd below, and then some object was seen to detach itself from the +fiery globe. As it came near the earth, it was recognized as the body +of the ill-fated Mme. Blanchard. + +Weeping and trembling, Bilderdyk aided in raising the disfigured +corpse, and wrapped it up in the net-work of the balloon, which the +hands still grasped firmly. The shock, acting on his excitable +temperament, threw him into a dangerous illness, from which, however, +he recovered, and returned to his native country. There he published +an admirable treatise, "The Theory of Vegetable Organization," and a +poem entitled, "The Destruction of the Primeval World." A French +critic has placed this latter work in the same rank with "Paradise +Lost," and says: "Old Milton has nothing finer, more energetic, or +more vast, in his immortal work." An English critic, however, would +probably scarcely concur in this judgment. + +Bilderdyk died in the town of Haarlem on the 18th of December, 1831. + + + + +From Household Words. + +OUR PHANTOM SHIP: CHINA. + + +Since a typhoon occurs not much oftener than once in about three +years, it would be odd if we should sail immediately into one; but we +are fairly in the China seas, which are the typhoon's own peculiar +sporting ground, and it is desperately sultry, and those clouds are +full of night and lightning, to say nothing of a fitful gale and angry +sea. Look out! There is the coast of China. Now for a telescope to see +the barren, dingy hills, with clay and granite peeping out, with a few +miserable trees and stunted firs. That is our first sight of the +flowery land, and we shall not get another yet, for the spray begins +to blind us; it is quite as much as we can do to see each other. Now +the wind howls and tears the water up, as if it would extract the +great waves by their roots, like so many of old Ocean's teeth; but he +kicks sadly at the operation. We are driven by the wild blast that +snaps our voices short off at the lips and carries them away; no words +are audible. We are among a mass of spars and men wild as the storm on +drifting broken junks; a vessel founders in our sight, and we are +cast, with dead and living, upon half a dozen wrecks entangled in a +mass, upon the shore of Hong Kong;--ourselves safe, of course, for we +have left at home whatever could be bruised upon the journey. How many +houses have been blown away like hats, how many rivers have been +driven back to swell canals and flood the fields, (whose harvest has +been prematurely cropped on the first warning of the typhoon's +intended visit,) we decline investigating. The evening sky is very +wild, and we were all last night under the typhoon at sea; to-night we +are in the new town of Victoria, and will be phantom bed-fellows to +any Chinaman who has been eating pork for supper. The Chinese are very +fond of pork, or any thing that causes oiliness in man. A lean man +forfeits something in their estimation; for they say, "He must have +foolishness; why has he wanted wisdom to eat more?" + +Hong Kong was one of the upshots of our cannonading in the pure and +holy Chinese war; and as for the new town of Victoria, we shall walk +out of it at once, for we have not travelled all this way to look at +Englishmen. The island itself is eight or ten miles long, and +sometimes two or sometimes six miles broad. It is the model of a grand +mountain region on a scale of two inches to the foot. There are crags, +ravines, wild torrents, fern-covered hills; but the highest mountain +does not rise two thousand feet.--We stand upon it now. Quite contrary +to usual experience, we found, in coming up, the richest flowers at +the greatest elevation. The heat and dryness of the air below, where +the sun's rays are reflected from bare surfaces, is said to be +oppressive, and perhaps the flowers down there want a pleasant shade. +From our elevation we can see few patches of cultivation, but leaping +down the rocks are many picturesque cascades. Hong Kong is christened +from its own waters, its name signifying in Chinese "the Island of +Fragrant Streams." There is a goat upon the nearest rock; but look +beyond. On one side is the bay, with shipping, and behind us the broad +expanse of the ocean; and before us is the sea, studded as far as our +eyes can reach with mountainous islands, among which we must sail to +reach Canton. Now we float onward in the Phantom, and among these +islands our sharp eyes discover craft that have more hands on board +than usually man an honest vessel. In the holes and corners of the +islands pirates lurk to prey upon the traffic of Canton. We pass Macao +on our way into the Canton river. Portugal was a nation of quality +once, with a strong constitution, and in those days, once upon a time, +wrecked Portuguese gained leave to dry a cargo on the Island of Macao. +They erected sheds a little stronger than were necessary for that +temporary purpose; in fact, they turned the accident to good account, +and established here an infant settlement, which soon grew to maintain +itself, and sent money home occasionally to assist its mother. Twice +the Emperor of China offered to make Macao an emporium for European +trade; the Portuguese preferred to be exclusive. So the settlement +fell sick, and since the English made Hong Kong a place of active +trade, very few people trouble themselves to inquire whether Macao be +dead yet, or only dying. The Portuguese town has a mournful aspect, +marked as it is by strong lines of character that indicate departed +power. + +Still sailing among islands, mountainous and barren, we soon reach the +Bocca Tigris, or mouth of the Canton river, guarded now with very +formidable forts. The Chinese, since their war with England, have been +profiting by sore experience. If their gunnery be as completely mended +as their fortifications, another war with them would not be quite so +much like an attack of grown men upon children. The poor Chinese, in +that war, were indefatigable in the endeavor to keep up appearances. +Steam ships were scarcely worth attention--they had "plenty all the +same inside:" and when the first encounter, near the spot on which we +are now sailing, between junks and men-of-war, had exhibited the +tragedy, in flesh and bone, of John Bull in a China-shop, the Chinese +Symonds, at Ningpo, was ordered to build ships exactly like the +British. He could not execute the order, and played, therefore, +executioner upon himself. Cannon were next ordered, that should be +large enough to destroy a ship at one burst. They were made, and the +first monster tried, immediately burst and killed its three +attendants; nobody could be induced to fire the others. One morning, a +British fleet was very much surprised to see the shore look formidable +with a line of cannon mouths. The telescope, which had formed no part +of the Chinese calculations, discovered them to be a row of earthern +pots. Forts, in the same way, often turned out to be dummies made of +matting, with the portholes painted; and sometimes real cannon, mere +three pounders, had their fronts turned to the sea, plugged with +blocks of wood, cut and so painted as to resemble the mouths of +thirty-two pounders shotted. However, we have passed real strong forts +and veritable heavy cannon, to get through the Bocca Tigris. Nothing +is barren now; the river widens, and looks like an inland sea; the +flat land near the shores is richly cultivated; rice is there and upon +the islands, all protected with embankments to admit or exclude the +flood in its due season, or provided with wheels for raising water +where the land is too high to be flooded in a simpler manner. The +embankments, too, yield plantain crops. The water on each side is gay +with water lilies, which are cultivated for their roots. Banyan and +fig-trees, cypress, orange, water-pines, and weeping willows, grow +beside the stream, with other trees; but China is not to be called a +richly timbered country; most of its districts are deficient in large +trees. There is the Whampoa Pagoda; there are more pagodas, towers, +joss-houses; here are the European factories, and here are boats, +boats, boats, literally, hundreds of thousands of boats--the sea-going +junk, gorgeous with griffins, and with proverbs, and with painted +eyes; the flower boat; boats of all shapes, and sizes, down to the +barber's boat, which barely holds the barber and his razor. There is a +city on the water, and the dwellers in these boats, who whether men or +women, dive and swim so naturally that they may all be fishes, +curiously claim their kindred with the earth. On every boat, a little +soil and a few flowers, are as essential as the little joss-house and +the little joss. Canals flow from the river through Canton; every +where, over the mud, upon the water side are wooden houses built on +piles. But here we will not go ashore; the suburbs of Canton are full +of thieves, and little boys who shout _fan-qui_ (foreign devil) after +all barbarians, and we should not be welcome in the city; so we will +not go where we shall not be welcome. After floating up and down the +streets and lanes of water made between the boats upon the Canton +river, pleased with the strange music, the gongs, and the incessant +chattering of women, (Chinese women are pre-eminent as chatterers,) we +sail away. We do not wait even till night to wonder at the scene by +lantern light; but returning by the way we came, repass the rice +fields, the water lilies, and the forts, the islands, and Macao, and +Hong Kong, and have again before us the expanse of ocean. Canton lies +within the tropic; sugar-cane grown in its vicinity yields brown sugar +and candy; but our lump sugar is a luxury to which the Chinese have +not yet attained. Canton lying within the tropic, we shall change our +climate on the journey northward. An empire that engrosses nearly a +tenth part of the globe, and includes the largest population gathered +under any single government, will have many climates in its eighteen +provinces. Now we are sailing swiftly northward by a barren rocky +coast, with sometimes hills of sand, and sometimes cultivated patches, +and, except for the pagodas on the highest elevations, we might fancy +we were off the coast of Scotland. + +Five ports are open to our trade upon the coast of China; one of +these, Canton, we have merely looked at, and the next, Amoy, we pass +unvisited in sailing up between the mainland and Formosa. Amoy +produces the best Chinese sailors, and it is in this port that the +native junks have most experience of foreign trade; it is a dirty, +densely-peopled town, too distant from the tea and silk regions to be +of prominent importance to the Europeans. As soon as we have passed +through the Formosa channel, we direct our course towards the river +Min, and steering safely among rocks and sand-banks, among which is a +rock cleft into five pyramids, regarded with a sort of worship by the +sailors, we float up the river to the third of the five cities, +Foo-chow-foo. The river varies in width, sometimes a mile across, +where it is flowing between plains, sometimes confined between the +hills; a hilly country is about us, with some mountains nearly twice +as high as those up which we clambered at Hong-Kong. We pass, after a +few miles' sail, the little town and fort of Mingan; we sail among +pagodas and temples, near which the priests plant dark spreading +fig-trees, terraced hills, yielding earth-nuts and sweet potatoes; we +see cultivation carried up some mountain sides beyond two thousand +feet, and barren mountains, granite rocks, islands, and villages; here +and there more wooded tracts than usually belong to a Chinese +landscape, rills of water and cascades that tumble down into the Min. +We have sailed up the river twenty miles, and here is Foo-chow-foo. We +have met on our way a good many junks, having wood lashed to their +sides; and here we see acres of wood (chiefly pine) afloat before the +suburbs, for here wood is a main article of trade. We pass under the +bridge Wanshow ("myriads of ages"), which connects the suburbs on each +bank; it is a bridge of granite slabs, supported upon fifty pillars of +strong masonry, the whole about two thousand feet in length. The +suburbs happen just now to be flooded, and the large Tartar population +here delights in mobbing a barbarian. This inhospitable character +repels men, while the floods and rapids of the river and its +tributaries, causes an uncertainty of transit, tend also to keep +European traders out of Foo-chow-foo. True, the bohea tea hills are in +the vicinity, but their bohea tea has not a first-rate character, and +the great seat of the tea trade is yet farther north. The city walls +are eight or nine miles in circumference; but we will not enter their +gates for all Chinese cities have a close resemblance to each other; +it is enough to visit one, and we can do better than visit this. We +sail back to the sea again, and there resume our northward voyage. We +have seen part of the mountainous or hilly half of China; farther +north, between the two great rivers, and beyond them to the famous +Wall, is a great plain studded in parts with lakes or swamps, and very +fertile. + +Far westward, we might journey to the high central table-land of Asia, +where there are extensive levels; but the seaward provinces are the +most fertile; and as for the Chinese themselves, they are in all +places very much alike--in body as in character. But sailing in our +ship, and talking of those plains, we may naturally recall to our +minds those ancient days when the Chinese, civilised then as now, +guided their chariots across a pathless level on the land by the same +instrument that guides our ship across a pathless level on the water. + +The coast by which we sail is studded with islands, and to reach +Ningpo, the fourth of the five ports, we pass between the mainland and +the island of Chusan. The water here is quite hemmed in with islands +forming the Chusan Archipelago. Chusan is like a piece of the Scotch +Highlands, twenty miles long, and ten or twelve broad, with rich +vegetation added. Forty miles' sail from Chusan brings us to Ningpo. +Amongst the numerous islands past which we have floated, we should +have found, on many, characters not quite Chinese. One island, visited +for water by one of our ships, was said to be an Eden for its +innocence. Crime was unknown among the islanders: and at a grave look +or a slight tap with a fan, the wrong-doer invariably desisted from +his evil course. The simplicity of the natives here consisted in the +fact, that they expected credit for the character they gave +themselves. On another island, the natives entertained snug notions of +a warm bed in the winter. Their bed was a stone trough; in winter they +spread at the bottom of this trough hot embers, and over these a large +stone, over that their bedding, and then tucked themselves comfortably +in. + +Ningpo, with its bridge of boats and Chinese shipping and pagodas, has +a picturesque appearance from the river. It is large, populous, and +wealthy; a place to which the merchant may retire to spend his gains, +more than a port for active and hard working commerce. That is the +reason why we will not land at Ningpo. Where, then, shall we land? If +you have no objection, at Shangae, the fifth and most important, +although not the largest, of these ports. But sea life is monotonous, +and therefore we will take five minutes' diversion ashore, after we +have sailed some twenty miles up this canal. Here we will land under +an avenue of pines, and walk up to a Buddhist temple. We are in the +centre of the green-tea district. + +The priests, belonging, for a wonder, to a simple-minded class, +receive us, of course hospitably. The stranger is at all times welcome +to a lodging, and to his portion of the Buddhist vegetable dinner. +These priests are like some of our monks in mendicancy charity, and +superstition. In the pagodas they always have a meal prepared for the +arrival of a hungry traveller. But hungry we are not; and we came +hither to see the tea-plantations; these we now seek out. They are +small farms upon the lower slopes of hills; the soil is rich; it must +be rich, or the tea-plant would not long endure the frequent stripping +of its leaves, which usage does of course sooner or later kill it. +Each plant is at a distance of about four feet from its neighbors, and +the plantations look like little shrubberies. The small proprietors +inhabit wretched-looking cabins, in which each of them has fixed a +flue and coppers for the drying of his tea. In the appearance of the +people there is nothing wretched; old men sit at their doors like +patriarchs, expecting and receiving reverence; young men, balancing +bales across their shoulders, travel out, and some return with strings +of copper money; the chief tea-harvest is over, and the merchants have +come down now to the little inns about the district, that each +husbandman may offer them his produce. There are three tea-making +seasons. The first is in the middle of April, just before the rains, +when the first leaves of spring are plucked; these make the choicest +tea, but their removal tries the vigor of the plant. Then come the +rains; the tea-plant pushes out new leaves, and already in May the +plantation is again dark with foliage; that is the season of the +second, the great gathering. A later gathering of coarse leaves yields +an inferior tea, scarcely worth exporting. It should be understood +that although black and green tea are both made from the same kind of +leaf, there really are two tea-plants. The plant cultivated at Canton +for black tea, and known in our gardens as _Thea Bohea_, differs from +the _Thea viridis_, which yields the harvest here. The Canton plant, +however, is not cultivated in the North; on the Bohea hills +themselves, speaking botanically, there grows no Bohea tea; the plant +there, also, is the _Thea viridis_. The difference between our green +and black tea is produced entirely in the making. Green tea is more +quickly and lightly dried, so that it contains more of the virtues of +the leaf. Black tea is dried more slowly; exposed, while moist, on +mats, when it ferments a little, and then subjected in drying to a +greater heat, which makes it blacker in its color. The bright bloom on +our green tea is added with a dye, to suit the gross taste of +barbarians. The black tea will keep better, being better dried. There +is a kind of tea called Hyson Pekoe made from the first young buds +which keeps ill, being very little fired, but when good it is +extremely costly. As for our names of teas,--of the first delicate +harvest, the black tea is called Pekoe, and the green, Young Hyson; +Hyson being the corruption of Chinese words, that mean "flourishing +spring." The produce of the main or second harvest yields, in green +tea, Hyson; out of which are picked the leaves that prove to be best +rolled for Gunpowder, or as the Chinese call it, pearl-tea. Souchong +("small or scarce sort") is the best black tea of the second crop, +followed by Congou (koong-foo, "assiduity"). Twankay is imported +largely, a green tea from older leaves, which European retailers +employ for mixing with the finer kinds. Bohea, named from the hills we +talked of, is the lowest quality of black tea, though good Bohea is +better than a middling quality of Congou. The botanical _Thea Bohea_ +comes into our pots, with refuse Congou, as Canton Bohea. At Canton, +however, Young Hyson and Gunpowder are manufactured out of these +leaves, chopped and painted; and this branch of the fine arts is +carried on extensively in Chinese manufactories established there. As +the tea-merchants go out to collect their produce of the little +farmers; so the mercers in the Nankeen districts leave their cities +for the purchase, in the same way, of home-woven cloth. It is the same +in the silk districts. If we look now into a larger Chinese farm on +our way back to the Phantom, we shall find the tenants on a larger +scale supplying their own wants, and making profit of the surplus. On +such a farm we shall find also familiar friends, fowls, ducks, geese, +pigs, goats, and dogs, bullocks, and buffaloes; indoors there will be +a best parlor in the shape of a Hall of Ancestors, containing +household gods and an ancestral picture, before which is a table or +altar with its offerings. There is the head of the family, who built a +room for each son as he married, and left each son to add other rooms +as they were necessary, till a colony arose under the common roof +about the common hall, in which rules, as a high priest and patriarch, +the living ancestor. Respect for the past is the whole essence of +Chinese religion and morality. The oldest emperors were fountain-heads +of wisdom, and he who imitates the oldest doctrine is the wisest man. +The tombs of ancestors are visited with pious care; respect and +worship is their due. This had at all times been the Chinese +principle, to which Confucius added the influence of a good man's +support. No nation has been trained into this feeling so completely as +the Chinese, and as long as they saw nothing beyond themselves, and +were taught to look down upon barbarians out of the heights of their +own ignorance concerning them, they were contented to stand still. But +the Chinese are a people sharply stimulated by the love of gain; they +despised what they had not seen, yet it is evident that they have not +been slow to profit by experience of European arts. An emigrant +Chinese became acquainted with a Prussian blue manufactory, secretly +observed the process of the manufacture, took his secret home, and +China now makes at home all the Prussian blue which was before +imported. The Chinese emigrant is active, shrewd. In Batavia he +ko-toos to the Dutch, and lets his tail down dutifully. In Singapore +he readily assumes a freer spirit, keeps his tail curled, and walks +upright among the Englishmen. + +We are now sailing towards Shangae, no very long way northward from +Ningpo, to the last of the five ports we came out to visit. It is not +necessary to return to the Yellow Sea, for all this part of China is +so freely intersected with canals that we may sail to Shangae among +farms and rice-grounds. While among the farmers, we may call to mind +that the great lord of the Chinese manor is the Emperor, to whom this +ground immediately belongs, and who receives as rent for it a tenth of +all the produce. A large part of this tenth is paid in kind. The +Emperor is the great father also; his whole care of his enormous +family distinctly assumes the paternal form, and embodies a good deal +of the maxim, that to spare the rod will spoil the child. To govern is +expressed in Chinese by the symbols of bamboo and strike; and the +bamboo does, in the way of striking a vast deal of business. The +central legislation is as a rule beneficent, and based upon an earnest +desire to do good; for the father is answerable for the welfare of his +children. National calamities have, at all times, been ascribed by the +Chinese directly to their Emperors; who must by personal humiliation +appease the anger of the gods. So large a household as this father has +to care for requires many stewards, mandarins, and others; all these +officers of state are those sons who have proved themselves to be the +wisest, on examination into their attainments. A grand system of +education pervades China; and, above the first school, to which all +are sent, there is a series of four examinations, through which every +Chinese may graduate if he will study. Not to pass the first is to be +vile, and the highest degrees qualify for all the offices of state; +but Chinese education means, after reading and writing, and moral +precepts of Confucius, little beside a knowledge of Chinese ancient +history and literature. The Emperor, belonging to a Tartar dynasty, +bestows an equal patronage on Tartars and Chinese. The officers +throughout the provinces are, as a further precaution, obliged to +serve in places distant from their own connections, in order that no +private feelings may destroy their power to be just. They are scantily +paid, however; and, as a Chinese likes profit with his honor, the +minor officials drive a trade in bribery, which often nullifies the +central edicts, and which very directly helped to bring about the +Opium war. The Emperor himself is, of course, too sublime a person to +be often seen; the Son of Heaven, he robes himself in the imperial +yellow, because that is the hue of the sun's jacket; but, once a year, +in enforcement of a main principle of the Chinese political +economy--Honor to Agriculture--he drives the plough before a state +procession; and the grain sown in those imperial furrows is afterwards +bought up by courtiers, at a most flattering price. + +Where are we now?--we have shot out upon a grand expanse of water, +like an inland sea. An horizon of water is before us--we cannot see +the other bank of the Yang-tse-Kiang, the "child of the ocean," the +great river of China; the greatest river in the old world, and +surpassed only by two on the whole globe. Here, eighty miles above the +sea, it is eight miles in breadth, and sixty feet deep, flowing five +miles an hour; and far up, off the walls of Nankin, its breadth is +three thousand six hundred feet, and its depth twenty-two fathoms, at +a distance of fifty paces from either shore. Well, this is something +like a river; from its source to its mouth, in a straight line, the +distance is one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six miles; and the +windings nearly double its real length, making three thousand three +hundred and thirty-six English miles; of which two thousand, from the +mouth upwards, are said to be quite free from all obstruction. At its +mouth it is, comparatively, shallow; much of this vast body of water +is diverted from its course and carried through the country in canals. +We are not far, now, from the great canal which cuts across this river +and the Hoang-Ho, another grand stream farther northward, with a +course of two thousand six hundred and thirty miles. Between the +Yang-tse-Kiang and Hoang-Ho the country is so flat that, if we may +judge by the scene from the mast-head of the Phantom, not a hillock +breaks the level waste of fertile land. In ancient times this country +was subjected to desolating floods, which, in fact, caused the removal +of the capital. The canal system was commenced, then, as a means of +drainage, by a wise man, who was made an emperor for his sagacity. Now +the canals serve the purposes of commerce, and agriculture also, since +water, in abundance, is essential for the irrigation of the +rice-fields. We are sailing up the Shangae river, a tributary of the +Yang-tse-Kiang; this river, at Shangae, we perceive is about as broad +as the Thames at London Bridge; for we are at Shangae. We sail through +a water-gate into the centre of the town, and land beside a fleet of +junks, into which heaps of rice are being shot; these are grain junks +sent from Pekin to receive part of the imperial tribute. + +Narrow, dirty streets, low houses, brilliant open shops, painted with +red and gold. Here is a fragrant fruit-shop, where a poor Chinese is +buying an iced slice of pine-apple for less money than a farthing. +Here is the chandler's, gay with candles of the tallow-tree coated +with colored wax. The chandler deals in puffs; and what an un-English +appeal is this from the candle-maker on behalf of his wares--"Late at +night in the snow gallery they study the books." Study the books! Yes; +through the crowd of Chinese, in their picturesque familiar dresses, +look at that man, with books upon a tray, who dives into house after +house. He lends books on hire to the poor people and servants. Who is +the puffer here? "We issue and sell Hong Chow tobacco, the name and +fame of which has galloped to the north of Kechow; and the flavor has +pervaded Keangnan in the south." Here we have "Famous teas from every +province;" and you see boiling water handy in the shop, wherewith the +customer may test his purchases. Here, on the other side of this +triumphal arch, we peep through a gateway hung with lanterns into a +small paved paradise with gold fish, (China is the home of gold fish), +and exotics, and trellis-work, and vines, and singing birds; that is a +mercer's shop, affecting style in China as in England, only in another +way. We will walk through the paradise into a grand apartment hung +with lanterns, decorated also with gilded tickets, inscribed "Pekin +satins and Canton crapes," "Hang-chow reeled silks," and so on. Here a +courtly Chinese, skilled in the lubrication of a customer, produces +the rich heavy silks for which his country is renowned, the velvets or +the satins you desire, and shaves you skilfully. Talking of shaving, +and we run against a barber as we come out of the silk shop. He +carries a fire on his head, with water always boiling; on a pole over +his shoulder he balances his water, basin, towels, razors. Will you be +shaved like a Chinese? he picks you out a reasonably quiet doorway, +shaves your head, cleans your ears, tickles your eyes, and cracks your +joints in a twinkling. Where heads are shaved, the wipings of the +razors are extensive; they are all bought up, and employed as manure. +The Chinese have so many mouths to feed, that they can afford to lose +nothing that will fertilize the ground. Instead of writing on their +walls "Commit no nuisance," they place jars, and invite or even pay +the pilgrim. + +The long tail that the barber leaves is to the Chinese his sign of +manhood. Beards do not form a feature of Mongolian faces; a few stray +coarse hairs are all they get, with their square face, high cheek +bones, slanting eyes, and long dark hair upon the head. A plump body, +long ears, and a long tail, are the respectabilities of a Chinese. The +tail is magnified by working in false hair, and it generally ends with +silk. There is a man using his tail to thrash a pig along; and one +traveler records that he has seen a Chinese servant use the same +instrument for polishing a table. It is, of course, the thing to pull +at in a street fight. Here is a phrenologist, with a large figure of a +human head mapped into regions, inviting Chinese bumpkins to submit to +him their bumps. Here is a dentist showing his teeth. Here--we must +stop here--with a gong for drum, but raised on the true pedestal, with +a man inside, who knows the veritable squeak, are Punch and Judy, all +alive. This is their native land. "Pun-tse," the Chinese call our +friend, because he is a little puppet, after all--Puntse meaning in +Chinese, "the son of an inch." Here is the very Chinese bridge that we +have learned by heart along with the pagoda, from a willow-patterned +soup-plate; steps up, steps down, and a set of Chinese lanterns. Here +is a temple, flaming with red paint. Let us go in. Images, votive +candles burning on an altar, and a woman on her face wrestling in +prayer. After praying in a sort of agony for a few minutes, she has +stopped to take a bit of stick, round on one side, for she purposes +therewith to toss up and see whether her prayer is granted. Tails! She +loses! She is wrestling on her knees again--praying, doubtless, for a +"bull child." Girls are undesirable, because they are of no use except +for what they fetch in marriage gifts, and to fetch much they must be +good-looking. Poor woman--tails again! Never mind, she must persevere, +and she will get heads presently. Here comes a grave man, who prays +for half a minute, and pulls out one from a jar of scrolls. Having +examined it, he takes one of the little books that hang against the +wall, looks happy, and departs. He has been drawing lots to see +whether the issue of some undertaking will be fortunate. Poor +woman--tails again! We cannot stop for the result; but I have no doubt +that if she persevere she will get heads up presently. Here is a man +in the street with a whole bamboo kitchen on his head, nine feet long, +by six broad, uttering all manner of good things. The poor fellow who +drove the pig stops in the street to dine. What a Soyer that fellow +is, with his herbs, and his peppers, and his magic stove, and what a +magnificent stew he gives the pig driver! Do you know, I doubt whether +the Chinese are fools. What place have we here steaming like a boiler? +This, sir, is one of the public bath establishments, where a warm +bath, towels, and a dressing closet are at the service of the pig +driver after his dinner, for five _le_--less than a farthing. There, +too, his wife may go and obtain boiling water for the day's tea, which +is to that poor Chinaman his beer, and pay for it but a single _le_. +It would cost far more to boil it for herself; fuel is dear, and +except for cooking or for manufactures, is not used in China. There +are neither grates nor stoves in any Chinese parlor. The continent of +Asia, and with it China, has a climate of extremes, great summer heat +and an excessive winter cold; so that even at Canton, within the +tropic, snow falls. But the Chinaman warms not his toes at a fire; he +accommodates his comfortable costume to the climate; puts on more +clothes as the cold makes itself felt, and takes some off again if he +should feel too warm. That building on the walls is the temple of +Spring, to which ladies repair to dress their hair with flowers when +the first buds open. This handsome structure is the temple of +Confucius. Yonder is the hall of United Benevolence, which supports a +free hospital, a foundling hospital, and makes other provision for the +poor. The Chinese charities are supported generously; the Chinese are +a liberal and kindly race. Here is a shoemaker's shop, with a huge +boot hung over the door, and an inscription which might not suit +lovers of a good fit, "All here are measured by one rule." "When +favored by merchants who bestow their regards on us, please to notice +our sign of the Double Phoenix on a board as a mark; then it will be +all right." These signs are in common use on shops in China as they +were formerly in England. In this shop there is a wild fellow, who is +beating a gong fearfully, and who has rubbed himself with stinking +filth, that he may be the greater nuisance. This is his way of +extorting charity. That shopkeeper, not having compounded with the +king of the beggars for immunity from customers of this kind, seldom +lives a day without being compelled to pay as he is now paying for a +little peace. The beggar takes his nuisance then into another shop. +This is a vast improvement upon our street fiddle and organ practice. +There is a pawnbroker's three-per-cent. per month shop. Here is a +tea-house, surrounded with huge vases for rain-water which is kept to +acquire virtue by age--of course imaginary virtue--for the making of +celestial tea. In that house there is the oven for hatching eggs. +Gateways are fitted at the end of the wide streets, locked at night to +restrain thieves; and in the first house through the gateway here a +girl is screaming dreadfully. Very likely it is a case of sore feet. +The small feet of the Chinese women--about three inches long--are +essential, for without them a girl cannot get a husband; as a wife, +she is her husband's obedient, humble servant, but as a spinster she +is her parents' plague. The operation on the feet takes place when the +girl is seven or eight years old. A young naval surgeon, in his walks, +heard screams (like those) proceeding from a cottage, and went in; he +found a little girl in bed, with her feet bandaged; he removed the +bandage, found the feet of course bent, and ulcerated. He dressed the +wounds, and warned the mother. Passing, another day, he found the +child still suffering torment, and in a hectic fever. He again removed +the bandages, and warned the mother that her child's life would be +sacrificed if she continued with the process. The next time he went by +he saw a little coffin at the door. + +The tea-gardens are in the centre of the town; we will go thither and +rest. We might have dined with a hospitable townsman, where we could +have been present at a theatrical entertainment, in which the Chinese +delight like children. But a dinner in this country is a work of many +hours; the list is very long of things that we should have to touch or +eat. Chinese eat almost any thing; their carte includes birds' nests, +delicate meal-fed puppies, sea-slugs, sharks' fins and tails, frogs, +snails, worms, lizards, tortoises, and water-snakes, with many things +that we should better understand, and a great many disguised +vegetables. A Chinese dinner is so tediously long that we escape it +altogether. Milk is not used; it is thought improper to take it from +the calves; and meat plays no very large part of the Chinese diet. +During our late war it was seriously stated, by several advisers of +the Emperor, that to forbid the English tea and rhubarb would go a +great way to destroy the nation; "for it is well known that the +barbarians feed grossly on the flesh of animals, by which their bodies +are so bound and obstructed," that rhubarb and warm tea were necessary +to be taken, daily, as correctives. Now we are in the tea-gardens, and +have passed through a happy crowd, sipping tea, smoking, eating melon +pips, walking or looking at the jugglers. Into a fairy-like house of +bamboo, perched over water, we ascend. Here is an elegant apartment, +which we claim as private. We recline, and take our cups of tea; the +cups that have been used are wiped, not washed; for washing, say the +people here, would spoil their capacity for preserving the pure flavor +of this delicate young Hyson; upon a spoonful of which, placed in the +cup, hot water is now poured. Opium pipes, bring us! Ha! a hollow +cane, closed at one end, with a mouthpiece at the other; near the +centre is the bowl, of ample size, but with an outward opening no +bigger than a pin's head. We recline luxuriously--looking down on the +gay colors of the Chinese crowd, we take our long stilettos, prick off +a little pill of opium from its ivory reservoir, and burn it, +dexterously, in the spirit lamp; then twist it, judiciously, about the +pin's head orifice. Three whiffs, and it is out, and we are more than +half deprived of active consciousness. Let us repeat the operation. +Practised smokers will go on for hours; a few whiffs are enough for +us. Another languid gaze at the pagodas, and the flowers, and the +water, and the Chinamen; now some more opium to smoke! + +The Phantom finding us intoxicated, like a good servant may have +brought us home; for, certainly, we are at home. + + + + +From "Reminiscences of an Attorney" in Chambers's Edinburgh +Miscellany. + +THE CHEST OF DRAWERS. + + +I am about to relate a rather curious piece of domestic history, some +of the incidents of which, revealed at the time of their occurrence in +law reports, may be in the remembrance of many readers. It occurred in +one of the midland counties, and at a place which I shall call Watley; +the names of the chief actors who figured in it must also, to spare +their modesty or their blushes, be changed; and should one of those +persons, spite of these precautions, apprehend unpleasant recognition, +he will be able to console himself with the reflection, that all I +state beyond that which may be gathered from the records of the law +courts will be generally ascribed to the fancy or invention of the +writer. And it is as well, perhaps, that it should be so. + +Caleb Jennings, a shoemender, or cobbler, occupied, some twelve or +thirteen years ago, a stall at Watley, which, according to the +traditions of the place, had been hereditary in his family for several +generations. He may also be said to have flourished there, after the +manner of cobblers; for this, it must be remembered, was in the good +old times, before the gutta-percha revolution had carried ruin and +dismay into the stalls--those of cobblers--which in considerable +numbers existed throughout the kingdom. Like all his fraternity whom I +have ever fallen in with or heard of, Caleb was a sturdy Radical of +the Major Cartwright and Henry Hunt school; and being withal +industrious, tolerably skilful, not inordinately prone to the +observance of Saint Mondays, possessed, moreover, of a +neatly-furnished sleeping and eating apartment in the house of which +the projecting first-floor, supported on stone pillars, overshadowed +his humble work-place, he vaunted himself to be as really rich as an +estated squire, and far more independent. + +There was some truth in this boast, as the case which procured us the +honor of Mr. Jennings's acquaintance sufficiently proved. We were +employed to bring an action against a wealthy gentleman of the +vicinity of Watley for a brutal and unprovoked assault he had +committed, when in a state of partial inebriety, upon a respectable +London tradesman who had visited the place on business. On the day of +trial our witness appeared to have become suddenly afflicted with an +almost total loss of memory; and we were only saved from an adverse +verdict by the plain, straight-forward evidence of Caleb, upon whose +sturdy nature the various arts which soften or neutralize hostile +evidence had been tried in vain. Mr. Flint, who personally +superintended the case, took quite a liking to the man; and it thus +happened that we were called upon some time afterwards to aid the said +Caleb in extricating himself from the extraordinary and perplexing +difficulty in which he suddenly and unwittingly found himself +involved. + +The projecting first floor of the house beneath which the humble +workshop of Caleb Jennings modestly disclosed itself, had been +occupied for many years by an ailing and somewhat aged gentleman of +the name of Lisle. This Mr. Ambrose Lisle was a native of Watley, and +had been a prosperous merchant of the city of London. Since his +return, after about twenty years' absence, he had shut himself up in +almost total seclusion, nourishing a cynical bitterness and acrimony +of temper which gradually withered up the sources of health and life, +till at length it became as visible to himself as it had for some time +been to others, that the oil of existence was expended, burnt up, and +that but a few weak flickers more, and the ailing man's plaints and +griefs would be hushed in the dark silence of the grave. + +Mr. Lisle had no relatives in Watley, and the only individual with +whom he was on terms of personal intimacy was Mr. Peter Sowerby, an +attorney of the place, who had for many years transacted all his +business. This man visited Mr. Lisle most evenings, played at chess +with him, and gradually acquired an influence over his client which +that weak gentleman had once or twice feebly but vainly endeavoured to +shake off. To this clever attorney, it was rumored, Mr. Lisle had +bequeathed all his wealth. + +This piece of information had been put in circulation by Caleb +Jennings, who was a sort of humble favorite of Mr. Lisle's, or, at all +events, was regarded by the misanthrope with less dislike than he +manifested toward others. Caleb cultivated a few flowers in a little +plot of ground at the back of the house, and Mr. Lisle would sometimes +accept a rose or a bunch of violets from him. Other slight +services--especially since the recent death of his old and garrulous +woman-servant, Esther May, who had accompanied him from London, and +with whom Mr. Jennings had always been upon terms of gossiping +intimacy--had led to certain familiarities of intercourse; and it thus +happened that the inquisitive shoemender became partially acquainted +with the history of the wrongs and griefs which preyed upon, and +shortened the life of, the prematurely-aged man. + +The substance of this everyday, common-place story, as related to us +by Jennings, and subsequently enlarged and colored from other sources, +may be very briefly told. + +Ambrose Lisle, in consequence of an accident which occurred in his +infancy, was slightly deformed. His right shoulder--as I understood, +for I never saw him--grew out, giving an ungraceful and somewhat +comical twist to his figure, which, in female eyes--youthful ones at +least--sadly marred the effect of his intelligent and handsome +countenance. This personal defect rendered him shy and awkward in the +presence of women of his own class of society; and he had attained the +ripe age of thirty-seven years, and was a rich and prosperous man, +before he gave the slightest token of an inclination towards +matrimony. About a twelvemonth previous to that period of his life, +the deaths--quickly following each other--of a Mr. and Mrs. Stevens +threw their eldest daughter, Lucy, upon Mr. Lisle's hands. Mr. Lisle +had been left an orphan at a very early age, and Mrs. Stevens--his +aunt, and then a maiden lady--had, in accordance with his father's +will, taken charge of himself and brother till they severally attained +their majority. Long, however, before that she married Mr. Stevens, by +whom she had two children--Lucy and Emily. Her husband, whom she +survived but two months, died insolvent; and in obedience to the dying +wishes of his aunt, for whom he appears to have felt the tenderest +esteem, he took the eldest of her orphan children into his home, +intending to regard and provide for her as his own adopted child and +heiress. Emily, the other sister found refuge in the house of a still +more distant relative than himself. + +The Stevenses had gone to live at a remote part of England--Yorkshire, +I believe--and it thus fell out, that till his cousin Lucy arrived at +her new home he had not seen her for more than ten years. The pale, +and somewhat plain child, as he had esteemed her, he was startled to +find had become a charming woman; and her naturally gay and joyous +temperament, quick talents, and fresh young beauty, rapidly acquired +an overwhelming influence over him. Strenuously but vainly he +struggled against the growing infatuation--argued, reasoned with +himself--passed in review the insurmountable objections to such a +union, the difference of age--he leading towards thirty-seven, she +barely twenty-one; he crooked, deformed, of reserved, taciturn +temper--she full of young life, and grace and beauty. It was useless; +and nearly a year had passed in the bootless struggle when Lucy +Stevens, who had vainly striven to blind herself to the nature of the +emotions by which her cousin and guardian was animated towards her, +intimated a wish to accept her sister Emily's invitation to pass two +or three months with her. This brought the affair to a crisis. Buoying +himself up with the illusions which people in such an unreasonable +frame of mind create for themselves, he suddenly entered the +sitting-room set apart for her private use, with the desperate purpose +of making his beautiful cousin a formal offer of his hand. She was not +in the apartment, but her opened writing-desk, and a partly-finished +letter lying on it, showed that she had been recently there, and would +probably soon return. Mr. Lisle took two or three agitated turns about +the room, one of which brought him close to the writing-desk, and his +glance involuntarily fell upon the unfinished letter. Had a deadly +serpent leaped suddenly upon his throat, the shock could not have been +greater. At the head of the sheet of paper was a clever pen-and-ink +sketch of Lucy Stevens and himself; he, kneeling to her in a lovelorn +ludicrous attitude, and she laughing immoderately at his lachrymose +and pitiful aspect and speech. The letter was addressed to her sister +Emily; and the enraged lover saw not only that his supposed secret was +fully known, but that he himself was mocked, laughed at for his doting +folly. At least this was his interpretation of the words which swam +before his eyes. At the instant Lucy returned, and a torrent of +imprecation burst from the furious man, in which wounded self-love, +rageful pride, and long pent-up passion, found utterance in wild and +bitter words. Half an hour afterwards Lucy Stevens had left the +merchant's house--for ever, as it proved. She, indeed, on arriving at +her sister's, sent a letter supplicating forgiveness at the +thoughtless, and, as he deemed it, insulting sketch, intended only for +Emily's eye; but he replied merely by a note written by one of his +clerks, informing Miss Stevens that Mr. Lisle declined any further +correspondence with her. + +The ire of the angered and vindictive man had, however, begun sensibly +to abate, and old thoughts, memories, duties, suggested partly by the +blank which Lucy's absence made in his house, partly by remembrance of +the solemn promise he had made her mother, were strongly reviving in +his mind, when he read the announcement of her marriage in a +provincial journal, directed to him, as he believed, in the bride's +handwriting; but this was an error, her sister having sent the +newspaper. Mr. Lisle also construed this into a deliberate mockery and +insult, and from that hour strove to banish all images and thoughts +connected with his cousin from his heart and memory. + +He unfortunately adopted the very worst course possible for effecting +this object. Had he remained amid the buzz and tumult of active life, +a mere sentimental disappointment, such as thousands of us have +sustained and afterwards forgotten, would, there can be little doubt, +have soon ceased to afflict him. He chose to retire from business, +visited Watley, and habits of miserliness growing rapidly upon his +cankered mind, never afterwards removed from the lodgings he had hired +on first arriving there. Thus madly hugging to himself sharp-pointed +memories which a sensible man would have speedily cast off and +forgotten, the sour misanthrope passed a useless, cheerless, weary +existence, to which death must have been a welcome relief. + +Matters were in this state with the morose and aged man--aged mentally +and corporeally, although his years were but fifty-eight--when Mr. +Flint made Mr. Jennings's acquaintance. Another month or so had passed +away when Caleb's attention was one day about noon claimed by a young +man dressed in mourning, accompanied by a female similarly attired, +and from their resemblance to each other he conjectured brother and +sister. The stranger wished to know if that was the house in which Mr. +Ambrose Lisle resided. Jennings said it was; and with civil alacrity +left his stall and rang the front-door bell. The summons was answered +by the landlady's servant, who, since Esther May's death, had waited +on the first-floor lodger; and the visitors were invited to go +up-stairs. Caleb, much wondering who they might be, returned to his +stall, and thence passed into his eating and sleeping room just below +Mr. Lisle's apartments. He was in the act of taking a pipe from the +mantel-shelf in order to the more deliberate and satisfactory +cogitation on such an unusual event, when he was startled by a loud +shout, or scream rather, from above. The quivering and excited voice +was that of Mr. Lisle, and the outcry was immediately followed by an +explosion of unintelligible exclamations from several persons. Caleb +was up stairs in an instant, and found himself in the midst of a +strangely-perplexing and distracted scene. Mr. Lisle, pale as his +shirt, shaking in every limb, and his eyes on fire with passion, was +hurling forth a torrent of vituperation and reproach at the young +woman, whom he evidently mistook for some one else; whilst she, +extremely terrified, and unable to stand but for the assistance of her +companion, was tendering a letter in her outstretched hand, and +uttering broken sentences, which her own agitation and the fury of Mr. +Lisle's invectives rendered totally incomprehensible. At last the +fierce old man struck the letter from her hand, and with frantic rage +ordered both the strangers to leave the room. Caleb urged them, to +comply, and accompanied them down stairs. When they reached the +street, he observed a woman on the other side of the way, dressed in +mourning, and much older apparently--though he could not well see her +face through the thick veil she wore--than she who had thrown Mr. +Lisle into such an agony of rage, apparently waiting for them. To her +the young people immediately hastened, and after a brief conference +the three turned up the street, and Mr. Jennings saw no more of them. + +A quarter of an hour afterwards the house-servant informed Caleb that +Mr. Lisle had retired to bed, and although still in great agitation, +and, as she feared, seriously indisposed, would not permit Dr. Clarke +to be sent for. So sudden and violent a hurricane in the usually dull +and drowsy atmosphere in which Jennings lived, excited and disturbed +him greatly: the hours, however, flew past without bringing any relief +to his curiosity, and evening was falling, when a peculiar knocking on +the floor overhead announced that Mr. Lisle desired his presence. That +gentleman was sitting up in bed, and in the growing darkness his face +could not be very distinctly seen; but Caleb instantly observed a +vivid and unusual light in the old man's eyes. The letter so strangely +delivered was lying open before him; and unless the shoemender was +greatly mistaken, there were stains of recent tears upon Mr. Lisle's +furrowed and hollow cheeks. The voice, too, it struck Caleb, though +eager, was gentle and wavering. "It was a mistake, Jennings," he said; +"I was mad for the moment. Are they gone?" he added in a yet more +subdued and gentle tone. Caleb informed him of what he had seen; and +as he did so, the strange light in the old man's eyes seemed to quiver +and sparkle with a yet intenser emotion than before. Presently he +shaded them with his hand, and remained several minutes silent. He +then said with a firmer voice: "I shall be glad if you will step to +Mr. Sowerby, and tell him I am too unwell to see him this evening. But +be sure to say nothing else," he eagerly added, as Caleb turned away +in compliance with his request; "and when you come back, let me see +you again." + +When Jennings returned, he found to his great surprise Mr. Lisle up +and nearly dressed; and his astonishment increased a hundred-fold upon +hearing that gentleman say, in a quick but perfectly collected and +decided manner, that he should set off for London by the mail-train. + +"For London--and by night!" exclaimed Caleb, scarcely sure that he +heard aright. + +"Yes--yes, I shall not be observed in the dark," sharply rejoined Mr. +Lisle; "and you, Caleb, must keep my secret from every body, +especially from Sowerby. I shall be here in time to see him to-morrow +night, and he will be none the wiser." This was said with a slight +chuckle; and as soon as his simple preparations were complete, Mr. +Lisle, well wrapped up, and his face almost hidden by shawls, locked +his door, and assisted by Jennings, stole furtively down stairs, and +reached unrecognized the railway station just in time for the train. + +It was quite dark the next evening when Mr. Lisle returned; and so +well had he managed, that Mr. Sowerby, who paid his usual visit about +half an hour afterwards, had evidently heard nothing of the suspicious +absence of his esteemed client from Watley. The old man exulted over +the success of his deception to Caleb the next morning, but dropped no +hint as to the object of his sudden journey. + +Three days passed without the occurrence of any incident tending to +the enlightenment of Mr. Jennings upon these mysterious events, which, +however, he plainly saw had lamentably shaken the long-since failing +man. On the afternoon of the fourth day, Mr. Lisle walked, or rather +tottered, into Caleb's stall, and seated himself on the only vacant +stool it contained. His manner was confused, and frequently +purposeless, and there was an anxious, flurried expression in his face +which Jennings did not at all like. He remained silent for some time, +with the exception of partially inaudible snatches of comment or +questionings, apparently addressed to himself. At last he said: "I +shall take a longer journey to-morrow, Caleb--much longer: let me +see--where did I say? Ah, yes! to Glasgow; to be sure to Glasgow!" + +"To Glasgow, and to-morrow!" exclaimed the astounded cobbler. + +"No, no--not Glasgow; they have removed," feebly rejoined Mr. Lisle. +"But Lucy has written it down for me. True--true; and to-morrow I +shall set out." + +The strange expression of Mr. Lisle's face became momentarily more +strongly marked, and Jennings, greatly alarmed, said: "You are ill, +Mr. Lisle; let me run for Dr. Clarke." + +"No--no," he murmured, at the same time striving to rise from his +seat, which he could only accomplish by Caleb's assistance, and so +supported, he staggered indoors. "I shall be better to-morrow," he +said faintly, and then slowly added: "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and +to-morrow! Ah me! Yes, as I said, to-morrow, I"----He paused abruptly, +and they gained his apartment. He seated himself, and then Jennings, +at his mute solicitations, assisted him to bed. + +He lay some time with his eyes closed; and Caleb could feel--for Mr. +Lisle held him firmly by the hand, as if to prevent his going away--a +convulsive shudder pass over his frame. At last he slowly opened his +eyes, and Caleb saw that he was indeed about to depart upon the long +journey from which there is no return. The lips of the dying man +worked inarticulately for some moments; and then, with a mighty +effort, as it seemed, he said, whilst his trembling hand pointed +feebly to a bureau chest of drawers that stood in the room: +"There--there for Lucy; there, the secret place is"----Some inaudible +words followed, and then, after a still mightier struggle than before, +he gasped out: "No word--no word--to--to Sowerby--for her--Lucy." + +More was said, but undistinguishable by mortal ear; and after gazing +with an expression of indescribable anxiety in the scared face of his +awestruck listener, the wearied eyes slowly reclosed--the deep silence +flowed past; then the convulsive shudder came again, and he was dead! + +Caleb Jennings tremblingly summoned the house-servant and the +landlady, and was still confusedly pondering the broken sentences +uttered by the dying man, when Mr. Sowerby hurriedly arrived. The +attorney's first care was to assume the direction of affairs, and to +place seals upon every article containing or likely to contain any +thing of value belonging to the deceased. This done, he went away to +give directions for the funeral, which took place a few days +afterwards; and it was then formally announced that Mr. Sowerby +succeeded by will to the large property of Ambrose Lisle; under trust, +however, for the family, if any, of Robert Lisle, the deceased's +brother, who had gone when very young to India, and had not been heard +of for many years--a condition which did not at all mar the joy of the +crafty lawyer, he having long since instituted private inquiries, +which perfectly satisfied him that the said Robert Lisle had died, +unmarried, at Calcutta. + +Mr. Jennings was in a state of great dubiety and consternation. +Sowerby had emptied the chest of drawers of every valuable it +contained; and unless he had missed the secret receptacle Mr. Lisle +had spoken of, the deceased's intentions, whatever they might have +been, were clearly defeated. And if he had _not_ discovered it, how +could he, Jennings, get at the drawers to examine them? A fortunate +chance brought some relief to his perplexities. Ambrose Lisle's +furniture was advertised to be sold by auction, and Caleb resolved to +purchase the bureau chest of drawers at almost any price, although to +do so would oblige him to break into his rent-money, then nearly due. +The day of sale came, and the important lot in its turn was put up. In +one of the drawers there were a number of loose newspapers, and other +valueless scraps; and Caleb, with a sly grin, asked the auctioneer if +he sold the article with all its contents. "Oh yes," said Sowerby, who +was watching the sale; "the buyer may have all it contains over his +bargain, and much good may it do him." A laugh followed the attorney's +sneering remark, and the biddings went on. "I want it," observed +Caleb, "because it just fits a recess like this one in my room +underneath." This he said to quiet a suspicion he thought he saw +gathering upon the attorney's brow. It was finally knocked down to +Caleb at £5, 10s., a sum considerably beyond its real value; and he +had to borrow a sovereign in order to clear his speculative purchase. +This done, he carried off his prize, and as soon as the closing of the +house for the night secured him from interruption, he set eagerly to +work in search of the secret drawer. A long and patient examination +was richly rewarded. Behind one of the small drawers of the +_secrétaire_ portion of the piece of furniture was another small one, +curiously concealed, which contained Bank-of-England notes to the +amount of £200, tied up with a letter, upon the back of which was +written, in the deceased's handwriting, "To take with me." The letter +which Caleb, although he read print with facility, had much difficulty +in making out, was that which Mr. Lisle had struck from the young +woman's hand a few weeks before, and proved to be a very affecting +appeal from Lucy Stevens, now Lucy Warner, and a widow, with two +grown-up children. Her husband had died in insolvent circumstances, +and she and her sister Emily, who was still single, were endeavoring +to carry on a school at Bristol, which promised to be sufficiently +prosperous if the sum of about £150 could be raised, to save the +furniture from her deceased husband's creditors. The claim was +pressing, for Mr. Warner had been dead nearly a year, and Mr. Lisle +being the only relative Mrs. Warner had in the world, she had ventured +to entreat his assistance for her mother's sake. There could be no +moral doubt, therefore, that this money was intended for Mrs. Warner's +relief; and early in the morning Mr. Caleb Jennings dressed himself in +his Sunday's suit, and with a brief announcement to his landlady that +he was about to leave Watley for a day or two on a visit to a friend, +set off for the railway station. He had not proceeded far when a +difficulty struck him: the bank-notes were all twenties; and were he +to change a twenty-pound note at the station, where he was well known, +great would be the tattle and wonderment, if nothing worse, that would +ensue. So Caleb tried his credit again, borrowed sufficient for his +journey to London, and there changed one of the notes. + +He soon reached Bristol, and blessed was the relief which the sum of +money he brought afforded Mrs. Warner. She expressed much sorrow for +the death of Mr. Lisle, and great gratitude to Caleb. The worthy man +accepted with some reluctance one of the notes, or at least as much as +remained of that which he had changed; and after exchanging promises +with the widow and her relatives to keep the matter secret, departed +homewards. The young woman, Mrs. Warner's daughter, who had brought +the letter to Watley, was, Caleb noticed, the very image of her +mother, or rather of what her mother must have been when young. This +remarkable resemblance it was, no doubt, which had for the moment so +confounded and agitated Mr. Lisle. + +Nothing occurred for about a fortnight after Caleb's return to +disquiet him, and he had begun to feel tolerably sure that his +discovery of the notes would remain unsuspected, when, one afternoon, +the sudden and impetuous entrance of Mr. Sowerby into his stall caused +him to jump up from his seat with surprise and alarm. The attorney's +face was deathly white, his eyes glared like a wild beast's, and his +whole appearance exhibited uncontrollable agitation. "A word with you, +Mr. Jennings," he gasped--"a word in private, and at once!" Caleb, in +scarcely less consternation than his visitor, led the way into his +inner room, and closed the door. + +"Restore--give back," screamed the attorney, vainly struggling to +dissemble the agitation which convulsed him--"that--that which you +have purloined from the chest of drawers!" + +The hot blood rushed to Caleb's face and temples; the wild vehemence +and suddenness of the demand confounded him; and certain previous dim +suspicions that the law might not only pronounce what he had done +illegal, but possibly felonious, returned upon him with terrible +force, and he quite lost his presence of mind. + +"I can't--I can't," he stammered. "It's gone--given away"---- + +"Gone!" shouted, or more correctly howled, Sowerby, at the same time +flying at Caleb's throat as if he would throttle him. "Gone--given +away! You lie--you want to drive a bargain with +me--dog!--liar!--rascal!--thief!" + +This was a species of attack which Jennings was at no loss how to +meet. He shook the attorney roughly off, and hurled him, in the midst +of his vituperation, to the further end of the room. + +They then stood glaring at each other in silence, till the attorney, +mastering himself as well as he could, essayed another and more +rational mode of attaining his purpose. + +"Come, come, Jennings," he said, "don't be a fool. Let us understand +each other. I have just discovered a paper, a memorandum of what you +have found in the drawers, and to obtain which you bought them. I +don't care for the money--keep it; only give me the +papers--documents." + +"Papers--documents!" ejaculated Caleb in unfeigned surprise. + +"Yes--yes; of use to me only. You, I remember, cannot read writing; +but they are of great consequence to me--to me only, I tell you." + +"You can't mean Mrs. Warner's letter?" + +"No--no; curse the letter! You are playing with a tiger! Keep the +money, I tell you; but give up the papers--documents--or I'll +transport you!" shouted Sowerby with reviving fury. + +Caleb, thoroughly bewildered, could only mechanically ejaculate that +he had no papers or documents. + +The rage of the attorney when he found he could extract nothing from +Jennings was frightful. He literally foamed with passion, uttered the +wildest threats; and then suddenly changing his key, offered the +astounded cobbler one--two--three thousand pounds--any sum he chose to +name--for the papers--documents! This scene of alternate violence and +cajolery lasted nearly an hour; and then Sowerby rushed from the +house, as if pursued by the furies, and leaving his auditor in a state +of thorough bewilderment and dismay. It occurred to Caleb, as soon as +his mind had settled into something like order, that there might be +another secret drawer; and the recollection of Mr. Lisle's journey to +London returned suggestively to him. Another long and eager search, +however, proved fruitless; and the suspicion was given up, or, more +correctly, weakened. + +As soon as it was light the next morning, Mr. Sowerby was again with +him. He was more guarded now, and was at length convinced that +Jennings had no paper or document to give up. "It was only some +important memoranda," observed the attorney carelessly, "that would +save me a world of trouble in a lawsuit I shall have to bring against +some heavy debtors to Mr. Lisle's estate; but I must do as well as I +can without them. Good morning." Just as he reached the door, a sudden +thought appeared to strike him. He stopped and said: "By the way, +Jennings, in the hurry of business I forgot that Mr. Lisle had told me +the chest of drawers you bought, and a few other articles, were family +relics which he wished to be given to certain parties he named. The +other things I have got: and you, I presume, will let me have the +drawers for--say a pound profit on your bargain?" + +Caleb was not the acutest man in the world; but this sudden +proposition, carelessly as it was made, suggested curious thoughts. +"No," he answered; "I shall not part with it. I shall keep it as a +memorial of Mr. Lisle." + +Sowerby's face assumed, as Caleb spoke, a ferocious expression. "Shall +you?" said he. "Then, be sure, my fine fellow, that you shall also +have something to remember me by as long as you live!" + +He then went away, and a few days afterwards Caleb was served with a +writ for the recovery of the two hundred pounds. + +The affair made a great noise in the place; and Caleb's conduct being +very generally approved, a subscription was set on foot to defray the +cost of defending the action--one Hayling, a rival attorney to +Sowerby, having asserted that the words used by the proprietor of the +chest of drawers at the sale barred his claim to the money found in +them. This wise gentleman was intrusted with the defence; and, +strange to say, the jury, a common one--spite of the direction of the +judge, returned a verdict for the defendant, upon the ground that +Sowerby's jocular or sneering remark amounted to a serious, valid +leave and license to sell two hundred pounds for five pounds ten +shillings! + +Sowerby obtained, as a matter of course, a rule for a new trial; and a +fresh action was brought. All at once Hayling refused to go on, +alleging deficiency of funds. He told Jennings that in his opinion it +would be better that he should give in to Sowerby's whim, who only +wanted the drawers in order to comply with the testator's wishes. +"Besides," remarked Hayling in conclusion, "he is sure to get the +article, you know, when it comes to be sold under a writ of _fi. fa._" +A few days after this conversation, it was ascertained that Hayling +was to succeed to Sowerby's business, the latter gentleman being about +to retire upon the fortune bequeathed him by Mr. Lisle. + +At last Caleb, driven nearly out of his senses, though still doggedly +obstinate, by the harassing perplexities in which he found himself, +thought of applying to us. + +"A very curious affair, upon my word," remarked Mr. Flint, as soon as +Caleb had unburdened himself of the story of his woes and cares; "and +in my opinion by no means explainable by Sowerby's anxiety to fulfil +the testator's wishes. He cannot expect to get two hundred pence out +of you; and Mrs. Warner, you say, is equally unable to pay. Very odd +indeed. Perhaps if we could get time, something might turn up." + +With this view Flint looked over the papers Caleb had brought, and +found the declaration was in _trover_--a manifest error--the notes +never admittedly having been in Sowerby's actual possession. We +accordingly demurred to the form of action, and the proceedings were +set aside. This, however, proved of no ultimate benefit: Sowerby +persevered, and a fresh action was instituted against the unhappy +shoemender. So utterly overcrowed and disconsolate was poor Caleb, +that, he determined to give up the drawers, which was all Sowerby even +now required, and so wash his hands of the unfortunate business. +Previous, however, to this being done, it was determined that another +thorough and scientific examination of the mysterious piece of +furniture should be made; and for this purpose, Mr. Flint obtained a +workman skilled in the mysteries of secret contrivances, from the desk +and dressing-case establishment in King-street, Holborn, and proceeded +with him to Watley. + +The man performed his task with great care and skill: every depth and +width was gauged and measured, in order to ascertain if there were any +false bottoms or backs; and the workman finally pronounced that there +was no concealed receptacle in the article. + +"I am sure there is," persisted Flint, whom disappointment as usual +rendered but the more obstinate; "and so is Sowerby; and he knows, +too, that it is so cunningly contrived as to be undiscoverable, except +by a person in the secret, which he no doubt at first imagined Caleb +to be. I'll tell you what we will do: you have the necessary tools +with you. Split the confounded chest of drawers into shreds: I'll be +answerable for the consequences." + +This was done carefully and methodically, but for some time without +result. At length the large drawer next the floor had to be knocked to +pieces; and as it fell apart, one section of the bottom, which, like +all the others, was divided into two compartments, dropped asunder, +and discovered a parchment laid flat between the two thin leaves, +which, when pressed together in the grooves of the drawer, presented +precisely the same appearance as the rest. Flint snatched up the +parchment, and his eager eye scarcely rested an instant on the +writing, when a shout of triumph burst from him. It was the last will +and testament of Ambrose Lisle, dated August 21, 1838--the day of his +last hurried visit to London. It revoked the former will, and +bequeathed the whole of his property, in equal portions, to his +cousins Lucy Warner and Emily Stevens, with succession to their +children; but with reservation of one-half to his brother Robert or +children, should he be alive, or have left offspring. + +Great, it may be supposed, was the jubilation of Caleb Jennings at +this discovery; and all Watley, by his agency, was in a marvelously +short space of time in a very similar state of excitement. It was very +late that night when he reached his bed; and how he got there at all, +and what precisely had happened, except, indeed, that he had somewhere +picked up a splitting headache, was, for some time after he awoke the +next morn, very confusedly remembered. + +Mr. Flint, upon reflection, was by no means so exultant as the worthy +shoemender. The odd mode of packing away a deed of such importance, +with no assignable motive for doing so, except the needless awe with +which Sowerby was said to have inspired his feeble-spirited client, +together with what Caleb had said of the shattered state of the +deceased's mind after the interview with Mrs. Warner's daughter, +suggested fears that Sowerby might dispute, and perhaps successfully, +the validity of this last will. My excellent partner, however, +determined, as was his wont, to put a bold face on the matter; and +first clearly settling in his own mind what he should and what he +should _not_ say, he waited upon Mr. Sowerby. The news had preceded +him, and he was at once surprised and delighted to find that the +nervous, crestfallen attorney was quite unaware of the advantages of +his position. On condition of not being called to account for the +moneys he had received and expended, about £1200, he destroyed the +former will in Mr. Flint's presence, and gave up at once all the +deceased's papers. From these we learned that Mr. Lisle had written a +letter to Mrs. Warner, stating what he had done, where the will would +be found, and that only herself and Jennings would know the secret. +From infirmity of purpose, or from having subsequently determined on a +personal interview, the letter was not posted; and Sowerby +subsequently discovered it, together with a memorandum of the numbers +of the bank-notes found by Caleb in the secret drawer--the eccentric +gentleman appears to have had quite a mania for such hiding-places--of +a writing-desk. + +The affair was thus happily terminated: Mrs. Warner, her children, and +sister, were enriched, and Caleb Jennings was set up in a good way of +business in his native place, where he still flourishes. Over the +centre of his shop there is a large nondescript sign, surmounted by a +golden boot, which, upon close inspection, is found to bear some +resemblance to a huge bureau chest of drawers, all the circumstances +connected with which may be heard, for the asking, and in much fuller +detail than I have given, from the lips of the owner of the +establishment, by any lady or gentleman who will take the trouble of a +journey to Watley for that purpose. + + + + +MY NOVEL: + +OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE,[8] + +BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON. + + +BOOK VI.--INITIAL CHAPTER. + +"Life," said my father, in his most dogmatical tone, "is a certain +quantity in time, which may be regarded in two ways--first, as life +_Integral_; second, as life _Fractional_. Life integral is that +complete whole, expressive of a certain value, large or small, which +each man possesses in himself. Life fractional is that same whole +seized upon and invaded by other people, and subdivided amongst them. +They who get a large slice of it say, 'a very valuable life +this!'--those who get but a small handful say, 'so, so, nothing very +great!'--those who get none of it in the scramble exclaim, 'Good for +nothing!'" + +"I don't understand a word you are saying," growled Captain Roland. + +My father surveyed his brother with compassion--"I will make it all +clear even to your understanding. When I sit down by myself in my +study, having carefully locked the door on all of you, alone with my +books and thoughts, I am in full possession of my integral life. I am +_totus, teres, atque rotundus_--a whole human being--equivalent in +value we will say, for the sake of illustration, to a fixed round +sum--£100, for example. But when I come forth into the common +apartment, each of those to whom I am of any worth whatsoever puts his +fingers into the bag that contains me and takes out of me what he +wants. Kitty requires me to pay a bill; Pisistratus to save him the +time and trouble of looking into a score or two of books; the children +to tell them stories; or play at hide-and-seek; the carp for +breadcrumbs; and so on throughout the circle to which I have +incautiously given myself up for plunder and subdivision. The £100 +which I represented in my study is now parcelled out; I am worth £40 +or £50 to Kitty, £20 to Pisistratus, and perhaps 30_s._ to the carp. +This is life fractional. And I cease to be an integral till once more +returning to my study, and again closing the door on all existence but +my own. Meanwhile, it is perfectly clear that, to those who, whether I +am in the study or whether I am in the common sitting-room, get +nothing at all out of me, I am not worth a farthing. It must be wholly +indifferent to a native of Kamschatka whether Austin Caxton be or be +not rased out of the great account-book of human beings." + +"Hence," continued my father--"hence it follows that the more +fractional a life be--_id est_, the greater the number of persons +among whom it can be subdivided--why, the more there are to say, 'a +very valuable life that!' Thus, the leader of a political party, a +conqueror, a king, an author who is amusing hundreds or thousands, or +millions, has a greater number of persons whom his worth interests and +affects than a Saint Simon Stylites could have when he perched himself +at the top of a column; although, regarded each in himself, Saint +Simon, in his grand mortification of flesh, in the idea that he +thereby pleased his Divine Benefactor, might represent a larger sum of +moral value _per se_ than Bonaparte or Voltaire." + +_Pisistratus._--"Perfectly clear, sir, but I don't see what it has to +do with My Novel." + +_Mr. Caxton._--"Every thing. Your novel, if it is to be a full and +comprehensive survey of the '_Quicquid agunt homines_', (which it +ought to be, considering the length and breadth to which I foresee, +from the slow development of your story, you meditate extending and +expanding it,) will embrace the two views of existence, the integral +and the fractional. You have shown us the former in Leonard, when he +is sitting in his mother's cottage, or resting from his work by the +little fount in Riccabocca's garden. And in harmony with that view of +his life, you have surrounded him with comparative integrals, only +subdivided by the tender hands of their immediate families and +neighbors--your Squires and Parsons, your Italian exile and his +Jemima. With all these, life is more or less the life natural, and +this is always more or less the life integral. Then comes the life +artificial, which is always more or less the life fractional. In the +life natural, wherein we are swayed but by our own native impulses and +desires, subservient only to the great silent law of virtue, (which +has pervaded the universe since it swung out of chaos,) a man is of +worth from what he is in himself--Newton was as worthy before the +apple fell from the tree as when all Europe applauded the discoverer +of the principle of gravity. But in the life artificial we are only of +worth in as much as we affect others. And, relative to that life, +Newton rose in value more than a million per cent. when down fell the +apple from which ultimately sprang up his discovery. In order to keep +civilization going, and spread over the world the light of human +intellect, we have certain desires within us, ever swelling beyond the +ease and independence which belong to us as integrals. Cold man as +Newton might be, (he once took a lady's hand in his own, Kitty, and +used her forefinger for his tobacco-stopper; great philosopher!)--cold +as he might be, he was yet moved into giving his discoveries to the +world, and that from motives very little differing in their quality +from the motives that make Dr. Squills communicate articles to the +Phrenological Journal upon the skulls of Bushmen and wombats. For it +is the _property of light to travel_. When a man has light in him, +forth it must go. But the first passage of genius from its integral +state (in which it has been reposing on its own wealth) into the +fractional, is usually through a hard and vulgar pathway. It leaves +behind it the reveries of solitude--that self-contemplating rest which +may be called the Visionary, and enters suddenly into the state that +may be called the Positive and Actual. There, it sees the operation of +money on the outer life--sees all the ruder and commoner springs of +action--sees ambition without nobleness--love without romance--is +bustled about, and ordered, and trampled, and cowed--in short, it +passes an apprenticeship with some Richard Avenel, and does not yet +detect what good and what grandeur, what addition even to the true +poetry of the social universe, fractional existences like Richard +Avenel's bestow; for the pillars that support society are like those +of the court of the Hebrew Tabernacle--they are of brass, it is true, +but they are filleted with silver. From such intermediate state genius +is expelled, and driven on in its way, and would have been so in this +case, had Mrs. Fairfield (who is but the representative of the homely +natural affections, strongest ever in true genius--for light is warm) +never crushed Mr. Avenel's moss rose on her sisterly bosom. Now, forth +from this passage and defile of transition into the larger world, must +genius go on, working out its natural destiny amidst things and forms +the most artificial. Passions that move and influence the world are at +work around it. Often lost sight of itself, its very absence is a +silent contrast to the agencies present. Merged and vanished for a +while amidst the practical world, yet we ourselves feel all the while +that it is _there_--is at work amidst the workings around it. This +practical world that effaces it rose out of some genius that has gone +before; and so each man of genius, though we never come across him, as +his operations proceed, in places remote from our thoroughfares, is +yet influencing the practical world that ignores him, for ever and +ever. That is GENIUS! We can't describe it in books--we can only hint +and suggest it, by the accessaries which we artfully heap about it. +The entrance of a true probationer into the terrible ordeal of +practical life is like that into the miraculous cavern, by which, +legend informs us, St. Patrick converted Ireland." + +_Blanche._--"What is that legend? I never heard of it." + +_Mr. Caxton._--"My dear, you will find it in a thin folio at the right +on entering my study, written by Thomas Messingham, and called +'Florilegium Insulæ Sanctorum,' &c. The account therein is confirmed +by the relation of an honest soldier, one Louis Ennius, who had +actually entered the cavern. In short, the truth of the legend is +undeniable, unless you mean to say, which I can't for a moment +suppose, that Louis Ennius was a liar. Thus it runs:--St. Patrick, +finding that the Irish pagans were incredulous as to his pathetic +assurances of the pains and torments destined to those who did not +expiate their sins in this world, prayed for a miracle to convince +them. His prayer was heard; and a certain cavern, so small that a man +could not stand up therein at his ease, was suddenly converted into a +Purgatory, comprehending tortures sufficient to convince the most +incredulous. One unacquainted with human nature might conjecture that +few would be disposed to venture voluntarily into such a place; on the +contrary, pilgrims came in crowds. Now, all who entered from vain +curiosity, or with souls unprepared, perished miserably; but those who +entered with deep and earnest faith, conscious of their faults, and if +bold, yet humble, not only came out safe and sound, but purified, as +if from the waters of a second baptism. See Savage and Johnson at +night in Fleet-street, and who shall doubt the truth of St. Patrick's +Purgatory?" Therewith my father sighed--closed his Lucian, which had +lain open on the table, and would read nothing but "good books" for +the rest of the evening. + + +CHAPTER II. + +On their escape from the prison to which Mr. Avenel had condemned +them, Leonard and his mother found their way to a small public-house +that lay at a little distance from the town, and on the outskirts of +the high-road. With his arm round his mother's waist, Leonard +supported her steps and soothed her excitement. In fact the poor +woman's nerves were greatly shaken, and she felt an uneasy remorse at +the injury her intrusion had inflicted on the young man's worldly +prospects. As the shrewd reader has guessed already, that infamous +Tinker was the prime agent of evil in this critical turn in the +affairs of his quondam customer. For, on his return to his haunts +around Hazeldean and the Casino, the Tinker had hastened to apprise +Mrs. Fairfield of his interview with Leonard, and on finding that she +was not aware that the boy was under the roof of his uncle, the +pestilent vagabond (perhaps from spite against Mr. Avenel, or perhaps +from that pure love of mischief by which metaphysical critics explain +the character of Iago, and which certainly formed a main element in +the idiosyncrasy of Mr. Sprott) had so impressed on the widow's mind +the haughty demeanor of the uncle and the refined costume of the +nephew, that Mrs. Fairfield had been seized with a bitter and +insupportable jealousy. There was an intention to rob her of her +boy!--he was to be made too fine for her. His silence was now +accounted for. This sort of jealousy, always more or less a feminine +quality, is often very strong amongst the poor; and it was the more +strong in Mrs. Fairfield, because, lone woman as she was, the boy was +all in all to her. And though she was reconciled to the loss of his +presence, nothing could reconcile her to the thought that his +affections should be weaned from her. Moreover, there were in her mind +certain impressions, of the justice of which the reader may better +judge hereafter, as to the gratitude, more than ordinarily filial, +which Leonard owed to her. In short, she did not like, as she phrased +it, "to be shaken off;" and after a sleepless night she resolved to +judge for herself, much moved thereto by the malicious suggestions to +that effect made by Mr. Sprott, who mightily enjoyed the idea of +mortifying the gentleman by whom he had been so disrespectfully +threatened with the treadmill. The widow felt angry with Parson Dale, +and with the Riccaboccas; she thought they were in the plot against +her; she communicated, therefore, her intention to none--and off she +set, performing the journey partly on the top of the coach, partly on +foot. No wonder that she was dusty, poor woman. + +"And, oh, boy!" said she, half sobbing, "when I got through the lodge +gates, came on the lawn, and saw all that power o' fine folk--I said +to myself, says I--(for I felt fritted)--I'll just have a look at him +and go back. But ah, Lenny, when I saw thee, looking so handsome--and +when thee turned and cried 'Mother!' my heart was just ready to leap +out o' my mouth--and so I could not help hugging thee, if I had died +for it. And thou wert so kind, that I forgot all Mr. Sprott had said +about Dick's pride, or thought he had just told a fib about that, as +he had wanted me to believe a fib about thee. Then Dick came up--and I +had not seen him for so many years--and we come o' the same father and +mother; and so--and so"--the widow's sobs here fairly choked her. +"Ah," she said, after giving vent to her passion, and throwing her +arms round Leonard's neck, as they sat in the little sanded parlor of +the public-house--"Ah, and I've brought thee to this. Go back, go +back, boy, and never mind me." + +With some difficulty Leonard pacified poor Mrs. Fairfield, and got her +to retire to bed; for she was indeed thoroughly exhausted. He then +stepped forth into the road, musingly. All the stars were out; and +Youth, in its troubles, instinctively looks up to the stars. Folding +his arms, Leonard gazed on the heavens, and his lips murmured. + +From this trance, for so it might be called, he was awakened by a +voice in a decidedly London accent; and, turning hastily round, saw +Mr. Avenel's very gentlemanlike butler. Leonard's first idea was that +his uncle had repented, and sent in search of him. But the butler +seemed as much surprised at the rencontre as himself; that personage, +indeed, the fatigues of the day being over, was accompanying one of +Mr. Gunter's waiters to the public-house, (at which the latter had +secured his lodging,) having discovered an old friend in the waiter, +and proposing to regale himself with a cheerful glass, and--_that_ of +course--abuse of his present sitivation. + +"Mr. Fairfield!" exclaimed the butler, while the waiter walked +discreetly on. + +Leonard looked, and said nothing. The butler began to think that some +apology was due for leaving his plate and his pantry, and that he +might as well secure Leonard's propitiatory influence with his +master-- + +"Please, sir," said he, touching his hat, "I was just a-showing Mr. +Giles the way to the Blue Bells, where he puts up for the night. I +hope my master will not be offended. If you are a-going back, sir, +would you kindly mention it?" + +"I am not going back, Jarvis," answered Leonard, after a pause; "I am +leaving Mr. Avenel's house, to accompany my mother; rather suddenly. I +should be very much obliged to you if you would bring some things of +mine to me at the Blue Bells. I will give you the list, if you will +step back with me to the inn." + +Without waiting for a reply, Leonard then turned towards the inn, and +made his humble inventory: item, the clothes he had brought with him +from the Casino; item, the knapsack that had contained them; item, a +few books, ditto; item, Dr. Riccabocca's watch; item, sundry MSS., on +which the young student now built all his hopes of fame and fortune. +This list he put into Mr. Jarvis's hand. + +"Sir," said the butler, twirling the paper between his finger and +thumb, "you are not a-going for long, I hope;" and as he thought of +the scene on the lawn, the report of which had vaguely reached his +ears, he looked on the face of the young man, who had always been +"civil spoken to him," with as much, curiosity and as much compassion +as so apathetic and princely a personage could experience in matters +affecting a family less aristocratic than he had hitherto condescended +to serve. + +"Yes," said Leonard, simply and briefly; "and your master will no +doubt excuse you for rendering me this service." + +Mr. Jarvis postponed for the present his glass and chat with the +waiter, and went back at once to Mr. Avenel. That gentleman, still +seated in his library, had not been aware of the butler's absence; and +when Mr. Jarvis entered and told him that he had met Mr. Fairfield, +and, communicating the commission with which he was intrusted, asked +leave to execute it, Mr. Avenel felt the man's inquisitive eye was on +him, and conceived new wrath against Leonard for a new humiliation to +his pride. It was awkward to give no explanation of his nephew's +departure, still more awkward to explain. + +After a short pause, Mr. Avenel said sullenly, "My nephew is going +away on business for some time--do what he tells you;" and then turned +his back, and lighted his cigar. + +"That beast of a boy," said he, soliloquizing, "either means this as +an affront, or an overture; if an affront, he is, indeed, well got rid +of; if an overture, he will soon make a more respectful and proper +one. After all, I can't have too little of relations till I have +fairly secured Mrs. McCatchly. An Honorable! I wonder if that makes me +an Honorable too? This cursed Debrett contains no practical +information on these points." + +The next morning, the clothes and the watch with which Mr. Avenel had +presented Leonard were returned, with a note meant to express +gratitude, but certainly written with very little knowledge of the +world, and so full of that somewhat over-resentful pride which had in +earlier life made Leonard fly from Hazeldean, and refuse all apology +to Randal, that it is not to be wondered at that Mr. Avenel's last +remorseful feelings evaporated in ire. "I hope he will starve!" said +the uncle, vindictively. + + +CHAPTER III. + +"Listen to me, my dear mother," said Leonard the next morning, as with +his knapsack on his shoulder and Mrs. Fairfield on his arm, he walked +along the high road; "I do assure you, from my heart, that I do not +regret the loss of favors which I see plainly would have crushed out +of me the very sense of independence. But do not fear for me; I have +education and energy--I shall do well for myself, trust me. No; I +cannot, it is true, go back to our cottage--I cannot be a gardener +again. Don't ask me--I should be discontented, miserable. But I will +go up to London! That's the place to make a fortune and a name: I will +make both. O yes, trust me, I will. You shall soon be proud of your +Leonard; and then we will always live together--always! Don't cry." + +"But what can you do in London--such a big place, Lenny?" + +"What! Every year does not some lad leave our village, and go and seek +his fortune, taking with him but health and strong hands? I have +these, and I have more: I have brains, and thoughts, and hopes, +that--again I say, No, no--never fear for me!" + +The boy threw back his head proudly; there was something sublime in +his young trust in the future. + +"Well--but you will write to Mr. Dale, or to me? I will get Mr. Dale, +or the good Mounseer (now I knew they were not agin me) to read your +letters." + +"I will, indeed!" + +"And, boy, you have nothing in your pockets. We have paid Dick; these, +at least, are my own, after paying the coach fare." And she would +thrust a sovereign and some shillings into Leonard's waistcoat pocket. + +After some resistance, he was forced to consent. + +"And there's a sixpence with a hole in it. Don't part with that, +Lenny; it will bring thee good luck." + +Thus talking, they gained the inn where the three roads met, and from +which a coach went direct to the Casino. And here, without entering +the inn, they sat on the green sward by the hedge-row, waiting the +arrival of the coach. Mrs. Fairfield was much subdued in spirits, and +there was evidently on her mind something uneasy--some struggle with +her conscience. She not only upbraided herself for her rash visit; but +she kept talking of her dead Mark. And what would he say of her, if he +could see her in heaven? + +"It was so selfish in me, Lenny." + +"Pooh, pooh! Has not a mother a right to her child?" + +"Ay, ay, ay!" cried Mrs. Fairfield: "I do love you as a child--my own +child. But if I was not your mother, after all, Lenny, and cost you +all this--oh, what would you say of me then?" + +"Not my own mother!" said Leonard, laughing, as he kissed her. "Well, +I don't know what I should say then differently from what I say +now--that you who brought me up, and nursed and cherished me, had a +right to my home and my heart, wherever I was." + +"Bless thee!" cried Mrs. Fairfield, as she pressed him to her heart. +"But it weighs here--it weighs"--she said, starting up. + +At that instant the coach appeared, and Leonard ran forward to inquire +if there was an outside place. Then there was a short bustle while the +horses were being changed; and Mrs. Fairfield was lifted up to the +roof of the vehicle. So all future private conversation between her +and Leonard ceased. But as the coach whirled away, and she waved her +hand to the boy, who stood on the road-side gazing after her, she +still murmured--"It weighs here--it weighs!"---- + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Leonard walked sturdily on in the high-road to the Great City. The day +was calm and sunlit, but with a gentle breeze from gray hills at the +distance; and with each mile that he passed, his step seemed to grow +more firm, and his front more elate. Oh! it is such joy in youth to be +alone with one's day dreams. And youth feels so glorious a vigor in +the sense of its own strength, though the world be before and--against +it! Removed from that chilling counting-house--from the imperious will +of a patron and master--all friendless, but all independent--the young +adventurer felt a new being--felt his grand nature as Man. And on the +Man rushed the genius long interdicted--and thrust aside--rushing +back, with the first breath of adversity to console--no! the Man +needed not consolation,--to kindle, to animate, to rejoice! If there +is a being in the world worthy of our envy, after we have grown wise +philosophers of the fireside, it is not the palled voluptuary, nor the +care-worn statesman, nor even the great prince of arts and letters, +already crowned with the laurel, whose leaves are as fit for poison as +for garlands; it is the young child of adventure and hope. Ay, and the +emptier his purse, ten to one but the richer his heart, and the wider +the domains which his fancy enjoys as he goes on with kingly step to +the Future. + +Not till towards the evening did our adventurer slacken his pace, and +think of rest and refreshment. There, then, lay before him, on either +side the road, those wide patches of uninclosed land, which in England +often denote the entrance to a village. Presently one or two neat +cottages came in sight--then a small farm-house, with its yard and +barns. And some way farther yet, he saw the sign swinging before an +inn of some pretensions--the sort of inn often found on a long stage +between two great towns, commonly called "The Half-way House." But the +inn stood back from the road, having its own separate sward in front, +whereon were a great beech tree (from which the sign extended) and a +rustic arbor--so that, to gain the inn, the coaches that stopped there +took a sweep from the main thoroughfare. Between our pedestrian and +the inn there stood naked and alone, on the common land, a church; our +ancestors never would have chosen that site for it; therefore it was a +modern church--modern Gothic--handsome to an eye not versed in the +attributes of ecclesiastical architecture--very barbarous to an eye +that was. Somehow or other the church looked cold and raw and +uninviting. It looked a church for show--much too big for the +scattered hamlet--and void of all the venerable associations which +give their peculiar and unspeakable atmosphere of piety to the +churches in which succeeding generations have knelt and worshipped. +Leonard paused and surveyed the edifice with an unlearned but poetical +gaze--it dissatisfied him. And he was yet pondering why, when a young +girl passed slowly before him, her eyes fixed on the ground, opened +the little gate that led into the churchyard, and vanished. He did not +see the child's face; but there was something in her movements so +utterly listless, forlorn, and sad, that his heart was touched. What +did she there? He approached the low wall with a noiseless step, and +looked over it wistfully. + +There, by a grave evidently quite recent, with no wooden tomb nor +tombstone like the rest, the little girl had thrown herself, and she +was sobbing loud and passionately. Leonard opened the gate, and +approached her with a soft step. Mingled with her sobs, he heard +broken sentences, wild and vain, as all human sorrowings over graves +must be. + +"Father!--oh, father! do you not really hear me? I am so lone--so +lone! Take me to you--take me!" And she buried her face in the deep +grass. + +"Poor child!" said Leonard, in a half whisper--"he is not there. Look +above!" + +The girl did not heed him--he put his arm round her waist gently--she +made a gesture of impatience and anger, but she would not turn her +face--and she clung to the grave with her hands. + +After clear sunny days the dews fall more heavily; and now, as the sun +set, the herbage was bathed in a vaporous haze--a dim mist rose +around. The young man seated himself beside her, and tried to draw the +child to his breast. Then she turned eagerly, indignantly, and pushed +him aside with jealous arms. He profaned the grave! He understood her +with his deep poet heart, and rose. There was a pause. + +Leonard was the first to break it. + +"Come to your home with me, my child, and we will talk of _him_ by the +way." + +"Him! Who are you? You did not know him?" said the girl, still with +anger. "Go away--why do you disturb me? I do no one harm. Go--go!" + +"You do yourself harm, and that will grieve him if he sees you yonder! +Come!" + +The child looked at him through her blinding tears, and his face +softened and soothed her. + +"Go!" she said very plaintively, and in subdued accents. "I will but +stay a minute more. I--I have so much to say yet." + +Leonard left the churchyard, and waited without; and in a short time +the child came forth, waved him aside as he approached her, and +hurried away. He followed her at a distance, and saw her disappear +within the inn. + + +CHAPTER V. + +"Hip--hip--Hurrah!" Such was the sound that greeted our young +traveller as he reached the inn door--a sound joyous in itself, but +sadly out of harmony with the feelings which the child's sobbing on +the tombless grave had left at his heart. The sound came from within, +and was followed by thumps and stamps, and the jingle of glasses. A +strong odor of tobacco was wafted to his olfactory sense. He hesitated +a moment at the threshold. Before him on benches under the beech-tree +and within the arbor, were grouped sundry athletic forms with "pipes +in the liberal air." The landlady, as she passed across the passage to +the tap-room, caught sight of his form at the doorway, and came +forward. Leonard still stood irresolute. He would have gone on his +way, but for the child; she had interested him strongly. + +"You seem full, ma'am," said he. "Can I have accommodation for the +night?" + +"Why, indeed, sir," said the landlady, civilly, "I can give you a +bedroom, but I don't know where to put you meanwhile. The two parlors +and the tap-room and the kitchen are all chokeful. There has been a +great cattle-fair in the neighborhood, and I suppose we have as many +as fifty farmers and drovers stopping here." + +"As to that, ma'am, I can sit in the bedroom you are kind enough to +give me; and if it does not cause you too much trouble to let me have +some tea there, I should be glad; but I can wait your leisure. Do not +put yourself out of the way for me." + +The landlady was touched by a consideration she was not much +habituated to receive from her bluff customers. + +"You speak very handsome, sir, and we will do our best to serve you, +if you will excuse all faults. This way, sir." Leonard lowered his +knapsack, stepped in the passage, with some difficulty forced his way +through a knot of sturdy giants in top-boots or leathern gaiters who +were swarming in and out the tap-room, and followed his hostess up +stairs to a little bedroom at the top of the house. + +"It is small, sir, and high," said the hostess apologetically. "But +there be four gentlemen farmers that have come a great distance, and +all the first floor is engaged; you will be more out of the noise +here." + +"Nothing can suit me better. But, stay--pardon me;" and Leonard, +glancing at the garb of the hostess, observed she was not in mourning. +"A little girl whom I saw in the churchyard yonder, weeping very +bitterly--is she a relation of yours? Poor child, she seems to have +deeper feelings than are common at her age." + +"Ah, sir," said the landlady, putting the corner of her apron to her +eyes, "it is a very sad story--I don't know what to do. Her father was +taken ill on his way to Lunnun, and stopped here, and has been buried +four days. And the poor little girl seems to have no relations--and +where is she to go? Laryer Jones says we must pass her to Marybone +parish, where her father lived last; and what's to become of her then? +My heart bleeds to think on it." Here then rose such an uproar from +below, that it was evident some quarrel had broken out; and the +hostess, recalled to her duties, hastened to carry thither her +propitiatory influences. + +Leonard seated himself pensively by the little lattice. Here was some +one more alone in the world than he. And she, poor orphan, had no +stout man's heart to grapple with fate, and no golden manuscripts that +were to be as the "Open Sesame" to the treasures of Aladdin. By-and-by +the hostess brought him up a tray with tea and other refreshments, and +Leonard resumed his inquiries. "No relatives?" said he; "surely the +child must have some kinsfolk in London? Did her father leave no +directions, or was he in possession of his faculties?" + +"Yes, sir; he was quite reasonable-like to the last. And I asked him +if he had not any thing on his mind, and he said, 'I have.' And I +said, 'Your little girl, sir?' And he answered, 'Yes, ma'am;' and +laying his head on his pillow, he wept very quietly. I could not say +more myself, for it set me off to see him cry so meekly; but my +husband is harder nor I, and he said, 'Cheer up, Mr. Digby; had not +you better write to your friends?'" + +"'Friends!' said the gentleman, in such a voice! 'Friends I have but +one, and I am going to Him! I cannot take her there!' Then he seemed +suddenly to recollect hisself, and called for his clothes, and +rummaged in the pockets as if looking for some address, and could not +find it. He seemed a forgetful kind of gentleman, and his hands were +what I call _helpless_ hands, sir! And then he gasped out, +'Stop--stop! I never had the address. Write to Lord Les--,' something +like Lord Lester--but we could not make out the name. Indeed he did +not finish it, for there was a rush of blood to his lips; and though +he seemed sensible when he recovered, (and knew us and his little girl +too, till he went off smiling,) he never spoke word more." + +"Poor man," said Leonard, wiping his eyes. "But his little girl surely +remembers the name that he did not finish?" + +"No. She says, he must have meant a gentleman whom they had met in the +Park not long ago, who was very kind to her father, and was Lord +something; but she don't remember the name, for she never saw him +before or since, and her father talked very little about any one +lately, but thought he should find some kind friends at Screwstown, +and travelled down there with her from Lunnon. But she supposes he was +disappointed, for he went out, came back, and merely told her to put +up the things, as they must go back to Lunnon. And on his way there +he--died. Hush what's that? I hope she did not overhear us. No, we +were talking low. She has the next room to your'n, sir. I thought I +heard her sobbing. Hush!" + +"In the next room? I hear nothing. Well, with your leave, I will speak +to her before I quit you. And had her father no money with him?" + +"Yes, a few sovereigns, sir; they paid for his funeral, and there is a +little left still, enough to take her to town; for my husband said, +says he, 'Hannah, the widow _gave_ her mite, and we must not _take_ +the orphans;' and my husband is a hard man, too, sir. Bless him!" + +"Let me take your hand, ma'am. God reward you both." + +"La, sir!--why, even Dr. Dosewell said, rather grumpily though, 'Never +mind my bill; but don't call me up at six o'clock in the morning +again, without knowing a little more about people.' And I never afore +knew Dr. Dosewell go without his bill being paid. He said it was a +trick o' the other Doctor to spite him." + +"What other Doctor?" + +"Oh, a very good gentleman, who got out with Mr. Digby when he was +taken ill, and stayed till the next morning; and our Doctor says his +name is Morgan, and he lives in--Lunnon, and is a homy--something." +"Homicide," suggested Leonard ignorantly. + +"Ah--homicide; something like that, only a deal longer and worse. But +he left some of the tiniest little balls you ever see, sir, to give +the child; but, bless you, they did her no good--how should they?" + +"Tiny balls, oh--homoeopathist--I understand. And the Doctor was +kind to her; perhaps he may help her. Have you written to him?" + +"But we don't know his address, and Lunnon is a vast place, sir." + +"I am going to London, and will find it out." + +"Ah, sir, you seem very kind; and sin' she must go to Lunnon, (for +what can we do with her here?--she's too genteel for service,) I wish +she was going with you." + +"With me?" said Leonard startled; "with me! Well, why not?" + +"I am sure she comes of good blood, sir. You would have known her +father was quite the gentleman, only to see him die, sir. He went off +so kind and civil like, as if he was ashamed to give so much +trouble--quite a gentleman, if ever there was one. And so are you, +sir, I'm sure," said the landlady, curtseying; "I know what gentlefolk +be. I've been a housekeeper, in the first of families in this very +shire, sir, though I can't say I've served in Lunnon; and so, as +gentlefolks know each other, I've no doubt you could find out her +relations. Dear--dear! Coming, coming!" + +Here there were loud cries for the hostess, and she hurried away. The +farmers and drovers were beginning to depart, and their bills were to +be made out and paid. Leonard saw his hostess no more that night. The +last hip-hip-hurrah, was heard; some toast, perhaps, to the health of +the county members;--and the chamber of woe, beside Leonard's, rattled +with the shout. By-and-by silence gradually succeeded the various +dissonant sounds below. The carts and gigs rolled away; the clatter of +hoofs on the road ceased; there was then a dumb dull sound as of +locking-up, and low humming voices below and footsteps mounting the +stairs to bed, with now and then a drunken hiccup or maudlin laugh, as +some conquered votary of Bacchus was fairly carried up to his +domicile. + +All, then, at last was silent, just as the clock from the church +sounded the stroke of eleven. + +Leonard, meanwhile, had been looking over his MSS. There was first a +project for an improvement on the steam-engine--a project that had +long lain in his mind, begun with the first knowledge of mechanics +that he had gleaned from his purchases of the Tinker. He put that +aside now--it required too great an effort of the reasoning faculty to +re-examine. He glanced less hastily over a collection of essays on +various subjects, some that he thought indifferent, some that he +thought good. He then lingered over a collection of verses, written in +his best hand with loving care--verses first inspired by his perusal +of Nora's melancholy memorials. These verses were as a diary of his +heart and his fancy--those deep unwitnessed struggles which the +boyhood of all more thoughtful natures has passed in its bright yet +murky storm of the cloud and the lightning flash; though but few boys +pause to record the crisis from which slowly emerges Man. And these +first, desultory grapplings with the fugitive airy images that flit +through the dim chambers of the brain, had become with each effort +more sustained and vigorous, till the phantoms were spelled, the +flying ones arrested, the immaterial seized, and clothed with Form. +Gazing on his last effort, Leonard felt that there at length spoke +forth a Poet. It was a work which, though as yet but half completed, +came from a strong hand; not that shadow trembling on unsteady waters, +which is but the pale reflex and imitation of some bright mind, +sphered out of reach and afar; but an original substance--a life--a +thing of the _Creative_ Faculty--breathing back already the breath it +had received. This work had paused during Leonard's residence with Mr. +Avenel, or had only now and then, in stealth, and at night, received a +rare touch. Now, as with a fresh eye, he re-perused it; and with that +strange, innocent admiration, not of self--(for a man's work is not, +alas! himself--it is the beatified and idealized essence, extracted he +knows not how from his own human elements of clay)--admiration known +but to poets--their purest delight, often their sole reward. And then, +with a warmer and more earthly beat of his full heart, he rushed in +fancy to the Great City, where all rivers of Fame meet, but not to be +merged and lost--sallying forth again, individualized and separate, to +flow through that one vast thought of God which we call THE WORLD. + +He put up his papers; and opened his window, as was his ordinary +custom, before he retired to rest--for he had many odd habits; and he +loved to look out into the night when he prayed. His soul seemed to +escape from the body--to mount on the air--to gain more rapid access +to the far Throne in the Infinite--when his breath went forth among +the winds, and his eyes rested fixed on the stars, of Heaven. + +So the boy prayed silently; and after his prayer he was about +lingeringly to close the lattice, when he heard distinctly sobs close +at hand. He paused, and held his breath; then gently looked out; the +casement next his own was also open. Some one was also at watch by +that casement--perhaps also praying. He listened yet more attentively, +and caught, soft and low, the words. "Father--father--do you hear me +_now_?" + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Leonard opened his door and stole towards that of the room adjoining; +for his first natural impulse had been to enter and console. But when +his touch was on the handle, he drew back. Child, though the mourner +was, her sorrows were rendered yet more sacred from intrusion by her +sex. Something, he knew not what, in his young ignorance, withheld him +from the threshold. To have crossed it then would have seemed to him +profanation. So he returned, and for hours yet he occasionally heard +the sobs, till they died away, and childhood wept itself to sleep. + +But the next morning, when he heard his neighbor astir, he knocked +gently at her door: there was no answer. He entered softly, and saw +her seated very listlessly in the centre of the room--as if it had no +familiar nook or corner as the rooms of home have--her hands drooping +on her lap, and her eyes gazing desolately on the floor. Then he +approached and spoke to her. + +Helen was very subdued, and very silent. Her tears seemed dried up; +and it was long before she gave sign or token that she heeded him. At +length, however, he gradually succeeded in rousing her interest; and +the first symptom of his success was in the quiver of her lip, and the +overflow of the downcast eyes. + +By little and little he wormed himself into her confidence; and she +told him, in broken whispers, her simple story. But what moved him the +most was, that, beyond her sense of loneliness, she did not seem to +feel her own unprotected state. She mourned the object she had nursed, +and heeded, and cherished; for she had been rather the protectress +than the protected to the helpless dead. He could not gain from her +any more satisfactory information than the landlady had already +imparted, as to her friends and prospects; but she permitted him +passively to look among the effects her father had left--save only +that if his hand touched something that seemed to her associations +especially holy, she waved him back, or drew it quickly away. There +were many bills receipted in the name of Captain Digby--old yellow +faded music-scores for the flute--extracts of Parts from Prompt +Books--gay parts of lively comedies, in which heroes have so noble a +contempt for money--fit heroes for a Sheridan and a Farquhar; close by +these were several pawnbroker's tickets; and, not arrayed smoothly, +but crumpled up, as if with an indignant nervous clutch of the old +helpless hands, some two or three letters. He asked Helen's permission +to glance at these, for they might give a clue to friends. Helen gave +the permission by a silent bend of the head. The letters, however, +were but short and freezing answers from what appeared to be distant +connections or former friends, or persons to whom the deceased had +applied for some situation. They were all very disheartening in their +tone. Leonard next endeavored to refresh Helen's memory as to the name +of the nobleman which had been last on her father's lips, but there he +failed wholly. For it may be remembered that Lord L'Estrange, when he +pressed his loan on Mr. Digby, and subsequently told that gentleman to +address him at Mr. Egerton's, had, from a natural delicacy, sent the +child on, that she might not hear the charity bestowed on the father; +and Helen said truly, that Mr. Digby had sunk into a habitual silence +on all his affairs latterly. She might have heard her father mention +the name, but she had not treasured it up; all she could say was, that +she should know the stranger again if she met him, and his dog too. +Seeing that the child had grown calm, Leonard was then going to leave +the room, in order to confer with the hostess, when she rose suddenly, +though noiselessly, and put her little hand in his, as if to detain +him. She did not say a word--the action said all--said "Do not desert +me." And Leonard's heart rushed to his lips, and he answered to the +action as he bent down and kissed her cheek, "Orphan, will you go with +me? We have one Father yet to both of us, and He will guide us on +earth. I am fatherless like you." She raised her eyes to his--looked +at him long--and then leant her head confidingly on his strong young +shoulder. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +At noon that same day, the young man and the child were on their road +to London. The host had at first a little demurred at trusting Helen +to so young a companion, but Leonard, in his happy ignorance, had +talked so sanguinely of finding out this lord, or some adequate +protection for the child, and in so grand a strain, though with all +sincerity, had spoken of his own great prospects in the metropolis (he +did not say what they were!) that had it been the craftiest imposter, +he could not have more taken in the rustic host. And while the +landlady still cherished the illusive fancy that all gentlefolks must +know each other in London, as they did in a county, the landlord +believed, at least, that a young man, so respectably dressed, although +but a foot-traveller--who talked in so confident a tone, and who was +so willing to undertake what might be rather a burdensome charge, +unless he saw how to rid himself of it--would be sure to have friends, +older and wiser than himself, who could judge what could best be done +for the orphan. + +And what was the host to do with her? Better this volunteered escort, +at least, than vaguely passing her on from parish to parish, and +leaving her friendless at last in the streets of London. Helen, too, +smiled for the first time on being asked her wishes, and again put her +hand in Leonard's. In short, so it was settled. + +The little girl made up a bundle of the things she most prized or +needed. Leonard did not feel the additional load, as he slung it to +his knapsack. The rest of the luggage was to be sent to London as soon +as Leonard wrote, (which he promised to do soon,) and gave an address. + +Helen paid her last visit to the churchyard; and she joined her +companion as he stood on the road, without the solemn precincts. And +now they had gone on some hours, and when he asked if she was tired, +she still answered "No." But Leonard was merciful, and made their +day's journey short; and it took them some days to reach London. By +the long lonely way, they grew so intimate, at the end of the second +day they called each other brother and sister; and Leonard, to his +delight, found that as her grief, with the bodily movement and the +change of scene, subsided from its first intenseness and its +insensibility to other impressions, she developed a quickness of +comprehension far beyond her years. Poor child! _that_ had been forced +upon her by Necessity. And she understood him in his spiritual +consolations,--half poetical, half religious; and she listened to his +own tale, and the story of his self-education and solitary +struggles--those, too, she understood. But when he burst out with his +enthusiasm, his glorious hopes, his confidence in the fate before +them, then she would shake her head very quietly and very sadly. Did +she comprehend _them_? Alas! perhaps too well. She knew more as to +real life than he did. Leonard was at first their joint treasurer, but +before the second day was over, Helen seemed to discover that he was +too lavish; and she told him so, with a prudent grave look, putting +her hand on his arm, as he was about to enter an inn to dine; and the +gravity would have been comic, but that the eyes through their +moisture were so meek and grateful. She felt he was about to incur +that ruinous extravagance on her account. Somehow or other, the purse +found its way into her keeping, and then she looked proud, and in her +natural element. + +Ah! what happy meals under her care were provided: so much more +enjoyable than in dull, sanded inn parlors, swarming with flies, and +reeking with stale tobacco. She would leave him at the entrance of a +village, bound forward, and cater, and return with a little basket and +a pretty blue jug--which she had bought on the road--the last filled +with new milk, the first with new bread and some special dainty in +radishes or water-cresses. And she had such a talent for finding out +the prettiest spot whereon to halt and dine: sometimes in the heart of +a wood--so still, it was like a forest in fairy tales, the hare +stealing through the alleys, or the squirrel peeping at them from the +boughs; sometimes by a little brawling stream, with the fishes seen +under the clear wave, and shooting round the crumbs thrown to them. +They made an Arcadia of the dull road up to their dread +Thermopylæ--the war against the million that waited them on the other +side of their pass through Tempe. + +"Shall we be as happy when we are _great_?" said Leonard, in his grand +simplicity. + +Helen sighed, and the wise little head was shaken. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +At last they came within easy reach of London; but Leonard had +resolved not to enter the metropolis fatigued and exhausted, as a +wanderer needing refuge, but fresh and elate, as a conqueror coming in +triumph to take possession of the capital. Therefore they halted early +in the evening of the day preceding this imperial entry, about six +miles from the metropolis, in the neighborhood of Ealing, (for by that +route lay their way.) They were not tired on arriving at their inn. +The weather was singularly lovely, with that combination of softness +and brilliancy which is only known to the rare true summer days of +England: all below so green, above so blue--days of which we have +about six in the year, and recall vaguely when we read of Robin Hood +and maid Marian, of Damsel and Knight, in Spenser's golden Summer +Song, or of Jacques, dropped under the oak tree, watching the deer +amidst the dells of Ardennes. So, after a little pause in their inn, +they strolled forth, not for travel, but pleasure, towards the cool of +sunset, passing by the grounds that once belonged to the Duke of Kent, +and catching a glimpse of the shrubs and lawns of that beautiful +domain through the lodge-gates; then they crossed into some fields, +and came to a little rivulet called the Brent. Helen had been more sad +that day than on any during their journey. Perhaps, because, on +approaching London, the memory of her father became more vivid; +perhaps from her precocious knowledge of life, and her foreboding of +what was to befall them, children that they both were. But Leonard was +selfish that day; he could not be influenced by his companion's +sorrow, he was so full of his own sense of being, and he already +caught from the atmosphere the fever that belongs to anxious capitals. + +"Sit here, sister," said he imperiously, throwing himself under the +shade of a pollard tree that overhung the winding brook, "sit here and +talk." + +He flung off his hat, tossed back his rich curls, and sprinkled his +brow from the stream that eddied round the roots of the tree that +bulged out, bald and gnarled, from the bank, and delved into the waves +below. Helen quietly obeyed him, and nestled close to his side. + +"And so this London is very vast?--VERY?" he repeated inquisitively. + +"Very," answered Helen, as abstractedly she plucked the cowslips near +her, and let them fall into the running waters. "See how the flowers +are carried down the stream! They are lost now. London is to us what +the river is to the flowers--very vast--very strong;" and she added, +after a pause, "very cruel!" + +"Cruel! Ah, it _has_ been so to you; but _now_!--now I will take care +of you!" he smiled triumphantly; and his smile was beautiful both in +its pride and its kindness. It is astonishing how Leonard had altered +since he had left his uncle's. He was both younger and older; for the +sense of genius, when it snaps its shackles, makes us both older and +wiser as to the world it soars to--younger and blinder as to the world +it springs from. + +"And it is not a very handsome city either, you say?" + +"Very ugly, indeed," said Helen, with some fervor; "at least all I +have seen of it." + +"But there must be parts that are prettier than others? You say there +are parks; why should not we lodge near them, and look upon the green +trees?" + +"That would be nice," said Helen, almost joyously; "but--" and here +the head was shaken--"there are no lodgings for us except in courts +and alleys." + +"Why?" + +"Why?" echoed Helen, with a smile, and she held up the purse. + +"Pooh! always that horrid purse; as if, too, we were not going to fill +it. Did I not tell you the story of Fortunio? Well, at all events, we +will go first to the neighborhood where you last lived, and learn +there all we can; and then the day after to-morrow, I will see this +Dr. Morgan, and find out the Lord--" + +The tears startled to Helen's soft eyes. "You want to get rid of me +soon, brother." + +"I! ah, I feel so happy to have you with me, it seems to me as if I +had pined for you all my life, and you had come at last; for I never +had brother, nor sister, nor any one to love, that was not older than +myself, except--" + +"Except the young lady you told me of," said Helen, turning away her +face; for children are very jealous. + +"Yes, I loved her, love her still. But that was different," said +Leonard, with a heightened color. "I could never have talked to her as +to you, to you I open my whole heart; you are my little Muse, Helen, I +confess to you my wild whims and fancies as frankly as if I were +writing poetry." As he said this, a step was heard, and a shadow fell +over the stream. A belated angler appeared on the margin, drawing his +line impatiently across the water, as if to worry some dozing fish +into a bite before it finally settled itself for the night. Absorbed +in his occupation, the angler did not observe the young persons on the +sward under the tree, and he halted there, close upon them. + +"Curse that perch!" said he aloud. + +"Take care, sir," cried Leonard; for the man, in stepping back, nearly +trod upon Helen. + +The angler turned. "What's the matter? Hist! you have frightened my +perch. Keep still, can't you?" + +Helen drew herself out of the way, and Leonard remained motionless. He +remembered Jackeymo, and felt a sympathy for the angler. + +"It is the most extraordinary perch, that!" muttered the stranger, +soliloquizing. "It has the devil's own luck. It must have been born +with a silver spoon in its mouth, that damned perch! I shall never +catch it--never! Ha!--no--only a weed. I give it up." With this, he +indignantly jerked his rod from the water, and began to disjoint it. +While leisurely engaged in this occupation, he turned to Leonard. + +"Humph! are you intimately acquainted with this stream, sir?" + +"No," answered Leonard. "I never saw it before." + +_Angler_, (solemnly.)--"Then, young man, take my advice, and do not +give way to its fascinations. Sir, I am a martyr to this stream; it +has been the Dalilah of my existence." + +_Leonard_, (interested, the last sentence seemed to him +poetical.)--"The Dalilah! sir, the Dalilah!" + +_Angler._--"The Dalilah. Young man, listen, and be warned by example. +When I was about your age, I first came to this stream to fish. Sir, +on that fatal day, about 3 P.M., I hooked up a fish--such a big one, +it must have weighed a pound and a half. Sir, it was that length;" and +the angler put finger to wrist. "And just when I had got it nearly +ashore, by the very place where you are sitting, on that shelving +bank, young man, the line broke, and the perch twisted himself among +those roots, and--caco dæmon that he was--ran off, hook and all. Well, +that fish haunted me; never before had I seen such a fish. Minnows I +had caught in the Thames and elsewhere, also gudgeons, and +occasionally a dace. But a fish like that--a PERCH--all his fins up +like the sails of a man-of-war--a monster perch--a whale of a +perch!--No, never till then had I known what leviathans lie hid within +the deeps. I could not sleep till I had returned; and again, sir,--I +caught that perch. And this time I pulled him fairly out of the water. +He escaped; and how did he escape? Sir, he left his eye behind him on +the hook. Years, long years, have passed since then; but never shall I +forget the agony of that moment." + +_Leonard._--"To the perch, sir?" + +_Angler._--"Perch! agony to him! He enjoyed it:--agony to me. I gazed +on that eye, and the eye looked as sly and as wicked as if it was +laughing in my face. Well, sir, I had heard that there is no better +bait for a perch than a perch's eye. I adjusted that eye on the hook, +and dropped in the line gently. The water was unusually clear; in two +minutes I saw that perch return. He approached the hook; he recognized +his eye--frisked his tail--made a plunge--and, as I live, carried off +the eye, safe and sound; and I saw him digesting it by the side of +that water-lily. The mocking fiend! Seven times since that day, in the +course of a varied and eventful life, have I caught that perch, and +seven times has that perch escaped." + +_Leonard_, (astonished.)--"It can't be the same perch; perches are +very tender fish--a hook inside of it, and an eye hooked out of it--no +perch could withstand such havoc in its constitution." + +_Angler_, (with an appearance of awe.)--"It does seem supernatural. +But it _is_ that perch; for harkye, sir, there is ONLY ONE perch in +the whole brook! All the years I have fished here, I have never caught +another perch here; and this solitary inmate of the watery element I +know by sight better than I know my own lost father. For each time +that I have raised it out of the water, its profile has been turned to +me, and I have seen, with a shudder, that it has had only--One Eye! It +is a most mysterious and a most diabolical phenomenon that perch! It +has been the ruin of my prospects in life. I was offered a situation +in Jamaica; I could not go, with that perch left here in triumph. I +might afterwards have had an appointment in India, but I could not put +the ocean between myself and that perch: thus have I fritted away my +existence in the fatal metropolis of my native land. And once a-week, +from February to December, I come hither--Good Heavens! if I should +catch the perch at last, the occupation of my existence will be gone." + +Leonard gazed curiously at the angler, as the last thus mournfully +concluded. The ornate turn of his periods did not suit with his +costume. He looked woefully threadbare and shabby--a genteel sort of +shabbiness too--shabbiness in black. There was humor in the corners of +his lip; and his hands, though they did not seem very clean--indeed +his occupation was not friendly to such niceties--were those of a man +who had not known manual labor. His face was pale and puffed, but the +tip of his nose was red. He did not seem as if the watery element was +as familiar to himself as to his Dalilah--the perch. + +"Such is life!" recommenced the angler in a moralizing tone, as he +slid his rod into its canvas case. "If a man knew what it was to fish +all one's life in a stream that has only one perch!--to catch that one +perch nine times in all, and nine times to see it fall back into the +water, plump;--if man knew what it was--why, then"--Here the angler +looked over his shoulder full at Leonard--"why, then, young sir, he +would know what human life is to vain ambition. Good evening." + +Away he went, treading over the daisies and king cups. Helen's eyes +followed him wistfully. + +"What a strange person!" said Leonard, laughing. + +"I think he is a very wise one," murmured Helen; and she came close up +to Leonard, and took his hand in both hers, as if she felt already +that he was in need of the Comforter--the line broke, and the perch +lost! + + +CHAPTER IX. + +At noon the next day, London stole upon them, through a gloomy, thick, +oppressive atmosphere. For where is it that we can say London _bursts_ +on the sight? It stole on them through one of its fairest and most +gracious avenues of approach--by the stately gardens of +Kensington--along the side of Hyde Park, and so on towards Cumberland +Gate. + +Leonard was not the least struck. And yet, with a little money, and a +very little taste, it would be easy to render this entrance to London +as grand and imposing as that to Paris from the _Champs Elysées_. As +they came near the Edgeware Road, Helen took her new brother by the +hand and guided him. For she knew all that neighborhood, and she was +acquainted with a lodging near that occupied by her father (to _that_ +lodging itself she could not have gone for the world), where they +might be housed cheaply. + +But just then the sky, so dull and overcast since morning, seemed one +mass of black cloud. There suddenly came on a violent storm of rain. +The boy and girl took refuge in a covered mews, in a street running +out of the Edgeware Road. The shelter soon became crowded; the two +young pilgrims crept close to the wall, apart from the rest; +Leonard's arm round Helen's waist, sheltering her from the rain that +the strong wind contending with it beat in through the passage. +Presently a young gentleman, of better mien and dress than the other +refugees, entered, not hastily, but rather with a slow and proud step, +as if, though he deigned to take shelter, he scorned to run to it. He +glanced somewhat haughtily at the assembled group--passed on through +the midst of it--came near Leonard--took off his hat, and shook the +rain from its brim. His head thus uncovered, left all his features +exposed; and the village youth recognized, at the first glance, his +old victorious assailant on the green at Hazeldean. + +Yet Randal Leslie was altered. His dark cheek was as thin as in +boyhood, and even yet more wasted by intense study and night vigils; +but the expression of his face was at once more refined and manly, and +there was a steady concentrated light in his large eye, like that of +one who has been in the habit of bringing all his thoughts to one +point. He looked older than he was. He was dressed simply in black, a +color which became him; and altogether his aspect and figure were not +showy indeed, but distinguished. He looked, to the common eye, a +gentleman; and to the more observant, a scholar. + +Helter-skelter!--pell-mell! the group in the passage--now pressed each +on each--now scattered on all sides--making way--rushing down the +mews--against the walls--as a fiery horse darted under shelter; the +rider, a young man, with a very handsome face, and dressed with that +peculiar care which we commonly call dandyism, cried out, good +humoredly,--"Don't be afraid; the horse shan't hurt any of you--a +thousand pardons--so ho! so ho!" He patted the horse, and it stood as +still as a statue, filling up the centre of the passage. The groups +resettled--Randal approached the rider. + +"Frank Hazeldean!" + +"Ah--is it indeed Randal Leslie!" + +Frank was off his horse in a moment, and the bridle was consigned to +the care of a slim 'prentice-boy holding a bundle. + +"My dear fellow, how glad I am to see you. How lucky it was that I +should turn in here. Not like me either, for I don't much care for a +ducking. Staying in town, Randal?" + +"Yes, at your uncle's, Mr. Egerton. I have left Oxford." + +"For good?" + +"For good." + +"But you have not taken your degree, I think? We Etonians all +considered you booked for a double first. Oh! we have been so proud of +you--you carried off all the prizes." + +"Not all; but some, certainly. Mr. Egerton offered me my choice--to +stay for my degree, or to enter at once into the Foreign Office. I +preferred the ends to the means. For, after all, what good are +academical honors but as the entrance to life? To enter now is to save +a step in a long way, Frank." + +"Ah! you were always ambitious, and you will make a great figure, I am +sure." + +"Perhaps so--if I work for it. Knowledge is power." + +Leonard started. + +"And you," resumed Randal, looking with some curious attention at his +old schoolfellow. "You never came to Oxford. I did hear you were going +into the army." + +"I am in the Guards," said Frank, trying hard not to look too +conceited as he made that acknowledgment. "The Governor pished a +little, and would rather I had come to live with him in the old hall, +and take to farming. Time enough for that--eh? By Jove, Randall, how +pleasant a thing is life in London? Do you go to Almack's to-night?" + +"No; Wednesday is a holiday in the House! There is a great +parliamentary dinner at Mr. Egerton's. He is in the Cabinet now, you +know; but you don't see much of your uncle, I think." + +"Our sets are different," said the young gentleman, in a tone of voice +worthy of Brummell. "All those parliamentary fellows are devilish +dull. The rain's over. I don't know whether the Governor would like me +to call at Grosvenor Square; but, pray come and see me; here's my card +to remind you; you must dine at our mess. Such nice fellows. What day +will you fix?" + +"I will call and let you know. Don't you find it rather expensive in +the Guards? I remember that you thought the Governor, as you call him, +used to chafe a little when you wrote for more pocket-money; and the +only time I ever remember to have seen you with tears in your eyes, +was when Mr. Hazeldean, in sending you £5, reminded you that his +estates were not entailed--were at his own disposal, and they should +never go to an extravagant spendthrift. It was not a pleasant threat, +that, Frank." + +"Oh!" cried the young man, coloring deeply, "It was not the threat +that pained me, it was that my father could think so meanly of me as +to fancy that--well--well, but those were schoolboy days. And my +father was always more generous than I deserved. We must see a good +deal of each other, Randal. How good-natured you were at Eton, making +my longs and shorts for me; I shall never forget it. Do call soon." + +Frank swung himself into his saddle, and rewarded the slim youth with +half-a-crown; a largess four times more ample than his father would +have deemed sufficient. A jerk of the reins and a touch of the +heel--off bounded the fiery horse and the gay young rider. Randal +mused; and as the rain had now ceased, the passengers under shelter +dispersed and went their way. Only Randal, Leonard, and Helen remained +behind. Then, as Randal, still musing, lifted his eyes, they fell full +upon Leonard's face. He started, passed his hand quickly over his +brow--looked again, hard and piercingly; and the change in his pale +cheek to a shade still paler--a quick compression and nervous gnawing +of his lip--showed that he too had recognized an old foe. Then his +glance ran over Leonard's dress, which was somewhat dust-stained, but +far above the class amongst which the peasant was born. Randal raised +his brows in surprise, and with a smile slightly supercilious--the +smile stung Leonard; and with a slow step Randal left the passage, and +took his way towards Grosvenor Square. The Entrance of Ambition was +clear to _him_. + +Then the little girl once more took Leonard by the hand, and led him +through rows of humble, obscure, dreary streets. It seemed almost like +an allegory personified, as the sad, silent child led on the penniless +and low-born adventurer of genius by the squalid shops, and through +the winding lanes, which grew meaner and meaner, till both their forms +vanished from the view. + + +CHAPTER X. + +"But do come; change your dress, return and dine with me; you will +have just time, Harley. You will meet the most eminent men of our +party; surely they are worth your study, philosopher that you affect +to be." + +Thus said Audley Egerton to Lord L'Estrange, with whom he had been +riding (after the toils of his office.) The two gentlemen were in +Audley's library. Mr. Egerton, as usual, buttoned up, seated in his +chair, in the erect posture of a man who scorns "inglorious ease." +Harley, as usual, thrown at length on a sofa, his long hair in +careless curls, his neckcloth loose, his habiliments flowing--_simplex +munditiis_, indeed--his grace all his own; seemingly negligent, never +slovenly; at ease every where and with every one, even with Mr. Audley +Egerton, who chilled or awed the ease out of most people. + +"Nay, my dear Audley, forgive me. But your eminent men are all men of +one idea, and that not a diverting one--politics! politics! politics! +The storm in the saucer." + +"But what is your life, Harley?--the saucer without the storm?" + +"Do you know, that's very well said, Audley? I did not think you had +so much liveliness of repartee. Life--life! it is insipid, it is +shallow. No launching Argosies in the saucer. Audley, I have the +oddest fancy--" + +"_That_ of course," said Audley drily; "you never have any other. What +is the new one?" + +_Harley_, (with great gravity.)--"Do you believe in Mesmerism?" + +_Audley._--"Certainly not." + +_Harley._--"If it were in the power of an animal magnetizer to get me +out of my own skin into somebody else's! _That's_ my fancy! I am so +tired of myself--so tired! I have run through all my ideas--know every +one of them by heart; when some pretentious imposter of an idea perks +itself up and says, 'Look at me, I'm a new acquaintance'--I just give +it a nod, and say, 'Not at all, you have only got a new coat on; you +are the same old wretch that has bored me these last twenty years; get +away.' But if one could be in a new skin! if I could be for half an +hour your tall porter, or one of your eminent matter-of-fact men, I +should then really travel into a new world.[9] Every man's brain must +be a world in itself, eh? If I could but make a parochial settlement +even in yours, Audley--run over all your thoughts and sensations. Upon +my life, I'll go and talk to that French mesmerizer about it." + +_Audley_, (who does not seem to like the notion of having his thoughts +and sensations rummaged even by his friend, and even in +fancy.)--"Pooh, pooh, pooh! Do talk like a man of sense." + +_Harley._--"Man of sense! Where shall I find a model! I don't know a +man of sense!--never met such a creature. Don't believe it ever +existed. At one time I thought Socrates must have been a man of +sense;--a delusion; he would stand gazing into the air, and talking to +his Genius from sunrise to sunset. Is that like a man of sense? Poor +Audley, how puzzled he looks! Well, I'll try and talk sense to oblige +you. And first, (here Harley raised himself on his elbow)--first, is +it true, as I have heard vaguely, that you are paying court to the +sister of that infamous Italian traitor?" + +"Madame di Negra? No; I am not paying _court_ to her," answered Audley +with a cold smile. "But she is very handsome; she is very clever; she +is useful to me--I need not say how or why; that belongs to my +_métier_ as politician. But, I think, if you will take my advice, or +get your friend to take it, I could obtain from her brother, through +my influence with her, some liberal concessions to your exile. She is +very anxious to know where he is." + +"You have not told her?" + +"No; I promised you I would keep that secret." + +"Be sure you do; it is only for some mischief, some snare, that she +could desire such information. Concessions! pooh! This is no question +of concessions, but of rights." + +"I think you should leave your friend to judge of that." + +"Well, I will write to him. Meanwhile, beware of this woman. I have +heard much of her abroad, and she has the character of her brother for +duplicity and--" + +"Beauty," interrupted Audley, turning the conversation with practised +adroitness. "I am told that the Count is one of the handsomest men in +Europe, much handsomer than his sister still, though nearly twice her +age. Tut--tut--Harley! fear not for me. I am proof against all +feminine attractions. This heart is dead." + +"Nay, nay; it is not for you to speak thus--leave that to me. But even +_I_ will not say it. The heart never dies. And you; what have you +lost?--a wife; true: an excellent noble-hearted woman. But was it love +that you felt for her? Enviable man, have you ever loved?" + +"Perhaps not, Harley," said Audley, with a sombre aspect, and in +dejected accents; "very few men ever have loved, at least as you mean +by the word. But there are other passions than love that kill the +heart, and reduce us to mechanism." + +While Egerton spoke, Harley turned aside, and his breast heaved. There +was a short silence. Audley was the first to break it. + +"Speaking of my lost wife, I am sorry that you do not approve what I +have done for her young kinsman, Randal Leslie." + +_Harley_, (recovering himself with an effort.)--"Is it true kindness +to bid him exchange manly independence for the protection of an +official patron?" + +_Audley._--"I did not bid him. I gave him his choice. At his age I +should have chosen as he has done." + +_Harley._--"I trust not; I think better of you. But answer me one +question frankly, and then I will ask another. Do you mean to make +this young man your heir?" + +_Audley_, (with a slight embarrassment.)--"Heir, pooh! I am young +still. I may live as long as he--time enough to think of that." + +_Harley._--"Then now to my second question. Have you told this youth +plainly that he may look to you for influence, but not for wealth?" + +_Audley_, (firmly.)--"I think I have; but I shall repeat it more +emphatically." + +_Harley._--"Then I am satisfied as to your conduct, but not as to his. +For he has too acute an intellect not to know what it is to forfeit +independence; and, depend upon it, he has made his calculations, and +would throw you into the bargain in any balance that he could strike +in his favor. You go by your experience in judging men--I by my +instincts. Nature warns us as it does the inferior animals--only we +are too conceited, we bipeds, to heed her. My instincts of soldier and +gentleman recoil from the old young man. He has the soul of the +Jesuit. I see it in his eye--I hear it in the tread of his foot; +_volto sciolto_, he has not; _i pensieri stretti_ he has. Hist! I hear +now his step in the hall. I should know it from a thousand. That's his +very touch on the handle of the door." + +Randal Leslie entered. Harley--who, despite his disregard for forms +and his dislike to Randal, was too high-bred not to be polite to his +junior in age or inferior in rank--rose and bowed. But his bright +piercing eyes did not soften as they caught and bore down the deeper +and more latent fire in Randal's. Harley then did not resume his seat, +but moved to the mantel-piece, and leant against it. + +_Randal._--"I have fulfilled your commissions, Mr. Egerton. I went +first to Maida Hill, and saw Mr. Burley. I gave him the check, but he +said it was too much, and he should return half to the banker; he will +write the article as you suggested. I then--" + +_Audley._--"Enough, Randal. We will not fatigue Lord L'Estrange with +these little details of a life that displeases him--the life +political." + +_Harley._--"But _these_ details do not displease me--they reconcile me +to my own life. Go on, pray, Mr. Leslie." + +Randal had too much tact to need the cautioning glance of Mr. Egerton. +He did not continue, but said, with a soft voice, "Do you think, Lord +L'Estrange, that the contemplation of the mode of life pursued by +others _can_ reconcile a man to his own, if he had before thought it +needed a reconciler?" + +Harley looked pleased, for the question was ironical; and, if there +was a thing in the world he abhorred, it was flattery. + +"Recollect your Lucretius, Mr. Leslie, _Suave mare_, &c., 'pleasant +from the cliff to see the mariners tossed on the ocean.' Faith, I +think that sight reconciles one to the cliff--though, before, one +might have been teased by the splash from the spray, and deafened by +the scream of the sea-gulls. But I leave you, Audley. Strange that I +have heard no more of my soldier. Remember I have your promise when I +come to claim it. Good-bye, Mr. Leslie, I hope that Mr. Burley's +article will be worth the--check." + +Lord L'Estrange mounted his horse, which was still at the door, and +rode through the Park. But he was no longer now unknown by sight. Bows +and nods saluted him on every side. + +"Alas, I am found out, then," said he to himself. "That terrible +Duchess of Knaresborough, too--I must fly my country." He pushed his +horse into a canter, and was soon out of the Park. As he dismounted at +his father's sequestered house, you would have hardly supposed him the +same whimsical, fantastic, but deep and subtle humorist that delighted +in perplexing the material Audley. For his expressive face was +unutterably serious. But the moment he came into the presence of his +parents, the countenance was again lighted and cheerful. It brightened +the whole room like sunshine. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +"Mr. Leslie," said Egerton, when Harley had left the library, "you did +not act with your usual discretion in touching upon matters connected +with politics in the presence of a third party." + +"I feel that already, sir. My excuse is, that I held Lord L'Estrange +to be your most intimate friend." + +"A public man, Mr. Leslie, would ill serve his country if he were not +especially reserved towards his private friends,--when they do not +belong to his party." + +"But, pardon me my ignorance: Lord Lansmere is so well known to be one +of your supporters that I fancied his son must share his sentiments, +and be in your confidence." + +Egerton's brows slightly contracted, and gave a stern expression to a +countenance always firm and decided. He however answered in a mild +tone. + +"At the entrance into political life, Mr. Leslie, there is nothing in +which a young man of your talents should be more on his guard than +thinking for himself. He will nearly always think wrong. And I believe +that is one reason why young men of talent disappoint their friends, +and--remain so long out of office." + +A haughty flush passed over Randal's brow, and faded away quickly. He +bowed in silence. + +Egerton resumed, as if in explanation, and even in kindly apology-- + +"Look at Lord L'Estrange himself. What young man could come into life +with brighter auspices? Rank, wealth, high animal spirits, (a great +advantage those same spirits, Mr. Leslie,) courage, self-possession, +scholarship as brilliant perhaps as your own; and now see how his life +is wasted! Why! He always thought fit to think for himself. He could +never be broken into harness, and never will be. The state coach, Mr. +Leslie, requires that all the horses should pull together." + +"With submission, sir," answered Randal, "I should think that there +were other reasons why Lord L'Estrange, whatever be his talents--and +indeed of these you must be an adequate judge--would never do any +thing in public life." + +"Ay, and what?" said Egerton, quickly. + +"First," said Randal, shrewdly, "private life has done too much for +him. What could public life give to one who needs nothing? Born at the +top of the social ladder, why should he put himself voluntarily at the +last step, for the sake of climbing up again! And secondly, Lord +L'Estrange seems to me a man in whose organization _sentiment_ usurps +too large a share for practical existence." + +"You have a keen eye," said Audley, with some admiration; "keen for +one so young. Poor Harley!" + +Mr. Egerton's last words were said to himself. He resumed quickly-- + +"There is something on my mind, my young friend. Let us be frank with +each other. I placed before you fairly the advantages and +disadvantages of the choice I gave you. To take your degree with such +honors as no doubt you would have won, to obtain your fellowship, to +go to the bar, with those credentials in favor of your talents--this +was one career. To come at once into public life, to profit by my +experience, avail yourself of my interest, to take the chances of or +fall with a party--this was another. You chose the last. But, in so +doing, there was a consideration which might weigh with you; and on +which, in stating your reasons for your option, you were silent." + +"What's that, sir?" + +"You might have counted on my fortune should the chances of party fail +you;--speak--and without shame if so; it would be natural in a young +man, who comes from the elder branch of the house whose heiress was my +wife." + +"You wound me, Mr. Egerton," said Randal, turning away. + +Mr. Egerton's cold glance followed Randal's movement; the face was hid +from the glance--it rested on the figure, which is often as +self-betraying as the countenance itself. Randal baffled Mr. Egerton's +penetration--the young man's emotion might be honest pride, and pained +and generous feeling; or it might be something else. Egerton continued +slowly. + +"Once for all then, distinctly and emphatically, I say--never count +upon that; count upon all else that I can do for you, and forgive me, +when I advise harshly or censure coldly; ascribe this to my interest +in your career. Moreover, before decision becomes irrevocable, I wish +you to know practically all that is disagreeable or even humiliating +in the first subordinate steps of him who, without wealth or station, +would rise in public life. I will not consider your choice settled, +till the end of a year at least--your name will be kept on the college +books till then; if, on experience, you should prefer to return to +Oxford, and pursue the slower but surer path to independence and +distinction, you can. And now give me your hand, Mr. Leslie, in sign +that you forgive my bluntness;--it is time to dress." + +Randal, with his face still averted, extended his hand. Mr. Egerton +held it a moment, then dropping it, left the room. Randal turned as +the door closed. And there was in his dark face a power of sinister +passion, that justified all Harley's warnings. His lips moved, but not +audibly; then, as if struck by a sudden thought, he followed Egerton +into the Hall. + +"Sir," said he, "I forgot to say that on returning from Maida Hill, I +took shelter from the rain under a covered passage, and there I met +unexpectedly with your nephew, Frank Hazeldean." + +"Ah!" said Egerton indifferently, "a fine young man; in the Guards. It +is a pity that my brother has such antiquated political notions; he +should put his son into parliament, and under my guidance; I could +push him. Well, and what said Frank?" + +"He invited me to call on him. I remember that you once rather +cautioned me against too intimate an acquaintance with those who have +not got their fortune to make." + +"Because they are idle, and idleness is contagious. Right--better not +be intimate with a young Guardsman." + +"Then you would not have me call on him, sir? We were rather friends +at Eton; and if I wholly reject his overtures, might he not think that +you--" + +"I!" interrupted Egerton. "Ah, true; my brother might think I bore him +a grudge; absurd. Call then, and ask the young man here. Yet still, I +do not advise intimacy." + +Egerton turned into his dressing-room. "Sir," said his valet, who was +in waiting, "Mr. Levy is here--he says, by appointment; and Mr. +Grinders is also just come from the country." + +"Tell Mr. Grinders to come in first," said Egerton, seating himself. +"You need not wait; I can dress without you. Tell Mr. Levy I will see +him in five minutes." + +Mr. Grinders was steward to Audley Egerton. + +Mr. Levy was a handsome man, who wore a camelia in his +button-hole--drove, in his cabriolet, a high stepping horse that had +cost £200: was well known to young men of fashion, and considered by +their fathers a very dangerous acquaintance. + + +CHAPTER XII. + +As the company assembled in the drawing-rooms, Mr. Egerton introduced +Randal Leslie to his eminent friends in a way that greatly contrasted +the distant and admonitory manner which he had exhibited to him in +private. The presentation was made with that cordiality, and that +gracious respect by which those who are in station command notice for +those who have their station yet to win. + +"My dear Lord, let me introduce to you a kinsman of my late wife's (in +a whisper)--the heir to the elder branch of her family. Stranmore, +this is Mr. Leslie, of whom I spoke to you. You, who were so +distinguished at Oxford, will not like him the worse for the prizes he +gained there. Duke, let me present to you, Mr. Leslie. The duchess is +angry with me for deserting her balls; I shall hope to make my peace, +by providing myself with a younger and livelier substitute. Ah, Mr. +Howard, here is a young gentleman just fresh from Oxford, who will +tell us all about the new sect springing up there. He has not wasted +his time on billiards and horses." + +Leslie was received with all that charming courtesy which is the _To +Kalon_ of an aristocracy. + +After dinner, conversation settled on politics. Randal listened with +attention and in silence, till Egerton drew him gently out; just +enough, and no more--just enough to make his intelligence evident, +without subjecting him to the charge of laying down the law. Egerton +knew how to draw out young men--a difficult art. It was one reason why +he was so peculiarly popular with the more rising members of his +party. + +The party broke up early. + +"We are in time for Almack's," said Egerton, glancing at the clock, +"and I have a voucher for you; come." + +Randal followed his patron into the carriage. By the way, Egerton thus +addressed him-- + +"I shall introduce you to the principal leaders of society; know them +and study them; I do not advise you to attempt to do more--that is, to +attempt to become the fashion. It is a very expensive ambition; some +men it helps, most men it ruins. On the whole, you have better cards +in your hands. Dance or not, as it pleases you--don't flirt. If you +flirt, people will inquire into your fortune--an inquiry that will do +you little good; and flirting entangles a young man into marrying. +That would never do. Here we are." + +In two minutes more they were in the great ball-room, and Randal's +eyes were dazzled with the lights, the diamonds, the blaze of beauty. +Audley presented him in quick succession to some dozen ladies, and +then disappeared amidst the crowd. Randal was not at a loss; he was +without shyness; or if he had that disabling infirmity, he concealed +it. He answered the languid questions put to him, with a certain +spirit that kept up talk, and left a favorable impression of his +agreeable qualities. But the lady with whom he got on the best, was +one who had no daughters out, a handsome and witty woman of the +world--Lady Frederick Coniers. + +"It is your first ball at Almack's, then, Mr. Leslie?" + +"My first." + +"And you have not secured a partner? Shall I find you one? What do you +think of that pretty girl in pink?" + +"I see her--but I cannot _think_ of her." + +"You are rather, perhaps, like a diplomatist in a new court, and your +first object is to know who is who." + +"I confess that on beginning to study the history of my own day, I +should like to distinguish the portraits that illustrate the memoir." + +"Give me your arm, then, and we will come into the next room. We shall +see the different _notabilités_ enter one by one, and observe without +being observed. This is the least I can do for a friend of Mr. +Egerton's." + +"Mr. Egerton, then," said Randal,--(as they threaded their way through +the space without the rope that protected the dancers)--"Mr. Egerton +has had the good fortune to win your esteem, even for his friends, +however obscure?" + +"Why, to say truth, I think no one whom Mr. Egerton calls his friend +need long remain obscure, if he has the ambition to be otherwise. For +Mr. Egerton holds it a maxim never to forget a friend, nor a service." + +"Ah, indeed!" said Randal, surprised. + +"And, therefore," continued Lady Frederick, "as he passes through +life, friends gather round him. He will rise even higher yet. +Gratitude, Mr. Leslie, is a very good policy." + +"Hem," muttered Mr. Leslie. + +They had now gained the room where tea and bread and butter were the +homely refreshments to the _habitués_ of what at that day was the most +exclusive assembly in London. They ensconced themselves in a corner by +a window, and Lady Frederick performed her task of cicerone with +lively ease, accompanying each notice of the various persons who +passed panoramically before them with sketch and anecdote, sometimes +good-natured, generally satirical, always graphic and amusing. + +By-and-by Frank Hazeldean, having on his arm a young lady of haughty +air, and with high though delicate features, came to the tea-table. + +"The last new Guardsman," said Lady Frederick; "very handsome, and not +yet quite spoiled. But he has got into a dangerous set." + +_Randal._--"The young lady with him is handsome enough to be +dangerous." + +_Lady Frederick_, (laughing.)--"No danger for him there,--as yet at +least. Lady Mary (the duke of Knaresborough's daughter) is only in her +second. The first year, nothing under an earl; the second, nothing +under a baron. It will be full four years before she comes down to a +commoner. Mr. Hazeldean's danger is of another kind. He lives much +with men who are not exactly _mauvais ton_, but certainly not of the +best taste. Yet he is very young; he may extricate himself--leaving +half his fortune behind him. What, he nods to you! You know him?" + +"Very well; he is nephew to Mr. Egerton." + +"Indeed! I did not know that. Hazeldean is a new name in London. I +heard his father was a plain country gentleman, of good fortune, but +not that he was related to Mr. Egerton." + +"Half-brother." + +"Will Mr. Egerton pay the young gentleman's debts? He has no sons +himself." + +_Randal._--"Mr. Egerton's fortune comes from his wife, from my +family--from a Leslie, not from a Hazeldean." + +Lady Frederick turned sharply, looked at Randal's countenance with +more attention than she had yet vouchsafed to it, and tried to talk of +the Leslies. Randal was very short there. + +An hour afterwards, Randal, who had not danced, was still in the +refreshment room, but Lady Frederick had long quitted him. He was +talking with some old Etonians who had recognized him, when there +entered a lady of very remarkable appearance, and a murmur passed +through the room as she appeared. + +She might be three or four and twenty. She was dressed in black +velvet, which contrasted with the alabaster whiteness of her throat +and the clear paleness of her complexion, while it set off the +diamonds with which she was profusely covered. Her hair was of the +deepest jet, and worn simply braided. Her eyes, too, were dark and +brilliant, her features regular and striking; but their expression, +when in repose, was not prepossessing to such as love modesty and +softness in the looks of woman. But when she spoke and smiled, there +was so much spirit and vivacity in the countenance, so much +fascination in the smile, that all which might before have marred the +effect of her beauty, strangely and suddenly disappeared. + +"Who is that very handsome woman?" asked Randal. + +"An Italian--a Marchesa something," said one of the Etonians. + +"Di Negra," suggested another, who had been abroad; "she is a widow; +her husband was of the great Genoese family of Negra--a younger branch +of it." + +Several men now gathered thickly around the fair Italian. A few ladies +of the highest rank spoke to her, but with a more distant courtesy +than ladies of high rank usually show to foreigners of such quality as +Madame di Negra. Ladies of a rank less elevated seemed rather shy of +her;--that might be from jealousy. As Randall gazed at the Marchesa +with more admiration than any woman, perhaps, had before excited in +him, he heard a voice near him say-- + +"Oh, Madame di Negra is resolved to settle amongst us, and marry an +Englishman." + +"If she can find one sufficiently courageous," returned a female +voice. + +"Well, she is trying hard for Egerton, and he has courage enough for +any thing." + +The female voice replied with a laugh, "Mr. Egerton knows the world +too well, and has resisted too many temptations, to be--" + +"Hush!--there he is." + +Egerton came into the room with his usual firm step and erect mien. +Randal observed that a quick glance was exchanged between him and the +Marchesa; but the Minister passed her by with a bow. + +Still Randal watched, and, ten minutes afterwards, Egerton and the +Marchesa were seated apart in the very same convenient nook that +Randal and Lady Frederick had occupied an hour or so before. + +"Is this the reason why Mr. Egerton so insultingly warns me against +counting on his fortune?" muttered Randal. "Does he mean to marry +again?" + +Unjust suspicion!--for, at that moment these were the words that +Audley Egerton was dropping forth from his lips of bronze-- + +"Nay, dear Madam, do not ascribe to my frank admiration more gallantry +that it merits. Your conversation charms me, your beauty delights me; +your society is as a holiday that I look forward to in the fatigues of +my life. But I have done with love, and I shall never marry again." + +"You almost pique me into trying to win, in order to reject you," said +the Italian, with a flash from her bright eyes. + +"I defy even you," answered Audley, with his cold hard smile. "But to +return to the point: You have more influence at least over this subtle +Ambassador; and the secret we speak of I rely on you to obtain me. Ah, +Madam, let us rest friends. You see I have conquered the unjust +prejudice against you; you are received and _fêted_ every where, as +becomes your birth and your attractions. Rely on me ever, as I on you. +But I shall excite too much envy if I stay here longer, and am vain +enough to think that I may injure you if I provoke the gossip of the +ill-natured. As the avowed friend, I can serve you--as the supposed +lover, No--" Audley rose, as he said this, and, standing by the chair, +added carelessly, "Apropos, the sum you do me the honor to borrow will +be paid to your bankers to-morrow." + +"A thousand thanks!--my brother will hasten to repay you." + +Audley bowed. "Your brother, I hope, will repay me in person, not +before. When does he come?" + +"Oh, he has again postponed his visit _to_ London; he is so much +needed in Vienna. But while we are talking of him, allow me to ask if +Lord L'Estrange is indeed still so bitter against that poor brother of +mine?" + +"Still the same!" + +"It is shameful," cried the Italian with warmth; "what has my brother +ever done to him, that he should intrigue against the Count in his own +court?" + +"Intrigue! I think you wrong Lord L'Estrange; he but represented what +he believed to be the truth, in defence of a ruined exile." + +"And you will not tell me where that exile is, or if his daughter +still lives?" + +"My dear Marchesa, I have called you friend, therefore, I will not aid +L'Estrange to injure you or yours. But I call L'Estrange a friend +also; and I cannot violate the trust that--" Audley stopped short, and +bit his lip. "You understand me," he resumed, with a genial smile, and +took his leave. + +The Italian's brows met as her eye followed him; then, as she too +rose, that eye encountered Randal's. Each surveyed the other--each +felt a certain strange fascination--a sympathy--not of affection, but +of intellect. + +"That young man has the eye of an Italian," said the Marchesa to +herself; and as she passed by him into the ball-room, she turned and +smiled. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] Continued from page 557, vol. iii. + +[9] If, at the date in which Lord L'Estrange held this conversation +with Mr. Egerton, Alfred de Musset had written his comedies, we should +suspect that his lordship had plagiarized from one of them the +whimsical idea that he here vents upon Audley. In repeating it, the +author at least cannot escape from the charge of obligation to a +writer whose humor, at least, is sufficiently opulent to justify the +loan. + + + + +From the London Examiner. + +IMAGINARY CONVERSATION AT WARSAW. + +NICHOLAS AND NESSELRODE. + +BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. + + +_Nicholas._--God fights for us visibly. You look grave, Nesselrode! is +it not so? Speak, and plainly. + +_Nesselrode._--Sire, in my humble opinion, God never fights at all. + +_Nicholas._--Surely he fought for Israel, when he was invoked by +prayer. + +_Nesselrode._--Sire, I am no theologian; and I fancy I must be a bad +geographer, since I never knew of a nation which was not Israel when +it had a mind to shed blood and to pray. To fight is an exertion, is +violence; the Deity in His omnipotence needs none. He has devils and +men always in readiness for fighting; and they are the instruments of +their own punishment for their past misdeeds. + +_Nicholas._--The chariots of God are numbered by thousands in the +volumes of the Psalmist. + +_Nesselrode._--No psalmist, or engineer, or commissary, or +arithmetician, could enumerate the beasts that are harnessed to them, +or the fiends that urge them on. + +_Nicholas._--Nesselrode! you grow more and more serious. + +_Nesselrode._--Age, sire, even without wisdom, makes men serious +whether they are inclined or not. I could hardly have been so long +conversant in the affairs of mankind (all which in all quarters your +majesty superintends and directs) without much cause for seriousness. + +_Nicholas._--I feel the consciousness of Supreme Power, but I also +feel the necessity of subordinate help. + +_Nesselrode._--Your majesty is the first monarch, since the earlier +Cæsars of Imperial Rome, who could control, directly or indirectly, +every country in our hemisphere, and thereby in both. + +_Nicholas._--There are some who do not see this. + +_Nesselrode._--There were some, and they indeed the most acute and +politic of mankind, who could not see the power of the Macedonian king +until he showed his full height upon the towers of Cheronoea. There +are some at this moment in England who disregard the admonitions of +the most wary and experienced general of modern times, and listen in +preference to babblers holding forth on economy and peace from +slippery sacks of cotton and wool. + +_Nicholas._--Hush! hush! these are our men; what should we do without +them? A single one of them in the parliament or town-hall is worth to +me a regiment of cuirassiers. These are the true bullets with conical +heads which carry far and sure. Hush! hush! + +_Nesselrode._--They do not hear us: they do not hear Wellington: they +would not hear Nelson were he living. + +_Nicholas._--No other man that ever lived, having the same power in +his hands, would have endured with the same equanimity as Wellington, +the indignities he suffered in Portugal; superseded in the hour of +victory by two generals, one upon another, like marsh frogs; people of +no experience, no ability. He might have become king of Portugal by +compromise, and have added Gallicia and Biscay. + +_Nesselrode._--The English, out of parliament, are delicate and +fastidious. He would have thought it dishonorable to profit by the +indignation of his army in the field, and of his countrymen at home. +Certainty that Bonaparte would attempt to violate any engagement with +him might never enter into the computation; for Bonaparte could less +easily drive him again out of Portugal than he could drive the usurper +out of Spain. We ourselves should have assisted him actively; so would +the Americans; for every naval power would be prompt at diminishing +the preponderance of the English. Practicability was here with +Wellington; but, endowed with it a keener and a longer foresight than +any of his contemporaries, he held in prospective the glory that +awaited him, and felt conscious that to be the greatest man in England +is somewhat more than to be the greatest in Portugal. He is +universally called _the_ duke; to the extinction or absorption of that +dignity over all the surface of the earth: in Portugal he could only +be called king of Portugal. + +_Nicholas._--Faith! that is little: it was not overmuch even before +the last accession. I admire his judgment and moderation. The English +are abstinent: they rein in their horses where the French make them +fret and curvett. It displeases me to think it possible that a subject +should ever become a sovran. We were angry with the Duke of Sudermania +for raising a Frenchman to that dignity in Sweden, although we were +willing that Gustavus, for offences and affronts to our family, should +be chastized, and even expelled. Here was a bad precedent. Fortunately +the boldest soldiers dismount from their chargers at some distance +from the throne. What withholds them? + +_Nesselrode._--Spells are made of words. The word _service_ among the +military has great latent negative power. All modern nations, even the +free, employ it. + +_Nicholas._--An excellent word indeed! It shows the superiority of +modern languages over ancient; Christian ideas over pagan; living +similitudes of God over bronze and marble. What an escape had England +from her folly, perversity, and injustice! Her admirals had the same +wrongs to avenge: her fleets would have anchored in Ferrol and Coruna; +thousands of volunteers from every part of both islands would have +assembled round the same standard; and both Indies would have bowed +before the conqueror. Who knows but that Spain herself might have +turned to the same quarter, from the idiocy of Ferdinand, the +immorality of Joseph, and the perfidy of Napoleon? + +_Nesselrode._--England seems to invite and incite, not only her +colonies, but her commanders, to insurrection. Nelson was treated even +more ignominiously than Wellington. A man equal in abilities and in +energy to either met with every affront from the East India Company. +After two such victories in succession as the Duke himself declared +before the Lords that he had never known or read of, he was removed +from the command of his army, and a general by whose rashness it was +decimated was raised to the peerage. If Wellington could with safety +have seized the supreme power in Portugal, Napier could with greater +have accomplished it in India. The distance from home was farther; the +army more confident; the allies more numerous, more unanimous. One +avenger of _their_ wrongs would have found a million avengers of +_his_. Affghanistan, Cabul, and Scinde, would have united their +acclamations on the Ganges: songs of triumph, succeeded by songs of +peace, would have been chanted at Delhi, and have re-echoed at +Samarcand. + +_Nicholas._--I am desirous that Persia and India should pour their +treasures into my dominions. The English are so credulous as to +believe that I intend, or could accomplish, the conquest of Hindostan. +I want only the commerce; and I hope to share it with the Americans; +not I indeed, but my successors. The possession of California has +opened the Pacific and the Indian seas to the Americans, who must, +within the life-time of some now born, predominate in both. Supposing +that emigrants to the amount of only a quarter of a million settle in +the United States every year, within a century from the present day, +their population must exceed three hundred millions. It will not +extend from pole to pole, only because there will be room enough +without it. + +_Nesselrode._--Religious wars, the most sanguinary of any, are stifled +in the fields of agriculture; creeds are thrown overboard by commerce. + +_Nicholas._--Theological questions come at last to be decided by the +broadsword; and the best artillery brings forward the best arguments. +Montecuculi and Wallenstein were irrefragable doctors. Saint Peter was +commanded to put up his sword; but the ear was cut off first. + +_Nesselrode._--The blessed saint's escape from capital punishment, +after this violence, is among the greatest of miracles. Perhaps there +may be a perplexity in the text. Had he committed so great a crime +against a person so highly protected as one in the high-priest's +household, he never would have lived long enough to be crucified at +Rome, but would have carried his cross up to Calvary three days after +the offence. The laws of no country would tolerate it. + +_Nicholas._--How did he ever get to Rome at all? He must have been +conveyed by an angel, or have slipt on a sudden into a railroad train, +purposely and for the nonce provided. There is a controversy at the +present hour about his delegated authority, and it appears to be next +to certain that he never was in the capital of the west. It is my +interest to find it decided in the negative. Successors to the +emperors of the east, who sanctioned and appointed the earliest popes, +as the bishops of Rome are denominated, I may again at my own good +time claim the privilege and prerogative. The cardinals and their +subordinates are extending their claws in all directions: we must +throw these crabs upon their backs again. + +_Nesselrode._--Some among the Italians, and chiefly among the Romans, +are venturing to express an opinion that there would be less of false +religion, and more of true, if no priest of any description were left +upon earth. + +_Nicholas._--Horrible! unless are exempted those of the venerable +Greek church. All others worship graven images: we stick to pictures. + +_Nesselrode._--One scholar mentioned, not without an air of derision, +that a picture had descended from heaven recently on the coast of +Italy. + +_Nicholas._--Framed? varnisht? under glass? on panel? on canvas? What +like? + +_Nesselrode._--The Virgin Mary, whatever made of. + +_Nicholas._--She must be ours then. She missed her road: she never +would have taken her place among stocks and stones and blind +worshipers. Easterly winds must have blown her toward a pestilential +city, where at every street-corner is very significantly inscribed its +true name at full length, _Immondezzaio_. But I hope I am guilty of no +profaneness or infidelity when I express a doubt if every picture of +the Blessed Virgin is sentient; most are; perhaps not every one. If +they want her in England, as they seem to do, let them have her ... +unless it is the one that rolls the eyes: in that case I must claim +her: she is too precious by half for papist or tractarian. I must +order immediately these matters. No reasonable doubt can be +entertained that I am the visible head of Christ's church. Theologians +may be consulted in regard to St. Peter, and may discover a manuscript +at Novgorod, stating his martyrdom there, and proving his will and +signature. + +_Nesselrode._--Theologians may find perhaps in the _Revelations_ some +Beast foreshadowing your Majesty. + +_Nicholas._--How? sir! how? + +_Nesselrode._--Emperors and kings, we are taught, are designated as +great beasts in the Holy Scriptures ... (_Aside_) ... and elsewhere. + + +SECOND CONVERSATION. + +_Nicholas._--We have disposed of our brother, his Prussian Majesty, +who appeared to be imprest by the apprehension that a portion of his +dominions was in jeopardy. + +_Nesselrode._--Possibly the scales of Europe are yet to be adjusted. + +_Nicholas._--When the winds blow high they must waver. Against the +danger of contingencies, and in readiness to place my finger on the +edge of one or other, it is my intention to spend in future a good +part of my time at Warsaw, that city being so nearly central in my +dominions. Good Nesselrode! there should have been a poet near you to +celebrate the arching of your eyebrows. They suddenly dropt down again +under the horizontal line of your Emperor's. Nobody ever stared in my +presence; but I really do think you were upon the verge of it when I +inadvertently said _dominions_ instead of _dependencies_. Well, well: +dependencies are dominions; and of all dominions they require the +least trouble. + +_Nesselrode._--Your Majesty has found no difficulty with any, +excepting the Circassians. + +_Nicholas._--The Circassians are the Normans of Asia; equally brave, +more generous, more chivalrous. I am no admirer of military trinkets; +but I have been surprised at the beauty of their chain-armor, the +temper of their swords, the richness of hilt, and the gracefulness of +baldric. + +_Nesselrode._--It is a pity they are not Christians and subjects of +your Majesty. + +_Nicholas._--If they would become my subjects, I would let them, as I +have let other Mahometans, become Christians at their leisure. We must +brigade them before baptism. + +_Nesselrode._--It is singular that this necessity never struck those +religious men who are holding peace conferences in various parts of +Europe. + +_Nicholas._--One of them, I remember, tried to persuade the people of +England that if the bankers of London would negotiate no loan with me +I could carry on no war. + +_Nesselrode._--Wonderful! how ignorant are monied men of money +matters. Your Majesty was graciously pleased to listen to my advice +when hostilities seemed inevitable. I was desirous of raising the +largest loan possible, that none should be forthcoming to the urgency +of others. At that very moment your Majesty had in your coffers more +than sufficient for the additional expenditure of three campaigns. +Well may your Majesty smile at this computation, and at the blindness +that suggested it. For never will your Majesty send an army into any +part of Europe which shall not maintain itself there by its own +prowess. Your cavalry will seize all the provisions that are not +stored up within the fortresses; and in every army those are to be +found who for a few thousand roubles are ready to blow up their +ammunition-wagons. We know by name almost every discontented man in +Europe. + +_Nicholas._--To obtain this information, my yearly expenses do not +exceed the revenues of half a dozen English bishops. Every +_table-d'hôte_ on the continent, you tell me, has one daily guest sent +by me. Ladies in the higher circles have taken my presents and +compliments, part in diamonds and part in smiles. An emperor's smiles +are as valuable to them as theirs are to a cornet of dragoons. Spare +nothing in the boudoir and you spare much in the field. + +_Nesselrode._--Such appears to have been the invariable policy of the +Empress Catharine, now with God. + +_Nicholas._--My father of glorious memory was less observant of it. He +had prejudices and dislikes; he expected to find every body a +gentleman, even kings and ministers. If they were so, how could he +have hoped to sway them? and how to turn them from the strait road +into his? + +_Nesselrode._--Your Majesty is far above the influence of antipathies; +but I have often heard your Majesty express your hatred, and sometimes +your contempt, of Bonaparte. + +_Nicholas._--I hated him for his insolence, and I despised him alike +for his cowardice and falsehood. Shame is the surest criterion of +humanity. When one is wanting, the other is. The beasts never indicate +shame in a state of nature; in society some of them acquire it; +Bonaparte not. He neither blushed at repudiating a modest woman, nor +at supplanting her by an immodest one. Holding a pistol to the +father's ear, he ordered him to dismount from his carriage; to deliver +up his ring, his watch, his chain, his seal, his knee-buckle; +stripping off galloon from trouser, and presently trouser too: caught, +pinioned, sentenced, he fell on both knees in the mud, and implored +this poor creature's intercession to save him from the hangman. He +neither blushed at the robbery of a crown nor at the fabrication of +twenty. He was equally ungrateful in public life and in private. He +banished Barras, who promoted and protected him: he calumniated the +French admiral, whose fleet for his own safety he detained on the +shores of Egypt, and the English admiral who defeated him in Syria +with a tenth of his force. Baffled as he often was, and at last +fatally, and admirably as in many circumstances he knew how to be a +general, never in any did he know how to be a gentleman. He was fond +of displaying the picklock keys whereby he found entrance into our +cabinets, and of twitching the ears of his accomplices. + +_Nesselrode._--Certainly he was less as an emperor than as a soldier. + +_Nicholas._--Great generals may commit grievous and disastrous +mistakes, but never utterly ruinous. Charles V., Gustavus Adolphus, +Peter the Great, Frederic of Prussia, Prince Eugene, Marlborough, +William, Wellington, kept their winnings, and never hazarded the last +crown-piece. Bonaparte, when he had swept the tables, cried _double or +quits_. + +_Nesselrode._--The wheel of Fortune is apt to make men giddier, the +higher it rises and the quicklier it turns: sometimes it drops them on +a barren rock, and sometimes on a treadmill. The nephew is more +prudent than the uncle. + +_Nicholas._--You were extremely wise, my dear Nesselrode, in +suggesting our idea to the French President, and in persuading him to +acknowledge in the face of the world that he had been justly +imprisoned by Louis Philippe for attempting to subvert the existing +powers. Frenchmen are taught by this declaration what they may expect +for a similar crime against his own pretensions. We will show our +impartiality by an equal countenance and favor toward all parties. In +different directions all are working out the design of God, and +producing unity of empire "on earth as it is in heaven." Until this +consummation there can never be universal or indeed any lasting peace. + +_Nesselrode._--This, lying far remote, I await your Majesty's commands +for what is now before us. Your Majesty was graciously pleased to +express your satisfaction at the manner in which I executed them in +regard to the President of the French Republic. + +_Nicholas._--Republic indeed! I have ordered it to be a crime in +France to utter this odious name. President forsooth! we have directed +him hitherto; let him now keep his way. Our object was to stifle the +spirit of freedom: we tossed the handkerchief to him, and he found the +chloroform. Every thing is going on in Europe exactly as I desire; we +must throw nothing in the way to shake the machine off the rail. It is +running at full speed where no whistle can stop it. Every prince is +exasperating his subjects, and exhausting his treasury in order to +keep them under due control. What nation on the continent, mine +excepted, can maintain for two years longer its present war +establishment? And without this engine of coercion what prince can be +the master of his people? England is tranquil at home; can she +continue so when a foreigner would place a tiara over her crown, +telling her who shall teach and what shall be taught. Principally, +that where masses are not said for departed souls, better it would be +that there were no souls at all, since they certainly must be damned. +The school which doubts it is denounced as godless. + +_Nesselrode._--England, sire, is indeed tranquil at home; but that +home is a narrow one, and extends not across the Irish channel. Every +colony is dissatisfied and disturbed. No faith has been kept with any +of them by the secretary now in office. At the Cape of Good Hope, +innumerable nations, warlike and well-armed, have risen up +simultaneously against her; and, to say nothing of the massacres in +Ceylon, your Majesty well knows what atrocities her Commissioner has +long exercised in the Seven Isles. England looks on and applauds, +taking a hearty draught of Lethe at every sound of the scourge. + +_Nicholas._--Nesselrode! You seem indignant. I see only the cheerful +sparks of a fire at which our dinner is to be dressed; we shall soon +sit down to it; Greece must not call me away until I rise from the +dessert; I will then take my coffee at Constantinople. The crescent +ere long will become the full harvest-moon. Our reapers have already +the sickles in their hands. + +_Nesselrode._--England may grumble. + +_Nicholas._--So she will. She is as ready now to grumble as she +formerly was to fight. She grumbles too early; she fights too late. +Extraordinary men are the English. They raise the hustings higher than +the throne; and, to make amends, being resolved to build a new palace, +they push it under an old bridge. The Cardinal, in his way to the +Abbey, may in part disrobe at it. Noble vestry-room! where many +habiliments are changed. Capacious dovecote! where carrier-pigeons and +fantails and croppers, intermingled with the more ordinary, bill and +coo, ruffle and smoothen their feathers, and bend their versicolor +necks to the same corn. + + + + +From Bentley's Miscellany for July. + +LONDON, PARIS, AND NEW-YORK. + + +Standing in the City Hall, New-York, and drawing from that point a +circle whose radius shall be three miles, we embrace a population of +three-quarters of a million. We say this at the outset, by way of +securing respect for our theme. + +New-York is a mere Jonah's gourd or Jack the Giant-killer's beanstalk +compared with London. London was London when St. Paul was a prisoner +in Rome, ten years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Sixteen +hundred years afterwards, when New-York was but just named, London +lost some seventy thousand inhabitants by the plague, and more than +thirteen thousand houses by the Great Fire, and hardly missed them. + +Before this period, however, the little Dutch town of Niew Amsterdam, +called by the aborigines Manahatta, or Manhattan, had commenced a +dozing existence, under the government of Walter the Doubter and Peter +the Headstrong, celebrated by that great chronicler, Diedrich +Knickerbocker. Some consider this a mythic period, and class the +legends of Wilhelmus Van Kieft's wisdom, and Peter Stuyvesant's valor, +with the stories of Romulus and Remus, and the Horatii and Curiatii. +But to cast any doubt upon a historian like Knickerbocker--the Grote +of colonial history--at once minute and philosophical, just and +enthusiastic--is surely unwise. His picture of the portly burghers of +Niew Amsterdam, their habits and manners, pursuits, politics, and +laws, is verified by the impress left on their descendants. All the +foreign floods that have swept over the city have not been able to +wash out the footsteps of the original settlers; and Walter the +Doubter and Peter the Headstrong still figure, it is said, in the +Assembly of the City Fathers, though the voluminous nether +habiliments, which characterized them of old, have dwindled to the +modern pantaloon. + +Casting our eyes backward for a moment, let us imagine the condition +of things before English innovation had interfered with the quiet +current of Dutch ideas in the metropolis of the West. "The modern +spectator," says our historian, "who wanders through the streets of +this populous city, can scarcely form an idea of their appearance in +the primitive days of the Doubter. The grass grew quietly in the +highways; bleating sheep and frolicksome calves sported about that +verdant ridge where now the Broadway loungers take their morning +stroll. The cunning fox and ravenous wolf skulked in the woods where +now are to be seen the dens of the righteous fraternity of +money-brokers. The houses of the higher class were generally +constructed of wood, excepting the gable end, which was of small black +and yellow Dutch bricks, and always faced the street. The house was +always furnished with abundance of large doors, and small windows on +every floor; the date of its erection was curiously designated by iron +figures on the front, and on the top of the roof was perched a fierce +weathercock, to let the family know which way the wind blew. The front +door was never opened, except on marriages, funerals, New Year's days, +the festival of St. Nicholas, or some such great occasion * * *. A +passion for cleanliness was the leading principle in domestic economy. +The whole house was constantly in a state of inundation, under the +discipline of mops and brooms, and scrubbing-brushes; and the good +housewives of that day were a kind of amphibious animal, delighting +exceedingly to be dabbling in water; insomuch, that many of them grew +to have webbed fingers like a duck. In those happy days a +well-regulated family always rose with the dawn, dined at eleven, and +went to bed at sundown. Fashionable parties were confined to the +higher class, or _noblesse_; that is to say, such as kept their own +cows or drove their own wagons. The company commonly assembled at +three o'clock, and went away about six; unless it was winter-time, +when the fashionable hours were a little earlier, that the ladies +might get home before dark. At these tea-parties the utmost propriety +and dignity of deportment prevailed. No flirting or coquetting; no +gambling of old ladies, nor chattering and romping of young ones; no +self-satisfied strutting of wealthy gentlemen with their brains in +their pockets," &c. + +Speaking further of the ladies, Mr. Knickerbocker says: "Their hair, +untortured by the abominations of art, was scrupulously pomatumed back +from their foreheads with a candle, and covered with a little cap of +quilted calico. Their petticoats of linsey-woolsey, were striped with +a variety of gorgeous dyes, and all of their own manufacture. These +were the honest days, in which every woman stayed at home, read the +Bible, and wore pockets, and that too of a goodly size, fashioned with +patch-work of many curious devices, and ostentatiously worn on the +outside. Every good housewife made the clothes of her husband and +family," &c. + +Such and so homely was the germ of the present goodly town that sits, +like a queen, throned between two mighty streams, with a magnificent +bay at her feet. Marks of her Dutch origin were numerous a few years +since, and are still to be found, though sparely. Of the national +customs enumerated and described by the veracious Diedrich, we find at +the present day but few. The last of the gable-fronted houses, with +curious steps in the brickwork on the sides of the peak, disappeared +some years since. Calves never frisk in Broadway now, though they +sometimes pass through it tied in carts, in defiance of humanity and +decency. The year of building is no longer written in iron on the +fronts of the houses, for + + "Panting Time toils after us in vain," + +and chronology is out of date. Large doors have now large windows to +keep them company, and weather-cocks are rendered unnecessary by the +arrival of vessels from some part of the earth with every wind that +blows. The front door is now opened to every body but the master of +the house, who goes out of it in the morning not to see it again till +evening. The practice of daily inundation is now nearly limited to the +street, since Kidderminster, Brussels, and Wilton, conspire to cover +every inch of floor; but the annual house-cleaning is still in full +vogue, and no amount of slop, discomfort, destruction, and +self-sacrifice, is considered too great in the accomplishment of this +civic festival. As to rising with the dawn, the citizen of to-day +considers breakfast-time daybreak; and the dinner-hour is as various +as the fluctuations of business and pleasure. "Fashionable society" +has, at present, no very decided limits, as few of the inhabitants +keep a cow, and many of the highest pretenders to _bon ton_ do not +drive their own wagons--getting home before dark! New-York ladies make +a point of getting home before light; and if they assemble at three +o'clock it is for a _déjeûner_, or a _matinée dansante_. As for Mr. +Knickerbocker's further characterization of the genteel manners of the +olden time, it would be unhandsome in us to pursue our +counter-picture; but this we will say, in mere justice, and all joking +aside, that there are no gambling ladies in New-York, either young or +old. + +Thinking of New-York in her early life, we were about to say that from +1614 to 1674 she was a mere shuttlecock between the Dutch and English; +but the recollection that neither of the contending parties ever +tossed her towards the other, spoiled our figure, and we find her more +like the unfortunate baby whom it took all Solomon's wisdom to save +from utter destruction between rival mothers. The Dutch certainly had +the prior claim; but that circumstance, though something in a case of +maternity, seems far from conclusive in the matter of adoption. The +little Dutch city had accumulated a thousand inhabitants, and wrenched +from the home government leave to govern itself, by the aid of a +schout, burgomasters, and schepens, when King Charles II., of pious +memory, coolly gave a grant of the entire province to his brother +James, Duke of York, who forthwith proved his right (that of the +strongest), and put an English governor in place of Peter Stuyvesant, +called by Knickerbocker, "a tough, valiant, sturdy, weather-beaten, +mettlesome, obstinate, leathern-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited +old governor," who nearly burst with rage when obliged to sign the +capitulation, and who finished by dying of sheer mortification on +hearing that the combined English and French fleets had beaten the +Dutch under De Ruyter. Nine years after, the tables were turned, and +Dutch rule once more brought in sour-krout and oly-koeks; but, in +1674, New-York became English by treaty, and so remained until +November, 1783. + +Since that epoch, although growth and prosperity have been the general +rule, yet the island city has had her ups and downs, by means of fire, +pestilence, war, embargo, mobs, &c., quite enough to stimulate the +energy of her sons and ripen the wisdom of her councils. In 1825, the +completion of the Erie Canal, which united the Atlantic with the great +lakes, gave a prodigious impulse to trade. In 1832 came the cholera, +threatening utter desolation; and in 1835 a fire, which consumed +property worth twenty millions of dollars. Yet, in 1842, the Great +Aqueduct was finished, at a cost of thirteen million dollars. Thus +much premised, let us look at New-York of to-day. + + "She has no time + To looken backe, her eyne be fixed before." + +In describing American towns, if we would make our picture a likeness, +we must + + "Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of the minute." + +The New-York of 1851 resembles her of fifty years ago scarcely more +than the West End of London resembles Birmingham or Bristol. In 1800, +one might easily believe the old story, that the streets were +originally laid out by the cows, as they went out to pasture and +returned at evening. Streets running in all sorts of curves crossed +each other at all conceivable angles, making a maze without a plan, +through which strangers needed to drop beans, like the children in the +fairy-tale, to avoid being wholly lost. Fortunately, the city is not +very wide, so that Broadway, which always ran lengthwise through the +centre, has served as a tolerable clue from the beginning. Great +sacrifices have been made for the sake of regularity, and there is now +a tolerable degree of it, even in the old, or south part of the city, +cross streets running from Broadway to either river with an approach +to parallelism. In the early time, the town presented no bad +resemblance in shape to the phenomenon called a "mackerel sky," +Broadway representing the spine, and the streets running to either +river the ribs, while northward and southward was a tapering off; on +the south, where the Battery juts into the bay, and on the north, +where the uppermost houses gradually narrowed till Broadway came to an +end, with few buildings on either side of it. But in these later days, +when Knickerbocker limits no longer confine the heterogeneous +thousands that have pushed the old race from their stools, sixteen +great avenues, each a hundred feet wide, run parallel with Broadway +and the rivers, cut at right angles by wide streets, lined with costly +dwellings, churches, schools, and other edifices. As is usual in great +commercial towns, the lowest portion of the population haunt the +neighborhood of the wharfs; and, in New-York, the eastern side of the +city in particular attracts this class. But, perhaps, no city of the +size has fewer streets of squalid poverty, although the encouragement +given to immigration is such that there must necessarily be great +numbers of wretched immigrants who have neither the will nor the power +to live by honest industry. It is in truth for this class of persons +that hospitals and penitentiaries are here built, foreigners supplying +at least nine-tenths of the inmates of those institutions in New-York. + +As to clean and healthy streets, the upper and newer part of the city +has, of course, the advantage. It is laid out with special attention +to drainage, for which the ridged shape of the ground affords great +facility; the island on which New-York is built being highest in the +middle, and sloping off, east and west, towards the Hudson and East +Rivers. + +Manhattan island is about fourteen miles long, with an average breadth +of one mile and a half, the greatest width being two and a half miles. +At the southerly point of the island, where the Hudson unites with the +strait called the East River, lies one of the finest harbors in the +world, affording anchorage for ships of the largest size, and +surrounded by cultivated land and elegant residences. Several +fortified islands diversify this bay, and numerous forts occupy the +points and headlands on either side. The general appearance of the bay +is that of great beauty, of the milder sort. The shores are rather +low, but finely wooded, and the approach to the city from the ocean +very striking. The battery, a promenade covered with fine old trees, +offers a rural front, but the forests of masts stretching far up +either river attract the stranger's attention much more forcibly. The +_coup d'oeil_ is here magnificent. Brooklyn, on Long Island, a large +city, whose white columned streets gleam along the heights, giving a +palatial grandeur to the view, is just opposite New-York, on the +south-east, and divided from it by so narrow a strait that it appears +more truly to be a part of it than the Surrey side of the Thames to +belong to London, although the rush of commerce forbids bridges. On +the west side, the banks of the Hudson are lined with towns, an +outcrop of the central metropolis. + +Entering the city from any quarter, we are sure to find ourselves in +Broadway, long the pride of the inhabitants, though its glories are +rather traditional than actual, as compared with the greatest +thoroughfares of commerce in older cities. It extends, eighty feet in +width, two miles and a half in a straight line, northward from the +Battery; and then, making a slight deflection at Union Park, runs on, +_ad infinitum_, though it is at present but sparely built after +another mile or so. Nearly all the best shops in the retail trade are +in this street, some of them comparable to the richest of London and +Paris, and the whole affording means for every device of elegant +decoration and boundless expenditure. Residences here are +comparatively few, especially in the lower part, the din of business +and the ceaseless thunder of omnibuses having driven far away every +family that has the liberty of choice. Many churches still exist in +Broadway, which, on Sunday, is as quiet as any other street. Other +architectural decorations there are few. The City Hall, a costly +building of white marble, too long and low to make a dignified +appearance, but standing in a well-wooded park, of some eleven or +twelve acres in extent, has a certain beauty, especially when seen +gleaming through the spray of a fountain, which sends up a tall jet at +some distance in front of the building. Farther on is a hospital, of +rather ancient date for this western world--built in 1775, and now +surrounded by venerable trees, and clothed in the richest ivy. After +this, scarcely a break in the line of dazzling shops, until we reach +the vicinity of Union Square, a pretty oval park, with a noble +fountain in the midst, and lofty and handsome houses all round, +situated on perhaps the highest ground on this part of the island. +Half a mile beyond is Madison Square, a green expanse, about which +wealthy citizens are now building elegant residences of brown +freestone, with some attempt at architectural display. Near this, +still northward, is the lower or distributing reservoir of the Croton +Aqueduct, standing on high ground, and looking something like a +fortress--no great ornament, perhaps, but an object of much interest. + +Fifth Avenue, on the west of Broadway, stretching north from +Washington Square--an inclosure of about ten acres, well planted with +elms and maples--it is the Belgravia of New-York--in the estimation of +those who inhabit it; a paradise of marble, upholstery and cabinet +work, at least; not much dignified, as yet, by works of high art, +though the region boasts a few specimens, ancient and modern; but in +luxury and extravagance emulating the repudiated aristocracy of the +old world. This is, and is to be, a street of palaces and churches +throughout its whole extent, always provided that the changeful +current of Fashion do not set in some other direction too soon, +carrying with it all the _millionaires_ that are yet to arise within +the century. In that event, the costly mansions of Fifth Avenue will +inevitably become hotels and boarding-houses,--a reverse which so many +grandly intended houses of elder New-York have already experienced. + +The distinction of East and West is marked in New-York as in London, +though for different reasons. In London, the prevalence of westerly +winds drives the surge waves of coal-smoke eastward, blackening every +thing; in New-York the western part of the town is cleaner, because +newer and built on a better plan. Broadway is the dividing line; and +it is a violent strain upon one's standing in fashionable life to live +eastward of it, below Union Square, even in the most expensive style. +But the eastward world has its own great thoroughfare, wider than +Broadway, though not as long, running nearly parallel with the main +artery of the grander world. The Bowery--so called when it was the +high road leading through the public farms or _Boweries_--is a sort of +exaggerated Bishopsgate-street and Shoreditch united; more trades and +callings, more articles offered for sale in the open air, more noise, +more people, and at least as much natural, undisguised, vulgar life. A +railway for horse-carriages passes through it, and hundreds of +omnibuses and stage coaches, not to speak of carts and country wagons +without number. A "rowdy" theatre or two, a hay-market, great +clothing-shops, and livery-stables, a riding-school, an anatomical +museum--such are its ornaments. Not a church countenances its entire +length, nor any other public building aiming at elegance or dignity. +The goods displayed in the windows are of a secondary quality, at +best; and the people who throng the pavements are people who want +second-rate articles. Yet the Bowery is worth walking through by a +stranger, little as it is known or valued by the native citizen, whose +lot has been cast in choicer neighborhood. The common pulse of +humanity beats audibly and visibly there, wrapped in no cloak of +convention or pseudo-refinement. The fundamental business of life is +carried on there as being confessedly the main business; not, as in +Broadway, as if it were a thing to be huddled into a corner to make +way for the carved-work and gilding, the drapery and color of the +great panorama. There is another reason why the Bowery has a claim on +our attention. Strange as it may seem, it is from the people who haunt +the Bowery that the United States take their character abroad. +Foreigners insist upon considering the "Bowery b'hoys,"--a class at +once an enigma and a terror to the greater portion of their +fellow-citizens,--as distinctive specimens of Americanism, much to the +horror of their more fastidious countrymen. This we think a great +mistake, though truly there are worse people in the world than the +"Bowery b'hoys," who are noted for a sort of _bonhomie_, in the midst +of all their coarseness. + +As to parks and public promenades, New-York is lamentably +deficient--the whole space thus appropriated being hardly more than +eighty acres, for the refreshment of a population which will soon +cease to be counted by hundreds of thousands. "Eight million dollars +worth of land," say the city fathers, "is as much as we can afford!" +The penurious estimate which has resulted in this miserable deficiency +has been long and ably combated by patriotic and clear-headed +citizens, but their influence has as yet proved wholly unavailing. +Public meetings have been now and then held, with a view of exciting a +general interest in this important matter, but they invariably end in +fruitless resolutions. The island still affords good sites for public +gardens, but there is scarce a gleam of hope that any of them will be +reserved. The few breathing spaces that now exist, are thronged, and +by the very people who most need them--children and laboring people. +The vicinity of the fountains is full of loiterers, quietly watching +the play of the bright water, and growing, we may hope, milder and +better by the gentle influence. At certain hours of the day whole +troops of merry children, with their attendants, make the walks alive +and resounding. The hoop, the ball, the velocipede, the skipping-rope, +rejoice the grass and sunshine, and the eyes of the thoughtful +spectator, who sees health in every bounding motion, and hears joy in +every tiny shout. It is strange that the citizens do not, one and all, +cry aloud for the easy and happy open-air extension of their too often +crowded homes. London is the world's example in this thing. + +A park suited to riding and driving is especially needed because of +the wretched pavement which still disgraces the greater portion of +New-York. The first thing that strikes an American returning from +Europe is the inferiority of the pavements of the Atlantic cities; and +New-York, in particular, is, in this respect, hardly a whit before the +far-famed corduroy roads of the wild West. In 1846 a great improvement +was begun, called, after the inventor, the Russ pavement, and thus far +seeming to meet all the difficulties of the case, including the severe +frosts and sudden changes of the climate. The plan is, however, so +expensive that it will probably be long before it is fully adopted. It +requires square blocks of stone, about ten inches in depth, laid +diagonally with the wheel-track, and resting on a substructure of +concrete, which again rests upon a foundation of granite chips, the +whole forming a consolidated mass, eighteen inches thick, so arranged +as to be lifted in sections to afford access to the gas and water +pipes. This has been largely tried in Broadway, and has stood the test +for six years. + +Foreigners are apt to complain, not only, as they justly may, of the +bad pavements of New-York, but, somewhat unreasonably, of the +obstructions in the street, caused by incessant building, laying +pipes, &c. They say, "Will the city never be finished?" Not very soon, +we think. It is difficult to do in fifty years the work of five +hundred, without a good deal of bustle and inconvenience. Rapid growth +in population and wealth necessitates continual improvement in +accommodation. We may, indeed, be allowed to fret a little, when the +street is for weeks or months encumbered by the building materials of +a merchant, who sees fit to pull down a very good house in order to +erect one that shall cost a quarter of a million, merely because his +neighbor has contrived to outshine him in that particular. But when +sewers and gas, and Croton water, are in question, we must not +grumble. These great public blessings are spreading into every +quarter, carrying health and decency with them. The great sewers are +arched canals of hard brick, from three to nine feet in diameter, and +laid in mortar in the most durable manner. Above them are the +gas-pipes, an immense net-work; and nearly on a level with these last +are the huge veins and arteries, by means of which the Croton supplies +life and health to the inhabitants, once half-poisoned by water which +shared every salt that enters into the subsoil of a great city. +Analysis shows the Croton water to be of great purity--holding in +solution the salts of lime and magnesia in proportions hardly +appreciable, only about two and eight-tenths of a grain to the gallon. +The river springs from granitic hills, and flows through a clear +upland region, free from marsh, and covered with grazing farms. + +When the Aqueduct was undertaken, New-York numbered but two hundred +and eighty thousand inhabitants, so that the supply provided was a +magnificent gift to the future. The work was completed within five +years, years of great commercial difficulty; and what is more +remarkable, the whole cost came _within_ the estimate of the chief +engineer. The abundance of water may be guessed from the fact that two +of the city fountains throw away more water than would suffice for the +consumption of a large city. The solidity of the structure is such +that none but slight repair can be needed for centuries to come.[10] + +This great work was opened, with appropriate ceremonies, and a +splendid civic festival, on the 14th of October, 1842. The British +consul, in accepting the invitation of the Common Council, to assist +at this festival, justly remarked, "Tyrants have left monuments which +call for admiration, but no similar work of a free people, for +magnitude and utility, equals this great enterprise." Public feeling +was very warm on this occasion. Of the procession of the trades, &c., +which was three hours passing a given point, an enthusiastic citizen +declared in print, that he "watched and scrutinized it closely, and +could discover neither a drunkard nor a fool from first to last." It +might be a difficult matter to decide on the moral and intellectual +condition of the individuals composing such a procession, but we may +concede that drunkards and fools are not the persons most likely to +join in rejoicing for the introduction of pure water without stint or +measure. + +The great Aqueduct is forty-one miles in length, commencing with a dam +across the Croton river, six miles above its mouth. This raises the +water one hundred and sixty-six feet above tide level, forming a lake +or reservoir of four hundred acres in extent, containing five hundred +million gallons, above the level that would allow the Aqueduct to +discharge thirty-five million gallons per day. From the Croton Dam to +Harlem River, something less than thirty-three miles, the Aqueduct is +an uninterrupted conduit of hydraulic masonry, of stone and brick; the +greatest interior width, seven feet five inches; the greatest height, +eight feet five inches; the floor an inverted arch. The commissioners +and chief engineers passed through its whole length on foot, as soon +as it was completed; and, when the water was admitted, traversed it +again in a boat built for the purpose. It crosses the Harlem River by +a bridge of stone, fourteen hundred and fifty feet long, and one +hundred and fourteen feet above high-water mark. At the Receiving +Reservoir forty miles from the Dam, the masonry gives place to iron +pipes, through which the water is conveyed two miles further, to the +distributing reservoir, from which point it runs, by means of several +hundred miles of pipes, to every corner of the city. On the line of +the Aqueduct are one hundred and fourteen culverts, and sixteen +tunnels, and ventilators occur at the distance of one mile apart +throughout the route. The Receiving Reservoir covers thirty-five +acres, and contains one hundred and fifty million imperial gallons. +The Distributing Reservoir has walls forty-nine feet in height, and +contains twenty million gallons. The supply to each citizen is at +present almost unlimited, and afforded at a very moderate annual +rate. The managers complain to the Common Council of the enormous +waste during the summer, when "sixty imperial gallons each twenty-four +hours to every inhabitant," are delivered. But even at this enormous +rate the quantity is ample, and it can be increased at will by new +reservoirs. No decent house is now constructed without a bath, an +advantage to the health and comfort of the city, hardly to be +over-rated. Fountains adorn almost all the public places of any +importance, and although in few instances as yet dignified by +sculpture, these tastes and glimpses of Nature are in themselves +invaluable, offering to the people at large a continual reminder of +beauty, tranquillity, and innocent pleasure in the open air. There +remains yet to be added those public vats for the use of poor women in +washing, that may be found in so many European towns. + +The facilities afforded by this abundance of water for the +extinguishment of fires, are such as can hardly be over-rated. We have +no space for details on this point, nor does it need. It will easily +appear that, with an unlimited supply of water, and plenty of +fire-plugs, a few moments suffice to bring into action whatever is +needed in case of conflagration--a glorious contrast to the tardy +succor of former days, when water was laboriously pumped from the +rivers on either side the city, and conveyed by means of hose to the +scene of danger. The perfection of the London Fire Brigade is yet to +be accomplished for New-York; but promptness, or rather zeal of +service, distinguishes the corps of firemen, who make their business a +passion, and the perfection of their instruments their pride and +glory. They receive no remuneration except exemption from military and +jury duty. + +After these few words on the supply of pure and life-preserving water, +we may turn, by no very violent transition, to the facilities extended +by New-York to her children in the matter of education,--a point on +which she is naturally and justly somewhat vainglorious. The number of +public, and absolutely free schools, is one hundred and ninety-nine; +embracing fifteen schools for the instruction of colored children. +More than one hundred thousand scholars attend in the course of the +year; though the average for each day is something less than forty +thousand. All is gratuitous at these schools--instruction, books, +stationery, washing-apparatus, fuel, &c. Besides these, there are +fifteen evening schools, for those who cannot avail themselves of the +other public schools, and whose only leisure time is after the close +of the labors of the day. The ages of the scholars in these schools +vary from twelve to forty-five years. + +This magnificent offer of instruction by the city to her children is +confined to no class, country, sect, nor fortune. Every child, without +exception, is received, taught, and furnished with all the requisites +for a good school education. Not content with this, a free academy for +the classics, modern languages, natural sciences, and drawing, was +established in 1848, with fourteen professors, and proper appliances, +including a handsome and commodious building. This academy receives +male pupils from the common schools, after due examination; and +retains them for a four years' course, or longer, if desirable. It is +contemplated to establish a free high school for females, on a +corresponding plan. + +It is not to be supposed that the benefit of the public school system +is shared only by the necessitous. The children of respectable +citizens, of the plainer sort, make up a large part of the attendance. +It is computed that only about twenty thousand children of both sexes +are found in private schools. There are many free schools of private +charity, some of which receive by law a certain share of public money, +as the school of the House of Refuge, various orphan asylums, &c., +including, in all, about three thousand five hundred children. The +Roman Catholics have some free schools of their own, but most Roman +Catholic children are educated at the public schools. The prodigious +amount of immigration (on the day on which we write, we happen to know +that the number of steerage passengers arrived in the city is +seventeen hundred and seventy-nine, and, on another, within a week, +three thousand)--makes this provision for education doubly important; +since a large portion of the hordes thus emptied on these hospitable +shores are entirely unable to pay any thing for the instruction of +their children. + +This fact gives added lustre to the no less munificent provision by +the city for the gratuitous care of the sick and indigent--a care +almost monopolized by foreigners, because comparatively few Americans +are in a condition to need it. All accidental cases are provided for +at the New-York Hospital; the attendant physicians and surgeons of +which, selected from the most eminent of the profession, give their +services without pecuniary remuneration. A branch of this institution +is the Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane. The New-York Dispensary +provides some thirty thousand patients annually with advice, +medicines, and vaccination, gratis. The Almshouse Department maintains +five establishments, which, together, support about seven thousand +persons, and afford weekly aid to some three thousand others. The +Nursery Branch of this department maintains and instructs more than a +thousand children of paupers and convicts. The Institution for the +care of deaf mutes has about two hundred and fifty pupils, of whom one +hundred and sixty are supported at the expense of the State. The +Asylum for the Blind, originally established by a few members of the +Society of Friends, has about one hundred and fifty pupils. Besides +these, private charity has opened refuges for almost every form of +human misery and destitution, so that it may safely be said that no +one of any age, sex, nation, or character _need_ suffer, in New York, +for lack of Christian kindness in its ordinary manifestations. Among +these beneficent offers of relief and aid, we may mention one in +particular, whose worth is not as fully appreciated by the public as +that of some others, though none is more needed. The Prison +Association takes care of the interests of accused persons, whose +poverty and ignorance make them the easy prey of the designing and +heartless; attends to them while in prison, and after their release, +holds out the helping hand, and provides relief, occupation, and +countenance for all those who are willing to reform. A house with +matrons is provided for discharged female convicts, who are instructed +and initiated into various modes of employment until they have had +time to prove themselves fit to be recommended to places. The success +of this most benign and difficult charity has been very encouraging. + +It would be vain to attempt, in this desultory sketch, any account of +the means of morals and religion in New-York. In these respects she +differs but little from English commercial towns. The number of places +of worship is something under three hundred, and each form of +religious benevolence has its appropriate society, as elsewhere. +Sabbath Schools are very popular, and attended by the children of the +first citizens. An immense number of persons are associated as Sons +and Daughters of Temperance, who present a strong front against that +vice which turns the wise man into a fool. But as there is nothing +distinctive in these and similar associations, we pass them by. A +puritan tone of manners prevails; that is to say, with the mass of the +well-to-do citizens, puritan manners are the beau-ideal of propriety +and safety. Yet New-York is fast assuming a cosmopolitan tone which +will make it difficult, before very long, to speak of any particular +style of manners as prevailing. Representatives of every nation, and +tongue, and kindred, and people, meeting on a footing of perfect +equality of political advantages, must in time produce a social state, +differing in some important particulars from any that the world has +yet seen. The population of New-York will, at the past rate of +increase, be in ten years greater than that of Paris, and in thirty +equal to that of London. How can one speculate on a social state +formed under such circumstances? The present aspect of what claims to +be New-York society is certainly rather anomalous. + +An exceptional American--John Quincy Adams--in some patriotic speech, +mentioned, among other occasions of thankfulness to Heaven, that +excellent gift, "a heritable habitation;" but there is nothing which +the prosperous citizen of New-York so much despises. If he read +Ruskin, he thinks the man benighted when he utters such sentiments as +these: "There must be a strange dissolution of natural affection; a +strange unthankfulness for all that homes have given and parents +taught; a strange consciousness that we have been unfaithful to our +father's honor, or that our lives are not such as would make our +dwellings sacred to our children, when each man would fain build to +himself, and build for the little revolution of his own life only * * +* *. Our God is a household god, as well as a heavenly one. He has an +altar in every man's dwelling; let men look to it when they rend it +lightly, and pour out its ashes!" + +If ever there were any substantial tenements of stone and brick on +which might well be written the motto "Passing away!" it is those of +the great commercial metropolis of the western world. The material +substance is enduring enough to last many generations; their soul is a +thing of the moment. After it has inhabited its proud apartments, and +looked out of its beautiful windows for a few years, it departs, to +return no more for ever, and its deserted home becomes at once the +receptacle of a soul of lower grade, and its destiny is to pass down, +and down, and down, in the scale, as time wears on, and "improvement" +sanctifies new regions. One might suppose the pleasure and pride of +building would be quite killed by the idea that as soon as one's head +is laid in the dust, all the achievements of taste, all the devices of +ingenious affection, all the personality, in short, of one's dwelling +would be turned out to the gaze and comment of the curious world now +so carefully shut out; exposed, depreciated, contemned, and sold to +the highest bidder, under circumstances of inevitable degradation. But +the ruling spirit of the New World progress seems to reconcile even +the reflective to these things. They shrug their shoulders, and say it +cannot be helped! Truly, these seem the days "when every man's aim is +to be in some more elevated sphere than his natural one, and every +man's past life is his habitual scorn; when men build in the hope of +leaving the places they have built, and live in the hope of forgetting +the years they have lived; when the comfort, the peace, and the +religion of home have ceased to be felt." In these particulars, +however, the severity of the New World is in a state of transition. +Under circumstances so novel, it is not to be wondered at that no +leisure has yet been found for the complete harmonization of the +social theory in all its parts. + +Whether the universal and incessant subdivision of estates will ever +be found to allow the addition of the charm of poetic associations to +the possession of wealth is a question not yet determined. When all +passes under the hammer, what becomes of heir-looms, and whatever +else in which family life and interest are bound up? And why should +splendor prepare for perpetuity when that which supports it is to be +shared among half a dozen or a dozen descendants? Will a rich man be +likely to collect works of art under the consciousness that, when +"cutting up" time comes, not one of his children will probably be rich +enough to retain possession of these treasures that bring no tangible +income? Truly, republicans ought to be philosophers, caring only for +things of highest moment, and capable of saying to all others--"Get ye +behind me!" + +But the denizens of New-York Belgravia are not philosophers, at least +not philosophers of this stamp. Content with the good things of +to-day, they leave the morrow to take care of itself; and many of them +live in a style which, even to those who have seen European splendor, +seems no less than superb. Their dwellings are unsurpassed in +convenience of arrangement and luxury of appliance; their +entertainments are of regal magnificence, so far as regal magnificence +is purchasable; and for dress and equipage they pour out money like +water. In cultivation and accomplishments, they are of course very +unequal; for, in a country where the great field of competition has a +thousand gates, all opened wide to all comers, and moneyed magnates +come from every class in society, and bring with them, to the new +sphere, just what of a strictly personal kind they possessed in the +old. He that was refined is refined still, and he that was sordid is +sordid still. If the gentleman enjoys the power of indulging his +tastes, and choosing his pursuits, so does the vulgarian; and, +unhappily, no Belgravia, English or American, has yet been found +capable of inspiring its inmates with dignified tastes or elevated +aims. There is no permanent nucleus of elegant society in New-York; no +reservoir of indisputable social grace, from which succeeding sets and +advancing circles can draw rules and imbibe tastes. There is not, even +at any one time, an acknowledged first circle, to whose standard +others are willing to refer. This being so, the most incongruous +manners often encounter in the social arena; and it is only in very +limited association that any appreciable degree of congeniality is +expected. Wealth always fraternizes with wealth to a certain extent. +The maxim announced here on a certain public occasion, that "the +possession of wealth is always to be received as evidence of the +possession of merit of some kind," is conscientiously acted upon; but +beyond this, social affinity is very limited as yet. Conversation has +no recognized place among accomplishments, and of course only a +doubtful one among pleasures. Coteries are unknown, and the continual +shifting of circles precludes the pleasure of long-ripened +intellectual intercourse. Many there are who regret this state of +things in a society in which there is in reality so great a share of +general good feeling; but they are found not among the rich, who +possess some of the means of remedying the evil, but among those who, +removed from the temptations which riches, suddenly acquired, array +against intellectual pleasures, lack, on the other hand, the means of +uniting with those pleasures, the _agrémens_ which are at the command +of easy fortune. In Paris, intellect and cultivation can draw together +those who value them, even though the place of meeting be a shabby +house in the suburbs; in New-York it is not yet so, nor could it be +expected. No social _posé_ has yet been attained; and each is too much +absorbed in making good his general claims to consideration, to have +leisure for the calmer enjoyments that might be snatched during the +contest. Ostentation is, as yet, too prominent in the entertainments +of the rich; and the not rich, with republican pride, will rather +renounce the pleasures and advantages of society than receive company +in an inexpensive way. Even public amusements are not fashionable. +Large numbers, it is true, attend them, but not of the fashionable +classes. The Opera, alone, has a sort of popularity with these, but it +is as an elegant lounger, and a chance of distinction from the vulgar. +A low-priced opera, like those of the Continent, with music as the +main object, and magnificent costume put out of the question by +twilight houses, is yet to be tried in New-York. In the opinion of +some, this is one day to be the touchstone of American musical taste. +A passion for popular music the Americans certainly have. The Negro +Melodists, numerous as they are, draw throngs every night; and their +music, whether gay or sad, has all the charm that could be desired for +the popular heart. But the people of any pretensions enjoy this kind +of music, as it were by stealth, not considering that the pleasure it +gives is in fact a test of its excellence. Many of the negro airs are +worthy of symphonies and accompaniments by Beethoven or Schubert, but +until they have been endorsed by science the New-Yorker would rather +not be caught enjoying them. + +If we should venture to suggest what it is that New-York society most +lacks, we should say Courage--courage to enjoy and make the most of +individual tastes and feelings. The spirit of imitation robs social +life of all that is picturesque and poetical. Living for the eyes of +our neighbors is stupefying and belittling. It gives an air of +hollowness and tinsel to our homes, stealing even from the heartiness +of affection, and sapping the disinterestedness of friendship. It +tends to the general impoverishment of home-life, the privacy of which +is the soil of originality and the nursery of accomplishments. It is +hardly consistent with the pursuit of literature or art for its own +sake, since a desire to do what others do, and avoid what others +contemn, excludes private and independent choice, except where the +natural bias is irresistibly strong. There is, in truth, very little +relish for home accomplishments in New-York. Music is too much a thing +of exhibition, and drawing is scarcely practised at all. Two or three +of the modern languages are taught at every fashionable school; but +the use of these is seldom kept up in after life, even by reading. No +people are so poorly furnished with foreign tongues as the Americans, +and New-York forms no exception to the general remark. + +We shall not venture to touch that most sensitive of all topics, +native art, on which no opinion can be expressed with safety, Suffice +it to say, that New-York has a National Academy of Design; the nucleus +of a free gallery; an Art-Union, largely patronized; an Artists' +Association, with a gallery of its own; and various exhibitions of +European pictures. Lessing's Martyrdom of Huss has been for some time +exhibiting in a collection of paintings of the Düsseldorf school. +Statuary is as yet comparatively rare; for, although American art has +sprung at once to high excellence in this direction, the sculptors +generally reside abroad, for the sake of superior advantages for +execution. The present year sees the _début_ of a young sculptor of +New-York, named Palmer, who has just finished a work of great promise, +for this spring's exhibition of the National Academy, an exhibition +most cheering to the friends of American art, from its marked +superiority in many respects to any that have gone before it. A +Home-Book of Beauty is in progress, for which a young English artist, +son of the celebrated Martin, is making the portraits. This promises +to be very popular, since the reputation of American female beauty is +world-wide. + +These slight notices of New-York as she is, are intended rather to +give foreign visitors a hint what _not_ to expect, than to serve as +any thing deserving the name of a description of one of the commercial +centres of the world. It is quite possible to come to New-York with +such letters of introduction as shall open to the stranger society as +intelligent and well-bred as any in Europe; but as this is composed of +people who never run after notabilities as such, it is often unknown +and unsuspected by the visitor from abroad, who, consequently, returns +home with such broad views as we have been attempting, quite satisfied +that there is nothing more worth seeking. It is noticeable that the +most favorable accounts of American manners have been given by the +best-bred and highest-born foreign travellers; while disparagement and +abuse have been the retaliation of those who have, to their surprise, +found the Americans quite capable of distinguishing between snobs and +gentlemen. The intelligent traveller must know how to take New-York +for what she is, and he will not undervalue her for not being what she +is not. She is a magnificent city--a city of unexampled growth and +energy; of the noblest public works, of unbounded charity, of a most +intelligent providence in the instruction of her children, of fearless +liberality in the reception and treatment of foreigners, and of a +growing interest in all the arts which adorn and harmonize society. +Those who visit her prepared to find these traits will not be +disappointed; those who will accept nothing in an American city of +yesterday but the tranquil and delicate tone of an assured +civilization, should not come westward. Yet in real, essential +civilization, that city cannot be far behindhand, in which the duties +of a street police are almost nominal, and where every ill that can +afflict humanity is cared for gratuitously, and in the most humane +spirit. Justly proud of these proofs of her preparation for the +outward gloss of manners which is all in all to the superficial +observer, New-York can well afford to invite the scrutiny of the +intelligent citizen of the world. + +As we began our little sketch with some Knickerbocker reminiscences, +so we feel bound, before we close, to say a word or two of the traces +that still remain of the honored origin of much of the wealth and +respectability of New-York. Whatever we may allow for our English +superstructure, we cannot forget that the Dutch foundation was most +excellent. "The Batavians," says Tacitus, "are distinguished among the +neighboring nations for their valor;" and in the seventeenth century +the countrymen of Van Tromp and De Ruyter had not degenerated from +their Batavian ancestors; and in the gentler qualities of peace, +industry, perseverance, energy, honesty, and enterprise, the +States-General were surpassed by no European community. For their +notions of law, we may consult Grotius; for their taste for art, the +exquisite works which constitute a school of their own. The Dutch +masters of New-York were people of high tone and character, and to +this day there lingers a flavor of nobility and dignity about the very +names of Van Rensselaer, Van Cortlandt, Van Zandt, Brinkerhoff, +Stuyvesant, Rutgers, Schermerhorn, &c., represented by families who +still retain much of their ancient wealth, and a great deal of their +ancient aristocratic feeling. Many jokes have been founded upon the +unwillingness of these lords of the soil to be disturbed; one of the +best of which is Washington Irving's story of Wolfert Webber, who +thought he must inevitably die in the almshouse, because the +Corporation ruined his cabbage-garden by running a street through it. +But they make excellent citizens, and their aversion to change has +been but a much needed balance to the wild go-ahead restlessness of +the full-blooded Yankee, who sees nothing but the future. The Dutch +have customs, and, of course, manners; while the tendency of modern +New-York life is adverse to both. The citizen of to-day cannot help +looking on the Dutch spirit as "slow," but he has an instinctive +respect for it, notwithstanding. + +One single Dutch custom still maintains its ground triumphantly, in +spite of the hurry of business, the selfishness of the commercial +spirit, and the efforts of a few paltry fashionists, who would fain +put down every thing in which a suspicion of heartiness can be +detected. It is the custom of making New Year visits on the first day +of January, when every lady is at home, and every gentleman goes the +rounds of his entire acquaintance; flying in and flying out, it is +true, but still with an expression of good-will and friendly feeling +that is invaluable in a community where daily life is so much under +the control of that cabalistic word--business. Ladies are in high +party-trim, and refreshments of various kinds are offered; but the +main point and recognized meaning of the whole is the interchange of +friendly greetings. + +No one, not to the manor born, can estimate the glow of feeling that +characterizes these flying visits. "As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth +the countenance of a man his friend." The mere looking into each +other's faces is good for human creatures; and when the sincere even +though transient light of kindly feeling beams from the eyes that thus +encounter, something is done against egotism, haughty disregard and +blank oblivion. Many a coolness dies on New Year's Day, under a +battery of smiles; many a hard thought is shamed away by the good +wishes of the season. Old friends, who are inevitably separated most +of the time, thus meet at least once a year, for the enthusiasm of the +hour is potent enough to make the valetudinarian forsake his easy +chair, and the cripple his crutches. Visiting hours are extended so as +to include all the hours from ten in the morning until ten at night, +and, in order to make the most of these, the gentlemen take carriages +and scour the streets at the true American pace, so as to lose as +little time as possible on the way. If a storm occur, it is considered +quite a public misfortune, since it lessens, though it never +altogether prevents the fulfilment of the annual ceremony. It is true +that both ladies and gentlemen are death-weary when bed-time comes, +but that for once a year is no great evil. It is true that some young +men will take more whisky-punch, or champagne, than is becoming; but +for one who does this, there are many who decline "all that can +intoxicate," except smiles and kind words. In some houses the blinds +are closed, the gas lighted, and a band of music in attendance; and +each batch of visitors inveigled into polkas, or kedowas, for which +the lady of the house has taken care to provide partners. But this is +considered a degeneracy, and voted _mauvais ton_ by those who +understand the thing. To "throw a perfume o'er the violet," bespeaks +the French _coiffeur_ or the _parvenu_; the simplicity of the ancient +Dutch custom of New Year visits is its dignity and glory. Long may it +live unspotted by vulgar fashion! Well were it for the island city if +she had kept a loving hold on many another quaint festivity of her +ancestors on the other side of the water. Her prosperity would be none +the worse of a respectful reference to the good things of the past. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] Among the causes of decay in the Roman aqueducts, was the strong +concretion formed on the bottom and sides by matter deposited by the +water. No such deposit is made by the water of the Croton. + + + + +From Fraser's Magazine. + +A JUNGLE RECOLLECTION. + +BY CAPTAIN HARDBARGAIN. + + +The hot season of 1849 was peculiarly oppressive, and the irksome +garrison duty at Cherootabad, in the south of India, had for many +months been unusually severe. The colonel of my regiment, the +brigadier, and the general, having successively acceded to my +application for three weeks' leave, and that welcome fact having been +duly notified in orders, it was not long before I found myself on the +Coimbatore road, snugly packed guns and all, in a country +bullock-cart, lying at full length on a matress, with a thick layer of +straw spread under it. + +All my preparations had been made beforehand; relays of bullocks were +posted for me at convenient intervals, and I arrived at Goodaloor, a +distance of a hundred and ten miles, in rather more than forty-eight +hours. + +Goodaloor is a quiet little village, about eleven miles from +Coimbatore;--but don't suppose I was going to spend my precious three +weeks there. + +After breakfasting at the traveller's bungalow, we started off again. +The bungalow is on the right hand side of the road; and when we had +proceeded about two hundred yards, the bullock-cart turned into the +fields to the left, and got along how it could across country, towards +some low rocky hills, which ran parallel, and at about three miles +distance from the Coimbatore road. + +After about two miles of this work, sometimes over fallow ground, +sometimes through fields of growing grain, (taking awful liberties +with the loose hedges of cut brambles, which, however, we had the +conscience to build up again as we passed them,) sometimes over broken +stony ground, and once or twice lumbering heavily through a rocky +watercourse, we at last found ourselves on the grassy margin of a +pretty little stream. Fifty yards beyond it, under the shade of a fine +mango-tree, my little tent was already pitched; in five minutes I lay +stretched on my bed, listening with ravished ears to the glorious +accounts of my old Shikaree, who had just come in, hot and tired, from +the jungle. He had much to tell,--how since he had been out, three +days, he had tracked the tiger every morning up and down a certain +nullah; how the brindled monster had been seen by different shepherds; +and what was still more satisfactory, how he had but yesterday killed +a cow near the spot where the hut had been built. It was now +midday;--how to spend the long hours till sunset? + +After making the tired man draw innumerable sketch-maps in the sand, +with reiterated descriptions of the hut, &c., I allowed the poor +wretch to go to his dinner; and in anticipation of a weary night's +watch, I squeezed my eyes together and tried to sleep. + +The sun begins to acquire his evening slant, and I joyfully leave my +bed to prepare for my nocturnal expedition. The cook is boiling fowl +and potatoes; they are ready; and now he pours his clear strong coffee +into the three soda-water bottles by his side; everything is ready, in +the little basket, not forgetting a bottle of good beer. Now then +commences the pleasing task of carefully loading our battery. + +Come, big "Sam Nock," king of two-ouncers, what is to be the fate of +these two great plumbs that you are now to swallow? Am I to cut them +out of the tiger's ribs to-morrow?--or are they idly to be fired away +into the trunk of a tree, or drawn again? + +All loaded, and pony saddled, let us start: the two white cows and +their calves; the matress and blanket rolled up and carried on a +Cooly's head: Shikaree, horsekeeper, and a village man with the three +guns, while I myself bring up the rear. Over a few ploughed fields, +and past that large banian-tree, the jungle begins. + +What is this black thing? and what are those people doing? That +hideous black image is the jungle god, and to him the villagers look +for protection for their flocks. + +How they stare at the man dressed in his mud-colored clothes, who has +come so far, and sacrifices sleep and comfort, to sit and watch at +night for the evil genius of their jungles. Children are held up to +look at him--at the English jungle-wallah, who drinks brandy as they +drink milk, and who is on his way to the deepest fastnesses of the +wooded waste, to watch for the tiger alone--a man who laughs at gods +and devils--a devil himself. The Shikaree, who had been earnestly +engaged in conversation with the oldest looking man of the group, now +ran up and informed me that the Gooroo had given him to understand +that the Sahib would certainly kill the tiger this night, and that it +was expected that he would subscribe fifteen rupees to the god, in the +event of the prediction proving true. Come, we have no time for +talking. Hurry on, cows and guns, hurry on! through the silent jungle, +along the narrow path. How much farther yet. Not more than a quarter +of a mile; we are close to it. And now the people who know the +whereabouts stop and look smilingly on one another, and then at the +Sahib, whose practised eye has but just discovered the well-built +ambush. + +In a small clump of low jungle, on the sloping bank of a broad, sandy +watercourse, the casual passer-by would not have perceived a snug and +tolerably strong little hut,--the white ends of the small branches +that were laid over it, and the mixture of foliage, alone revealing +the fact to the observant eye of a practised woodman. No praise could +be too strong to bestow on the faithful Shikaree; had I chosen the +spot myself, after a week's survey of the country, it could not have +been more happily selected. The watercourse wound its way through the +thickest and most _tigerish_ section of the jungle, and had its origin +at the very foot of the hills, where tigers were continually seen by +the woodcutters and shepherds. There was little or no water within +many miles, except the few gallons in a basin of rock, which I could +almost reach from my little bower; and, to crown all, there were the +broad, deep _puggs_ of a tiger, up and down the nullah, in the dry +sand, near the water's edge, of all ages, from the week, perhaps, up +to the unmistakable fresh puggs of last night. + +Let us get off the pony, and have a look at the hut. Pulling a few dry +branches on one side, the small hurdle-door at the back is exposed to +view, hardly big enough to admit a large dog; down on your knees and +crawl in. Five feet long, four feet wide, and four feet high in the +centre, is the extent of the little palace; a platform, a foot from +the ground, occupies the whole extent to within a foot of the front +end facing the bed of the watercourse. On this platform the matress is +laid, and some big coats and the blankets make a very comfortable +pillow. Remove that little screen of leaves, and you look through a +window, ten inches square, that commands a view fifty paces up and +down the sandy nullah. Sitting on the end of the bed-place, just +behind the window, with your feet on the ground, nothing can be more +comfortable; and when tired, you only have to draw up your legs, and +curl yourself on the matress to enjoy a short nap, if your prudence +cannot conquer sleep. Into this hut which I have endeavored to +describe, did I now crawl; the matress was arranged, the handsome and +carefully loaded battery was next handed in, and each gun placed ready +for action; the cold fowl and bottle of Bass were in the mean while +disposed of, and the soda-water bottles of cold coffee were stowed +away in cunning corners. + +The sun is resting on the hill-tops, and will soon disappear behind +them; the peafowl and jungle-cock are noisily challenging amongst +themselves, and the latest party of woodcutters have just passed by, +showing, by their brisk pace and loud talking, that they consider it +high time for prudent men to quit the jungle. + +To the deeply-rooted stump of a young tree on the opposite bank, one +of the white cows has been made fast by a double cord passed twice +round her horns. Nothing remains to be done; the little door is +fastened behind me, the prickly acacia boughs are piled up against it +on the outside, and my people are anxious to be off. The old Shikaree +makes his appearance in the nullah, and wishing me success through the +window, asks if "all is right?" "Every thing; get home as fast as you +can: if you should hear three shots in succession before dark, come +back for me,--otherwise, bring the pony at six to-morrow morning,--and +a cup of hot coffee, tell the cook." + +They are gone; I still hear them every now and then, as they shout to +one another, and as the pony is scrambling through some loose stones +in the bed of a [missing words/letters] through which the road lies. + +The poor cow, too, listens with dismay to the retreating footsteps of +the party, and has already made some furious plunges to free herself +and rejoin the rest of the kine, who have been driven off, nothing +loth, towards home. Watch her: how intently she stares along the path +by which the people have deserted her. Were it not for the occasional +stamp of her fore leg, or the impatient side-toss of the head, to keep +off the swarming flies, she might be carved out of marble. And now a +fearful and anxious gaze up the bed of the nullah, and into the thick +fringe of Mimoso, one ear pricked and the other back alternately, show +that _instinct_ has already whispered the warning of impending danger. +Another plunge to get loose, and a searching gaze up the path; see her +sides heave. Now comes what we want--that deep low! it echoes again +among the hills: another, and another. Poor wretch! you are hastening +your doom; far or near the tiger hears you--under rock or thicket, +where he has lain since morning sheltered from the scorching sun, his +ears flutter as if they were tickled every time he hears that music: +his huge green eyes, heretofore half-closed, are now wide open, and, +alas! poor cow, gaze truly enough in thy direction; but he has not +stirred yet, and nobody can say in which direction giant death will +yet stalk forth. + +Which ever of my readers who has never had to wait in solitude, in a +strange room of a strange house, has not indulged in that idle +speculative curiosity peculiar to such a situation, gazing on the +pictures, and counting perhaps tables and chairs with an absurd +earnestness of purpose,--will not understand how I spent the first +half hour of my solitude; how I idly counted the stakes that formed +the framework of the hut, or watched with interest the artful tactics +of another Shikaree, in the shape of a slippery-looking green lizard, +who was cautiously "stalking" the insects among the rafters. + +The cow, tired with struggling and plunging, appears to have become +tolerably resigned to her situation, and has lain down, her ears, +however, in continual motion, and the jaw sometimes suddenly arrested, +while in the act of chewing the cud, to listen, as some slight noise +in the thicket attracts her attention. Gracious! what is that down the +nullah to the left? A peacock only. How my heart beat at first! what a +splendid train the fellow has. Here he comes, evidently for the water; +and now his seraglio,--one, two, four, five, buff-breasted, +modest-looking little quakeresses. What a contrast to his splendid +blue and gold! All to the water--dive in your bills and toss back your +heads with blinking eyes, as you quaff the delicious fluid; little do +you dream that there is a gun within five paces, although you are +quite safe. But stop! here are antics. The old boy is happy, and up +goes his tail, to the admiration of his hens, and the extreme +wonderment of the cow, who with open eyes is staring with all her +might at the glories of the expanded fan; and now slowly goes he round +and round, like a solemn Jack o' the Green, his spindle shanks looking +disreputably thin in the waning light. + +They quit the water-side, and disappear; and I can hear their heavy +wings as they one after another mount a tall tree for the night. + +The moon is up--all nature still; the cow, again on her legs, is +restless, and evidently frightened. Oh! reader, even if you have the +soul of a Shikaree, I despair of being able to convey in words a tithe +of the sensations of that solitary vigil: a night like that is to be +enjoyed but seldom--a red-letter day in one's existence. + +Where is the man who has never experienced the poetic influence of a +moonlit scene! Fancy, then, such a one as here described; a crescent +of low hills--craggy, steep, and thickly wooded--around you on three +sides, and above them, again, at twenty miles' distance, the clear +blue outline of the Neilgherry Hills; in your front the silver-sand +bed of the dry watercourse divides the thick and sombre jungle with a +stream of light, till you lose it in the deep shadows at the foot of +the hills,--all quiet, all still, all bathed in the light of the moon, +yourself the only man for miles to come; a solitary watcher, your only +companion the poor cow, who, full of fears and suspicions at every +leaf-fall, reminds you that a terrible struggle is about to take place +within a few feet of your bed, and that there will be noise and +confusion, when you must be cool and collected. Your little kennel +would not be strong enough to resist a determined charge, and you are +alone, if three good guns are not true friends. + +Let me, good reader, give way to the pleasures of memory,--let me +fancy myself back again, seated in my dear little hut, full of hope +and expectation, now drinking the ice-cold coffee from one of the +soda-water bottles, re-corking it, and placing it slowly and +noiselessly in its corner. Hark to the single ring of a silver bell, +and its echo among the hills! a spotted deer--why does she call? has +she seen any thing? Again, and again, and answered from a long +distance! 'Tis very odd, that when one should be most wakeful, there +should be always an inclination to sleep. A raw nip of aqua-vitæ, and +a little of the same rubbed round the eyes, nostrils and behind the +ears, make us wakeful again. + +Oh! that I could express sounds on paper as music is written in notes. +No, reader, you must do as I have done--you must be placed in a +similar situation, to hear and enjoy the terrible roar of a hungry +tiger--not from afar off and listened for, but close at hand and +unexpected. It was like an electric shock;--a moment ago, I was dozing +off, and the cow, long since lain down, appeared asleep; that one roar +had not died away among the hills when she had scrambled on her legs, +and stood with elevated head, stiffened limbs, tail raised, and breath +suspended, staring full of terror in the direction of the sound. As +for the biped, with less noise and even more alacrity, he had grasped +his "Sam Nock," whose polished barrels just rested on the lower ledge +of the little peephole; perhaps his eyes were as round as saucers, and +heart beating fast and strong. + +Now for the struggle;--pray heaven that I am cool and calm, and do not +fire in a hurry, for one shot will either lose or secure my +well-earned prize. + +There he is again! evidently in that rugged, stony watercourse which +runs parallel, and about two hundred yards behind the hut. But what is +that? Yes, lightning: two flashes in quick succession, and a cold +stream of air is rustling through the half-withered leaves of my +ambush. Taking a look to the rear through an accidental opening among +the leaves, it was plain that a storm, or, as it would be called at +sea, a squall, was brewing. An arch of black cloud was approaching +from the westward, and the rain descending, gave it the appearance of +a huge black comb, the teeth reaching to the earth. The moon, half +obscured, showed a white mist as far as the rain had reached. Then was +heard in the puffs of air the hissing of the distant but approaching +down-pour: more lightning--then some large heavy drops plashed on the +roof, and it was raining cats and dogs. + +How the scene was changed! Half-an-hour ago, solemn, and still, and +wild, as nature rested, unpolluted, undefaced, unmarked by +man--sleeping in the light of the moon, all was tranquillity; the +civilized man lost his idiosyncrasy in its contemplation--forgot +nation, pursuits, creed,--he felt that he was Nature's child, and +adored the God of Nature. + +But the beautiful was now exchanged for the sublime, when that scene +appeared lit up suddenly and awfully by lightning, which now +momentarily exchanged a sheet of intensely dazzling blue light, with a +darkness horrible to endure--a light which showed the many streams of +water, which now appeared like ribbons over the smooth slabs of rock +that lay on the slope of the hills, and gave a microscopic accuracy of +outline to every object,--exchanged as suddenly for a darkness which +for the moment might be supposed the darkness of extinction--of utter +annihilation,--while the crash of thunder overhead rolled over the +echoes of the hills, "I am the Lord thy God." + +The hut, made in a hurry, was not thatched (as it might have been), +and the half-dried foliage which covered it collected drops only to +pour down continuous streams from the stem of every twig. + +So much for sitting up for tigers! will most of my readers exclaim, +and laugh at the monomaniac who would subject himself to such misery; +but the thorough-bred Shikaree is game and stanch to the backbone, and +will not be stopped by a night's wetting. For myself, I can only say +in extenuation, that I was born on the 12th of August. + +A heavy and continuous down-pour soon showed its effects, and although +I had lots of big coats, and was not altogether unprepared for such an +emergency, an hour had not elapsed before I was obliged to confess +myself tolerably wet through. The matress just collected the water and +made a good hip-bath, for there was no other seat. The nullah, +heretofore as I have described, was now a turbid stream of red water, +which falling over a slab of rock into the small basin before +mentioned, kept up an unceasing din. Tired and disgusted, I rolled a +doubled blanket, although saturated with water, tight round me, and +was soon warm and asleep. About two o'clock in the morning the clouds +broke and the rain ceased; the boiling stream ran down to half its +size, and a concert of thousands of frogs, bass, tenor, and treble, +kept up a monotonous croaking enough to wake the dead. + +The moon appeared again, and I attacked both cold coffee and brandy, +and made myself as comfortable as possible under existing +circumstances--to wit, wringing the water out of my jacket and cap, +and putting them on again warm and comparatively dry. The cow even +shook herself, and appeared glad of the change of weather, and I had +no doubt that she would go back with me to the tent in the morning to +gladden the eyes of her young calf and all good Hindoos. The nullah +had run dry again, and even the infernal frogs, as if despairing of +more rain, had ceased their din: damp and sleepy, with arms folded and +eyes sometimes open, but often shut, I kept an indifferent watch, when +the cow struggling on her legs and a choking groan brought me to my +senses! There they were! No dream! A huge tiger holding her just +behind the ears, shaking her like a fighting dog! By the doubtful +light of a watery moon did I calmly and noiselessly run out the muzzle +of my single J. Lang rifle. + +I saw him, without quitting his grip of the cow's neck, leap over her +back more than once--she sank to the earth, and he lifted her up +again: at the first opportunity I pulled trigger--snick! The rifle was +withdrawn, and big Sam Nock felt grateful to the touch. Left +barrel--snick! Right barrel--snick, bang! + +Whether hanging fire is an excuse or not, the tiger relinquished his +hold, and in one bound was out of sight. The cow staggered for two or +three seconds, fell with a heavy groan, and ceased to move. Tiger +gone!--cow dead!--was it a dream? Killed the cow within five paces and +gone away scathless. + +For a long time I felt benumbed; I had missed many near shots, even +many at tigers, and some like this at night, but never before under +such favorable circumstances. Why, I almost dreaded the morning, when +my Shikaree and people would come and find the cow killed, and I +should have in fairness to account for the rest. The first streak of +daylight did shortly appear, and every familiar sound of awaking +nature succeeded each other, from the receding hooting of the huge +horned owl, to the noisy crowing of the jungle cock and the call of +the peafowl. The sun got up, and soon I heard, first doubtfully and +then distinctively, the approach of my people. A sudden start, and +stop, when they came in full view of the slaughtered cow; and then, a +look up and down the nullah, as if they had not seen all. The reader +must spare me the recollection of a scene that vexes me even at this +distance of time, as if it had occurred but yesterday. The next +half-hour was spent sitting on the carcass of the cow, staring at the +enormous and deeply indented prints of the tiger's feet, and looking +with sorrow and vexation and some compunction at the poor little calf +which had been driven back to its mother, neither to see her alive nor +her death avenged. + +It was quite evident that the tiger had not been hit, for there was +neither hair nor blood to be seen, and one or two small branches in +the jungle beyond the cow showed, either by being cut down or barked, +that the ball had passed over the mark. So on the pony and back to the +tent to sleep or sulk out the next twelve hours. + +Somehow or other that pony, generally so clever and pleasant, was +inclined to kick his toes against every stone, and be perverse all the +way home; at any rate I fancied so, and am ashamed to say that I gave +him the spur, or jerked the curb rein on the slightest pretence. My +people, like all Indians, read the case thoroughly, and trudged along +without hazarding a remark on any subject. We passed under the +identical banian-tree and by the disgusting little black image +described in the commencement of the story, and never did I feel more +indignant against all idolatry, or more inclined to smash a Hindoo +god. We also had to pass a small jungle village, and, as if on +purpose, it appeared that every man, woman, and child were posted to +have a good look. Several of them who knew some of my party, asked a +hurried question, and I could hear, though I would not look, that the +answer was given--"Had a shot, but missed." "Yes," said I to myself, +"quite true--why should I be angry?" "Here goes the man that missed an +animal as big as a bullock at ten paces,--more power to his elbow!" + +The tent gained, I was soon lying on my back on the bed kicking out my +heels, calling for breakfast, and appearing to be very hungry, or very +sleepy, or very any thing but what I was--mortified and disgusted. +Breakfast over, my good old Shikaree was sent for, and the whole +affair gone over again. The rain, the unexpected time of night, and +above all, the two first shots _snicking_, and the third hanging fire +being considered, we two being judge and jury, it was decided that not +the slightest blame attached to the defendant, who was too well known +as a very fine shot to regard a mistake of this kind; and, moreover, +that as it was certain that the tiger was not hurt, but only +frightened, there was strong reason for hoping that he would return at +nightfall to the carcass. Men were therefore sent out to watch that +the place should not in any way be disturbed, or the dead cow touched +or moved, and I resigned myself to a pleasant sleep. I awoke about +three in the afternoon; the guns had, thanks to a good Shikaree, been +washed, dried, and slightly oiled, and were all laid on the table, +looking as if a month of rain would not make them miss fire. A bath, +clean clothes, guns loaded, pony saddled--and once more off to try my +luck. + +The pony was active and cheerful, and even the beastly image under the +banian-tree did not look so grim. On our arrival at the ground, the +half-wild fellows who had watched all day, dropped down from their +trees, and reported that nothing had happened during the day, and that +the place had been undisturbed. A few vultures appeared about midday +and settled on the carcass, but had been driven off; further they had +nothing to say. + +They were referred to the tent for payment for their day's work, and, +in due course, took their departure with my people. + +Once more left alone!--this time quite alone, for my poor companion of +last night lay stiff and stark in the position I saw her fall, when +the tiger relinquished his hold. + +Alarmed by the already slightly smelling carrion, or finding water +elsewhere, left by the down-pour of last night, no peaceful or other +living thing paid me a visit, if I except some few crows, who with +heavy wings swept past, or perched on neighboring trees, cawing, and +winking their eyes, and peering cautiously and inquisitively at the +dead cow. Only one among the crew hovered and lighted on the dead +beast's head; but although he made several picks at the lips and eyes, +opening and shutting his wings the while on his strong, sleek, +wiry-looking body, and cawing lustily, nobody heeded him; so, +appearing to be alarmed at being solus in the scene, he took his +departure. + +Night succeeded day, and the moon, in unclouded beauty, made the dark +jungle a fairy scene. There was but one drawback; the cow lay dead, +the tiger had been fired at, and experience whispered, 'the +opportunity has gone by.' + +By-and-by a jackal passed, like a shadow among the bushes, so +small-looking, so much the color of all around, that it remained a +doubt; more of these passed to and fro, and then a bolder ventured on +the plain sand, and up to the rump of the dead beast, took two or +three hard tugging bites, and was gone. As the night grew later, they +became less fearful, and half-a-dozen of them together were tugging +and tearing, till breaking the entrails, the gas escaped in a loud +rumbling, which dispersed my friends among the bushes in a moment; but +they were almost immediately back, and the confidence with which they +went to work, convinced me that my hope was hopeless. + +It must have been eleven o'clock when my ears caught the echo among +the rocks, and then the distant roar--nearer--nearer--nearer; and--oh, +joy!--answered. Tiger and tigress!--above all hope!--coming to +recompense me for hundreds of night-watchings--to balance a long +account of weary nights in the silent jungle, in platforms on trees, +in huts of leaf and bramble, and in damp pits on the water's edge--all +bootless;--coming--coming--nearer, and nearer. + +Music nor words, dear reader, can stand me in any stead to convey the +sound to you; the first note like the trumpet of a peacock, and the +rest the deepest toned thunder. Stones and gravel rattled just behind +the hut on the path by which we came and went, and a heavy stey passed +and descended the slope into the nullah. I heard the sand crunching +under his weight before I dared look. A little peep. Oh, heavens! +looming in the moonlight, there he stood, long, sleek as satin, and +lashing his tail--he stood stationary, smelling the slaughtered cow. +No longer the cautious, creeping tiger, I felt how awful a brute he +was to offend. I remembered how he had worried a strong cow in half a +minute, and that with his weight alone my poor rickety little citadel +would fall to pieces. As if the excitement of the moment was +insufficient, the monster, gazing down the dry watercourse, caught +sight of his companion, who, advancing up the bed of the nullah, stood +irresolutely about twenty yards off. A terrific growl from him, +answered not loud but deeply, and I was the strange and unsuspected +witness to a catawauling which defies description--a monstrous +burlesque on those concerts of tigers in miniature which are +occasionally got up, on a cold, clear night, in some of the squares in +London, when all the cats for half a mile around get by some queer +accident into one area. + +Whether it is an axiom among tigers that possession is nine points of +the law, or the other monster was the weaker vessel, I know not, but I +soon perceived that as _my_ friend made more noise, the other became +more subdued, and finally left the field, and retired growling among +the bushes. The bully, who was evidently the male, after smelling at +the head, came round the carcass, making a sort of complacent +purring--"humming a kind of animal song," and to it he went tooth and +nail. As he stood with his two fore feet on the haunch, while he +tugged and tore out a beef-steak, I once more grasped old "Sam Nock," +and ran the muzzle out of the little port. The white linen band marked +a line behind his shoulders, and rather low, but, from the continued +motion of his body, it was some moments before eye and finger agreed +to pull trigger--bang! A shower of sand rattled on the dry leaves, and +a roar of rage and pain satisfied me, even before the white smoke +which hung in the still air had cleared away, to show the huge monster +writhing and plunging where he had fallen. Either directed by the +fire, or by some slight noise made in the agitation of the moment, he +saw me, and with a hideous yell, scrambled up: the roaring thunder of +his voice filled the valley, and the echoes among the hills answered +it, with the hootings of tribes of monkeys, who, scared out of sleep, +sought the highest branches, at the sound of the well-known voice of +the tyrant of the jungle. I immediately perceived, to my great joy, +that his hind-quarters were paralyzed and useless, and that all danger +was out of the question. He sank down again on his elbows, and as he +rested his now powerless limbs, I saw the blood welling out of a wound +in the loins, as it shone in the moonlight, and trickled off his +sleek-painted hide, like globules of quicksilver. As I looked into his +countenance, I saw all the devil alive there. The will remained--the +power only had gone. It was a sight never to be forgotten. With head +raised to the full stretch of his neck, he glared at me with an +expression of such malignity, that it almost made one quail. I thought +of the native superstition of singing off the whiskers of the +newly-killed tiger to lay his spirit, and no longer wondered at it. +With ears back, and mouth bleeding, he growled and roared in fitful +uncertainty, as if he were trying, but unable, to measure the extent +of the force that had laid him low. + +Motionless myself, provocation ceased, and without further attempt to +get on his legs, he continued to gaze on me; when I slowly lowered my +head to the sight, and again pulled trigger. This time, true to the +mark, the ball entered just above the breast-bone, and the smoke +cleared off with his death groan. There he lay, foot to foot with his +victim of last night, motionless--dead. My first impulse was to tear +down the door behind, and get a thorough view of his proportions; but +remembering that his companion, the tigress, had only vanished a short +time ago close to the scene of action, I thought it as well to remain +where I was; so, enlarging the windows with my hands, I took a long +look, and then jovially attacked the coffee and brandy bottles, +without reference to noise, and fell back on the mattress to sleep, or +to think the night's work over. "At last, I have got him: his skin +will be pegged out to-morrow, drying before the tent door." When my +people came in the morning, they found me seated on the dead tiger. +Coolies were sent for to carry the beast, and I gave the pony his +reins all the way back to the tent. + +After breakfast, the sound of tomtoms and barbarous music greeted our +ears; for the Gooroo and half the little village had turned out, and +were bringing in the tiger like an Irish funeral. I had a chair +brought out, and under the shade of a fine tree superintended the +skinning of the tiger; and as I had had no sleep for the last two +nights, I determined to make holiday. Dined at half-past six, and had +a bottle of _Frederick Giesler_, and the fumes of his glorious +champagne inspired me: "The first rainy day, I will put last night's +adventure on paper, and send it home to my old friend Regina." + + + + +From Bentley's Miscellany. + +A VISIT TO THE "MAID OF ATHENS." + +BY MRS. BUXTON WHALLEY. + + +"_Buon giorno, signora! Vi è veramente una bella città! Mà, dov' è la +Fenice?_" Such was the morning salutation of the Venetian captain in +command of the Austrian Loyd steamer which had conveyed us up the Gulf +of Corinth, as he pointed derisively to a collection of huts about a +stone's throw from the shore, and wondered what could induce any one, +voluntarily, to abandon his "sea Cybele" for such as these! So few +were they in number, and so small in size, that they had hitherto +eluded our notice; nevertheless, they constituted, insignificant as +they appeared, the town of Lutraki. The captain's interruption, +awakening us from a dream of "Gods and god-like men," was as +disagreeable as all such interruptions must be, alike indicating +ignorance, and that want of sympathy, which is its natural result. But +to the English traveller, who now scarcely dares to hope to find a +spot left on Europe where he may look on Nature, unseared by +cockneyfied sights and sounds, it ought not to form a very serious +subject for complaint. To such an one, sick of Italian cities, where +his countrymen assemble but to parade their _ennui_ and their vices, +as of German steamboats, on the decks of which they listlessly throng, +dividing their glances pretty equally between castles and cutlets--a +rock and a _ragout_--how invigorating is the first sight of Greece, in +all its primitive and majestically tranquil simplicity! And what a +strangely felicitous epithet does that seem of "voiceless" bestowed by +Byron on those shores where nothing is heard, save occasionally the +plaintive cry of a sea-gull, and the very gentlest murmur from the +waves. There, may be observed in perfection the truth of +Chateaubriand's remark, that, "_le paysage n'est creé que par le +soleil; c' est la lumière qui fait le paysage_." + +However, our present purpose is to narrate a short episode in modern +Athenian life, rather than to dwell on scenes with which genius even +can but imperfectly familiarize the world, either by pen or pencil. + +Near the solitary palm-tree, which grows in the middle of the highway +affecting to communicate[11] between Athens and the Piræus, a +polygonal structure has been built, which is entered through a dark, +narrow passage leading from the road in front to a yard at its rear. A +ladder fixed against the wall forms the usual mode of ingress to a +very small room, which on a certain carnival night, not long ago, was +crowded by hats, cloaks, and Greeks, both male and female; the former +busily occupied in smoking, the latter in concocting some +indescribable liquid intended as a light refreshment to wearied +dancers. For the Maid of Athens--the quondam Mariana Macri--the actual +Mrs. Black, was about to give a ball. From the before-mentioned small +entrance-room the guests passed into the principal saloon, exactly +coinciding in its strange shape with the exterior of the house. At the +upper end an open door revealed a bed, on which shortly afterwards the +orchestra, consisting of two fiddlers, took up their position, with +knees protruding into the ball-room. + +Every thing was of the rudest, the most unadorned, and Robinson +Crusoe-like, description. At the first glance it became evident that +the "geraniums and Grecian balms," which an enthusiastic traveller +once endeavored to magnify into "waving aromatic plants," had long ago +withered from the hostess's possession, never to be replaced. But she, +the fairest flower of all, with her two sisters, still retain no +inconsiderable remnants of beauty; which is the more remarkable in a +country where good looks vanish, and age arrives, so speedily. Indeed, +good looks at all are rare among the continental Greek women; the +celebrated beauties being usually islanders, and chiefly Hydriotes. +Mrs. Black was attired in her coquettish native costume, consisting of +a red fez, profusely ornamented with gold embroidery, placed on one +side of the head; a long flowing silk petticoat, and a close-fitting, +dark velvet jacket. A similar dress was worn by her sister, Madame +Pittakis, the wife of the celebrated antiquary, and _guardian of the +Acropolis_; in virtue of which magnificent title he receives two +drachmæ (about 1_s._ 7_d._) per head for admission to the Parthenon. +The third Grace, being a widow, was dressed entirely in black. The +company comprised a motley assemblage in Frank, and the varying +provincial Greek costumes, diversified here and there by personages in +King Otho's uniform. But the dancers of the _beau sexe_ were extremely +few, and, to say the least of them, very indifferent performers. +However, what they needed in skill and energy, was amply made up by +the vivacity of their graceful and vainglorious lords; who, despite +the clouds of dust from the dirty floor, and equally dirty shoes, +continued an almost ceaseless round of their national dance, the +Romaïka, only pausing at intervals to recruit their strength with +glasses of burning rakee, the beverage most in demand. Those bowls of +Samian wine which figure so charmingly in poetry, form, alas! but +sorry items in prosaic matter-of-fact repasts; and one feels, indeed, +disposed to dash them any where _but_ down one's throat. Of the +dancers, one of the most active was Mrs. Black's son, a handsome +youth, apparently about eighteen years of age; together with her +husband, who, from being a Norfolk farmer, is now elevated to the +somewhat anomalous position of English Professor at the Athenian +University. The fair Mariana herself is quiet and retiring; and +seemingly little anxious to profit by the factitious interest with +which Byron's transient admiration continues to invest her; for, in +reply that night to a blundering Englishman's point blank queries +concerning the poet, she answered, "_Non mi ricordo più di lui_." + +Soon after midnight the guests departed, at the imminent hazard of +breaking their necks, either down Mrs. Black's ladder, or in the +numerous holes that intervened between her residence and their +respective abodes. But we could not help thinking, that, uncouth as +had been the entertainment, it was more in accordance with the social +position of a people whose Ministers are not always competent to read +or write, and whose legislators occasionally enforce their political +arguments by flinging their shoes in the faces of the opposition, than +the exotic civilization of the gaudy little court, presided over by +that loveliest of royal ladies, Queen Amalia. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] At the period of which I write, this road, although the principal +approach to the capital, was impassable, and passengers pursued, +instead, a devious and uncertain track through corn-fields, ditches, +and the rocky bed of the Cyphissus. + + + + +From the French of Eugene de Mirecourt, + +THE HISTORY OF A ROSE + + +The gallery parallel to the course of the Seine, and which joins the +Palace of the Tuileries to the Louvre, was designed by Philibert de +l'Orme, and finished towards the end of 1663. On the 15th of January, +1664, Louis the Fourteenth descended into the vast greenhouses, where +his gardener, Le Nôtre, had collected from all parts of the world the +rarest and most beautiful plants and flowers. + +The air was soft and balmy as that of spring-time in the south. At the +right of the great monarch stood Colbert, silently revolving gigantic +projects of state; at the left was Lauzun, that ambitious courtier, +who, not possessing sufficient tact to discern royal hatred under the +mask of court favor, was afterwards destined to expiate, at Pignerol, +the crime of being more amiable and handsomer than the king. + +"Messieurs," said Louis, showing to his companions a long and +richly-laden avenue of orange trees, "are not these a noble present +from our ancient enemy, Philip the Fourth, now our father-in-law? He +has rifled his own gardens to deck the Tuileries; and the Infanta, we +hope, when walking beneath these trees, will cease to regret the shade +of the Escurial." + +"Sire," said Colbert gravely, "the Queen mourns a much greater +loss--that of your majesty's affections." + +"_Parbleu!_" exclaimed Lauzun, gayly; "in order to lose any thing, one +must first have possessed it. Now, if I don't mistake,--" + +"Silence! M. le Duc. M. de Colbert, my marriage was the work of +Mazarin--quite sufficient to guarantee that the _heart_ was not +consulted." + +The minister bowed, without replying. + +"As to you, M. de Lauzun," continued the king, "beware, henceforward, +how you forget that Maria Theresa is Queen of France, and that the +nature of our feelings towards her is not to be made a subject of +discussion." + +"Sire, forgive my--" + +"Enough!" interrupted Louis, approaching a man, who, unmindful of the +king's presence, had taken off his coat, in order the more easily to +prune a tall flowering shrub. + +This was the celebrated gardener, Le Nôtre. Absorbed in some +unpleasant train of thought, he had not heeded the approach of +visitors, and continued to mutter and grumble to himself, while +diligently using the pruning-knife. + +"What! out of humor?" asked Louis. + +Without resuming his coat, the gardener cried eagerly--"Sire, justice! +This morning, the Queen Dowager's maids of honor came hither, and, in +spite of my remonstrances, did an infinity of mischief. See this +American magnolia, the only one your Majesty possesses. Well, Sire, +they cut off its finest blossoms: neither oranges nor roses could +escape them. Happily I succeeded in hiding from them my favorite +child--my beautiful rose-tree, which I have nursed with so much care, +and which will live for fifty years, provided care be taken not to +allow it to produce more than one rose in the season." Then pointing +to the plant of which he spoke, Le Nôtre continued: "'Tis the +hundred-leaved rose, Sire! Hitherto I have saved it from pillage; but +I protest, if such conduct can be renewed. + +"Come, come!" interposed the monarch, "we must not be too hard on +young girls. They are like butterflies, and love flowers." + +"_Morbleu!_ Sire, butterflies don't break boughs, and eat oranges!" + +Louis deigned to smile at this repartee. "Tell us," he said, "who were +the culprits?" + +"All the ladies, Sire! Yet, no. I am wrong. There was one young +creature, as fresh and lovely as this very rose, who did not imitate +her companions. The poor child even tried to comfort me, while the +others were tearing my flowers: they called her Louise." + +"It was Mademoiselle de la Vallière," said Lauzun, "the young person +whom your Majesty remarked yesterday in attendance on Madame +Henriette." + +"She shall have her reward," said Louis. "Let Mademoiselle de la +Vallière be the only maid of honor invited to the ball to be given +here to-night." + +"A ball! Ah, my poor flowers!" cried Le Nôtre, clasping his hands in +despair. + +Colbert ventured to remind his Majesty that he had promised to give an +audience that evening to two architects, Claude Perrault and Liberal +Bruant; of whom, the first was to bring designs for the Observatory; +the second, a plan for the Hôtel des Invalides. + +"Receive these gentlemen yourself," replied the king; "while we are +dancing, M. de Colbert will labor for our glory; posterity will never +be the wiser! Only, in order to decorate these bare walls, have the +goodness to send to the manufactory of the Gobelins, which you have +just established, for some of the beautiful tapestry you praise so +highly." + +Accordingly, to the utter despair of Le Nôtre, the ball took place in +the greenhouses, metamorphosed, as if by magic, into a vast gallery, +illumined by a thousand lustres, sparkling amid flowers and precious +stones. Each fragrant orange-tree bore wax-lights amid its branches, +and many lovely faces gleamed amongst the flowery thickets; while +bright eyes watched the footsteps of the mighty master of the revel. +The cutting north-east wind blew outside; poor wretches shivered on +the pavement; but what did that matter while the court danced and +laughed amid trees and flowers, and breathed the soft sweet summer +air? + +Maria Theresa did not mingle in the scene. Timid and retiring, the +young Queen fled from the noisy gayety of the court, and usually +remained with her aunt, the Queen Mother. On this occasion, therefore, +the ball was presided over by Madame Henriette, and by Olympia +Mancini, Countess of Soissons. The gentle La Vallière kept, modestly, +in the background, until espied by the King, beneath the magnolia, +which her companions had so recklessly despoiled of its flowers, and +which had cost them exclusion from the _fête_. + +The next moment the hand of Louise trembled in that of her sovereign; +for Louis the Fourteenth had chosen the maid of honor for his partner +in the dance. At the close of the evening, Le Nôtre, who had received +private orders, brought forward his favorite rose-tree, transplanted +into a richly-gilded vase. The poor man looked like a criminal +approaching the place of execution. He laid the flower on a raised +step near the throne; and on the front of its vase every one read the +words which had formerly set Olympus in a flame--"To the most +beautiful!" + +Many rival belles grew pale when they heard the Duc de Lauzun ordered +by Louis to convey the precious rose-tree into the apartment of +Mademoiselle de la Vallière. But Le Nôtre rejoiced, for the fair one +gave him leave to come each day and attend to the welfare of his +beloved flower. + +The rose-tree soon became to the favorite a mysterious talisman by +which she estimated the constancy of Louis the Fourteenth. She watched +with anxiety all its changes of vegetation, trembling at the fall of a +leaf, and weeping whenever a new bud failed to replace a withered +blossom. Louise had yielded her erring heart to the dreams of love, +not to the visions of ambition. "Tender, and ashamed of being so," as +Madame de Sevigné has described her, the young girl mourned for her +fault at the foot of the altar. Remorse punished her for her +happiness; and more than once has the priest, who read first mass at +the chapel of Versailles, turned at the sound of stifled sobs +proceeding from the royal recess, and seen there a closely-veiled +kneeling figure. + +The fallen angel still remembered heaven. + +Thus passed ten years. At their end, the rose-tree might be seen +placed on a magnificent stand in the Palace of St. Germain; but +despite of Le Nôtre's constant care, the flower bent sadly on its +blighted stem. Near it the Duchess de la Vallière (for so she had just +been created) was weeping bitterly. Her most intimate friend, +Françoise Athenaïs de Montemar, Comtesse de Montespan, entered, and +exclaimed, "What, weeping, Louise! Has not the King just given you the +_tabouret_ as a fresh proof of his love?" + +Without replying, La Vallière pointed to her rose. + +"What an absurd superstition!" cried Madame de Montespan, seating +herself near her friend. "'Tis really childish to fancy that the +affections of a Monarch should follow the destiny of a flower. Come, +child," she continued, playfully slapping the fair mourner's hands +with her fan, "you know you are always adorable, and why should you +not be always adored!" + +"Because another has had the art to supplant me." + +Athenaïs bit her lip. Louise had at length discovered that her +pretended friend was seeking to undermine her. On the previous +evening the King had conversed for a long time with Madame de +Montespan in the Queen's apartments. He had greatly enjoyed her clever +mimicry of certain court personages; and when La Vallière had ventured +to reproach him tenderly, he had replied-- + +"Louise, you are silly; your rose-tree speaks untruly when it +calumniates me." + +None but Athenaïs, to whom alone it had been confided, could have +betrayed the secret. And now, at the entrance of her rival, la +Vallière hastened to dry up her tears, but not so speedily as to +prevent the other from perceiving them. Her feigned caresses, and +ill-disguised tone of triumph, provoked Louise to let her see that she +discerned her treachery. But Athenaïs pretended not to feel the shaft. + +"Supplant you, dear Louise!" she said in a tone of surprise; "it would +be difficult to do that, I should think, when the King is wholly +devoted to you!" + +Rising with a careless air, she approached the rose-tree, drew from +her glove an almost invisible phial, and, with a rapid gesture, poured +on its footstalk the corrosive liquid which the tiny flask contained. + +This was the third time that Madame de Montespan had practised this +unworthy manoeuvre, unknown to the sorrowful favorite, who, as her +insidious rival well knew, would believe the infidelity of the King, +only on the testimony of his precious gift. + +Next morning, Le Nôtre found the rose-tree quite dead. The poor old +man loved it as if it had been his child, and his eyes were filled +with tears as he carried it to its mistress. + +Then Louise felt, indeed, that no hope remained. Pale and trembling, +she took a pair of scissors, cut off the withered blossom, and placed +it under a crystal vase. Afterwards she prayed to Heaven for strength +to fulfil the resolution she had made. + +The age of Louis the Fourteenth passed away, with its glory and with +its crimes. France had now reached that disastrous epoch, when famine +and pestilence mowed down the peaceful inhabitants, and Marlborough +and Prince Eugene cut the royal army to pieces on the frontiers. + +One day, the death-bell tolled from a convent tower in the Rue St. +Jacques, and two long files of female Carmelites bore, to her last +dwelling, one of the sisters of their strict and silent order. When +the last offices were finished, and all the nuns had retired to their +cells, an old man came and knelt beside the quiet grave. His trembling +hand raised a crystal vase which had been placed on the stone; he took +from beneath it a withered rose, which he pressed to his lips, and +murmured, in a voice broken by sobs:-- + +"Poor heart! Poor flower!" + +The old man was Le Nôtre; and the Carmelite nun, buried that morning, +was _Sister Louise de la Miséricorde_, formerly Duchesse de la +Vallière. + + + + +From the London Times. + +THE STORY OF STUART OF DUNLEATH.[12] + + +The story is truthful, plaintive, and full of beauty. At a very early +age Eleanor Raymond loses her father, who has held a high appointment +in India, and news of his death is brought while she is still a child +to her mother's house in England. The bearer of the sad intelligence +is David Stuart, of Dunleath, the penniless representative of a ruined +Scottish house. David had been secretary to Sir John Raymond, whose +eyes he had closed, and he comes to the widow recommended to her +sisterly love, and the appointed guardian of her youthful daughter. +Lady Raymond, it must be added, had been previously married, and is +the mother of a burly sailor, promoted by Sir John's interest, and at +sea at the time of his stepfather's death. We need not stay to dwell +upon the feeble helplessness, physical and mental, of her Ladyship, or +to contrast it with the overbearing disposition of her son, whose +strong attachment to his mother is the redeeming feature of his +character. The young ex-secretary and present guardian proceeds to the +fulfilment of his duty, as it seems, with a conscientious mind. His +ward is an heiress, and will be surrounded with trials of many kinds. +She is fair to behold, ingenuous, trustful, is neglected by her +surviving parent,--less from want of affection than from lack of +interest--who, then, so suited for monitor and instructor both, as the +highly-disciplined and well-informed Stuart himself? David has been a +great traveller, has read much, and observed more. His intellect is +commanding, and he is noble in form. He notes the quickness of his +ward, is captivated by her girlish enthusiasm and untiring zeal. He +will engage no masters when he can teach so accurately himself. She +requires no instructors but the master from whom she learns so +willingly and so well. Perilous devotion of a teacher (it may be of +twenty) with so fond a pupil, though her years number but ten! What +man of twenty-eight ever thought himself old in the presence of a +maiden of eighteen? What girl of eighteen ever deemed herself too +young to be wooed and won by a man of twenty-eight? For eight years +guardian and ward live under one roof, partaking of the same +influences, the same pleasures, the same daily occupations, and +divided from all around them by the superiority of their own minds and +the congeniality of their pursuits. Pity the poor country girl in +constant presence of that cultivated intellect, fine understanding, +and beaming countenance, never weary of smiling on her life. What +wonder that as the flower expands in beauty it gradually unfolds to +blissful consciousness? Eleanor secretly loves her guardian, and +glories in the passion. He is poor, but she is rich beyond her wishes, +did her wishes comprehend aught else but the desire to make him +happy. Dunleath has passed from David Stuart's family. Eleanor has +listened a thousand times to her guardian's fond regrets for his lost +inheritance, and to the descriptions of that once happy home, the +memory of which Stuart carries about with him to darken his best and +brightest hours. What privilege to restore the coveted possession to +its natural owner, and to enrich herself by parting with the gift! +What happiness for the wife of David Stuart to bring back the smile to +his cheek, and to purchase a joy for him for ever! Sweet dreamer! She +dreams on, until reality begins. Her education ends. She goes at the +instance of her mother and half-brother to London. She takes up her +abode with a friend of her guardian's, the Lady Margaret Fordyce, and +enters upon London life. Lady Margaret is a widow, young, benevolent, +and beautiful. The fame of Eleanor's wealth is soon known to +fortune-hunters, and suitors crowd about her. One, Sir Stephen +Penrhyn, a coarse, sensual, and brutal personage, captivated by her +beauty, and sufficiently wealthy himself, proposes in proper form. +Godfrey, the half-brother, explains to David Stuart that Eleanor's +family approve the match, and require his formal consent to the union. +Stuart sends for Eleanor. He points out to her the advantages of the +marriage and the wishes of her friends. The child trembles. She cannot +marry, she hurriedly says, a man whom she does not love, and moreover +she has seen another whom she prefers. Stuart has only one question to +ask. "Is that other rich?" "He has no more," replies Eleanor, "than my +father bequeathed to you." Stuart's heart beats guiltily as she speaks +of her father's bounty, and, with a meaning which the girl fails to +interpret, he anxiously bids her mention the favored man's name. The +effort is too intense--her heart is nigh to bursting--she faints, and +her mother enters her apartment to find her senseless in the arms of +her tutor. The last object Eleanor beholds from her window that night, +is David Stuart, looking up, with folded arms, to her room. + +She rises the next morning to find that Stuart has suddenly quitted +the house, having left a sealed letter for her perusal. She reads it. +The whole brilliant fabric of her girlhood tumbles down to earth long +before she reaches its close. David Stuart loves her not. He is +ignorant of her strong affection. He has dissipated her whole vast +fortune. With the hope of realizing a sum sufficient to win back +Dunleath, he has been tempted to speculations which have beggared his +confiding ward. He recommends marriage with Sir Stephen Penrhyn, and +takes leave of her for ever, for he has resolved upon self-murder. He +asks her to approach the adjacent river on some day of peace and +sunshine hereafter--the river which they have so often visited +together in sunshine before--to breathe out forgiveness for him there, +if she will, and then to forget him. A search is made near the spot +indicated. A torn handkerchief hangs on one of the leafless branches; +the river is dragged, but the body is not found. Eleanor knows David +Stuart is dead, and the knowledge gives color and shape to her +remaining days. + +Ruin has overtaken the family of Eleanor Raymond, but Sir Stephen +Penrhyn is still content with his bargain. He proposed for the person, +not for the fortune of Eleanor, and he will take her, beggared as she +is. Eleanor's mother needs a home. To give her a sanctuary, Eleanor +consents to become Lady Penrhyn. What blessing can attend the union? +She gives birth to twins, one a sickly boy, the other ruddy, strong, +and full of health. They grow up to become the mother's last and best +consolation, and then she loses both by a violent death at one and the +same moment. Sir Stephen has a remedy for parental sorrow, which but +increases the great woe of Eleanor. What need to refer to it? Eleanor +passes the lodge gate on her estate one day to be made aware of her +husband's gross infidelity, and to behold living evidences of his +guilt. Is her cup of sorrow full? Not yet. She utters no complaint, +but bears her yoke of suffering meekly and resignedly, waiting +patiently and beseechingly, rather than with murmurs, for the hour of +dismissal. Light, however, is to gleam upon the checkered path before +the journey closes. Another eight years may have elapsed since David +Stuart took his last leave of Eleanor, and a stranger presents himself +with unexpected news. Sir Stephen is from home, and a traveller has +arrived at his house, with a letter from a distant country. Wondrous +disclosure! Stuart lives! Mercifully saved on the night on which he +attempted suicide, he proceeded to America, where by dint of years of +steady exertion and co-operation with the authors of his former great +calamity he contrived to re-establish the affairs of the bankrupt +house with which he had connected himself, and to recover the whole of +Eleanor's sacrificed patrimony. The bearer of the letter, Mr. Stuart's +confidential agent, is authorized to restore her fortune, and to +communicate all particulars respecting his past history. Oh, to see +the man who had lately seen him living and safe in far off America! +She hurries to meet him, and grasps the hand of--David Stuart. When +Sir Stephen comes home, at Mr. Stuart's earnest request and against +the wish of Eleanor, the guardian is introduced as Mr. Lindsay. +"Nothing," he says, "is to be gained by self-betrayal," the more +especially as he intends shortly to return to his adopted home. But +before Stuart can make up his mind to departure, he is made aware, +first of a circumstance which it is much to be wondered has never +occurred to him before, viz.: the former perfect uncalculating +devotion of his ward; and then of the more poignant fact that misery, +suffering, insult, and cruelty had attended her whole married life. +Intolerable injury reaches its height! Sir Stephen brings his bastards +into his house, and commands his wife to show them respect. Wild with +sorrow and indignation, she is advised by Stuart of Dunleath to leave +her home, to go to London, to seek a lawyer of eminence, and to sue +for a divorce. That obtained, _then_ will come, after much delay, that +"happier future," of which the counsellor dares not trust himself to +speak. The resolve is taken, the journey is made. But time brings +reflection, and reflection, reason. It is not her husband's sin that +took her from his roof, but the visionary sin of her own love; it was +"the desire to swear at the altar of God to be true to David Stuart +till death, that prompted her to plan her breaking of her first vow." +She will not undo that vow to indulge her own undying love. Still +urged by David Stuart to the act, she resists the great temptation, +and retires meekly into solitude, to pay the full penalty of her +submission to the call of virtue. To return to the pollution of her +husband's house is not to be thought of. To partake of sin with David +Stuart is a suggestion not more to be tolerated in her pure and +agitated soul. + +One other drop, and the cup is full indeed. We have spoken of Lady +Margaret Fordyce, but we have thought it unnecessary to mingle the +history of that admirable person with the main current of our +narrative. Lady Margaret, as we have said, is an old friend of Mr. +David Stuart. She has taken a sisterly interest in the career of +Eleanor, but has never ascertained from her the secret of her early +and pure affection for her guardian. Inheriting a goodly fortune, the +first care of Lady Margaret is to purchase the estate of Dunleath. She +is not long mistress of it before the recovered property is in the +hands of the man who, in his youth, became a criminal in order to +possess it. David Stuart marries Lady Margaret Fordyce. Eleanor +receives the intelligence while she is languishing abroad under the +care of her foster-brother and his wife. The news goes silently to her +heart as a lancet might travel thither, giving no external indication +of the mortal wound inflicted. But the blood flows unseen within, and +life stops, as it needs must, from the cruel laceration. Eleanor +dies--still without a murmur. She had borne daily outrage from her +husband, and confined the knowledge of her wrongs to her own bosom. +She owed her sufferings to the first great fault of her guardian, yet +she would never listen to one unkind word against his memory when she +deemed him lost, and her love for him suffered no tarnish at any time +for his offence. Shall she complain now that he is happy, and is +master of Dunleath? She dies indeed broken-hearted, but good, gentle, +uncomplaining, and forgiving, to the last. + +The characters that move in the various scenes that make up this +melancholy play are sketched out with a skilful and well disciplined +hand, and are creditable to the authoress's creative powers. Great +knowledge of human nature is indicated throughout the work. There is +nothing overdrawn; the plot is natural, and the style fluent and +poetical. + +A word or two are necessary before we close, with reference to one +remarkable phenomenon in connection with a leading personage in the +drama. By a singular coincidence, not only Mrs. Norton, but every +person in the book, is in perfect ignorance of a fact that is present +to our mind almost from the first page to the last. David Stuart, of +Dunleath, we grieve to say, is not only a very selfish gentleman, but +a most accomplished rascal, yet not a human creature, but the reader +and ourselves, has the least idea of it. Just look at him! Appointed +the guardian of a helpless girl, he makes away with her fortune in a +fruitless endeavor to enrich himself. He hears from the maiden's own +lips that her heart is irrevocably bestowed upon a man whom she +adores, yet he coolly recommends her to form an alliance with a brute +for whom she cares nothing at all, in order that she may recover the +wealth of which he, the adviser, has deliberately robbed her. +Returning to England, and taking up his residence with the husband of +his ward, he places the poor girl in a cruelly false position, and all +but blasts her reputation, by compelling her to keep a secret, the +communicating which could at the worst only occasion him a very +trifling inconvenience. Quitting the husband's house, and learning +quite soon enough for the lady's happiness that he had been the object +of Eleanor's early choice, he advises an action for divorce, promising +his hand in the event of a triumphant verdict. Finding the wife more +honest than himself, he smothers his affection and looks elsewhere for +crumbs of comfort. He finds them at the table of Lady Margaret +Fordyce, whom he condescendingly weds, because, we are compelled to +suppose, she has Dunleath to throw into the bargain. That Stuart is +unnaturally described we will not say; but that Mrs. Norton should be +so profoundly ignorant of his faults--should take such pains to hold +him up as a high-minded gentleman--that Lady Margaret should imagine +him a paragon of perfection and positively adore him--that her +brother, the Duke of Lanark, should be "fond of him,"--and that an +incalculable amount of respect and love should be thrown away by all +parties concerned upon so worthless an object is, we must confess, +somewhat disgusting in an age when even the highest merit fails too +often of securing its deserts. One good action alone saves David +Stuart from utter detestation. He recovered and restored the fortune +of Eleanor Raymond--but many a transported forger has been capable of +heroism as lofty, with incitements to honesty about as pure. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] _Stuart of Dunleath_: by Mrs. Norton. New-York, Harpers, 1851. + + + + +_Authors and Books._ + + +The student of classic mythology, who loves with Hammer Purgstall and +Kreutzer to dive into the oriental depths of ancient myths, will +welcome the recent appearance of a work by LUDWIG MERCKLIN, entitled +_Die Talos-Sage, und das Sardonische Lachen_. The story of Talus, and +the Sardonic Laughter--a contribution to the history of Grecian legend +and art--St. Petersburg and Leipsic, 1851. In this work we learn that +the Cretan Talus was beyond doubt the Phoenician sun-god, and that +he was identical with the Athenian of the same name. The Cretan Talus, +according to the mythological account, was a brazen image, which +Vulcan gave to Minos, or Jupiter to Europa. He defended the island by +heating himself in the fire and embracing his enemies. More literal +commentators have attempted to prove that Talus was a brazen statue or +beacon, like the Colossus of Rhodes, placed by the Phoenicians on +the Cretan promontory. The Athenian Talus, inventor of the compass and +saw, was slain by his uncle Dædalus, who was envious of his talent. +The gods changed him to a partridge. After identifying the twain, +Mercklin attempts to prove that the elements of this myth are to be +sought in the ancient dogmas of lustration, and that they may be still +further referred to the worship of Apollo. In connection with this +Talus legend, he closely scrutinizes the account of the so called +Sardonic laughter, and its relation to the same religious rites. "In +conclusion, he discusses those ancient works of art which illustrate +this subject, namely, the medals of Phaistos and the celebrated vase +of Ruvo, of which he gives a new, and on the whole certainly correct +account." In connection with this work we may notice another which +appeared in April, entitled _Bellerophon_, by HERMAN ALEX. FISCHER. +From the subject we infer that this Fischer is identical with +_Vischer_ who published three years ago one of the best _Æsthetics_ on +philosophies of art, ever written even in Germany. We are told in a +short notice, that the author attempts, by a study of the myth of +Bellerophon and those works of art relating to it, including the +etymological signification of the name, to establish the identity of +Bellerophon with the sun-god. [Greek: Phontês] is by him derived or +varied from [Greek: Thantês] and [Greek: Bellero], explained as +identical with [Greek: Helios], [Greek: elê], [Greek: selas], and +[Greek: selênê]. + + * * * * * + +Some anonymous scribbler in Berlin has recently put forth a treatise +on free trade, entitled _Tempus omnia revelat_: of which a reviewer, +in conjecturing the cause of its publication, remarks, that "as it +treats generally of every thing else besides free trade, it is +probable that the Free Trade Union have not deemed it worth while to +hear him through." + + * * * * * + +Among the more recent curiosities of German medical literature, we +find that JOS. HEINRICH BEISEN of Quedlinburg, has written a work on +homoepathy as applicable to the diseases of swine. J. HOPPE of +Magdeburg, has set forth another, entitled _Linen and cotton Garments +considered in a medical light_, which is highly recommended by a +competent judge. C. GEROLD, of Vienna, publishes for the Count (and +physician--we know not which is the more honorable title)--VON +FEUCHTERSLEBEN, a singular book, entitled _Zur Diätetik der Seele, +Valere aude!_ which is not, however, as one might infer from the +title, a theory of the method whereby the health of the soul itself +may be preserved; but the art of regulating our physical well being by +a correct management and strengthening of our mental powers. Count +Feuchtersleben had already attained a reputation as a writer, and the +work referred to, though in many particulars superficial, is not +without merit. Last and least, Dr. GIDEON BRECHER, hospital physician +at Pressnitz, publishes through Asher & Co., in Berlin, an octavo on +_Transcendental Magic, and the supernatural methods of curing Disease, +as given in the Talmud_, in which he enters largely into Theo-Dæmon +and Angelology; as well as dreams, visions, biblical seraphims, cosmic +and magic influences of the soul, with a scattering fire of amulets, +spells and charms. We congratulate the medical faculty on this +important addition to the literature of the healing art. + + * * * * * + +No department of ancient art is more interesting, or indeed more +necessary to the student, than that relating to theatres and other +aids to the practical illustration of dramatic art. No characteristic +of modern continental life, is so striking to the traveller as the +earnestness with which the opera is discussed by all classes, and its +powerful influence upon social life in nearly every relation. But even +the earnest attention which is directed at the present day in Naples +or Vienna to some new incarnation of the all governing spirit of +amusement, is nothing when compared with the same as it existed among +the ancients, to whom it was literally _life_. '_Panem et +circenses_'--bread and the public games--with these the Roman citizen +of the later empire, like the modern lazzarone, with his maccaroni and +San Carlino, could dream away life and be happy. Mindful of the +importance of this branch of ancient art in its manifold relations, +FRIED. WIESELER has recently set forth a book,[13] declared by +competent authority to be the best in the world on this subject. He +has chosen judiciously from the immense mass of material extant; and +according to the prescribed limits conveyed all the information +possible. "The first part of the work embraces a series of well +executed plans and outlines of ancient theatres, of different +countries and ages, with every requisite detail, followed by +engravings and descriptions of every particular pertaining to the +representation of plays. This is succeeded by an admirable collection +of masks, scenes, figures and costumes, illustrative not only of the +ancient drama, but also of its subdivisions of comedy, tragedy, the +satyr-drama and the Italian phylace, with singing and music. The +illustrations are admirably accurate--more particularly the colored +plates of the Cyrenæan wall paintings, and the mosaics of the Vatican, +by which the rare and costly work of MILLI is rendered unnecessary." +More than one eminent German authority speaks in terms of high praise, +of the accuracy and unwearied erudition which characterize the +accompanying test. + + * * * * * + +The second and third parts of the _Holzschnitte Derühmter Meister_, or +woodcuts of celebrated masters, have made their appearance, +containing, 1st. smaller woodcuts by Hans Holbein the younger (A. D., +1498-1554), being selections from the Dance of Death, and the +Peasants' and Children's Alphabets; 2d. a large engraving after +Michael Wohlzemuth (1434-1519), being the Glorification of Christ, and +a Madonna and child of Hans Bürkmayer's; also, from the Dutch school, +after Dirk de Bray (ob. 1680), a portrait of the artist's father, and +the celebrated engraving of Rembrandt's, known as the philosopher with +the hour-glass. For the information of artists we mention that these +copies are executed with exquisite accuracy, and that the work, though +gotten up in every particular in the most elegant manner, is afforded +at a very moderate price. + + * * * * * + +Recent German poetry offers little for remark. TELLKAMPF has published +a poem in hexameters in the style of Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea, +founded upon an incident in the battle of Leipsic, called _Irmengard_. +It has passed into a second edition. EMIL LEONHARD, a poet not +unknown, has written a poem upon Bürger, whose wild life had already +furnished Müller subject for a romance and Mosenthal for a drama, and +which is too unpleasant to be made attractive even by the poetic +talent of Leonhard. We note, however an interesting work, entitled +_Prussia's Mirror of Honor_, a collection of Prussian national songs, +from the earliest period to the year 1840. They have much allusion to +old Fritz, and are interesting as an indication of the popular +feeling, which is always expressed in such songs, toward that national +hero. + + * * * * * + +An interesting contribution to contemporary history is I. VENEDY'S +_Schleswig-Holstein in 1850_. A diary. + + * * * * * + +HERMAN FRITSCHE, of Leipsig, has recently published a work by one +SOHNLAND SCHUBAUER, entitled _Consecrated souvenirs of the virtues of +our earliest ancestors: Collected with the aid of a Philologist_. This +book we are told contains (though we should never have inferred it +from the title), a collection and explanation of old German proper +names, both masculine and feminine. The author in his preface gives it +as his opinion that since the introduction of Christianity "a dreadful +thousand-year-long night has brooded over Germany, and that the best +method of dissipating this darkness, would be to revive the old German +proper names!" "The poet discovers the sanctity of these primitive +German names in the holy star-night, and he will, the higher these +rise to the ideal, find in them a full accord with holy nature." His +principal sources are the verbal assertions of Dr. ALEX. VOLLMER: for +example in page 1st, where he questions whether "ANNO" signifies a +year, and decides that it is originally German, from _an_, _un_ and +_unst_; to which add a G, whence results _Gunst_, meaning good +fortune, success, or favor!--a bit of ingenuity which reminds us of +several scraps of Horne Tooke's comic philology, as well as the +glove-maker's motto, _Kunst macht Gunst_--skill makes (or wins) +success. Dr. Vollmer is an amiable and hard-working scholar of immense +erudition, and possessed of a boundless enthusiasm on the subject of +early German and Gothic dialects. We regret that his learning should +be lent to the support of such singular vagaries. + + * * * * * + +CARL GUTZKOW, who seemed by his first literary failure, the _Walley_, +in 1835, to have sunk irretrievably, but has since risen to a +brilliant eminence by the publication of _Uriel Akasta_, the _Zopf und +Schwert_, and other writings, has recently put forth another, noticed +as the _Ritter von Geiste_. G. REIMER at Berlin, has published the +first volume of a second edition of BÖCKH'S inestimable work, _Die +Staatshaushaltung der Athener_--the political economy of the +Athenians. Prof. ANT. GUBITZ, the celebrated wood engraver, publisher +of an annual comic almanac, and in fact the father of all the popular +German illustrated almanacs of the present day, has written and +published three dramas, entitled _The Emperor Henry and his Sons_, +_Sophonisba_, and _Johann der Ziegler_. + + * * * * * + +_Macchiavelli und der Gang der Europäischen Politik_ (Macchiavelli, +and the Course of European Policy), by THEODORE MUNDT, is the last +discussion of the political system of the "Regent of the Devil." The +doctrines of _The Prince_ Herr Mundt supposes have influenced the late +reactionary events in Germany, and he thinks that work will again be +the favorite text-book of despots. His exposition of the character and +doctrines of Machiavelli, and his influence on European policy, is an +interesting historical study. + +The German press is no less prolific of novels than that of England +and America. We observe the last month _Stories and Pictures from the +Bohemian Forest_, by JOSEPH RANK, a romance of provincial life, not +without interest; _The Children of God_, by MAX RING, a story of the +court of Augustus the Strong, and of the origin of the sect of the +Herrnhutters. Its sketches of character are called sprightly and +successful. _The Castle of Ronceaux_, from an old manuscript, is an +episode from the history of the Huguenot war. A piquant title is that +of Madame IDA VON DURINGSFELD'S book, _A Pension_ (boarding-house) +_upon the Lake of Geneva, two Romances in one house_, which recalls +the stories of the Countess Hahn-Hahn before she ceased writing +pleasant tales for us, and began histories of religious experience. +But with less talent, the present author has more knowledge of men. +The book is _sent la Politique_ a little too much. But German ladies +who write books love to say a word in them about every thing. + +_A Pilgrim and his Companions_ is still another romance, by LORENZO +DIEFFENBACH, not of a religions tone, as the title suggests, but +purely political. It is a story of the German "March-Days," the days +of Revolution. The author is bold and large in thought, but the want +of sharp outline in his characters indicates the poor or unpractised +artist. _The Oath_ is the appropriately melodramatic title of a +romance of the Venetian Inquisition, by DAVID. It is well written, +simple and natural. Remarkable qualities with so passionate a theme. + + * * * * * + +LUDWIG BAUER has published through G. Jonghaus of Darmstadt, a work +which reminds us of the _Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda_, being the +_Urkundenbuch des Klosters Arnsburg in d. Wetterau_, containing as yet +unprinted documents of the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries, relating to the history of the monastery. We are +happy to observe that notwithstanding the check given to general +literature by the recent political troubles in Germany, this +department of mediæval antiquity is rapidly advancing. When we +remember the immense amount of material as yet unavailable which is +still requisite to form an accurate history of the middle ages, with +_reliable_ accounts of its varied literature and customs, or when we +reflect on the spoil and devastation which every day brings to the +ancient hoard, we should feel grateful to those untiring antiquaries, +who thus rescue a few literary gems from the flood of time. + + * * * * * + +The _Manuscripts of Peter Schlemil_, naturally awakens attention, but +proves to be an extravaganza of LOUIS BECHSTEIN, humorous and +intelligent withal. But the humor is not intelligible, and the +intelligence is not humorous, says a sharp reviewer. + + * * * * * + +PROF. O. L. B. WOLFF, well known to every amateur German scholar in +this country and England, as the publisher of the celebrated +_Poetischer und Prosaischer Hausschatz_, or Poetic and Prosaic Home +Treasury, has edited and published by Otto Wigand of Leipsic, that +singular romance of _Caspar von Grimmelshausen_, first printed in +1669, which is, as a picture of German social life during the period +of the thirty years' war, extremely interesting. We need, however, +hardly caution our lady readers against its perusal. Its title is as +follows: _Der abenteuerliche Simplicius Simplicissimus_. The +adventurous Simplicius Simplicissimus. That is the true, copious, and +very remarkable biography of an odd, wonderful and singular man, +STERNFELS VON FUCHSHEIM, how he passed his youth in Spessart, of his +varied and remarkable destinies in the thirty years' war, and of the +numerous sufferings, sorrows and dangers which he experienced, with +his ultimate good fortune. + + * * * * * + +A German critic, who of course belongs to the conservative party, +writing under date of June 16, says of Miss HELEN WEBER, the inventor +of the hybrid costume which _Punch_ satirizes as an _American_ +absurdity, that "except in a certain disregard of public decencies +there is nothing by which to distinguish her from the mass of vulgar +women of the middling classes; she is about thirty-five years of age, +and appears to be willing to do or say any thing that may be required +for the attraction of observation; from her writings, throw out what +is stolen or compiled, and there is nothing left to evince even a +mediocrity of talent." This is less favorable than an account we +published in an early number of the _International_ (vol. i. 463), but +it may be quite as just. + + * * * * * + +When Professor ZAHN sojourned in Naples, he took an active part in the +excavations of Pompeii--studies which eventually led to the +publication of his meritorious work on this subject. At the same time +he faithfully reported the progress of these operations to old Goethe. +The poet's replies to these communications on the ancient paintings of +Pompeii, its theatres, and other buildings, were replete with those +sparks of genius he exhibited on every occasion. This rather +voluminous correspondence, long laid up at Naples, has been lately +discovered, and will be published by Professor Zahn. + + * * * * * + +_Geschichte der Deutschen Stadte und des Deutschen Burgerthums_ +(History of the Cities of Germany, and of German Citizenship), by F. +W. BARTHOLD, is the first of a series of painstaking and exhausting +books of German historical materiel, in course of publication by +Weizel, of Leipsic. The style of treatment resembles that adopted in +_The Pictorial History of England_, which will make the work easy of +reference. + + * * * * * + +DR. CORNILL publishes a dissertation upon Louis Feuerbach and his +position toward the religion and philosophy of the present time. The +author finds in every thing the famous professor does a farther +religious development. But it is very doubtful if Feurbach has +advanced at all since his memorable essay in the Halle _Book of the +Year_, upon the relation of philosophy to theology. Since then he has +only varied this theme, and his last work, upon the transcendental +thesis _Man is what he eats_, in which the worthy Professor with +Teutonic energy seeks to seduce the immorality of the age from the +potato disease, the German critics declare to be totally devoid of +that bold and thoughtful spirit which formerly fought so well for the +emancipation of the understanding from its long scholastic thraldom. + + * * * * * + +A most mystical and metaphysical treatise is that of ERNST, _A new +Book of the Planets, or Mikro and Makrokosmos_. It sings with +Klopstock of the souls of the stars. It speculates with Jacob Böhme, +with Retif de la Bretonne, with the Rabbins, and other mighty mystics, +upon the origin of thought. The essential difference in speculative +science between ether and thought, the unity of matter and spirit, the +eternity and evanescence of matter, the thoughts, feelings, and +sensations of God, and the final explication of the trinity. All this +and more. In fine, says a German critic, it is a very jocose book, +strongly to be commended for the consolation of political prisoners. + + * * * * * + +WALDMEISTER'S _Bridal-Tour_, a story of the Rhine, Wine, and Travel, +is the pleasant and appropriate title of the last book of OTTO +ROQUETTE. It is the story of a spring tour along the Rhine. The fire +of its wine, the golden gleam of its vineyards, the faint, penetrant +delicacy of the grape-blossom, the luring look of the Love-Lei, the +mystery of ruins, the distant baying of the wild huntsman's +pack,--they all breathe, and bloom, and sound through the little book. +It is a genuine song of spring. The poet is young,--he feels, dreams, +and sings--what needs poet more? + + * * * * * + +A German version of Copway the Indian's work is announced under the +title of _Kah-ge-ga-gah-bouh, Hauptling d'Ojibway Nation: Die Ojibway +Eroberung_: Translated from the English, by N. ADLER, and published at +Frankfort-on-the-Main. This we presume is an after-shot from the Peace +Convention. + + * * * * * + +Among the new books announced in Germany we see _The Institutions of +the United States, and their Lessons of American Experience to +Europe_. It appears to be anonymous. One or two other German works on +this country we shall notice particularly in our next number. + + * * * * * + +Russian literature is gradually made accessible to the general student +by German and French translations, and we shall soon begin to learn +more of the mysterious despotism that towers like a fateful cloud +along the eastern horizon of Europe, in its influence upon social and +artistic life. The publisher Brockhaus of Leipsic has recently issued +a collection in three volumes of the Russian novelists. Yet, whether +from the want of tact in the selection or from the absence of +characteristic qualities in the tales themselves, the authors are +weakest in their delineation of popular life and manners, in this +resembling fine society in Russia, which ignores _Russianism_, and +believes in Parisian manners, language, and life, every thing but +Parisian politics. Among the authors whose works are quoted we note +ALEXANDER PUSHKIN, the pride of Russian literature, born in 1799, and +died in a duel in 1837. HELENA HAHN, born in 1815, who, married at +sixteen to a soldier, travelled through a large part of Russia, and +died in 1832. Her novels were first published after her death, but +seem to be not of the highest merit. ALEXANDER HERZEN, born in 1812, +has zealously studied Hegel, and written a series of humorous tales, +the best of which is called _Taras Bulwa_. Since 1847 he has been a +wanderer, pursued as a democrat, and now proposes to visit the United +States. + + * * * * * + +The Emperor of Austria has appointed AARON WOLFGANG MESSELEY, a Jew, +Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Prague. M. Messeley had +long filled the chair of the Hebrew Language and Literature in the +same University. The numbers of Jews now attached as professors to the +different universities and educational establishments in the Austrian +states is seventeen; of whom fifteen were named by the late Emperor, +and two by the present. + + * * * * * + +ALEXANDER DUMAS, who, as a simple story writer is perhaps deserving of +the highest place in the temple of letters--whose _Three Guardsmen_, +with its several continuations, making some twenty volumes, is the +most entertaining, and in certain characteristics the best sustained +novel written in our days,--announces in Paris a new tale, _Un Drame +de '93_, and he occupies the _feuilleton_ of the _Presse_ every week +with another, _Ange Pitou_, of which the scene and time are also +France during the first revolution. + + * * * * * + +MADAME CHARLES REYBAUD, authoress of _The Cadet de Calobriéres_, has +just published another story, _Faustine_, wherein provincial life in +France is daguerreotyped. + + * * * * * + +Among the announcements in Paris we notice one of the tenth volume of +THIERS'S _Histoire du Consulat_. The eleventh volume is also said to +be nearly ready. + + * * * * * + +M. MIGNET has nearly completed his _Life and Times of Mary, Queen of +Scots_, the third work on the subject produced in France within a year +and a half. Mignet, however, is the most eminent person who has ever +essayed this service, and he has had some peculiar and important +advantages. He has made use of the collection of letters published by +Prince Labanoff; of researches made in the State Paper Office of +England by Mr. Tytler, and of other unpublished documents which he has +himself collected, in order to form more correct opinions with regard +to some of the darkest and most controverted events in the queen's +life. These documents, chiefly from the archives of Spain, (to which +M. Mignet was enabled to obtain access only at the express request of +the French Government,) are of much importance, for they bring to +light the negotiations carried on with Philip II. for the deliverance +of Mary from her imprisonment--a part of her history to which previous +biographers have paid little attention. + + * * * * * + +In the political literature of France a new pamphlet by CORMENIN is +remarkable. It is entitled _Revision_, and its substance is this: +Having recounted the history of the Republican Charter, elaborated +during many months by men especially delegated to the work, and by a +suffrage really universal, debated long and earnestly in the +committee, amended by the eighteen delegates of the assembly, reviewed +by the commission, deliberated by the chamber, discussed by the +press,--M. Cormenin establishes that this constitution, so elaborately +matured, if it has nothing which promises eternal duration, yet +satisfies all the conditions essential to present permanence, and will +well lead the nation to that moment, when, personal passion being +somewhat allayed, it may be wisely and conscientiously reviewed. This +is the pith of the pamphlet. It appeals to no passions, and justifies +no excess, and is a notable and intelligent effort at the resolution +of the question. + + * * * * * + +M. DE MARCELLUS, an old French ambassador, has published two volumes +entitled _Literary Episodes in the East_. His oriental travel dates +back as far as 1818, but the beautiful vision has pursued him ever +since, and he knew no better way to lay it than by painting it, and +making it real. The volume opens with a confession that all travel and +all scenery have only reminded him most strongly of his eastern +experiences, and that now, chilled with age, and hoping nothing of the +future, he has especial pleasure in recurring to the past. It is a +series of colloquial, familiar sketches and anecdotes, and will +doubtless be a pleasant companion for the eastern tour. M. de +Marcellus will follow this work with _A Collection of Popular Songs in +Greece_. + + * * * * * + +VICTOR HUGO, who has always been opposed to the punishment of death, +and whose _Last Days of Condemned_, one of his most powerful fictions, +had a large influence every where against the death penalty, was +lately before the Court of Assizes in Paris as an advocate in behalf +of his son, who was on trial for publishing an article calculated to +bring into disrespect the administrators of the law. The veteran poet +was allowed to deliver an elaborate and characteristic harangue in +defence of the article. He tasked himself for his most brilliant +antithetical rhetoric, denouncing the scaffold, and the legislation of +death. The son, however, was convicted, and sentenced to a fine of +five hundred francs and imprisonment for six months. + +Victor Hugo has published a volume containing twelve speeches +delivered on various occasions while he has been a _representant du +peuple_. They are on the Bonaparte family, the punishment of death, +universal suffrage, the liberty of the press, the affairs of Rome, +&c., and are all written with the author's customary fine rhetoric; +indeed in thought and style they are among his best performances. + + * * * * * + +MADAME BOCARME, who probably was a party to the late murder of her +brother, for which her husband the Count de Bocarme is to be executed, +was an intimate friend of Balzac. The great novelist dedicated one of +his works to her, and another of them was written in the Château de +Bitremont. Balzac, while on a visit to the château, was taken to see a +farmer, and, as usual, interested himself so much in the cattle, that +after an hour's conversation he was amused to find that, the farmer +had taken him, H. de Balzac, the brilliant Parisian, for a cattle +dealer! The forthcoming memoirs of Balzac will perhaps contain +something about this woman, who seems to have won for herself the +execration of all France. + + * * * * * + +The Paris correspondent of the _Literary Gazette_ affirms that, on the +whole, the French press has gained by the regulation requiring +signatures to original articles. The abler class of contributors have +profited greatly, as they have obtained a position in popular esteem, +and consequently a claim on their employers, which years of anonymous +drudgery would not have secured. Nor have readers, it is remarked, any +cause to complain; for "men, remembering that 'those who live to +please must please to live,' take far greater pains with the articles +to which they have to attach their names, than to those which are +unsigned." + + * * * * * + +M. ARAGO, the great astronomer, who is passing the summer at the +mineral springs of Vichy, is nearly blind, and probably will entirely +lose his sight. His brother, who is likewise a man of extraordinary +abilities, has been blind many years. + + * * * * * + +GEORGE SAND dedicates her last performance to DUMAS, "because," she +says, "I wish to protest against the tendency that may be attributed +to me of regarding the absence of action as a systematic reaction +against the school of which you are the chief. Far from me such a +blasphemy against movement and life! I am too fond of your works; I +read them and listen to them with too much attention and emotion; I am +too much an artist in feeling to wish the slightest lessening of your +triumphs. Many believe that artists are necessarily jealous of each +other. I pity those who believe it, pity them for having so little of +the artist as not to understand that the idea of assassinating our +rivals would be that of our own suicide." + + * * * * * + +_A Critical History of the Philosophical School of Alexandria_ is the +title of a work of serious philosophical claims, by M. VACHEROT. He +had already published two volumes analyzing and developing the +doctrines of the Alexandrian philosophy. In the present volume he has +traced its influence upon the subsequent schools, passing in review +Plotinus and his successors. The scope of the work invites and permits +a discussion of the profoundest problems that now agitate the world of +thought, and M. Vacherot has the credit of acquitting himself +adequately and admirably of his task. + + * * * * * + +ROUSSEAU, on his death, left several papers to his friend Moulton, and +the heirs of that person, in 1794, caused them to be deposited in the +public library of Neufchatel, in Switzerland. There they have remained +unknown until a few weeks since, when M. Bovet, of that town, examined +them, and found that they embraced an essay entitled _Avant-propos et +Preface a mes Confessions_, which has just been printed. Of course it +will appear with all future editions of the Confessions. + + * * * * * + +BALZAC, besides his _Memoirs_, which are soon to appear in Paris, it +is now stated left two other works, one a romance called _Les +Paysans_, finished only a short time before his death, the other a +collection of confidential letters to a lady, in which, it is said, he +took pleasure in laying bare the secrets of his heart, and his real +opinion of men and things. + + * * * * * + +M. NISARD was a few weeks ago received into the _Academie Française_. +He succeeds the late M. Feletz, and has written a history of French +literature, a book of _études_ on the Latin poets, and superintended a +translation of all the Latin writers. + + * * * * * + +M. GAUTIER, formerly a deputy from the Gironde, a peer of France, +Minister of Finance, and sub-governor of the Bank of France, has +published a volume _On the Causes which disturb Order in France, and +the means of Reëstablishing it_. + + * * * * * + +GUIZOT is about to publish the _Histoire des Origines du Gouvernement +Représentatif_. This is a new work, being the revised issue of his +lectures from 1820 to 1822, which have never yet been printed, except +in the imperfect _comptes rendus_ of the _Journal des Cours Public_. + + * * * * * + +_Le Drame de '93_, by ALEXANDRE DUMAS, turns out to be a narrative of +the Revolution, in his rapid dramatic style. + + * * * * * + +M. PIERRE DUFOUR is publishing a work of great value entitled the +_History of Prostitution among all Nations and at all Times_. + + * * * * * + +A cheap edition of the chief writings on affairs, by EMILIE DE +GIRARDIN, is published in eleven volumes. + + * * * * * + +_Mademoiselle de Belle Isle_, written by Dumas for Mademoiselle +Mars--a sprightly, dissolute comedy, full of the life which animates +the _Mémoires_ of the time, and complicated in its construction with +the skill of a Lope de Vega--was translated in New-York a year or two +ago by Mrs. Fanny Kemble Butler, and brought out at the Astor Place +Opera House. Our theatre-going people, however, declined a piece so +broadly licentious, and it was soon withdrawn. We see that another +version of it has been made in London, and that it has been played +there very successfully. + + * * * * * + +The London editors lack something of the honesty of the Americans: +they never give credit for an article, but if making up an entire +number of a periodical from American sources, would permit their +readers to suppose it all original. _Sharpe's Magazine_ is +particularly addicted to this infirmity, and the July issue of it +contains our excellent friend the Rev. F. W. Shelton's paper on +_Boswell, the Biographer_, which appeared originally in _The +Knickerbocker_. + + * * * * * + +The REV. CHARLES KINGSLEY, Jr., rector of Eversley, best known to +American readers as the author of the Chartist novel of _Alton Locke_, +and _Yeast, a Problem_, has been an industrious writer. He is now +about fifty years of age, and besides the above works and a vast +number of papers in _Fraser's Magazine_, he has published _The +Christian Socialist(!)_, _Politics for the People_, _Village Sermons_, +and _The Saint's Tragedy_--in point of art the best of his +performances. We see by the English papers that he preached a sermon +lately in Fitzroy Square, London, on the "Gospel Message to the Poor." +It was so full of "socialistic" thoughts, and so severe on the richer +classes, that the rector of the church, when he had finished, arose in +his pew, and protested vehemently against its doctrines. The +congregation dispersed in great disorder. + +We doubt whether any living Englishman is capable of surpassing Sir +Bulwer Lytton's version of the Ballads of Schiller, but Mr. EDGAR +ALFRED BOWRING, a son of the well-known Dr. Bowring who has published +translations from so many languages, has just published a volume +entitled _The Poems of Schiller complete, including all his early +Suppressed Pieces, attempted in English_. The word "complete" +expresses its difference from the many Schillers in English that have +previously appeared. An _Anthology_ edited by Schiller in 1782, when +he had just commenced his career, contains several poems which the +critics recognize as his. This remained unknown, however, except as a +literary curiosity, till a few months ago; and several of the poems +had been omitted in all the collections of Schiller's works. But the +republication of the _Anthology_ has brought to light the suppressed +poems (in number twenty-eight, comprising nearly twelve hundred +verses), and those are translated for the first time by Mr. Bowring, +whose versions are much commended. + + * * * * * + +Among the new books of English verse, some of the most noticeable are +_The Fair Island, in Six Cantos_, by EDMUND PEEL: in the Spenserian +measure, with passages of fair description; _Ballad Romances_, by R. +H. HORNE, author of "Orion," &c.--a book containing genuine poetry; +_The Reign of Avarice_, an allegorical satire, in four cantos; +_Philosophy in the Fens_, in the style of Peter Pindar; and _Marican_, +a Chilian tale, by HENRY INGLIS. + + * * * * * + +WARREN, the author of "Ten Thousand a Year," has just published a new +novel under the title of _The Lily and the Bee, a Romance of the +Crystal Palace_. The name savors of the huckster, and we shall look +for a more melancholy failure than his last previous performance. + + * * * * * + +MR. LEVI WOODBURY'S _Miscellaneous Writings, Addresses, and Judicial +Opinions_, will be published in four octavo volumes, by Little & +Brown, of Boston. + + * * * * * + +The _North American Review_ for the July quarter is in many respects +characteristic. Six months after every Review published in Great +Britain had had its paper on Southey, and when the subject is quite +worn out, the _North American_ furnishes us with a leading article +upon it, in which there is neither an original thought nor a new +combination of thoughts that are old. Colton's _Public Economy_ gives +a title to an article, in which the book is treated superciliously, +and some ideas by Henry C. Carey are presented as the original +speculations of the reviewer. It is deserving of remark that the _Past +and Present_, and more recent works of Mr. Carey, which among thinking +men throughout the world have commanded more attention than any other +writings in political philosophy during the last five years, have +never been even referred to in this periodical, which arrogates to +itself the leadership of American literature. The eighth article of +the number is on the Unity of the Human Race, and considering the +place it occupies in the _North American Review_, for July, 1851, it +is contemptible. It is based on five publications made in England +previous to 1847, and ignores all the research and discussion since +that time, notwithstanding the facts that the subject never was so +amply, so profoundly, or so luminously discussed as during the last +year--that the very writers referred to in the article have for the +chief part published their most important treatises upon it since +1847--that within six months its literature has received large +accessions in France, Germany, and Italy,--and that in _our own +country_, of whose intellectual advancement this Review is bound to +give some sort of an index, the four years since Latham's "Present +State and Recent Progress of Ethnological Philosophy" appeared, have +furnished important works by Albert Gallatin, Mr. Hale of the +Exploring Expedition, the Rev. Dr. Bachman, the Rev. Dr. Smyth, and +several others, all of which should have been considered in any new, +especially in any American _resume_ of the discussion. Johnston's +_Notes on North America_ is treated with a spleen excited by the +author's refusal to recognize the greatness assumed for certain +persons connected with Harvard College, and Mr. Bowen is weak enough +to say, or to permit a contributor to say, "we _understand_(!) Mr. +Johnston has a high reputation," &c. Pish! And what does the reader +suppose is the theme--the fresh, before unheard-of theme--of another +paper? what new star, in the heaven of mind, demanded most the +exploration and illustration of the _North American Review_, for this +July quarter, in 1851? The best guesser of riddles would not in fifty +years hit upon Mr. Gilfillan's book of rigmarole entitled _The Bards +of the Bible_, but this performance, which had been criticised in +every other quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily, in the English +language, that would descend to it, crowds out the subjects of "great +pith and moment" upon which a periodical of such claims should have +spoken with wise authority. + +Our own country is full of suggestive topics for thoughtful, earnest, +and learned men, and it is fit that the closet should send out its +instruction to calm the turbulence awakened by tempests from the +rostrum--that affairs should be subjected to the criticism of +experience, and that what is new in discovery, in opinion, or in +suggestion, should have quick and popular recognition and justice. We +need--we must have--for this purpose a powerful and really national +_Review_, to reflect and guide the life and aspirations of the +country. + + * * * * * + +We mentioned some time ago that Mr. WILLIAM W. STORY, a son of the +late Justice Story, was preparing for the press a life of his father, +and we now understand that the work will soon be ready, in two large +octavo volumes, to be published by Little & Brown. It will come too +late. Such a memoir would have been very well received any time within +a year after Judge Story's death: now the public mind is settled in an +unalterable conviction that Judge Story was an over-rated man, and a +consideration of the processes by which his fame was acquired is +likely for a long time to sink it below its just level. We but echo +the opinion of more than one eminent person connected with the very +school in which he was a teacher, as well as the common judgment of +the leading men of the profession in all the states, when we say that +Judge Story was not a great lawyer; two or three of his books were +good, but the rest were made for cash profits, and sold by means of +ingenious advertising. Now they will answer for the country courts, +and the inferior courts of the cities, where no opposing lawyer has +enough wit and knowledge to oppose Story against Story, but they are +no longer weighty authorities, and every term they are found to be of +declining influence. As a man of letters, Judge Story's rank will be +still lower. He has left nothing to carry his name into another age. +Yet he was a man of much professional learning, of taste, sagacity, an +extraordinary command of his resources, and a most amiable and +pleasing character, and his memoirs and correspondence, if fitly +presented, will constitute an attractive and valuable contribution to +the history of American society. + + * * * * * + +For several years it has been known to many students of our early +history, that Mr. LYMAN C. DRAPER was devoting his time and estate, +and faculties admirably trained for such pursuits, to the collection +of whatever materials still exist for the illustration of the lives of +the Western Pioneers. He has carefully explored all the valley of the +Mississippi, under the most favorable auspices--by his intelligence +and enthusiasm and large acquaintance with the most conspicuous +people, commended to every family which was the repository of special +traditions or of written documents--and he has succeeded in amassing a +collection of MS. letters, narratives, and other papers, and of +printed books, pamphlets, magazines, and journals, more extensive than +is possessed by many of the state historical societies, while in +character it is altogether and necessarily unique. He proposes soon to +publish his first work, _The Life and Times of General George Rogers +Clarke_, (whose papers have been long in his possession, and whose +surviving Indian fighters and other associates he has personally +visited), in two octavo volumes, to be followed by shorter historical +memoirs of Colonel Daniel Boone, General Simon Kenton, General John +Sevier of East Tennessee, General James Robertson, Captain Samuel +Brady, Colonel William Crawford, the Wetzells, &c., &c. The field of +his researches, it will be seen, embraces the entire sweep of the +Mississippi, every streamlet flowing into which has been crimsoned +with the blood of sanguinary conflicts, every sentinel mountain +looking down to whose waves has been a witness of more terrible and +strange vicissitudes and adventures than have been invented by all the +romancers. + + * * * * * + +The _Dublin University Magazine_ is not very kind in the matter of the +American poem of _Frontenac_, but suggests that as the author's name +is STREET, he cannot object to being "walked into." + + * * * * * + +MRS. SOUTHWORTH'S story of _Retribution_ is being republished in +_Reynolds's Miscellany_, edited by G. W. M. Reynolds, the novelist. +Those who are acquainted with the productions of Reynolds will perhaps +recognize the fitness of the association. + + * * * * * + +MRS. MOWATT, who has just returned from a professional residence in +England, we understand will soon give the public a collection of her +miscellaneous writings, prefaced by Mary Howitt. The authoress of _The +Fortune Hunter_, under various signatures, has been a very voluminous +as well as a very clever writer. She will in a few weeks appear at the +Broadway Theatre. + + * * * * * + +MISS BEECHER has published (through Phillips & Sampson of Boston), her +_True Remedy for the Wrongs of Women_, and the book is much below her +reputation. From a person of her character and unquestionable +abilities, we looked for a rebuke of those females who have unsexed +themselves, such a rebuke as should have brought to life all the +latent shame in their natures, and for ever prevented any renewals of +the melancholy displays they have made of an unfeminine passion for +notoriety. The "wrongs of woman," in the state of New-York at least, +are purely ideal; here woman has all the privileges and protections +compatible with her destined offices in a civilized society. She +undoubtedly has a share of the sufferings to which human nature is +subject, but has literally nothing to complain of at the hands of man +in the social organization. The individual wrongs of which she is the +victim, are for the most part penalties of individual indiscretions, +and the remedy for them is to be found in the education of woman for +her proper sphere and duties, such education as shall develope her +capacities for the relations of domestic life, most of all, for +maternity. Miss Beecher treats parties with respect who are entitled +to no respect, acknowledges evils which do not exist, and proposes for +the elevation of female character plans of very questionable +influence. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13] WIESELER, FRIEDRICH. Theatergebäude und Denkmaler des +Buhnenwesens, beiden Gricchen und Römern. Göttingen, 1851. Vandenhoeik +und Ruprecht. + + + + +_The Fine Arts._ + + +All Europe abounds in memorials of illustrious men, and in the present +time there is more than ever before a disposition manifested to +consecrate art to the honor of the benefactors of mankind, or to those +who have been most eminent for great qualities. From Munich, we learn +by the latest journals, that two colossal statues--those of Gustavus +Adolphus and of the Swedish poet Tegner--have just been cast at the +royal foundry of that capital, with complete success. Both were +modelled by Schwanthaler, and are destined for public places in the +city of Stockholm. In France, the inhabitants of Andelys have been +inaugurating a statue of Nicolas Poussin, with great ceremonial. On +the same day a statue to Poisson, an eminent mathematician, was +inaugurated with pomp, at his native place, Pithiviers, near Orleans. +A little before, one was erected to Froissart, the quaint old +chronicler of knightly deeds, at Valenciennes, where he was born. +Jeanne Hachette is about to have one at Beauvais; Gresset, the author +of '_Vert Vert_', at Amiens; and the village of Rollot, in Picardy, +has just caused to be placed in its public square a bust of the +translator into French of the _Thousand and One Nights_, Antony +Galland. He was sent by Colbert to the East on account of his great +knowledge of the Hebrew and other oriental languages, and on his +return published the Arabian Nights, and a treatise on the origin of +coffee. + +There is, in fact, scarcely a Frenchman of real eminence in poetry, +literature, war, science, statesmanship, or the arts, who is not +honored with a statue, either in his birthplace, or in the town made +his own by adoption. Most of the statues are erected at the expense of +the respective localities; the good people thinking it a duty to +render every respect to their illustrious dead. And when they happen +to be too poor to incur much cost, they erect a fountain, or some +other useful work, which bears the great man's name. In the small and +poor village of Chatenay, near Paris, where Voltaire was born, you +see, for example, a small plaster bust of him, in an iron cage, and on +the parish pump the words "à Voltaire." And, as the _Literary Gazette_ +has it, very justly, "the man who should scoff at this simple tribute +to genius would be an ass,--it is all that poor peasants can afford to +pay." The names of distinguished men are also frequently given by the +French to streets and squares. In Paris alone, Molière, Racine, +Corneille, Voltaire, Boileau, Montaigne, and I know not how many +others, together with men of science by the hundred, have streets +named after them: so have Chateaubriand and Béranger; so have even the +English Lord Byron and the Italian Rossini. The ships in the navy, +too, receive also the names of distinguished men, foreign as well as +native--there is a man-of-war named after Newton, and several public +works have the name of our own Franklin. But in the United States, +although we have sometimes named after soldiers and statesmen, we have +scarce any monuments, and no statues at all, except a few of men +distinguished in affairs. In Union Square, opposite the house in which +he lived, there should be a statue of the great Chancellor Kent; in +Richmond, one of Marshall, next to Washington, the greatest of +Virginians; in Northampton, one to Jonathan Edwards; in New Haven, one +to Timothy Dwight; before the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, one +to Franklin, one to Rittenhouse, and one to Alex. Wilson; at +Cambridge, one to Allston; in Boston, one to Bowditch; and in +New-York, memorials of some sort to Audubon, Gallatin, Hamilton, &c. + +In the new park which is to be reserved in the upper part of the city, +we have an opportunity to commemorate the patriotism and misfortunes +of the first magistrate chosen by the people of New-York, the first +under whom municipal elections were held here, and the first martyr to +Liberty in the New World--Governor Leisler. LEISLER PARK sounds well, +and it has additional fitness from the fact, that the unfortunate +governor was once proprietor of a part of the grounds to be so +appropriated. If it shall not be called Leisler Park, there is another +illustrious New-Yorker, whose name appears to have been forgotten by +those who have given names to public places here,--Governor Colden, +who wrote the _History of the Five Nations_. + + * * * * * + +When the Emperor of Russia was at Rome, four or five years ago, he +engaged Barberi, the worker in mosaic, to undertake certain large +works, and with the instruction of six Russian students with a view to +the establishment of a great school of mosaic art in St. Petersburgh. +Since that time Barberi and his pupils have been occupied with works +for the imperial residence, the last of which, just completed, +consists of an octagonal mosaic pavement, from the ancient design of +the round hall in the Vatican Museum, with twenty-eight figures, a +colossal head of Medusa in the centre, and a variety of ornaments, all +inclosed in a brilliant wreath of fruits, flowers, and foliage. The +series already executed consist of four scenic masques, each of which +is valued at £5200 sterling. With these finished works Cavaliere +Barberi is about to forward to St. Petersburgh a number of vitreous +mosaic tablets of every shade and style of drawing and decoration, as +models for younger students. + + * * * * * + +TENERANI, the most eminent of contemporary Italian sculptors, has +finished a statue of Bolivar. The figure is standing, full draped, and +holding a laurel crown in the left hand. The pediment is ornamented +with three bas-reliefs, the three provinces, Peru, Bolivia, and +Colombia. Two statues, Justice and Liberality, symbols of the hero's +virtues, stand at the side of the monument, which will be erected in +the cathedral of Caraccas. It is a fine instance of the beauty and +delicate grace of Tenerani's treatment. The expressive head of "The +Liberator," with the high, arched brow, the large, soft, and sagacious +eyes, the sharply chiselled but agreeable features, beaming with +intellectual radiance, are happily conceived and exquisitely executed. + +In the same kind we note an equestrian statue of Bernadotte by +TOGELBERG, a Swede resident in Rome. The horseman's mantle has fallen +aside, the staff of a commander is in his hand, and the able marshal, +"king that shall be," looks graciously down from his horse. In his +face there is the imperial force of military genius, with the genial +grace of sensibility. The horse is finely done. + + * * * * * + +STEINHAUSER'S statue of Hahnemann, the father of homoeopathy, +destined for Leipsic, is almost finished. The same artist has in hand +the Goethe monument, designed by Bettina von Arnim. The sketch serves +as the illuminated title-page to the second volume of the +correspondence with a child. She describes it as follows: "Goethe sits +upon a throne, within a semi-niche, his head reaches over the niche, +which is not closed above, but is cut away, and seems, half seen, like +the moon rising over the rim of a mountain. The mantle, tied round the +neck, falls back over the shoulders, and is brought forward again +under the arms into the lap. The left hand rests upon the lyre, +supported upon the left knee. The right hand, which holds my flowers, +is sunk negligently in the same way, and, forgetting fame, he holds +the laurel wreath, and looks toward heaven. The young Psyche stands +before him, as then I stood, raises herself upon tip-toe to touch the +strings of the lyre, which he permits, lost in inspiration." + +The artist has appreciated this conception. He has represented Goethe +not as an old man, but as a man of ideal expression, holding indeed +the well-won laurel, but with the harp in hand, as if inspiration were +exhaustless. + + * * * * * + +HERR KISS'S group in bronze of an Amazon encountering a lion has been +purchased by the Prince of Prussia as a present for the Queen of +England. A copy of the same work in zinc has been purchased by a +gentleman from the United States for £2500. It is said that Kiss has +received a commission for two other copies for persons in the United +States. + + * * * * * + +The English critics complain that they have not any longer a great +portrait painter. This branch of art is declining, and the walls of +the Academy this year bear testimony to the fact. From the death of +Lawrence to the present time, now more than twenty years, it has been +gradually subsiding into the mere record of literal fact--ignoring +those great principles which made it once a means of historical +record. In America we have occasion for no such regrets. Elliot is +equal to any man in the world for a masculine and noble head, and +Hicks and several others would in any country or in any time command +the applause due to great masters. + + * * * * * + +For three years Mr. PYNE, the landscape painter, has been taking a +series of views in the lake counties of England. The pictures comprise +all the important objects in a tour through the country they +illustrate, treated under a variety of aspects, which renders the +collection valuable in an artistic point of view. A feeling for +atmospheric distance is one of Mr. Pyne's most important attributes, +and in representing wide reaching views of mountains and lakes he has +had full scope for his talent. The pictures are to be copied in a +series of colored lithographs, and published in a volume. + + * * * * * + +Among the pictures in the Royal Academy this season are several by +British army officers on foreign duty. By the Hon. Lieutenant Colonel +Percy there are, _A Study of Niagara from the under Horse-Shoe Fall, +The River St. Lawrence and Mouth of the Saguenay_, and a view on the +same river _Near the Chaudiere Bridge, Quebec_. + + * * * * * + +RAUCH, the sculptor, whose statue of Frederic the Great has just been +erected in Berlin, has been the object of an artistic ovation. The +Academy of Sciences gave a banquet in his honor, the king, royal +family, and ministers assisted, and Meyerbeer composed a _Cantata_ for +the occasion. + + * * * * * + +Mr. HEALY'S picture of Mr. Webster replying to Colonel Hayne is +completed, in Paris, and will be brought to New-York in the present +month (of August). It is twenty-eight feet long. The painter has +published proposals for engravings of it, at twenty dollars per copy. + + * * * * * + +An original painting by Raphael, _The Boar Hunt_, was destroyed in a +recent fire at Downhill House, the family seat of Sir Hervey Bruce, in +England. + + * * * * * + +The French and English journals mention several important improvements +of the daguerreotype, some of which are of the same character as Mr. +Hill's. Mr. Brady, of this city, has gone to London, to establish a +branch of his house in that city. + + + + +_Historical Review of the Month._ + + +THE UNITED STATES. + +On the 4th of July the corner stone of the Capitol extension at +Washington was laid, before the President of the United States, the +Cabinet, army and navy officers, and a very large assemblage of +citizens. Mr. Webster delivered on the occasion an address, in which +he pointed out with his customary eloquent clearness the extraordinary +advances of the country since General Washington, fifty-eight years +before, had performed there a similar duty, and for the advantage of +condensation and exactness he presented many important facts in the +form of a comparative table, as follows: + + 1793. 1851. +Number of States 15 31 +Representatives and Senators in + Congress 135 295 +Population of the U. States, 1850 3,929,328 23,267,498 + Do. Boston, do. 18,038 136,871 + Do. Baltimore, do. 13,503 169,054 + Do. Philadelphia, do. 42,520 409,045 + Do. New-York (city), do. 33,121 515,507 + Do. Washington, do. ---- 40,075 +Amount of receipts into Treasury, do. $5,720,624 $43,774,848 +Am't of expenditures of U.S., do. 7,529,575 39,355,268 +Amount of imports, do. 31,000,000 178,138,318 + Do. Exports, do. 26,109,000 151,898,720 + Do. Tonnage, do. 525,764 3,535,454 +Area of the United States, do. 805,461 3,314,365 +Rank and file of the army 5,110 10,000 +Militia (enrolled), ---- 2,006,456 +Navy of the United States (vessels), None 76 + Do. Armament (ordinance), -- 2,012 +Number of treaties and conventions + with foreign powers 9 90 +Number of lighthouses and light-boats 7 372 +Expenditures for do. $12,061 529,265 +Area of the first capitol building in + square feet ---- 14,641 +Do. present capitol (including extension) ---- 4-1/3 acres +Lines of railroads in miles ---- 8,500 + Do. Telegraphs ---- 15,000 +Number of post-offices 209 21,551 +Number of miles of post route 5,642 178,671 +Amount of revenue from post-offices $104,747 $5,552,971 +Amount of expenditures in the + Post-Office Department 72,040 5,212,953 +Number of miles of mail transportation ---- 46,541,423 +Miles of railroad ---- 8,500 +Public libraries 35 694 +Number of volumes in do. 75,000 2,201,632 +School libraries ---- 10,000 +Number of volumes in do. ---- $2,000,000 + +The recent anniversary--being three quarters of a century from the +Declaration of Independence--was celebrated with unusual enthusiasm in +nearly all parts of the United States. One small party of +secessionists in a southern state chose the occasion for some farcical +expressions of treason, and members of another party, equally insane +or wicked, in the north, chose to violate the sacredness of the time +by avowing a disregard of the Constitution; but on the whole the +displays of feeling were such as to gratify a patriotic and hopeful +spirit. The new constitution of Maryland went into effect on that day, +and in obedience to one of its provisions all the persons confined in +its several prisons for debt were then released. + +The correspondence between the British Minister and the Secretary of +State respecting the long-pending difficulties in Central America is +not yet concluded. It appears that Great Britain is ready to +relinquish her peculiar relations with the so-called Mosquito Kingdom, +and surrender her control over San Juan; but she refuses to make that +surrender to Nicaragua, which claims an unconditional right in the +case, and refuses to submit to any restrictions. There are other +territorial difficulties between Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the other +states, which seem difficult of adjustment. On these subjects Sir +Henry Bulwer has addressed to the American Government a communication +urging its interference to produce an amicable settlement. Mr. Webster +has left Washington for a temporary residence in the country, and it +is probable that this correspondence will not be concluded until his +return, and the return of the British Minister from a contemplated +visit to London. + +It is supposed that an extensive fraud has been committed against the +United States Government in the settlement of Mexican claims. The +person accused, a Dr. Gardner, received a large sum from the Mexican +Commission, but as is now stated, by fraudulent evidence. He is absent +in Europe, but the grand jury of Washington has found a bill against +him, and his brother and another party implicated in the transaction +have been held to bail for perjury. + +The Tehuantepec Surveying Expedition has returned to New Orleans. +Surveys, which show the practicability of the railroad route, are +complete. A few parties have been left on the ground to survey a line +for the construction of a carriage road. The Coatzacoatlcos River is +reported navigable, for twenty-five miles above its mouth, for ships +drawing eleven feet of water. The climate is believed to be healthy. +The Mexican government having evinced some unfriendliness to the +Tehuantepec project, the interference of the United States has been +solicited, but declined. The balance of the fourth installment of the +Mexican Indemnity, under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, was paid at +the U.S. Treasury on the 28th of June--amounting to $1,815,400. The +whole amount of the installment is $3,360,000. The Court Martial +convened at Washington on the 23d June, for the trial of General +Talcott, chief of the ordnance department, has closed its labors by +the conviction of the accused of all the charges preferred against +him, and his dismissal from the service. The charges were: a violation +of the 132d article of the regulations for the government of the +Ordnance Department; wilful disobedience of orders and instructions +from the Secretary of War in relation to a contract for supplies; and +conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, among other things, in +making a declaration which was positively and wilfully false, and +intended to deceive the Secretary of War. + +Preparations for the next presidential canvass are being commenced in +many of the States. General Scott has received the nomination of two +state conventions--that of Ohio, and that of Pennsylvania--besides +having been nominated at public meetings in Delaware, Indiana, and +other places. Mr. Woodbury has been nominated in New Hampshire, and +meetings of various degrees of importance have expressed preferences +for other candidates in various parts of the country. The crops of +all sorts are represented as being in a very prosperous condition +throughout all sections: of wheat and potatoes more abundant than ever +before, and of cotton and rice very much better than the drought in +the early part of the season promised. The Extra Session of the +New-York legislature adjourned on the 11th of July, after passing +several important bills. That for the enlargement of the Erie Canal is +a measure of great moment to the industry and commerce of the state. +It provides for the complete enlargement of the Erie Canal within four +years, thus securing the immense business which would else seek other +avenues to the seaboard, and endowing the state with a large revenue +independent of taxes. Chief Justice Bronson, whose political relations +give to his opinions in this case a peculiar value, has published an +elaborate vindication of the bill's constitutionality. The legislature +of New Hampshire adjourned on the 5th of July. The legislature of +Connecticut has also adjourned, having elected no Senator in the place +of Mr. Baldwin. Resolutions approving of the Compromise Measures, +_including the Fugitive Slave Law_, passed the House by a vote of 113 +to 35, but in the Senate they were indefinitely postponed. The +Virginia Reform Convention struck out the section of the Constitution +prohibiting the legislature from passing a law to allow the +emancipation of slaves, and inserted a provision that an emancipated +slave remaining in the state over twelve months shall be sold. The +legislature is allowed to impose restrictions on the owners of slaves +who are disposed to emancipate, but the section giving the legislature +power to remove free negroes from the state is stricken out. The +murderers of the Cosden family, in Kent Co., Maryland, are sentenced +to be hung on the first Friday of the present month. + +From California we have intelligence to the 15th of June. San +Francisco and Stockton seem to have almost entirely recovered from the +effects of the late conflagrations; the burnt districts were being +restored with a rapidity surpassing all previous examples of +Californian energy, and business, far from being prostrated, had +resumed its former activity. The accounts from the mines continued to +be encouraging, the yield of gold not having been diminished by the +unusual dryness of the winter. The Indian Commissioners have met with +great success in their work of pacification, although there were +rumors of skirmishes in the northern part of the state. A man named +Jennings was lately seized at San Francisco while attempting to escape +with a bag of stolen money, and was, after being arrested and tried by +a self-constituted Vigilance Committee, condemned, brought out into +the plaza, and publicly hung in the presence of a large crowd. A crime +so monstrous may well startle the world. If the persons composing the +Vigilance Committee have respectable positions in society, this fact +but increases the infamy of the transaction, and gives it a more fatal +influence. Every member of the committee, consenting to its action, +should be deemed guilty of murder, and punished as a murderer, though +the magistracy of California should have to invoke for its support in +enforcing the laws the whole force of the nation. There is no safety, +nor true liberty, where there is not obedience; and it had been better +that all the thieves in California in half a century escaped +punishment than that one should be punished in this manner. + +In the Mormon territory of Utah ground was broken for the Great Salt +Lake and Mountain Railway on the 1st of May. When this enterprise is +completed, preparations will be more vigorously prosecuted for the +erection of the Temple. The condition of affairs in the new +settlements is represented as encouraging. + +The tide of emigration continues to flow into Texas from European +ports. Milam District, on the Upper Brazos, seems at present to be the +favorite point for the colonists. The new town of Kent has lately been +erected at Kimball's Bend, and under the auspices of Captain Sir +Edward Belcher, R.N., made up of hardy English and Scotch settlers. +With the payment of its debt insured by the ten millions received from +the United States, Texas must become one of the most flourishing +states of the Union. + + +MEXICO. + +Recent advices from Mexico lead to apprehensions that the unquiet and +unsettled state of affairs may result in open attempts at a revolution +in the government, and an effort by the partisans of General Santa +Anna to recall him from exile, and place him at the head of the +administration. It is understood that the President has abandoned the +liberal party and allied himself with the clergy. A vigorous newspaper +war is waged against the priests. The Mexican congress is engaged in +devising ways and means to raise the necessary revenue to carry on the +government. The proposition to impose an additional tax of eight per +cent on all foreign merchandise imported into the Republic, has been +adopted by the Chamber of Deputies. + + +BRITISH AMERICA. + +The subject of the clergy reserves, which for a quarter of a century +has almost been constantly debated in Upper Canada, has lately been +agitated with unprecedented earnestness and bitterness. The popular +and English party advocate the appropriation of the funds thus +accruing to purposes of general education. The Board of Trade of +Toronto has passed a vote of censure upon the Council, for having +memorialized the government to impose differential duties against +American manufactures. The census returns for 1850 give the population +of Canada at nearly 800,000. The proceeds of clergy reserve sales, +during the year, were $220,428. In the Legislative Assembly, a series +of resolutions has been moved for the repeal of the union between +Upper and Lower Canada. Efforts are being made to construct a railroad +from Halifax to Hamilton, where it is to join the Great Western road, +constituting a continuous line from Halifax to Detroit. + + +WEST INDIES. + +We have dates of Port-au-Prince to the 30th of June. The coronation of +the Emperor Soulouque will take place very soon. Should no bishop +arrive from Rome, the Emperor may create a native bishop. At the +coronation, a general amnesty is expected for all political exiles, +whose return to Hayti will be beneficial, for among them are men of +wealth and intelligence. The affairs of the country have assumed a +more pacific aspect. Immediately after the recent proclamation of the +Emperor to the Dominicans, several agents were sent to different +points on the frontier, to induce the enemy to enter on amicable +relations. With a single exception, these missions were successful, +and a number of Dominicans were expected in Port-au-Prince, for +purposes of trade. The universal desire of the Haytian people, as well +as of the government, is said to be that the dispute may be honorably +settled. The Emperor, however, has not relinquished the idea of +effecting a reannexation of the territory of Dominica to Hayti. The +excessive issues of Treasury bonds and paper currency are proving +prejudicial to the true interests of the country. The number of +negroes brought to Cuba from the coast of Africa, during the past +fourteen months, is 14,500. Very heavy rains have fallen in the +interior and in the neighborhood of Manzanilla. + + +SOUTH AMERICA. + +In the number of the _Christian Review_ for the July quarter is a very +comprehensive, intelligible, and apparently perfectly correct survey +of the condition of the South American states, to which we refer +readers who would possess more minute information on the subject than +can be embraced in this summary. + +The condition of PERU appears favorable for the maintenance of peace +and order. The laws relating to elections, municipal governments, and +other topics connected with the internal affairs of the country, have +been considered by Congress, in accordance with the recommendation of +the President. The election of Gen. Vivanca, the unsuccessful +candidate for the Presidency, as representative in Congress, has been +pronounced invalid, on account of his not holding the rights of +citizenship. The change of ministry was received with satisfaction in +all the departments, except Arequipa, which continued in a state of +disturbance. The Governor's proclamation, requiring that all arms +should be surrendered to the government, was the occasion of a fresh +outbreak. Arequipa was thrown into a state of siege: the streets were +filled with barricades: trenches were constructed at all the avenues +to the city: and every obstacle opposed to the entrance of the troops +which were encamped in the vicinity. Gen. Vivanca, whose party have +caused these disturbances, is in prison at Lima; but whether he is +personally implicated is uncertain. + +The Government of BOLIVIA has issued the plan of a new Constitution, +proposing among other measures, the preservation of the Roman Catholic +religion as the religion of the state, the maintenance of amicable +relations with American and European states, the liberty of the press, +the independence of the judicial authority, the freedom of opinion on +political subjects, and the protection of foreigners in the exercise +of commercial pursuits. A National Convention has been convoked for +the 16th of July. The number of deputies was to be 53. + +An insurrection has taken place in New-Grenada--the two southern +provinces, Pasto and Tuquerres, having united in an attempt to +overthrow the government, with the aid and encouragement of Ecuador. +The President at once dispatched a military force to the scene of the +revolt, but at the last advices it had not succeeded in its object, +though two or three engagements had taken place. The government has +issued proposals for a loan of $400,000 in specie, and unless this is +effected soon, recourse must be had to forced contributions to defray +the expenses of the war. Congress has abolished slavery, requiring +only certain payments to the masters. No disturbance had arisen from +the measure. + + +GREAT BRITAIN. + +In the British Parliament important reforms in the Chancery system are +still under discussion, and Lord Brougham is as ardent a reformer as +he was thirty years ago. The census of Great Britain, taken on the +31st of March last, is a remarkable document. It shows that the small +cluster of the British isles contains a larger population than the +whole of this republic, exclusive of its slaves. The metropolis +numbers upwards of two millions and a quarter, and added to its +denizens during the last ten years about as many souls as New-York now +reckons within its limits. But a more extraordinary and altogether +different result appears in Ireland. It seems that the population of +Ireland is at this moment very little more than six millions and a +half. It is absolutely less than it was in 1821, and more than two +millions short of the number that would have been reached in the +natural order of things, but for the extraordinary occurrences of the +last ten years. So startling a fact will of course become the subject +of the closest inquiries. + +The Anti-Papal Bill finally passed the House of Commons, by a large +majority, on the 4th of July. It had previously been amended on the +motion of Sir F. Thesiger, and in spite of the opposition of the +ministers, so as to be much more than the Government had designed. +These amendments make provisions of the bill extend to all Papal bulls +and rescripts, impose a penalty of one hundred pounds upon any who +obtain or publish them, and make it the right of any individual to sue +for the recovery of the fine. The law is stringent, and in America +would be both impolitic and unnecessary. But there is no doubt that +the Lords will adopt the bill, and that it will become the law of the +land. The state of the Church and its abuses have been presented in +the Commons by Mr. Horsman, Sir B. Hall, and Lord Blandford, who +brought up various facts, and contended that a bishop need not have +better pay than a prime minister, that the funds of the establishment +were enough to support an efficient clergy and leave something for +national schools, and that the Church does not supply the spiritual +wants of the people. Such discussions must finally result in the +overthrow of the establishment. Some excitement is caused by an appeal +addressed to the Italians by the authorities at Rome asking for aid to +Roman Catholic missions in London, in which "this great work is most +earnestly recommended to the charity of Italian believers, and to the +zeal of the bishops of Italy." Archbishop Minucci, of Florence, has +also called on the people of his diocese for aid in constructing an +Italian church in London, where "the spiritual wants of the faithful" +may be cared for, and announcing _an indulgence of one hundred days_ +for those who shall contribute for this object. + +An attempt has been made to prevent the adulteration of coffee with +chicory. It was thought possible to do this by means of a government +inspection, but the motion failed. The Exhibition is still prosperous. +The gross receipts already amount to a million and a half of dollars. + +The number of troops in Ireland has, in consequence of the quiet and +improved condition of that country, been reduced from about 26,000 to +the present strength of 18,000 men. The decrees of the Thurles synod, +condemning the Queen's colleges, as institutions "dangerous to faith +and morals," have been sanctioned by the Pope, without any change or +qualifications. Some slight alterations have been made in the statutes +of the synod, respecting matters of ecclesiastical discipline in the +various dioceses; but those which refer to the colleges have been +approved without any modification. The _Cork Constitution_ says, +"There is a great diminution in the number of emigrants proceeding to +America. Only four or five vessels are now at the quays preparing to +leave. It is with difficulty the requisite number of emigrants can be +made up, many preferring to go by Liverpool." + +Nearly a hundred Hungarian refugees had arrived at Southampton, from +Constantinople. Lord John Russell has intimated that the Government +will defray the expense of their passage to New-York, and of their +subsistence during the time they may remain in Southampton, waiting +arrangements for this purpose. Amongst the refugees is the +distinguished Hungarian Lieut. General Loisar Messaros. + +Preparations for another _Peace Congress_ have been made on a large +scale. In one important particular the London Congress will be +distinguished above all others; and that is, in the greater breadth of +representative character which it will acquire; for associated bodies +who have never hitherto manifested a direct interest in the peace +question are preparing to send delegates on this occasion. + +The official returns of the _shipwrecks of the United Kingdom_ during +the past year, show that the average is nearly two a day; and the +amount, thus far, four vessels only propelled by steam, and six +hundred and sixty-eight sailing vessels of every description. The +difference in the number of steam and sailing vessels afloat is far +from the proportion of disasters. Navigation by steam is thus +demonstrated to be much the safest. + +The 4th of July was celebrated in London with appropriate honors by +the American residents and others. Mr. George Peabody issued cards of +invitation to meet the United States Minister and Mrs. Lawrence at a +fête which he was to give in the evening, and about seven or eight +hundred persons were present, including the American families in +London, and a large proportion of the nobility and public persons in +England, by whom the idea was received with the greatest satisfaction. +The Duke of Wellington, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Lord +Mayor, the Duke of Valencia, the Count and Countess Pulzki, Lord +Glenelg, Viscount Canning, Miss Burdett Coutts, the American Ministers +to London, St. Petersburg, and Brussels, and a great number of other +eminent persons attended, besides Catharine Hayes, Lablache, Gardoni, +and Cruvelli, who sang during the evening, and were received with more +than usual applause. The affair was one of the grandest of the season. + + +FRANCE. + +In France the chief events of importance are connected with the +project for the revision of the Constitution. After a long struggle +the subject was given to a committee, at the head of which was De +Tocqueville. His report, as presented to the committee on the 4th of +July, had not at the last dates received when this sheet goes to +press, come before the public in an authentic form; but it is +understood that it treats of three principal points. In the first +place, M. de Tocqueville enters boldly into the question between the +republicans and monarchists. He examines with skill the pretensions of +the republic to Divine right put forward in the Commission itself by +General Cavaignac, and sustained by him with impassioned energy and an +accent of conviction which astonished the members. M. de Tocqueville +denies this pretended Divine right, and maintains that of the nation +to choose the form of government that may best suit it--a right which +is absolute, superior, and indisputable. Secondly, he is said to +oppose, by anticipation, any species of amendment which would have the +effect of confining the next Constituent Assembly within any limits, +or force on it the obligation of revising the constitution for the +sole end of ameliorating and consolidating them, and to maintain that +the Constituent Assembly should be invested with a general and +unlimited mission, in order that it may act in the plenitude of a +really constituent power; and thirdly, he is described as expressing +hopes that the Assembly will adopt the proposition accepted by the +majority of the commission; that a constituent assembly will be +chosen; that the constitution will be revised or remodelled; and in +such case that all will consider it their duty to conform to it; that +if the proposition of revision be not admitted, the constitution of +1848 shall remain as the supreme and sovereign law for all; that the +only alternative will be to maintain, until the term of a new period +of three years, the provisional form of the actual government--it +being of course understood, that, in such case, each person will feel +it his duty to conform to the constitution, and to abstain from every +act which would be tantamount to its violation. It is added that M. de +Tocqueville developes this proposition in such a manner as to oppose +_all unconstitutional candidateships_; that is, of the actual +President, the Prince de Joinville, and Ledru Rollin. The friends of +Louis Napoleon have favored the revision, in the hope that by it they +might prolong his term. Several speeches lately made by the president +have given a more favorable impression than that which he made at +Dijon. One at Poitiers, on the occasion of the opening of a railroad, +has given satisfaction to moderate men of all parties, who believe it +honest. + +A bill to interdict clubs has been again adopted without any attempt +at alteration. General Aupick is announced as the new ambassador to +Spain. Count Colonna Walewski, an illegitimate son of the Emperor +Napoleon, has reached the highest round of the diplomatic ladder by +being sent as ambassador to the Court of St. James. The _Pays_ +announces that the question of Abd-el-Kader's captivity is on the +point of receiving a satisfactory solution. The committee charged to +examine the bill for the ratification of the treaties of La Plata is +disposed to propose simply the ratification of those treaties. At +Charente, recently, thirty-two adult Roman Catholics of both sexes, in +the presence of a numerous congregation, in the Protestant church, +publicly abjured the Roman Catholic and embraced the Protestant faith. + +A measure introduced by M. de St. Beuve in the National Assembly for a +commercial reform, by modifying the present restrictive tariff, so as +to accomplish a gradual approach to free trade, had been rejected by a +majority of 428 to 199. M. Thiers on this occasion made a great speech +against free trade, which is much criticised by the English press. The +London _Times_ calls Thiers the evil genius of France. + +The most recent commercial letters received from various parts of +France represent affairs as somewhat recovering from the gloomy +appearance they wore some days since. The manufacturers have received +numerous orders for the great fair of Beaucaire, which will be held in +July. The Bank of France has announced a dividend of fifty-five francs +per share for the first half year of 1851. + + +ITALY. + +On the evening of the 7th of May, the Count Piero Guicciardini, the +descendant of the great historian, had met in a private house in +Florence six persons whose names are given in a decree, and before the +party broke up, Count Guicciardini read and expounded a chapter of the +Gospel of St. John. At ten o'clock the house was entered by eight +gendarmes; a perquisition began, in the style now customary in +Tuscany; the depositions of the party assembled were taken down; and +as it was fully proved by such depositions that a chapter of the Bible +had been read by Count Guicciardini, the whole of the seven offenders +were straightway led to the police delegation of Santa Maria Novella, +where their arrest was signed by the delegate, and a little after +midnight they were lodged in the Bargello, or public prison. For ten +days Count Guicciardini and his companions were kept in confinement +and subjected to repeated examinations, and finally the sentence of +forced residence in different parts of the Tuscan Maremme was passed +on each of the accused. This illustration of the liberality of the +Roman Catholic Church--though in perfect keeping with its perpetual +policy--has produced a profound sensation. It might have escaped +without much observation but for the eminence of the parties, and the +claims made lately in England, that the Roman Catholic authorities +were as tolerant as they asked that others should be to them, in all +matters of personal rights. + +The French military commandant in Rome has been exercising his +authority with great, but probably requisite severity. Two Roman +soldiers have been tried by French court martial, and executed for +riotous conduct, and seven others have been doomed to the same fate. +The Pope also has been threatened with expulsion from the Quirinal +Palace, which the above-mentioned authority thought at one time would +be essential as a military post. So far, the weak-minded holder of St. +Peter's keys has not suffered the mortification of a second forced +retreat, although, between his military guardians of France and +Austria and his own discontented subjects, his position is scarcely an +enviable one. The three young Englishmen arrested at Leghorn yet +remain imprisoned; but their real names do not appear. + + +GERMANY. + +The military authorities of Austria give as much offence in Germany as +the French in Rome. At Hamburg, several citizens have been killed in a +fray with the Austrian soldiers, begun by the insolence of the latter. +In Hesse Cassel, the Government has been compelled to grant immunities +to the Roman Catholic clergy, scarcely compatible with the +institutions of a Protestant country, under the compulsion of Austrian +bayonets. + +The Göttingen Professors have decided that the Government of Electoral +Hesse was not required by the Constitution to procure the assent of +the Chambers to the levy of taxes last year; this is the point on +which the revolutionary manifestations turned. We have not the +Constitution at hand, and cannot apprehend the grounds of this +decision, but it is singular that all the magistrates and people of +the country, who ought to have known something of their constitution, +should have unanimously held a different opinion. The Prussian +government have withdrawn the summons for the assembling of the +provincial diets, no doubt on account of the universal condemnation +excited by it. A decided schism has of late manifested itself in the +commercial policy advocated by North and South Germany. Whilst the +attempt to procure higher protective duties in the Zollverein has +continually been defeated by the liberal principals supported by +Prussia. South Germany, on the other hand, has come forward openly +with the intention to assert an independent line of action. + + +SPAIN. + +Accounts from Madrid of the 2d July, state that M. Jose Sanchez Ocana, +director general of the public treasury, has been appointed under +secretary of state of the finance department, in the place of M. +Bordia, director general of the customs. M. Rudulfo, inspector of the +finances at Madrid, succeeded M. Ocana in the direction of the public +treasury. France, by her diplomatic agents at Madrid, strives to +influence the Spanish government in regard to a more active repression +of the slave trade in its colonies. Mr. Schoelcher adverted to the +passage of the recent speech of the Emperor of Brazil, touching the +abolition of the traffic, as meant simply to please England--"like all +other speeches from thrones, in which the design is to give a sort of +satisfaction to the foreign powers with whom friendly relations are +desirable." The amendment was rejected by 339 nays to 230 ayes. + + +RUSSIA. + +Letters from Posen allude to an ukase which had appeared, compelling +all individuals throughout Russia and Poland to sell to the +government, within a specified period, whatever uncoined silver they +might have in their possession. An indemnity in paper money was +authorized to be given on behalf of the treasury. A body of Belgian +weavers and dyers has been engaged to go to St. Petersburg to set up +their trade. In Circassia the Russian army has met with a serious +defeat; in a battle where it had 25,000 men engaged, it lost 5,000. + + +AUSTRIA AND TURKEY. + +The Emperor has appointed Count Rechburg Internuncio at the court of +Constantinople. Accounts from Comorn state that violent shocks of an +earthquake were felt there on the 1st. The shocks were accompanied by +violent claps of thunder. The clocks in all the church towers struck; +scarcely a single house remained uninjured; numerous chimneys fell in, +and the furniture and utensils in the rooms were overthrown and +broken. Many accidents had occurred, but providentially, not any of a +fatal nature are yet known. + + + + +_Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies._ + + +The BRITISH ASSOCIATION met this year on the second of July, at +Ipswich. Among those present we notice the names of Prince Albert, the +Prince of Canino, the Duke of Argyle, the Earl of Rosse, the Earl of +Enniskillen, the Earl of Sheffield, Lord Monteagle, Lord +Londesborough, Lord Stradbroke, Lord Rendlesham, Lord Abercorn, Lord +Alfred Paget, Lord Wrottesley, the Bishop of Oxford, Sir Charles +Lemon, Sir Roderick Murchison, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Henry de la +Beche, Sir Edward Cust, Sir William Jardine, Sir William Middleton, +Sir W. J. Hooker, Sir J. T. Boileau, Professors Airy, Asa Gray, +Harvey, Sedgwick, Henslow, Owen, Sylvester, Forbes, Bell, Anstead, +Phillips, and Faraday, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Dr. Hooker, and many eminent +scientific men. + + * * * * * + +At a recent meeting of the ASIATIC SOCIETY in London, a report of the +Oriental Translation Committee mentioned the printing of the second +volume of the _Travels of Evliva Effendi_, of the fifth volume of +_Haji Khalfæ Lexicon_, and of the _Makamat_ of Hariri. The Committee +had received from Col. Rawlinson the offer of a translation of the +valuable and rare geographical work of Yakút, which it accepted, and +is about to proceed with the printing of the third and concluding +volume of M. Garcin de Tassy's _Histoire de la Littérature Hindoui et +Hindoustani_, including a Memoir on Hindústani Songs, with numerous +translations. The Report concluded with noticing the presentation of +William the Fourth's gold medal to Prof. H. H. Wilson, in +acknowledgment of his services to Oriental literature generally, and +especially in testimony of the merits of his translation of the +_Vishnu Purana_. + +The annual Report of the Council gave some notice of the progress of +Babylonian and Assyrian decipherment as carried out by Colonel +Rawlinson, and now in the course of communication to the world by the +Society. The Babylonian version of the great Behistún inscription was +exhibited on the table; and, in allusion to it, the Report contained a +concise _résumé_ of what had been done from the information of Colonel +Rawlinson himself, who is of opinion that the inscriptions read extend +over a period of 1,000 years--from B.C. 2000 to 1000; that he has +ascertained the religion of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians to +have been strictly Astral or Sabæan; and as he finds among the gods +the names of Belus, Ninus and Semiramis, he thinks that the dynasties +given by the Greeks were, in fact, lists of mythological names. The +geography of Western Asia as it was 4,000 years ago appears to be +clearly made out. Col. Rawlinson finds a king of Cadytis, or +Jerusalem, named Kanun, a tributary of the king who built the palace +of Khursabad, warring with a Pharaoh of Egypt, and defeating his +armies on the south frontier of Palestine. The Meshec and Tubal of +Scripture were dwelling in North Syria, the Hittites held the centre +of the province, and the commercial cities of Tyre and Sidon and Gaza +and Acre flourished on the coasts. And so well does Colonel Rawlinson +find the geography made out, that he is of opinion he can identify +every province and city named in the inscriptions. + + * * * * * + +The last Bulletin of the GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY of Paris, opens with an +appeal to the governments of Europe and America, for the adoption of a +Common First Meridian. The author, M. Sedillor, is a high authority in +geographical science, and would trace an imaginary line in the midst +of the Ocean; designate it by some "systematic term," acceptable to +all, and bring, thus, Europe and the new world into a community of +views and interests apart from all national prejudices or pretension. +The appeal followed by a letter of M. Jomard on the same subject, and +another from the traveller Antony D'Abbadie, who prefers Mont Blanc, +or Jerusalem--"against which the Christians of America can have no +objection." Among the contents of the Bulletin, is a notice of Lieut. +Com. MacArthur's report, eighteenth December, 1850, to Professor +Bache, which has been translated entire for the _Hydrographical +Annals_, a periodical work. Mr. Squier's Observations on the Route of +the Proposed Canal across the Isthmus of Nicaragua, are also +translated. There is a paper of some compass, on the various projects +and undertakings for a communication between the Oceans and a like one +on the services rendered to geography by the French and British +missionaries. Those of the German and American, who have not been less +zealous, will be duly credited and recorded, when materials can be +obtained for the purpose. + + * * * * * + +At the meeting for the 22nd May, of the ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE, +in London, a very interesting Greek MS. was exhibited. It is owned by +a Mr. Arden, who purchased it of an Arab near Thebes. It is nearly +four yards long, divided into pages or columns containing twenty-eight +lines, the length of which exceeds six inches, and the breadth two +inches; the whole is written in a large and clear hand, with great +accuracy, since few corrections or interpolations are visible. +Although it is difficult to assign to it the actual age, still there +seems to be every reason to conjecture that it is of the commencement +of the present era--or indeed, which is by no means improbable, that +it was written a century or two before the birth of Christ. The +delicacy of the texture of the papyrus will afford a strong +presumption in favor of the latter period; for it is well known to +Egyptologists that a coarseness and inferiority of papyrus indicate a +more recent date. The first portion of the MS. is much broken, and +presents many gaps and fragments; the end of it bears the title of an +Apology, or Defence of Lycophron. The second, or larger portion of the +MS., is much more perfect, as it contains only here and there an +hiatus, which will probably be easily restored; at its termination we +are informed that it is a Defence of the accusation of Euxenippus +against Polyeuctus. The author of these orations will, in all +likelihood, prove to be the great Athenian orator Hyperides, whose +works have been long lost. Indeed, this appears to be almost certain, +since some of the Greek lexicographers mention a speech of Hyperides +'for Lycophron,' and another 'against Polyeuctus concerning the +accusation.' But who Lycophron was, and what was the nature of the +defence for him, remain to be more amply detailed. The subject of +this second oration, however, appears to be known,--for Polyeuctus, +the Athenian orator, was accused, with Demosthenes, of receiving a +bribe from Harpalus. Moreover, the fragments of a papyrus MS. procured +a few years ago at Egyptian Thebes by Dr. Harris, lately ably edited +by Mr. Babington, at Cambridge, and proved to be parts of the oration +of Hyperides against Demosthenes, are so exceedingly similar, both in +handwriting and the papyrus, to the present MS. belonging to Mr. +Arden, that it is not improbable but that they may have been copied by +the same Greek scribe and may originally have formed one entire MS. +roll of the orations of Hyperides. A careful examination and +comparison of these interesting MSS. will, after a time, decide these +questions. + + * * * * * + +At a late sitting of the _Paris Academy of Medicine_, M. ORFILA, the +celebrated toxicologist, read a paper on _Nicotine_--the poison used +in the Bocarme murder. It is the essential principle of tobacco. +Virginia tobacco yields the largest proportion of _nicotine_; from +twenty pounds, were extracted four hundred _grammes_ of the poison; a +gramme is equal to 15·444 grains troy. The Maryland leaf affords about +a third of that quantity. Nicotine is nearly as powerful and rapid as +prussic acid with the animal economy. Five or six drops applied to the +tongue of a dog, killed in ten minutes. The progress which medical +jurisconsults have made recently, is so great, that poisoning by +morphine, strychnine, prussic acid, and other vegetable substances, +hitherto regarded as inaccessible to our means of investigation, may +now be detected and recognized in the most incontestable manner. M. +Ortila, in closing his notice, says: "After these results of judicial +medical investigation, the public need be under no apprehension. No +doubt intelligent and clever criminals, with a view to thwart the +surgeons, will sometimes have recourse to very active poisons little +known by the mass, and difficult of detection, but science is on the +alert, and soon overcomes all difficulty; penetrating into the utmost +depths of our organs, it brings out the proof of the crime, and +furnishes one of the greatest pieces of evidence against the guilty." + + * * * * * + +In the LONDON ROYAL INSTITUTION, May 23, M. Ebelman, of the Sèvres +works, near Paris, being present with various specimens of the +minerals which he has produced artificially,--Mr. Faraday stated the +process and results generally. The process consists in employing a +solvent, which shall first dissolve the mineral or its constituents; +and shall further, either on its removal or on a diminution of its +dissolving powers, permit the mineral to aggregate in a crystaline +condition. Such solvents are boracic acid, borax, phosphate of soda, +phosphoric acid, &c.:--the one chiefly employed by M. Ebelman is +boracic acid. By putting together certain proportions of alumina and +magnesia, with a little oxide of crome or other coloring matter, and +fused boracic acid into a fit vessel, and inclosing that in another, +so that the whole could be exposed to the high heat of a porcelain or +other furnace, the materials became dissolved in the boracic acid; and +then as the heat was continued the boracic acid evaporated, and the +fixed materials were found combined and crystallized, and presenting +new specimens of spinel. In this way crystals having the same form, +hardness, color, specific gravity, composition, and effect on light as +the true ruby, the cymophane, and other mineral bodies were prepared, +and were in fact identical with them. Chromates were made, the emerald +and corundum crystalized, the peridot formed, and many combinations as +yet unknown to mineralogists produced. + + * * * * * + +At a meeting of the BERLIN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, held on May 31 last, +the venerable Alexander von Humboldt made an interesting communication +upon some observations of singular _movements of fixed stars_. It +seems that at Trieste, January 17, 1851, between 7 and 8 o'clock P.M., +before the rising of the moon, when the star Sirius was not far from +the horizon, it was seen to perform a remarkable series of eccentric +movements. It rose and sank, moved left and right, and sometimes +seemed to move in a curved line. The observers were Mr. Keune, a +student in the upper class of the gymnasium, and Mr. Thugutt, a +saddler, both certified to be reliable persons. The family of the +latter also beheld the phenomena, Mr. Keune, with his head leaned +immovably against a wall, saw Sirius rise in a right line above the +roof of a neighboring house, and immediately again sink out of sight +behind it, and then again appear. Its motions were so considerable +that for some time the beholders thought it was a lantern suspended by +a kite. It also varied in brilliancy, growing alternately brighter and +fainter, and now and then being for moments quite invisible, though +the sky was perfectly clear. As far as it is known, this phenomenon +has been remarked but twice before, once in 1799 from the Peak of +Teneriffe by Von Humboldt himself, and again nearly fifty years later, +by a well-informed and careful observer, Prince Adalbert, of Prussia. + + * * * * * + +"In the great Exhibition," the _Athenæum_ says, "Daguerreotypes are +largely displayed by the French,--as might have been expected, that +country being proud of the discovery: but the examples exhibited by +the Americans surpass in general beauty of effect any which we have +examined from other countries. This has been attributed to difference +in the character of the solar light as modified by atmospheric +conditions; we are not, however, disposed to believe that to be the +case. We have certain indications that an increased intensity of light +is not of any advantage, but rather the contrary, for the production +of daguerreotypes; the luminous rays appearing to act as balancing +powers against the chemical rays. Now, this being the case, we know of +no physical cause by which the superiority can be explained,--and we +are quite disposed to be sufficiently honest to admit that the mode of +manipulation has more to do with the result than any atmospheric +influences. However this may be, the character of the daguerreotypes +executed in America is very remarkable. There are a fulness of tone +and an artistic modulation of light and shadow which in England we do +not obtain. The striking contrasts of white and black are shown +decidedly enough in the British examples exhibited in the +gallery,--but here there are coldness and hardness of outline. Within +the shadow of the eagle and the striped banner we find no lights too +white and no shadows too dark: they dissolve, as in Nature, one into +the other in the most harmonious and truthful manner,--and the result +is, more perfect pictures. The Hyalotypes or glass pictures are of a +remarkable character. They are but a modification of the processes of +Mr. Talbot and of M. Evrard as applied to glass; but the idea of +copying Nature on this material,--and, having obtained a fixed picture +of the shadowed image, of magnifying it by means of the magic lantern, +and thus producing a truthful representation of the original,--is +certainly due to the artist of Philadelphia. Many beautiful views of +the Smithsonian Institute, of the Custom-house at Philadelphia, and of +churches in several cities in the United States, show the minuteness +of the detail which can be obtained by the use of the albuminized +glass. Amongst the professed improvements Mr. Beard exhibits some +enamelled daguerreotypes, in which the permanence of the picture is +secured by a lacquer." + + * * * * * + +In the ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, in London, the President, +regretting the undignified controversies respecting the rise and +course of the Nile which had taken place, unhesitatingly expressed his +conviction that no European traveller, from Bruce downwards, had yet +seen the source of the true White Nile. Concerning this, we may still +exclaim "_Ignotum, plus notus, Nile, per ortum._" + + * * * * * + +Experiments with chloroform as a propelling power, in the place of +steam, are now making in the port of L'Orient; and there is reason to +hope, from the success which has already attended them, that they will +result in causing a considerable saving to be effected in cost and in +space. + + * * * * * + +THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE will hold its annual meeting this +year at Dijon. The Congress will commence on the 14th of September. + + + + +_Recent Deaths._ + + +GENERAL M. ARBUCKLE, U.S.A., died on the 11th of June, at Fort Smith. +He was about 75 years of age, and had been nearly fifty years in the +army, and twenty on the Arkansas frontier. At the time of his death, +he was commander of the 7th Military Department of the United States +Army, and had held that station for several years, and was peculiarly +calculated for the office, being thoroughly acquainted with the +Indians, and Indian character, he always had their confidence, and by +that means, kept up and maintained friendly relations with them on +behalf of the United States. The St. Louis _Republican_ remarks that, +"as a man, Gen. ARBUCKLE was honest and humane, loved and respected by +every person with whom he had intercourse. No one pursued a more +straight-forward course in all transactions. He was strictly +economical in expenditures for the Government. His whole mind was +engrossed with the present expedition of the 5th Infantry to the +Brazos, and on the frontier of Texas, and he gave orders and +directions for conducting, it as long as he was able to converse." + + * * * * * + +The CHEVALIER PARISOT DE GUYMONT, who belonged to the family of +Lavalette, the illustrious Grand Master of the Order of Malta, of +which the chevalier was one of the few surviving knights, has just +died in the convent of St. Jean de Catane, in Sicily, to which the +directing chapter of that celebrated order had retired. He +distinguished himself in the expedition which the last grand master +sent against Algiers towards the end of the eighteenth century; and +General Bonaparte, when he took possession of Malta, demanded to see +M. de Guymont, and received him with marked distinction. He was in the +seventy-seventh year of his age. + + * * * * * + +SIR J. GRAHAM DALZELL, BART., died on the seventeenth of June in +Edinburgh, aged seventy-seven years. He was president of the Society +for promoting Useful Arts in Scotland, vice-president of the African +institute of Paris, and author of several works on science and +history, and of various articles in the 'Encyclopædia Britannica. + + * * * * * + +The widow of THOMAS SHERIDAN, died in London on the ninth of June. She +was the author of _Carwell_, a very striking story illustrating the +inequalities of punishment in the laws against forgery. In a later +novel, _Aims and Ends_, the same feminine and truthful spirit showed +itself in lighter scenes of social life, observing keenly, and +satirizing kindly. Mrs. Sheridan wrote always with ease, +unaffectedness, and good-breeding, her books every where giving +evidence of the place she might have taken in society if she had not +rather desired to refrain from mingling with it, and keep herself +comparatively unknown. After her husband's early death she had devoted +herself in retirement to the education of her orphan children; when +she re-appeared in society it seemed to be solely for the sake of her +daughters, on whose marriages she again withdrew from it; and to none +of her writings did she ever attach her name. Into the private sphere +where her virtues freely displayed themselves, and her patient yet +energetic life was spent, it is not permitted us to enter; but we +could not pass without this brief record what we know to have been a +life as much marked by earnestness, energy, and self-sacrifice, as by +those qualities of wit and genius which are for ever associated with +the name of Sheridan. Three daughters survive her, and one son--Lady +Dufferin, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lady Seymour, and Mr. Brinsley +Sheridan, the member of Parliament for Shaftesbury. + + * * * * * + +From Stockholm we hear of the death of Mr. ANDRE CARLSSON, Bishop of +Calmar, and author of numerous and important works on philology, +theology and jurisprudence. He occupied at one time the chair of Greek +language and literature at the University of Lund, and was, say the +Swedish papers, in his place in the Diet, a champion of religious +liberty and parliamentary reform. He has died at the great age of 94. + + * * * * * + +Poland has lost a writer of distinction, chiefly on geographical +subjects, in the person of Count STANISLAUS PLATER. He had long been +eminent both in society and in literature. + + * * * * * + +GENERAL JAMES MILLER died in Temple, New-Hampshire, on the 7th of +July, of paralysis, aged 76 years. He was born in Peterboro, N. H., +and bred to the profession of the law. In 1810 he entered the Army, +and served with distinction throughout the last war with Great +Britain. He rose rapidly from the rank of captain to that of major +general. He was present at Tippecanoe, under Gen. Harrison, but was +prevented by sickness from taking part in the battle. He rendered +eminent services in the battles of Chippeway, Bridgewater, and Lundy's +Lane, making himself conspicuous by his courageous and intrepid +conduct. It was at the last named battle that he is said to have +uttered the renowned declaration, "I'll try, sir," when asked if he +could storm an important and nearly impregnable position of the enemy. +Gen. Miller was subsequently made Governor of the Territory of +Arkansas. Afterwards he was collector of the port of Salem, which post +he resigned in 1840. He is the "old soldier collector" referred to in +the introduction to Hawthorne's _Scarlet Letter_. + + * * * * * + +The celebrated Polish General UMINSKI died at Wiesbaden on the 16th of +June. He was one of the most prominent actors in the last Polish +Revolution, but for several years had lived in great retirement at +Wiesbaden. He was born in the year 1780, in the Grand Duchy of Posen. +As early as 1794 he commenced his military career, as a volunteer +under Kosciusko. When the Poles were summoned to new efforts for +freedom by Dombrowski, in 1806, Uminski was among the first to take up +arms. He formed a Polish Guard of Honor for Napoleon, fought at +Dantzick, received a wound at Dirschau, where he was taken prisoner +and sentenced to death by a Prussian Court Martial. His sentence was +not executed, however, as Napoleon threatened reprisals. In the war +against Austria he commanded Dombrowski's advanced guard, was made +Colonel, and formed the 10th. hussar-regiment, which signalized itself +at Masaisk, in 1812, and at whose head he was the first to enter +Moscow. In the retreat, he saved the life of Poniatowski. At the +battle of Leipsic, where he acted as Brigadier General, he was again +wounded and taken prisoner. After the dissolution of the national army +of Poland, he entered into the Polish-Russian service but soon +obtained his discharge, and lived in retirement in Posen, though +without intermitting his efforts for the freedom of Poland. In the +year 1821 he helped to found a patriotic union, was arrested after +accession of Nicholas I, and in the year 1826 sentenced to six years' +imprisonment in the fortress of Glogau. Escaping from this in 1831, he +went to Warsaw, and took part as a common soldier in the battle of +Wawre. The next day he was made General of Division. On the 25th of +February he beat Diebitsch at Grodno, and distinguished himself in +several other battles. Outlawed and hung in effigy at Kosen, he found +an asylum in France. The remainder of his subsequent life he passed in +Wiesbaden. Uminski was also known as a writer on military affairs. +Those who knew him in the latter years of his exile, are loud in their +praises of the sweetness, benevolence, and dignity of his character. +He will be remembered for his devotion to Polish liberty, and the +people, who in future times shall struggle for the same boon, will +gain new encouragement from his glorious example. + + * * * * * + +VISCOUNT MELVILLE died on the tenth of June. He was in his eightieth +year, having been born in 1771. In 1809, he (then the Right Honorable +Robert Dundas), was President of the Board of Trade under the Perceval +administration. He succeeded his father in 1811, and, in 1812, when +Lord Liverpool assumed the reins, he became first Lord of the +Admiralty, which office he held during that long administration which +ceased in April, 1827, by the death of the Premier. Mr. Canning having +been called to power, Lord Melville retired with the majority of his +former colleagues, which caused some surprise at the time, as he was +favorable to the claims of the Catholics, which was understood to +constitute the bond of the new administration. The Canning +administration had a brief career, and that of Lord Goderich, the +present Earl of Ripon, which attempted to carry on affairs after the +death of Canning, was still more brief. On the Duke of Wellington +becoming Prime Minister, early in 1822, Lord Melville resumed his +former office, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and continued until +the breaking up of the Tory Administration, and the advent of the +Reform Ministry of Earl Grey, in November, 1830. He then ended his +official career, but for several years attended occasionally in the +House of Lords, but he chiefly resided at the family seat. + + * * * * * + +Mr. DYCE SOMBRE died in London, July 1. His history is very generally +known. He was understood to be the son of a German adventurer in +India, of the name of Summer, who espoused the late Begum Oomroo. All +manner of wild and scandalous stories are afloat as to the life of +this woman and the death of her husband. After her death, Mr. Dyce +Sombre came to Europe, and first made himself remarkable, in Italy, by +the extraordinary black marble monument which he caused to be executed +and sent to India in memory of his benefactress. His arrival in +England, with a reputation of almost fabulous wealth, attracted much +notice. He became one of the fêted lions of the season, and ultimately +married, in 1840, Mary Anne, daughter of the Earl St. Vincent. A +separation soon took place, and the legal proceedings consequent on +this ill-starred marriage, followed by those adopted for the purpose +of establishing Mr. Dyce Sombre's lunacy--were long matters of public +talk and universal notoriety. His attempt to enter public life was +seconded by the "worthy and enlightened" electors of Sudbury, who sent +him to Parliament, from whence he was speedily ejected on +petition--the borough being soon afterwards disfranchised. For the +last few years Mr. Sombre has resided on the Continent, to escape the +effects of the decision of the Court of Chancery in his case--a +decision against which he had come over to petition when he was seized +with his fatal illness. In consequence of his death in a state of +lunacy, his money in the funds, railway shares, and other property, of +the annual value of £11,000, will become divisible between Captain +Troup and General Soldoli, the husbands of his two sisters, who are +next of kin. An additional sum, producing £4,000 a year, will also +fall to their families on the death of Mrs. Dyce Sombre. + + * * * * * + +BISHOP MEDANO, of Buenos Ayres, died in the second week of April. He +was 83 years old. + + * * * * * + +The EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, one of the most notable of the members of the +House of Lords, died at his country residence in Dorsetshire, on the +2d of June, aged eighty-four years. Though neither an orator nor a +statesman, he was one of the most remarkable personages of the age in +which he lived. His position as a public servant was quite peculiar; +and his character, though it could not be called eccentric, had little +in common with the world around him. CROPLY ASHLEY COOPER, was the +second son of the fourth Lord Shaftesbury. That Lord Shaftesbury who +became Chancellor in the reign of Charles II. was the first peer in +the Cooper family, and under the title of Lord Ashley was a member of +the Cabinet well known by the name of "the Cabal" To him we are +indebted for the Habeas Corpus Act, at least for being its chief +promoter; and he is likewise entitled to the gratitude of posterity +for having introduced a measure to render the Judges independent of +the crown. The third Earl--grandson of the first--was the celebrated +author of the _Characteristics_. The fourth was his son; the fifth and +sixth Earls were his grandsons; the former of these dying without male +issue in 1811, the earldom devolved on the deceased, who was born in +London on the 21st of December, 1768. From Winchester, where he was +contemporaneous with Sidney Smith, and Archbishop Howley, he in due +course went to Christchurch, where he passed his time as most young +men of rank do at college, and graduated with quite as much credit as +was then usually attained by the son of an Earl; after which he made +those excursions on the continent of Europe that our ancestors were +accustomed to call "the grand tour;" and all these operations he +brought to a close before he had completed his twenty-second year. His +next step was to get into Parliament, and a seat in the House of +Commons was obtained for him in the usual way by family influence, +Dorchester having had the advantage of calling him its member from the +thirtieth of January, 1790, for a period exceeding twenty-one years. +This was pretty good experience in the more active branch of the +Legislature, though the body that elected him was of that small and +quiet order of constituencies that do not greatly overburden their +members with the labors of representation. Mr. Cropley Ashley Cooper +had, therefore, had a long apprenticeship to political life, when, by +the death of his elder brother, on the fourteenth of May, 1811, he +succeeded to the peerage as sixth Earl of Shaftesbury. + +The Earl was nearly forty years of age when, upon the death of Fox, +the Tories recovered their long possession of office, and among their +good deeds may be reckoned their appointment of Lord Shaftesbury, then +Mr. Cooper, to the office of Clerk of the Ordnance. To the duties of +his department he applied himself with marvellous zeal, and it was +always his own opinion that he there first acquired those habits of +industry and method which rendered him one of the most efficient +members of the Upper House. When, on the death of his elder brother, +he reached the dignity of the peerage, he thought it necessary to +resign the clerkship of the Ordnance, though his private fortune was +scarcely sufficient for a man encumbered with an earldom and a large +family. He took his seat as a peer in June, 1811, and it was not until +November, 1814, that he became permanently the Chairman of Committees; +the duties of which place were well done for nearly forty years by +"old" Lord Shaftesbury, who was never old when business pressed. +Strong common sense, knowledge of the statute law, and above all, +uncompromising impartiality, made him an autocrat in his department. +When once he heard a case, and deliberately pronounced judgment, +submission almost invariably followed. A man of the largest experience +as a Parliamentary agent has been heard to say that he remembered only +one case in which the House reversed a decision of Lord Shaftesbury; +and on that occasion it became necessary to prevail on the Duke of +Wellington to speak in order to overcome the "old Earl." It would not +be easy to cite many instances of men who have taken as active part in +the business of a deliberative assembly after the age of 75; but the +labors of Lord Shaftesbury were continued beyond that of fourscore. To +all outward seeming he was nearly as efficient at one period of his +life as at another. By the time he had reached the age of +fifty,--which was about half-way through the fifteen years that Lord +Liverpool's Ministry held the government,--Lord Shaftesbury's +knowledge of his duties as chairman to the Lords was complete, and +then he appeared to settle down in life with the air, the habits, the +modes of thought and action, natural to old age. Although there are +few men now alive whose experience would enable them to contrast his +performance of official duties with the manner in which they were +discharged by his predecessor, yet, even in the absence of any thing +like _data_, there seems to be a general impression that the House of +Lords never could have had a more efficient chairman. He was certainly +a man of undignified presence, of indistinct and hurried speech, of +hasty and brusque manner, the last person whom a superficial observer +would think of placing in the chair of the greatest senate that the +world has ever seen; yet it cannot be said that their lordships were +ever wrong in their repeated elections of Lord Shaftesbury; for in the +formal business of committees he rarely allowed them to make a +mistake, while he was prompt as well as safe in devising the most +convenient mode of carrying any principle into practical effect. He +was no theorist; there was nothing of the speculative philosopher in +the constitution of his mind; and he therefore readily gained credit +for being what he really was, an excellent man of business. It is well +known that the Lords, sitting in committee, are less prone to run riot +than the other House; still it required no small ability to keep them +always in the right path, as was the happy practice of Lord +Shaftesbury. In dealing with minute distinctions and mere verbal +emendations, a deliberative assembly occasionally loses its way, and +members sometimes ask, "What is it we are about?" This was a question +which Lord Shaftesbury usually answered with great promptitude and +perspicuity, rarely failing to put the questions before their +Lordships in an unmistakable form. Another valuable quality of Lord +Shaftesbury as a chairman consisted in his impatience of prosy, +unprofitable talk, of which, doubtless, there is comparatively little +in the Upper House; but even that little he labored to make less by +occasionally reviving attention to the exact points at issue, and +sometimes, by an excusable manoeuvre, shutting out opportunity for +useless discussion. When he sat on the woolsack as speaker, in the +absence of the Lord Chancellor, he deported himself after the manner +of Chancellors; but when he got into his proper element at the table +of the house, nothing could be more rapid than his evolutions; no +hesitation, no dubiety, nor would he allow any one else to pause or +doubt. Often has he been heard to say, in no very gentle tones, "Give +me in that clause _now_;"--"That's enough;"--"It will do very well as +it is;"--"If you have anything further to propose, move at +once;"--"Get through the bill now, and bring up that on the third +reading." He always made their Lordships feel that, come what might, +it was their duty to "get through the bill;" and so expeditious was +the old Earl, that he would get out of the chair, bring up his report, +and move the House into another committee in the short time that +sufficed for the Chancellor to transfer himself from the woolsack to +the Treasury bench and back again. + + * * * * * + +Mr. THOMAS WRIGHT HILL, eminent in England for some of the most +important improvements that have been made in the means of education +during this century, died on the 9th of June, at the age of +eighty-eight. Hazelwood School, near Birmingham, established by Mr. +Hill, was the most successful, as it was the first large experiment as +to the practicability of governing boys by other principles than that +of terror, of extending the range of scholastic acquirements beyond a +superficial knowledge of the learned languages, and of making the +acquisition of sound knowledge not only a duty but a delight. The +views of Mr. Hill were set forth in _Plans for the Government and +Liberal Instruction of Boys in large numbers, drawn from Experience_, +first published in 1823; and a very elaborate paper in the _Edinburgh +Review_ of Jan. 1825, brought the system into general notice. + + * * * * * + +The _London Builder_ contains a brief notice of MELCHIOR BOISSERÉE, +brother to Sulpize Boisserée, whose death is much regretted throughout +Germany. It was so far back as the year 1804, that three young men, +citizens of Cologne, conceived the idea of collecting and +resuscitating the mediæval art-relics of the Rhine-lands. But what +was, probably, but contemplated as a provincial undertaking, soon +attracted the eyes of Europe, and became a great fact of modern +art-history. When, about 1808, Sulpize Boisserée determined to devote +himself entirely to the work on the Cologne Cathedral, Melchior and +his brother Bertram continued the research and collection of ancient +paintings. But already in 1810, the old pictures had outgrown the +scanty spaces appropriable to them at Cologne. They were transferred +first to Heidelberg, and in 1819 the three brothers migrated with them +to Stuttgardt, where the king afforded room to this unique gathering +of mediæval art. It was Melchior who chiefly attended to the +restoration of the pictures, and enriched the collection during his +travels in the Netherlands, in 1812 and 1813. Having found some of the +pictures of Hemling and Memling, it was he who first attracted notice +to these excellent, hitherto hardly known artists. In 1827 the +collection was sold to Ludwig of Bavaria, and as the Pinakotheka +(where they were to be placed) was not ready, the pictures were +conveyed to Schleissheim. In this retirement, Melchior Boisserée +devoted his whole attention to the art of glass painting, which at +that time was nigh considered as lost. If now such great things are +accomplished at Munich in this department of Art, it was Melchior +(conjointly with his brother Bertram) who paved the way by this +collection of old specimens, seen with astonishment by travellers from +the whole of Europe. When Bertram had died (about 1830), Melchior +joined his brother Sulpize at Bonn, where Melchior, in the prosecution +of his favored Art-studies, concluded his life in serene quiet and +contentment. + + * * * * * + +In the death of CHRISTIAN TIECK, German sculpture has lost one of its +most illustrious ornaments, a man of rare intelligence, of long +experience, and of profound artistic cultivation. He was born in +Berlin, on the 14th of August, 1776, and early destined for a +sculptor. The poetic genius and rare qualities of his brother Lewis +Tieck, the poet, his elder by three years, and the graceful artistic +and literary accomplishments of a sister, afterward the Baroness +Knooring, inspired the young sculptor with the warmest interest in the +then young and hopeful German literature and art. This taste he never +lost. Perhaps no artist, so distinguished as an artist, was ever so +devoted to various study, to the last moment of his life. + +In 1797, he went to Paris as Royal Pensioner, and although a sculptor, +entered David's studio, and in the year 1800 took the prize for +sculpture. In 1801 he returned to Berlin, and his distinguished talent +was acknowledged. Goethe immediately summoned him to Weimar, and +employed him in the adorning of the Ducal palace, and in the moulding +of a series of busts. Of this latter an idealized head of Goethe and +of the philologist Frederic August Wolf, are the best. The young Tieck +continued in the closest correspondence with his brother, who was then +pursuing his poetical studies at Jena and Dresden, and they went with +Rumohr to Italy, in the year 1805, and there by his beautiful busts, +won the friendship of William Von Humboldt, a man of the most delicate +and accurate artistic taste, as well as of the noblest character and +intellectual ability. Madame de Staël invited Tieck to execute +sculptures at Coppet, for the Neckar family, and in 1809 the Prince +Royal of Bavaria, Louis, selected Tieck to mould the busts for the +projected Walhalla. He did them, and in 1812 passed into Switzerland. +He lived in Zurich, where Rauch was then engaged upon his noble work, +the reclining statue of Queen Louisa, now at Charlottenburg, and a +warm friendship was formed between the sculptors. In 1819 he returned +to Berlin, was elected into the Senate of the Academy, and appointed +Professor by the Grand Duke of Weimar. He then quietly devoted himself +to his art, and Berlin is beautiful with Tieck's sculptures. Named, in +1830 director of the Gallery of Sculpture, he did not relax his +artistic activity, and after a long illness he died gently in the +spring of his year, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. + +His elder brother Lewis, the most deservedly famous of the living +illustrations of German literature, the only worthy translator of +Shakspeare, the most genial friend, the most single-hearted of poets, +whom the King honors and who loved Novalis--now seventy-eight years +old, awaits in continued and patiently endured illness the gentle +guiding of death to his best friend and brother. + + + + +_Ladies' Summer Fashions._ + +[Illustration] + + +The strong and superb stuffs of winter are quite superseded by ball +dresses, at the various watering places. The _élégantes_ seek +_toilettes_ which, without being rich, are remarkable for lightness +and tasteful patterns. We commend a white mousseline dress, with three +flounces, simply hemmed; a long sash of ribbon of colored taffeta; +natural flowers in the hair and on the front of the dress; a dress of +colored taffeta, white or straw ground, or blue or pink ground; these +stuffs are striped, or running and small patterns, or great branches +with detached bouquets. Barèges are also much worn, with white ground +sprinkled with little rose-buds; silk barège, with wreaths of flowers, +are newer. The shape of the bodies of evening dresses has not +undergone much change. _Berthes_ are still worn, forming a point in +front, only varying in the disposition of the ornaments, interspersed +with small ribbons or lace and mousseline. Natural flowers will be +worn for headdresses and bouquets. Walking dresses are much in vogue +of barèges and mousseline, the body skirted, open in front, and lower +down than in winter. We must mention a new dress, named _Albanaise_, +made of barège. It is of several shades, but the most _recherché_ are +_gris poussière_, or dust gray. Five dull silk stripes begin from the +bottom of the dress; then an intervening space and four other stripes; +another space and, to finish, three more stripes ending right in the +belt, always diminishing in size. We have also seen a jaconet dress, +embroidered _à l'Anglaise_ as an apron to the waist; the body +embroidered at the edge flat, as well as in the skirts and sleeves; +and three knots of blue taffeta fastened the bodice. For the country, +dresses of Chinese nankeen and Persian jaconet are worn; and to +protect from the sun, a kind of hood, of similar stuff. There are a +great many black lace _schales_, embroidered muslins, printed barège, +square or long, with cashmere patterns. + +The scarf _mantelet_ is also much in fashion, and the article which +permits of the most frequent change; a point scarcely perceptible in +the middle of the back makes it still more graceful. It is made in all +shades, but the most _comme-il-faut_ are black; it is more suitable, +and sets off the freshness of the dress. It is trimmed with lace, +fringe, or net, covered with small velvet dots. We have seen some +quite covered with common embroidery; others embroidered with +arabesques intermingled with braid and silk, and black jet. + +For the seaside there are also worn many _mantelets_, which remind us +of the winter by their shape; but the materials are somewhat lighter, +chiefly of thin summer cloth, or felt of gray shades. + +The _Promenade Dress_, on the preceding page, is of a rich plain +chocolate-colored silk, made perfectly simple. Pardessus of a +damson-colored brocaded silk, the lower part of which, as well as the +large sleeves, being decorated with a magnificent double fringe, the +under and deepest being of black, and the upper composed of long silk +tassels, put at equal distances. Leghorn bonnet, trimmed with pink +silk, cut the width of a broad ribbon, and pinked at the edge; the +interior having a fulling of the pink silk encircling the face, with +brides to match. + +Coarse straw _chapeaux_, though principally intended for the country, +are employed, though not much, for morning _neglige_, in town, and +will be very much in request for the watering-places; they are of the +_capote_ form, in open-work, and lined with taffeta, of one of the +colors of the ribbon that trims them. The ribbon is always plaided, +and the most fashionable has a great variety of colors; the knots are +large, and formed of several _coques_, divided in the middle by a +torsade of ribbons; some are decorated with ribbons only, but small +flowers and foliage may be employed to trim the interior of the brim. +Fancy _chapeaux_ are composed of bands of _paille dentelle_, +alternating with rose-colored taffeta _biais_, &c. Rice straw is also +employed a good deal for fancy _chapeaux_ that are formed of more than +one material. + +The following figures are copied from Parisian fashion plates for +1811. The shortness of the frocks should certainly satisfy the most +extreme innovators of the present time. + +[Illustration: LADIES' FASHIONS IN PARIS FORTY YEARS AGO.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 4, +No. 1, August, 1851, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 36124-8.txt or 36124-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/2/36124/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, August, 1851 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 16, 2011 [EBook #36124] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE</h1> + +<h2>Of Literature, Science, and Art.</h2> + + +<h3>VOLUME IV</h3> + +<h4>AUGUST TO DECEMBER, 1851.</h4> + +<p class="center"> +NEW-YORK:<br /> +STRINGER & TOWNSEND, 222 BROADWAY.<br /> +FOR SALE BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.<br /> +BY THE NUMBER, 25 <span class="smcap">Cts.</span>; THE VOLUME, $1; THE YEAR, $3.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="notes">Transcriber's note: Contents for entire volume 4 in this text. However +this text contains only issue Vol. 4, No. 1. Minor typos have been +corrected and footnotes moved to the end of the article.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[Pg iii]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE TO THE FOURTH VOLUME.</h2> + + +<p>The conclusion of the Fourth Volume of a periodical may be accepted as +a sign of its permanent establishment. The proprietors of the +<span class="smcap">International Magazine</span> have the satisfaction of believing that, while +there has been a steady increase of sales, ever since the publication +of the first number of this work, there has likewise been as regular +an augmentation of its interest, value, and adaptation to the wants of +the reading portion of our community. While essentially an Eclectic, +relying very much for success on a reproduction of judiciously +selected and fairly acknowledged Foreign Literature, it has contained +from month to month such an amount of New Articles as justified its +claim to consideration as an Original Miscellany. And in choosing from +European publications, articles to reprint or to translate for these +pages, care has been taken not only to avoid that vein of +licentiousness in morals, and skepticism in religion, which in so +lamentable a degree characterize a large portion of the popular +literature of this age, but also to extract from foreign periodicals +that American element with which the rising importance of our country +has caused so many of them to be infused; so that, notwithstanding the +fact that more than half the contents of the <span class="smcap">International</span> are from +the minds of Europeans, the Magazine is essentially more <i>American</i> +than any other now published.</p> + +<p>For the future, the publishers have made arrangements that will insure +very decided and desirable improvements, which will be more fully +disclosed in the first number of the ensuing volume; eminent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[Pg iv]</a></span> original +writers will be added to our list of contributors; from Germany, +France, and Great Britain, we have increased our literary resources; +and more attention will be given to the pictorial illustration of such +subjects as may be advantageously treated in engravings. Among those +authors whose contributions have appeared in the <span class="smcap">International</span> +hitherto, we may mention:</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Miss Fenimore Cooper</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Miss Alice Carey</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Mrs. E. Oakes Smith</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Mrs. M. E. Hewitt</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Mrs. Alice B. Neal</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Bishop Spencer</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Henry Austin Layard</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Parke Godwin</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">John R. Thompson</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">W. C. Richards</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">W. Gilmore Simms</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Bayard Taylor</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Robert Henry Stoddard</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Alfred B. Street</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Thomas Ewbank</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">E. W. Ellsworth</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">G. P. R. James</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Dr. John W. Francis</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Maunsell B. Field</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Dr. Starbuck Mayo</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">John E. Warren</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">A. Oakey Hall</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Horace Greeley</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Richard B. Kimball</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Author of</span> "<span class="smcap">Nile Notes</span>,"<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Author of</span> "<span class="smcap">Harry Franco</span>."<br /> +<span class="smcap">Rev. J. C. Richmond</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Rev. H. W. Parker</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">James T. Fields</span>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">R. S. Chilton</span>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The foreign writers, from whom we have selected, need not be +enumerated; they embrace the principal living masters of literary art; +and we shall continue to avail ourselves of their new productions as +largely as justice to them and the advantage and pleasure of our +readers may seem to justify.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">New-York</span>, December 1, 1851.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS:</h2> + +<p>VOLUME IV. AUGUST TO DECEMBER, 1851.</p> + + +<p>Alred.—<i>By Elmina W. Carey</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></span></p> + +<p>Alexander, Last days of the Emperor.—<i>A. Dumas</i>, <span class="tocnum">233</span></p> + +<p>America, as Abused by a German, <span class="tocnum">448</span></p> + +<p>American Intercommunication, <span class="tocnum">461</span></p> + +<p>American Literature, Studies of.—<i>Philarete Chasles</i>, <span class="tocnum">163</span></p> + +<p>American and European Scenery Compared.—<i>By the late J. F. Cooper</i>, <span class="tocnum">625</span></p> + +<p>Anacreon. Twentieth Ode of.—<i>By Mary E. Hewitt</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></span></p> + +<p>Animal Magnetism. Christopher North on, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></span></p> + +<p>Ariadne.—<i>By William C. Bennett</i>, <span class="tocnum">315</span></p> + +<p>Autumn Ballad, An.—<i>By W. A. Sutliffe</i>, <span class="tocnum">598</span></p> + +<p>August Reverie.—<i>By A. Oakey Hall</i>, <span class="tocnum">477</span></p> + +<p>Art Expression. <span class="tocnum">401</span></p> + +<p>Arts among the Aztecs and Indians.—<i>By Thomas Ewbank.</i> (Ten +Engravings.) <span class="tocnum">307</span></p> + +<p><i>Arts, the Fine.</i>—Monuments to Public Men in Europe and America, +<a href="#Page_130">130</a>.—Mosaics for the Emperor of Russia, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.—Tenarani, the Italian +Sculptor, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.—Group by Herr Kiss, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.—English and American +Portrait Painters, <a href="#Page_131">131.</a>—Mr. Pyne's English Landscapes, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.—Paintings +by British Officers in Canada, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.—Ovation to Rauch at Berlin, +<a href="#Page_131">131</a>.—Healy's Picture of Webster's Reply to Hayne, +<a href="#Page_131">131</a>.—Newly-discovered Raphael, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.—Daguerreotypes, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.—Letter +from Hiram Powers, 279.—Monument to Wordsworth, 279.—Monument to +Weber, 279.—Works of Cornelius, 279.—Greenonga's Group for the +Capital, 279.—The Twelve Virgins of Raphael, 279.—Tributes by Greece +to her Benefactors, 279.—Paul Delaroche, 417.—Winterhalter, +417.—New Scriptures in the Crystal Palace, 417.—London Art-Union, +417.—American Art-Union. 417.—Powers's Eve, 417.—Leutze, 417.—The +London Art-Journal on the Engravings of the American Art-Union. +561.—The Philadelphia Art-Union, 561.—The Western Art-Union, +562.—Mr. Healy's Picture of Webster's Reply to Hayne, 562.—Mr. +Lentze's Washington Crossing the Delaware, 562—Illustrations of +Martin Luther, 562.—Lentze's Washington. 743.—Colossal Statue of +Washington at Munich, 703.—Kaulbach's Frescoes, 703.—Cadame's +Compositions of the Seasons, 703.—Portraits of Bishop White and +Daniel Webster, 703.</p> + +<p><i>Authors and Books.</i>—The Story of Talns, and the Sardonic Laughter, +by Merehlen, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.—A German Treatise on Free Trade, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.—Curious +Medical Works in Germany, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.—Weiseler on the Theatre, +<a href="#Page_122">122</a>.—Woodcuts of celebrated Masters, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.—Recent German Poetry, +<a href="#Page_123">123</a>.—Venedy's Schleswig-Holstein in 1850, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.—Souvenirs of Early +Germans, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.—Gutzkow, Reimer, and Gubitz. <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.—Mundi's Macchiavelli +and the Course of European Policy, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.—New German Novels, +<a href="#Page_124">124</a>.—Baner's Documents respecting the Monastery of Arnsburg, +<a href="#Page_124">124</a>.—Mss. of Peter Schlemil, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.—Professor O. L. B. Wohl's Poetic +and Prosaic Home Treasury, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.—German opinion of Miss Weber, +<a href="#Page_124">124</a>.—Professor Zahn at Pompeii, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.—Barthohl's History of German +Cities, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.—Cornell on Feurebach, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.—New Book of the Planets by +Ernst, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.—Waldmeister's Bridal Tour, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.—German version of George +Copyway's Book, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.—German Survey of American Institutions, +<a href="#Page_125">125</a>.—Russian Literature, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.—Jewish Professors in Austria, +<a href="#Page_125">125</a>.—Dumas's new Works, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.—Madame Reybaud, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.—New Volume of +Thier's History of the Empire, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.—Mignet's Life of Mary Queen of +Scots, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.—Cormenin on the Revision of the Constitution, +<a href="#Page_126">126</a>.—Literary Episodes in the East, by Marcellus, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.—Victor Hugo. +<a href="#Page_126">126</a>.—Madame Bocarme, 126.—Signatures to Articles in the French +Journals, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.—Arago's loss of sight, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.—George Sand to Dumas, +<a href="#Page_127">127</a>.—Vacherot on the Philosophical School of Alexandria, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.—Mss. +of Rousseau, 127.—Unpublished works of Balzac, 127.—M. Nisard, +<a href="#Page_127">127</a>.—M. Gautier, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.—Guizot's History of Representative Government, +<a href="#Page_127">127</a>.—Mademoiselle de Belle Isle, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.—Rev. T. W. Shelton, in +Sharpe's Magazine, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.—Rev. Charles Kingsley, author of Alton Locke, +<a href="#Page_127">127</a>.—Bowring's Translation of Schiller, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>—New English Poems, +<a href="#Page_128">128</a>.—New Novel by Warren, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.—Judge Woodbury's Works, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.—The +North American Review, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.—Life of Judge Story, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.—Contributions +to the History of the West, by Lyman C. Draper, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.—The Dublin +University Magazine on Streets Frontenac, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.—Mrs. Southworth in +England. <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.—Return of Mrs. Mowatt, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.—Miss Beecher's new Work on +the Writings of Women, 129.—Ludwig Feuerback, 268.—August Kopish on +the Monument to Frederic the Great, 269.—The <i>Janus</i> Review, +269.—Franz Kugler on the Theatre, 269.—Von Muller's History of the +Swiss Confederation, 269.—Memoir of Bretschneider, 269.—Dr. Worth, +269.—Herr Christern's Book Store, 269.—German Periodicals, 270.—The +Hungarian Refugees in Turkey, 270.—The Youth of Thorwaldsen, +270.—Old and New Songs and Fables for Children, 270.—Convention of +Sclavic Scholars, 270.—German Translation of Milton's Areopagitica, +270.—Eccentricities of German Medical Literature, 271.—German Poems, +271.—Shakspeare in Sweden, 271.—Neander's Lectures, 271.—George +Sand and her Husband, 271.—New work by Comte, 271.—Lamartine's New +History, 271.—Michelet's <i>Legendes de la Democratie</i>, 272.—Guizot's +History of Representative Government, 272.—Prudhon's Idea of +Revolution, 272.—Miss Martineau and her Master, 272.—Rumored +Discoveries of Greek MSS, 272.—Bunsen on the supposed MS. of Origen, +272.—New English Poems, 272.—Herodotus and the Discoveries of +Nineveh, 273.—Sir James Stephen's History of France, 273.—J. S. +Buckingham, 273.—Mrs. Jamieson, 273.—New Books of Travels, 273.—Dr. +Wilkinson and Henry James, 273.—New Novels, 273.—New Books on the +Apocalypse, 274.—Finchman on Ship Building, 274.—The Grenville +Papers, 274.—Sir W. Parish on Buenos Ayres, 274.—Works of Bishop +Whately, 274.—Macaulay's New Volumes, 274.—Poems of Edith May, +274.—Ware's European Capitals, 274.—New Romance by Thomas H. Shreve, +274.—More about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> American Reviews, 275.—Poem on Woman, by J. W. +Ward, 275.—Novellettes of Musicians, 275.—Dr. Huntington's Alban, +276.—Simms's Poetical Works, 276.—Dr. Tyng and Bickersteth, +276.—Mr. Putnam's forthcoming Souvenir Books, 276.—Kitto's Biblical +Cyclopedia, 276.—Episodes of Insect Life, 276.—History of Oneida +County, 276.—Mrs. Nichols's Poem's, 276.—New Translations of the +Bible, 277.—Sale of Dr. Jarvis's Library, 277.—Ik Marvell's New +Work, 277.—Mr. Longfellow's New Poem, 277.—Books on the Mechanic +Arts, 278.—Dr. Wainwright's Work on Egypt, 278.—Mr. Jefferson's MSS. +Work on Grammar, 278.—Dr. Williams on the Lord's Prayer, 278.—Works +of John Adams, 278.—Publications of James Munroe, 278.—German +Magazines, 403.—German Poets, 403, 405.—Freilegrath, 403.—New +edition of Brockhaus' Lexicon, 403.—German View of Lamartine, +403.—Prutz in a Novel, 403.—Stahl on Paris, 404.—Kohler on Ancient +Cameos, &c., 404.—Children's Picture Books, 404.—Latin Life of +Zumpt, 404.—New work by Robert Remak, 405.—The German Element in +English Language, 405.—Count Blumberg on the Higher Classes, +405.—Auerbach's German Evenings, 405.—Gailhabaud's Monuments of +Architecture, 405.—A Life Spent in Studying Thrushes, 405.—Gust's +Bibliotheca Biographia Lutherana, 405.—New work on Monarchy, +405.—New German Works on the Middle Ages, 406.—Konig and Gelzer on +Luther, 406.—The Bible and the Almanac, 406.—Austrian Biographical +Dictionary, 406.—New Book by Hans Andersen, 406—Zeise, the Danish +Novelist, 407.—Poems of Tegner, 407.—Bohemian Songs, 407.—Italian +Histories of To-day, 407.—Bible Plays by Wiese, 408.—Colins on +Socialism, 408.—Memoirs by Captain Laconte, 408.—Villemarque's +Breton Poems, 408.—Perrymond <i>vs.</i> Thiers, 408.—The French Orators, +408.—Histories of the Reformation in France, 408.—M. Guizot, +409.—Jules Janin, 409.—Montbeillard on Spinoza, 409.—Punishment of +a Socialist Dramatist, 409.—Marriage of "Bon Gaultier," 409.—Visits +to De Quincy and Burns's Sister, 410.—The "Baroness Von Beck," +410.—Thackeray's New Novel, 410.—Literary Pensions in England, +410.—Tributes to James Montgomery, 410.—New editor of the +Westminster Review, 410.—New Lives of Mary, Queen of Scots, +411.—Publications of Moore & Co., of Cincinnati, 411.—Rivers of the +Bible, 411.—Mexican Documents collected by the Abbé Bourbourg, +412.—Mr. Schoolcraft and the Publishers, 412.—Mr. Simms's New +Tragedy, 412.—Dr. Albro's Life of Shepherd, the Puritan, 412.—New +Edition of Fielding, 413.—Theory of Human Progression, 413.—The Nile +Boat, 413.—Kitto's Bible Illustrations, 413.—Poore's Life of +Napoleon, 413.—Indications of the Creator, by George Taylor, +413.—Parkman's History of Pontiac, 413.—De Quiney's Works, +413.—Mrs. Judson, 413.—Hart's Female Prose Writers of America, +414.—Mrs. Lee's Memoirs of Buckminster, 415.—Rochefoucauld, +415.—Dr. Huntington and his Novels, Letters, and Life, 415.—New +Works in Press by the Harpers, 415.—By Redfield, do., 416.—New Work +by Dr. Boardman, 416.—Carl Immerman's Letters on the Theatre, +551.—Kohl's last book of Travels, 551.—L'Eco d'Italia, +551.—Narcissa Zwichowska, 551.—Baron Baerst on Cooking, +551.—Brinckle's-Butterfly Book, 552.—Stein's History of the Social +Movement in France, 552.—Dr. Schleiden's Work on Animalculæ, +552.—History of Education, by Kranse, 552.—Handbook of Catholic +Pulpit Eloquence, 552.—Popular Songs of Southern Russia, +552.—Hogarth's Works in Germany, 552.—Dr. Andree's Work on America, +553.—Studies of German Lore, 553.—Hase's New Prophets, +553.—Wanderings in Slavonia, 553.—A reply to the Countess +Hahn-Hahn's last book, 554.—A Review of Lamartine's Parasite History, +554.—Humboldt's Kosmos, 554.—History of Polish Literature, +554.—Russian Archaeology, 554.—Siegfried Weiss on German Trade +Policy, 554.—Periodicals in Asia, 554.—German Translation of +Hawthorne, 554.—The German Universities, 555.—New German Poems, +555.—Literary Statistics of Poland, 555.—Work on Russia by +Tegoborski, 555.—Ritter's History of Philosophy, 555.—De Flotte on +the Sovereignty of the People, 555.—Nineveh, 555.—New Series of +Eugene Sue's Mysteries of the People, 556.—Second Part of Michelet's +History of the French Revolution, 556.—Julian's History of Porcelain +Manufacture, 556.—Felix de Verneihl on the Cologne Cathedral, +556.—Andre Cochat on French Workingmen's Associations, 556.—New +edition of George Sand's Works, 556.—Letter from Alexander Dumas, +556.—Alfred de Musset, 557.—Translations of Comte's Philosophy, +557.—Jules Janin's new Romance, 557.—Ferdinand Hiller, 557.—James +T. Fields, 557.—New Histories of the Mexican War, 557.—Horace Mann +on the Sphere of Woman, 557.—General Morris not guilty of Plagiarism, +558.—Torrey's Translation of Neander, 558.—Translations of Dante, +559.—Alice Carey's Recollections of Our Neighborhood in the West, +559.—Modern Miracles, by Henry Ingalls, 559.—New Novel by Mr. James +and Mr. Field, 559.—History of the German Reformed Church, +559.—Professor Hackett's Commentary on the Acts, 559.—The Whale, by +Herman Melville, 559.—Mr. Herbert's work on Ancient Battles, &c., +560.—Glances at Europe, by H. Greeley, 560.—Hungary and Kossuth, +560.—Richard B. Kimball, 560.—Mr. Judd's Margaret, 560.—Pendant to +Professor Creasy's <i>Decisive Battles of the World</i>, +693.—Correspondence respecting the Thirty Years' War, 693.—German +collection of English Songs, 693.—German Philologists, 693.—Weil's +History of the Califs, 693.—The Germans in Bohemia, 693.—Andree's +Work on America, 694.—Works on Spinoza, 694.—New Gœthean +Literature, 694.—The British Empire in Europe, by Meidinger, +694.—The Play of the Resurrection, 694.—German History of French +Literature, 694.—New work on German Knighthood, &c., 694.—German +Romanee in the 18th Century, 695.—Madame Blaze de Bury's New Novel, +695.—Richter's History of the Evangelical German Churches, +695.—German Life of Sir Robert Peel, 695.—Zimmermann on the English +Revolution, 695.—History of Norway, 695.—Reguly, the Hungarian +Traveller, 695.—Political Notabililities of Hungary, 695.—Speeches, +&c., by King William of Prussia, 695.—Pictures from the North, +695.—History of the Swiss Confederation, 695.—Bem's System of +Chronology, by Miss Peabody, 695.—French Almanacs, 695.—M. +Croce-Spinelli's Work on Popular Government, 696.—Works by the Paris +Asiatic Society, 696.—Cæsar Daly on Parisian Architecture, +696.—Fignier's Modern Discoveries, 696.—The <i>Annuaire des Deux +Mondes</i>, 696.—Calvin's Inedited Letters, 697.—Lacretelle, +697.—Critical Studies of Socialism, 697.—Memoirs of Mademoiselle +Mars, 697.—The Institute of France, 697.—Grille on the War in La +Vendee, 697.—History of the Bourgeoisie of Paris, 697.—<i>Archives des +Missions Scientifiques</i>, &c., 697.—Travels in Africa, 698.—Spirit of +New Roman Catholic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> Literature, 698.—Garcin de Tassy on Mr. +Salisbury's Unpublished Arabic Documents, 699.—New Travels in +Palestine, 698.—The Abaddie Travellers, 699.—French, English, and +American Missionaries, as Scholars, 699.—The Westminster Review, +699.—A Grandson of Robert Burns, 699.—Friends in Council, &c., by +Mr. Helps, 699.—New English Announcements, 700.—New Dissenters' +College, 700.—Sir Charles Lyell and the "Free Thinkers," 700.—Prof. +Wilson, 700.—Miss Kirkland's Evening Book, 700.—Works by Mrs. Lee, +701.—Mr. Boyd's edition of Young's Night Thoughts, 702.—"Injustice +to the South," 702.—Splendid American Gift Books for 1852, 703.—New +American Works in Press, 703, &c. British Humorists.—<i>By W. M. +Thackeray</i>, 24</p> + +<p>Boker, George II.—<i>By Bayard Taylor</i>. (Portrait.) <span class="tocnum">156</span></p> + +<p>Bohemian Glass. (Six Engravings.) <span class="tocnum">291</span></p> + +<p>Ballad of Sir John Franklin.—<i>By George H. Boker</i>, <span class="tocnum">473</span></p> + +<p>Bryant, and his Works, William Cullen. (Portrait.) <span class="tocnum">588</span></p> + +<p>Bull Fight at Ronda, <span class="tocnum">681</span></p> + +<p>Calvin Colton, Rev., and his Works. (Portrait.) <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></span></p> + +<p>Castle of Belvor: An Incident in the Life of Arago, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></span></p> + +<p>Count Monte-Leone. (Concluded), <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_42">42</a>, 202, 327, 500</span></p> + +<p>China, Our Phantom Ship, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></span></p> + +<p>Chest of Drawers.—<i>By an Attorney</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></span></p> + +<p>Cicada, The.—<i>By H. J. Crate</i>, <span class="tocnum">164</span></p> + +<p>Charlemagne, Times of.—<i>By Sir Francis Palgrave</i>, <span class="tocnum">169</span></p> + +<p>Calhoun, Private Life of John C.—<i>By Miss M. Bates</i>, <span class="tocnum">173</span></p> + +<p>Copenhagen, <span class="tocnum">238</span></p> + +<p>Cooper, J. F., Portrait and View of his Residence, <span class="tocnum"><i>Frontispiece</i></span>.</p> + +<p>Cooke, Sketch of Philip Pendleton. (Portrait.) <span class="tocnum">300</span></p> + +<p>Chamois Hunting, <span class="tocnum">344</span></p> + +<p>Cleopatra's Needle, <span class="tocnum">367</span></p> + +<p>Cheap Postage System, <span class="tocnum">370</span></p> + +<p>Country Gentleman at Home.—<i>By C. A. Bristed</i>, <span class="tocnum">389</span></p> + +<p>Cooper, Reminiscences of J. Fenimore.—<i>By Dr. Francis</i>, <span class="tocnum">458</span></p> + +<p>Cooper, Public Honors to the Memory of Mr., <span class="tocnum">456</span></p> + +<p>Chimes, The.—<i>By E. W. Ellsworth</i>, <span class="tocnum">487</span></p> + +<p>Carlyle's Life of John Sterling, <span class="tocnum">599</span></p> + +<p>Calcutta: Social, Industrial, Political, <span class="tocnum">611</span></p> + +<p>Captain and the Negro, The, <span class="tocnum">646</span></p> + +<p>Crebillon, the French Æschylus, <span class="tocnum">520</span></p> + +<p>Dramatic Fragments.—<i>By R. H. Stoddard</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></span></p> + +<p>Decorative Arts in America, <span class="tocnum">171</span></p> + +<p>Deserted Mansion, <span class="tocnum">227</span></p> + +<p>Dirge for an Infant—<i>By R. S. Chilton</i>, <span class="tocnum">487</span></p> + +<p>Death in Youth.—<i>By H. W. Parker</i>, <span class="tocnum">598</span></p> + +<p>Dutch Governors of Niew Amsterdam.—<i>By J. R. Brodhead</i>, <span class="tocnum">597</span></p> + +<p>Drinking Experiences: A Temperance Lecture by "Nimrod," <span class="tocnum">621</span></p> + +<p><i>Deaths, Recent.</i>—General Arbuckle, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.—Mrs. Thomas Sheridan, +<a href="#Page_139">139</a>.—Bishop Carlson, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.—Sir J. E. Dalzell, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.—Chevalier Parisot +de Guyrmont, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.—General James Miller, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.—General Uminski, +<a href="#Page_140">140</a>.—Viscount Melville, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.—Mr. Dyce Sombre, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.—Bishop Medrano, +<a href="#Page_140">140</a>.—The Earl of Shaftesbury, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.—Mr. Thomas Wright Hill, +<a href="#Page_142">142</a>.—Melchior Boisserée, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.—Christian Tieck, the Sculptor, +<a href="#Page_142">142</a>.—Rev. Stephen Olin, D.D., 282.—Baron de Leideni, 282.—Edward +Quillinan, 282.—Harriet Lee, 282.—Dr. Julius, 282.—Rev. Azariah +Smith, 282.—General Henry A. S. Dearborn, 283.—D. M. Mon, 228, +283.—General Sir Roger Sheafe, 283.—M. Daguerre, (Portrait), +283.—Rev. Dr. Lingard, (Portrait), 285.—Marshal Sebastian, 287.—J. +Fenimore Cooper, 428.—Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, 428.—Judge Beverly +Tucker, 428.—Levi Woodbury, 429.—General McClure, 429.—Lorenz +Ocken, 429.—Count Killmansegge, 430.—H. E. G. Paulus, 430.—Joseph +Rusiecki, 430.—John Gottfried Gruber, 430.—The Earl of Clare, +431.—Sir Henry Jardine, 431.—Mrs. Sherwood, 572.—Rev. James H. +Hotchkiss, 572.—General Henry Whitney, 572.—Commodore Warrington, +572.—Professor Kidd, 573.—The Earl of Donoughmore, 573.—William +Nicol, 574.—Mr. Freeman, the Missionary, 574.—James Richardson, +574.—William Willshire, 574.—J. R. Dubois, 575.—Gustav Carlin, +575.—Archibald Alexander, D. D., 705.—J. Kearney Rogers, M.D., +705.—Rev. Wm. Croswell, D.D., 706.—Granville Sharpe Pattison, M.D., +706.—Mr. Stephens, author of <i>The Manuscripts of Erdeley</i>, 706.—Mr. +Gutzlaff, the Missionary, 707.—Don Manuel Godoy, the Prince of the +Peace, 708.—George Baker, 708.—M. de Savigny, 708.—Archbishop +Wingard, 708.—Samuel Beaseley, author of <i>The Roué</i>, 708.—H. P. +Borrell, 708.—James Tyler, R. D., 708.—Emma Martin, 709.—Yar +Mohammed, 709.—Alexander Lee, 710.—Prince Frederick of Prussia, 710.</p> + +<p>Exile's Sunset Song.—<i>By John R. Thompson</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></span></p> + +<p>Egypt, The last Joseph in, <span class="tocnum">185</span></p> + +<p>English in America.—<i>By the author of "Sam Slick,"</i> <span class="tocnum">186</span></p> + +<p>Egypt under Abbas Pasha,—<i>By Bayle St. John</i>, <span class="tocnum">259</span></p> + +<p>Earthquake in Europe, The Last, <span class="tocnum">467</span></p> + +<p>Fleischmann, Herr, on Life in America, <span class="tocnum">158</span></p> + +<p>Fallen Genius.—<i>By Miss Alice Carey</i>, <span class="tocnum">288</span></p> + +<p>Flying Artist, <span class="tocnum">398</span></p> + +<p>Franklin, Inedited Letter of Dr., <span class="tocnum">472</span></p> + +<p>Fragments from a New Volume of Poems.—<i>By Thomas L. Beddoes</i>, <span class="tocnum">550</span></p> + +<p>French Flower Girl, The, <span class="tocnum">641</span></p> + +<p>Fragments of a Poem.—<i>By H. W. Parker</i>, <span class="tocnum">189</span></p> + +<p>Great Fair at Rochester. (Fifteen Engravings.) <span class="tocnum">438</span></p> + +<p>Gold-Quartz and Society in California, <span class="tocnum">472</span></p> + +<p>Greenwood.—<i>By Maunsell B. Field</i>, <span class="tocnum">476</span></p> + +<p>Ghost Story of Normandy, <span class="tocnum">512</span></p> + +<p>Gerard, and the Baron Munchausen, in Africa, M. Jules, <span class="tocnum">587</span></p> + +<p>German Handbook of America, <span class="tocnum">598</span></p> + +<p>Gondolettas: Two Songs.—<i>By Alice B. Neal</i>, <span class="tocnum">597</span></p> + +<p>Hahn-Hahn, The Countess Ida, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></span></p> + +<p>History of a Rose, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></span></p> + +<p>Huntington, Dr., on Copyright, <span class="tocnum">308</span></p> + +<p>Heroines of History: Laura.—<i>By Mary E. Hewitt</i>, <span class="tocnum">480</span></p> + +<p>Habits of Frederick the Great, <span class="tocnum">528</span></p> + +<p>Herman Melville's New Novel of "The Whale," <span class="tocnum">602</span></p> + +<p><i>Historical Review of the Month.</i>—The United States: Elections, &c., +567.—Foreign Relations, 567.—Mexico, 568.—South American States, +568.—Great Britain, 568.—France, Italy, Russia, &c., 569.—The East, +&c., 569.—The American Elections, 704.—Kossuth in England, +704.—Europe, and the East, 704.</p> + +<p>Imaginary Conversations at Warsaw.—<i>By Walter Savage Landor</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></span></p> + +<p>In the Harem.—<i>By R. H. Stoddard</i>, <span class="tocnum">164</span></p> + +<p>Illustrations of Motives, <span class="tocnum">280</span></p> + +<p>International Copyright, <span class="tocnum">386</span></p> + +<p>Jules Janin and the Paris Feuilletonistes, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></span></p> + +<p>Jungle Recollection.—<i>By Captain Hardbargain</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></span></p> + +<p>Jews in China, <span class="tocnum">264</span></p> + +<p>Jefferson, Mr., on the Study of the Anglo-Saxon Language, <span class="tocnum">468</span></p> + +<p>Landscapes, Swedish.—<i>By Hans Christian Andersen</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></span></p> + +<p>London, Paris, and New-York, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></span></p> + +<p>Ladies' Fashions. (Illustrated.) <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_142">142</a>, 288, 431, 575, 710</span></p> + +<p>Latham, on the People of the Mosketo Kingdom, <span class="tocnum">471</span></p> + +<p>My Novel: or, Varieties in English Life.—<i>By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_80">80</a>, 243, 371, 534, 688</span></p> + +<p>Moir, David Macbeth.—<i>By George Gilfillan</i>, <span class="tocnum">233</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span></p> + +<p>Music.—<i>By H. W. Parker</i>, <span class="tocnum">327</span></p> + +<p>Meeting of the Vegetarians, <span class="tocnum">402</span></p> + +<p>Newspaper Poets: Charles Weldon, <span class="tocnum">201</span></p> + +<p>Nauvoo and Deseret: The Mormons. (Six Engravings.) <span class="tocnum">577</span></p> + +<p><i>Noctes Amicitiæ.</i>—English Opinions of the "American Department" in +the Crystal Palace, 563.—Ridiculous Convention of Women, at +Worcester, 563.—Bloomerism in London, 563.—Defenders of the Catholic +Practices, 563.—Anecdote of Tom Cook, 563.—Capital Anecdote of +Charles XII, 564.—A Superfluous Amount of Name, 564.—G. P. R. James +in the Law Courts, 564.—Nursery Rhymes, 564.—The London Printers, +564.—The Japanese and French Civilization, 565.—Extraordinary +Suicides in Paris, 565, &c.</p> + +<p>October.—<i>By Alice Carey</i>, <span class="tocnum">371</span></p> + +<p>Obelisks of Egypt, <span class="tocnum">469</span></p> + +<p>Old Man's Death, The.—<i>By Alice Carey</i>, <span class="tocnum">529</span></p> + +<p>Ottoman History, The Three Eras of, <span class="tocnum">643</span></p> + +<p>Parodies, A Chapter of, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></span></p> + +<p>Passages in the Life of a Dutch Poet, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></span></p> + +<p>Phantasy, A.—<i>By R. H. Stoddard</i>, <span class="tocnum">169</span></p> + +<p>Paris, Reminiscences of, from 1817 to 1851, <span class="tocnum">182</span></p> + +<p>Poulailler, the Robber, <span class="tocnum">216</span></p> + +<p>Questions from a worn-out Lorgnette.—<i>By O. A. Hall</i>, <span class="tocnum">187</span></p> + +<p>Reminiscence, A.—<i>By Alice Carey</i>, <span class="tocnum">360</span></p> + +<p>Remarkable Prophecy, <span class="tocnum">474</span></p> + +<p>Revolutions in Russia.—<i>By Alexander Dumas</i>, <span class="tocnum">616</span></p> + +<p>Story Without A Name.—<i>By G. P. R. James, Esq.</i>, (Concluded), <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_28">28</a>, +189, 316, 487, 604</span></p> + +<p>Stuart of Dunleath, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></span></p> + +<p>Sailors, Institutions for, in New-York. (Six Engravings.) <span class="tocnum">145</span></p> + +<p>Scenes in the Old Dominion (Six Engravings.) <span class="tocnum">151</span></p> + +<p>Styles of Philosophies.—<i>By Rev. J. R. Morell</i>, <span class="tocnum">180</span></p> + +<p>Shadow of Lucy Hutchinson, <span class="tocnum">239</span></p> + +<p>Saxe, John G., and his Satires. (Portrait.) <span class="tocnum">289</span></p> + +<p>Sandwich Islands To-Day. (Two Engravings.) <span class="tocnum">298</span></p> + +<p>Shadow of Margery Paston, <span class="tocnum">363</span></p> + +<p>Saint Escarpacio's Bones.—<i>From the French</i>, <span class="tocnum">483</span></p> + +<p>Sonnets: Truth—The Future, <span class="tocnum">499</span></p> + +<p>Sliding Scales of Despair, <span class="tocnum">592</span></p> + +<p>Songs of the Cascade.—<i>By A. Oakey Hall</i>, <span class="tocnum">602</span></p> + +<p>Spendthrift's Daughter: In Six Chapters, The, <span class="tocnum">664</span></p> + +<p><i>Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies.</i>—The +British Association, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.—Asiatic Society, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.—Paris Geographical +Society, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.—Royal Society of Literature, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.—Paris Academy of +Sciences, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.—London Royal Institution, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.—Berlin Academy of +Sciences, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.—Improvements in Photographs, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.—Colonel Rawlinson +on the last Discoveries of Nineveh and Babylon, 426.—New attempts to +discover Perpetual Motion, 426.—Document respecting the discovery of +Steam Navigation at Venice, 427.—English Athletes, compared with +Greek Statues, 427.—Discoveries at Memphis, 427.—Scientific +Conventions, 427.—The Russian Academy, 571.—Scientific Congress in +France, 571.—Paris Academy of Sciences, 571.—Ethnological Society, +571.</p> + +<p>Trot on the Island.—<i>By C. Astor Bristed</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></span></p> + +<p>To the Author of Eothen.—<i>By Barry Cornwall</i>, <span class="tocnum">315</span></p> + +<p>The King and the Outlaw.—<i>By an Old Contributor</i>, <span class="tocnum">482</span></p> + +<p>Verses.—<i>By R. H. Stoddard</i>, <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></span></p> + +<p>Visit to the "Maid of Athens," <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></span></p> + +<p>Visit to the late Dr. Lingard.—<i>By Rev. J. C. Richmond</i>, <span class="tocnum">172</span></p> + +<p>Veneer, Fraser's Magazine on English, <span class="tocnum">306</span></p> + +<p>Visit to the Aberdeen Comb-Works, <span class="tocnum">856</span></p> + +<p>Vagaries of the Imagination, <span class="tocnum">638</span></p> + +<p>Veiled Picture: A Traveller's Story, The, <span class="tocnum">648</span></p> + +<p>Watering Places, A Glance at the. (Fifteen Engravings.) <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></span></p> + +<p>Webster, Noah, LL. D. (Portrait and birthplace.) <span class="tocnum"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></span></p> + +<p>Waterloo, Tricks on Travellers at, <span class="tocnum">164</span></p> + +<p>Wives of Southey, Coleridge, and Lovell, <span class="tocnum">241</span></p> + +<p>Wallace, William Ross. (Portrait.) <span class="tocnum">444</span></p> + +<p>Windsor Castle and its Associations. (Two Engravings.) <span class="tocnum">585</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE</h2> + +<h3><i>Of Literature, Art, and Science.</i></h3> + +<h4>Vol. IV. NEW-YORK, AUGUST 1, 1851. No. I.</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i11.jpg" width="450" height="480" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2>REV. CALVIN COLTON.</h2> + + + +<p>Mr. Colton is a man of very decided abilities, voluminous and various +in their manifestation, and assiduously cultivated during a long life, +in which he has never failed of the curiosity, ambition, and industry +of a learner. The untiring freshness and hopefulness of his spirit is +shown by his undertaking the study of the French language not more +than three or four years ago, and obtaining such a mastery of it as to +read with delight its most abstruse authors, and to preach in it with +fluency and even with eloquence. It is characteristic of him that he +is always earnest, and that he considers whatever he has to do worthy +of his best abilities, so that in writing of theology, economy, +polity, or manners, he arrays in order for each particular subject all +the forces of his understanding, and makes its discussion their +measure and illustration. He has been in an eminent degree devoted to +literature as a profession, and although he has produced works which +may be deemed unfortunate in design or defective in execution, it must +be admitted that he is entitled to a highly respectable position as a +thinker and as a writer, and that in opinion and in affairs he has +exercised a steady and large influence.</p> + +<p>He was born in Long Meadow, Massachusetts, graduated at Yale College +in 1812, studied divinity at Andover, and in 1815 took orders in the +Presbyterian church. For several years he was settled in the village +of Batavia in western New-York, but his voice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> failing in 1826, he +became a contributor to several of the principal periodicals occupied +with religion and learning, and in the summer of 1831, after an +extended tour through the western states and territories, proceeded to +London, as a correspondent of the New-York Observer.</p> + +<p>In England, he led a life of remarkable literary activity. In 1832 he +published a <i>Manual for Emigrants to America</i>, which had a large sale +among the middling classes; and <i>The History and Character of American +Revivals of Religion</i>, of which there were two or three editions. In +1833, in a volume entitled <i>The Americans, by an American in London</i>, +he replied, with an unanswerable display of facts, to the libels on +this country by British travellers and reviewers; and published <i>The +American Cottager</i>, a religious narrative. <i>A Tour of the American +Lakes and among the Indians of the North-West Territory</i>, in two +volumes, and <i>Church and State in America</i>, a vindication of the +religious character of the country and the voluntary principle for the +support of religion, in reply to the Bishop of London, who had +endeavored to show that the United States were going back to paganism +because the church was not here connected with the state.</p> + +<p>Returning to New-York, in 1835, he published <i>Four Years in Great +Britain</i>, in two volumes, which were soon after reprinted, with some +additions, in a more popular form. In 1836 he gave to the public +anonymously, <i>Protestant Jesuitism</i>, a criticism of the constitution, +extreme opinion, and unwise action of many of the benevolent and +religious societies; and having taken orders in the Episcopal church, +<i>Thoughts on the Religious State of the Country, and Reasons for +preferring Episcopacy</i>, a work which was much read and the cause of +much critical observation in Great Britain as well as in the United +States.</p> + +<p>From that time Mr. Colton has written very little on any subject +intimately connected with religion, but directing his attention to +public affairs, has been as conspicuous in the state as he was +previously in the church. In 1838 he published <i>Abolition a Sedition</i>, +and <i>Abolition and Colonization Contrasted</i>, in which he contended +with equal earnestness and ability that the entire subject of slavery +is beyond the limits of the proper action of the national government, +and that there is no justification of its discussion, except in the +states where slavery is established, or for the wise and really +philanthropic purpose of promoting African Colonization. In 1839 he +again took up the argument of our social relations with Great Britain, +in a work written in Philadelphia, but published in London, under the +title of <i>A Voice from America to England, By an American Gentleman</i>. +The plan was judicious: it was not so much to express opinions as to +state facts which should compel opinions in the adverse audience he +addressed. While mainly defensive, he was at the same time bravely +critical. He contended that in its constitution our government was +republican and not democratic, but that the extraordinary force of +public opinion among us has made it democratic in fact. A large +portion of the work was devoted to the several ecclesiastical polities +existing here, which he treated with singular freedom and originality, +so that the frequent impertinences of ignorant laymen and +obtrusively-meddling women, in the affairs of churches, rendering the +clerical profession humiliating and difficult to a person of manly +character and cultivation, were stated without any hesitation or +attempt at concealment. The entire performance is still attractive for +frequent sound observation upon institutions, judicious criticism of +manners, happy illustration, and good humor, and its opportune +appearance was advantageous to the best fame of the country.</p> + +<p>In 1840 he made a more distinct and powerful impression than ever +before, by the publication of <i>The Crisis of the Country, American +Jacobinism</i>, and <i>One Presidential Term</i>, a series of tracts under the +name of "Junius," which were circulated in all the states by thousands +and hundreds of thousands, and were supposed to have had great +influence in the overthrow of the democratic administration. In 1842 +he edited at Washington a paper called <i>The True Whig</i>, and in 1843 +and 1844 he brought out a second series, embracing ten publications, +still more popular than the first, of the <i>Junius Tracts</i>.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of the latter year, when the fortunes of the whig party +seemed to be entirely broken, when full half the nation felt a +personal grief for the defeat of a leader, added to the mortification +of political discomfiture, Mr. Colton determined to write the life of +the chief he had followed with unwavering admiration and unfaltering +activity. Casting aside all other cares, so that his every thought +might be given to the work until its completion, he set out for +Kentucky, where he was sure of the friendly assistance of Mr. Clay in +whatever concerned the investigation of facts. In November, 1844, he +reached Lexington, where Mr. Clay laid open to him the stores of his +correspondence, and the documentary history of his career. The work +was finished in the spring of 1846, and published in two large +octavos; and so great was the demand for it, that the first impression +of five thousand copies was sold in six months. It is unquestionably +an able performance, and from the circumstances under which it was +composed and the conclusiveness of some of its arguments it is +probable that it will always be regarded as a valuable portion of the +material for contemporary political history; but, it appears to me +very unequal in execution, and signally unfortunate in design, if +considered either as a biography or a history. For the subjective +rather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> than the chronological arrangement of the facts in it there is +however this defence, that it rendered the work much more easy of +citation, and therefore more valuable as a magazine for partisan +controversy. The influence it obtained may be illustrated by reference +to a single point: for a quarter of a century the staple of +declamation against Mr. Clay, the opposition which thrice cost him the +presidency, was his supposed bargain with John Quincy Adams; but since +the appearance of Mr. Colton's exposition of this subject any person +in an intelligent society would forfeit the consideration given to a +gentleman who should repeat the charge.</p> + +<p>For several years the attention of Mr. Colton had been more and more +attracted to the literature and philosophy of political economy. In +1846 he printed his first work in which it is formally treated, <i>The +Rights of Labor</i>, in which he asserted, illustrated, and with +unanswerable logic vindicated the American doctrine of the privileges +and dignity of Industry; and in 1848 he gave to the world his last and +most important work, <i>Public Economy for the United States</i>. From the +formation of the first system of society the subjects embraced in this +production have employed the most powerful intellects of all nations. +But though illustrated by the liveliest genius and the profoundest +reflection, they have not until recently assumed even the forms of +science. We cannot tell what formulæ of economical truth passed from +existence in the lost books of Aristotle. The father of the +peripatetic philosophy undoubtedly brought to public economics the +severe method which enabled him to construct so much of the +everlasting science of which the history goes back to his times; but +whatever direction he gave to the subject, by the investigation of its +ultimate principles and their phenomena, his successors, and the +writers upon it since the revival of learning, have generally been +guided by empirical laws, which in an especial degree have obtained in +regard to the economy of commerce. Scarcely any of the literature or +reflection upon the subject has gone behind the bold hypotheses of +free trade theorists, which have been as unsubstantial as the fanciful +systems of the universe swept from existence by the demonstrations of +Newton. Not only have economical systems generally been made up of +unproven hypotheses, but they have rarely evinced any such clear +apprehension and constructive ability as are essential in the +formation and statement of principles; and down to the chaos of Mr. +Mills's last essay there is scarcely a volume on political economy +which rewards the wearied attention with any more than a vague +understanding of the shadowy design that existed in the author's +brain.</p> + +<p>In the eminently original and scientific work of Mr. Colton we see +economy subjected to fundamental and ultimate methods of investigation +of which the results have a mathematical certainty. We have new facts, +new reasonings, new deductions; and if the paramount ideas are not +altogether original, they are discovered by original processes, and +their previous existence is but an illustration of the truth that the +instinctive perspicacity of the common mind often surpasses the +logical faculty in recognizing laws before they are discovered from +elements and relations. Mr. Colton has not rejected the title +"<i>political</i> economy" because he proposed to enter a different field, +or because the subject and argument have no relation to politics, but +chiefly because the term has been so much abused in the rude agitation +of what are commonly called politics, that he does not think it +comports with the dignity of the theme; and the second part of his +title is adopted from a conviction that the economical principles of +states <i>are to be deduced from their separate experience and adapted +to their individual condition</i>. The task which he proposed to himself +is, the exhibition of the merits of the protective and free trade +systems as they apply to the United States. He expresses at the outset +his opinion that the settlement of the question is one of the most +desirable, and will be one of the most important results which remain +to be achieved in the progress of the country; and we can assure him +that the accomplishment of it will be rewarded by the best approval of +these times, and an enduring name. The second chapter of his work is a +statement of the new points which it embraces. By new points he does +not mean that all thus described are entirely original, though many of +them are so; but that on account of the importance of the places he +has assigned them as compared with those they occupy in other works of +the kind, they are entitled to be presented as new. Many of them +involve fundamental and pervading principles that have not hitherto +appeared in speculations on the subject, but which are destined to an +important influence in its discussion. Some of the most prominent are, +that public economy is the application of knowledge, derived from +experience, to given positions, interests and institutions, for the +increase of wealth; that it has never been reduced to a science, and +that the propositions of which it has been for the most part composed, +down to this time, are empirical; that protective duties in the United +States are not taxes, and that a protective system rescues the country +from a system of foreign taxation; that popular education is a +fundamental element of public economy; that freedom is a thing of +commercial value, and that the history of freedom for all time, shows +it to be identical with protection.</p> + +<p>Recently the renewal of his voice has enabled Mr. Colton to devote +more attention to the favorite pursuit of his life, and he is a very +frequent preacher, in French or English. He resides in New-York.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A GLANCE AT THE WATERING PLACES.</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i14.jpg" width="450" height="544" alt="THE YOUNG MARRIED GENTLEMAN WHO "COULD NOT POSSIBLY GO +TO THE SPRINGS."" title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE YOUNG MARRIED GENTLEMAN WHO "COULD NOT POSSIBLY GO +TO THE SPRINGS."</span> +</div> + + +<p>All the gay world of the cities, and even of the villages and country +homes, who can do so, by the first of August are "going," or "gone," +as Mr. John Keese says of a last invoice, to the watering places, and +other summer resorts, which serve as fairs for the disposal of +valueless time and "remainders" of marriageable daughters. With the +crowds intent on speculation are a few invalids, a few students of +human nature, and the common proportion of mere lookers-on, who have +no purpose but to be amused. Times have changed, manners have changed, +since Paulding gave us his <i>Mirror for Travellers</i>, though Saratoga +still maintains the ascendency she was then acquiring, and for certain +inalienable natural advantages is likely to do so for a part at least +of every season.</p> + +<p>New-York is the grand rendezvous: once settled in our hotels, the +splendid Astor, the comfortable American, the busy Irving, the gay +New-York, or the quiet Union Place or Clarendon, the stranger has +little desire to go further, until the last and imperative demands of +Fashion compel him to abandon the study of those noble institutions we +described in the last <i>International</i>, and to forego the observation +of those great public works in which the energy of our rich men has +flowered, or those appointments of Providence which render New-York a +rival of Dublin, Naples, or Constantinople, in scenic magnificence.</p> + +<p>Many indeed who come from distant parts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> of the country, linger all +summer in the vicinity of the city, in the hottest days quitting +Broadway for a sail or drive, to the Bath House, Rockaway, Coney +Island, New Brighton, Long Branch, or Fort Hamilton, where they dine, +or perhaps stay over night. At Fort Hamilton, indeed, Mr. Clapp is apt +to keep those who venture into his hotel, with its luxurious tables, +pleasant rooms, cool breezes from the ocean, and fair sights in all +directions, for a much longer time; and every one of these places, in +the hot months, has attractions that would make a visitor at the Spas +of France, Germany, or Italy, could he wake in them, think he had +eluded the watchful guard St. Peter keeps at the gateway of another +retirement, to the which, it may be feared, the gay world has far less +anxiety to go.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i15a.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="FORT HAMILTON HOUSE, LONG ISLAND." title="" /> +<span class="caption">FORT HAMILTON HOUSE, LONG ISLAND.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i15b.jpg" width="500" height="316" alt="PROPOSED SUMMER HOTEL AT THE HIGHLANDS OF NEVERSINK." title="" /> +<span class="caption">PROPOSED SUMMER HOTEL AT THE HIGHLANDS OF NEVERSINK.</span> +</div> + +<p>Ascending the Hudson, from the social metropolis of this continent, to +which all "capitals" of states or nations, from Patagonia to +Greenland, are in some way subject and tributary, the traveller finds +the palace in which he rides, continually near embowered pavilions for +the public, and clusters of private residences, which but add to their +enjoyableness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> Cozzens's Hotel at West Point, is perhaps as well +known as any house of the same class in the world, and its picturesque +situation, as well as the admirable manner in which it is kept, will +preserve for it a place in the list of favorite resorts. The Catskill +Mountain House, in the midst of grand and peculiar scenery, on the +verge of a rock two thousand and five hundred feet above the +Hudson—seen with its various fleets at a distance from the long +colonnade—is thronged even more than West Point. There are other +pleasant houses on the river, and many turn from its various points to +visit newer or less crowded places than Saratoga along the lines of +the western railroads, as Trenton Falls, Sharon Springs, or Avon, or +further still, the towns by the borders of the great lakes.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i16a.jpg" width="500" height="390" alt="CATSKILL MOUNTAIN HOUSE." title="" /> +<span class="caption">CATSKILL MOUNTAIN HOUSE.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i16b.jpg" width="500" height="331" alt="HOTEL AT TRENTON FALLS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">HOTEL AT TRENTON FALLS.</span> +</div> + +<p>Saratoga is now for several weeks the gayest scene of all. At the +United States Hotel,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> with its fine grounds, are the leaders of +fashion; at Congress Hall, with its clean and quiet rooms and +unsurpassed <i>cuisine</i>, are representatives of the substantial families +that have had grandfathers, and in the dozen or twenty smaller houses +about the village are "all sorts and conditions of men," and eke of +women. With drives, dinners, flirtations, drinking of drinks, and, +once in a long while, imbibitions of a little congress water, all goes +merry as a marriage bell—except with ladies of uncertain ages who are +disappointed of that blessed music—until the Grand Ball gives signal +for departure to other places.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i17a.jpg" width="500" height="325" alt="SARATOGA SPRINGS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">SARATOGA SPRINGS.</span> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 435px;"> +<img src="images/i17b.jpg" width="435" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i18a.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="THE NOTCH HOUSE, WHITE MOUNTAINS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE NOTCH HOUSE, WHITE MOUNTAINS.</span> +</div> + +<p>From Saratoga parties go northward to Lake George, (for which region, +of the most romantic beauty, they should be prepared by a perusal of +Dudley Bean's admirable sketch of its revolutionary history;) and down +the Champlain toward Montreal, whence they return by way of the +Ontario and Niagara Falls (where our engraver Orr's <i>Pictorial Guide +Book</i> is indispensable to the best enjoyment), or go through the +glorious hills of northern Vermont and New Hampshire to the White +Mountains. All the last grand region has been most truthfully and +effectively represented in a small folio volume of drawings from +nature, by Isaac Sprague, described by William Oakes, and published in +Boston by Crosby & Nichols. We commend the book to summer tourists.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i18b.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="NIAGARA FALLS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">NIAGARA FALLS.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i19a.jpg" width="500" height="306" alt="OCEAN HOUSE, NEWPORT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">OCEAN HOUSE, NEWPORT.</span> +</div> + +<p>A considerable proportion of the guests who are at Saratoga in the +earlier part of the season, proceed to Newport in time for the Fancy +Ball which every year closes the campaign there. Newport increases in +attractions. Its historical associations, fine atmosphere, beautiful +position, and facilities for sea-bathing, fishing, sailing, riding, +and other amusements, are continually drawing to its neighborhood new +families, whose cottages add much to the beauty of the town, as they +themselves to the pleasantness of its society; and for transient +visitors no place in the world has better hotels or boarding-houses.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 426px;"> +<img src="images/i19b.jpg" width="426" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i20a.jpg" width="500" height="340" alt="WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, VIRGINIA." title="" /> +<span class="caption">WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, VIRGINIA.</span> +</div> + +<p>After the season closes at Newport, and from her Ocean House the last +unwilling traveller has taken his way, strewn with regrets, many +linger at the more quiet summer haunts scattered through New-England +and New-York, particularly at the rural and luxurious hotel of +Lebanon—a country palace which a king might covet—filled always with +good society; or go southward to the Virginia Springs, which have many +attractions peculiar to themselves, and with their unique pastimes, +their tournaments, field sports, &c., happily vary a summer's life +commenced at the more northern watering places.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i20b.jpg" width="500" height="344" alt="COLUMBIA HALL, LEBANON SPRINGS." title="" /> +<span class="caption">COLUMBIA HALL, LEBANON SPRINGS.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i21a.jpg" width="500" height="328" alt="MOULTRIE HOUSE, SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, NEAR CHARLESTON." title="" /> +<span class="caption">MOULTRIE HOUSE, SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, NEAR CHARLESTON.</span> +</div> + +<p>The South Carolinians have this year seceded from the northern +resorts, and those who do not go from Charleston to the up-country or +to Georgia, may well be content with Captain Payne's spacious and +splendid hotel on Sullivan's Island—the coolest and most agreeable +place by the seaside we have visited, north or south, for years. From +the south, and indeed from all parts of the country, parties go more +and more every year to the Mammoth Cave, (of which we have in store a +particular and profusely illustrated account), and up the great rivers +and lakes of the west, all along which, first-class hotels, +steamboats, &c., render travel as easy and delightful as on the old +summer routes in the middle and eastern states.</p> + +<p>—Thus we have taken our readers—some of whom haply cannot this +season go by other ways—the circuit of the principal scenes of +enjoyment to which the denizens of the hot cities are intent to escape +through July, August, and September. If any have till this time +hesitated where to go, possibly we have aided them to an election: +certainly, we have led them cheaply along the fashionable tour.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i21b.jpg" width="500" height="327" alt="MAMMOTH CAVE HOTEL." title="" /> +<span class="caption">MAMMOTH CAVE HOTEL.</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i22.jpg" width="450" height="425" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h2>NOAH WEBSTER.</h2> + +<p>The above portrait of the author of <i>The American Spelling-Book</i>, of +which there have been sold thirty millions of copies, and of the +<i>American Dictionary</i>, of which his publishers have hopes of selling +as great a number, is very life-like; it is from a painting by +Professor Morse, and the last time we saw the veteran scholar and +schoolmaster, he wore the very expression caught by that always +successful artist. Noah Webster's is the most universally familiar +name in our history; every body, from first to second childhood, from +end to end and side to side of the continent, knows it as well as his +own; and he who made it so famous was worthy of his reputation.</p> + +<p>Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut, October 16th, 1758. He +was a descendant, in the fourth generation, of John Webster, one of +the first settlers of Hartford, and afterwards governor of the colony. +In 1774 he was admitted to Yale College. His studies were frequently +interrupted during the Revolution, and for a time he himself served as +a volunteer in the army, with his father and two brothers. He +graduated, with honor, in 1778, in the same class with Joel Barlow, +Oliver Wolcott, Uriah Tracy, and other distinguished men, and +immediately opened a school, residing meanwhile in the family of +Oliver Ellsworth, afterward chief justice of the United States. He +soon commenced the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in +1781; but the poverty and unsettled state of the country prevented any +immediate success in the courts, and he resumed the business of +instruction in 1782, at Goshen, Orange county, New-York. It was here +that he began the preparation of books for the schools. He was led to +do so in despondency of success in his profession; but it changed the +course of his life. Having exhibited the rude sketch of his initial +effort to Mr. Madison (afterwards President), and Dr. Stanhope Smith, +Professor in Princeton college, he was encouraged by them to publish +the "First Part of a Grammatical Institute of the English Language." +The second and third parts of the series soon followed. A generation +has not passed since some of these books were occasionally seen in New +England. It may be that here and there a copy may still be lurking in +the garret of some ancient family, or on the dusty shelves of a +collector of antiquities. There is no more striking contrast than that +suggested by a comparison of Webster's "Third Part," as it was +familiarly styled, with the admirably printed school books now in +every family. Webster's were the first school books published in the +United States. In 1847 twenty-four million copies of the Spelling Book +had been sold, and for several years the demand for it has been at the +rate of a million a year.</p> + +<p>Dr. Webster did not confine his attention to his own publications; but +having learned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> that a copy of Winthrop's Journal was in the +possession of Governor Trumbull, he caused it to be transcribed and +published at his own risk. In this way was given to the public one of +the most important memorials of our early history, and the first +example furnished of printing the documents, and other materials, +illustrative of our original experience. Mr. Webster was poor, and the +country had never yet evinced any disposition to encourage enterprises +of this sort; but he had always a confidence that it was safe to do +what was right and necessary, and therefore disregarded in this, as in +many other cases, the opinions of his friends that he would incur +inevitable loss.</p> + +<p>The peace of 1783 involved the whole country in political agitation, +at certain points of which the calmest and wisest well nigh despaired +of the republic. At that time the influence of the pen was greater +than ever before. It seemed that the decision of principles which were +to last for centuries was dependent on the force of a single argument, +or the earnestness of one appeal. In this conflict the ambitious and +self-relying spirit of Mr. Webster led him to take an active part, and +from the peace till the close of Washington's administration, he was +an industrious and efficient writer. No period in the history of this +country was ever more critical; in none were so many principles +subjected to experiment, in none was discussion more able, exhausting, +and high-toned.</p> + +<p>The first topic which engaged Mr. Webster's attention was the decision +of Congress to remunerate the army, then recently disbanded. This +measure was violently opposed in all parts of the country. Meetings +were held to organize resistance to the law, and two-thirds of the +towns of Connecticut were represented in a convention for this +purpose. Mr. Webster was then twenty-five years of age, but he +contributed to the leading paper of the state a series of essays, +signed HONORIUS, which induced a decisive change in the public +feeling; and he received for his important services the thanks of +Governor Trumbull. In the winter of 1784—5 he published a tract, +<i>Sketches of American Policy</i>, in which he advanced the doctrine, that +to meet the crisis and secure the prosperity of the whole country, a +government should be organized that would act, not upon the states, +but directly on the people, vesting in Congress full authority to +execute its own acts. A copy of this essay was presented by the author +to Washington, and it is believed that it contained the first distinct +proposal of the new constitution. About the same time, he exerted +himself successfully for what was then called an "International +Copyright" law between the several sovereign states; and at a later +period he spent a winter in Washington, to procure an extension of the +period for which a copyright might be enjoyed. In 1785, he prepared a +series of lectures on the English language, which he delivered in the +larger towns, and in 1789 published, under the title of <i>Dissertations +on the English Language</i>. In 1787-8, he spent the winter in +Philadelphia, as a teacher. The convention called to frame the new +constitution was in session during a part of the year, and after its +labors were completed, Mr. Webster undertook to recommend the result +to the then doubtful favor of the people. This he did in a tract, +entitled <i>An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal +Constitution</i>. In the next year he established in New-York <i>The +American Magazine</i>, but it was unsuccessful. In 1789 he opened a +law-office in Hartford, and his reputation, diligence, and abilities, +insured business and profits. He was now married to Miss Greenleaf, of +Boston, and enjoyed the advantage of one of the most brilliant +literary circles of the country, consisting of Joel Barlow, Lemuel +Hopkins, John Trumbull, and others who at that time were eminent for +their capacities.</p> + +<p>But the political excitement of 1793, caused by the proclamation of +neutrality, disturbed his plans, and brought him again into the arena +of affairs. The sympathy for the new French republic, natural and +pardonable as it was, overran all limits of reason. The popularity and +influence of Washington were hardly sufficient for the repression of +disorder and violence, and an armed espousal of the cause of the +French. Mr. Webster was solicited to devote himself to the support of +the administration, and means were furnished for the establishment by +him of a daily paper in New-York. He accordingly commenced <i>The +Minerva</i>, and soon after, a semi-weekly, <i>The Herald</i>, which +ultimately received the names which they now retain, of <i>The +Commercial Advertiser</i>, and <i>The New-York Spectator</i>.</p> + +<p>Another agitation soon followed, if possible, still more +alarming—that which grew out of Jay's Treaty with England. The +discussions to which this gave rise were earnest, often angry and +vituperative, but always able, enlisting the most accomplished men of +the country. In these discussions Mr. Webster was, as might have been +anticipated, remarkably active. A series of papers by him, under the +signature of CURTIUS, had an unquestionable influence on the whole +nation. They were extensively reprinted and afterwards collected in a +volume. Mr. Rufus King said to Mr. Jay, that they had done more than +any others to allay the popular opposition to the treaty. During these +conflicts, Mr. Webster often encountered as an antagonist the +celebrated William Cobbett, at that time conducting a journal in +Philadelphia, distinguished alike for ability and for unscrupulous +violence.</p> + +<p>While Mr. Webster lived in New-York, the yellow fever prevailed in +this city and in Philadelphia, and he wrote a minute and comprehensive +<i>History of Pestilential Diseases</i>, in two volumes, which was +published in New-York and in London. It attracted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> much attention in +its time, and was referred to with interest during the subsequent +prevalence of the cholera. He also published in 1802 an able treatise +on <i>The Rights of Neutral Nations in time of War</i>, occasioned by the +interference of the French government with the shipping of the world, +and its seizure of American vessels, under the proclamation of a +blockade. He also published <i>Historical Notices of the Origin and +State of Banking Institutions and Insurance Offices</i>, a work of +authority and popularity.</p> + +<p>In 1798 he removed to New Haven, but retained the direction of his +paper at New-York for several years. After disposing of his interest +in it he devoted the remainder of his life to literary pursuits.</p> + +<p>His first work was a <i>Philosophical and Practical English Grammar</i>, +printed in 1807. It was in many respects original, acute, and +excellently fitted for the purposes of instruction. It was, however, +only one of the studies for his subsequent and far more important +performance. For more than twenty years he had been a close student of +the elements and sources of the English language; he had gradually, as +his various occupations permitted, accumulated and arranged materials +for its exposition, and he now felt himself at liberty to forego all +other pursuits and ambitions to devote himself for the remainder of +his life to the great labors which have made his name so honorably +eminent in the history of the intellectual advances of his country and +of the Saxon family. The preparation of a Dictionary, under any +circumstances, must be regarded as a very formidable task, involving +even for an enthusiast the most dry and wearying researches, +unenlivened by any of the pleasing excitements which vary the monotony +and relieve the tedium of ordinary literary pursuits. Mr. Webster from +the beginning had a just conception of the duties and difficulties +before him; he was assured that no superficial study or careless +execution would command or in any degree deserve approval, in one who +followed in the track of Johnson. He was not disposed to make the work +of that great man a basis for his own; to be simply an editor, whose +duties should be fulfilled by additions of the new words and new +definitions introduced in seventy years; he determined to make a new +and altogether original work; to study the English language in the +writings of its most distinguished authors, to inquire into its actual +usage in conversation and public discourse, not by loosely gathered +and ill arranged groups of synonymes, but by a clear and precise +statement of meanings, illustrated, whenever it should be necessary, +by various instances. In this work, Johnson had made a beginning; he +first conceived the plan of defining by descriptions, instead of +synonymes; and he had introduced into his larger dictionary quotations +from the best authors. But his work, valuable as it was, was +imperfect, even in regard to the words current in his time, and which +he succeeded in collecting. But, if Johnson had perfectly accomplished +his design, the lapse of seventy years of such extraordinary and +various activity in every department of human action and aspiration, +would have rendered a New Dictionary indispensable. New sciences and +arts had been discovered, which, in their manifold applications to +industry, had changed or wonderfully augmented the technology and +common speech of every class and description of workers. New +experiments had been made in governments; new institutions had been +introduced; literature had assumed new forms; and speculation, with +perfect freedom and gigantic force, had forged new weapons for its new +endeavors. The necessity for a new Dictionary of the English language, +indeed is, demonstrated in the simple fact that the first edition of +Webster's great work contained twelve thousand words not in Johnson; +the second, thirty thousand. This statement does not, however, give a +just impression of the difference between Johnson and Webster, or of +the actual labor which Webster performed. The new definitions, many of +which were fruits, not more of patient research than of nice +discrimination, the arrangement of these definitions, so as to exhibit +the history of words as it had been slowly developed, cost the author +an amount of toil which can with difficulty be measured. We hazard +little concerning the importance or difficulties of the work, when we +quote the remark of Coleridge, that the history of a word is often +more important than that of a campaign.</p> + +<p>The etymology of the language, was a subject to which he devoted much +attention, and in which he made great advances. To qualify himself for +tracing the derivations of English words, he studied some twenty +languages, and wrote out a synopsis of the leading words of each, and +incorporated the chief results of this extraordinary investigation in +the very full and instructive statement of words of similar imports, +which in the larger Dictionary is prefixed to English words, and which +he prepared for the press also, as a separate work, of about half the +size of the <i>American Dictionary</i>, entitled "<i>A Synopsis of Words in +Twenty Languages</i>," which is still unpublished.</p> + +<p>In 1812, he removed to Amherst, in Massachusetts, where he devoted ten +years entirely to these labors. He returned to New Haven in 1822; in +the following year he received from Yale College the degree of LL. D., +and in the spring of 1824 he proceeded to Paris to consult in the +<i>Bibliothèque du Roi</i> some works not accessible in this country, and +then went to England and passed eight months in the libraries of the +University of Cambridge.</p> + +<p>Returning to America, he made arrangements for the publication of his +great work,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> and it finally appeared, near the end of 1826, in an +edition of twenty-five hundred copies, in two quarto volumes, which +were sold at twenty dollars per copy. An edition of three thousand +copies was soon after printed in England.</p> + +<p>Dr. Webster was now seventy years of age, and he considered his +life-task accomplished; but habits of literary occupation had become +fixed and necessary, and after a few months he began to rewrite his +<i>History of the United States for Schools</i>. In 1840 he published a +second edition of the <i>Dictionary</i>, in two octavo volumes; in 1843, <i>A +Collection of Papers, on Political, Literary and Moral Subjects</i>, +selected from his various writings in early life; and in 1847 another +edition of the <i>American Dictionary</i> appeared, after a thorough +revision of it by Professor Goodrich, of Yale College. In this edition +very large additions were made, amounting to a fifth of the whole +work. There were new words, and new definitions, when needed; careful +attention was bestowed on technical terms of science and art; and it +was made a general cyclopædia of knowledge. Yet by employing a finer +type, and adopting a close yet clear style of printing, the original +work, with all these copious additions, was brought within the compass +of a single quarto, which has been styled the finest specimen of +book-manufacture ever produced in America. A revised edition of the +abridgement was issued at the same time, and both volumes have had a +circulation which evinces the general appreciation of their value. +Several of the New England states, we believe, have furnished a copy +of the quarto Dictionary to every school district within their limits, +and the legislature of New-York, during its recent session, passed a +law for the distribution of some thousands of copies in the school +districts of this state also. Whatever may be said of the Dictionary +by Dr. <span class="smcap">Webster</span>, it will not be questioned by the disinterested scholar +that it is one of the most extraordinary and honorable monuments of +well-directed intellectual labor of which we have any account in the +histories of literature or learning. It is as great an advance from +the work of Dr. Johnson, as that was from the wretched vocabularies of +the English language which existed before his time; and so accurate +and exhausting has been the investigation which it displays that no +rival work is likely to take its place until sufficient time has +elapsed for the language itself to pass into a new condition.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/i25.jpg" width="500" height="343" alt="THE BIRTHPLACE OF NOAH WEBSTER." title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE BIRTHPLACE OF NOAH WEBSTER.</span> +</div> + +<p>Much has been said of Dr. Webster's innovations, but for the most +part, by persons altogether ignorant of the philosophy of languages in +general, as well as of the character and condition of the English +language. Dr. Webster attempted, and with eminent success, to reduce +the English language to order, and to subject it to the operation of +principles. The changes which he made, though in a few instances, +necessary for consistency, striking, are much less numerous than is +commonly supposed, and even to scholars, with whom the study of +languages is not a <i>specialité</i>, they would not be very apparent but +for the frequent attempts which are made to prejudice the public +against the work. An amusing illustration of this fact occurred a few +years ago, when, a concerted assault upon the Dictionary having been +made, and sustained for some time, a distinguished author who had a +new book in the press of the Harpers, was alarmed by intelligence that +they intended to adopt for it Webster's orthography. He wrote to +these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> publishers his apprehensions that the success of his +performance and his own good reputation could not fail of exceeding +injury, if their design should be executed, and begged them to adopt +some other work as a medium for the display of the Websterian +innovations. The Harpers replied that he might select his own +standard; they believed he had, perhaps unconsciously, followed +Webster in his <i>manuscript</i>, and that the several productions of his +which they had published in previous years had all been printed +according to Webster's Dictionary, which was the guide used in their +printing offices.</p> + +<p>The incidents of Dr. Webster's life after the publication of the +second edition of his Dictionary, in 1840, were few and unimportant. +Indeed, with that effort he regarded his public life as brought to a +close. He passed through a serene old age, which was terminated by a +peaceful death, on the twenty-eighth of May, 1843, when he was in the +eighty-fifth year of his age.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>DR. MERLE D'AUBIGNE AND THE ENGLISH CHURCH.</h2> + + +<p>The celebrated German historian, Dr. <span class="smcap">Merle d'Aubigne</span>, is now in +England, and in consequence of certain proceedings growing out of his +occupation of an Episcopal pulpit recently, he has published a letter +to the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the general subject of the +exclusion of continental Protestant ministers from the pulpits of +English churches. He is aware that, in consequence of the Act of +Uniformity, there are churches which cannot be opened to those +ministers, but he hopes that this law of exclusion will be repealed. +"It is no longer in harmony with the spirit and the wants of the +church in the age in which we live." The Calvinistic historian +expresses his conviction that the reëstablishment of the Annual +Convocation would not reform the Church. The Convocation has been for +more than a century deprived of its powers, and it is to Parliament +that the question now belongs. He says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Why should I not express to you, my lord, a desire which I +have long had in my heart? This desire is, that being +surrounded by ministers and members of the Church the most +enlightened and most devoted to God and to his word, you +should digest and present to Parliament a plan, not to +<i>effect</i> (<i>sic</i>) a reform of the Church, but to <i>establish +the authority</i> (<i>sic</i>) which should be charged with its +reform and government. It seems to me that the best way +would be to establish a body similar to that which governs +the Episcopal church of America, composed of three chambers, +that of the bishops, that of the presbyters, and that of the +members of the Church, the two latter being ordinarily +united in one. The Americans of the United States have +received so much from you (they have received every thing, +even their very existence), why should you not take +something from them? I am convinced that sooner or later a +reform <i>must</i> take place in the government of the Church of +England: it is important that it should be done well. I +think that there would be some hope of its being +accomplished in a good sense, if it were done while you, my +lord, are Primate of the Church, and while Victoria is Queen +of England."</p></div> + +<p>Every thing seems to tend to an entire revolution in the British +ecclesiastical system, and the coöperation of Dr. Merle and other +continental writers with those who are agitating the subject in +England—demanding the separation of the church from the state—makes +the prospect of such a separation more imminent than it has ever been +hitherto.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE EXILE'S SUNSET SONG.</h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE</h4> + +<h3>BY J. R. THOMPSON.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When from thy side, love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In silence and gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Half broken-hearted<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Fate tore me away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All humbled in pride, love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I thought in my doom,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That Hope had departed<br /></span> +<span class="i6">For ever and aye!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But Fate may not banish<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From memory's store,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That blissful communion<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Of years that are flown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor make yet to vanish<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The lustre which o'er<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Our fond thoughts of union,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">So tenderly shone.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And still o'er the ocean<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My fancy takes flight,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Where oft I see gleaming<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Thy figure afar;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I think with emotion,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That sometimes at night,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">We watch the same beaming<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And tremulous star.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sunsets so golden.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That stream round me here,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">But call up thy shadow<br /></span> +<span class="i6">The landscape between:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when in the olden<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dim season so dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">It tripped o'er the meadow<br /></span> +<span class="i6">With step of a queen.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As the light of the moon, love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like snow softly falls,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And rests on the mountain,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And silvers the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That midnight in June, love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My mem'ry recalls,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">When up to the fountain<br /></span> +<span class="i6">I clambered with thee.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How sweetly the river<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Reflected the ray<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Of moon through the willows<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Or sun o'er the hill:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Does the moonbeam there quiver,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sunset there play,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Upon its gay billows<br /></span> +<span class="i6">As splendidly still?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My spirit is weary—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An exile I grieve,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">When morn's early voices<br /></span> +<span class="i6">A glad song proclaim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the faint Miserere<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of nature at eve,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To me but rejoices<br /></span> +<span class="i6">To murmer thy name.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet Hope, reappearing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A vision unfolds,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Of rapture together<br /></span> +<span class="i6">In joy's happy reign,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When love all endearing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The full eye beholds,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">We'll walk o'er the heather<br /></span> +<span class="i6">At sunset again.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Richmond</span>, Va.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> +<h2>DRAMATIC FRAGMENTS.</h2> + +<h3>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE.</h3> + +<h3>BY R. H. STODDARD.</h3> + + +<h4>THE GAME OF CHESS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We played at chess, Bianca and myself,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One afternoon, but neither won the game,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Both absent-minded, thinking of our hearts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moving the ivory pawns from black to white,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shifted to little purpose round the board;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sometimes we quite forgot it in a sigh<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then remembered it, and moved again;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Looking the while along the slopes beyond,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Barred by blue peaks, the fountain, and the grove<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where lovers sat in shadow, back again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With sideway glances in each other's eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unknowingly I made a lucky move,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whereby I checked my mate, and gained a queen;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My couch drew nearer hers, I took her hand—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A soft white hand that gave itself away—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Told o'er the simple story of my love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In simplest phrases which are always best,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And prayed her if she loved me in return—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A fabled doubt—to give her heart to me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then, and there, above that game of chess,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not finished yet, in maiden trustfulness,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She gave me, what I knew was mine, her heart!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h4>FROM A PLAY.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alas! I think of you the live-long day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Plying my needle by the little stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wish that we had never, never met,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or I were dead, or you were married off,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though that would kill me; I lay down my work,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And take the lute you gave me, but the strings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have grown so tuneless that I cannot play;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sing the favorite airs we used to sing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sweet old tunes we love, and weep aloud!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I sought forgetfulness, and tried to-day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To read a chapter in the Holy Book;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I could not see a line, I only read<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The solemn sonnets that you sent to me:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor can I pray as I was wont to do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For you come in between me and the Lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when I strive to lift my soul above,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My wits are wandering, and I sob your name!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nights, when I am lying on my bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(I hope such thoughts are not unmaidenly,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I think of you, and fall asleep, and dream<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am your own, your wedded, happy wife,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But that can never, never be on earth!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE COUNTESS IDA HAHN-HAHN.</h2> + + +<p>We gave in the last <i>International</i> a short notice of "<i>Von Babylon +nach Jerusalem</i>" (A Journey from Babylon to Jerusalem), by Ida, +Countess of Hahn-Hahn, in which she declares her conversion to +Christianity and Catholicism. What the Germans themselves think of +this work may be gathered from the following brief review, which has +just fallen under our notice in the <i>Central Blatt</i>. The article is +curious, from the "intensely German" style and spirit in which it is +written, though we cannot very warmly commend either.</p> + +<p>"The above-mentioned work," which contains an account of the +conversion of its celebrated authoress to the Catholic belief, says +the critic, "presents a sad picture of the complete decay and +dissolution of a <i>void subjectivity</i> (a vacant mind).</p> + +<p>"The writer falls a sacrifice to her exclusive, aristocratic position +in society. Without occupying any place in the world, won and +maintained by personal ability, and consequently without a +well-grounded moral standard, she wanders like a homeless being from +land to land, every where influenced, 'as far as it agreed with her +disposition,' by her momentary interests, and thus rendering apparent +the barrenness of her soul. But this had been developed at an early +period. 'That this feeling (that of joy) was occasionally accompanied +by the deepest discontent, appearing as an unearthly <i>ennui</i>—and that +over it swept the darkest melancholy, will be readily intelligible to +every one, for they are the twin sisters of the fortune of this +world.' 'And occasionally it was a kind of heroism, in that I sat +myself down, and—wrote a romance. Was it finished, I travelled—did I +return, I described the tour—was there a time when the book was +complete and circumstances did not permit of travelling, I took with +raging appetite to reading—and when I no longer wrote, no longer +travelled, and could no longer read for any determined +purpose—because I had none—I knew not what to do with my time. I +could not create illusions, and say to myself, Try this! try that! +perhaps the world hath yet somewhat hidden for thee—the call of +Knowledge is incessant. No, no! she hath nothing. Well—what then? +God? There stood the Word, the One, the Eternal.' Thereupon she reads +the greater and lesser catechisms of Luther, the creeds of the +evangelic reformed church, and the decrees and canons of the Council +of Trent. 'But only the Catholic church hath under roof and proof +brought her dogma-buildings to a tower, provided with the +lightning-rod of authority.' Thereupon she determines, 'I asked no +human being for explanation, information, or counsel—not even +myself.' Three months after, on the first day of January, 1850, she +wrote to the Cardinal Prince-Bishop of Breslau, to beg of him aid in +her entrance to the church.</p> + +<p>"The moral vacancy displayed in these quotations corresponds with the +shallow manner and half romantic, half French style of the book. +Though the first part be written in a fresher and livelier style than +the second, there is still not to be found in the whole a single +well-determined and clearly-impressed thought, and whenever we imagine +that we have hit upon such a thing, straightway we find whirling forth +the dust-clouds of an obscure, phrase-laden, highly affected +sentimental feeling, which, without any real energy, stirs itself up +with repeated 'ohs!' and 'ahs!' and other forced sighs and artificial +aids. In place of such thoughts we find a shallow and occasionally +insupportably wearisome speech on the ideal of Catholicism, or 'the +heathenish abomination in art and literature, which, after the fall of +Byzantium was transported thence to Italy, and there received with +that love which impels sensuous mortals to joyfully draw into the +sphere of his life the new and glittering, because it promises fresh +and shining pleasures.'(!) In another place she speaks of the +reformers as 'miserable, narrow-minded heads, who should have chosen +other ground whereon to exercise their love of quarrelling;'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> while +the second half of her book is confined almost exclusively to the +democrats, and the events which took place from 1847 to 1849. In this +part the authoress displays the greatest want of intellect, and is +sadly wearisome; but her frivolity of manners and morals appears most +repulsive in her account of the Reformation. None of the +Catholics—not even Cochlæus himself—has so far degraded himself as +to interpret in such a vulgar manner the deeds of the reformers (more +particularly Luther's) as is here done by—a lady!</p> + +<p>"If the Countess places at the conclusion of her work the words 'Soli +Deo Gloria,' this is merely in accordance with a Catholic custom, and +by no means meant in earnest, since the work is more particularly +adapted to flatter the vanity and self-conceit of its composer, who +cannot imagine why she should suffer the disgrace to belong to the +German nation. A vain, coquettish self-regard, an affected, +aristocratic-noble nonchalance, and a contradicting, heresy-accusing +confidence of judgment, meet us on every side, and render us +completely opposed to the pretence and moral vacancy of this book."</p> + +<p>These are bitter words, and bitterly spoken, when thus applied to a +woman. The reader will in their perusal remember that the writer is +evidently influenced by a deep feeling against all that savors of +conservatism in politics, and shares in an unusual degree the popular +German feeling against <i>emancipiste Frauen</i>, or women who strive +against the bonds which the customs of society have imposed on the +sex,—a feeling, which, however creditable it may be when applied to +undue extravagances of manners or morals, should be carefully guarded +against when it threatens an unconditional restraint of every exertion +of feminine genius and talent.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>JULES JANIN, AND THE PARIS FEUILLETONISTES.</h2> + + +<p>Jules Janin, whose name, of so constant recurrence in the contemporary +history of light literature, artistic criticism, and <i>feuilleton</i>, is +the Prince Royal of the brilliant court of gifted, tasteful, witty and +<i>spirituel</i> writers, who compose the body of Parisian +<i>feuilletonistes</i>. These are men who write, not because they have any +thing especial to say—for their peculiar function is to say nothing, +in a pointed and brilliant manner—but because they love leisure and +luxury, the opera, pictures, and beautiful ballet girls, and must +themselves make the golden lining to their purses, which they can do +by the very simple process of weaving the similar lining of their +brains into a <i>feuilleton</i>. They are often scholars, men of fine +cultivation and genius, whose tastes however are so imperious, and who +enjoy so much the ease thus facilely achieved, that they accomplish no +great work, win no lasting name. Of course the <i>feuilletonist</i> proper +is to be distinguished from the author or novelist who publishes a +work in the <i>Feuilleton</i>, as Lamartine his <i>Confidences</i>, and Sue and +Dumas and George Sand, their romances. We propose now to follow +briefly the sparkling career of <span class="smcap">Jules Janin</span> as the type of the life, +character, and success of the <i>feuilletonistes</i>.</p> + +<p>He came to Paris, a Jew: as Meyerbeer, Heine, Grisi, Rachel, and the +long luminous list of contemporary artists who have made fame in +Paris, are Jews. He supported himself by teaching—doing nothing, but +very conscious that he could do something—at all events he could +lecture upon the Syrian language, if for a week he could prepare +himself. Then he wrote in little theatrical papers, and received +twenty-five francs a month. But in 1830 he happily succeeded to his +present position in the <i>Journal des Debats</i>. He is now a rich man. He +gives splendid soirees in his saloons glittering with oriental luxury, +and artists and authors bow before him. Like Henry Heine, his +contemporary, whom he as much resembles in talent as in manner, he +declared now for the Republic and Freedom, now for the Church and +King, until his connection with the <i>Debats</i> impressed upon him the +conservative seal. He since loudly declaims for public +morality—against the prostitution of the press; but his early works +were the most licentious of any that have swarmed from the fertile +French genius of social protestantism. His first novel, published in +1829, <i>The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman</i>, is the history of a +prostitute, from the brothel, to the murder of her child, and her +execution, garnished with Byronic sentimentalities upon the +transitoriness of things temporal.</p> + +<p>Jules Janin's next work was one of the most instructive illustrations +of the character of French romance at that period when literary +feeling and taste seemed to reach the artificial point that is +artistically achieved by the melo-dramas of Chatham-street and the +Strand. We record it as a literary curiosity, as the work of a "fast" +Frenchman, a Parisian Vivian Grey, on a small scale. It is called <i>The +Penitent</i>, and was published in 1830. It opens with a marriage. The +bride, who has been violently dancing, retires, overcome with sleep, +and the husband in his rage at her sleepiness smothers her. It is +nominally supposed that she has been stricken with apoplexy, but a +Jesuit, who meditates many mysteries, understands the whole matter, +yet observes the most discreet silence. The young man, who is somewhat +conscience-pricked, still persists in profligacy, until he is +overwhelmed by remorse, and rushes to the church to receive +absolution. He seeks a trusty confessor, and of course finds the old +Jesuit; but as he finds it difficult to obtain access to him, makes +the acquaintance of a girl, with whom the Jesuit has some kind of +relation, and in order to win her to his will, seduces her! Then comes +the Jesuit and begins<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> to fulminate excommunications and damnations. +But the youth bursts into a passionate strain of repentance, and is +told by the old Jesuit, that the difficulty in his case, is a +religious one, that in fact the murder was "a circumstance" arising +from his irreligious state, and that by genuine repentance the matter +will be arranged. <i>Presto</i>: The youth repents and enters the church, +is made Bishop and proceeds through an endless course of fat capon and +Château Margaux to an edifying end!</p> + +<p>The boldest efforts of young France and young Germany, are feeble by +the side of this extraordinary effort. His earlier tales, which are +somewhat in the style of Hoffmann, Jules Janin published in the year +1833, under the title of <i>Fantastic Tales</i>, and a series of works of +less size and importance followed, until the series of papers, half +fiction, half fact, which, in the novel form, treated a great variety +of historico-literary subjects. His last romance is the <i>Nun of +Toulouse</i>, written during the revolution of '48. It sparkles with the +same sprightly skepticism and spiritual coquetry that distinguished +his earlier works, yet he celebrates in it those beautiful times, the +"old times," in which the serenity of faith was never ruffled by +impertinent thought; and in his recent letters from the Great +Exhibition, he indulges in the same strain, and sighs for the +magnificence of the monarchy.</p> + +<p>But his weekly contributions to the <i>Debats</i>, the rapid dashing review +of the dramatic novelties and incidents in a metropolis where alone a +living drama survives, and which he serves up garnished with the most +felicitous verbal graces and the most charming intellectual conceits, +every Monday morning—these are the flowers whence the brilliant Jules +Janin builds the honey hive of his reputation. He has decreed the +fashion of the <i>Feuilleton</i>, and the other Parisian critics flash and +snap and sparkle, as much like Jules Janin as possible. Their articles +are the streak of <i>light</i> in the dimness of the preponderating +political literature of the week. They hold high holiday at the bottom +of the page, although the history of revolutions, and woes, and the +rumors of wars and impending millenniums may throw their sombre +shadows along the columns above. They raise their banner of a +butterfly's wing, emblazoned with <i>Vive la Bagatelle</i>, and march on to +the tournament of wit and beauty. They belong to France; their game is +the gambol of the exuberance of French genius. They are more than +witty, they are <i>spirituel</i>; and they have more than talent, they have +taste.</p> + +<p>In a day of such rapid and facile printing as ours, this department of +literary labor was a necessity. Every man who has a conceit and can +write, may parade it before the world. In the mass of pleasant +common-place, what is <i>bizarre</i> may supplant the symmetrically +beautiful. To seize therefore what every man saw, and with nimble +fingers to weave a transparent tissue of gorgeous words through which +every man's impressions of what he saw look large and graceful and +piquant—to sum up a vaudeville in a <i>bon mot</i>, and a ballet in a +voluptuous trope,—<i>voila! c'est fait</i>, you have the recipe of a +successful <i>feuilletoniste</i>. Hence, the influence of these writers, +upon <i>words</i>, has been remarkable. The French language, long so +precise, is now among the most dissolute of tongues. It reels through +the columns of a <i>feuilleton</i>, drunk and dim-eyed with expletives and +exaggerations and beatified adjectives, so that, fascinated with the +casket, you quite forget the jewel. The language of dramatic and +operatic criticism in Paris is now inexplicable to any one but an +<i>habitué</i>. If you should tell John Bull, who wishes to go to the +opera, that Alboni's singing is <i>pyramidale</i>, he would expect to see +the fair and fat contralto sharpened to a point at top,—but, I grant, +if you should call it "jolly" or "stunning," he would entirely +comprehend that you meant to express your admiration in superlatives.</p> + +<p>I must not longer gossip as these gay gossips do, these fanciful +<i>feuilletonistes</i>, nor seek more deeply to draw the outline of these +rainbow bubbles upon the stream of the time, whether it flow turbid or +transparent. One cannot live upon sugar and nutmeg, or even upon +allspice. But our friends are a literary phenomenon not to be omitted, +and if you love the Muses, you will not omit to snuff the azure +incense offered weekly by the <i>feuilletonistes</i>.</p> + +<p>Jules Janin shall show us out of this article as he ushered us in. The +Great Mogul of the <i>Feuilleton</i> had purchased a carriage whose luxury, +and taste of appointment, and perfection of footman, was unsurpassed +in the Champs Elysée. But the gods are jealous and the +<i>feuilletonistes</i> have thus the highest authority for jealousy. So, on +one evening when the exquisite equipage awaited its master at the +grand opera, a crowd of lesser critical luminaries gathered around it, +and both reviled and envied the fortunate owner. While they were thus +engaged, the great critic came out of the opera house and saw his +contemporaries engaged in longing and envious remark. Now tact is the +sublimest secret of success—and smilingly Jules Janin advanced +cheerily, greeted his friends cordially, and piled into the carriage +all of them who lived in his neighborhood.</p> + +<p>They naturally reserved the seat of honor for the owner, but this +great General seizing the most inimical of all the party who lived in +a quarter of the city farthest from his own home, pushed him into the +vacant seat, ordered his coachman to set him down first, and then +humming the finale of the opera, lighted a cigar and sauntered +leisurely down the street. It was like Jules Janin to make his own +marriage the subject of a <i>Feuilleton</i>. In his case the man and the +<i>feuilletoniste</i> are the same.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> +<h2>ODE XX. OF ANACREON.</h2> + +<h3>TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MADAME DACIER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL +MAGAZINE,</h3> + +<h3>BY MARY E. HEWITT.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Niobé, maddened by her woes, of yore.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The gods in pity turned to marble fair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wretched Progné, doomed for evermore,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Changed to a swallow wings the upper air.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But ah! would Love, whom I, enslaved, obey,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By his sweet power transform me, I would be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The mirror in thy hand, if thus, alway,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy gentle eyes would fondly turn on me.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or, I would be the perfume that reveals<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its fragrance 'mid the tresses of thy hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, that soft veil which o'er thy bosom steals,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And jealous, hides the ivory treasure there.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or I would be the robe that round thee flows,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The zone that circles thee with fond caress;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The rivulet that with thy beauty glows,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And to its breast enclasps thy loveliness.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Or I were blest those envied pearls to be<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That closely thus thy swan-white neck entwine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or e'en to be the sandal, pressed by thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were, for thy lover, destiny divine.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SWEDISH LANDSCAPES: BY HERR ANDERSEN.</h2> + + +<p>In the last <i>International</i> we gave some characteristic historical +sketches from Hans Christian Andersen's latest and most delightful +book, the <i>Pictures of Sweden</i>; but the inspiration of nature is more +powerful with him than that of history, and he is never so felicitous +as when painting the scenery of his native country, though he has +certainly indulged, to a greater extent than a sober taste can +approve, in that passion for the fantastic and visionary, which has +been but too visibly manifested in some of his later and slighter +works. Our readers, however, shall judge for themselves. The forests +of Sweden and its rivers give the most noticeable features to its +landscape. This is how they appeared to Andersen—the forest first:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We are a long way over the elv. We have left the +corn-fields behind, and have just come into the forest, +where we halt at that small inn which is ornamented over the +doors and windows with green branches for the midsummer +festival. The whole kitchen is hung round with branches of +birch and the berries of the mountain ash; the oat cakes +hang on long poles under the ceiling; the berries are +suspended above the head of the old woman who is just +scouring her brass kettle bright.</p> + +<p>"The tap-room, where the peasants sit and carouse, is just +as finely hung round with green. Midsummer raises its leafy +arbor every where, yet it is most flush in the forest which +extends for miles around. Our road goes for miles through +that forest, without seeing a house, or the possibility of +meeting travellers, driving, riding, or walking. Come! The +ostler puts fresh horses to the carriage; come with us into +the large woody desert: we have a regular trodden way to +travel, the air is clear, here is summer's warmth and the +fragrance of birch and lime. It is an up-and-downhill road, +always bending, and so, ever changing, but yet always +forest-scenery—the close, thick forest. We pass small +lakes, which lie so still and deep, as if they concealed +night and sleep under their dark, glassy surfaces.</p> + +<p>"We are now on a forest plain, where only charred stumps of +trees are to be seen; this long tract is black, burnt, and +deserted, not a bird flies over it. Tall, hanging birches +now greet us again; a squirrel springs playfully across the +road, and up into the tree; we cast our eyes searchingly +over the wood-grown mountain side, which slopes so far, far +forward, but not a trace of a house is to be seen: nowhere +does that bluish smoke-cloud rise, that shows us, here are +fellow-men. The sun shines warm; the flies dance around the +horses, settle on them, fly off again, and dance as though +it were to qualify themselves for resting and being still. +They perhaps think, 'Nothing is going on without us: there +is no life while we are doing nothing.' They think, as many +persons think, and do not remember that time's horses always +fly onward with us!</p> + +<p>"How solitary is it here! so delightfully solitary! one is +so entirely alone with God and one's self. As the sunlight +streams forth over the earth, and over the extensive +solitary forests, so does God's Spirit stream over and into +mankind; ideas and thoughts unfold themselves—endless, +inexhaustible, as He is—as the magnet which apportions its +powers to the steel, and itself loses nothing thereby. As +our journey through the forest scenery here along the +extended solitary road, so, travelling on the great high +road of thought, ideas pass through our head. Strange, rich +caravans pass by from the works of poets, from the home of +memory, strange and novel; for capricious fancy gives birth +to them at the moment. There comes a procession of pious +children with waving flags and joyous songs; there come +dancing Menades, the blood's wild Bacchantes. The sun pours +down hot in the open forest; it is as if the Southern summer +had laid itself up here to rest in Scandinavian forest +solitude, and sought itself out a glade where it might lie +in the sun's hot beams and sleep; hence this stillness as if +it were night. Not a bird is heard to twitter, not a pine +tree moves. Of what does the Southern summer dream here in +the North, amongst pines and fragrant birches?</p> + +<p>"In the writings of the olden time, from the classic soil of +the South, are sagas of mighty fairies, who, in the skins of +swans, flew towards the North, to the Hyperboreans' land, to +the east of the north winds; up there, in the deep still +lakes, they bathed themselves, and acquired a renewed form. +We are in the forest by these deep lakes; we see swans in +flocks fly over us, and swim upon the rapid elv and on the +still waters...."</p> + +<p>"Woodland solitude! what images dost thou not present to our +thoughts! Woodland solitude! through thy vaulted halls +people now pass in the summer time with cattle and domestic +utensils; children and old men go to the solitary pasture +where echo dwells, where the national song springs forth +with the wild mountain flower! Dost thou see the procession? +Paint it if thou canst! The broad wooden cart, laden high +with chests and barrels, with jars and with crockery. The +bright copper kettle and the tin dish shine in the sun. The +old grandmother sits at the top of the load, and holds her +spinning wheel, which complete the pyramid. The father +drives the horse, the mother carries the youngest child on +her back, sewed up in a skin, and the procession moves on +step by step. The cattle are driven by the half-grown +children; they have stuck a birch branch between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> one of the +cows' horns, but she does not appear to be proud of her +finery; she goes the same quiet pace as the others, and +lashes the saucy flies with her tail. If the night becomes +cold on this solitary pasture, there is fuel enough; here +the tree falls of itself from old age, and lies and rots.</p> + +<p>"But take especial care of the fire—fear the fire-spirit in +the forest desert! He comes from the unextinguishable pile; +he comes from the thunder-cloud, riding on the blue +lightning's flame, which kindles the thick, dry moss of the +earth: trees and bushes are kindled; the flames run from +tree to tree, it is like a snow-storm of fire! the flames +leap to the tops of the trees. What a crackling and roaring, +as if it were the ocean in its course! The birds fly upward +in flocks, and fall down suffocated by the smoke; the +animals flee, or, encircled by the fire, are consumed in it! +Hear their cries and roars of agony! The howling of the wolf +and the bear, dost thou know it? A calm rainy day, and the +forest-plains themselves alone are able to confine the fiery +sea, and the burnt forest stands charred, with black trunks +and black stumps of trees, as we saw them here in the forest +by the broad high-road. On this road we continue to travel, +but it becomes worse and worse; it is, properly speaking, no +road at all, but it is about to become one. Large stones lie +half dug up, and we drive past them; large trees are cast +down, and obstruct our way, and therefore we must descend +from the carriage. The horses are taken out, and the +peasants help to lift and push the carriage forward over +ditches and opened paths. The sun now ceases to shine; some +few rain-drops fall, and now it is a steady rain. But how it +causes the birch to shed its fragrance! At a distance there +are huts erected of loose trunks of trees and fresh green +boughs, and in each there is a large fire burning. See where +the blue smoke curls through the green leafy roof; peasants +are within at work, hammering and forging; here they have +their meals. They are now laying a mine in order to blast a +rock, and the pine and birch emit a finer fragrance. It is +delightful in the forest."</p></div> + +<p>So say we. It is delightful in the forest; not less so on the +torrent-river of Scandinavia:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Before Homer sang, there were heroes; but they are not +known, no poet celebrated their fame. It is just so with the +beauties of nature; they must be brought into notice by +words and delineations, be brought before the eyes of the +multitude; get a sort of world's patent for what they are. +The elvs of the North have rushed and whirled along for +thousands of years in unknown beauty. The world's great +high-road does not take this direction; no steam-packet +conveys the traveller comfortably along the streams of the +Dal-elvs; fall on fall makes sluices indispensable and +invaluable. Schubert is, as yet, the only stranger who has +written about the magnificence and southern beauty of +Dalecarlia, and spoken of its greatness.</p> + +<p>"Clear as the waves of the sea does the mighty elv stream in +endless windings through forest deserts and varying plains, +sometimes extending its deep bed, sometimes confining it, +reflecting the bending trees and the red-painted +block-houses of solitary towns, and sometimes rushing like a +cataract over immense blocks of rock.</p> + +<p>"Miles apart from one another, out of the ridge of mountains +between Sweden and Norway, come the east and west Dal-elvs, +which first become confluent and have one bed above Balstad. +They have taken up rivers and lakes in their waters. Do but +visit this place! here are pictorial riches to be found: the +most picturesque landscapes, dizzyingly grand, smilingly +pastoral, idyllic; one is drawn onward up to the very source +of the elv, the bubbling well above Finman's hut; one feels +a desire to follow every branch of the stream that the river +takes in.</p> + +<p>"The first mighty fall, Njupesker's Cataract, is seen by the +Norwegian frontier in Semasog. The mountain stream rushes +perpendicularly from the rock to a depth of seventy fathoms.</p> + +<p>"We pause in the dark forest, where the elv seems to collect +within itself nature's whole deep gravity. The stream rolls +its clear waters over a porphyry soil, where the mill-wheel +is driven, and the gigantic porphyry bowls and sarcophagi +are polished.</p> + +<p>"We follow the stream through Siljan's lake, where +superstition sees the water-sprite swim like the sea-horse, +with a mane of green seaweed; and where the aërial images +present visions of witchcraft in the warm summer day.</p> + +<p>"We sail on the stream from Siljan's lake under the weeping +willows of the parsonage, where the swans assemble in +flocks; we glide along slowly with horses and carriages on +the great ferry-boat, away over the rapid current under +Balstad's picturesque shore. Here the elv widens and rolls +its billows majestically in a woodland landscape, as large +and extended as if it were in North America.</p> + +<p>"We see the rushing, rapid stream under Avista's yellow clay +declivities; the yellow water falls, like fluid amber, in +picturesque cataracts before the copper works, where +rainbow-colored tongues of fire shoot themselves upwards, +and the hammer's blow on the copper-plates resound to the +monotonous, roaring rumble of the elv-fall."</p></div> + +<p>And so on, past the famous fall down which the waters gush, ere they +lose themselves in the waters of the Baltic. One glimpse more ere they +reach their resting-place. We take them up as they are circling the +garden of a trim Swedish manor-house:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The garden itself was a piece of enchantment. There stood +three transplanted beech trees, and they throve well. The +sharp north wind had rounded off the tops of the wild +chestnut trees of the avenue in a singular manner; they +looked as if they had been under the gardener's shears. +Golden yellow oranges hung in the conservatory; the splendid +Southern exotics had to-day got the windows half open, so +that the artificial warmth met the fresh, warm, sunny air of +the Northern summer.</p> + +<p>"The branch of the Dal-elv which goes round the garden is +strewn with small islands, where beautiful hanging birches +and fir-trees grow in Scandinavian splendor. There are small +islands with green, silent groves; there are small islands +with rich grass, tall brakens, variegated bell flowers, and +cowslips. No Turkey carpet has fresher colors. The stream +between these islands and holmes is sometimes rapid, deep, +and clear; sometimes like a broad rivulet with silky green +rushes, water lilies, and brown feathered reeds; sometimes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +it is a brook with a stony ground, and now it spreads itself +out in a large, still mill-dam.</p> + +<p>"Here is a landscape in midsummer for the games of the +river-sprites, and the dancers of the elves and fairies! +There, in the lustre of the full moon, the dryads can tell +their tales, the water-sprites seize the golden harp, and +believe that one can be blessed, at least for one single +night, like this.</p> + +<p>"On the other side of Ens Bruck is the main stream—the full +Dal-elv. Do you hear the monotonous rumble? It is not from +Elvkarleby Fall that it reaches hither; it is close by; it +is from Laa Foss in which lies Ash Island: the elv streams +and rushes over the leaping salmon.</p> + +<p>"Let us sit here, between the fragments of rock by the +shore, in the red evening sunlight, which sheds a golden +lustre on the waters of the Dal-elv.</p> + +<p>"Glorious river! But a few seconds' work hast thou to do in +the mills yonder, and thou rushest foaming on over +Elvkarleby's rocks, down into the deep bed of the river, +which leads thee to the Baltic—thy eternity."</p></div> + +<p>We could fill half our number with passages just as beautiful; but +will leave the rest of the poet's landscapes till some American +publisher brings out the book. We must nevertheless quote one picture +of a different kind. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin;" +and the sorrows of the palace and the cottage alike find their level +and their rest in the grave. The "Mute Book" speaks with a moving +eloquence to those who can read it aright:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"By the high-road into the forest there stood a solitary +farm-house. One way lay right through the farm-yard; the sun +shone; all the windows were open; there was life and bustle +within, but in the yard, in an arbor of flowering lilacs, +there stood an open coffin. The corpse had been placed out +here, and it was to be buried that forenoon. No one stood +by, and wept over that dead man; no one hung sorrowfully +over him. His face was covered with a white cloth, and under +his head there lay a large, thick book, every leaf of which +was a whole sheet of gray paper, and, between each, lay +withered flowers, deposited and forgotten,—a whole +herbarium, gathered in different places. He himself had +requested that it should be laid in the grave with him. A +chapter of his life was blended with every flower! 'Who is +that dead man?' we asked, and the answer was, 'The old +student from Upsala. They say he was once very clever; he +knew the learned languages, could sing and write verses too; +but then there was something that went wrong, and so he gave +both his thoughts and himself up to drinking spirits, and, +as his health suffered by it, he came out here into the +country, where they paid for his board and lodging. He was +as gentle as a child when the dark humor did not come over +him, for then he was strong, and ran about in the forest +like a hunted deer; but when we got him home, we persuaded +him to look into the book with the dry plants. Then he would +sit the whole day, and look at one plant, and then at +another, and many a time the tears ran down his cheeks. God +knows what he then thought! But he begged that he might have +the book with him in his coffin; and now it lies there, and +the lid will soon be fastened down, and then he will take +his peaceful rest in the grave!'</p> + +<p>"They raised the winding sheet. There was peace in the face +of the dead. A sunbeam fell on it; a swallow, in its +arrow-flight, darted into the new-made arbor, and in its +flight circled twittering over the dead man's head.</p> + +<p>"How strange it is!—we all assuredly know it—to take out +old letters from the days of one's youth, and read them: a +whole life, as it were, then rises up, with all its hopes +and all its troubles. How many of those with whom we, in +their time, lived so devotedly, are now even as the dead to +us, and yet they still live! But we have not thought of them +for many years—them whom we once thought we should always +cling to, and share our mutual joys and sorrows with!</p> + +<p>"The withered oak-leaf in the book here, is a memorial of +the friend—the friend of his school days—the friend for +life. He fixed this leaf on the student's cap, in the +greenwood, when the vow of friendship was concluded for the +whole life. Where does he now live? The leaf is preserved; +friendship forgotten. Here is a foreign conservatory plant, +too fine for the gardens of the North. It looks as if there +still were fragrance in it. <i>She</i> gave it to him—she, the +lady of that noble garden!</p> + +<p>"Here is the marsh-lotus, which, he himself has plucked and +watered with salt tears—the marsh-lotus from the fresh +waters! And here is a nettle; what do its leaves say! What +did he think on plucking it?—on preserving it? Here are +lilies of the valley, from the woodland solitudes; here are +honeysuckles from the village ale-house flower-pot; and here +the bare, sharp blade of grass. The flowering lilac bends +its fresh, fragrant clusters over the dead man's head; the +swallow again flies past—'qui-vit! qui-vit!' Now the men +come with nails and hammer; the lid is placed over the +corpse, whose head rests on the 'Mute +Book'—preserved—forgotten!"</p></div> + +<p>The book, to those who are not repelled by a certain quaintness of +manner from the enjoyment of a work of true genius, will form a +permanent and delightful addition to those pictures of many lands +which the enterprise and accomplishment of modern travellers is +creating for the delight of those whose range of locomotion is bounded +by the limits of their own country, or by the four walls of a sick +chamber.</p> + +<p>Andersen has grown old in years, and with age he has increase of art, +but he was never younger in spirit, and his genius never blossomed +with more freshness and beauty.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VERSES</h2> + +<h3>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE,</h3> + +<h3>BY R. H. STODDARD.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My desk is heaped with niceties<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From tropic lands divine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But this is braver far than all—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A flask of Chian wine!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Brim up my golden drinking-cup,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And reach a dish of fruit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then unlock my cabinet,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And hand me out my lute;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For when these luxuries have fed<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And filled my brain with light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I must compose a nuptial song,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To suit my bridal night!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> +<h2>A CHAPTER OF PARODIES.</h2> + + +<p>Parodies have been much in vogue in almost every age; among the +Greeks, Latins, Germans, French, and English, it has been among the +commonest of literary pleasantries to turn verses into ridicule by +applying them to a purpose never dreamed of by their authors, or to +burlesque serious pieces by affecting to observe the same rhymes, +words, and cadences. The wicked arts of Charles the Second's time thus +made fun of the hymns of the Roundheads, and pious people have since +turned the tables by adapting to good uses the profane airs and +sensual songs of the opera house. Of the class of puns, parodies have +in the scale of art a much higher rank, and occasionally they furnish +specimens of genuine poetry. Among the best we have ever seen are a +considerable number attributed to Miss Phebe Carey, of Ohio; they are +rich in quaint and natural humor, and as a London critic describes +them, "wonderfully American." In its way, we have seen nothing better +than this reflex of Bayard Taylor's poem of "Manuela."</p> + + +<h3>MARTHA HOPKINS.</h3> + +<h4>A BALLAD OF INDIANA.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From the kitchen, Martha Hopkins, as she stood there making pies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Southward looks along the turnpike, with her hand above her eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where along the distant hill-side, her yearling heifer feeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And a little grass is growing in a mighty sight of weeds.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the air is full of noises, for there isn't any school,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And boys, with turned-up pantaloons, are wading in the pool;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blithely frisk, unnumbered chickens cackling for they cannot laugh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the airy summits brighten, nimbly leaps the little calf.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gentle eyes of Martha Hopkins! tell me wherefore do ye gaze<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the ground that's being furrowed for the planting of the maize?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tell me wherefore down the valley, ye have traced the turnpike's way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far beyond the cattle pasture, and the brick-yard with its clay?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah! the dog-wood tree may blossom, and the door-yard grass may shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the tears of amber dropping from the washing on the line;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the morning's breath of balsam, lightly brush her freckled cheek,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Little recketh Martha Hopkins of the tales of spring they speak.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When the summer's burning solstice on the scanty harvest glowed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She had watched a man on horseback riding down the turnpike road;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Many times she saw him turning, looking backward quite forlorn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till amid her tears she lost him, in the shadow of the barn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ere supper-time was over, he had passed the kiln of brick,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Crossed the rushing Yellow River and had forded quite a creek,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And his flat-boat load was taken, at the time for pork and beans,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the traders of the Wabash, to the wharf at New Orleans.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therefore watches Martha Hopkins—holding in her hands the pans,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the sound of distant footsteps seems exactly like a man's;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not a wind the stove-pipe rattles, nor a door behind her jars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But she seems to hear the rattle of his letting down the bars.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Often sees she men on horseback, coming down the turnpike rough,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they come not as John Jackson, she can see it well enough;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Well she knows the sober trotting of the sorrel horse he keeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As he jogs along at leisure with his head down like a sheep's.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She would know him 'mid a thousand, by his home-made coat and vest;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By his socks, which were blue woollen, such as farmers wear out west;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the color of his trousers, and his saddle, which was spread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By a blanket which was taken for that purpose from the bed.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">None like he the yoke of hickory, on the unbroke ox can throw,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">None amid his father's corn-fields use like him the spade and hoe;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And at all the apple-cuttings, few indeed the men are seen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That can dance with him the polka, touch with him the violin.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He has said to Martha Hopkins, and she thinks she hears him now,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For she knows as well as can be, that he meant to keep his vow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the buck-eye tree has blossomed, and your uncle plants his corn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall the bells of Indiana usher in the wedding morn.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He has pictured his relations, each in Sunday hat and gown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he thinks he'll get a carriage, and they'll spend a day in town;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That their love will newly kindle, and what comfort it will give,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sit down to the first breakfast, in the cabin where they'll live.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Tender eyes of Martha Hopkins! what has got you in such scrape,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis a tear that falls to glitter on the ruffle of her cape,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! the eye of love may brighten, to be certain what it sees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One man looks much like another, when half hidden by the trees.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But her eager eyes rekindle, she forgets the pies and bread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As she sees a man on horseback, round the corner of the shed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now tie on another apron, get the comb and smooth your hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis the sorrel horse that gallops, 'tis John Jackson's self that's there!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Here is one scarcely less happy upon Mr. Willis's "Better Moments:"</p> + + +<h3>WORSER MOMENTS.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That fellow's voice! how often steals<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its cadence o'er my lonely days!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like something sent on wagon wheels,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or packed in an unconscious chaise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I might forget the words he said<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When all the children fret and cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But when I get them off to bed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His gentle tone comes stealing by—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And years of matrimony flee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leave me sitting on his knee.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The times he came to court a spell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The tender things he said to me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make me remember mighty well<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My hopes that he'd propose to me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My face is uglier, and perhaps<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Time and the comb have thinned my hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plain and common are the caps,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And dresses that I have to wear—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But memory is ever yet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all that fellow's flat'ries writ.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have been out at milking-time<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beneath a dull and rainy sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When in the barn 'twas time to feed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And calves were bawling lustily—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When scattered hay, and sheaves of oats,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And yellow corn-ears, sound and hard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all that makes the cattle pass<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With wilder richness through the yard—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When all was hateful, then have I,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With friends who had to help me milk,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Talked of his wife most spitefully,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And how he kept her dressed in silk;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when the cattle, running there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Threw over me a shower of mud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That fellow's voice came on the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like the light chewing of the cud—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And resting near some spreckled cow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The spirit of a woman's spite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I've poured a low and fervent vow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To make him, if I had the might,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Live all his life-time just as hard,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And milk his cows in such a yard.<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I have been out to pick up wood<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When night was stealing from the dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the fire was burning good,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or I had put the kettle on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The little stove—when babes were waking<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With a low murmur in the beds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And melody by fits was breaking<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Above their little yellow heads—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this when I was up perhaps<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From a few short and troubled naps—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And when the sun sprang scorchingly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And freely up, and made us stifle,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And fell upon each hill and tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The bullets from his subtle rifle—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I say a voice has thrilled me then,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hard by that solemn pile of wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or creeping from the silent glen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like something on the unfledged brood,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hath stricken me, and I have pressed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Close in my arms my load of chips,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And pouring forth the hatefulest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of words that ever passed my lips,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Have felt my woman's spirit rush<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On me, as on that milking night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, yielding to the blessed gush<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of my ungovernable spite,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Have risen up, the wed, the old,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Scolding as hard as I could scold.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And in the same vein "The Annoyer," in which is imitated one of the +most delicate pieces of sentiment and fancy which Willis has given us:</p> + + +<h3>THE ANNOYER.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"Common as light is love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And its familiar voice wearies not ever."—<span class="smcap">Shelley.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love knoweth every body's house,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And every human haunt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And comes unbidden, every where,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like people we don't want.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The turnpike roads and little creeks<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are written with love's words,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And you hear his voice like a thousand bricks<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the lowing of the herds.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He peeps into the teamster's heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From his Buena Vista's rim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the cracking whips of many men<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Can never frighten him.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He'll come to his cart in the weary night,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When he's dreaming of his craft;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he'll float to his eye in the morning light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like a man on a river raft.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He hears the sound of the cooper's adz,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And makes him too his dupe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For he sighs in his ear from the shaving pile<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As he hammers on the hoop.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The little girl, the beardless boy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The men that walk or stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He will get them all in his mighty arms<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Like the grasp of your very hand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The shoemaker bangs above his bench,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And ponders his shining awl,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For love is under the lap-stone hid,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And a spell is on the wall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It heaves the sole where he drives the pegs,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And speaks in every blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Till the last is dropped from his crafty hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And his foot hangs bare below.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He blurs the prints which the shopmen sell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And intrudes on the hatter's trade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And profanes the hostler's stable-yard<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the shape of a chamber-maid.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the darkest night, and the bright daylight,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Knowing that he can win,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In every home of good-looking folks<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will human love come in.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The next is from Poe's "Annabel Lee:"</p> + + +<h3>SAMUEL BROWN.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">It was many and many a year ago,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In a dwelling down in town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That a fellow there lived whom you may know<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By the name of Samuel Brown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this fellow he lived with no other thought<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Than to our house to come down.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I was a child and he was a child,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In that dwelling down in town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But we loved with a love that was more than love,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I and my Samuel Brown—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a love that the ladies coveted,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Me and Samuel Brown.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And this was the reason that, long ago,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To that dwelling down in town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A girl came out of her carriage, courting<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My beautiful Samuel Brown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So that her high-bred kinsman came<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bore away Samuel Brown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shut him up in a dwelling-house,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In a street quite up in town.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The ladies, not half so happy up there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Went envying me and Brown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yes! that was the reason, (as all men know,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In this dwelling down in town,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the girl came out of the carriage by night<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Coquetting and getting my Samuel Brown.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But our love is more artful by far than the love<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of those who are older than we—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of many far wiser than we—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And neither the girls that are living above,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor the girls that are down in town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can ever discover my soul from the soul<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the beautiful Samuel Brown.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For the morn never shines without bringing me lines<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From my beautiful Samuel Brown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the night is never dark, but I sit in the park<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With my beautiful Samuel Brown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And often by day, I walk down in Broadway,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With my darling, my darling, my life, and my stay,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To our dwelling down in town,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To our house in the street down town.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The two poems that have been most parodied in this country are the +"Woodman spare that tree," of General Morris, and Poe's "Raven." There +have been an incredible number of burlesques of the former, and of the +latter we have seen a collection of seventeen, some of which are +scarcely less clever than the original performance.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE BRITISH HUMORISTS: DESCRIBED</h2> + +<h3>BY MR. THACKERAY.</h3> + + +<p>In the last <i>International</i>, we gave sketches of the first and second +of the series of lectures Mr. Thackeray is now delivering in London, a +series which we may regard with more interest because it is to be +repeated in Boston, New-York, and other American cities. The subjects +of the lectures already noticed were <span class="smcap">Swift</span>, <span class="smcap">Congreve</span>, and <span class="smcap">Addison</span>. The +third lecture was upon</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">SIR RICHARD STEELE.</p> + +<p>"Having," says the <i>Times</i>, "to deal with a personage whose +character was any thing but perfection, Mr. Thackeray +started with a good-humored declamation against perfection +in general. A perfect man would be intolerable—he could not +laugh and he could not cry, neither could he hate nor even +love, for love itself implied an unjust preference of one +person over another, which was so far an imperfection. The +interest which a man takes in the progress of his own boy at +school, while he is indifferent about other boys who are +probably better and more clever, his choice that a death +should occur in his neighbor's house rather than in his own, +and various traits of a similar kind, are all so many +manifestations of selfishness, and therefore so many removes +from perfection.</p> + +<p>"After this preface, Mr. Thackeray discoursed upon Steele's +career at school. At the Charter-house he distinguished +himself as a good-natured <i>mauvais sujet</i>—idle beyond the +average mark. By his scholastic acquisitions he gave little +satisfaction to his masters, and was flogged more frequently +than any boy in the school. Moreover, he was in debt to all +the vendors of juvenile delicacies in the neighborhood; and, +if any boy came to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> school with money to lend, Dick Steele +was certain to appear as the person to borrow. These facts, +given with much minuteness, were followed by an assertion on +the part of the lecturer that he had no authority for them +whatever. It was an admitted truth that 'the child is the +father of the man,' and on this principle he felt he had a +right, from his intimate knowledge of Captain Steele, to +deduce what sort of a personage Master Dicky Steele was +likely to be.</p> + +<p>"This bit of mock biography gave the key-note to the entire +lecture. While Mr. Thackeray admitted that Steele was a far +less brilliant man than any who had formed the subjects of +the preceding discourses, and far less entitled to +admiration than Addison, he spoke of him in a tone of warmer +affection than he had displayed when talking of the great +Joseph. He dilated with unction on Steele's many follies and +vices—his strange medley of piety and debauchery, his +inordinate love of dress, his insensibility as to the duty +of meeting pecuniary obligations; he even read an +ill-natured description by John Dennis, remarking that it +was substantially true, but at the same time he constantly +kept before the minds of his hearers the kindliness of +Steele's heart. He did not call upon them to worship him as +a moral being or as a talent, aware that many others much +more deserved such honor, but he exhorted them to love him +as a friend: 'If Steele is not a friend, he is nothing.'</p> + +<p>"The great number of letters which Steele wrote to his wife, +and which are still extant, furnished Mr. Thackeray with +much of the knowledge he possessed as to the character of +his hero. With these he could pursue him through every +variety of joy and sorrow, difficulty and triumph, and, as +they were evidently written for none but her to whom they +were addressed, he could be sure that the writer spoke from +his own heart. On the literary productions of Steele, Mr. +Thackeray dwelt very little, but he pointed out in them this +peculiarity, that the author showed a reverence for woman +unknown to his contemporaries. Swift hated women just as he +hated men; Congreve regarded them as so many fortresses to +be conquered by a superior general; even Addison sneered at +them with a gentle sneer; but Steele really spoke of them in +a tone of affectionate respect, and this gives a charm to +his comedies not to be found in more brilliant productions.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Thackeray took occasion to illustrate by these extracts +the characteristic differences of Swift, Addison, and +Steele. He had already drawn a ludicrous picture of the +relative positions of Steele and Addison, remarking that the +latter had been through life to the former what a 'head boy' +is to an inferior boy at school. Now by Swift's poem on the +'Day of Judgment'—an extract from the <i>Spectator</i>, +containing Addison's reflections in Westminster Abbey—and a +passage from Steele, he showed how the subject of Death was +treated by the three writers. Swift's poem savagely treats +as fools all who pretend to know any thing beyond the grave, +including the teachers of the several sects. Addison's tone +was kinder, but, while he was benevolent in his skepticism, +he came to nearly the same result as the ferocious Dean. +Steele, on the other hand, was content to remember, as his +first grief, the death of his father, when he was five years +old, and the dignified sorrow of his mother.</p> + +<p>"By way of an additional comical apology for the foibles of +Steele, Mr. Thackeray concluded his lecture by remarking on +the atrocities of the age when poor Dick lived,—an age when +young ladies, at dinner, actually put their knives into +their mouths. The social peculiarities of the period he +illustrated by a sort of summary of Swift's <i>Polite +Conversation</i>, which led up to an ironical praise of the +nineteenth century, as a century whose anomalies are +unknown."</p></div> + +<p>The fourth lecture on the humorists was of Prior, Gay, and Pope, Mr. +Thackeray choosing to consider Pope, who was not a humorist, but a +wit, the greatest humorist of all:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">MATHEW PRIOR.</p> + +<p>"Prior he characterizes as the foremost of lucky wits, +abounding in good nature and acuteness. He loved—he +drank—he sang. Some verses at Cambridge first rendered him +an object of notice, and by the 'City Mouse and Country +Mouse,' which, jointly with Montague, he wrote against +Dryden, and which, Mr. Thackeray ironically asserted, all +his hearers knew, of course, by heart, he gained the post of +Secretary to the Embassy at the Hague, in accordance with +the usage then prevalent of rewarding a talent for correct +alcaics or biting epigrams with important diplomatic +appointments. However, his fortune was but transient, since +he fell with his patron Montague. As a poet, Mr. Thackeray +praised Prior highly, calling him the most charming of +English lyrists, and comparing him with Horace on one side +and Moore on the other. At the same time he referred to a +certain statement that Prior, after he had spent the evening +with the first men of the day, would retire to Long-acre to +smoke a pipe with two very intimate acquaintances—a soldier +and his wife—adding that many of his writings seemed to be +under the influence of his Long-acre friends."</p> + + +<p class="center">JOHN GAY.</p> + +<p>"Gay was pointed out as a remarkable instance of kindliness +and good humor, gaining the love even of the most savage +wits of the day, and incurring the hatred of none. The +ferocious giant Swift loved him as the Brobdignag loved +Gulliver, and was afraid to open the packet which contained +the tidings of his death. This kindliness is an especial +feature in Gay's writings, even in his <i>Beggars' Opera</i>, and +as Rubini was said to have, 'une larme dans la voix,' so was +there in all that Gay produced a tone of the gentlest +pathos. This peculiarity he illustrated by reading the well +known story of the two devoted lovers struck dead by +lightning. As for Gay's life, it was easy enough. He failed, +indeed, to make his fortune, but he led a comfortable +existence with his noble patrons the Duke and Duchess of +Queensbury, living like a little round French <i>abbé</i>, eating +and drinking well and growing more melancholy as he +increased in fat."</p> + + +<p class="center">ALEXANDER POPE.</p> + +<p>"For a guaranty of Pope's merits, Mr. Thackeray especially +referred to the <i>Rape of the Lock</i> and the <i>Dunciad</i>. He +insisted on his claims to admiration as a great literary +artist, always bent on the perfection of his work and gladly +adopting the thoughts of others if they would serve to +complete his own. This peculiarity of carefulness was early +shown in the fact that Pope began by imitation. The five +happiest years of his life were devoted to the study of the +best authors, especially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> poets, and the intellectual +enjoyment was heightened by the feeling that genius was +throbbing in his heart and awakening within him dreams of +future glory. He too should sing—he too should love. Of +love, indeed, Pope did not make a great deal, and as his +addresses to Lady Wortley Montague were a failure, so was +his first amour a sham love for a sham mistress. A +particular pleasure in reading the works of Pope consists in +the fact that they bring the reader into the very best +company—a company whose manners are, to be sure, a little +stiff and stately, and whose voices are pitched somewhat +beyond the ordinary conversation key, but there is something +ennobling about them. <i>Apropos</i> of this peculiarity, Mr. +Thackeray took occasion to dwell with great unction on the +advantages of high society, and said, for the benefit of any +young hearer who might be present, 'Young hearer, keep +company with your betters.' Addison, as we have seen, is Mr. +Thackeray's moral hero. He considers, however, that he has +one great blemish in his dislike of Alexander Pope. The +young poet was too conscious of his own powers to be a mere +attendant at the Court of King Joseph, and King Joseph did +not like this independence. The support given by the Addison +<i>clique</i> to Tickell's translation of Homer might naturally +enough be construed by the Pope faction as proceeding from +an ungenerous wish to depreciate their chieftain's version, +and they might easily suppose that what was emulation in +Tickell was envy in Addison. The verses which Pope wrote on +this occasion and sent to Addison, had the satisfactory +effect that the great Joseph was civil ever afterwards. But +still Mr. Thackeray surmised that their sting was never +forgotten, and that the saintly Addison might be painted as +a Sebastian, with this one arrow sticking in him.</p> + +<p>"The causes that led to the writing of the <i>Dunciad</i> were +laid down, chiefly with a view of justifying the author, +though Mr. Thackeray admitted that Pope's arrows are so +sharp, and his slaughter so wholesale, that the reader's +sympathies are often enlisted on the side of the devoted +inhabitants of Grub-street. The vile jokes and libels that +were aimed against the illustrious poet, and the paltry +allusions to his personal defects, were brought forward as +sufficient motives; and the lecturer dwelt with admiration +on the personal courage which the "gallant little cripple" +displayed when the indignant dunces threatened him with +corporeal chastisement. At the same time, he declared it his +conviction that the <i>Dunciad</i> had done the greatest possible +harm to the literary profession. Prior to its publication +there were great prizes for literary men in the shape of +government appointments and the like; but Pope, a lover of +high society—a man so refined that he kept thin while his +friends grew fat—hated the rank and file of literature, and +if there was one point in his assailants on which he dwelt +with savage partiality, it was their abject poverty. He it +was who brought the notion of a vile Grub-street before the +minds of the general public; he it was who created such +associations as author and rags—author and dirt—author and +gin. The occupation of authorship became ignoble through his +graphic descriptions of misery, and the literary profession +was for a long time destroyed.</p> + +<p>"Pope's well known affection for his mother, on which Mr. +Thackeray feelingly expatiated, and the love which his +friends entertained for him, were introduced as a +sentimental relief in describing the character of a man +whose career Mr. Thackeray compared to that of a great +general, obtaining his end by a series of brilliant +conquests."</p> + + +<p class="center">HOGARTH, SMOLLETT, AND FIELDING.</p> + +<p>"In his fifth lecture," says the <i>Leader</i>, "Mr. Thackeray +dwelt at great length on Hogarth, and pointed out how much +of his success lay in the simple conventional morals of his +works; gave a graphic analysis of the <i>Marriage à la Mode</i> +and the <i>Idle and Industrious Apprentices</i>; and humorously +set forth Hogarth's pretensions to the sublime in historical +painting. Smollett was dismissed in a few pleasant +paragraphs. Fielding called out the hearty admiration of the +author of <i>Vanity Fair</i>; and amidst the panegyric there were +some admirable passages, notably one on the scorn and hatred +Richardson and Fielding unaffectedly felt for each other, +and the sincerity which may animate even the most +contemptuous criticism. The opinions Thackeray stamps with +his authority, we constantly find open to question; but it +is not as a Course of Criticism that these Lectures have +their inexpressible charm, and it would be possible for a +man to dissent <i>in toto</i> from the views put forth, while at +the same time he held them to be among the most delightful +lectures he ever listened to."</p> + + +<p class="center">STERNE AND GOLDSMITH.</p> + +<p>In the sixth and last lecture of the course, Mr. Thackeray's +subjects were Sterne and Goldsmith. He stigmatized severely +all Sterne's relations with women, showed up the sham +sensibility which wept through his writings, dwelt on the +perilous thing it was to make a market of one's sorrows, and +sell the deepest experiences of one's life at so much per +volume, and wound up with an emphatic condemnation of the +pruriency of Sterne's writings, contrasting that pruriency +with the purity of Dickens. All the generosity, sweetness, +and improvidence of Goldsmith's Irish nature were earnestly +and genially presented.</p></div> + +<p>This course of lectures has been described as "a review of the +humorists, by their master," but Mr. Thackeray is not a humorist—at +least humor is not his distinguishing quality; he is a cold satirist, +sneering at humanity, and in all his writings never exhibiting a spark +of the genial fire which should commend an author to the affections of +his readers. Gentlemen may be amused by him—he may be even +punctilious and sincere in the observance of all honorable +conduct—but judging him by his works, he is one of the last men +living whom any person with the instincts of a gentleman would admit +to his friendship. Some of his books are amazingly clever, but others, +as the <i>Kickleburys on the Rhine</i>, are but unredeemable vulgarity. He +has been taken up very much by the snobs—a class somewhat remarkable +for misapprehensions of their real relations—and we find the snobs of +this country as well as of England lauding the satirist as an enemy of +their own peculiar caste. This is a mistake: Mr. Thackeray has painted +to the life the sentimental snob, indeed, but he is himself a chief of +a different and far less endurable class in this division of the +race—<i>the snob cynical and supercilious</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> +<h2>ALRED.</h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE,</h4> + +<h3>BY ELMINA WALDO CAREY.</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Do you remember, Alred dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The peach-tree's cool and ample shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where first our hearts learned love and fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And vows of constancy were made?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The peach-tree stands there, now as then,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its shadow just as dim and mild,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And over all the sacred glen<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The vines of strawberries run wild.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Still all about the water's edge<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beds of green flags in beauty lie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, sloping towards the elder-hedge,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Are fields of graceful waving rye.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, Alred dear, not by our feet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will the round clover-heads be pressed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For years must pass before we meet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In that dear valley of the west.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sometimes my heart is filled with fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet if not, Alred, in that land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis bliss to know, in some bright sphere<br /></span> +<span class="i2">You'll wait to take my trembling hand.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHRISTOPHER NORTH ON ANIMAL MAGNETISM.</h2> + + +<p>The July number of <i>Blackwood's Magazine</i> has a long paper under the +title of <i>What is Mesmerism?</i> in which the question is discussed with +ingenuity, apparent candor, and occasional eloquence. The editor, +however, does not altogether agree with his contributor, and adds to +the article the following postscript. Undoubtedly a large proportion +of the "professors of magnetism" are mere mountebanks, and the +pretenders to clairvoyance may in all cases probably be set down as +knaves, or as very ignorant or feeble-minded persons. Nevertheless, we +cannot quite agree with Professor Wilson in all his propositions:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center">WHAT IS MESMERISM?</p> + +<p>"It must be admitted that our excellent correspondent has +set forth the claims of 'Adolphe' and 'Alexis,' and similar +interesting abstractions, to the powers of omnipresence and +omniscience, with great candor and becoming gravity. We are +sorry that we cannot follow what many of our readers may +consider so excellent an example. We have no faith in those +dear creatures without surnames: we have no faith in animal +magnetism, either in its lesser or in its larger +pretensions; but we have an unbounded faith in the +imbecility, infatuation, vanity, credulity, and knavery of +which human nature is capable. And we are of opinion that +there is not a single well-authenticated mesmeric phenomenon +which is not fully explicable by the operation of one or +more of these causes, or of the whole of them taken in +conjunction.</p> + +<p>"The question in regard to mesmerism is two-fold: <i>first</i>, +how is the mesmeric prostration to be accounted for? and +<i>secondly</i>, how is it to be disposed of? It may be accounted +for, we conceive, by the natural tendencies just recited, +without its being necessary to postulate any new or unknown +agency; it may be disposed of by the influence of public +opinion, which would very soon put a stop to these pitiable +exhibitions, and very soon extinguish the magnetizer's power +and the patient's susceptibility, if it were but to visit +the performers with the contempt and reprobation they +deserve. A few words on each of these heads may not be out +of place, as a qualifying postscript to the foregoing +letter, which, in our opinion, treats the mesmeric +superstition with far too much indulgence.</p> + +<p>"<b>I.</b> The existence of any physical force or fluid in man or +in nature, by which the mesmeric phenomena are induced, has +been distinctly disproved by every carefully conducted +experiment. <i>No person was ever magnetized when totally +unsuspicious of the operation of which he was the subject.</i> +This is conclusive; because a physical agent, which never +does, <i>of itself</i> and unheralded, produce any effect, is no +physical agent at all. Then, again, let certain persons be +prepared for the magnetic condition, and aware of what is +expected of them, and the effects are equally produced, +whether the intended influence be exerted or not. It seems +simply ridiculous to postulate an <i>odylic</i> (we should like +to be favored with the derivation of this word) fluid to +account for phenomena which show themselves just as +conspicuously when no such fluid is or can be in operation.</p> + +<p>"But it is argued by some of the advocates of mesmeric +influence, that their agent, though perhaps not physical, is +at any rate moral—that the will, or some spiritual energy +on the part of the mesmerist, is the power by which his +victims are entranced and rendered obedient to his bidding. +Here, too, all the well-authenticated cases establish a +totally different conclusion. They prove that the will or +spiritual power of the mesmerist has <i>of itself</i> no +ascendency or control whatsoever over the body or mind of +his victim. Every well-guarded series of experiments has +exhibited the mesmerist and his patient at cross-purposes +with each other—the patient frequently doing those things +which the mesmerist was desirous he should not do, and not +doing those things which the operator was desirous he should +do. As for the buffoonery begotten by mesmerism on +phrenology, this exhibition can scarcely be expected to +provoke much astonishment, or credence, or comment, except +among professional artists themselves—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Like Katterfelto, with their hair on end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At their own wonders, <i>wondering for their bread</i>!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"The true explanation of mesmerism is to be found, as we +have said, in the weakness or infatuation of human nature +itself. No other causes are at all necessary to account for +the mesmeric prostration. There is far more craziness, both +physical and moral, in man than he usually gives himself +credit for. The reservoir of human folly may be in a great +measure occult, but it is always full; and all that +silliness, whether of body or mind, at any time wants, is +<i>to get its cue</i>.</p> + +<p>"These general remarks are of course more applicable to some +individuals than they are to others. In soft and weak +natures, where the nervous system is subject to cataleptic +seizures, mental and bodily prostration is frequently almost +the normal condition. Such of our readers as may have +frequented mesmeric exhibitions must have observed a kind of +<i>semi-humanity</i> visible in the expression and demeanor of +most of the subjects whom the professional operators carry +about with them. These poor creatures are at all times ready +to imbibe the magnetic stupefaction, because it is only by +an effort that they are ever free from it. There is always +at work within them an occult tendency to +self-abandonment—an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> unintentional proclivity to +aberration, imitation, and deceit, which only requires a +signal to precipitate its morbid deposits. This +constitutional infirmity of body and of mind furnishes to +the mesmerist a basis for his operations, and is the source +of all the wonders which he works.</p> + +<p>"It is only in the case of individuals who, without being +fatuous, are hovering on the verge of fatuity, that the +magnetic phenomena and the mesmeric prostration can be +admitted to be in any considerable degree real. Real to a +certain extent they may be; marvellous they certainly are +not. Imbecility of the nervous system, a ready abandonment +of the will, a facility in relinquishing every endowment +which makes man <i>human</i>—these intelligible causes, eked out +by a vanity and cunning which are always inherent in natures +of an inferior type, are quite sufficient to account for the +effects of the mesmeric manipulations on subjects of +peculiar softness and pliancy.</p> + +<p>"In those persons of a better organized structure, who yield +themselves up to the mesmeric degradation, the physical +causes are less operative; but the moral causes are still +more influential. In all cases the prostration is +self-induced. But in the subjects of whom we have spoken, it +is mainly induced by physical depravity, although moral +frailties concur to bring about the condition. In persons of +a superior type, the condition is mainly due to moral +causes, although physical imbecility has some share in +facilitating the result. These people have much vanity, much +curiosity, and much credulity, together with a <i>weak</i> +imagination—that is to say, an imagination which is easily +excited by circumstances which would produce no effect upon +people of stronger imaginative powers. Their vanity shows +itself in the desire <i>to astonish others</i>, and get +themselves talked about. They think it rather creditable to +be susceptible subjects. It is a point in their favor! Their +credulity and curiosity take the form of a powerful wish <i>to +be astonished themselves</i>. Why should they be excluded from +a land of wonders which others are permitted to enter? The +first step is now taken. They are ready for the sacrifice, +which various motives concur to render agreeable. They +resign themselves passively, mind and body, into the hands +of the manipulator; and by his passes and grimaces, they are +cowed pleasurably, bullied delightfully, into <i>so much</i> of +the condition which their inclinations are bent upon +attaining, as justifies them, they think, in laying claim to +the <i>whole</i> condition, without bringing them under the +imputation of being downright impostors. <i>Downright</i> +impostors they unquestionably are not. We believe that their +condition is frequently, though to a very limited extent, +<i>real</i>. We must also consider, that, in a matter of this +kind, which is so deeply imbued with the ridiculous, a +mesmeric patient may, and doubtless often does, justify to +his own conscience a considerable deviation from the truth, +on the ground of waggery or hoaxing. Why should an audience, +which has the patience to put up with such spectacles, not +be fooled to the top of its bent?</p> + +<p>"<b>II.</b> How, then, is the miserable nonsense to be disposed of? +It can only be put a stop to by the force of public opinion, +guided of course by reason and truth. Let it be announced +from all authoritative quarters that the magnetic +sensibility is only another name for an unsound condition of +the mental and bodily functions—that it may be always +accepted as an infallible index of the position which an +individual occupies in the scale of humanity—that its +manifestation (when real) invariably betokens a <i>physique</i> +and a <i>morale</i> greatly below the average, and a character to +which no respect can be attached. Let this +announcement—which is the undoubted truth—be made by all +respectable organs of public opinion, and by all who are in +any way concerned in the diffusion of knowledge, or in the +instruction of the rising generation, and the magnetic +superstition will rapidly decline. Let this—the correct and +scientific explanation of the phenomena—be understood and +considered carefully by all young people of both sexes, and +the mesmeric ranks will be speedily thinned of their +recruits. Our young friends who may have been entrapped into +this infatuation by want of due consideration, will be wiser +for the future. If they allow themselves to be experimented +upon, they will at any rate take care not to disgrace +themselves by yielding to the follies to which they may be +solicited both from within and from without; and we are much +mistaken if, when they know what the penalty is, they will +abandon themselves to a disgusting condition which is +characteristic only of the most abject specimens of our +species."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A STORY WITHOUT A NAME.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2> + +<h4>WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE,</h4> + +<h3>BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ.</h3> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h4> + +<p>John Ayliffe, as we may now once more very righteously call him, was +seated in the great hall of the old house of the Hastings family. Very +different indeed was the appearance of that large chamber now from +that which it had presented when Sir Philip Hastings was in +possession. All the old, solid, gloomy-looking furniture, which +formerly had given it an air of baronial dignity, and which Sir Philip +had guarded as preciously as if every antique chair and knotted table +had been an heir-loom, was now removed, and rich flaunting things of +gaudy colors substituted. Damask, and silk, and velvet, and gilt +ornaments in the style of France, were there in abundance, and had it +not been for the arches overhead, and the stone walls and narrow +windows around, the old hall might have passed for the saloon of some +newly-enriched financier of Paris.</p> + +<p>The young man sat at table alone—not that he was by any means fond of +solitude, for on the contrary he would have fain filled his house with +company—but for some reason or another, which he could not divine, he +found the old country gentlemen in the neighborhood somewhat shy of +his society. His wealth, his ostentation, his luxury—for he had begun +his new career with tremendous vehemence—had no effect upon them. +They looked upon him as somewhat vulgar, and treated him with mere +cold, supercilious civility<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> as an upstart. There was one gentleman of +good family, indeed, at some distance, who had hung a good deal about +courts, had withered and impoverished himself, and reduced both his +mind and his fortune in place-hunting, and who had a large family of +daughters, to whom the society of John Ayliffe was the more +acceptable, and who not unfrequently rode over and dined with +him—nay, took a bed at the Hall. But that day he had not been over, +and although upon the calculation of chances, one might have augured +two to one John Ayliffe would ultimately marry one of the daughters, +yet at this period he was not very much smitten with any of them, and +was contemplating seriously a visit to London, where he thought his +origin would be unknown, and his wealth would procure him every sort +of enjoyment.</p> + +<p>Two servants were in the Hall, handing him the dishes. Well-cooked +viands were on the table, and rich wine. Every thing which John +Ayliffe in his sensual aspirations had anticipated from the possession +of riches was there—except happiness, and that was wanting. To sit +and feed, and feel one's self a scoundrel—to drink deep draughts, +were it of nectar, for the purpose of drowning the thought of our own +baseness—to lie upon the softest bed, and prop the head with the +downiest pillow, with the knowledge that all we possess is the fruit +of crime, can never give happiness—surely not, even to the most +depraved.</p> + +<p>That eating and drinking, however, was now one of John Ayliffe's chief +resources—drinking especially. He did not actually get intoxicated +every night before he went to bed, but he always drank to a sufficient +excess to cloud his faculties, to obfuscate his mind. He rather liked +to feel himself in that sort of dizzy state where the outlines of all +objects become indistinct, and thought itself puts on the same hazy +aspect.</p> + +<p>The servants had learned his habits already, and were very willing to +humor them; for they derived their own advantage therefrom. Thus, on +the present occasion, as soon as the meal was over, and the dishes +were removed, and the dessert put upon the table—a dessert consisting +principally of sweetmeats, for which he had a great fondness, with +stimulants to thirst. Added to these were two bottles of the most +potent wine in his cellar, with a store of clean glasses, and a jug of +water, destined to stand unmoved in the middle of the table.</p> + +<p>After this process it was customary never to disturb him, till, with a +somewhat wavering step, he found his way up to his bedroom. But on the +night of which I am speaking, John Ayliffe had not finished his fourth +glass after dinner, and was in the unhappy stage, which, with some +men, precedes the exhilarating stage of drunkenness, when the butler +ventured to enter with a letter in his hand.</p> + +<p>"I beg pardon for intruding, sir," he said, "but Mr. Cherrydew has +sent up a man on horseback from Hartwell with this letter, because +there is marked upon it, 'to be delivered with the greatest possible +haste.'"</p> + +<p>"Curse him!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, "I wish he would obey the orders +I give him. Why the devil does he plague me with letters at this time +of night?—there, give it to me, and go away," and taking the letter +from the man's hand, he threw it down on the table beside him, as if +it were not his intention to read it that night. Probably, indeed, it +was not; for he muttered as he looked at the address, "She wants more +money, I dare say, to pay for some trash or another. How greedy these +women are. The parson preached the other day about the horse-leech's +daughter. By —— I think I have got the horse-leech's mother!" and he +laughed stupidly, not perceiving that, the point of his sarcasm +touched himself.</p> + +<p>He drank another glass of wine, and then looked at the letter again; +but at length, after yet another glass, curiosity got the better of +his moodiness, and he opened the epistle.</p> + +<p>The first sight of the contents dispelled not only his indifference +but the effects of the wine he had taken, and he read the letter with +an eager and a haggard eye. The substance was as follows:</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My dearest boy</span>:</p> + +<p>"All is lost and discovered. I can but write you a very short account +of the things that have been happening here, for I am under what these +people call the surveillance of the police. I have got a few minutes, +however, and I will pay the maid secretly to give this to the post. +Never was such a time as I have had this morning. Four men have been +here, and among them Atkinson, who lived just down below at the +cottage with the gray shutters. He knew me in a minute, and told +everybody who I was. But that is not the worst of it, for they have +got a commissioner of police with him—a terrible looking man, who +took as much snuff as Mr. Jenkins, the justice of peace. They had got +all sorts of information in England about me, and you, and every body, +and they came to me to give them more, and cross-questioned me in a +terrible manner; and that ugly old Commissioner, in his black coat and +great wig, took my keys, and opened all the drawers and places. What +could I do to stop them? So they got all your letters to me; because I +could not bear to burn my dear boy's letters, and that letter from old +Sir John to my poor father, which I once showed you. So when they got +all these, there was no use of trying to conceal it any more, and, +besides, they might have sent me to the Bastile or the Tower of +London. So every thing has come out, and the best thing you can do is +to take whatever money you have got, or can get, and run away as fast +as possible, and come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> over here and take me away. One of them was as +fine a man as ever I saw, and quite gentleman, though very severe.</p> + +<p>"Pray, my dear John, don't lose a moment's time, but run away before +they catch you; for they know every thing now, depend upon it, and +nothing will stop them from hanging you or sending you to the colonies +that you can do; for they have got all the proofs, and I could see by +their faces that they wanted nothing more; and if they do, my heart +will be quite broken, that is, if they hang you or send you to the +colonies, where you will have to work like a slave, and a man standing +over you with a whip, beating your bare back very likely. So run away, +and come to your afflicted mother."</p> + +<p>She did not seem to have been quite sure what name to sign, for she +first put "Brown," but then changed the word to "Hastings," and then +again to "Ayliffe." There were two or three postscripts, but they were +of no great importance, and John Ayliffe did not take the trouble of +reading them. The terms he bestowed upon his mother—not in the +secrecy of his heart, but aloud and fiercely—were any thing but +filial, and his burst of rage lasted full five minutes before it was +succeeded by the natural fear and trepidation which the intelligence +he had received might well excite. Then, however, his terror became +extreme. The color, usually high, and now heightened both by rage and +wine, left his cheeks, and, as he read over some parts of his mother's +letter again, he trembled violently.</p> + +<p>"She has told all," he repeated to himself, "she has told all—and +most likely has added from his own fancy. They have got all my letters +too, which the fool did not burn. What did I say, I wonder? Too +much—too much, I am sure. Heaven and earth, what will come of it! +Would to God I had not listened to that rascal Shanks! Where should I +go now for advice? It must not be to him. He would only betray and +ruin me—make me the scape-goat—pretend that I had deceived him, I +dare say. Oh, he is a precious villain, and Mrs. Hazleton knows that +too well to trust him even with a pitiful mortgage—Mrs. Hazleton—I +will go to her. She is always kind to me, and she is devilish clever +too—knows a good deal more than Shanks if she did but understand the +law—I will go to her—she will tell me how to manage."</p> + +<p>No time was to be lost. Ride as hard as he could it would take him +more than an hour to reach Mrs. Hazleton's house, and it was already +late. He ordered a horse to be saddled instantly, ran to his bedroom, +drew on his boots, and then, descending to the hall, stood swearing at +the slowness of the groom till the sound of hoofs made him run to the +door. In a moment he was in the saddle and away, much to the +astonishment of the servants, who puzzled themselves a little as to +what intelligence their young master could have received, and then +proceeded to console themselves according to the laws and ordinances +of the servants' hall in such cases made and provided. The wine he had +left upon the table disappeared with great celerity, and the butler, +who was a man of precision, arrayed a good number of small silver +articles and valuable trinkets in such a way as to be packed up and +removed with great facility and secrecy.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile John Ayliffe rode on at a furious pace, avoiding a +road which would have led him close by Mr. Shanks's dwelling, and +reached Mrs. Hazleton's door about nine o'clock.</p> + +<p>That lady was sitting in a small room behind the drawing-room, which I +have already mentioned, where John Ayliffe was announced once more as +Sir John Hastings. But Mrs. Hazleton, in personal appearance at least, +was much changed since she was first introduced to the reader. She was +still wonderfully handsome. She had still that indescribable air of +calm, high-bred dignity which we are often foolishly inclined to +ascribe to noble feelings and a high heart; but which—where it is not +an art, an acquirement—only indicates, I am inclined to believe, when +it has any moral reference at all, strength of character and great +self-reliance. But Mrs. Hazleton was older—looked older a good +deal—more so than the time which had passed would alone account for. +The passions of the last two or three years had worn her sadly, and +probably the struggle to conceal those passions had worn her as much. +Nevertheless, she had grown somewhat fat under their influence, and a +wrinkle here and there in the fair skin was contradicted by the +plumpness of her figure.</p> + +<p>She rose with quiet, easy grace to meet her young guest, and held out +her hand to him, saying, "Really, my dear Sir John, you must not pay +me such late visits or I shall have scandal busying herself with my +good name."</p> + +<p>But even as she spoke she perceived the traces of violent agitation +which had not yet departed from John Ayliffe's visage, and she added, +"What is the matter? Has any thing gone wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Every thing is going to the devil, I believe," said John Ayliffe, as +soon as the servant had closed the door. "They have found out my +mother at St. Germain."</p> + +<p>He paused there to see what effect this first intelligence would +produce, and it was very great; for Mrs. Hazleton well knew that upon +the concealment of his mother's existence had depended one of the +principal points in his suit against Sir Philip Hastings. What was +going on in her mind, however, appeared not in her countenance. She +paused in silence, indeed, for a moment or two, and then said in her +sweet musical voice, "Well, Sir John, is that all?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Enough too, dear Mrs. Hazleton!" replied the young man. "Why you +surely remember that it was judged absolutely necessary she should be +supposed dead—you yourself said, when we were talking of it, 'Send +her to France.' Don't you remember?"</p> + +<p>"No I do not," answered Mrs. Hazleton, thoughtfully; "and if I did it +could only be intended to save the poor thing from all the torment of +being cross-examined in a court of justice."</p> + +<p>"Ay, she has been cross-examined enough in France nevertheless," said +the young man bitterly, "and she has told every thing, Mrs. +Hazleton—all that she knew, and I dare say all that she guessed."</p> + +<p>This news was somewhat more interesting than even the former; it +touched Mrs. Hazleton personally to a certain extent, for all that +Jane Ayliffe knew and all that she guessed might comprise a great deal +that Mrs. Hazleton would not have liked the world to know or guess +either. She retained all her presence of mind however, and replied +quite quietly "Really, Sir John, I cannot at all form a judgment of +these things, or give you either assistance or advice, as I am anxious +to do, unless you explain the whole matter fully and clearly. What has +your mother done which seems to have affected you so much? Let me hear +the whole details, then I can judge and speak with some show of +reason. But calm yourself, calm yourself, my dear sir. We often at the +first glance of any unpleasant intelligence take fright, and thinking +the danger ten times greater than it really is, run into worse dangers +in trying to avoid it. Let me hear all, I say, and then I will +consider what is to be done."</p> + +<p>Now Mrs. Hazleton had already, from what she had just heard, +determined precisely and entirely what she would do. She had divined +in an instant that the artful game in which John Ayliffe had been +engaged, and in which she herself had taken a hand, was played out, +and that he was the loser; but it was a very important object with her +to ascertain if possible how far she herself had been compromised by +the revelations of Mrs. Ayliffe. This was the motive of her gentle +questions; for at heart she did not feel the least gentle.</p> + +<p>On the other hand John Ayliffe was somewhat angry. All frightened +people are angry when they find others a great deal less frightened +than themselves. Drawing forth his mother's letter then, he thrust it +towards Mrs. Hazleton, almost rudely, saying, "Read that, madam, and +you'll soon see all the details that you could wish for."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hazleton did read it from end to end, postscript and all, and she +saw with infinite satisfaction and delight, that her own name was +never once mentioned in the whole course of that delectable epistle. +As she read that part of the letter, however, in which Mrs. Ayliffe +referred to the very handsome gentlemanly man who had been one of her +unwished for visitors, Mrs. Hazleton said within herself, "This is +Marlow; Marlow has done this!" and tenfold bitterness took possession +of her heart. She folded up the letter with neat propriety, however, +and handed it back to John Ayliffe, saying, in her very sweetest +tones, "Well, I do not think this so very bad as you seem to imagine. +They have found out that your mother is still living, and that is all. +They cannot make much of that."</p> + +<p>"Not much of that!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, now nearly driven to +frenzy, "what if they convict me of perjury for swearing she was +dead?"</p> + +<p>"Did you swear she was dead?" exclaimed Mrs. Hazleton with an +exceedingly well assumed look of profound astonishment.</p> + +<p>"To be sure I did," he answered. "Why you proposed that she should be +sent away yourself, and Shanks drew out the affidavit."</p> + +<p>A mingled look of consternation and indignation came into Mrs. +Hazleton's beautiful face; but before she could make any reply he went +on, thinking he had frightened her, which was in itself a satisfaction +and a sort of triumph.</p> + +<p>"Ay, that you did," he said, "and not only that, but you advanced me +all the money to carry on the suit, and I am told that that is +punishable by law. Besides, you knew quite well of the leaf being torn +out of the register, so we are in the same basket I can tell you, Mrs. +Hazleton."</p> + +<p>"Sir, you insult me," said the lady, rising with an air of imperious +dignity. "The charity which induced me to advance you different sums +of money, without knowing what they were to be applied to—and I can +prove that some of them were applied to very different purposes than a +suit at law—has been misunderstood, I see. Had I advanced them to +carry on this suit, they would have been paid to your and my lawyer, +not to yourself. Not a word more, if you please! You have mistaken my +character as well as my motives, if you suppose that I will suffer you +to remain here one moment after you have insulted me by the very +thought that I was any sharer in your nefarious transactions." She +spoke in a loud shrill tone, knowing that the servants were in the +hall hard by, and then she added, "Save me the pain, sir, of ordering +some of the men to put you out of the house by quitting it directly."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I will go, I will go," cried John Ayliffe, now quite +maddened, "I will go to the devil, and you too, madam," and he burst +out of the room, leaving the door open behind him.</p> + +<p>"I can compassionate misfortune," cried Mrs. Hazleton, raising her +voice to the very highest pitch for the benefit of others, "but I will +have nothing to do with roguery and fraud," and as she heard his +horse's feet clatter over the terrace, she heartily wished he might +break his neck before he passed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> park gates. How far she was +satisfied, and how far she was not, must be shown in another chapter.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XXXV.</h4> + +<p>John Ayliffe got out of the park gates quite safely, though he rode +down the slope covered with loose stones, as if he had no +consideration for his own neck or his horse's knees. He was in a state +of desperation, however, and feared little at that moment what became +of himself or any thing else. With fierce and angry eagerness he +revolved in his own mind the circumstances of his situation, the +conduct of Mrs. Hazleton, the folly, as he was pleased to term it, of +his mother, the crimes which he had himself committed, and he found no +place of refuge in all the dreary waste of thought. Every thing around +looked menacing and terrible, and the world within was all dark and +stormy.</p> + +<p>He pushed his horse some way on the road which he had come, but +suddenly a new thought struck him. He resolved to seek advice and aid +from one whom he had previously determined to avoid. "I will go to +Shanks," he said to himself, "he at least is in the same basket with +myself. He must work with me, for if my mother has been fool enough to +keep my letters, I have been wise enough to keep his—perhaps +something may be done after all. If not, he shall go along with me, +and we will try if we cannot bring that woman in too. He can prove all +her sayings and doings." Thus thinking, he turned his horse's head +towards the lawyer's house, and rode as hard as he could go till he +reached it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Shanks was enjoying life over a quiet comfortable bowl of punch in +a little room which looked much more tidy and comfortable, than it had +done twelve or eighteen months before. Mr. Shanks had been well paid. +Mr. Shanks had taken care of himself. No small portion of back rents +and costs had gone into the pockets of Mr. Shanks. Mr. Shanks was all +that he had ever desired to be, an opulent man. Moreover, he was one +of those happily constituted mortals who knew the true use of +wealth—to make it a means of enjoyment. He had no scruples of +conscience—not he. He little cared how the money came, so that it +found its way into his pocket. He was not a man to let his mind be +troubled by any unpleasant remembrances; for he had a maxim that every +man's duty was to do the very best he could for his client, and that +every man's first client was himself.</p> + +<p>He heard a horse stop at his door, and having made up his mind to end +the night comfortably, to finish his punch and go to bed, he might +perhaps have been a little annoyed, had he not consoled himself with +the thought that the call must be upon business of importance, and he +had no idea of business of importance unconnected with that of a large +fee.</p> + +<p>"To draw a will, I'll bet any money," said Mr. Shanks to himself; "it +is either old Sir Peter, dying of indigestion, and sent for me when +he's no longer able to speak, or John Ayliffe broken his neck leaping +over a five-barred gate—John Ayliffe, bless us all, Sir John Hastings +I should have said."</p> + +<p>But the natural voice of John Ayliffe, asking for him in a loud +impatient tone, dispelled these visions of his fancy, and in another +moment the young man was in the room.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Sir John, very glad to see you, very glad to see you," said Mr. +Shanks, shaking his visitor's hand, and knocking out the ashes of his +pipe upon the hob; "just come in pudding time, my dear sir—just in +time for a glass of punch—bring some more lemons and some sugar, +Betty. A glass of punch will do you good. It is rather cold to-night."</p> + +<p>"As hot as h—l," answered John Ayliffe, sharply; "but I'll have the +punch notwithstanding," and he seated himself while the maid proceeded +to fulfil her master's orders.</p> + +<p>Mr. Shanks evidently saw that something had gone wrong with his young +and distinguished client, but anticipating no evil, he was led to +consider whether it was any thing referring to a litter of puppies, a +favorite horse, a fire at the hall, a robbery, or a want of some more +ready money.</p> + +<p>At length, however, the fresh lemons and sugar were brought, and the +door closed, before which time John Ayliffe had helped himself to +almost all the punch which he had found remaining in the bowl. It was +not much, but it was strong, and Mr. Shanks applied himself to the +preparation of some more medicine of the same sort. John Ayliffe +suffered him to finish before he said any thing to disturb him, not +from any abstract reverence for the office which Mr. Shanks was +fulfilling, or for love of the beverage he was brewing, but simply +because John Ayliffe began to find that he might as well consider his +course a little. Consideration seldom served him very much, and in the +present instance, after he had labored hard to find out the best way +of breaking the matter, his impetuosity as usual got the better of +him, and he thrust his mother's letter into Mr. Shanks's hand, out of +which as a preliminary he took the ladle and helped himself to another +glass of punch.</p> + +<p>The consternation of Mr. Shanks, as he read Mrs. Ayliffe's letter, +stood out in strong opposition to Mrs. Hazleton's sweet calmness. He +was evidently as much terrified as his client; for Mr. Shanks did not +forget that he had written Mrs. Ayliffe two letters since she was +abroad, and as she had kept her son's epistles, Mr. Shanks argued that +it was very likely she had kept his also. Their contents, taken alone, +might amount to very little, but looked at in conjunction with other +circumstances might amount to a great deal.</p> + +<p>True, Mr. Shanks had avoided, as far as he could, any discussions in +regard to the more delicate secrets of his profession in the presence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +of Mrs. Ayliffe, of whose discretion he was not as firmly convinced as +he could have desired; but it was not always possible to do so, +especially when he had been obliged to seek John Ayliffe in haste at +her house; and now the memories of many long and dangerous +conversations which had occurred in her presence, spread themselves +out before his eyes in a regular row, like items on the leaves of a +ledger.</p> + +<p>"Good God!" he cried, "what has she done?"</p> + +<p>"Every thing she ought not to have done, of course!" replied John +Ayliffe, replenishing his glass, "but the question now is, Shanks, +what are we to do? That is the great question just now."</p> + +<p>"It is indeed," answered Mr. Shanks, in great agitation; "this is very +awkward, very awkward indeed."</p> + +<p>"I know that," answered John Ayliffe, laconically.</p> + +<p>"Well but, sir, what is to be done?" asked Mr. Shanks, fidgeting +uneasily about the table.</p> + +<p>"That is what I come to ask you, not to tell you," answered the young +man; "you see, Shanks, you and I are exactly in the same case, only I +have more to lose than you have. But whatever happens to me will +happen to you, depend upon it. I am not going to be the only one, +whatever Mrs. Hazleton may think."</p> + +<p>Shanks caught at Mrs. Hazleton's name; "Ay, that's a good thought," he +said, "we had better go and consult her. Let us put our three heads +together, and we may beat them yet—perhaps."</p> + +<p>"No use of going to her," answered John Ayliffe, bitterly; "I have +been to her, and she is a thorough vixen. She cried off having any +thing to do with me, and when I just told her quietly that she ought +to help me out of the scrape because she had a hand in getting me into +it, she flew at my throat like a terrier bitch with a litter of +puppies, barked me out of the house as if I had been a beggar, and +called me almost rogue and swindler in the hearing of her own +servants."</p> + +<p>Mr. Shanks smiled—he could not refrain from smiling with a feeling of +admiration and respect, even in that moment of bitter apprehension, at +the decision, skill, and wisdom of Mrs. Hazleton's conduct. He +approved of her highly; but he perceived quite plainly that it would +not do for him to play the same game. A hope—a feeble hope—light +through a loop-hole, came in upon him in regard to the future, +suggested by Mrs. Hazleton's conduct. He thought that if he could but +clear away some difficulties, he too might throw all blame upon John +Ayliffe, and shovel the load of infamy from his own shoulders to those +of his client; but to effect this, it was not only necessary that he +should soothe John Ayliffe, but that he should provide for his safety +and escape. Recriminations he was aware were very dangerous things, +and that unless a man takes care that it shall not be in the power or +for the interest of a fellow rogue to say <i>tu quoque</i>, the effort to +place the burden on his shoulders only injures him without making our +own case a bit better. It was therefore requisite for his purposes +that he should deprive John Ayliffe of all interest or object in +criminating him; but foolish knaves are very often difficult to deal +with, and he knew his young client to be eminent in that class. +Wishing for a little time to consider, he took occasion to ask one or +two meaningless questions, without at all attending to the replies.</p> + +<p>"When did this letter arrive here?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"This very night," answered John Ayliffe, "not three hours ago."</p> + +<p>"Do you think she has really told all?" asked Mr. Shanks.</p> + +<p>"All, and a great deal more," replied the young man.</p> + +<p>"How long has she been at St. Germain?" said the lawyer.</p> + +<p>"What the devil does that signify?" said John Ayliffe, growing +impatient.</p> + +<p>"A great deal, a great deal," replied Mr. Shanks, sagely. "Take some +more punch. You see perhaps we can prove that you and I really thought +her dead at the time the affidavit was made."</p> + +<p>"Devilish difficult that," said John Ayliffe, taking the punch. "She +wrote to me about some more money just at that time, and I was obliged +to answer her letter and send it, so that if they have got the letters +that won't pass."</p> + +<p>"We'll try at least," said Mr. Shanks in a bolder tone.</p> + +<p>"Ay, but in trying we may burn our fingers worse than ever," said the +young man. "I do not want to be tried for perjury and conspiracy, and +sent to the colonies with the palm of my hand burnt out, whatever you +may do, Shanks."</p> + +<p>"No, no, that would never do," replied the lawyer. "The first thing to +be done, my dear Sir John, is to provide for your safety, and that can +only be done by your getting out of the way for a time. It is very +natural that a young gentleman of fortune like yourself should go to +travel, and not at all unlikely that he should do so without letting +any one know where he is for a few months. That will be the best plan +for you—you must go and travel. They can't well be on the look-out +for you yet, and you can get away quite safely to-morrow morning. You +need not say where you are going, and by that means you will save both +yourself and the property too; for they can't proceed against you in +any way when you are absent."</p> + +<p>John Ayliffe was not sufficiently versed in the laws of the land to +perceive that Mr. Shanks was telling him a falsehood. "That's a good +thought," he said; "if I can live abroad and keep hold of the rents we +shall be safe enough."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, certainly," said Mr. Shanks,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> "that is the only plan. Then +let them file their bills, or bring their actions or what not. They +cannot compel you to answer if you are not within the realm."</p> + +<p>Mr. Shanks was calling him all the time, in his own mind, a +jolter-headed ass, but John Ayliffe did not perceive it, and replied +with a touch of good feeling, perhaps inspired by the punch, "But what +is to become of you, Shanks?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I will stay and face it out," replied the lawyer, "with a bold +front. If we do not peach of each other they cannot do much against +us. Mrs. Hazleton dare not commit us, for by so doing she would commit +herself; and your mother's story will not avail very much. As to the +letters, which is the worst part of the business, we must try and +explain those away; but clearly the first thing for you to do is to +get out of England as soon as possible. You can go and see your mother +secretly, and if you can but get her to prevaricate a little in her +testimony it will knock it all up."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she'll prevaricate enough if they do but press her hard," said +John Ayliffe. "She gets so frightened at the least thing she does'nt +know what she says. But the worst of it is, Shanks, I have not got +money enough to go. I have not got above a hundred guineas in the +house."</p> + +<p>Mr. Shanks paused and hesitated. It was a very great object with him +to get John Ayliffe out of the country, in order that he might say any +thing he liked of John Ayliffe when his back was turned, but it was +also a very great object with him to keep all the money he had got. He +did not like to part with one sixpence of it. After a few moments' +thought, however, he recollected that a thousand pounds' worth of +plate had come down from London for the young man within the last two +months, and he thought he might make a profitable arrangement.</p> + +<p>"I have got three hundred pounds in the house," he said, "all in good +gold, but I can really hardly afford to part with it. However, rather +than injure you, Sir John, I will let you have it if you will give me +the custody of your plate till your return, just that I may have +something to show if any one presses me for money."</p> + +<p>The predominant desire of John Ayliffe's mind, at that moment, was to +get out of England as fast as possible, and he was too much blinded by +fear and anxiety to perceive that the great desire of Mr. Shanks was +to get him out. But there was one impediment. The sum of four hundred +pounds thus placed at his command would, some years before, have +appeared the Indies to him, but now, with vastly expanded ideas with +regard to expense, it seemed a drop of water in the ocean. "Three +hundred pounds. Shanks," he said, "what's the use of three hundred +pounds? It would not keep me a month."</p> + +<p>"God bless my soul!" said Mr. Shanks, horrified at such a notion, "why +it would keep me a whole year, and more too. Moreover, things are +cheaper there than they are here; and besides you have got all those +jewels, and knick-knacks, and things, which cost you at least a couple +of thousand pounds. They would sell for a great deal."</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Shanks," said the young man, "you must make it five +hundred guineas. I know you've got them in your strong box here."</p> + +<p>Shanks shook his head, and John Ayliffe added sullenly, "Then I'll +stay and fight it out too. I won't go and be a beggar in a foreign +land."</p> + +<p>Shanks did not like the idea of his staying, and after some farther +discussion a compromise was effected. Mr. Shanks agreed to advance +four hundred pounds. John Ayliffe was to make over to him, as a +pledge, the whole of his plate, and not to object to a memorandum to +that effect being drawn up immediately, and dated a month before. The +young man was to set off the very next day, in the pleasant gray of +the morning, driving his own carriage and horses, which he was to sell +as soon as he got a convenient distance from his house, and Mr. Shanks +was to take the very best possible care of his interests during his +absence.</p> + +<p>John Ayliffe's spirits rose at the conclusion of this transaction. He +calculated that with one thing or another he should have sufficient +money to last him a year, and that was quite as far as his thoughts or +expectations went. A long, long year! What does youth care for any +thing beyond a year? It seems the very end of life to pant in +expectation, and indeed, and in truth, it is very often too long for +fate.</p> + +<p>"Next year I will"—Pause, young man! there is a deep pitfall in the +way. Between you and another year may be death. Next year thou wilt do +nothing—thou wilt be nothing.</p> + +<p>His spirits rose. He put the money into his pocket, and, with more wit +than he thought, called it "light heaviness," and then he sat down and +smoked a pipe, while Mr. Shanks drew up the paper; and then he drank +punch, and made more, and drank that too, so that when the paper +giving Mr. Shanks a lien upon the silver was completed, and when a +dull neighbor had been called in to see him sign his name, it needed a +witness indeed to prove that that name was John Ayliffe's writing.</p> + +<p>By this time he would very willingly have treated the company to a +song, so complete had been the change which punch and new prospects +had effected; but Mr. Shanks besought him to be quiet, hinting that +the neighbor, though as deaf as a post and blind as a mole, would +think him as the celebrated sow of the psalmist. Thereupon John +Ayliffe went forth and got his horse out of the stable, mounted upon +his back, and rode lolling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> at a sauntering pace through the end of +the town in which Mr. Shanks's house was situated. When he got more +into the country he began to trot, then let the horse fall into a walk +again, and then he beat him for going slow. Thus alternately +galloping, walking, and trotting, he rode on till he was two or three +hundred yards past the gates of what was called the Court, where the +family of Sir Philip Hastings now lived. It was rather a dark part of +the road, and there was something white in the hedge—some linen put +out to dry, or a milestone. John Ayliffe was going at a quick pace at +that moment, and the horse suddenly shied at this white +apparition—not only shied, but started, wheeled round, and ran back. +John Ayliffe kept his seat, notwithstanding his tipsiness, but he +struck the furious horse over the head, and pulled the rein violently. +The animal plunged—reared—the young man gave the rein a furious tug, +and over went the horse upon the road, with his driver under him.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h4> + +<p>There was a man lay upon the road in the darkness of the night for +some five or six minutes, and a horse galloped away snorting, with a +broken bridle hanging at his head, on the way towards the park of Sir +Philip Hastings. Had any carriage come along, the man who was lying +there must have been run over; for the night was exceedingly dark, and +the road narrow. All was still and silent, however. No one was seen +moving—not a sound was heard except the distant clack of a water-mill +which lay further down the valley. There was a candle in a cottage +window at about a hundred yards' distance, which shot a dim and feeble +ray athwart the road, but shed no light on the spot where the man lay. +At the end of about six minutes, a sort of convulsive movement showed +that life was not yet extinct in his frame—a sort of heave of the +chest, and a sudden twitch of the arm; and a minute or two after, John +Ayliffe raised himself on his elbow, and put his hand to his head.</p> + +<p>"Curse the brute," he said, in a wandering sort of way, "I wonder, +Shanks, you don't—damn it, where am I?—what's the matter? My side +and leg are cursed sore, and my head all running round."</p> + +<p>He remained in the same position for a moment or two more, and then +got upon his feet; but the instant he did so he fell to the ground +again with a deep groan, exclaiming, "By ——, my leg's broken, and I +believe my ribs too. How the devil shall I get out of this scrape? +Here I may lie and die, without any body ever coming near me. That is +old Jenny Best's cottage, I believe. I wonder if I could make the old +canting wretch hear," and he raised his voice to shout, but the pain +was too great. His ribs were indeed broken, and pressing upon his +lungs, and all that he could do was to lie still and groan.</p> + +<p>About a quarter of an hour after, however, a stout, middle-aged +man—rather, perhaps, in the decline of life—came by, carrying a +hand-basket, plodding at a slow and weary pace as if he had had a long +walk.</p> + +<p>"Who's that? Is any one there?" said a feeble voice, as he approached; +and he ran up, exclaiming, "Gracious me, what is the matter? Are you +hurt, sir? What has happened?"</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Best?" said the feeble voice of John Ayliffe, "my horse +has reared and fallen over with me. My leg is broken, and the bone +poking through, and my ribs are broken too, I think."</p> + +<p>"Stay a minute, Sir John," said the good countryman, "and I'll get +help, and we'll carry you up to the Hall."</p> + +<p>"No, no," answered John Ayliffe, who had now had time for thought, +"get a mattress, or a door, or something, and carry me into your +cottage. If your son is at home, he and you can carry me. Don't send +for strangers."</p> + +<p>"I dare say he is at home, sir," replied the man. "He's a good lad, +sir, and comes home as soon as his work's done. I will go and see. I +won't be a minute."</p> + +<p>He was as good as his word, and in less than a minute returned with +his son, bringing a lantern and a straw mattress.</p> + +<p>Not without inflicting great pain, and drawing forth many a heavy +groan, the old man and the young one placed John Ayliffe on the +paliasse, and carried him into the cottage, where he was laid upon +young Best's bed in the back room. Good Jenny Best, as John Ayliffe +had called her—an excellent creature as ever lived—was all kindness +and attention, although to say truth the suffering man had not shown +any great kindness to her and hers in his days of prosperity. She was +eager to send off her son immediately for the surgeon, and did so in +the end; but to the surprise of the whole of the little cottage party, +it was not without a great deal of reluctance and hesitation that John +Ayliffe suffered this to be done. They showed him, however, that he +must die or lose his limb if surgical assistance was not immediately +procured, and he ultimately consented, but told the young man +repeatedly not to mention his name even to the surgeon on any account, +but simply to say that a gentleman had been thrown by his horse, and +brought into the cottage with his thigh broken. He cautioned father +and mother too not to mention the accident to any one till he was well +again, alluding vaguely to reasons that he had for wishing to conceal +it.</p> + +<p>"But, Sir John," replied Best himself, "your horse will go home, +depend upon it, and your servants will not know where you are, and +there will be a fuss about you all over the country."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, then, let them make a fuss," said John Ayliffe, impatiently. "I +don't care—I will not have it mentioned."</p> + +<p>All this seemed very strange to the good man and his wife, but they +could only open their eyes and stare, without venturing farther to +oppose the wishes of their guest.</p> + +<p>It seemed a very long time before the surgeon made his appearance, but +at length the sound of a horse's feet coming fast, could be +distinguished, and two minutes after the surgeon was in the room. He +was a very good man, though not the most skilful of his profession, +and he was really shocked and confounded when he saw the state of Sir +John Hastings, as he called him. Wanting confidence in himself, he +would fain have sent off immediately for farther assistance, but John +Ayliffe would not hear of such a thing, and the good man went to work +to set the broken limb as best he might, and relieve the anguish of +the sufferer. So severe, however, were the injuries which had been +received, that notwithstanding a strong constitution, as yet but +little impaired by debauchery, the patient was given over by the +surgeon in his own mind from the first. He remained with him, watching +him all night, which passed nearly without sleep on the part of John +Ayliffe; and in the course of the long waking hours he took an +opportunity of enjoining secrecy upon the surgeon as to the accident +which had happened to him, and the place where he was lying. Not less +surprised was the worthy man than the cottager and his wife had been +at the young gentleman's exceeding anxiety for concealment, and as his +licentious habits were no secret in the country round, they all +naturally concluded that the misfortune which had overtaken him had +occurred in the course of some adventure more dangerous and +disgraceful than usual.</p> + +<p>Towards morning John Ayliffe fell into a sort of semi-sleep, restless +and perturbed, speaking often without reason having guidance of his +words, and uttering many things which, though disjointed and often +indistinct, showed the good man who had watched by him that the mind +was as much affected as the body. He woke confused and wandering about +eight o'clock, but speedily returned to consciousness of his +situation, and insisted, notwithstanding the pain he was suffering, +upon examining the money which was in his pockets to see that it was +all right. Vain precaution! He was never destined to need it more.</p> + +<p>Shortly after the surgeon left him, but returned at night again to +watch by his bedside. The bodily symptoms which he now perceived would +have led him to believe that a cure was possible, but there was a deep +depression of mind, a heavy irritable sombreness, from the result of +which the surgeon augured much evil. He saw that there was some +terrible weight upon the young man's heart, but whether it was fear or +remorse or disappointment he could not tell, and more than once he +repeated to himself, "He wants a priest as much as a physician."</p> + +<p>Again the surgeon would often argue with himself in regard to the +propriety of telling him the very dangerous state in which he was. "He +may at any time become delirious," he said, "and lose all power of +making those dispositions and arrangements which, I dare say, have +never been thought of in the time of health and prosperity. Then, +again, his house and all that it contains is left entirely in the +hands of servants—a bad set too, as ever existed, who are just as +likely to plunder and destroy as not; but on the other hand, if I tell +him it may only increase his dejection and cut off all hope of +recovery. Really I do not know what to do. Perhaps it would be better +to wait awhile, and if I should see more unfavorable symptoms and no +chance left, it will then be time enough to tell him his true +situation and prepare his mind for the result."</p> + +<p>Another restless, feverish night passed, another troubled sleep +towards morning, and then John Ayliffe woke with a start, exclaiming, +"You did not tell them I was here—lying here unable to stir, unable +to move—I told you not, I told you not. By ——" and then he looked +round, and seeing none but the surgeon in the room, relapsed into +silence.</p> + +<p>The surgeon felt his pulse, examined the bandages, and saw that a +considerable and unfavorable change had taken place; but yet he +hesitated. He was one of those men who shrink from the task of telling +unpleasant truths. He was of a gentle and a kindly disposition, which +even the necessary cruelties of surgery had not been able to harden.</p> + +<p>"He may say what he likes," he said, "I must have some advice as to +how I should act. I will go and talk with the parson about the matter. +Though a little lacking in the knowledge of the world, yet Dixwell is +a good man and a sincere Christian. I will see him as I go home, but +make him promise secrecy in the first place, as this young baronet is +so terribly afraid of the unfortunate affair being known. He will die, +I am afraid, and that before very long, and I am sure he is not in a +fit state for death." With this resolution he said some soothing words +to his patient, gave him what he called a composing draught, and sent +for his horse from a neighboring farm-house, where he had lodged it +for the night. He then rode at a quiet, thoughtful pace to the +parsonage house at the gates of the park, and quickly walked in. Mr. +Dixwell was at breakfast, reading slowly one of the broad sheets of +the day as an especial treat, for they seldom found their way into his +quiet rectory; but he was very glad to see the surgeon, with whom he +often contrived to have a pleasant little chat in regard to the +affairs of the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mr. Short, very glad to see you, my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> good friend. How go things +in your part of the world? We are rather in a little bustle here, +though I think it is no great matter."</p> + +<p>"What is it, Mr. Dixwell?" asked the surgeon.</p> + +<p>"Only that wild young man, Sir John Hastings," said the clergyman, +"left his house suddenly on horseback the night before last, and has +never returned. But he is accustomed to do all manner of strange +things, and has often been out two or three nights before without any +one knowing where he was. The butler came down and spoke to me about +it, but I think there was a good deal of affectation in his alarm, for +when I asked him he owned his master had once been away for a whole +week."</p> + +<p>"Has his horse come back?" asked the surgeon.</p> + +<p>"Not that I know of," replied Mr. Dixwell. "I suppose the man would +have mentioned it if such had been the case. But what is going on at +Hartwell?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing particular," said the surgeon, "only Mrs. Harrison brought to +bed of twins on Saturday night at twenty minutes past eleven. I think +all those Harrisons have twins—but I have something to talk to you +about, my good friend, a sort of case of conscience I want to put to +you. Only you must promise me profound secrecy."</p> + +<p>Mr. Dixwell laughed—"What, under the seal of confession?" he said. +"Well, well, I am no papist, as you know, Short, but I'll promise and +do better than any papist does, keep my word when I have promised +without mental reservation."</p> + +<p>"I know you will, my good friend," answered the surgeon, "and this is +no jesting matter, I can assure you. Now listen, my good friend, +listen. Not many evenings ago, I was sent for suddenly to attend a +young man who had met with an accident, a very terrible accident too. +He had a compound fracture of the thigh, three of his ribs broken, and +his head a good deal knocked about, but the cranium uninjured. I had +at first tolerable hope of his recovery; but he is getting much worse +and I fear that he will die."</p> + +<p>"Well, you can't help that," said Mr. Dixwell, "men will die in spite +of all you can do, Short, just as they will sin in spite of all I can +say."</p> + +<p>"Ay, there's the rub," said the surgeon. "I fear he has sinned a very +tolerably sufficient quantity, and I can see that there is something +or another weighing very heavy on his mind, which is even doing great +harm to his body."</p> + +<p>"I will go and see him, I will go and see him," said Mr. Dixwell, "it +will do him good in all ways to unburden his conscience, and to hear +the comfortable words of the gospel."</p> + +<p>"But the case is, Mr. Dixwell," said Short, "that he has positively +forbidden me to let any of his friends know where he lies, or to speak +of the accident to any one."</p> + +<p>"Pooh, nonsense," said the clergyman, "if a man has fractured his +skull and you thought it fit to trepan him, would you ask him whether +he liked it or not? If the young man is near death, and his conscience +is burdened, I am the physician who should be sent for rather than +you."</p> + +<p>"I fancy his conscience is burdened a good deal," said Mr. Short, +thoughtfully; "nay, I cannot help thinking that he was engaged in some +very bad act at the time this happened, both from his anxiety to +conceal from every body where he now lies, and from various words he +has dropped, sometimes in his sleep, sometimes when waking confused +and half delirious. What puzzles me is, whether I should tell him his +actual situation or not."</p> + +<p>"Tell him, tell him by all means," said Mr. Dixwell, "why should you +not tell him?"</p> + +<p>"Simply because I think that it will depress his mind still more," +replied the surgeon, "and that may tend to deprive him even of the +very small chance that exists of recovery."</p> + +<p>"The soul is of more value than the body," replied the clergyman, +earnestly; "if he be the man you depict, my friend, he should have as +much time as possible to prepare—he should have time to repent—ay, +and to atone. Tell him by all means, or let me know where he is to be +found, and I will tell him."</p> + +<p>"That I must not do," said Mr. Short, "for I am under a sort of +promise not to tell; but if you really think that I ought to tell him +myself, I will go back and do it."</p> + +<p>"If I really think!" exclaimed Mr. Dixwell, "I have not the slightest +doubt of it. It is your bounden duty if you be a Christian. Not only +tell him, my good friend, but urge him strongly to send for some +minister of religion. Though friends may fail him, and he may not wish +to see them—though all worldly supports may give way beneath him, and +he may find no strengthening—though all earthly hopes may pass away, +and give him no mortal cheer, the gospel of Christ can never fail to +support, and strengthen, and comfort, and elevate. The sooner he knows +that his tenement of clay is falling to the dust of which it was +raised, the better will be his readiness to quit it, and it is wise, +most wise, to shake ourselves free altogether from the dust and +crumbling ruins of this temporal state, ere they fall upon our heads +and bear us down to the same destruction as themselves."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, I will go back and tell him," said Mr. Short, and bidding +the good rector adieu, he once more mounted his horse and rode away.</p> + +<p>Now Mr. Dixwell was an excellent good man, but he was not without +certain foibles, especially those that sometimes accompany +considerable simplicity of character. "I will see which way he takes," +said Mr. Dixwell, "and go and visit the young man myself if I can find +him out;" and accordingly he marched up stairs to his bedroom, which +commanded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> a somewhat extensive prospect of the country, and traced +the surgeon, as he trotted slowly and thoughtfully along. He could not +actually see the cottage of the Bests, but he perceived that the +surgeon there passed over the brow of the hill, and after waiting for +several minutes, he did not catch any horseman rising upon the +opposite slope over which the road was continued. Now there was no +cross road in the hollow and only three houses, and therefore Mr. +Dixwell naturally concluded that to one of those three houses the +surgeon had gone.</p> + +<p>In the mean while, Mr. Short rode on unconscious that his movements +were observed, and meditating with a troubled mind upon the best means +of conveying the terrible intelligence he had to communicate. He did +not like the task at all; but yet he resolved to perform it manfully, +and dismounting at the cottage door, he went in again. There was +nobody within but the sick man and good old Jenny Best. The old woman +was at the moment in the outer room, and when she saw the surgeon she +shook her head, and said in a low voice, "Ah, dear, I am glad you have +come back again, sir, he does not seem right at all."</p> + +<p>"Who's that?" said the voice of John Ayliffe; and going in, Mr. Short +closed the doors between the two rooms.</p> + +<p>"There, don't shut that door," said John Ayliffe, "it is so infernally +close—I don't feel at all well, Mr. Short—I don't know what's the +matter with me. It's just as if I had got no heart. I think a glass of +brandy would do me good."</p> + +<p>"It would kill you," said the surgeon.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the young man, "I'm not sure that would not be best for +me—come," he continued sharply, "tell me how long I am to lie here on +my back?"</p> + +<p>"That I cannot tell, Sir John," replied the surgeon, "but at all +events, supposing that you do recover, and that every thing goes well, +you could not hope to move for two or three months."</p> + +<p>"Supposing I was to recover!" repeated John Ayliffe in a low tone, as +if the idea of approaching death had then, for the first time, struck +him as something real and tangible, and not a mere name. He paused +silently for an instant, and then asked almost fiercely, "what brought +you back?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Sir John, I thought it might be better for us to have a little +conversation," said the surgeon. "I can't help being afraid, Sir John, +that you may have a great number of things to settle, and that not +anticipating such a very severe accident, your affairs may want a good +deal of arranging. Now the event of all sickness is uncertain, and an +accident such as this especially. It is my duty to inform you," he +continued, rising in resolution and energy as he proceeded, "that your +case is by no means free from danger—very great danger indeed."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say that I am dying?" asked John Ayliffe, in a hoarse +voice.</p> + +<p>"No, no, not exactly dying," said the surgeon, putting his hand upon +his pulse, "not dying I trust just yet, but—"</p> + +<p>"But I shall die, you mean?" cried the other.</p> + +<p>"I think it not at all improbable," answered the surgeon, gravely, +"that the case may have a fatal result."</p> + +<p>"Curse fatal results," cried John Ayliffe, giving way to a burst of +fury; "why the devil do you come back to tell me such things and make +me wretched? If I am to die, why can't you let me die quietly and know +nothing about it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Sir John, I thought that you might have many matters to settle," +answered the surgeon somewhat irritated, "and that your temporal and +your spiritual welfare also required you should know your real +situation."</p> + +<p>"Spiritual d——d nonsense!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, furiously; "I +dare say it's all by your folly and stupidity that I am likely to die +at all. Why I hear of men breaking their legs and their ribs every day +and being none the worse for it."</p> + +<p>"Why, Sir John, if you do not like my advice you need not have it," +answered the surgeon; "I earnestly wished to send for other +assistance, and you would not let me."</p> + +<p>"There, go away, go away and leave me," said John Ayliffe; but as the +surgeon took up his hat and walked towards the door, he added, "come +again at night. You shall be well paid for it, never fear."</p> + +<p>Mr. Short made no reply, but walked out of the room.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h4> + +<p>Solitude and silence, and bitter thought are great tamers of the human +heart. "As ye sow, so shall ye reap," says the Apostle, and John +Ayliffe was now forced to put in the sickle. Death was before his +eyes, looming large and dark and terrible, like the rock of adamant in +the fairy tale, against which the bark of the adventurous mariner was +sure to be dashed. Death for the first time presented itself to his +mind in all its grim reality. Previously it had seemed with him a +thing hardly worth considering—inevitable—appointed to all men—to +every thing that lives and breathes—no more to man than to the sheep, +or the ox, or any other of the beasts that perish. He had contemplated +it merely as death—as the extinction of being—as the goal of a +career—as the end of a chase where one might lie down and rest, and +forget the labor and the clamor and the trouble of the course. He had +never in thought looked beyond the boundary—he had hardly asked +himself if there was aught beyond. He had satisfied himself by saying, +as so many men do, "Every man must die some time or another," and had +never asked his own heart, "What is it to die?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>But now death presented itself under a new aspect; cold and stern, +relentless and mysterious, saying in a low solemn tone, "I am the +guide. Follow me there. Whither I lead thou knowest not, nor seest +what shall befall thee. The earth-worm and the mole fret but the +earthly garment of the man; the flesh, and the bones, and the beauty +go down to dust, and ashes, and corruption. The man comes with me to a +land undeclared—to a presence infinitely awful—to judgment and to +fate; for on this side of the dark portal through which I am the +guide, there is no such thing as fate. It lies beyond the grave, and +thither thou must come without delay."</p> + +<p>He had heard of immortality, but he had never thought of it. He had +been told of another world, but he had never rightly believed in it. +The thought of a just judge, and of an eternal doom, had been +presented to him in many shapes, but he had never received it; and he +had lived and acted, and thought and felt, as if there were neither +eternity, nor judgment, nor punishment. But in that dread hour the +deep-rooted, inexplicable conviction of a God and immortality, +implanted in the hearts of all men, and only crushed down in the +breasts of any by the dust of vanity and the lumber of the world, rose +up and bore its fruits according to the soil. They were all bitter. If +there were another life, a judgment, an eternity of weal or woe, what +was to be his fate? How should he meet the terrors of the +judgment-seat—he who had never prayed from boyhood—he who through +life had never sought God—he who had done in every act something that +conscience reproved, and that religion forbade?</p> + +<p>Every moment as he lay there and thought, the terrors of the vast +unbounded future grew greater and more awful. The contemplation almost +drove him to frenzy, and he actually made an effort to rise from his +bed, but fell back again with a deep groan. The sound caught the ear +of good Jenny Best, and running in she asked if he wanted any thing.</p> + +<p>"Stay with me, stay with me," said the unhappy young man, "I cannot +bear this—it is very terrible—I am dying, Mrs. Best, I am dying."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Best shook her head with a melancholy look; but whether from +blunted feelings, from the hard and painful life which they endured, +or from a sense that there is to be compensation somewhere, and that +any change must be for the better, or cannot be much worse than the +life of this earth, or from want of active imagination, the poorer and +less educated classes I have generally remarked view death and all its +accessories with less of awe, if not of dread, than those who have +been surrounded by luxuries, and perhaps have used every effort to +keep the contemplation of the last dread scene afar, till it is +actually forced upon their notice. Her words were homely, and though +intended to comfort did not give much consolation to the dying man.</p> + +<p>"Ah well, sir, it is very sad," she said, "to die so young; though +every one must die sooner or later, and it makes but little difference +whether it be now or then. Life is not so long to look back at, sir, +as to look forward to, and when one dies young one is spared many a +thing. I recollect my poor eldest son who is gone, when he lay dying +just like you in that very bed, and I was taking on sadly, he said to +me, 'Mother don't cry so. It's just as well for me to go now when I've +not done much mischief or suffered much sorrow.' He was as good a +young man as ever lived; and so Mr. Dixwell said; for the parson used +to come and see him every day, and that was a great comfort and +consolation to the poor boy."</p> + +<p>"Was it?" said John Ayliffe, thoughtfully. "How long did he know he +was dying?"</p> + +<p>"Not much above a week, sir," said Mrs. Best; "for till Mr. Dixwell +told him, he always thought he would get better. We knew it a long +time however, for he had been in a decline a year, and his father had +been laying by money for the funeral three months before he died. So +when it was all over we put him by quite comfortable."</p> + +<p>"Put him by!" said John Ayliffe.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, we buried him, I mean," answered Mrs. Best. "That's our way +of talking. But Mr. Dixwell had been to see him long before. He knew +that he was dying, and he wouldn't tell him as long as there was any +hope; for he said it was not necessary—that he had never seen any one +better prepared to meet his Maker than poor Robert, and that it was no +use to disturb him about the matter till it came very near."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Dixwell is a wise man and a good man," said John Ayliffe. "I +should very much like to see him."</p> + +<p>"I can run for him in a minute sir," said Dame Best, but John Ayliffe +replied, in a faint voice, "No, no, don't, don't on any account."</p> + +<p>In the mean while, the very person of whom they were speaking had +descended from the up-stairs room, finished his breakfast in order to +give the surgeon time to fulfil his errand, and then putting on his +three-cornered hat had walked out to ascertain at what house Mr. Short +had stopped. The first place at which he inquired was the farm-house +at which the good surgeon had stabled his horse on the preceding +night. Entering by the kitchen door, he found the good woman of the +place bustling about amongst pots and pans and maidservants, and other +utensils, and though she received him with much reverence, she did not +for a moment cease her work.</p> + +<p>"Well, Dame," he said, "I hope you're all well here."</p> + +<p>"Quite well, your reverence—Betty, empty that pail."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, I've seen Mr. Short come down here," said the parson, "and I +thought somebody might be ill."</p> + +<p>"Very kind, your reverence—mind you don't spill it.—No, it warn't +here. It's some young man down at Jenny Best's, who's baddish, I +fancy, for the Doctor stabled his horse here last night."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear none of you are ill," said Mr. Dixwell, and bidding +her good morning, he walked away straight to the cottage where John +Ayliffe lay. There was no one in the outer room, and the good +clergyman, privileged by his cloth, walked straight on into the room +beyond, and stood by the bedside of the dying man before any one was +aware of his presence.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dixwell was not so much surprised to see there on that bed of +death the face of him he called Sir John Hastings, as might be +supposed. The character which the surgeon had given of his patient, +the mysterious absence of the young man from the Hall, and the very +circumstance of his unwillingness to have his name and the place where +he was lying known, had all lent a suspicion of the truth. John +Ayliffe's eyes were shut at the moment he entered, and he seemed +dozing, though in truth sleep was far away. But the little movement of +Mr. Dixwell towards his bedside, and of Mrs. Best giving place for the +clergyman to sit down, caused him to open his eyes, and his first +exclamation was, "Ah, Dixwell! so that damned fellow Short has +betrayed me, and told when I ordered him not."</p> + +<p>"Swear not at all," said Mr. Dixwell. "Short has not betrayed you, Sir +John. I came here by accident, merely hearing there was a young man +lying ill here, but without knowing actually that it was you, although +your absence from home has caused considerable uneasiness. I am very +sorry to see you in such a state. How did all this happen?"</p> + +<p>"I will not tell you, nor answer a single word," replied John Ayliffe, +"unless you promise not to say a word of my being here to any one. I +know you will keep your word if you say so, and Jenny Best too—won't +you, Jenny?—but I doubt that fellow Short."</p> + +<p>"You need not doubt him, Sir John," said the clergyman; "for he is +very discreet. As for me, I will promise, and will keep my word; for I +see not what good it could be to reveal it to any body if you dislike +it. You will be more tenderly nursed here, I am sure, than you would +be by unprincipled, dissolute servants, and since your poor mother's +death—"</p> + +<p>John Ayliffe groaned heavily, and the clergyman stopped. The next +moment, however, the young man said, "Then you do promise, do you?"</p> + +<p>"I do," replied Mr. Dixwell. "I will not at all reveal the facts +without your consent."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, sit down, and let us be alone together for a bit," said +John Ayliffe, and Mrs. Best quietly quitted the room and shut the +door.</p> + +<p>John Ayliffe turned his languid eyes anxiously upon the clergyman, +saying, "I think I am dying, Mr. Dixwell."</p> + +<p>He would fain have had a contradiction or even a ray of earthly hope; +but he got none; for it was evident to the eyes of Mr. Dixwell, +accustomed as he had been for many years to attend by the bed of +sickness and see the last spark of life go out, that John Ayliffe was +a dying man—that he might live hours, nay days; but that the +irrevocable summons had been given, that he was within the shadow of +the arch, and must pass through!</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you are, Sir John," he replied, "but I trust that God +will still afford you time to make preparation for the great change +about to take place, and by his grace I will help you to the utmost in +my power."</p> + +<p>John Ayliffe was silent, and closed his eyes again. Nor was he the +first to speak; for after having waited for several minutes, Mr. +Dixwell resumed, saying in a grave but kindly tone, "I am afraid, Sir +John, you have not hitherto given much thought to the subject which is +now so sadly fixed upon you. We must make haste, my good sir; we must +not lose a moment."</p> + +<p>"Then do you think I am going to die so soon?" asked the young man +with a look of horror; for it cost him a hard and terrible struggle to +bring his mind to grasp the thought of death being inevitable and nigh +at hand. He could hardly conceive it—he could hardly believe it—that +he who had so lately been full of life and health, who had been +scheming schemes, and laying out plans, and had looked upon futurity +as a certain possession—that he was to die in a few short hours; but +whenever the wilful heart would have rebelled against the sentence, +and struggle to resist it, sensations which he had never felt before, +told him in a voice not to be mistaken, "It must be so!"</p> + +<p>"No one can tell," replied Mr. Dixwell, "how soon it may be, or how +long God may spare you; but one thing is certain, Sir John, that years +with you have now dwindled down into days, and that days may very +likely be shortened to hours. But had you still years to live, I +should say the same thing, that no time is to be lost; too much has +been lost already."</p> + +<p>John Ayliffe did not comprehend him in the least. He could not grasp +the idea as yet of a whole life being made a preparation for death, +and looked vacantly in the clergyman's face, utterly confounded at the +thought.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dixwell had a very difficult task before him—one of the most +difficult he had ever undertaken; for he had not only to arouse the +conscience, but to awaken the intellect to things importing all to the +soul's salvation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> which had never been either felt or believed, or +comprehended before. At first too, there was the natural repugnance +and resistance of a wilful, selfish, over-indulged heart to receive +painful or terrible truths, and even when the obstacle was overcome, +the young man's utter ignorance of religion and want of moral feeling +proved another almost insurmountable. He found that the only access to +John Ayliffe's heart was by the road of terror, and without scruple he +painted in stern and fearful colors the awful state of the impenitent +spirit called suddenly into the presence of its God. With an unpitying +hand he stripped away all self-delusions from the young man's mind and +laid his condition before him, and his future state in all their dark +and terrible reality.</p> + +<p>This is not intended for what is called a religious book, and +therefore I must pass over the arguments he used, and the course he +proceeded in. Suffice it that he labored earnestly for two hours to +awaken something like repentance in the bosom of John Ayliffe, and he +succeeded in the end better than the beginning had promised. When +thoroughly convinced of the moral danger of his situation, John +Ayliffe began to listen more eagerly, to reply more humbly, and to +seek earnestly for some consolation beyond the earth. His depression +and despair, as terrible truths became known to him were just in +proportion to his careless boldness and audacity while he had remained +in wilful ignorance, and as soon as Mr. Dixwell saw that all the +clinging to earthly expectations was gone—that every frail support of +mortal thoughts was taken away, he began to give him gleams of hope +from another world, and had the satisfaction of finding that the +doubts and terrors which remained arose from the consciousness of his +own sins and crimes, the heavy load of which he felt for the first +time. He told him that repentance was never too late—he showed, him +that Christ himself had stamped that great truth with a mark that +could not be mistaken in his pardon of the dying thief upon the cross, +and while he exhorted him to examine himself strictly, and to make +sure that what he felt was real repentance, and not the mere fear of +death which so many mistake for it in their last hours, he assured him +that if he could feel certain of that fact, and trust in his Saviour, +he might comfort himself and rest in good hope. That done, he resolved +to leave the young man to himself for a few hours that he might +meditate and try the great question he had propounded with his own +heart. He called in Mistress Best, however, and told her that if +during his absence Sir John wished her to read to him, it would be a +great kindness to read certain passages of Scripture which he pointed +out in the house Bible. The good woman very willingly undertook the +task, and shortly after the clergyman was gone John Ayliffe applied to +hear the words of that book against which he had previously shut his +ears. He found comfort and consolation and guidance therein; for Mr. +Dixwell, who, on the one subject which had been the study of his life +was wise as well as learned, had selected judiciously such passages as +tend to inspire hope without diminishing penitence.</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> Continued from page 488, vol. iii.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE CASTLE OF BELVER.</h2> + +<h3>AN INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF ARAGO.</h3> + + +<p>The castle of Belver is the state prison of the island of Majorca. The +Rev. Henry Christmas, F.R.S., has just published in London three +volumes entitled <i>The Shores and Islands of the Mediterranean</i>, in +which he gives the following account of the confinement within its +walls of the illustrious Arago:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Charged by the Emperor Napoleon with the admeasurement of +the meridian, Arago was in 1808 in Majorca, and occupying a +cottage on the mountain called Clot de Galatzo, when the +news came to the island of the recent events at Madrid, and +the carrying away of the king. The populace of Palma, never +very favorably disposed towards the French, and altogether +incapable of comprehending either the merits or the mission +of Arago, easily mistook the great astronomer for a +political spy, and exasperated at the insult offered to +their king and country, determined to take a signal +vengeance on the only Frenchman within their power. They +took their way in great numbers towards the mountain on +which Arago had taken up his abode, fortified in their +belief of his evil designs by the fact that he frequently +made fires on the mountain-side, and which they took for +signals to an imaginary French fleet just about to land an +army for the reduction of the island.</p> + +<p>"The mountain rises just above the coast on which Don Jaime +the Conqueror made his descent, and thus it will seem that +the islanders were not destitute of some grounds for the +suspicions which they entertained, nor without some +palliating circumstances in the outrage which they +contemplated. It was, however, happily only a design, for M. +Arago, warned in time, left his mountain, and directed his +steps towards Palma. The person who advertised him of his +peril was a man named Damian, the pilot of the brig placed +by the Spanish Government at the disposal of the +philosopher. Himself a Majorcan, he was taken into the +counsel of the plotters, and was thus enabled to save the +life of his master.</p> + +<p>"Dressed in the clothes of a common seaman, with which +Damian had provided him, he met on his way the mob, who were +bent on his destruction, and who stopped him to inquire +about that <i>maldito gabacho</i>, of whom they meant to rid the +island. As he spoke the language of the country fluently, he +gave them that kind of information which was most desirable +both to him and to them, and as soon as he arrived at Palma, +he made his way to the Spanish brig; but the captain, Don +Manual de Vacaro, a Catalonian, (his name ought to be known, +to his disgrace, as well as that of Damian to his credit,) +absolutely refused to take the astronomer to Barcelona, +alleging that he was at Palma for a specific purpose, and +could not leave without orders from his Government. When +Arago pointed out the danger which threatened his life, and +of which the captain was as well aware as himself, the +latter coolly pointed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> out a chest, in which he proposed +that M. Arago should take refuge. To this Arago replied by +measuring the chest, and showing that there was not room for +him in the inside. The next day a frantic mob was assembled +on the shore, and it became clear that it was their +intention to board the brig. Alarmed now for himself as well +as for his colleague, Don Manual assured Arago that he would +not answer for his life, and recommended him to constitute +himself a prisoner in the castle of Belver, offering to +conduct him hither in one of the ship's boats. Seeing what +kind of a man, as well as what kind of a mob, he had to do +with, Arago accepted the proposal, and just arrived time +enough to hear the castle gates closed against his furious +pursuers. It seems that all the motions of those on board +were watched from the shore, and as soon as the boat was +seen to depart, and to take the direction of Belver, the +populace poured forth, towards the castle, and had not Arago +been a little in advance, his life would have been +sacrificed.... He was there as a prisoner two months.</p> + +<p>"During that time he was told, and he seems to have believed +the report, that the monks in the island had attempted to +bribe the soldiers to poison him, but that the latter would +not consent. It is likely enough that monks, considered as +monks, would think it rather meritorious than otherwise to +destroy a Frenchman, and a free-thinker, but it would be +less probable of Majorcan monks than of any other, and +poisoning is not the custom of the island. At the same time +the very vehement feeling of the people against him, might +put it into the minds of the monks to use monastic arts, and +there is an additional probability given to the notion by +the conduct of the Captain-general, who, after two months of +captivity, sent a message to the prisoner that he would do +well to make his escape, and that if he did, it would be +winked at. Arago took this excellent advice, sent for M. +Rodriguez, who had been appointed by the Spanish Government +to aid him in his scientific labors, and by his aid opened a +communication with Damian. This worthy man procured a +fishing-boat, and took him to Algiers, not daring to land +him in France or Spain, and absolutely refusing very large +offers made to him for that purpose."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE COUNT MONTE-LEONE: OR, THE SPY IN SOCIETY.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></h2> + +<h3>TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM THE FRENCH OF +M. DE ST. GEORGES.</h3> + + +<h4>XVI.—MADEMOISELLE CREPINEAU'S LOVER.</h4> + +<p>About the end of May, 1819, on one of those bright sunny days which +bring out the blossoms of the lilac, make invalids strong, and young +girls healthy, the Duchess of Palma was sitting in the garden of her +hotel, in the same place and under the same tree in which we saw her +take refuge, to conceal her sorrow and tears, a few months before, on +the evening of the brilliant festival when all the principal +personages of our story met. A general languor and oppression with +complete weakness, the ordinary consequences of her unhappy attempt to +commit suicide, had ensued. The deep distress which gnawed at her +heart added moral to physical tortures. The Duke of Palma at last +perceived the deep indifference of La Felina towards him, and without +divining the cause, said that having married without love, all his +cares and tenderness had not sufficed to win her heart. He therefore +said, that he should be a fool to devote himself any longer to her, +and to consecrate his life to a woman to whom, notwithstanding the +prejudices of the world, he had given his title and name, without +having, as yet, received the most trifling acknowledgment in return!</p> + +<p>Yet young, immensely rich, volatile and handsome, it was probable that +the Duke would not look in vain for some one to console him for the +severity of his Duchess. Like many other persons in Paris, the Duke +lived <i>en garçon</i> with two houses, two establishments, and, morally +speaking, two wives. His second wife was a celebrated <i>danseuse</i> of +the Royal Academy of Music, Mlle. G., known as a very agreeably thin +woman, and arms rather larger than the true academic +proportions—which, however, enabled her to entwine her partner, with +an <i>undulous grace</i> that highly excited the old <i>habitués</i> of the +opera. The reign of Louis XVIII. was also emphatically the reign of +the <i>danseuses</i>. Princes, marshals, generals, and nobles, selected +their mistresses in the <i>seraglio</i> of the opera. The reign of these +ladies was, however, almost <i>emphyteotic</i>, that is to say, permanent, +and often resulted in the consecration of illegitimate pleasures. MM. +de Lauraguais, de Conti, de Letoriers, and others, would have laughed +at this. The external life of the Duke was full of attention to the +Duchess, with whom he dined regularly. He never, however, breakfasted +at the embassy, nor was he there except at his regular receptions. The +pious people who had been so shocked at his marriage, took care to say +that the Duchess's conduct was the sole cause of her husband's +misbehavior. There was nothing, though, in the world to sustain this; +for no one had the slightest idea of the secret <i>liaison</i> of +Monte-Leone and the embassadress. That was a transient affair, and the +shores of the <i>Lago di Como</i> alone had been witnesses of it. Some +excuse, however, was indispensably necessary for him.</p> + +<p>La Felina, as isolated as ever, then sat in a beautiful garden which +overlooked the <i>Champs Elysées</i>, on the morning we have described. Her +face was pale and wearied, and her eyes red from want of sleep. With +her head resting on her chest, she seemed a prey to the greatest +sorrow. Just then they came to tell her of the visit of Taddeo Rovero.</p> + +<p>"At last," said she, gladly, "I will know all."</p> + +<p>Taddeo was close behind the servant who had announced him. He could +not repress his surprise, when he saw how changed the Duchess was. The +latter saw it and said, "You did not expect, signor, to see an old and +ugly woman instead of her you once thought, so beautiful. I have, +however, suffered a great deal during the three months you have been +away. Without meaning to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> reproach you, let me say it is three months +since I saw you."</p> + +<p>"Ah! Signora, to me you may assume any guise you please; for neither +my eyes, nor heart, distinguish any alteration."</p> + +<p>"So much the better," said the Duchess with a smile, "for you are +perhaps the only person who think me as beautiful as once was. It is +something to be thought beautiful when we are not. What, though, is +come over you? Why have you been so long in Italy?"</p> + +<p>"Alas! Signora, bad inducements took me from Paris and from yourself."</p> + +<p>"All they say, then, is true?" said the Duchess, making Taddeo sit by +her; "the Marquise de Maulear has lost her husband? She is a widow?" +said she, sadly, and with an effort.</p> + +<p>"The Marquis died three months since at Rome," said Taddeo.</p> + +<p>"It is terrible," said the ambassadress, "public rumor said so—I, +though, live so much alone that I know nothing more. Excuse me, if I +inquire into family secrets—were it not for the interest I entertain +for your sister and yourself, I would not do so—"</p> + +<p>"The death of the Marquis," said Taddeo, "is really a family secret. +There is no reason, however, why you should not know it. I am aware to +whom I confide it, and have no hesitation in doing so. My story will +be brief. The Marquis and I set out for Rome three months ago, to +receive the estate of my uncle, Cardinal Felippo Justiniani. We met +with many difficulties, but eventually received it. The total was a +million of francs, in bonds of the principal bankers of Rome. The half +of this sum was paid in cash. I was in mourning, and did not go into +society. Besides," added Taddeo, looking tenderly at La Felina, "I had +left my heart in Paris—and society and the Carnival pleasures had no +charms for me. The Marquis seemed more anxious for amusement than +propriety permitted. A few days after having received the half of our +inheritance, of which the Marquis had possession, I was surprised to +hear that he had not returned home at night. I did not, however, dare +to question him; for I thought that he had been tempted by some +pleasure party and might be unwilling to answer me. I pretended not to +be aware that he was away. For several successive nights this +occurred, and at last I ventured to speak to him, telling him what +danger he exposed himself to, by straying thus in the streets of Rome. +'I am well armed,' said he, 'and can protect myself against robbers.' +Day after day the Marquis seemed more and more engaged. He avoided me, +and scarcely ever returned home. One day he was absent. Afraid lest he +might have been attacked in the night, I went to the French minister's +and caused a minute search to be made—and learned that my +brother-in-law had put an end to his own life. He had been enticed by +some of his French friends into a gaming house, which foreign +speculators had obtained leave to open during the Carnival, and had +there lost the five hundred thousand francs which belonged to his +wife. In his despair he had drowned himself in the Tiber."</p> + +<p>"This is terrible," said the Duchess, "are you sure this is so?"</p> + +<p>"Too sure," said Taddeo, "for not long after, the discovery of the +body put all beyond doubt. These, Signora, are the facts of the case; +though to save the Marquise's honor we attribute his death to a +natural cause."</p> + +<p>"I thank you, Signor, for your confidence; especially since it gives +me a right to pity the sister you love so well, yet more—and also to +console you for the death of M. de Maulear. But when did you return?"</p> + +<p>"A few days ago. I was forced to remain yet longer in Rome to get +possession of the remnant of the Cardinal's fortune. My mother also +came to Rome to tell Aminta of her misfortune."</p> + +<p>"How cruelly the young <i>Marquise</i> must suffer," said the Duchess; "how +she must need compassion and care!"</p> + +<p>"She will have ours; and her father-in-law, overcoming his own sorrow, +is as tender and fond of her as ever."</p> + +<p>"Then," said the Duchess, concealing a distress she could not lay +aside, "she yet has true and excellent friends—the Count Monte-Leone, +for instance, who was so fond of her—"</p> + +<p>"The Count," said Taddeo, looking strangely at the Duchess, who did +not meet his glance, "was received a few days ago by the Marquise."</p> + +<p>"He will make up for lost time," said La Felina, bitterly, "for now, +or perhaps some day, his old hopes may again arise, and perhaps be +realized."</p> + +<p>Taddeo understood why she spoke thus. For a long time his forbearance +had been pushed to extremities, and this passion of the Duchess for +his friend had given rise to new tortures, too severe to repress the +idea of vengeance. He was cruel and barbarous; but he had too severely +suffered from La Felina. By a violent course, also, he perhaps wished +to crush the love which tortured him.</p> + +<p>He remarked: "Even though I afflict you, I must say your fancy is +likely enough to be realized. The Count possesses rank and a spotless +reputation—for without the latter—"</p> + +<p>"With but the latter," said the Duchess, "he could not enter our +family."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, the Count prepares the Marquise for a future courtship by +very constant visits now."</p> + +<p>"He comes every day to the Hotel to see the Prince and myself. My +sister loves to hear him speak of Italy, of which you know he talks so +well."</p> + +<p>La Felina could bear no more. She gave her hand to Taddeo, and with a +voice trembling with emotion said: "For the present, adieu! You owe me +some compensation for your long absence, and if the lonely life I +lead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> does not afflict you, if you are not too much afraid of an +anchorite, come to see me, and you will find me always glad to see +you."</p> + +<p>Taddeo kissed her hand and left her, almost repenting in his generous +mind that he had spoken as he did. He was fully avenged, for the +Duchess's grief was so great that she felt her heart grow chilled, her +limbs stiffen, and her eyes close. Her conversation with Taddeo soon +returned to her mind, and she uttered a cry of agony. Her <i>femme de +chambre</i> bore her to the Hotel. When alone in her room she said to +herself: "He swore to me that he would never be her lover. She may now +be his wife. Ah!" continued she, "with cruel and sombre fury, it would +have been better for both of us had he let me die."</p> + +<p>"Tell him who waits to come," said she to the servant.</p> + +<p>The woman left, and soon after came in with a man whom the Duchess +made sit beside her. The woman left the room. We will leave the +Duchess with the stranger and go to No. 13 <i>rue de Babylonne</i>, where +one month after we shall find Mlle. Celestine Crepineau, a prey to the +tenderest emotions. We must say for about two months the heart of that +lady had been speaking. This lady's heart, like that of old +thorough-bred horses, of whom we read every once in a while, had a +return of ardor, and laid aside all its ascetic devotion to become +intense living and burning, as it had been in youth. This was the sure +premonition of old age. If anything could justify this resurrection, +it is what we are about to tell.</p> + +<p>A new star shone in <i>la rue de Babylonne</i>. A beautiful stranger +calling himself a Spaniard, a statement made probable by his dark +complexion, sun-burnt brow, black hair, and brilliant eyes, +established himself in a modest garret of No. 12, just opposite the +house of the <i>hangman</i>, now occupied by Matheus. The charming Spaniard +had no decided profession. His dress was that of an artisan in his +Sunday best: and his velvet vest covered a prominent and Herculean +<i>torso</i>. He was tall; and walked squarely on his large feet; a +circumstance which made Mlle. Crepineau think him majestic. He said he +was a bear-hunter from the Pyrenees, who had been forced to expatriate +himself because <i>in a duel he had wounded the governor of his +province</i>. It may be imagined that so rare a profession excited much +admiration among the natives of <i>la rue Babylonne</i>, especially as the +famous Nimrod passed his time at the door of No. 12, under the pretext +that he was accustomed to the pure mountain air, and that he did not +wish any of the neighbors anxious to make inquiries about his terrible +profession, to have the trouble of asking for him. At one of these +hall-door entertainments one summer night, the handsome Nuñez saw and +captivated Mlle. Celestine Crepineau. Do not let any one fancy the +modest girl had given any encouragement to the stranger. They had +restricted themselves to glances, <i>double entendres</i>, and the +countless amiable pioneers of the army of Cupid. Mlle. Crepineau saw +the stranger come every day to assist her in opening the heavy door of +No. 13. Nuñez took charge of the watering pot of which the +commissaries are so fond, and dispersed an agreeable freshness in +front of the house during the warm hours of the day, to protect, he +said, the color and complexion of his mistress. Often Mlle. +Celestine's nerves were refreshed by a delicate perfume which strayed +through the bars of her lodge, and on inquiry saw a sprig of some +sweet and odorous plant which had been placed there by the Spaniard. +At last Mlle. Crepineau gave him permission to visit her. This was an +important favor, and was the passage of the rubicon. By doing so, +Celestine placed her reputation in the power of her evil-disposed +neighbors. She was, however, in love. "Besides," said she, with noble +pride, "my conscience sustains me, and envy will fall abashed before +the sacred torch of hymen." This <i>respectable</i> phrase was the last +remnant of the romances of Ducray-Dumenil, the first books Celestine +ever read when she was cook of the advocate her god-father.</p> + +<p>But this interesting love passion was suddenly brought to a close by a +very painful circumstance for the vanity of the young lady. Whether +Mlle. Crepineau had laced herself more tightly even than usual, or +that in aspirations after sylphic grace, she had been rather too +active when Señor Nuñez was by—she was seized one fine day with a +pain in the small of her back, translatable only by the word +rheumatism—a constant attendant of her delicate organization. A +forced construction was put on the pain—which became a cold or a +strain, but she had, in spite of the effort to get rid of it by an +<i>euphonism</i>, to go to bed. Then the devotion of the Spaniard became +heroic. He was unwilling that Mlle. Celestine should intrust any one +else with her daily occupation, and undertook to replace her in the +menage of Doctor Matheus. The proposition did not awaken much of the +doctor's gratitude; and though he accepted the substitute, he promised +to watch him very closely. One morning the doctor was forced to leave +very suddenly, just as the Spaniard was cleaning and dusting the +consultation room. Matheus had been sent for by the Duke d'Harcourt, +and apprehending some new indisposition of his young patient, Von +Apsberg, for the first time left the Señor Nuñez in his room.</p> + +<p>For a few moments, the Spaniard continued his occupation. When, +however, he saw the doctor leave, and from the window saw him turn +down the <i>rue de Bac</i>, he said, "Now what I have so long sought for is +in my grasp." Looking on every side of the room, lifting up the +papers, opening the portfolios and examining the furniture, he +discovered a secret drawer in a bureau, within which he found a key.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Here," said he, "is the key of the laboratory—of the mysterious room +in which I shall find all I need. This is it," said he, looking +anxiously at the key, "I know it by its shape." Hurrying to the third +floor of the house, he paused at the door. His hand trembled—the key +entered—turned—the wards moved, and the stranger entered the +laboratory.</p> + +<p>The table which, when we paid our first visit to Matheus, was covered +with maps, pamphlets, etc., now had nothing on it. "All is locked up," +said the man. "I have bad luck." He soon, however, aroused himself, +and taking a ball of wax from his pocket, and pointing to a massive +secretary, said, "There they are—there are their plans and papers, +their lists and names." Approaching the secretary again, he took an +exact impression of the lock, and also made a copy of the key of the +laboratory. He then uttered a cry of joy. "I have them all," said he. +"I am their master, and not one of the accursed Carbonari can escape +me." He then left the room as expeditiously as he had entered, went to +the first story, replaced the key where he had found it in the secret +drawer, and hurried to find Mlle. Celestine Crepineau, who had become +very uneasy about her lover.</p> + + +<h4>XVIII. RUIN.</h4> + +<p>A few days after the pretended bear-hunter, the handsome Spaniard, +adored by the amiable Mlle. Crepineau, had gone stealthily into the +studio of Dr. Matheus to obtain possession of the secrets of the +Carbonari, our three friends Taddeo Rovero, Von Apsberg, and the +Vicomte d'Harcourt, were at the Count's hotel. The house of +Monte-Leone was in Verneuil street. It was small, mysterious, and +recherché. The court-yard was of modest size, with turf in the centre, +and sanded walks around it. The steps had a balcony at the top and +several marble vases, from which grew geraniums in summer and heath in +the winter. It was a regular bachelor's house, having every thing +demanded by the exigencies of a tenant of that condition. It had all +the broad, tall, low, narrow, visible, and invisible doors, for +troublesome cases and exits, for the actors and actresses of the every +day drama of the life of a young, rich, and independent man. No love +drama was ever performed, though, on this theatre. One of another and +more brilliant kind was being prepared. He gave a dinner to young men, +a regular one, without a single woman. Men alone were welcomed by the +noble Amphytrion. The house was furnished as luxuriously as possible, +for only recently have people conceived the happy idea of making +dining-rooms comfortable. Of this our fathers were entirely ignorant. +Once people eat much or little, well or badly; they breakfasted, +dined, or took tea—that was all. They sat on straw or hair chairs; +they were warmed by bad stoves, the smell of which was intolerable; +the feet rested on marble blocks, bright, but cold as ice. Such was +the gastronomical trilogy of Parisians. The large hotels, and even the +smaller establishments of our renowned libertines had a more splendid +refectory, which, however, was not more favorable to the comfort of +the guests. The dark and rich tapestries which hung on the walls, the +marble on the floor, the pictures, though by Boucher or Watteau, were +artistic and costly, but nothing less than the eyes of La Guimard, the +lips of Sophie Arnould, those of La Maupin or La Duthé, could warm +those cold arenas, where Bernis, Larenaudie, Fronsac, Bouret, and +Beaujon sacrificed to Comus in the company of the Loves. Now all is +changed. Not only gastronomy, but the art of living well has been +discovered not to exist alone in wines and cookery, and it has become +a proverb, that "beans in china are better than truffles in +earthenware." In 1819 Count Monte-Leone had a presentiment of our +taste in 1848, and he was therefore spoken of as a foreign sybarite, +whose extravagant tastes never would be imitated. Though people +blamed, they envied, and <i>tried to imitate</i>.</p> + +<p>The dining-room of the Count, therefore, glittered with lights, and +around a table filled with the rarest glass, from which was exhaled +the perfume of a dinner fit for Lucullus, were about a dozen men, some +of whom, Matheus, Taddeo, and d'Harcourt, we know already. The others, +of whom we will hereafter speak more fully, were famous Carbonari, the +founders of the French order, General A...., the banker H...., Count +de Ch...., the merchant Ober, the <i>Avocat</i> C...., and the illustrious +Professor C.... Two of these gentlemen had come from Italy, and +brought to Monte-Leone new orders from the central Venta of Naples, +and also curious details about the progress or rather maturity of +Carbonarism in the Two Sicilies and the neighboring countries. It had +however been by common consent determined among the guests that none +of the grave secrets of the order should be revealed at their joyous +repast—that political questions should be postponed to more serious +conferences: not that the members were not satisfied of the prudence +of each other, but inquisitive ears hovered around this table, and +with the exception of those of the prudent old Giacomo none could be +trusted. There was especial reason for this, as vague rumors had for +some time made the Carbonari distrustful. It was said that the +Minister of Police had placed Count Monte-Leone under the strictest +surveillance in consequence of his previous history. The objects of +this dinner, which beyond doubt was subjected to some particular +notice, was to prove that all the persons assembled were men of +pleasure,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> and not agents of discord or conspirators.</p> + +<p>"To our host," said d'Harcourt, filling his glass, "to his loves and +conquests!"</p> + +<p>"You will get drunk," said one of the guests, "if you drink to all of +his conquests."</p> + +<p>"All calumny," said Matheus. "The conversion of St. Augustine is no +miracle since that of Monte-Leone. The gallant Italian is now a fresh +anchorite, avoiding the pomps of Satan and the opera in this +<i>Thebais</i>. With his friends he atones for past errors."</p> + +<p>"The fact is, no one knows any thing about the Count's amours," said +one of the guests.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said another, "that for one in society, as Monte-Leone +is, he makes bad use of his eyes. The very mention of his Neapolitan +adventures would turn the heads of ten Parisian women."</p> + +<p>"You are wrong, my dear B....," said the Count. "The women of Paris +are not so headlong as you think. They reason with their hearts, and +pay attention to convenances without regard to inclination. Besides, +the man they love occupies only the second place in their hearts. +<i>They</i> come first and <i>he</i> afterwards. Often, too, the toilette +occupies the second place with amusements and pleasures. They prefer +the attention of one to the love of all. <i>Liasons</i> in France are +elegant, <i>recherché</i>, and refined. They never violate good taste, and +even in their despair French women are charming. They quarrel behind a +fan, tear a bouquet to pieces, and shred the lace of a handkerchief. +They weep, and stop soon enough not to stain the eyes, and when they +have fainting-fits, are very careful not to disturb their curls. Great +suffering just stops short of a nervous attack, and fury never breaks +either china bracelets or jewelry, though it is merciless on lovers' +miniatures. Three months after, if the offended lady meet the +gentleman in a drawing-room, she will ask the person next her, 'Pray +tell me who that gentleman is, I think I have seen him somewhere.' In +Spain and Italy they avenge themselves, and do not pardon men who are +inconstant until they too are false. Woe to him whose love is the +first to end. He henceforth has but the storm and the thunder-bolt. +Hatred and vengeance—the first is found in France—women in Italy +kill. I tell you your countrywomen are not romantic, and suffer +themselves to be led astray only after due reflection."</p> + +<p>"Well, for my own part," said d'Harcourt to Monte-Leone, "I know a +woman who adores you in secret, who never speaks of you without +blushing, who looks down when your name is mentioned, and who looks up +when she sees you."</p> + +<p>Taddeo looked at the Vicomte with surprise. Two names occurred to him, +that of the Duchess, and yet of another person. Monte-Leone, like +Taddeo, was afraid that the young fool, whose greatest virtue was not +temperance, would be indiscreet.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said he, "the Vicomte is about to be stupid. In the name +of our friendship I beg him to be silent."</p> + +<p>"Bah, bah!" said d'Harcourt, becoming yet more excited, and draining +his glass of champagne, <i>in vino veritas</i>. "The proof of what I say is +that Monte-Leone is afraid. I shall name the victim of the passion he +has inspired. I wish to reinstate him in your eyes, for he has +represented himself as deserted and abandoned by the fair sex, when +one of the fairest adores him, and would sacrifice name and rank for +him."</p> + +<p>"Vicomte," said Monte-Leone, enraged and rising, "do not make me +forget my intimacy with you of five years' duration."</p> + +<p>"You will not forget it—you will like me all the better for what I am +about to say. Besides it is nothing but humanity. You would not let +the poor woman die when you can save her?"</p> + +<p>"Again I ask you to stop," said Monte-Leone.</p> + +<p>"You are too late," said the Vicomte, taking another glass of wine. "I +drink to the Attala, the Ariana, the Psyche of our illustrious host, +to a charming widow we all admire, to <i>Madame de Bruneval</i>."</p> + +<p>One shout of joy burst from all. Monte-Leone felt a burden of trouble +lifted from him, and Taddeo breathed more freely.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said Monte-Leone, resuming his <i>sangfroid</i>, "I protest +that I was not aware of the happiness with which I am menaced. Though +I do justice to the precious qualities of Mme. de Bruneval—to her +lofty virtue, with which all of you are familiar—I should be afraid +of following in the footsteps of the illustrious dead. Since, however, +the widow has been spoken of, I will propose a toast to the speedy +cure of her heart, provided I am not expected to become its surgeon."</p> + +<p>All drank; and amid the sound of their laughter, Giacomo entered, and +on a salver handed the Count a letter. "It is from Naples," said he; +and having opened, he read it. As he did so he grew pale.</p> + +<p>"Any bad news?" said Matheus.</p> + +<p>"No," said Monte-Leone, with an effort to restrain himself; "no, my +friends"—taking advantage of the temporary absence of the servants, +who had placed the dessert on the table, and who then retired, as is +the custom in all well regulated households—"No bad news to our +cause. This letter is on private business. I have another toast," said +he, in a lower tone. "To the brethren who are my guests to-day!"</p> + +<p>"To the absent!" said Taddeo.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said Dr. Matheus, looking uneasily around; "let us have +done with toasts. As a doctor, I may speak. Too many of this kind may +endanger <i>our lives</i>,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> added he, emphasizing the last words. "Let us +enjoy the pleasures heaven has granted us. Our first masters in good +cheer, the Greeks and Romans, surrounded their tables with flowers and +crowned their cups with roses. Let us laugh, then, my friends, at +fools, intriguers, and apostates. Let us laugh at each other, and +especially at unreasonable d'Harcourt, who can drown his own mind in a +single bottle of champagne, and which makes him about as sensible as a +fly."</p> + +<p>The sallies and follies of after dinner followed this pompous harangue +of Matheus. Had any one witnessed this scene, they would have fancied +the actors a party of young mousquetaires of the regency, rather than +conspirators who aspired to convulse the world. When the guests of +Monte-Leone were gone, and only d'Harcourt, Matheus, and Taddeo +remained, the Count took his dispatch out of his bosom, and bade the +latter read it. It was as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i18">"<span class="smcap">Naples</span>, September 10, 1819.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Count</span>:—I am sorry to inform you that the banker Antonio +Lamberti, to whom you had confided your fortune, and with +whom you bade me deposit the price of your palace, sold for +six hundred thousand francs, has failed, and fled with all +your fortune.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i18">"Your respectful attorney,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i18">"<span class="smcap">Guiseppe Farnucci</span>."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +</div> + +<p>The three friends embraced Monte-Leone, and Von Apsberg said, "You +knew this, yet could share our gayety. Did you not say yourself +laughter is as necessary for digestion as it is to the heart?"</p> + +<p>"I fulfilled my duties of host to the letter. I needed all my courage, +though, having lost more than my fortune—my happiness. The morning's +papers will announce the failure of Antonio Lamberti, and all Paris +will know of the ruin of the brilliant Count Monte-Leone."</p> + +<p>With fortune, the Count had also lost the hope of happiness. The +widowhood of the Marquise de Maulear had revived all his hopes, as La +Felina had foreseen, and his rank and title enabled him again to +aspire to Aminta's hand. All this prospect his misfortune annihilated. +What had he to offer now to Aminta? The name, the eclat of which he +could sustain no longer—an existence endangered by a political plot, +the triumph of which was far from certain—sumptuous tastes, which he +would not be permitted to gratify—privations, especially cruel as +they would follow closely on luxury and opulence, of which he had, so +to say, built himself a temple.</p> + +<p>Ten months had passed by since the Marquis's death, and the grief of +his widow had been most sincere. Though Aminta had never entertained a +very profound love for her husband, she had been much attached to him +from a reason common enough: she was strong and he unusually weak. +When, therefore, a terrible vice had seized on him, and sought, as it +were, to wrest him from her arms, not a reproach had been uttered by +Aminta against the sacrifice of her money and his neglect to an +ignoble propensity. She forgave the gamester who was faithful to her, +and had wept over him when she would have had no tears for the +unfaithful husband. This soul so full of love was not slumbering in +the arms of marriage. The energetical character which Aminta had often +exhibited would, had it found traits of manhood properly expanded in +her husband, have possibly modified her feelings, if he had possessed +that burning imagination, that secret imagination which creates deep +love, and for which too she seemed to have been created. She might +have said this. She was too chaste to do so. Yet sometimes, in her +long and dreamy solitudes, an image rose before her, especially when +her husband was away. She dreamed of an exalted love, full of ardor +and devotion, indomitable courage, sacrifice of life to duty, a noble +and generous soul, which divined her own, and linked itself to it. All +this assumed the form of the man she had rejected, of whom she had +been afraid, and for her ingratitude to whom she now blushed.</p> + +<p>The Count had been received by Aminta, in the early months of her +widowhood, but he had refrained, from respectful motives, to allude to +his feelings. His visits to the Marquise were short and ceremonious, +feeling that love should not be veiled by the crape of mourning. Like +the Prince de Maulear, and all Paris in fact, Aminta had heard of the +Count's misfortune, and the blow made a deep impression on her. The +absence of the Count became prolonged. He had not visited her since +his misfortune, and she could not but feel a deep interest for him to +whom fate reserved such severe trials. One evening, when she was more +melancholy than usual, and sat in the saloon with her head leaning on +her hand, and dreaming over the incidents of her life in which +Monte-Leone had figured, she thought without remorse of scenes it had +been once her duty to forget. A stifled sigh escaped from her bosom, +and a kind of moan near her induced her to shake off her reverie. She +saw Scorpione lying at her feet as he used to, and looking fixedly and +sadly at her.</p> + +<p>Tonio, whom, like the children of Sorrento, we have often called +Scorpione, after having wandered along the sea-shore at the time of +Aminta's marriage, had been found exhausted on the sands, and been +taken to Signora Rovero, on the very day that Aminta set out for +France. Since then, vegetating rather than living with the mother of +Aminta, Signora Rovero was unwilling to trust her daughter's preserver +to servants, when she heard of the death of her son-in-law. Signora +Rovero had such delicate health as to be unable to bear the climate of +Paris, and had six months before returned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> to Italy; but Tonio was +unwilling to leave her, and yielding to his mute prayers, Aminta had +consented for him to remain, for his sufferings to save her had made a +deep impression on her. Tonio was in fact but the shadow of himself, +the soul alone seeming to support him. Even his soul was changed. +Fearful and timid when with Aminta, the passion the unfortunate boy +had once experienced for her became humble and respectful submission. +His very mind became extinct; and the only glimmerings of it now +seemed to be a kind of instinctive sympathy with his mistress. He +smiled when the Marquise did, and that was but rarely. He wept when +tears hung on her eyelids. When he looked as we have described at +Aminta, her sadness was perfectly mirrored on his face. Scorpione was, +in fact, less than man, and more than a brute—he was an idiot.</p> + +<p>"You suffer, because I suffer," said Aminta.</p> + +<p>He replied, "Yes."</p> + +<p>By one of those ideas which take possession of the time, but which it +shrinks to confess, she said in a weak and almost tender voice to the +idiot, as children do to toys, "If I were happy, would you be?" +Scorpione looked fixedly at her, as if trying to understand her; and +she added, "If any one loved me, and I loved him also, would you wish +me to be happy?" blushing as she spoke.</p> + +<p>Heavy tears rolled down his cheeks, and he said, taking Aminta's hand, +"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" said she, with tears also, "once he loved me for his own +sake—now he loves me for my own."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the idiot, hiding his face with his hands.</p> + +<p>Just then the Prince de Maulear was announced.</p> + + +<h4>XVIII. THE KING.</h4> + +<p>The Prince adored his daughter-in-law, and with tears in his eyes he +besought Signora Rovero not to take her from him. "Remember," said he, +"that I am old, and have but a few years more to live before I reach +the end of my journey, to which the death of my unfortunate son has +brought me years nearer. Do not, Signora, deprive me of the only being +I love on earth. Make this sacrifice to Rovero's friend. In his name I +ask you to do so. Have a little patience with the old man, and let +Aminta close his eyes. I will soon restore her to you."</p> + +<p>The mother made this sacrifice to the broken-hearted father, who +almost on his knees besought her to give him her daughter to replace +his lost son. In his suffering the Prince seemed to become doubly fond +of the young woman. Her own father could not have been more anxious to +spare her pain and to satisfy her least desires.</p> + +<p>"She is my Antigone," said he, proudly, to all who met him leaning on +the Marquise's arm. "I am, though, happier than Œdipus, for I can +look at and admire her."</p> + +<p>"When the Prince came into the drawing-room of his daughter he seemed +excited. The Marquise bade Scorpione leave her, and the idiot crawled +rather than walked to the door, through which he disappeared; not, +however, until he had cast one glance on the young woman, as if to +become satisfied that her features expressed neither menace nor anger.</p> + +<p>"Good and kind as ever," said the Prince to Aminta; "you certainly +appear to advantage with that hideous and deformed being. No one but a +person generous as you are would keep so awful a being by you."</p> + +<p>"To do so, father, I need only appeal to memory, and that will aid me. +I cannot forget that I am indebted to him for my life, and above all, +for the boon of being loved by you."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said the Prince, "I know all that; but you might take +care of and watch over him, and make his life pleasant, without +keeping him ever before you. I, who am not at all timid, assure you +that I never see him without apprehension at your feet, hugging the +fire like a serpent to quicken the icy blood in his veins."</p> + +<p>"I will send him away if you wish me to."</p> + +<p>"I wish you to do as you please. That you know well enough, my child. +Keep the Scorpione, as you sometimes call him, and nurse up any +horrible monster you please besides, and I will think it charming, or +at least will not reproach you. My dear child, I have few amusements +for you, and now your life must be sad indeed."</p> + +<p>"No, no! dear father, I do not complain. The hotel is only sad when +you are not here."</p> + +<p>"Alas!" said the Prince, "there can be found but little interest in +one as old as I am, and so unhappy too. Listen to me, Aminta, it is +cruel to make children die before their parents. It reverses the order +of nature to see the flower wither while the parent stem is green. I +spoke to you of fate, because I was unwilling to mention God. Grief +makes us pious. I dare not object to your decrees."</p> + +<p>"Have you not yet a daughter?" said Aminta, passing her arm around the +Prince's neck; "have you not a daughter who loves you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, <i>my daughter</i>." The Prince laid an emphasis on the last +word. "You are now my only child, and I wish to secure your happiness; +and for that purpose will consecrate to you the remnant of my life. +Yet I do not know what to do."</p> + +<p>The young woman blushed—for perhaps she could have made a suggestion. +The Prince, though, did not remark it, and continued:</p> + +<p>"Our life is sadder even than it was. The friends of this world are +like bees who hover only around flowers when they bloom, and scorn +those which begin to wither. They avoid this house—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<p>"All friends do not act thus," said Aminta, concealing her emotion; +"one of them, one who pleases you most, whom you love, Signor +Monte-Leone, often comes hither to see you alone—"</p> + +<p>"To see me?" said the Prince, looking shrewdly at his daughter-in-law; +"perhaps he comes to see you. Since, however, his misfortune, the +Count never comes near us. Perhaps he judges us incorrectly. He may +have fancied the loss of fortune involved the sacrifice of our +friendship. It is a bad judgment, and I say it with regret, of a bad +heart."</p> + +<p>"Ah father," said Aminta, "the Count must have had another reason to +keep him away."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said M. de Maulear, "but these reasons have not kept him +from seeing me. During the last fortnight, I have been ten times to +his house. I am, however, glad he has acted thus, for his conduct will +diminish my sorrow at his departure—"</p> + +<p>"His departure?" said Aminta, unable to restrain an expression of +surprise.</p> + +<p>"His departure for Italy," said the Prince; "he was ordered this +morning, by the French government, to leave France within twenty-four +hours."</p> + +<p>"And why?" said Aminta.</p> + +<p>"He is accused," said Maulear, "of being concerned in some conspiracy +contrary to the safety of the country."</p> + +<p>"Ah, my God!" said the young woman, "then he is exiled and expelled +from the kingdom."</p> + +<p>"Decidedly; and he is forbidden ever to return."</p> + +<p>Aminta, as she heard these words, felt as if her heart would burst. +The Prince saw her agitation.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter my child?" said he. "Why are you so sad?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, nothing, but a nervous attack, to which I am used."</p> + +<p>Maulear looked at the Marquise for a few moments, and then said: "My +child, there is no true love without confidence. My love gives me +sacred rights over you. Do not be afraid to confide in me. Let not +even the memory of the departed restrain you. You are twenty years of +age; and your life has not approached its end. I am now about to tell +you what I have often intended to: your happiness is the main object +of my life, and never forget that, whatever may be your name, I shall +always look on you as a daughter!"</p> + +<p>Aminta threw herself into the Prince's arms and hid there her tears of +gratitude and her blushes. De Maulear took his beautiful +daughter-in-law on his knee, as he would have taken a child, and then +lifting up Aminta's head with exquisite kindness, said: "Does he love +you?"</p> + +<p>"He did before I was married," said the young woman, looking down.</p> + +<p>"And since then?"</p> + +<p>"He has never spoken of love."</p> + +<p>"He should not have done so," said the Prince; "often, though, the +eyes say such things; and his, probably, are not inexpressive."</p> + +<p>Aminta did not reply.</p> + +<p>"All is clear," said the Prince; "the Count avoids us from a sentiment +of delicacy which does him honor. He has no longer reason to hope, +being ruined, for what, when rich, he would have given his life and +fortune."</p> + +<p>"He will go," said Aminta faintly.</p> + +<p>"He will not, he shall not go. This conspiracy is, after all, only one +of the phantoms ever arising before a terrified government. If the +really revolutionary mind of Count Monte-Leone has involved him, I +will promise to make him listen to reason, especially if you will aid +me—as for this order to leave so abruptly, I hope my arm is long +enough to interpose."</p> + +<p>"What then will you do?" asked Aminta, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"<i>Parbleu!</i> I will go to the King himself—not to the ministers, but +to the <span class="smcap">King</span>—to GOD, not to the saints. Mind, for the proverb's sake +alone I apply that word to those gentry. The King is an old friend, a +brother in exile. I never asked a favor of him, though he has often +asked me to do so. We will see if he will refuse me."</p> + +<p>"But," said Aminta, "time is short."</p> + +<p>"Then," said the Prince, "to-morrow morning I will go to the +Tuileries, and we will see what the minister will say when he hears +Louis XVIII. say, <i>I will!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Think you he will say so?"</p> + +<p>"He must," said the Prince, kissing her; "for you and I say, <i>we +will</i>. What a woman wills——To-morrow you shall have good news." He +went away....</p> + +<p>At that time the appearance of the Tuileries was very imposing. To the +forms of the empire had succeeded the more luxurious and aristocratic +ones of the restoration.</p> + +<p>The stern military garb of the Imperial Guard, and of the Dragoons of +the Empress, was replaced by the brilliant uniforms of the King's +body-guards, of the <i>hundred Swiss</i>, an old name now replaced by the +almost grotesque appellation of the <i>Gardes à pied ordinaires du corps +du roi</i>, a species of giants, commanded by the Count of Tisseuil, a +person only about four feet high, but an excellent soldier for all +that. Then came the Swiss, the Royal guard, and on days of public +ceremonies, the <i>Gardes de la Manche</i>, whose duty had special relation +to the religious ceremonies of the chapel of the palace. The reception +rooms, the great gallery, the hall of the marshals, glittered with +embroidered dresses, <i>cordons</i>, collars and orders of every kind, both +French and foreign. There were the stars of the empire—those of the +monarchy—Russian, English, Austrian, Italian—the stars of all +Europe. A large portion of the continent was in Paris. This portion +was the most brilliant of all; for having tasted of Parisian +refinement it was not at all anxious to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> return home. His majesty +Louis XVIII., dressed in blue and wearing the royal cordon of the +Saint Esprit, with his hair <i>a l'oisseu-royal</i>, and his legs hidden in +broad pantaloons, which concealed their size, with his feet in shoes +of buckskin, and pleasant and agreeable as ever, had been rolled by +his footman from the room where he breakfasted, to his study. MM. de +Blacas, d'Escars, and de Damas, his gentlemen in waiting, and many +courtiers, had followed his majesty's chair to the very door of his +study, where they paused. Then the human horses, who dragged the +chair, having turned him around <i>on his own pivot</i>, bore him into the +recesses of the room. The object of the manœuvre we have described +was to place the King vis-a-vis to his courtiers, to whom he bowed +graciously. This was a signal for them to leave. The doors then closed +with not a little noise, and this was all the public knew of royal +life. Private matters, interviews with the ministers, audiences, had +particular modes of entrance leading to the King's rooms and office. +The latter was the sanctuary of royal thought, where great and petty +acts were consummated, and where many confessions and audiences had +been heard and given. There this literary King, better educated than +half of his academy, had made commentaries on many learned Latins, +especially on Horace. The King appropriated several hours of every day +to study. To derange the distribution of this time, to take him from +Juvenal, Tacitus, or Cicero, to discuss a plan of Villèle or Angles, +was almost high treason. One person alone dared to do this, and this +person was above law. The reason was, he was more powerful than the +King, having even majesty in subjection. The name of this man was +Father Elysée. It was his business to keep the King alive. This was, +as will be seen, a very important matter.</p> + +<p>This man went into the King's room without notice, and without even +tapping at his door. He did so, by virtue of the sovereign power of +the patient over the invalid—by virtue of science over suffering +humanity. The King, however, sometimes used to say, when Elysée made a +very <i>brusque</i> entrance: "<i>I only wish one thing, that disease may not +break in on me brusquely as you do</i>."</p> + +<p>As a fine and acute courtier, as an old slouth-hound of the palace +with a keen scent, the Prince de Maulear went to Father Elysée for the +purpose of obtaining a speedy audience.</p> + +<p>"Is it you?" said the King, behind whom opened a door looking into the +reception room.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the doctor, "I wish your majesty would not pay too much +attention to your Latin and study. Nothing injures the digestive +organs like study, especially after meals. Mind and matter then +contend, and the body is almost always overcome."</p> + +<p>"If I had to do only with my old friends, Horace and Petronius," said +the King, "my digestion would be all right. Unfortunately I have found +a few modern subjects well calculated to annoy Master Gaster—for the +vermin of Juvenal and Persius would be honey of Hymethus compared with +the bile of the books I speak of—"</p> + +<p>The King pointed out to the doctor a few open pamphlets which lay +about the table.</p> + +<p>"<i>Norman Letters. The Man in the Grey Coat</i>—<span class="smcap">Minerva</span>," said the +doctor, looking at them; "who dared to bring these books hither?"</p> + +<p>"My majesty dared. I am as good a doctor as you are, but I have more +patients. I have a whole nation to cure, and to administer a tonic we +must at least be aware of the debility. Look hither," said the King, +"here is an antidote to poison. <i>The Conservative</i>, edited by the most +learned doctors of the political faculty—by de Chateaubriand, de +Bonald, de Villèle, Fiévée. Castelbajac, and a certain Abbé de +Lamennais, an eloquent, sharp, and able man, I am sure, who has, +though, one fault, he is a greater royalist than his King."</p> + +<p>"And may I venture to ask your majesty how the works of Etienne, Jay, +Jony and company, came hither?"</p> + +<p>"Smuggled in," said Louis XVIII., with a smile; "F——, one of my +<i>valets de chambre</i>, whom I have placed at the head of what I call my +secret ministry, brings them to me. The fellow has taste. He said to +me the other day: '<i>I have something devilish good here. The +scoundrels do not spare your majesty</i>.' But," continued the King, "no +man can be great to his valet or his physician, and I will therefore +confess that the works of these liberal gentlemen trouble my digestion +not a little, and I wish my good friend the Duke d'Escars to bring me +back that <i>purée de cailles truffées</i>, of which he is the inventor. He +is the Prince of Gourmands."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Père Elysée, glad to be able thus to pass to the +principal object of his visit, "I am just in time to amuse your +majesty, and to announce the visit of one of your best friends—the +Prince de Maulear."</p> + +<p>"Just in time," said the King; "he is a gentleman of the old school, +and has chosen <i>for fifty years</i> to be such. He yet believes in a King +of France, fully, perhaps more fully, than he does in God. He is a +true enemy of the Jacobins and Revolutionists. Tell him to come in, +doctor, and we will be able to bear up against the attacks of the +authors of those books."</p> + +<p>The doctor soon brought the Prince de Maulear, and then left.</p> + +<p>"Come in, my dear Prince," said the King; "you do not spoil your +friends, and I see you too rarely, as I see others too frequently, to +be able to forget you."</p> + +<p>Kings, however unpleasant they may be, have this analogy with the sun, +all come to warm themselves by his rays.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I thank your majesty for your kind reception."</p> + +<p>"You were my friend and shared my exile."</p> + +<p>"It was a sad season," said the Prince, sitting on the chair the King +pushed towards him.</p> + +<p>"Not so, Prince; then we had no cares and no enemies, above all we had +no court. We were independent, calm, and happy."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you had health, but you had no crown."</p> + +<p>"Think you that a great misfortune?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not to your majesty, but it was to France."</p> + +<p>"How? Does our friend the Prince de Maulear, contrary to every +expectation, become a flatterer in his old age? In what part of the +Tuileries did he contract that disease? Listen, my dear de Maulear. +You as well as I know that <i>love of France</i> is but a word. Once in +France, people loved the King—now, though, France above all other +things loves itself. This love is, if you please, egotistical, but +after all it is the only real positive good in this selfish age. Mind +I speak only of the owners, and therefore conservatives of the +kingdom. The other portion of the kingdom, anxious at any risk to +acquire, estimates the country cheaply. A few faithful hearts who +welcomed me as a Messiah expected for twenty years, true and noble +believers, looked on my return as the realization of their long and +secret hopes. To the majority of my people the Bourbon lily has been +only the olive-branch of peace purchased by twenty years of war. This +peace I would not have brought back by the bayonets of the Austrians +and Russians. But God, Buonaparte, and the Allies, so willed it. You +see, my dear Prince, that I am not mistaken in relation to my +subjects' love, and that the gems of a crown do not conceal its +thorns."</p> + +<p>"The King," said M. de Maulear, "at least deigns to reckon me among +the faithful subjects of whom he spoke just now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," said the King, "among the most faithful and most +disinterested. When I came back, there was established a very +partition of offices and places, or honors, titles, crosses and stars, +in which you took no part. Now you know you are one of those to whom I +could refuse nothing."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Prince, "your majesty gives me courage to make one +request, to obtain which I come hither."</p> + +<p>"Bah!" said the King, "speak out my old friend, if the matter depends +on me—"</p> + +<p>"Cannot the King do any thing?" said the Prince.</p> + +<p>"The King can do very little," said Louis XVIII.</p> + +<p>"When your majesty says 'I will—'"</p> + +<p>"Others say, 'We will not.'"</p> + +<p>"Who will dare to use such language?"</p> + +<p>"The true Kings of France—the ministers—for they are responsible +while I am not. To tell the fact, though, I have credit with them and +will use it—"</p> + +<p>"Yet the King is King," said the Prince.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Prince!" said Louis XVIII, "I see plainly enough that you do not +read my books. What could you say worse to an author? Open the charter +and look—here it is: '<i>He reigns, but does not govern</i>.' This is my +Bible, my code—and I can accuse no one but myself, if I do sigh +sometimes. For all this emanates from me, and was conceived and +written by my own hand. Unfortunately," said he, with bitterness, "in +France every thing is interpreted literally."</p> + +<p>"The favor I ask your majesty to grant me will I hope be within your +reserved powers. Count Monte-Leone, a noble Neapolitan of my +acquaintance, has been accused, beyond doubt unjustly, of political +plots, and been abruptly ordered to leave France. I come to ask the +king to remit this mortification."</p> + +<p>"Ah, ah!" said Louis XVIII, gravely, "an anarchist. This is serious, +very serious. Perhaps the safety of the monarchy depends on this, as +the <i>Timid</i><a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> say. My dear brother retails a conspiracy a day to me; +perhaps, after all, he is not far wrong. I will see, Prince. I will +examine and consult a very important personage, without whom I cannot +act."</p> + +<p>"Will his Majesty," said the usher, who had just arrived, "receive the +prime minister?"</p> + +<p>"Exactly," said the King, "that is the person of whom I spoke."</p> + +<p>"Go in there," said the King to the Prince, pointing to the +waiting-room. "You shall have my, or rather his, answer, in a quarter +of an hour. The result though will be the same."</p> + +<p>The Prince obeyed, and his excellency the prime minister was received.</p> + + +<h4>XIX. A REVELATION.</h4> + +<p>The audience the King gave his prime minister lasted nearly an hour. +M. de Maulear began to grow impatient at his long delay, when the +usher came to tell him the King waited for him....</p> + +<p>When the Prince entered, Louis XVIII. had a smile on his lips. A +skilful observer of countenances would however have remarked a shade +of malice.</p> + +<p>"You are then very fond of Count Monte-Leone?" said the King to the +Prince, again telling him to be seated.</p> + +<p>"Very, Sire," said the Prince. "Signor Monte-Leone is really a +nobleman, with old blood, a kind heart, brilliant mind, and elegant +manners. One of a race now rare. If your Majesty would but permit me +to present him to you—"</p> + +<p>"No, no," said the King; "I had rather not. Besides," continued he, +"with his reputation as a dreamer and a revolutionist, as an enemy of +our cousin Fernando of Naples—"</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> +<p>"The Count is in the way of conversion, Sire; and if the important +person to whom your Majesty yields will suffer us to keep the Count in +Paris, I am sure we will soon be able to restore him to favor."</p> + +<p>"The <i>important person</i>," said Louis, with a smile, "was very much +inclined to send your dear friend to his own country. New information +in relation to this honorable and loyal noble," continued the King, +"has completely changed the intentions entertained in relation to +him."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," said the Prince, with delight; "and will your Majesty deign +to tell me what this information is?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, my dear friend. This is strictly a political question, which +cannot be divulged. One thing is certain, the Italian is no longer our +enemy, but is devoted to us. He is a lamb in a lion's hide. Not only +will we keep him in France, but will grant him immunity for all he may +do in future and has done as yet. Thus you see," said the King, "I +have done more than you asked."</p> + +<p>"Such kindness," said the Prince, "overwhelms me with pleasure and +gratitude."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Prince," said the King, ironically, "how you love your friends! +Yet distrust your heart in relation to these Italians. They are +cunning, and sometimes treacherous, but always mild and winning, so as +to lead astray our French honesty. They do not wear at their belt +their most dangerous stiletto, but have another between their jaws +which is often poisoned. God keep me from saying this of your dear +Count. I would not hurt him at all, but on the other hand wish him to +be well received and to be honored every where. This advice, however, +I wish you to consider general, and not with reference to any +particular case."</p> + +<p>"Count Monte-Leone," continued the Prince, "is worthy of your +Majesty's kindest wishes. He has only the noble qualities of his +nation, energy, enthusiasm, and courage. His is an exalted mind, which +a cruel family sorrow may for a time have led astray, but I will +answer for him as I would for myself."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the King, "that is indeed saying much."</p> + +<p>"Not enough for his merit. I would be proud if I resembled him."</p> + +<p>At this the King could not repress his laughter, and the Prince looked +at him with surprise, and almost with anger. The King soon resumed. +"Excuse me, Prince, but you exhibited so extravagant an anxiety—no, +no, virtuous as Monte-Leone may be, I like you as you are. Do not +therefore envy his devotion, great as that may be to us. I like yours +best."</p> + +<p>"I will then tell the Count," said the Prince, "the favor your Majesty +has deigned to grant him."</p> + +<p>"No, no—not I. With affairs of that kind I have nothing to do. I +leave that honor to the minister. Adieu, Prince," said he, "and come +soon to see me again. Then ask something of me which may be worth +granting." The Prince bowed respectfully, and left.</p> + +<p>"Excellent man," said Louis XVIII., as he left. "He would have been +surprised had I told him.... That Italian has bewitched him...."</p> + +<p>On the evening before the day on which this scene took place, a man +wrote in his office by the light of a shaded lamp, which made every +thing but half visible. It was ten o'clock. A door opened, and an +officer of one of the courts appeared. M. H...., the chief of the +political police of whom we have already spoken, lifted up his head.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter? and who is now come to interrupt me?" said he, +with marked ill-humor.</p> + +<p>The officer who had come in, and who was a <i>Huissier</i>, said, "'The +Stranger,' and as Monsieur receives him always—"</p> + +<p>"Let him come in," said M. H...., eagerly. "You were right to announce +him."</p> + +<p>The person whom we have previously seen with a mask at the house of M. +H...., entered, and looked carefully around to see that he was with +the Chief of Police alone. Many months had passed, and all we have +described had taken place. For since then, we have gone, like a sound +logician, backwards, in order to expose our <i>data</i> distinctly before +we proceed to define their consequences. Now the first appearance of +the masked man in the cabinet of M. H.... coincided with the painful +scene in which Taddeo Rovero had crushed the hopes of the Duchess of +Palma by revealing to her the probability of the marriage of +Monte-Leone and Aminta.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur," said the stranger to M. H...., "have I kept my promise?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said H....</p> + +<p>"Have I unfolded the plot of Carbonarism?"</p> + +<p>"You have satisfied me of the existence of the French Venta, and of +their identity with those of Italy and Spain. We have written to the +police of those nations, and all was discovered to be exact, so that +in a few days the governments of those countries will have acted."</p> + +<p>"Have I named you the chief Carbonari in Paris?"</p> + +<p>"You have."</p> + +<p>"Have I given you their secret notes and books?"</p> + +<p>"In relation to that, I am but partially satisfied, but I do not need +the copies but the documents themselves, in the handwriting of their +authors."</p> + +<p>"You will have them—but there is an Italian proverb, <i>Chi va piano, +va sano! e chi va sano, va lontano</i>. I told you the fruit was not yet +ripe. I think, however, the time is approaching to gather it, and in a +month I will—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But," said H...., "does not this delay endanger all? May they not +act, while we pause?"</p> + +<p>"Do you wish to know by your own observation who are the +conspirators?" said the stranger.</p> + +<p>"I do," said H....</p> + +<p>"Do you wish to see—to hear them?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and to arrest them."</p> + +<p>"Not yet—it is too soon. While your fowlers entrapped a few +fledgelings the rest of the covey would escape."</p> + +<p>"How can I see and hear them?"</p> + +<p>"I alone can enable you to do so, or rather not I, but the person +whose agent I am."</p> + +<p>"And when?" said M. H...., impatiently.</p> + +<p>"In three days. It is, however, first necessary to repair a grave +error which endangers all our hopes."</p> + +<p>"What fault?"</p> + +<p>"The Minister of the Interior," continued the man, "has ordered three +foreigners, a German, a Spaniard, and an Italian, to leave France. +Those persons are Dr. Spellman of Berlin, the Duke D.... of Madrid, +and Count Monte-Leone of Naples."</p> + +<p>"True," said M. H.... "This is at the request of the ministers of +those three nations."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the mysterious man, "it must be at once revoked."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because, if one of these men leave Paris, you have nothing to expect +from me."</p> + +<p>"What say you?" asked H...., with surprise.</p> + +<p>"I am," said the stranger, in a low tone, "as I told you, the agent of +one of those strangers. In his name alone I can tell you what you are +so anxious to know—without him I can do nothing. The elevated +position of this man, his rank, his connection with Carbonarism, +enable him to hear and know all. Without him I am reduced to silence +and inertness; for I repeat to you, that he is the thought of which I +am the action. Destroy him, and the other is valueless, and you return +to ignorance—become especially dangerous as the time approaches for +the mine to explode beneath your feet and those of the French +monarchy."</p> + +<p>"Why not name that man? why does he not name himself?"</p> + +<p>"Because he wishes to preserve his reputation—because he would rather +die than avow his services."</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed!" said H.... "The matter is difficult. The minister will +not revoke these orders: for, while one of the men ceases to be an +enemy of the country, the other two yet are."</p> + +<p>"More than two—twenty of the most powerful, and two hundred thousand +others to follow them."</p> + +<p>"But what interest," asked M. H...., who hoped to arrive by a round +about way at a discovery of the one of the three, the presence of whom +was so necessary at Paris. "What reason can your <i>patron</i> have to +serve us, if he asks for neither gold, place, nor favor?"</p> + +<p>"A far deeper interest than any of them. That I can confide to +you—revenge."</p> + +<p>"On whom?"</p> + +<p>"His associates—ungrateful men, who have humiliated him in his +self-esteem."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"That is my secret and his."</p> + +<p>"Well," said H...., "I can understand that. Hatred and revenge make as +many informers as cupidity. Our criminal archives prove that."</p> + +<p>"Well, to the purpose."</p> + +<p>"All three will leave Paris to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Then with one of them will go the safety of France. His name must be +a mystery. Revoke the orders, so that our man may remain, unless you +prefer by their departure to break the only thread to guide you in +this inextricable labyrinth."</p> + +<p>"But you are here," said H...., unable to repress his anger, and +wearied of the bravado and menaces of the man. "What can be obtained +neither by money nor by persuasion, is often to be had by rigor."</p> + +<p>"Very well, Monsieur," said the stranger. "I forgot I was in a country +of treason, and you forget that you swore to use neither violence nor +trickery. You can act as you please. I will however tell you what will +be the result of your investigations. I am an humble man, and belong +to my employer as the body does to the soul, as the hand does to the +arm. It will be useless to follow me, for I have no objection to tell +you whither I go. You may inquire into my past life; that will be +vain, for I will tell you all. You may inquire into my resources, but +you will lose your time, for I will satisfy you myself. There, +however, you will lose your guide—all else will be a mystery to you, +my relations with this man being of such a nature that God alone knows +them. They can be penetrated only by my consent."</p> + +<p>"Listen to me," said M. H...., changing his tone: "I was wrong—I was +wrong to menace you, for I am weak, and you are strong. I have +nothing, and you have every thing. I have only control of a few people +whom I suspect, unauthenticated documents, and mere suspicions. In a +time when party spirit runs as high as it does now, after the too +frequent mistakes of our police, we must act on facts and evidence. I +see that I need you. My power, however, gives way to that of another, +and the minister alone can revoke the order of expulsion. Perhaps I +may be able to cause him to revoke it, but I must enforce that demand +by a serious motive, and must satisfy him of the necessity of +resisting the demands of the allied sovereigns, and of keeping two +dangerous men in Paris as the price of one useful one. I now +understand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> the meaning of the mystery which surrounds your patron, +and to prevent suspicion there must be three pardons. Give me then an +argument which cannot be contradicted. Give me the name which you now +keep secret. You know that I have kept my first oath with you, and I +swear the minister alone shall be informed of the secret."</p> + +<p>As he listened to M. H..., the stranger thought profoundly. He then +seemed to adopt an energetic resolution, and uttered these strange +words—"True, the higher the eminence from which a body falls, the +more crushing the blow."</p> + +<p>"What do you say?" said H...</p> + +<p>"That your idea is correct, and changes my plan. When I came hither, I +thought your will alone could correct the mistake which has been made. +I now see it cannot, and have made up my mind. Sit there," said he to +H...., who was astonished at his unceremonious tone, "sit there." He +pointed out an arm-chair before the desk.</p> + +<p>"What do you want now?" said H....</p> + +<p>"What the favor you have asked from me authorizes me to demand. An +arm," said he, "the blows of which cannot be parried. I wish you to +sign me a letter of mark or a pass, as you please to call it, which +permits those whom you employ to pass without disturbance."</p> + +<p>"Beautiful!" said M. H...., with a smile; "now I understand you."</p> + +<p>He wrote: "I recognize as a member of my police, employed by me, +Monsieur...." He paused, and looked anxiously at the stranger. The +latter leaned towards the Chief of Police, and in so low a tone that +H.... could scarcely hear him, uttered a name which made the latter +drop his pen. He however rallied himself, and wrote down the name. +This document he afterwards authenticated by the seal of the police, +and gave to the stranger.</p> + +<p>"This is well," said the latter, as he received it. "Now be quick, for +time presses, and the three persons will in a few hours have left +Paris."...</p> + +<p>When the man had left, and was alone, an atrocious smile appeared on +his lips. This smile, however, was interrupted by an acute pain in his +left arm. Then taking the paper which H.... had given him, he placed +it on the wound, and said, "This is a cure for a wound I thought +incurable—for steel and poison."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<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> Continued from page 504, vol. iii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> At this time one or the ultra-royalist factions, called +<i>Les Timides</i>.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Fraser's Magazine.</h4> +<h2>A TROT ON THE ISLAND.</h2> + + +<h3>BY CHARLES ASTOR BRISTED.</h3> + + +<p>Ashburner did leave Oldport, after all, before the end of the season, +being persuaded to accompany a countryman and schoolmate of his (whom +he had last seen two years before in Connaught, and who now happened +to pass a day at Oldport, on his way Canada-ward from the south) in a +trip to the White Mountains of New-Hampshire; though his American +acquaintances, especially the ladies, tried hard to dissuade him from +starting before the grand fancy ball, with which the season +terminated, assuring him that most of "our set" would come back, if +only for that one night, and that it would be a very splendid affair, +and so forth. Nature had more charms for him than art, and he went +away to New Hampshire, making an appointment with Benson by letter to +meet him at Ravenswood early in September. But a traveller cannot make +sure of his movements a fortnight ahead. On his return from the White +Mountains, Ashburner had his pocket picked at a railway station (these +little incidents of highly civilized life are beginning to happen now +and then in America. The inhabitants repudiate any native agency +therein, and attribute them all to the swell-mob emigrants from +England), and, in consequence, was obliged to retrace his steps as far +as New-York to visit his banker. Almost the first person he ran +against in the street was Harry Benson.</p> + +<p>"This <i>is</i> an unexpected pleasure!" exclaimed the New-Yorker. "I never +thought to see you here, and you, I presume didn't expect to see me." +Ashburner explained his mishap. "Well, I meant to go straight over to +Ravenswood after the ball, but we had to come home—all of us this +time—on business. Lots of French furniture arrived for our town +house. Mrs. B. couldn't rest till she had seen it all herself, and had +it properly arranged. So here have I been five days, fussing, and +paying, and swearing (legally, you understand, not profanely) at the +custom-house, and then 'hazing'—what you call slanging upholsterers; +and now that the work is all over, I mean to take a little play, and +am just going over to see Lady Suffolk and Trustee trot on the island. +Come along. It's a beautiful drive of eight miles, and I have a +top-wagon. It is to meet me at the Park in a quarter of an hour." +Ashburner assented. "I want to buy some cigars; you have no objection +to accompany me a moment."</p> + +<p>So they turned down one of the cross-streets running out of the lower +part of Broadway (which, it may be here mentioned, for the benefit of +English readers and writers, is not called <i>the</i> Broadway), and +entered a store five or six stories high, with two or three different +firms on each floor; and Benson led the way up something between a +ladder and a staircase into a small office, with "Bleecker Brothers" +dimly visible on a tin plate over the door. Three-fourths of the +apartment were filled up with all manner of inviting samples, every +wine, liquor, and liqueur under the sun, in every variety of bottle or +vial, thick with the dust of years, or open for immediate tasting; and +through the dingy panes of a half glass<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> door a multitudinous array of +bottles might be seen loading the numerous shelves of a large +store-room beyond. In a small clearing at one corner, where a small +desk was kept in countenance by a small table, and three or four old +chairs, with a background of shelves groaning under the choicest +brands of the fragrant weed, sat the presiding deities of the +place—the two little Bleeckers—the dark brother of thirty-five, and +the light brother of twenty, like two sketches of the same man in +chalk and charcoal; both elegantly dressed—white trousers, patent +leather shoes, exuberant cravats, massive chains, and all the usual +paraphernalia of young New-York—altogether looking as much in place +as a couple of butterflies in an ant-hill.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, gentlemen," said Benson. "Here's our friend Ashburner," +and he pushed forward the Englishman. The brothers rose, laid down the +morning journals over which they had been lounging, and welcomed the +stranger to their place of business. "What's the news this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing at all, I believe," replied the elder. "South Carolina has +been threatening to dissolve the Union again—and that's no news. +Stay, did you see this about Bishop Hughes and Sam Thunderbolt, the +Native American member of Congress from Pennsylvania?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't seen even a newspaper for the last three days."</p> + +<p>"Well, '+ John of New-York,'—<i>cross John</i>, as your brother Carl used +to call him—was in the same rail-car with Thunderbolt, coming from +Philadelphia to New-York; and the Congressman didn't know who he was, +but probably suspected he was a priest."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you can generally tell a priest by his looks. Even an +intelligent horse will do that. Once I was riding with one of our +bishops near Boston, and his nag shied suddenly at a man in a +broad-brimmed hat. Says the right reverend (we don't call 'em 'my +lord' in this country, you know, Ashburner), 'I shouldn't wonder if +that was a Romish priest;' and we looked again, and it was. There was +a Protestant horse for you! What a treasure he would have been to an +Orangeman!"</p> + +<p>"So Thunderbolt began to abuse the Roman Catholics generally, and the +priests particularly, and that brawling bigot Johnny Hughes most +particularly. Hughes, who is a wary man, polite and self-possessed, +sat through it all without saying a word; till another gentleman in +the car asked Thunderbolt if he knew who that was opposite him. He +didn't know. 'It's Bishop Hughes,' says the other, in a half whisper. +'Are you Bishop Hughes?' exclaims the native, quite off his guard. +'They call me so,' answered the other, with a quiet smile, expecting +to enjoy the humiliating confusion of his denouncer; and the other +passengers shared in the expectation, and were prepared for a titter +at Thunderbolt's expense. But instead of attempting any apology, or +showing any further embarrassment, he pulled out an eyeglass, and +after looking at the Jesuit through it for some time, thus announced +the result of his inspection—'Oh, you are, are you? Well, you're just +the kind of looking loafer I should have expected Johnny Hughes to +be.'"</p> + +<p>"I don't believe Hughes was much disconcerted either," said the elder +brother; "he doesn't lose his balance easily. I never heard of his +being put out but once, and that was when Governor Bouck met him. He +was a jolly old Dutchman, Mr. Ashburner, who used to go about +electioneering, and asking every man he came across—how he was, and +how his wife and family were. When Bishop Hughes was introduced to +him, they thought the governor would know enough to vary the usual +question a little; but he didn't, and asked after the Romish bishop's +wife and family with all possible innocence; and Hughes, for once in +his life, was nonplussed what to answer."</p> + +<p>"Ah, but you haven't told the end of that," put in Benson. "When the +governor's friends tried to explain to him the mistake he had made, +and the category the Romish ecclesiastics were in, he said, 'O yas, I +see, I should have asked after de children only, and said nossing +about de woman.' As you say, Hughes generally has his wits about him, +no doubt. He played our custom-house a trick that they will not forget +in a hurry. Soon after General Harrison and the Whigs came in, and +Curtis was made collector of our port, there arrived a great lot of +what the French call <i>articles de religion</i>, robes, crucifixes, and +various ornaments, for Hughes' cathedral. Now these were all French +goods, and subject to duty, and a notification to that effect was sent +to the proper quarter. Down comes Hughes in a great rage. 'Mr. Curtis, +Mr. Curtis, we never had to do this before. Your predecessor, Mr. +Hoyt, always let our articles of religion in free of duty.' 'Can't +help what my predecessor, Mr. Hoyt, used to do,' says Curtis; 'the law +is so and so, as I understand it, and these articles are subject to +duty. If you like, you may pay the duties under protest, and bring a +suit against Uncle Sam<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> to recover the money.' (You see, the Loco +Focos had always favored the Romish priests to get the Irish vote. The +Whigs didn't in those days—it was before our side had been corrupted +by Seward, and such miserable demagogues; and Curtis wasn't sorry to +see his political opponent the Bishop in a tight place.) After Hughes +had blustered awhile, and found it did no good, he tried the other +tack, and began to expostulate. 'Is there no way at all, Mr. Curtis,' +says he, 'by which these articles may be passed, free of duty?' 'None +at all,' says the other, 'unless'—and he paused, hardly knowing +whether it would do to hint at such a thing, even in jest—'unless,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +bishop, you are willing to swear that these are <i>tools of your +trade</i>.' 'And sure they are that!' quoth Hughes, snapping him up, +'bring on your book;' and he had the goods sworn through in less than +no time, before Curtis could recover himself."</p> + +<p>"Not a bad hit," said the Englishman. "Tools of his trade! So they +were, sure enough; but one would not have expected him to own it so +coolly."</p> + +<p>"Unless there was something to be got by it," continued Benson. "Now +this is true—every word of it, though it <i>has</i> been in the +newspapers; and the way I came to find it out was this. One day I saw +in the advertising columns of the <i>Blunder and Bluster</i>, a circular +from the <i>Secretary of the Treasury</i>, stating that 'crucifixes, +whether of silver or copper, images, silk and velvet vestments, and +theological books, did not come under the head of <i>tools of trade</i>, +but were subject to duty.' It was a funny looking notice, and there +was evidently something behind it; so I took the trouble to inquire, +and found that the cause of the order was this clever stroke of +Hughes. Going to the trot to-day?"</p> + +<p>The younger brother was going, and it was near the time when he +expected his wagon. Dicky wasn't. He had given up trots ten years +ago—thought them low.</p> + +<p>"Give me a few cigars before we go," said Benson. "What have you here +that's first rate? Carbagal, Firmezas, Antiguëdad. H—m. I'll take a +dozen Firmezas, and you may send me the rest of the box."</p> + +<p>"Don't you want some champagne—veritable Cordon Bleu—only fourteen +dollars a dozen, and a discount if you take six cases?"</p> + +<p>"And if you wish to secure some tall Lafitte, we bought some odd +bottles at old Van Zandt's sale the other day. You remember drinking +that wine at Wilson's last summer?"</p> + +<p>Benson remembered it perfectly, and would take the Lafitte by all +means. "Put that down, Mr. Snipes;" and for the first time, Ashburner +was aware of the clerk—a very young gentleman, who appeared from +behind the desk, and booked the order at it. "And how about the +champagne?"</p> + +<p>"<i>J'y penserai.</i> Time to go. <i>Vamos.</i>" And Benson carried off his +friend.</p> + +<p>"You were a little taken aback, weren't you?" he asked, as they went +in quest of the wagon. "When you saw these men figuring in the German +cotillion, and helping to lead the fashion at Oldport, you hardly +expected to encounter them in such a place. Well, now, let me tell you +something that will astonish you yet more. So far from its being +against these brothers in society that they are, what you would call +in plain English a superior order of grocers, it is positively in +their favor; that is to say, they are more respected, better received, +and stand a better chance of marrying well, than if they did nothing. +They might do nothing if they chose. They had enough to live very well +on <i>en garçon</i>. The Bleeckers are of our best known and most +thoroughly respectable families. The sons had no taste for books; they +have a very good taste for wine and cigars, and have undertaken what +they are best fit for. It's better than being nominal lawyers?"</p> + +<p>"Pecuniarily, no doubt; but is it as good for the whole development of +the man? Was it you, or your friend Harrison, who instanced Richard +Bleecker as a man who had made no progress in any thing manly for +fifteen years?"</p> + +<p>"That is the fault of his natural disposition, which would not be +bettered by his making believe to be a professional man, or being an +avowedly idle one. He is frivolous and ornamental for a part of his +time—during the rest, he has his business to occupy him. If he had +not that, he would spend all his time in elegant idleness, and know no +more than he does now. His pursuits bring him in money, which will be +a comfort to his wife and family when he marries—though, to be sure, +he is rather ancient for that; a single man at thirty-five is with us +a confirmed old bachelor. But his brother is in a fair way to form a +nice establishment."</p> + +<p>"Now tell me another thing. Suppose the Bleeckers had chosen to become +jewellers, or merchant tailors—they might be good judges of either +business, and make money by it—how would that affect their position?"</p> + +<p>"Unfavorably, I confess," replied Benson. "But we Gothamites have so +thorough a respect for, and appreciation of, good wine and cigars, +that the importation of them is considered particularly laudable."</p> + +<p>Any further discussion was stopped by their arrival at that dreary +triangular square (<i>more hibernico loqui</i>) called the Park, where +Benson's wagon awaited him—not the red-wheeled one; this vehicle was +of a uniform dark green, furnished with a top (a desirable appendage +when the thermometer stands 85° in the shade,) and lined throughout +with drab. The ponies were carefully enveloped to the very tips of +their ears in white fly-nets. As the groom saw Benson approaching, he +put himself and the top through a series of queer evolutions, which +ended in the latter being lowered—a very necessary operation, to +allow any one to get in with comfort; and after Benson and Ashburner +were in, he put it up again with some ado, and then went his way, the +concern only holding two. Then Benson turned the wagon round by +backing and locking, and making it undergo a series of contortions as +if he wanted to double it up into itself, and run over himself with +his own wheels, and drove to the Fulton Ferry; for to arrive at the +Centreville Course on Long Island—familiarly designated as <i>the</i> +island—you first pass through Brooklyn, that trans-Hudsonian suburb +of New York, which thirty years ago was a miserable little village,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> +and now contains upwards of ninety thousand inhabitants.</p> + +<p>"And how did the ball go off?" asked Ashburner, as they rolled up the +main avenue of Brooklyn, at the slowest possible trot, according to +the well known rule, always to take a fast horse easy over pavement. +On board the ferry-boat there had not been much conversation, the +horses being so worried by the flies as to require all Benson's +attention.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was rather a <i>fiasco</i>, but we had some fun. Some predicted +that the fashionables would come back, but they didn't, except a few +of the young men; and all of our set that were there threatened to go +out of costume; but then we recollected that would have been a very +Irish way of serving out Mr. Grabster, as by the established +regulation in such cases, we should have had to pay double for +tickets; so most of us took sailors' or firemen's dresses—the +cheapest and commonest disguises we could get; and the ladies made +some trivial addition to their ordinary ball-dresses—a wreath or a +few extra flowers—and called themselves brides, or Floras, and so on. +And some of the crack Bostonians blasphemed the expense, and went in +plain clothes. So we had the consolation of making fun of all the +outsiders, and their attempts at costume—such supernumeraries as most +of them were! And none of the <i>comme-il-faut</i> people would serve on +the committee, so Grabster had nobody to get up the room in proper +style, and it looked like a 'Ripton' ball-room; and <i>The Sewer</i> +reporters were there, in all their glory. The Irishman had borrowed or +stolen a uniform somewhere, and the Frenchman was appropriately +arrayed in red as a devil, and he went about taking notes of all the +people's dresses, especially the ladies'; and as our ladies were not +in costume, he thought he must have something to do with them, and so +presented some of them with bouquets, which they wouldn't take, of +course; and the young men trod on his toes and elbowed him off till he +swore he would put them all in his paper. And we danced away, +notwithstanding <i>The Sewer</i> and all its works. Tom Edwards was +accoutred as Mose the fireman, and Sumner had an old French +<i>débardeur</i> dress of his, just the thing for the occasion, only his +shoes were too big; and after tripping up himself and his partner four +times, he kicked them off clean into the orchestra, and fearfully +aggravated the fiddlers; and he took it as coolly as he does every +thing—put on a pair of ordinary boots, and was polking away again in +five minutes. And we kept it up till two in the morning, polka +chiefly, with a sprinkling of <i>deuxtemps</i>, and then had a very bad +supper, and some very bad wine, of Mr. Grabster's providing—genuine +New Jersey champagne. How we looked after the dancing! Sumner's +<i>débardeur</i> shirt might have been wrung out, it was so wet; and Mrs. +Harrison—she had got herself up as Undine—was dripping enough for +half-a-dozen water-nymphs; and Miss Friskin had a shiny green silk +dress; we had been polking together, and my white waistcoat, and +pants, and cravat, were all stained green, as if I had been playing +with a gigantic butterfly. And then after supper, when there was no +one but our German cotillion set left, and just as we had put the +chairs in order, the musicians struck work, and would not play any +more (you know what an impracticable, conceited, obstinate brute a +third-rate German musician is), saying they were only bound to play +just so long; so I gave them a good slanging in their own tongue (I +know German enough to blow up a man, and a fine strong language it is +for the purpose); and White swore it was too bad, and Edwards tried to +make them a conciliatory speech—only he was too tipsy to talk +straight; and Sumner offered them fifty dollars to go on playing. +Thereupon, up and spake the big bass-viol,—'We ton't want your money; +we want to be dreated like chentlemens;' and then Frank lost his +temper. 'I'll treat you,' says he; and with that he delivered right +and left into the bass-viol, and knocked him through his own +instrument; and then some one knocked Sumner over the head with a +trombone;—then we all set to, and gave the musicians their change (we +owed them a little before, for it wasn't the first time they had been +saucy to us,) and we thrashed them essentially, and comminuted a few +of their instruments. And half-a-dozen of the Irish waiters came out, +with their sleeves rolled up, to fight for the honor of the house, and +protect Mr. Grabster's property—meaning the musicians, I +suppose;—and Haralson of Alabama, one of your regular +six-feet-two-in-his-stockings South Western men, who had come North to +learn the polka, and become civilized—Haralson pulled out a Bowie and +swore he would whistle them up if they didn't make themselves scarce. +By Jove! you should have seen the Paddies scud! And I caught <i>The +Sewer</i> reporter (the Irish one) in the <i>mêlée</i>, and let him have a +kick that landed him in the middle of the floor, telling him he might +put that into his next letter, and afterwards go to a place worse even +than <i>The Sewer</i> office. Then, after all the enemy were fairly routed, +we adjourned to my parlor. I had some good champagne of my own, and a +<i>pâté</i> or two, and some Firmezas, and we held a jolly revel till four +o'clock, and then the ladies retired, and we quiet married men did the +same, and the boys went to fight the tiger, and Edwards lost 1400 +dollars, and some of them took to running foot-races for a bet on the +post-road. Haralson outran all the rest—and his senses too—and was +found next evening about five miles up the road with no coat or hat, +and one stocking off and the other stocking on, like my son John in +the nursery rhyme, and his watch and purse gone. And <i>The Sewer</i> and +<i>Inexpressible</i> said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> that it was the most brilliant ball that had +occurred within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. And that's a +pretty fair synopsis of the whole proceedings."</p> + +<p>By this time they were off the pavement,—a change very sensible and +desirable to man and horse, for an American pavement is something +beyond imagination or description, and must be experienced to be +understood. The ponies, without waiting for the word, went off on +their long steady stroke at three-quarters speed, and though the day +was warm and the road heavy, stepped over the first three miles in +twelve minutes, as Benson took care to show Ashburner by his watch. +They challenged wagon after wagon, but no one seemed inclined to race +at this stage of the proceedings, and they glided quietly by every +thing. Only once was heard the sound of competing feet, when a black +pacer swept up, with two tall wheels behind him, and a man +mysteriously balanced between them. "After the sulky is manners," said +Harry, slackening his speed, and giving the pacer a wide berth; and +the man on the wheels whizzed by like a mammoth insect, and was soon +lost to view amid a cloud of dust.</p> + +<p>And now they arrived at a tavern where the owners of "fast crabs" were +wont to repose, to water their horses, and brandy-and-water +themselves. The former operation is performed very sparingly, the +supply of liquid afforded to the animals consisting merely of a +spongeful passed through their mouths; the latter is usually conducted +on more liberal principles. But as our friends felt no immediate +desire to liquor, Benson amused himself while the horses rested by +putting down his top, for the sky had slightly clouded over,—a +favorable circumstance, he remarked, for the trot. Just as he was +starting his ponies, with a chirrup, a tandem developed itself from +under the shed, and its driver greeted him with a friendly nod.</p> + +<p>"Good afternoon, Mr. Losing," quoth Harry, raising his whip-hand in +answer to the salute; then, <i>sotto voce</i> to Ashburner, "a Long-Island +fancy man: lots of money, and no end of fast horses."</p> + +<p>Mr. Losing had a thin hatchety face, and a very yellow complexion, +with hair and beard to match. He wore a yellow straw-hat, and a +yellowish-gray summer paletot, with yellowish-brown linen trousers. +His light gig (of the kind technically called a double-sulky) was +painted a dingy yellow-ochre; the horses were duns, the fly-nets drab, +and what little harness there was, retained the original law-calf +color of its leather; in short, the whole concern had a general +pervading air of dun, which but for the known wealth of its owner +might have been suggestive of unpleasant Joe-Millerisms. The only +exception was his companion, a gay horse-dealer and jockey, who acted +as amateur groom on this occasion. Mr. Van Eyck had sufficient +diversity of color in his dress to relieve the monotony of a whole +landscape,—blue coat and gilt buttons, lilac waistcoat and ditto, red +cravat and red-striped check shirt, white hat and trousers. His +apparel might have been a second-hand suit of Bird Simpson's. As the +gig came out close at the wheels of the wagon, the two whips +interchanged glances, as much as to say, "Here's at you!" and "Come +on!" and Losing tightened his reins; then, as his leader ranged up +alongside Benson's horses, the latter drew up his lines also, and the +teams went off together.</p> + +<p>A good team race is more exciting to both the lookers-on and the +performers than any contest of single horses; there is twice as much +noise, twice as much skill in driving, and apparently greater speed, +though in reality less. Neither had started at the top of their gait, +but they kept gradually and proportionally crowding the pace, till +they were going about seventeen miles an hour, and at that rate they +kept for the first half-mile exactly in the same relative position as +they had started. No one spoke a word; the close contact of horses in +double harness excites them so, that they require checking rather than +encouragement; but Benson with a rein in his hand was feeling every +inch of his ponies, and watching every inch of the road. Losing sat +like a statue, and his horses seemed to go of themselves. Then, as the +ground began to rise, Losing drew gradually ahead, or rather Benson's +team came back to him; still it was inch by inch; in the next quarter +the wheeler instead of the leader was alongside the other team, and +that was all Losing had gained. Then Harry, with some management, got +both reins into one hand, and lifted his nags a little with the whip. +At the same time Losing altered his hold for the first time, and shook +up his horses. There was a corresponding increase of speed in both +parties, which kept them in the same respective position, and so they +struggled on for a little while longer, till just before the road +descended again, Benson made another effort to recover his lost +ground. In so doing, he imprudently loosened his hold too much, and +his off horse went up.</p> + +<p>The moment Firefly lost his feet Benson threw his whole weight upon +the horses, and hauled them across the road, close in behind Losing's +gig, the break having lost him just a length, so that when they struck +into their trot again they were at the Long-Islander's wheel. Down the +hill they went, faster than ever; the wagon could not gain an inch on +the gig, or the gig shake the wagon off. But Losing had manifestly the +best of it, as all his dust went into the face of Benson and +Ashburner, enveloping and powdering them and their equipage +completely. Their only consolation was, that they were bestowing a +similar one on every wagon that they passed. As both teams were +footing their very best, Benson's only chance of getting by was in +case one of the tandems should happen to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> break, a chance which he +kept ready to take advantage of. By and by the leader went up, but +Losing, who had his horses under perfect command, let him run a little +way, and caught him again into his trot without losing any thing. +Nevertheless Benson, who had seen the break, made a push to go by, and +with a great shout crowded his team up to the wheeler, but there they +broke,—this time both horses,—and before he could bring them down he +was two lengths in the rear. Then Losing drew on one side, and +slackened his speed, and Benson also pulled up almost to a walk.</p> + +<p>"His double sulky is lighter than my wagon," said Harry, "even without +the top, and the top makes fifty pounds difference. The machine is +built a little heavier than the average, purposely because it rides +easier, and shakes the horses less when there are inequalities in the +road, so that besides being pleasanter to go in, a team can take it +along about as fast as any thing lighter for a short brush, but when +the horses are so nearly equal, and you have some miles to go on a +heavy road, the extra weight tells. However, it is no disgrace to be +beaten by Losing, any way, for his horses are his study and +<i>specialité</i>. Every fortnight the bolts and screws of his wagon are +re-arranged; his collars fit like gloves; he has a particular kind of +watering-pot made on purpose to water his horses' legs. Every trifle +is rigorously attended to. You ought to visit his, or some other +sporting man's stable here, just to note the difference between that +sort of thing with us and with you. Instead of hunters and +steeple-chasers, you will see fine trotters together that can all beat +2´ 50´´."</p> + +<p>The road happened just then to be pretty clear, so they proceeded +leisurely for some miles further, till just as they were quitting the +turnpike for a lane which led to the course, the rattle of wheels and +the shouts of drivers came up behind them. Benson, not disposed to +swallow any more of other people's dust if he could help it, waked up +his horses at once, and they clattered along the lane, up hill and +down, and over a railroad track, and past numerous wagons, at a faster +rate than ever. "<i>Do</i> get out of the way!" shouted Henry to one +primitive gentleman, with a very tired horse, who was occupying +exactly the centre of the road. "You go to ——." The individual +addressed was probably about to say something very bad, when Benson, +who was a moral man, and had the strongest wheels, cut short any +possible profanity for the moment by driving slap into him, and +knocking him into the ditch, with the loss of a spoke or two. This +collision hardly delayed their speed an instant; and though some of +the pursuers were evidently gaining, no one overhauled them for +three-quarters of a mile, at the end of which Starlight and Firefly +swept proudly up to the course, with a long train in their rear.</p> + +<p>All the vicinity of the Centreville Course—not the stables and sheds +merely, but the lanes leading to it, the open ground about it, the +whole adjacent country, one might almost say—was covered with wagons +stowed together as closely as cattle in a market. If it had been +raining wagons and trotters the night before just over the place, like +showers of frogs that country editors short of copy fill a column +with, or if they had grown up there ready harnessed, there could not +have been a more plentiful supply. Wagons, wagons, wagons everywhere, +of all weights, from a hundred and eighty pounds to four hundred, with +here and there a sulky for variety—horses of all styles, colors, and +merits—no sign of a servant or groom of any kind, but a number of +boys, mostly blackies, about one to every ten horses, who earned a few +shillings by looking after the animals, and watching the carpets, +sheets, and fly-nets. The only other movables, the long-handled +short-lashed whips, were invariably carried off by their proprietors. +Whips and umbrellas are common property in America; they are an +exception to the ordinary law of <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i>, and strictly +subject to socialist rules. Woe to the owner of either who lets his +property go one second out of his sight!</p> + +<p>"Now then, Snowball!" quoth Benson, as a young gentleman of color +rushed up on the full grin, stimulated to extra activity by the +recollection of the past and the vision of prospective +"quarters,"—"take care of the fliers, and don't let any one steal +their tails! I ought to tell you," he continued to Ashburner, leading +the way towards the big, dilapidated,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> unpainted, barn-like +structure, which appeared to be the rear of the grandstand, "you won't +find any gentlemen here—that is, not above half-a-dozen at most."</p> + +<p>"I was just wondering whether we should see any ladies."</p> + +<p>Benson pointed over his left shoulder; and they planked their dollar +a-piece at the entrance.</p> + +<p>Ashburner's first impression, when fairly inside, was that he had +never seen such a collection of disreputable looking characters in +broad daylight, and under the open sky. All up the rough broad steps, +that were used indifferently to sit or stand upon; all around the +oyster and liquor stands, that filled the recess under the steps; all +over the ground between the stand and the track, was a throng of low, +shabby, dirty men, different in their ages, sizes, and professions; +for some were farmers, some country tavern-keepers, some city ditto, +some horse-dealers, some gamblers, and some loafers in general; but +alike in their slang and "rowdy" aspect. There is something peculiarly +disagreeable in an American crowd, from the fact that no class<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> has +any distinctive dress. The gentleman and the working-man, or the +"loafer," wear clothes of the same kind, only in one case they are new +and clean, in the other, old and dirty. The ragged dress-coats and +crownless beavers of the Irish peasants have long been the admiration +of travellers; now, elevate these second-hand garments a stage or two +in the scale of preservation—let the coats be not ragged, but shabby, +worn in seam, and greasy in collar; the hats whole, but napless at +edge, and bent in brim; supply them with old trousers of the last +fashion but six, and you have the general costume of a crowd like the +present. But ordinary collections of the οι πολλοι are +relieved by the very superior appearance of the women; pretty in their +youth, lady-like and stylish even when prematurely faded, always +dressed respectably, and frequently dressed in good taste, they form a +startling relief and contrast to their cavaliers; and not only the +stranger, but the native gentleman, is continually surprised at the +difference, and says to himself, "Where in the world could such nice +women pick up those snobs?" Here, where there is not a woman within a +mile (unless that suspicious carriage in the corner contains some gay +friends of Tom Edwards'), the congregated male loaferism of these +people, without even a decent looking dog among them, is enough to +make a man button his pockets instinctively.</p> + +<p>Amid this wilderness of vagabonds may be seen grouped together at the +further corner of the stand the representatives of the gentlemanly +interest, numbering, as Benson had predicted, about half-a-dozen. +Losing, with his yellow blouse and moustache to match; Tom Edwards, in +a white hat and trousers, and black velvet coat; Harrison, slovenly in +his attire, and looking almost as coarse as any of the rowdies about, +till he raises his head, and shows his intelligent eyes; Bleecker, who +had just arrived; and a few specimens of Young New-York like him. +Benson carries his friend that way, and introduces him in due form to +the Long Islander, who receives him with an elaborate bow. Ashburner +offers a cigar to Losing, who accepts the weed with a nod of +acknowledgment (for he rarely opens his mouth except to put something +into it, or to make a bet), and offers one of his in return, which +Ashburner trying, excoriates his lips at the first whiff, and is +obliged to throw it away after the third, for Charley Losing has +strong tastes, will rather drink brandy than wine, any day, and smokes +tobacco that would knock an ordinary man down.</p> + +<p>The stranger glances his eye over the scene of action. A barouche and +four does not differ more from a trotting wagon, or a blood courser +from a Canadian pacer, than an English race-course from an American +"track." It is an ellipse of hard ground, like a good and smooth piece +of road, with some variations of ascent and descent. The distance +round is calculated at a mile, according to the scope of turning +requisite for a horse before a sulky—that being the most usual form +of trotting; for a saddle-horse that has the pole,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> it comes +practically to a little less; for a harness-horse (especially if to a +wagon) with an outside place, to a little, or sometimes a good deal +more. Around the inclosure, within the track (which looks as if it +were trying hard to grow grass and couldn't), a few wagons, which +obtained entrance by special favor, are walking about; they belong to +the few men who have brought their grooms with them. Harrison's pet +trotter is there, a magnificent long-tailed bay, as big as a +carriage-horse, equal to 2´ 50´´ on the road before that wagon, and +worth fifteen hundred dollars, it is said. Just inside the track, and +opposite the main stand outside, is a little shanty of a judge's +stand, and marshalled in front of it are half a dozen notorious +pugilists, and similar characters, who, doubtless on the good old +principle of "set a thief," &c., are enrolled for the occasion as +special constables, with very special and formidable white bludgeons +to keep order, and precise suits of black cloth to augment their +dignity.</p> + +<p>"To come off at three o'clock," said the handbills. It is now +thirty-five minutes past three, and no signs of beginning. An American +horse and an American woman always keep you waiting an hour at least. +One of the judges comes forward, and raps on the front of the stand +with a primitive bit of wood resembling a broken boot-jack. "Bring out +your horses!" People look towards the yard on the left. Here is one of +them just led out; they pull off his sheets, his driver climbs up into +the little seat behind him. He comes down part of the stand at a +moderate gait. Hurrah for old Twenty-miles-an-hour! Trustee! Trustee!</p> + +<p>The old chestnut is half-blood; but you would never guess it from his +personal appearance, so chunky, and thick-limbed, and sober-looking is +he. His action is uneven, and seemingly laborious; you would not think +him capable of covering <i>one</i> mile in three minutes, much less of +performing twenty at the same rate. No wonder he hobbles a little +behind, for his back sinews are swelled, and his legs scarred and +disfigured—the traces of injuries received in his youth, when a cart +ran into him, and cut him almost to pieces. Veterinary surgeons, who +delight in such relics, will show you pieces of sinew taken from him +after the accident. That was six or seven years ago: since then he has +solved a problem for the trotting world.</p> + +<p>"There," says Benson, with a little touch of triumph, "is the only +horse in the world that ever trotted twenty miles in an hour. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> saw +it done myself. He was driven nearly two miles before he started, to +warm him up, and make him limber. When the word was given, he made a +skip, and though his driver, not the same that he has now, caught him +before he was fairly off his feet, he was more than three minutes +doing the first mile, which looked well for the backers of time; but +as the old fellow went on, he did every mile better than the +preceding, and the last in the best time of all, winning with nearly +half a minute to spare."</p> + +<p>"Has the experiment been often tried?"</p> + +<p>"Not more than two or three times, I believe; and the horses who +attempted it broke down in the eighteenth or nineteenth mile. +Nevertheless, I think that within the last twelve years we have had +two or three horses beside Trustee who could have accomplished the +feat; but as such a horse is worth two thousand dollars and upwards, a +heavy bet would be required to tempt a man to risk killing or ruining +his animal; and our sporting men, though they bet frequently, are not +in the habit of betting largely. That is one reason why it has not +been tried oftener; and I am inclined to think that there is another +and a better motive. The owner of a splendid horse does not like to +risk his life; and it is a risk of life to attempt to trot him twenty +miles an hour."</p> + +<p>Pit, pat! pit, pat! The old mare is coming down to the score. A very +ordinary looking animal in repose, the magnificence of her action +converts her into a beauty when moving. How evenly her feet rise and +fall, regularly as a machine, though she is nearly at the top of her +speed! She carries her head down, and her neck stretched out, and from +the tip of her nose to the end of her long white tail, that streams +out in the breeze made by her own progress, you might draw a straight +line, so true and right forward does she travel. Perched over her +tail, between those two tall, slender wheels, sits her owner, David +Bryan, the only man that ever handles her, in something like a jockey +costume, blue velvet jacket and cap to match, and his white hair, +whiter than his horse's tail, streaming in the wind—a respectable and +almost venerable looking man; but a hard boy for all that, say the +knowing ones. Great applause from the Long Island men, who swear by +"the Lady," and are always ready to "stake their pile" on her, for her +owner is a Long-Islander, and she is a Suffolk county, Long-Island +mare. Some eight years ago Lady Suffolk was bought out of a baker's +cart for 112 dollars, and since then she has won for "Dave" upwards of +30,000 dollars. That is what the possessor of a fast trotter most +prides himself on—to have bought the animal for a song on the +strength of his own eye for his points, and then developed him into a +"flier." When a colt is bred from a trotting stallion, put into +training at three or four years old, and sold the first time for a +high price, if he turns out well there is no particular wonder or +merit in it; if he does not, the disappointment is extreme.</p> + +<p>Ah, here comes Pelham at last—a clean little bay, stepping roundly, +and lifting his legs well; you might call it a perfect action, if we +had not just seen Lady Suffolk go by—but <i>so</i> wicked about the head +and eyes! Behind the little horse sits a big Irishman, in his shirt +sleeves; and they are hauling away at each other, pull Pat, pull +Pelham, as if the man wanted to jerk the horse's head off, and the +horse to draw the man's arms out. You see the driver is holding by +little loops fastened to the reins, to prevent his grasp from +slipping. Pelham is a young horse for a trotter, say seven years old, +and has already done the fastest mile ever made in harness; but his +temper is terribly uncertain, and to-day he seems to be in a +particularly bad humor.</p> + +<p>Trustee, who requires much warming up, goes all round the track, +increasing his speed as he goes, till he has reached pretty nearly his +limit. Pelham also completes the circuit, but more leisurely. The Lady +trots about a quarter of a mile, then walks a little, and then brushes +back. Her returning is even faster and prettier than her going. "2´ +33´´," says Losing, speaking for the first time, as she crosses the +score (the line in front of the judge's stand). His eye is such that, +given the horse and the track, he can tell the pace at a glance within +half a second.</p> + +<p>The gentry about are beginning to bet on their respective favorites, +and some upon time—trifling amounts generally—five, ten, or twenty +dollars; and there is much pulling out, and counting, and depositing +of greasy notes. Bang! goes the broken boot-jack again. This time it +is not "Bring <i>out</i> your horses!" but "Bring <i>up</i> your horses!"—a +requisition which the drivers comply with by turning <i>away</i> from the +stand. This is to get a start, a <i>flying start</i> being the rule, which +obviously favors the backers of time, and is, in some respects, fairer +to the horses, but is very apt to create confusion and delay, +especially when three or four horses are entered. So it happens in the +present instance: half way up the quarter, the horses turn, not all +together, but just as they happen to be; and off they go, some slower +and some faster, trying to fall into line as they approach the score. +"Come back!" It's no go, this time; Pelham has broken up, and is +spreading himself all over the track. Trustee, too, is a length or +more behind the gray mare, and evidently in no hurry. They all go +back, the mare last, as she was half-way down the other quarter before +the recall was understood.</p> + +<p>"What a beauty she is!" says Harry. "And she has the pole too."</p> + +<p>"Will you bet two to three on her against the field?" asks Edwards, +who knew very well that Trustee is the favorite. Benson<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> declines. +"Then will you go on time? Will you bet on 7´ 42´´, or that they don't +beat 7´ 47´´" (three mile heats, you will recollect, reader). No, +Harry won't bet at all; so Edwards turns to Losing. "Will you bet +three to five in hundreds on the Lady?" Losing will. They neither +plank the money, nor book the bet, but the thing is understood.</p> + +<p>Pelham's driver has begged the judges to give the word, even if he is +two lengths behind; he would rather do that than have his horse +worried by false starts. So this time, perhaps, they will get off. Not +yet! Bryan's mare breaks up just before they come to the score. +Harrison hints that he broke her on purpose, because Trustee was +likely to have about a neck advantage of him in the start. "Of course +they never go the first time," says Benson, "and very seldom the +second."</p> + +<p>"I saw nine false starts once, at Harlaem," says Bleecker, "where +there were but three horses. Better luck next time."</p> + +<p>It is better luck. Pelham lays in the rear full two lengths, but +Trustee and the mare come up nose and nose to the score, going at a +great pace. "Go!" At the word Trustee breaks. "Bah! take him away! +Where's Brydges?" The superior skill of his former driver, is +painfully remembered by the horse's friends. But he soon recovers, and +catches his trot about two lengths behind the mare, and as much in +advance of Pelham; for the little bay is going very badly, seems to +have no trot in him, and his driver dares not hurry him. In these +respective positions they complete the first quarter.</p> + +<p>As they approach the half mile, the distance renders their movements +indistinct, and their speed, positive or relative, difficult to +determine. You can only make out their position. Pelham continues to +lose, and Trustee has gained a little; but the gray mare keeps the +lead gallantly.</p> + +<p>"I like a trot," says Benson, "because you can watch the horses so +long. In a race they go by like a flash, once and again, and it's all +over."</p> + +<p>In the next quarter they are almost lost to view, and then they appear +again coming home, and you begin once more to appreciate the rate at +which they are coming. Still it is not the very best pace; the Lady is +taking it rather easy, as if conscious of having it all her own way; +and her driver looks as careless and comfortable as if he were only +taking her out to exercise, when she glides past the stand.</p> + +<p>"2´ 35´´," says Losing. He doesn't need to look at his watch; but +there is great comparing of stop-watches among the other men for the +time of the first mile. Hardly half a length behind is Trustee; he has +been gradually creeping up without any signs of being hurried, and, +clumsily as he goes, gets over the ground without heating himself.</p> + +<p>"John Case knows what he's about, after all," Edwards observes, "He +takes his time, and so does the old horse; wait another round, and, at +the third mile, they'll be <i>there</i>."</p> + +<p>"But where's Pelham? Is he lost? No, there he comes; and, Castor and +Pollux, what a burst! Something has waked him up after the other +horses have passed the stand, and while he is yet four or five lengths +from it. There's a brush for you! Did you ever see a horse foot it +so?—as if all the ideas of running that he may ever have had in his +life were arrested, and fastened down into his trot. How he is closing +up the gap! If he can hold to that stroke he will be ahead of the +field before the first quarter of this second mile is out. A mighty +clamor arises, shouts from his enemies, who want to break him, cheers +from his injudicious friends. There, he has lapped Trustee—he has +passed him; tearing at the bit harder than ever, he closes with Lady +Suffolk. Bryan does not begin to thrash his mare yet, he only shows +the whip over her; but yells like a madman at her, and at Pelham, +whose driver holds on to him as a drowning man holds on to a rope. +They are going side by side at a terrific pace. It can't last; one of +them must go up. The bay horse does go up just at the quarter pole, +having made that quarter, Benson says, in the remarkably short time of +thirty-six seconds and a half."</p> + +<p>Pelham's driver can't jerk him across the track; by doing so, he would +foul Trustee, who is just behind; so he has to let the chestnut go by, +and then sets himself to work to bring down his unruly animal; no easy +matter—for Pelham, frightened by the shouting, and excited by the +noise of the wheels, plunges about in a manner that threatens to spill +or break down the sulky; and twice, after being brought almost to a +full stop, goes off again on a canter. Good bye, little horse! there's +no more chance for you. By this time, the Lady is nearly a quarter of +a mile ahead, and going faster than ever. Somehow or other, Trustee +has increased his speed too, and is just where he was, a short +half-length behind her. The way in which he hangs on to the mare +begins to frighten the Long-Islanders a little, but they comfort +themselves with the hope that she has something left, and can let out +some spare foot in the third mile, or whenever it may be necessary.</p> + +<p>Some forty seconds more elapse; a period of time that goes like a +flash when you are training your own flier, or "brushing" on the road, +but seems long enough when you are waiting for horses to come round, +and then they appear once more coming home. The mare is still leading, +with her beautiful, steady, unfaltering stroke; but she is by no means +so fresh-looking as when she started; many a dark line of sweat marks +her white hide. Close behind her comes Trustee; the half-length gap +has disappeared, and his nose is ready to touch Bryan's jacket. There +is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> hardly a wet hair discernible on him; he goes perfectly at his +ease, and seems to be in hand. "He has her now," is the general +exclamation, "and can pass her when he pleases." As the mare crosses +the score, (in 2´ 34´´, according to Edwards's stop-watch,) Bryan +"looks over his left shoulder," like the knights in old ballads, and +becomes aware for the first time that the horse at his wheel is not +Pelham, as he had supposed, but Trustee.</p> + +<p>The old fellow is another man. His air of careless security has +changed to one of intense excitement. Slash! slash! slash! falls the +long whip, with half a dozen frantic cuts and an appropriate garnish +of yells. Almost any other trotter would go off in a run at one such +salute, to say nothing of five or six; but the old mare, who "has no +break in her," merely understands them as gentle intimations to go +faster—and she does go faster. How her legs double up, and what a +rush she has made! There is a gap of three lengths between her and +Trustee. He never hurries himself, but goes on steadily as ever. See, +as he passes, how he straddles behind like an old cow, and yet how +dexterously he paddles himself along, as it were, with one hind foot. +What a mixture of ugliness and efficiency his action is! At the first +quarter the Lady has come back to him. Three times during this, the +last and decisive mile, is the performance repeated. You may hear +Bryan's voice and whip completely across the course, as he hurries his +mare away from the pursuer; but each succeeding time the temporary gap +is shorter and sooner closed.</p> + +<p>Now they are coming down the straight stretch home. The mare leads +yet. Case appears to be talking to his horse, and encouraging him; if +it is so, you cannot hear him, for the tremendous row Lady Suffolk's +driver is making. She had the pole at starting, has kept it +throughout, and Trustee must pass her on the outside. This +circumstance is her only hope of winning. All her owner's exertions, +and all the encouraging shouts of her friends, which she now hears +greeting her from the stand, cannot enable her to shake off Trustee, +but if she can only maintain her lead for six or seven lengths more, +it is enough. The chestnut is directly in her rear; every blow gets a +little more out of her. Half the short interval to the goal is passed, +when Trustee diverges from his straight course, and shows his head +along side Bryan's wheel. Catching his horse short, Case puts his whip +upon him for the first time, shakes him up with a great shout, and +crowds him past the mare, winning the heat by a length.</p> + +<p>The little bay was so far behind at the end of the second mile, that +no one took any notice of him, and he was supposed to have dropped out +somewhere on the road. His position, however, was much improved on the +third mile; still, as there was a strong probability of his being shut +out, the judges dispatched one of their number to the distance-post +with a flag; a very proper proceeding, only they thought of it rather +late, for the judge arrived there only just before Pelham, and also +just before Trustee crossed the score; in fact, the three events were +all but simultaneous; the judge dropped the flag in Pelham's face, and +Pelham in return nearly ran over the judge. This episode attracted no +attention at the time of its occurrence, all eyes being directed to +the leading horses; but now it affords materials for a nice little +row, Pelham's driver protesting violently against the distance. There +is much thronging, and vociferating, and swearing about the judge's +stand, into which our burly Irishman endeavors to force his way. One +of the specials favors him with a rap on the head, that would astonish +a hippopotamus. Pat doesn't seem to mind it, but he understands it +well enough (the argument is just suited to his capacity), and remains +tolerably quiet. Finally, it is proclaimed that "Trustee wins the heat +in 7´ 45´´, and Pelham is distanced."</p> + +<p>"Best three miles ever made in harness," says Harrison, "except when +Dutchman did it in 7´ 41´´."</p> + +<p>Edwards doubts the fact, and they bet about it, and will write to the +<i>Spirit of the Times</i> (the American <i>Bell's Life</i>).</p> + +<p>Ashburner and Benson descended from the stand. The horses, panting and +pouring with sweat, are rubbed and scraped by their attendants, three +or four to each. Then they are clothed, and walked up and down +quietly. They have a rest of nominally half-an-hour, and practically +at least forty minutes. Some of the crowd are eating oysters, more +drinking brandy and water, and a still greater number "loafing" about +without any particular employment. There are two or three +thimble-riggers on the ground, but they seem to be in a barren county; +nobody there is green enough for them; the very small boys take sights +at them. There is a tradition that Edwards once in his younger days +tried his fortune with them. He looked so dandified, green, and +innocent, that they let him win five dollars the first time, and then, +on the rigger's proposing to bet a hundred, his supposed victim +applied the finger of scorn to the nose of derision, and strutted off +with his V.,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> to the great amusement of the bystanders. Tom is very +proud of this story, and likes to tell it himself. That, and his +paying a French actress with a check when he had nothing at his +banker's, are two of the great exploits of his life.</p> + +<p>"This <i>is</i> rather a low assemblage, certainly," says Ashburner, after +he has contemplated it from several points of view, and observed a +great many different points of character. "Do they ever have races +here?"</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> +<p>"Yes, every spring and fall, here, or on the Union Course adjoining. +They are rather more decently attended, but not over respectable, much +less fashionable. At the South, it is different; there ladies go, and +the club races are some of the most marked features of their city +life. I recollect when I was a boy, that these trotting matches were +nice things, and gentlemen used to enter their own horses; but +gradually they have gone down hill to what they are now, and the names +of the best trotters are associated with the hardest characters and +the most disreputable species of balls."</p> + +<p>"And when they race, do the horses run on ground like <i>this</i>?" asked +Ashburner, stamping on the track, which was as hard as Macadam.</p> + +<p>"Precisely on this, and run four-mile heats, too, and five of them +sometimes."</p> + +<p>"<i>Five</i> four-mile heats on ground like this?" The Englishman looked +incredulous.</p> + +<p>"Exactly. It has happened that each of three has won a heat, and then +there was one dead heat. You will remember, though, that we run old +horses, not colts. There is no extra weight for age; they begin at +four or five years old, and go on till twelve or fourteen."</p> + +<p>"But they must be very liable to accidents, going on such hard soil."</p> + +<p>"Yes, they do break their legs sometimes, but not often. Our horses +are tougher than yours."</p> + +<p>As they stroll about, Benson points out several celebrated fliers that +have gained admission inside of the stand, but prefer remaining +outside the track; some pretty well worn-out and <i>emeriti</i> like +Ripton, an old rival of Lady Suffolk (the mare has outlasted most of +her early contemporaries), some in their prime, like the trotting +stallion, Black Hawk, beautifully formed as any blood-horse, but +singularly marked, being white-stockinged all round to the knee. +"There," says Harry, "is a fellow that belies the old horse-dealer's +rhyme:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Four white legs and a white nose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take him away, and throw him to the crows.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> Time is up, and they return to the stand. Edwards is bantering +Losing, and asks him if he will repeat his bet on this heat. He will +fast enough, and double it on the final result. Edwards wants nothing +better.</p> + +<p>This time, for a wonder, the horses got off at the first start, and a +tremendous pace they make, altogether too much for Trustee, who is +carried off his feet in the first half-quarter, and the Lady goes +ahead three, four, five lengths, and has taken the pole before he can +recover. Bryan continues to crowd the pace. The mare comes round to +the score in 2´ 33´´, leading by four lengths, and her driver +threshing her already. "She can't stand it," say the knowing ones; +"she must drop out soon." But she doesn't drop out in the second mile +at least, for at the end of that, she is still three lengths in +advance, and Trustee does not appear so fresh as he did last heat. The +Long-Islanders are exultant, and the sporting men look shy. When they +come home in the last quarter, the chestnut has only taken one length +out of the gap; nevertheless, he goes for the outside, and makes the +best rush he can. It's no use. He can't get near her; breaks up again, +and crosses the score a long way behind. Much manifestation of +boisterous joy among the farmers. Edwards looks sold, and something +like a smile passes over Losing's unimpassioned countenance. It is +plain sailing for the judges this time. "Lady Suffolk has the heat in +7' 49´´," and there is no mistake or dispute about it.</p> + +<p>Another long pause. Eight minutes' sport and three quarters of an hour +intermission among such a company begins to be rather dull work. All +the topics of interest afforded by the place have been exhausted. +Harrison and Benson begin to talk stocks and investments; the +juveniles are comparing their watering place experiences during the +summer. Ashburner says nothing, and smokes an indefinite number of +cigars; Losing says rather less, and smokes more. Edwards has +disappeared; gone, possibly, to talk to the doubtful carriages. It is +growing dark before they are ready for the third and decisive heat.</p> + +<p>One false start, and at the second trial they are off. The mare has +the inside, in right of having won the preceding heat. She crowds the +pace from the start, as usual; but Trustee is better handled this +time, and does not break. Case allows the Lady to lead him by three +lengths, and keeps his horse at a steady gait, in quiet pursuit of +her. For two miles their positions are unaltered; Bryan's friends +cheer him vociferously every time as he comes round; he replies by a +flourish of his long whip and additional shouts to his mare. In the +third mile, Trustee begins to creep up, and in the third quarter of +it, just before he gets out of sight from the stand, is only a length +and a half behind. When they appear again, there are plenty of anxious +lookers-out; and men like our friend Edwards, who have a thousand or +more at stake on the result, cannot altogether restrain their +emotions. Here they come close enough together! Trustee has lapped the +mare on the outside; his head is opposite the front rim of her wheel. +Bryan shouts and whips like one possessed; Case's small voice is also +lifted up to encourage Trustee. The chestnut is gaining, but only inch +by inch, and they are nearly home. Now Case has lifted him with the +whip, and he makes a rush and is at her shoulder. Now he will have +her. Oh, dear, he has gone up! Hurrah for the old gray! Stay! Case has +caught him beautifully; he is on his trot again opposite her wheel. +One desperate effort on the part of man and horse, and Trustee shoots +by the mare; but not till after she has crossed the score. Lady +Suffolk is quite done up; she could not go another quarter; but she +has held out long enough to win the heat and the money.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p>And now, as it was somewhere in the neighborhood of seven, and neither +Ashburner nor Benson had eaten any thing since eight in the morning, +they began to feel very much inclined for dinner, or supper, or +something of the sort; and the team travelled back quite as fast as it +was safe to go by twilight; a little faster, the Englishman might have +thought, if he had not been so hungry. Then, after crossing the +Brooklyn ferry, Benson announced his intention of putting up his +horses for the night at a livery stable, and himself at Ashburner's +hotel, as it was still a long drive for that time of night to +Devilshoof; which being agreed upon, they next dived into an oyster +cellar, of which there are about two to a block all along Broadway, +and ordered an unlimited supply of the agreeable shellfish, +broiled;—<i>oyster chops</i>, Ashburner used to call them; and the term +gives a stranger a pretty good idea of what these large oysters look +like, cooked as they are with crumbs, exactly in the style of a +<i>cotelette panée</i>. And they make very nice eating, too; only they +promote thirst and induce the consumption of numerous glasses of +champagne or brandy and water, as the case may be. Whether this be an +objection to them or not, is matter of opinion. Then having adjourned +to Ashburner's apartment in the fifth story of the Manhattan hotel (it +was a room with an alcove, French fashion), and smoked numerous +Firmezas there, the Englishman turned in for the night; and Benson, +who had no notion of paying for a bed when he could get a sofa for +nothing, disposed himself at full length upon Ashburner's, without +taking off any thing except his hat, and was fast asleep in less time +than it would take <i>The Sewer</i> to tell a lie.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The United States government, (U. S.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> A very critical friend wants to know if the term +<i>dilapidated</i> can, with strict propriety, be applied to a <i>wooden</i> +building.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> A horse will "go the pole" in such a time, means that he +will go in double harness. A horse "has the pole," means that he has +drawn the place nearest the inside boundary fence of the track.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> A five-dollar bill is so called from the designation in +Roman numerals upon it.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From Chamber's Edinburgh Journal.</h4> +<h2>PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF A DUTCH POET.</h2> + +<p>The name of Wilhelm Bilderdyk is scarcely known beyond the boundaries +of his own country; and yet those who are conversant with the Dutch +language place him in a very high rank as a poet. The publication of +his first poem, <i>Elicus</i>, formed quite an era in the history of Dutch +literature. It was speedily followed by a faithful and spirited +translation of the <i>Œdipus</i> of Sophocles, and versions of other +Greek writers. Besides his imaginative pursuits, he engaged with ardor +in the study of geology, and almost rivalled Cuvier in his +acquaintance with natural history. War and invasion, however, +interrupted the labors of Bilderdyk. He quitted Holland, travelled +through Germany, crossed over to England, and finally spent some time +amongst the Scottish Highlands, where he employed himself in +translating Ossian's poems into Dutch verse. He then went to the +principality of Brunswick, and there composed a very extraordinary +work, <i>The Maladies of Wise Men</i>, a poem whose mild, lofty sublimity, +unearthly interest, and grasp of gloomy thought, entitle it to rank +with the Inferno of Dante.</p> + +<p>Bilderdyk at length was able to return to his country. Louis Napoleon, +who then reigned at the Hague, chose him as his instructor in the +Dutch language, and named him president of the second class in the +Institute of Amsterdam. About this time he married a beautiful and +clever girl, named Wilhelmina; and for several years they enjoyed +together as perfect happiness as this world can give—she occupied in +domestic and maternal duties, and he adding to his fame and fortune by +the publication of several works. But at length death visited their +dwelling, and removed within a brief space three lovely children. +Their loss was commemorated in two poems—<i>Winter Flowers</i>, and <i>The +Farewell</i>. Not long afterwards, public misfortune came to aggravate +his private sorrows. Louis Napoleon left Holland, and Bilderdyk took +refuge at Groningen, where he stayed for some time, and then, +rejecting a liberal offer of employment made him by William of Orange, +he set out for France, accompanied by his wife.</p> + +<p>When they entered the diligence, they found it occupied but by one +person, a young female of mild and engaging appearance. No sooner did +the heavy machine begin to move than she began to scream, and +testified the most absurd degree of terror. Public carriages then were +certainly far inferior, both in safety and accommodation, to those of +modern times; yet the probable amount of danger to be apprehended did +not by any means justify the excessive apprehension manifested by the +fair traveller. On arriving at Brussels, the lady was so much overcome +that she announced her intention of stopping some days in that city to +recruit her strength before venturing again to encounter the perils of +a diligence; and taking leave of Bilderdyk and his wife, she +gratefully thanked the latter for the kind attention she had shown her +during the journey. The two Hollanders proceeded on their way to +Paris, laughing heartily from time to time at the foolish cowardice of +a woman who saw a precipice in every rut, and a certain overturn in +every jolt of the wheels.</p> + +<p>Arrived at their journey's end, the travellers took up their abode in +a humble dwelling in the Rue Richelieu, and commenced with the utmost +delight visiting all the wonderful things in Paris. Bilderdyk soon +found himself completely in his element. He breakfasted with Cuvier at +the Jardin des Plantes, passed his afternoon at the Bibliothèque +Richelieu, dined in the Faubourg St. Germain with Dr. Alibert, and +finished the evening at the play or the opera. One day he and his wife +were given excellent places for witnessing the ascent in a balloon of +a young woman, Mme. Blanchard, whose reckless courage enabled her to +undertake aërial voyages,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> despite the sad fate which befell Pilastre +de Rosiers, her own husband, and several other aëronauts. Our +Hollanders amused themselves for some time with watching the process +of inflating the balloon, and following with their eyes the course of +the tiny messenger-balloons sent up to ascertain the direction of the +upper currents of wind. At length all is ready, the band strikes up a +lively air, and Mme. Blanchard, dressed in white and crowned with +roses, appears, holding a small gay flag in her hand. With the most +graceful composure she placed herself in the boat, the cords were +loosed, and the courageous adventuress, borne rapidly upwards in her +perilous vehicle, soon appeared like a dark spot in the sky.</p> + +<p>When he returned to his lodging, Bilderdyk composed a poem in honor of +the brave woman who adventured her life so boldly, rivalling the free +birds of heaven in her flight, and beholding the stars face to face. +Next morning he hastened to get his production printed, and without +considering that Mme. Blanchard most likely did not understand Dutch, +he repaired to her lodgings with a copy of the poem in his hand, +intending to ask permission to present it to her. He was courteously +invited to enter the drawing-room, and there, to his great amazement, +he found himself <i>tête-à-tête</i> with the silly, frightened lady, whose +nervous tremors in the Brussels diligence had afforded so much +amusement to him and his wife. Surprised and disconcerted, he was +beginning to apologize, when the lady interrupted him.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur," she said, "you are not mistaken. I am Mme. Blanchard. You +see how possible it is for the same person to be cowardly in a coach, +and courageous in a balloon."</p> + +<p>A good deal of conversation ensued, the poem was timidly offered, and +graciously accepted; and the fair aëronaut accepted an invitation to +dine that day with Bilderdyk and his wife. In the course of the +evening Mme. Blanchard related to them some curious circumstances in +her life. Her mother kept a humble wayside inn near La Rochelle, while +her father worked in the fields. One day a balloon descended near +their door, and out of it was taken a man, severely but not +dangerously bruised. Her parents received him with the utmost +hospitality, and supplied him with all the comforts they could give. +He had no money wherewith to repay them, but as he was about to +depart, he remarked that the mistress of the house was very near her +confinement, and he said: "Listen, and mark my words. Fortune cannot +always desert me. In sixteen years, if alive, I will return hither. If +the child who will soon be born to you should be a boy, I will then +adopt him; if a girl, I will marry her!"</p> + +<p>The worthy peasants laughed heartily at this strange method of paying +a bill; and although they allowed their guest to depart, they +certainly built very little on his promise. The aëronaut, however, +kept his word, and at the end of sixteen years re-appeared at the inn, +then inhabited by only a fair young girl, very lately left an orphan. +She willingly accepted Jean Pierre Blanchard as a husband, and for a +short time they lived happily together; but during an ascent which he +made in Holland, he was seized with apoplexy, and fell to the ground +from a height of sixty feet. The unhappy aëronaut was not killed on +the spot, but lingered for some time in frightful torture, carefully +and fondly attended by his wife, whom at length he left a young and +penniless widow.</p> + +<p>Marie Madeleine Blanchard, despite her natural timidity, resolved to +adopt her husband's perilous profession. Pride and necessity combined +do wonders; and not only did she succeed in maintaining perfect +composure while in the air, but she also displayed wonderful presence +of mind during the time of danger. On one occasion she ascended in her +balloon from Nantes, intending to come down at about four leagues from +that town, in what she believed to be a large meadow. While rapidly +descending, the cordage of the balloon became entangled in the +branches of a tree, and she found herself suspended over a vast green +marsh, whose treacherous mud would infallibly ingulf her. Drawn to the +spot by her cries, several peasants came to her assistance, and with +considerable difficulty and danger succeeded in placing her on terra +firma.</p> + +<p>On the day following the one on which she dined with M. and Mme. +Bilderdyk, Mme. Blanchard left Paris, promising her two friends, as +she bade them farewell, that she would soon return. Time passed on, +however, and they heard nothing of her. They were preparing to return +to Holland, when some of Bilderdyk's countrymen residing in Paris +resolved to give him a banquet on the eve of his departure.</p> + +<p>The entertainment took place at a celebrated restaurant, situated at +the angle formed by the Rue Cauchat and the Rue de Provence. While +enjoying themselves at table, the guests suddenly perceived the +windows darkened by the passing of some large black object. With one +accord they rose and ran out: a woman lay on the pavement, pale, +crushed, and dead. Bilderdyk gave a cry—it was Mme. Blanchard! In +what a guise to meet her again! Encouraged by the constant impunity of +her perilous ascensions, the unhappy aëronaut (the word I believe has +no feminine), finding a formidable rival in Mlle. Garnerin, resolved +to surpass her in daring by augmenting the risk of her aërial voyages. +For this purpose she lighted up her balloon car with colored lamps, +and carried with her a supply of fireworks. On the sixth of July, +1819, she rose from amid a vast concourse of spectators. The balloon +caught in one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> trees in the Champs-Elysées, but without +regarding the augury, Mme. Blanchard threw out ballast, and as she +rose rapidly in the air she spilled a quantity of lighting spirits of +wine, and then sent off rockets and Roman candles. Suddenly, with +horror, the mass of upturned eyes beheld the balloon take fire. One +piercing shriek from above mingled with the affrighted cries of the +crowd below, and then some object was seen to detach itself from the +fiery globe. As it came near the earth, it was recognized as the body +of the ill-fated Mme. Blanchard.</p> + +<p>Weeping and trembling, Bilderdyk aided in raising the disfigured +corpse, and wrapped it up in the net-work of the balloon, which the +hands still grasped firmly. The shock, acting on his excitable +temperament, threw him into a dangerous illness, from which, however, +he recovered, and returned to his native country. There he published +an admirable treatise, "The Theory of Vegetable Organization," and a +poem entitled, "The Destruction of the Primeval World." A French +critic has placed this latter work in the same rank with "Paradise +Lost," and says: "Old Milton has nothing finer, more energetic, or +more vast, in his immortal work." An English critic, however, would +probably scarcely concur in this judgment.</p> + +<p>Bilderdyk died in the town of Haarlem on the 18th of December, 1831.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From Household Words.</h4> +<h2>OUR PHANTOM SHIP: CHINA.</h2> + +<p>Since a typhoon occurs not much oftener than once in about three +years, it would be odd if we should sail immediately into one; but we +are fairly in the China seas, which are the typhoon's own peculiar +sporting ground, and it is desperately sultry, and those clouds are +full of night and lightning, to say nothing of a fitful gale and angry +sea. Look out! There is the coast of China. Now for a telescope to see +the barren, dingy hills, with clay and granite peeping out, with a few +miserable trees and stunted firs. That is our first sight of the +flowery land, and we shall not get another yet, for the spray begins +to blind us; it is quite as much as we can do to see each other. Now +the wind howls and tears the water up, as if it would extract the +great waves by their roots, like so many of old Ocean's teeth; but he +kicks sadly at the operation. We are driven by the wild blast that +snaps our voices short off at the lips and carries them away; no words +are audible. We are among a mass of spars and men wild as the storm on +drifting broken junks; a vessel founders in our sight, and we are +cast, with dead and living, upon half a dozen wrecks entangled in a +mass, upon the shore of Hong Kong;—ourselves safe, of course, for we +have left at home whatever could be bruised upon the journey. How many +houses have been blown away like hats, how many rivers have been +driven back to swell canals and flood the fields, (whose harvest has +been prematurely cropped on the first warning of the typhoon's +intended visit,) we decline investigating. The evening sky is very +wild, and we were all last night under the typhoon at sea; to-night we +are in the new town of Victoria, and will be phantom bed-fellows to +any Chinaman who has been eating pork for supper. The Chinese are very +fond of pork, or any thing that causes oiliness in man. A lean man +forfeits something in their estimation; for they say, "He must have +foolishness; why has he wanted wisdom to eat more?"</p> + +<p>Hong Kong was one of the upshots of our cannonading in the pure and +holy Chinese war; and as for the new town of Victoria, we shall walk +out of it at once, for we have not travelled all this way to look at +Englishmen. The island itself is eight or ten miles long, and +sometimes two or sometimes six miles broad. It is the model of a grand +mountain region on a scale of two inches to the foot. There are crags, +ravines, wild torrents, fern-covered hills; but the highest mountain +does not rise two thousand feet.—We stand upon it now. Quite contrary +to usual experience, we found, in coming up, the richest flowers at +the greatest elevation. The heat and dryness of the air below, where +the sun's rays are reflected from bare surfaces, is said to be +oppressive, and perhaps the flowers down there want a pleasant shade. +From our elevation we can see few patches of cultivation, but leaping +down the rocks are many picturesque cascades. Hong Kong is christened +from its own waters, its name signifying in Chinese "the Island of +Fragrant Streams." There is a goat upon the nearest rock; but look +beyond. On one side is the bay, with shipping, and behind us the broad +expanse of the ocean; and before us is the sea, studded as far as our +eyes can reach with mountainous islands, among which we must sail to +reach Canton. Now we float onward in the Phantom, and among these +islands our sharp eyes discover craft that have more hands on board +than usually man an honest vessel. In the holes and corners of the +islands pirates lurk to prey upon the traffic of Canton. We pass Macao +on our way into the Canton river. Portugal was a nation of quality +once, with a strong constitution, and in those days, once upon a time, +wrecked Portuguese gained leave to dry a cargo on the Island of Macao. +They erected sheds a little stronger than were necessary for that +temporary purpose; in fact, they turned the accident to good account, +and established here an infant settlement, which soon grew to maintain +itself, and sent money home occasionally to assist its mother. Twice +the Emperor of China offered to make Macao an emporium for European +trade; the Portuguese preferred to be exclusive. So the settlement +fell sick, and since the English made Hong Kong a place of active +trade, very few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> people trouble themselves to inquire whether Macao be +dead yet, or only dying. The Portuguese town has a mournful aspect, +marked as it is by strong lines of character that indicate departed +power.</p> + +<p>Still sailing among islands, mountainous and barren, we soon reach the +Bocca Tigris, or mouth of the Canton river, guarded now with very +formidable forts. The Chinese, since their war with England, have been +profiting by sore experience. If their gunnery be as completely mended +as their fortifications, another war with them would not be quite so +much like an attack of grown men upon children. The poor Chinese, in +that war, were indefatigable in the endeavor to keep up appearances. +Steam ships were scarcely worth attention—they had "plenty all the +same inside:" and when the first encounter, near the spot on which we +are now sailing, between junks and men-of-war, had exhibited the +tragedy, in flesh and bone, of John Bull in a China-shop, the Chinese +Symonds, at Ningpo, was ordered to build ships exactly like the +British. He could not execute the order, and played, therefore, +executioner upon himself. Cannon were next ordered, that should be +large enough to destroy a ship at one burst. They were made, and the +first monster tried, immediately burst and killed its three +attendants; nobody could be induced to fire the others. One morning, a +British fleet was very much surprised to see the shore look formidable +with a line of cannon mouths. The telescope, which had formed no part +of the Chinese calculations, discovered them to be a row of earthern +pots. Forts, in the same way, often turned out to be dummies made of +matting, with the portholes painted; and sometimes real cannon, mere +three pounders, had their fronts turned to the sea, plugged with +blocks of wood, cut and so painted as to resemble the mouths of +thirty-two pounders shotted. However, we have passed real strong forts +and veritable heavy cannon, to get through the Bocca Tigris. Nothing +is barren now; the river widens, and looks like an inland sea; the +flat land near the shores is richly cultivated; rice is there and upon +the islands, all protected with embankments to admit or exclude the +flood in its due season, or provided with wheels for raising water +where the land is too high to be flooded in a simpler manner. The +embankments, too, yield plantain crops. The water on each side is gay +with water lilies, which are cultivated for their roots. Banyan and +fig-trees, cypress, orange, water-pines, and weeping willows, grow +beside the stream, with other trees; but China is not to be called a +richly timbered country; most of its districts are deficient in large +trees. There is the Whampoa Pagoda; there are more pagodas, towers, +joss-houses; here are the European factories, and here are boats, +boats, boats, literally, hundreds of thousands of boats—the sea-going +junk, gorgeous with griffins, and with proverbs, and with painted +eyes; the flower boat; boats of all shapes, and sizes, down to the +barber's boat, which barely holds the barber and his razor. There is a +city on the water, and the dwellers in these boats, who whether men or +women, dive and swim so naturally that they may all be fishes, +curiously claim their kindred with the earth. On every boat, a little +soil and a few flowers, are as essential as the little joss-house and +the little joss. Canals flow from the river through Canton; every +where, over the mud, upon the water side are wooden houses built on +piles. But here we will not go ashore; the suburbs of Canton are full +of thieves, and little boys who shout <i>fan-qui</i> (foreign devil) after +all barbarians, and we should not be welcome in the city; so we will +not go where we shall not be welcome. After floating up and down the +streets and lanes of water made between the boats upon the Canton +river, pleased with the strange music, the gongs, and the incessant +chattering of women, (Chinese women are pre-eminent as chatterers,) we +sail away. We do not wait even till night to wonder at the scene by +lantern light; but returning by the way we came, repass the rice +fields, the water lilies, and the forts, the islands, and Macao, and +Hong Kong, and have again before us the expanse of ocean. Canton lies +within the tropic; sugar-cane grown in its vicinity yields brown sugar +and candy; but our lump sugar is a luxury to which the Chinese have +not yet attained. Canton lying within the tropic, we shall change our +climate on the journey northward. An empire that engrosses nearly a +tenth part of the globe, and includes the largest population gathered +under any single government, will have many climates in its eighteen +provinces. Now we are sailing swiftly northward by a barren rocky +coast, with sometimes hills of sand, and sometimes cultivated patches, +and, except for the pagodas on the highest elevations, we might fancy +we were off the coast of Scotland.</p> + +<p>Five ports are open to our trade upon the coast of China; one of +these, Canton, we have merely looked at, and the next, Amoy, we pass +unvisited in sailing up between the mainland and Formosa. Amoy +produces the best Chinese sailors, and it is in this port that the +native junks have most experience of foreign trade; it is a dirty, +densely-peopled town, too distant from the tea and silk regions to be +of prominent importance to the Europeans. As soon as we have passed +through the Formosa channel, we direct our course towards the river +Min, and steering safely among rocks and sand-banks, among which is a +rock cleft into five pyramids, regarded with a sort of worship by the +sailors, we float up the river to the third of the five cities, +Foo-chow-foo. The river varies in width, sometimes a mile across, +where it is flowing between plains, sometimes confined between the +hills; a hilly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> country is about us, with some mountains nearly twice +as high as those up which we clambered at Hong-Kong. We pass, after a +few miles' sail, the little town and fort of Mingan; we sail among +pagodas and temples, near which the priests plant dark spreading +fig-trees, terraced hills, yielding earth-nuts and sweet potatoes; we +see cultivation carried up some mountain sides beyond two thousand +feet, and barren mountains, granite rocks, islands, and villages; here +and there more wooded tracts than usually belong to a Chinese +landscape, rills of water and cascades that tumble down into the Min. +We have sailed up the river twenty miles, and here is Foo-chow-foo. We +have met on our way a good many junks, having wood lashed to their +sides; and here we see acres of wood (chiefly pine) afloat before the +suburbs, for here wood is a main article of trade. We pass under the +bridge Wanshow ("myriads of ages"), which connects the suburbs on each +bank; it is a bridge of granite slabs, supported upon fifty pillars of +strong masonry, the whole about two thousand feet in length. The +suburbs happen just now to be flooded, and the large Tartar population +here delights in mobbing a barbarian. This inhospitable character +repels men, while the floods and rapids of the river and its +tributaries, causes an uncertainty of transit, tend also to keep +European traders out of Foo-chow-foo. True, the bohea tea hills are in +the vicinity, but their bohea tea has not a first-rate character, and +the great seat of the tea trade is yet farther north. The city walls +are eight or nine miles in circumference; but we will not enter their +gates for all Chinese cities have a close resemblance to each other; +it is enough to visit one, and we can do better than visit this. We +sail back to the sea again, and there resume our northward voyage. We +have seen part of the mountainous or hilly half of China; farther +north, between the two great rivers, and beyond them to the famous +Wall, is a great plain studded in parts with lakes or swamps, and very +fertile.</p> + +<p>Far westward, we might journey to the high central table-land of Asia, +where there are extensive levels; but the seaward provinces are the +most fertile; and as for the Chinese themselves, they are in all +places very much alike—in body as in character. But sailing in our +ship, and talking of those plains, we may naturally recall to our +minds those ancient days when the Chinese, civilised then as now, +guided their chariots across a pathless level on the land by the same +instrument that guides our ship across a pathless level on the water.</p> + +<p>The coast by which we sail is studded with islands, and to reach +Ningpo, the fourth of the five ports, we pass between the mainland and +the island of Chusan. The water here is quite hemmed in with islands +forming the Chusan Archipelago. Chusan is like a piece of the Scotch +Highlands, twenty miles long, and ten or twelve broad, with rich +vegetation added. Forty miles' sail from Chusan brings us to Ningpo. +Amongst the numerous islands past which we have floated, we should +have found, on many, characters not quite Chinese. One island, visited +for water by one of our ships, was said to be an Eden for its +innocence. Crime was unknown among the islanders: and at a grave look +or a slight tap with a fan, the wrong-doer invariably desisted from +his evil course. The simplicity of the natives here consisted in the +fact, that they expected credit for the character they gave +themselves. On another island, the natives entertained snug notions of +a warm bed in the winter. Their bed was a stone trough; in winter they +spread at the bottom of this trough hot embers, and over these a large +stone, over that their bedding, and then tucked themselves comfortably +in.</p> + +<p>Ningpo, with its bridge of boats and Chinese shipping and pagodas, has +a picturesque appearance from the river. It is large, populous, and +wealthy; a place to which the merchant may retire to spend his gains, +more than a port for active and hard working commerce. That is the +reason why we will not land at Ningpo. Where, then, shall we land? If +you have no objection, at Shangae, the fifth and most important, +although not the largest, of these ports. But sea life is monotonous, +and therefore we will take five minutes' diversion ashore, after we +have sailed some twenty miles up this canal. Here we will land under +an avenue of pines, and walk up to a Buddhist temple. We are in the +centre of the green-tea district.</p> + +<p>The priests, belonging, for a wonder, to a simple-minded class, +receive us, of course hospitably. The stranger is at all times welcome +to a lodging, and to his portion of the Buddhist vegetable dinner. +These priests are like some of our monks in mendicancy charity, and +superstition. In the pagodas they always have a meal prepared for the +arrival of a hungry traveller. But hungry we are not; and we came +hither to see the tea-plantations; these we now seek out. They are +small farms upon the lower slopes of hills; the soil is rich; it must +be rich, or the tea-plant would not long endure the frequent stripping +of its leaves, which usage does of course sooner or later kill it. +Each plant is at a distance of about four feet from its neighbors, and +the plantations look like little shrubberies. The small proprietors +inhabit wretched-looking cabins, in which each of them has fixed a +flue and coppers for the drying of his tea. In the appearance of the +people there is nothing wretched; old men sit at their doors like +patriarchs, expecting and receiving reverence; young men, balancing +bales across their shoulders, travel out, and some return with strings +of copper money; the chief tea-harvest is over, and the merchants have +come down now to the little inns about the district, that each +husbandman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> may offer them his produce. There are three tea-making +seasons. The first is in the middle of April, just before the rains, +when the first leaves of spring are plucked; these make the choicest +tea, but their removal tries the vigor of the plant. Then come the +rains; the tea-plant pushes out new leaves, and already in May the +plantation is again dark with foliage; that is the season of the +second, the great gathering. A later gathering of coarse leaves yields +an inferior tea, scarcely worth exporting. It should be understood +that although black and green tea are both made from the same kind of +leaf, there really are two tea-plants. The plant cultivated at Canton +for black tea, and known in our gardens as <i>Thea Bohea</i>, differs from +the <i>Thea viridis</i>, which yields the harvest here. The Canton plant, +however, is not cultivated in the North; on the Bohea hills +themselves, speaking botanically, there grows no Bohea tea; the plant +there, also, is the <i>Thea viridis</i>. The difference between our green +and black tea is produced entirely in the making. Green tea is more +quickly and lightly dried, so that it contains more of the virtues of +the leaf. Black tea is dried more slowly; exposed, while moist, on +mats, when it ferments a little, and then subjected in drying to a +greater heat, which makes it blacker in its color. The bright bloom on +our green tea is added with a dye, to suit the gross taste of +barbarians. The black tea will keep better, being better dried. There +is a kind of tea called Hyson Pekoe made from the first young buds +which keeps ill, being very little fired, but when good it is +extremely costly. As for our names of teas,—of the first delicate +harvest, the black tea is called Pekoe, and the green, Young Hyson; +Hyson being the corruption of Chinese words, that mean "flourishing +spring." The produce of the main or second harvest yields, in green +tea, Hyson; out of which are picked the leaves that prove to be best +rolled for Gunpowder, or as the Chinese call it, pearl-tea. Souchong +("small or scarce sort") is the best black tea of the second crop, +followed by Congou (koong-foo, "assiduity"). Twankay is imported +largely, a green tea from older leaves, which European retailers +employ for mixing with the finer kinds. Bohea, named from the hills we +talked of, is the lowest quality of black tea, though good Bohea is +better than a middling quality of Congou. The botanical <i>Thea Bohea</i> +comes into our pots, with refuse Congou, as Canton Bohea. At Canton, +however, Young Hyson and Gunpowder are manufactured out of these +leaves, chopped and painted; and this branch of the fine arts is +carried on extensively in Chinese manufactories established there. As +the tea-merchants go out to collect their produce of the little +farmers; so the mercers in the Nankeen districts leave their cities +for the purchase, in the same way, of home-woven cloth. It is the same +in the silk districts. If we look now into a larger Chinese farm on +our way back to the Phantom, we shall find the tenants on a larger +scale supplying their own wants, and making profit of the surplus. On +such a farm we shall find also familiar friends, fowls, ducks, geese, +pigs, goats, and dogs, bullocks, and buffaloes; indoors there will be +a best parlor in the shape of a Hall of Ancestors, containing +household gods and an ancestral picture, before which is a table or +altar with its offerings. There is the head of the family, who built a +room for each son as he married, and left each son to add other rooms +as they were necessary, till a colony arose under the common roof +about the common hall, in which rules, as a high priest and patriarch, +the living ancestor. Respect for the past is the whole essence of +Chinese religion and morality. The oldest emperors were fountain-heads +of wisdom, and he who imitates the oldest doctrine is the wisest man. +The tombs of ancestors are visited with pious care; respect and +worship is their due. This had at all times been the Chinese +principle, to which Confucius added the influence of a good man's +support. No nation has been trained into this feeling so completely as +the Chinese, and as long as they saw nothing beyond themselves, and +were taught to look down upon barbarians out of the heights of their +own ignorance concerning them, they were contented to stand still. But +the Chinese are a people sharply stimulated by the love of gain; they +despised what they had not seen, yet it is evident that they have not +been slow to profit by experience of European arts. An emigrant +Chinese became acquainted with a Prussian blue manufactory, secretly +observed the process of the manufacture, took his secret home, and +China now makes at home all the Prussian blue which was before +imported. The Chinese emigrant is active, shrewd. In Batavia he +ko-toos to the Dutch, and lets his tail down dutifully. In Singapore +he readily assumes a freer spirit, keeps his tail curled, and walks +upright among the Englishmen.</p> + +<p>We are now sailing towards Shangae, no very long way northward from +Ningpo, to the last of the five ports we came out to visit. It is not +necessary to return to the Yellow Sea, for all this part of China is +so freely intersected with canals that we may sail to Shangae among +farms and rice-grounds. While among the farmers, we may call to mind +that the great lord of the Chinese manor is the Emperor, to whom this +ground immediately belongs, and who receives as rent for it a tenth of +all the produce. A large part of this tenth is paid in kind. The +Emperor is the great father also; his whole care of his enormous +family distinctly assumes the paternal form, and embodies a good deal +of the maxim, that to spare the rod will spoil the child. To govern is +expressed in Chinese by the symbols of bamboo and strike; and the +bamboo does, in the way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> of striking a vast deal of business. The +central legislation is as a rule beneficent, and based upon an earnest +desire to do good; for the father is answerable for the welfare of his +children. National calamities have, at all times, been ascribed by the +Chinese directly to their Emperors; who must by personal humiliation +appease the anger of the gods. So large a household as this father has +to care for requires many stewards, mandarins, and others; all these +officers of state are those sons who have proved themselves to be the +wisest, on examination into their attainments. A grand system of +education pervades China; and, above the first school, to which all +are sent, there is a series of four examinations, through which every +Chinese may graduate if he will study. Not to pass the first is to be +vile, and the highest degrees qualify for all the offices of state; +but Chinese education means, after reading and writing, and moral +precepts of Confucius, little beside a knowledge of Chinese ancient +history and literature. The Emperor, belonging to a Tartar dynasty, +bestows an equal patronage on Tartars and Chinese. The officers +throughout the provinces are, as a further precaution, obliged to +serve in places distant from their own connections, in order that no +private feelings may destroy their power to be just. They are scantily +paid, however; and, as a Chinese likes profit with his honor, the +minor officials drive a trade in bribery, which often nullifies the +central edicts, and which very directly helped to bring about the +Opium war. The Emperor himself is, of course, too sublime a person to +be often seen; the Son of Heaven, he robes himself in the imperial +yellow, because that is the hue of the sun's jacket; but, once a year, +in enforcement of a main principle of the Chinese political +economy—Honor to Agriculture—he drives the plough before a state +procession; and the grain sown in those imperial furrows is afterwards +bought up by courtiers, at a most flattering price.</p> + +<p>Where are we now?—we have shot out upon a grand expanse of water, +like an inland sea. An horizon of water is before us—we cannot see +the other bank of the Yang-tse-Kiang, the "child of the ocean," the +great river of China; the greatest river in the old world, and +surpassed only by two on the whole globe. Here, eighty miles above the +sea, it is eight miles in breadth, and sixty feet deep, flowing five +miles an hour; and far up, off the walls of Nankin, its breadth is +three thousand six hundred feet, and its depth twenty-two fathoms, at +a distance of fifty paces from either shore. Well, this is something +like a river; from its source to its mouth, in a straight line, the +distance is one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six miles; and the +windings nearly double its real length, making three thousand three +hundred and thirty-six English miles; of which two thousand, from the +mouth upwards, are said to be quite free from all obstruction. At its +mouth it is, comparatively, shallow; much of this vast body of water +is diverted from its course and carried through the country in canals. +We are not far, now, from the great canal which cuts across this river +and the Hoang-Ho, another grand stream farther northward, with a +course of two thousand six hundred and thirty miles. Between the +Yang-tse-Kiang and Hoang-Ho the country is so flat that, if we may +judge by the scene from the mast-head of the Phantom, not a hillock +breaks the level waste of fertile land. In ancient times this country +was subjected to desolating floods, which, in fact, caused the removal +of the capital. The canal system was commenced, then, as a means of +drainage, by a wise man, who was made an emperor for his sagacity. Now +the canals serve the purposes of commerce, and agriculture also, since +water, in abundance, is essential for the irrigation of the +rice-fields. We are sailing up the Shangae river, a tributary of the +Yang-tse-Kiang; this river, at Shangae, we perceive is about as broad +as the Thames at London Bridge; for we are at Shangae. We sail through +a water-gate into the centre of the town, and land beside a fleet of +junks, into which heaps of rice are being shot; these are grain junks +sent from Pekin to receive part of the imperial tribute.</p> + +<p>Narrow, dirty streets, low houses, brilliant open shops, painted with +red and gold. Here is a fragrant fruit-shop, where a poor Chinese is +buying an iced slice of pine-apple for less money than a farthing. +Here is the chandler's, gay with candles of the tallow-tree coated +with colored wax. The chandler deals in puffs; and what an un-English +appeal is this from the candle-maker on behalf of his wares—"Late at +night in the snow gallery they study the books." Study the books! Yes; +through the crowd of Chinese, in their picturesque familiar dresses, +look at that man, with books upon a tray, who dives into house after +house. He lends books on hire to the poor people and servants. Who is +the puffer here? "We issue and sell Hong Chow tobacco, the name and +fame of which has galloped to the north of Kechow; and the flavor has +pervaded Keangnan in the south." Here we have "Famous teas from every +province;" and you see boiling water handy in the shop, wherewith the +customer may test his purchases. Here, on the other side of this +triumphal arch, we peep through a gateway hung with lanterns into a +small paved paradise with gold fish, (China is the home of gold fish), +and exotics, and trellis-work, and vines, and singing birds; that is a +mercer's shop, affecting style in China as in England, only in another +way. We will walk through the paradise into a grand apartment hung +with lanterns, decorated also with gilded tickets, inscribed "Pekin +satins and Canton crapes," "Hang-chow reeled silks," and so on. Here a +courtly Chinese, skilled in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> lubrication of a customer, produces +the rich heavy silks for which his country is renowned, the velvets or +the satins you desire, and shaves you skilfully. Talking of shaving, +and we run against a barber as we come out of the silk shop. He +carries a fire on his head, with water always boiling; on a pole over +his shoulder he balances his water, basin, towels, razors. Will you be +shaved like a Chinese? he picks you out a reasonably quiet doorway, +shaves your head, cleans your ears, tickles your eyes, and cracks your +joints in a twinkling. Where heads are shaved, the wipings of the +razors are extensive; they are all bought up, and employed as manure. +The Chinese have so many mouths to feed, that they can afford to lose +nothing that will fertilize the ground. Instead of writing on their +walls "Commit no nuisance," they place jars, and invite or even pay +the pilgrim.</p> + +<p>The long tail that the barber leaves is to the Chinese his sign of +manhood. Beards do not form a feature of Mongolian faces; a few stray +coarse hairs are all they get, with their square face, high cheek +bones, slanting eyes, and long dark hair upon the head. A plump body, +long ears, and a long tail, are the respectabilities of a Chinese. The +tail is magnified by working in false hair, and it generally ends with +silk. There is a man using his tail to thrash a pig along; and one +traveler records that he has seen a Chinese servant use the same +instrument for polishing a table. It is, of course, the thing to pull +at in a street fight. Here is a phrenologist, with a large figure of a +human head mapped into regions, inviting Chinese bumpkins to submit to +him their bumps. Here is a dentist showing his teeth. Here—we must +stop here—with a gong for drum, but raised on the true pedestal, with +a man inside, who knows the veritable squeak, are Punch and Judy, all +alive. This is their native land. "Pun-tse," the Chinese call our +friend, because he is a little puppet, after all—Puntse meaning in +Chinese, "the son of an inch." Here is the very Chinese bridge that we +have learned by heart along with the pagoda, from a willow-patterned +soup-plate; steps up, steps down, and a set of Chinese lanterns. Here +is a temple, flaming with red paint. Let us go in. Images, votive +candles burning on an altar, and a woman on her face wrestling in +prayer. After praying in a sort of agony for a few minutes, she has +stopped to take a bit of stick, round on one side, for she purposes +therewith to toss up and see whether her prayer is granted. Tails! She +loses! She is wrestling on her knees again—praying, doubtless, for a +"bull child." Girls are undesirable, because they are of no use except +for what they fetch in marriage gifts, and to fetch much they must be +good-looking. Poor woman—tails again! Never mind, she must persevere, +and she will get heads presently. Here comes a grave man, who prays +for half a minute, and pulls out one from a jar of scrolls. Having +examined it, he takes one of the little books that hang against the +wall, looks happy, and departs. He has been drawing lots to see +whether the issue of some undertaking will be fortunate. Poor +woman—tails again! We cannot stop for the result; but I have no doubt +that if she persevere she will get heads up presently. Here is a man +in the street with a whole bamboo kitchen on his head, nine feet long, +by six broad, uttering all manner of good things. The poor fellow who +drove the pig stops in the street to dine. What a Soyer that fellow +is, with his herbs, and his peppers, and his magic stove, and what a +magnificent stew he gives the pig driver! Do you know, I doubt whether +the Chinese are fools. What place have we here steaming like a boiler? +This, sir, is one of the public bath establishments, where a warm +bath, towels, and a dressing closet are at the service of the pig +driver after his dinner, for five <i>le</i>—less than a farthing. There, +too, his wife may go and obtain boiling water for the day's tea, which +is to that poor Chinaman his beer, and pay for it but a single <i>le</i>. +It would cost far more to boil it for herself; fuel is dear, and +except for cooking or for manufactures, is not used in China. There +are neither grates nor stoves in any Chinese parlor. The continent of +Asia, and with it China, has a climate of extremes, great summer heat +and an excessive winter cold; so that even at Canton, within the +tropic, snow falls. But the Chinaman warms not his toes at a fire; he +accommodates his comfortable costume to the climate; puts on more +clothes as the cold makes itself felt, and takes some off again if he +should feel too warm. That building on the walls is the temple of +Spring, to which ladies repair to dress their hair with flowers when +the first buds open. This handsome structure is the temple of +Confucius. Yonder is the hall of United Benevolence, which supports a +free hospital, a foundling hospital, and makes other provision for the +poor. The Chinese charities are supported generously; the Chinese are +a liberal and kindly race. Here is a shoemaker's shop, with a huge +boot hung over the door, and an inscription which might not suit +lovers of a good fit, "All here are measured by one rule." "When +favored by merchants who bestow their regards on us, please to notice +our sign of the Double Phœnix on a board as a mark; then it will be +all right." These signs are in common use on shops in China as they +were formerly in England. In this shop there is a wild fellow, who is +beating a gong fearfully, and who has rubbed himself with stinking +filth, that he may be the greater nuisance. This is his way of +extorting charity. That shopkeeper, not having compounded with the +king of the beggars for immunity from customers of this kind, seldom +lives a day without being compelled to pay as he is now paying for a +little peace. The beggar takes his nuisance then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> into another shop. +This is a vast improvement upon our street fiddle and organ practice. +There is a pawnbroker's three-per-cent. per month shop. Here is a +tea-house, surrounded with huge vases for rain-water which is kept to +acquire virtue by age—of course imaginary virtue—for the making of +celestial tea. In that house there is the oven for hatching eggs. +Gateways are fitted at the end of the wide streets, locked at night to +restrain thieves; and in the first house through the gateway here a +girl is screaming dreadfully. Very likely it is a case of sore feet. +The small feet of the Chinese women—about three inches long—are +essential, for without them a girl cannot get a husband; as a wife, +she is her husband's obedient, humble servant, but as a spinster she +is her parents' plague. The operation on the feet takes place when the +girl is seven or eight years old. A young naval surgeon, in his walks, +heard screams (like those) proceeding from a cottage, and went in; he +found a little girl in bed, with her feet bandaged; he removed the +bandage, found the feet of course bent, and ulcerated. He dressed the +wounds, and warned the mother. Passing, another day, he found the +child still suffering torment, and in a hectic fever. He again removed +the bandages, and warned the mother that her child's life would be +sacrificed if she continued with the process. The next time he went by +he saw a little coffin at the door.</p> + +<p>The tea-gardens are in the centre of the town; we will go thither and +rest. We might have dined with a hospitable townsman, where we could +have been present at a theatrical entertainment, in which the Chinese +delight like children. But a dinner in this country is a work of many +hours; the list is very long of things that we should have to touch or +eat. Chinese eat almost any thing; their carte includes birds' nests, +delicate meal-fed puppies, sea-slugs, sharks' fins and tails, frogs, +snails, worms, lizards, tortoises, and water-snakes, with many things +that we should better understand, and a great many disguised +vegetables. A Chinese dinner is so tediously long that we escape it +altogether. Milk is not used; it is thought improper to take it from +the calves; and meat plays no very large part of the Chinese diet. +During our late war it was seriously stated, by several advisers of +the Emperor, that to forbid the English tea and rhubarb would go a +great way to destroy the nation; "for it is well known that the +barbarians feed grossly on the flesh of animals, by which their bodies +are so bound and obstructed," that rhubarb and warm tea were necessary +to be taken, daily, as correctives. Now we are in the tea-gardens, and +have passed through a happy crowd, sipping tea, smoking, eating melon +pips, walking or looking at the jugglers. Into a fairy-like house of +bamboo, perched over water, we ascend. Here is an elegant apartment, +which we claim as private. We recline, and take our cups of tea; the +cups that have been used are wiped, not washed; for washing, say the +people here, would spoil their capacity for preserving the pure flavor +of this delicate young Hyson; upon a spoonful of which, placed in the +cup, hot water is now poured. Opium pipes, bring us! Ha! a hollow +cane, closed at one end, with a mouthpiece at the other; near the +centre is the bowl, of ample size, but with an outward opening no +bigger than a pin's head. We recline luxuriously—looking down on the +gay colors of the Chinese crowd, we take our long stilettos, prick off +a little pill of opium from its ivory reservoir, and burn it, +dexterously, in the spirit lamp; then twist it, judiciously, about the +pin's head orifice. Three whiffs, and it is out, and we are more than +half deprived of active consciousness. Let us repeat the operation. +Practised smokers will go on for hours; a few whiffs are enough for +us. Another languid gaze at the pagodas, and the flowers, and the +water, and the Chinamen; now some more opium to smoke!</p> + +<p>The Phantom finding us intoxicated, like a good servant may have +brought us home; for, certainly, we are at home.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From "Reminiscences of an Attorney" in Chambers's Edinburgh +Miscellany.</h4> +<h2>THE CHEST OF DRAWERS.</h2> + +<p>I am about to relate a rather curious piece of domestic history, some +of the incidents of which, revealed at the time of their occurrence in +law reports, may be in the remembrance of many readers. It occurred in +one of the midland counties, and at a place which I shall call Watley; +the names of the chief actors who figured in it must also, to spare +their modesty or their blushes, be changed; and should one of those +persons, spite of these precautions, apprehend unpleasant recognition, +he will be able to console himself with the reflection, that all I +state beyond that which may be gathered from the records of the law +courts will be generally ascribed to the fancy or invention of the +writer. And it is as well, perhaps, that it should be so.</p> + +<p>Caleb Jennings, a shoemender, or cobbler, occupied, some twelve or +thirteen years ago, a stall at Watley, which, according to the +traditions of the place, had been hereditary in his family for several +generations. He may also be said to have flourished there, after the +manner of cobblers; for this, it must be remembered, was in the good +old times, before the gutta-percha revolution had carried ruin and +dismay into the stalls—those of cobblers—which in considerable +numbers existed throughout the kingdom. Like all his fraternity whom I +have ever fallen in with or heard of, Caleb was a sturdy Radical of +the Major Cartwright and Henry Hunt school; and being withal +industrious, tolerably skilful, not inordinately prone to the +observance of Saint Mondays, possessed, moreover, of a +neatly-furnished sleeping and eating apartment in the house of which +the projecting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> first-floor, supported on stone pillars, overshadowed +his humble work-place, he vaunted himself to be as really rich as an +estated squire, and far more independent.</p> + +<p>There was some truth in this boast, as the case which procured us the +honor of Mr. Jennings's acquaintance sufficiently proved. We were +employed to bring an action against a wealthy gentleman of the +vicinity of Watley for a brutal and unprovoked assault he had +committed, when in a state of partial inebriety, upon a respectable +London tradesman who had visited the place on business. On the day of +trial our witness appeared to have become suddenly afflicted with an +almost total loss of memory; and we were only saved from an adverse +verdict by the plain, straight-forward evidence of Caleb, upon whose +sturdy nature the various arts which soften or neutralize hostile +evidence had been tried in vain. Mr. Flint, who personally +superintended the case, took quite a liking to the man; and it thus +happened that we were called upon some time afterwards to aid the said +Caleb in extricating himself from the extraordinary and perplexing +difficulty in which he suddenly and unwittingly found himself +involved.</p> + +<p>The projecting first floor of the house beneath which the humble +workshop of Caleb Jennings modestly disclosed itself, had been +occupied for many years by an ailing and somewhat aged gentleman of +the name of Lisle. This Mr. Ambrose Lisle was a native of Watley, and +had been a prosperous merchant of the city of London. Since his +return, after about twenty years' absence, he had shut himself up in +almost total seclusion, nourishing a cynical bitterness and acrimony +of temper which gradually withered up the sources of health and life, +till at length it became as visible to himself as it had for some time +been to others, that the oil of existence was expended, burnt up, and +that but a few weak flickers more, and the ailing man's plaints and +griefs would be hushed in the dark silence of the grave.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lisle had no relatives in Watley, and the only individual with +whom he was on terms of personal intimacy was Mr. Peter Sowerby, an +attorney of the place, who had for many years transacted all his +business. This man visited Mr. Lisle most evenings, played at chess +with him, and gradually acquired an influence over his client which +that weak gentleman had once or twice feebly but vainly endeavoured to +shake off. To this clever attorney, it was rumored, Mr. Lisle had +bequeathed all his wealth.</p> + +<p>This piece of information had been put in circulation by Caleb +Jennings, who was a sort of humble favorite of Mr. Lisle's, or, at all +events, was regarded by the misanthrope with less dislike than he +manifested toward others. Caleb cultivated a few flowers in a little +plot of ground at the back of the house, and Mr. Lisle would sometimes +accept a rose or a bunch of violets from him. Other slight +services—especially since the recent death of his old and garrulous +woman-servant, Esther May, who had accompanied him from London, and +with whom Mr. Jennings had always been upon terms of gossiping +intimacy—had led to certain familiarities of intercourse; and it thus +happened that the inquisitive shoemender became partially acquainted +with the history of the wrongs and griefs which preyed upon, and +shortened the life of, the prematurely-aged man.</p> + +<p>The substance of this everyday, common-place story, as related to us +by Jennings, and subsequently enlarged and colored from other sources, +may be very briefly told.</p> + +<p>Ambrose Lisle, in consequence of an accident which occurred in his +infancy, was slightly deformed. His right shoulder—as I understood, +for I never saw him—grew out, giving an ungraceful and somewhat +comical twist to his figure, which, in female eyes—youthful ones at +least—sadly marred the effect of his intelligent and handsome +countenance. This personal defect rendered him shy and awkward in the +presence of women of his own class of society; and he had attained the +ripe age of thirty-seven years, and was a rich and prosperous man, +before he gave the slightest token of an inclination towards +matrimony. About a twelvemonth previous to that period of his life, +the deaths—quickly following each other—of a Mr. and Mrs. Stevens +threw their eldest daughter, Lucy, upon Mr. Lisle's hands. Mr. Lisle +had been left an orphan at a very early age, and Mrs. Stevens—his +aunt, and then a maiden lady—had, in accordance with his father's +will, taken charge of himself and brother till they severally attained +their majority. Long, however, before that she married Mr. Stevens, by +whom she had two children—Lucy and Emily. Her husband, whom she +survived but two months, died insolvent; and in obedience to the dying +wishes of his aunt, for whom he appears to have felt the tenderest +esteem, he took the eldest of her orphan children into his home, +intending to regard and provide for her as his own adopted child and +heiress. Emily, the other sister found refuge in the house of a still +more distant relative than himself.</p> + +<p>The Stevenses had gone to live at a remote part of England—Yorkshire, +I believe—and it thus fell out, that till his cousin Lucy arrived at +her new home he had not seen her for more than ten years. The pale, +and somewhat plain child, as he had esteemed her, he was startled to +find had become a charming woman; and her naturally gay and joyous +temperament, quick talents, and fresh young beauty, rapidly acquired +an overwhelming influence over him. Strenuously but vainly he +struggled against the growing infatuation—argued, reasoned with +himself—passed in review the insurmountable objections to such a +union, the difference of age—he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> leading towards thirty-seven, she +barely twenty-one; he crooked, deformed, of reserved, taciturn +temper—she full of young life, and grace and beauty. It was useless; +and nearly a year had passed in the bootless struggle when Lucy +Stevens, who had vainly striven to blind herself to the nature of the +emotions by which her cousin and guardian was animated towards her, +intimated a wish to accept her sister Emily's invitation to pass two +or three months with her. This brought the affair to a crisis. Buoying +himself up with the illusions which people in such an unreasonable +frame of mind create for themselves, he suddenly entered the +sitting-room set apart for her private use, with the desperate purpose +of making his beautiful cousin a formal offer of his hand. She was not +in the apartment, but her opened writing-desk, and a partly-finished +letter lying on it, showed that she had been recently there, and would +probably soon return. Mr. Lisle took two or three agitated turns about +the room, one of which brought him close to the writing-desk, and his +glance involuntarily fell upon the unfinished letter. Had a deadly +serpent leaped suddenly upon his throat, the shock could not have been +greater. At the head of the sheet of paper was a clever pen-and-ink +sketch of Lucy Stevens and himself; he, kneeling to her in a lovelorn +ludicrous attitude, and she laughing immoderately at his lachrymose +and pitiful aspect and speech. The letter was addressed to her sister +Emily; and the enraged lover saw not only that his supposed secret was +fully known, but that he himself was mocked, laughed at for his doting +folly. At least this was his interpretation of the words which swam +before his eyes. At the instant Lucy returned, and a torrent of +imprecation burst from the furious man, in which wounded self-love, +rageful pride, and long pent-up passion, found utterance in wild and +bitter words. Half an hour afterwards Lucy Stevens had left the +merchant's house—for ever, as it proved. She, indeed, on arriving at +her sister's, sent a letter supplicating forgiveness at the +thoughtless, and, as he deemed it, insulting sketch, intended only for +Emily's eye; but he replied merely by a note written by one of his +clerks, informing Miss Stevens that Mr. Lisle declined any further +correspondence with her.</p> + +<p>The ire of the angered and vindictive man had, however, begun sensibly +to abate, and old thoughts, memories, duties, suggested partly by the +blank which Lucy's absence made in his house, partly by remembrance of +the solemn promise he had made her mother, were strongly reviving in +his mind, when he read the announcement of her marriage in a +provincial journal, directed to him, as he believed, in the bride's +handwriting; but this was an error, her sister having sent the +newspaper. Mr. Lisle also construed this into a deliberate mockery and +insult, and from that hour strove to banish all images and thoughts +connected with his cousin from his heart and memory.</p> + +<p>He unfortunately adopted the very worst course possible for effecting +this object. Had he remained amid the buzz and tumult of active life, +a mere sentimental disappointment, such as thousands of us have +sustained and afterwards forgotten, would, there can be little doubt, +have soon ceased to afflict him. He chose to retire from business, +visited Watley, and habits of miserliness growing rapidly upon his +cankered mind, never afterwards removed from the lodgings he had hired +on first arriving there. Thus madly hugging to himself sharp-pointed +memories which a sensible man would have speedily cast off and +forgotten, the sour misanthrope passed a useless, cheerless, weary +existence, to which death must have been a welcome relief.</p> + +<p>Matters were in this state with the morose and aged man—aged mentally +and corporeally, although his years were but fifty-eight—when Mr. +Flint made Mr. Jennings's acquaintance. Another month or so had passed +away when Caleb's attention was one day about noon claimed by a young +man dressed in mourning, accompanied by a female similarly attired, +and from their resemblance to each other he conjectured brother and +sister. The stranger wished to know if that was the house in which Mr. +Ambrose Lisle resided. Jennings said it was; and with civil alacrity +left his stall and rang the front-door bell. The summons was answered +by the landlady's servant, who, since Esther May's death, had waited +on the first-floor lodger; and the visitors were invited to go +up-stairs. Caleb, much wondering who they might be, returned to his +stall, and thence passed into his eating and sleeping room just below +Mr. Lisle's apartments. He was in the act of taking a pipe from the +mantel-shelf in order to the more deliberate and satisfactory +cogitation on such an unusual event, when he was startled by a loud +shout, or scream rather, from above. The quivering and excited voice +was that of Mr. Lisle, and the outcry was immediately followed by an +explosion of unintelligible exclamations from several persons. Caleb +was up stairs in an instant, and found himself in the midst of a +strangely-perplexing and distracted scene. Mr. Lisle, pale as his +shirt, shaking in every limb, and his eyes on fire with passion, was +hurling forth a torrent of vituperation and reproach at the young +woman, whom he evidently mistook for some one else; whilst she, +extremely terrified, and unable to stand but for the assistance of her +companion, was tendering a letter in her outstretched hand, and +uttering broken sentences, which her own agitation and the fury of Mr. +Lisle's invectives rendered totally incomprehensible. At last the +fierce old man struck the letter from her hand, and with frantic rage +ordered both the strangers to leave the room. Caleb urged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> them, to +comply, and accompanied them down stairs. When they reached the +street, he observed a woman on the other side of the way, dressed in +mourning, and much older apparently—though he could not well see her +face through the thick veil she wore—than she who had thrown Mr. +Lisle into such an agony of rage, apparently waiting for them. To her +the young people immediately hastened, and after a brief conference +the three turned up the street, and Mr. Jennings saw no more of them.</p> + +<p>A quarter of an hour afterwards the house-servant informed Caleb that +Mr. Lisle had retired to bed, and although still in great agitation, +and, as she feared, seriously indisposed, would not permit Dr. Clarke +to be sent for. So sudden and violent a hurricane in the usually dull +and drowsy atmosphere in which Jennings lived, excited and disturbed +him greatly: the hours, however, flew past without bringing any relief +to his curiosity, and evening was falling, when a peculiar knocking on +the floor overhead announced that Mr. Lisle desired his presence. That +gentleman was sitting up in bed, and in the growing darkness his face +could not be very distinctly seen; but Caleb instantly observed a +vivid and unusual light in the old man's eyes. The letter so strangely +delivered was lying open before him; and unless the shoemender was +greatly mistaken, there were stains of recent tears upon Mr. Lisle's +furrowed and hollow cheeks. The voice, too, it struck Caleb, though +eager, was gentle and wavering. "It was a mistake, Jennings," he said; +"I was mad for the moment. Are they gone?" he added in a yet more +subdued and gentle tone. Caleb informed him of what he had seen; and +as he did so, the strange light in the old man's eyes seemed to quiver +and sparkle with a yet intenser emotion than before. Presently he +shaded them with his hand, and remained several minutes silent. He +then said with a firmer voice: "I shall be glad if you will step to +Mr. Sowerby, and tell him I am too unwell to see him this evening. But +be sure to say nothing else," he eagerly added, as Caleb turned away +in compliance with his request; "and when you come back, let me see +you again."</p> + +<p>When Jennings returned, he found to his great surprise Mr. Lisle up +and nearly dressed; and his astonishment increased a hundred-fold upon +hearing that gentleman say, in a quick but perfectly collected and +decided manner, that he should set off for London by the mail-train.</p> + +<p>"For London—and by night!" exclaimed Caleb, scarcely sure that he +heard aright.</p> + +<p>"Yes—yes, I shall not be observed in the dark," sharply rejoined Mr. +Lisle; "and you, Caleb, must keep my secret from every body, +especially from Sowerby. I shall be here in time to see him to-morrow +night, and he will be none the wiser." This was said with a slight +chuckle; and as soon as his simple preparations were complete, Mr. +Lisle, well wrapped up, and his face almost hidden by shawls, locked +his door, and assisted by Jennings, stole furtively down stairs, and +reached unrecognized the railway station just in time for the train.</p> + +<p>It was quite dark the next evening when Mr. Lisle returned; and so +well had he managed, that Mr. Sowerby, who paid his usual visit about +half an hour afterwards, had evidently heard nothing of the suspicious +absence of his esteemed client from Watley. The old man exulted over +the success of his deception to Caleb the next morning, but dropped no +hint as to the object of his sudden journey.</p> + +<p>Three days passed without the occurrence of any incident tending to +the enlightenment of Mr. Jennings upon these mysterious events, which, +however, he plainly saw had lamentably shaken the long-since failing +man. On the afternoon of the fourth day, Mr. Lisle walked, or rather +tottered, into Caleb's stall, and seated himself on the only vacant +stool it contained. His manner was confused, and frequently +purposeless, and there was an anxious, flurried expression in his face +which Jennings did not at all like. He remained silent for some time, +with the exception of partially inaudible snatches of comment or +questionings, apparently addressed to himself. At last he said: "I +shall take a longer journey to-morrow, Caleb—much longer: let me +see—where did I say? Ah, yes! to Glasgow; to be sure to Glasgow!"</p> + +<p>"To Glasgow, and to-morrow!" exclaimed the astounded cobbler.</p> + +<p>"No, no—not Glasgow; they have removed," feebly rejoined Mr. Lisle. +"But Lucy has written it down for me. True—true; and to-morrow I +shall set out."</p> + +<p>The strange expression of Mr. Lisle's face became momentarily more +strongly marked, and Jennings, greatly alarmed, said: "You are ill, +Mr. Lisle; let me run for Dr. Clarke."</p> + +<p>"No—no," he murmured, at the same time striving to rise from his +seat, which he could only accomplish by Caleb's assistance, and so +supported, he staggered indoors. "I shall be better to-morrow," he +said faintly, and then slowly added: "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and +to-morrow! Ah me! Yes, as I said, to-morrow, I"——He paused abruptly, +and they gained his apartment. He seated himself, and then Jennings, +at his mute solicitations, assisted him to bed.</p> + +<p>He lay some time with his eyes closed; and Caleb could feel—for Mr. +Lisle held him firmly by the hand, as if to prevent his going away—a +convulsive shudder pass over his frame. At last he slowly opened his +eyes, and Caleb saw that he was indeed about to depart upon the long +journey from which there is no return. The lips of the dying man +worked inarticulately for some moments; and then, with a mighty +effort, as it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> seemed, he said, whilst his trembling hand pointed +feebly to a bureau chest of drawers that stood in the room: +"There—there for Lucy; there, the secret place is"——Some inaudible +words followed, and then, after a still mightier struggle than before, +he gasped out: "No word—no word—to—to Sowerby—for her—Lucy."</p> + +<p>More was said, but undistinguishable by mortal ear; and after gazing +with an expression of indescribable anxiety in the scared face of his +awestruck listener, the wearied eyes slowly reclosed—the deep silence +flowed past; then the convulsive shudder came again, and he was dead!</p> + +<p>Caleb Jennings tremblingly summoned the house-servant and the +landlady, and was still confusedly pondering the broken sentences +uttered by the dying man, when Mr. Sowerby hurriedly arrived. The +attorney's first care was to assume the direction of affairs, and to +place seals upon every article containing or likely to contain any +thing of value belonging to the deceased. This done, he went away to +give directions for the funeral, which took place a few days +afterwards; and it was then formally announced that Mr. Sowerby +succeeded by will to the large property of Ambrose Lisle; under trust, +however, for the family, if any, of Robert Lisle, the deceased's +brother, who had gone when very young to India, and had not been heard +of for many years—a condition which did not at all mar the joy of the +crafty lawyer, he having long since instituted private inquiries, +which perfectly satisfied him that the said Robert Lisle had died, +unmarried, at Calcutta.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jennings was in a state of great dubiety and consternation. +Sowerby had emptied the chest of drawers of every valuable it +contained; and unless he had missed the secret receptacle Mr. Lisle +had spoken of, the deceased's intentions, whatever they might have +been, were clearly defeated. And if he had <i>not</i> discovered it, how +could he, Jennings, get at the drawers to examine them? A fortunate +chance brought some relief to his perplexities. Ambrose Lisle's +furniture was advertised to be sold by auction, and Caleb resolved to +purchase the bureau chest of drawers at almost any price, although to +do so would oblige him to break into his rent-money, then nearly due. +The day of sale came, and the important lot in its turn was put up. In +one of the drawers there were a number of loose newspapers, and other +valueless scraps; and Caleb, with a sly grin, asked the auctioneer if +he sold the article with all its contents. "Oh yes," said Sowerby, who +was watching the sale; "the buyer may have all it contains over his +bargain, and much good may it do him." A laugh followed the attorney's +sneering remark, and the biddings went on. "I want it," observed +Caleb, "because it just fits a recess like this one in my room +underneath." This he said to quiet a suspicion he thought he saw +gathering upon the attorney's brow. It was finally knocked down to +Caleb at £5, 10s., a sum considerably beyond its real value; and he +had to borrow a sovereign in order to clear his speculative purchase. +This done, he carried off his prize, and as soon as the closing of the +house for the night secured him from interruption, he set eagerly to +work in search of the secret drawer. A long and patient examination +was richly rewarded. Behind one of the small drawers of the +<i>secrétaire</i> portion of the piece of furniture was another small one, +curiously concealed, which contained Bank-of-England notes to the +amount of £200, tied up with a letter, upon the back of which was +written, in the deceased's handwriting, "To take with me." The letter +which Caleb, although he read print with facility, had much difficulty +in making out, was that which Mr. Lisle had struck from the young +woman's hand a few weeks before, and proved to be a very affecting +appeal from Lucy Stevens, now Lucy Warner, and a widow, with two +grown-up children. Her husband had died in insolvent circumstances, +and she and her sister Emily, who was still single, were endeavoring +to carry on a school at Bristol, which promised to be sufficiently +prosperous if the sum of about £150 could be raised, to save the +furniture from her deceased husband's creditors. The claim was +pressing, for Mr. Warner had been dead nearly a year, and Mr. Lisle +being the only relative Mrs. Warner had in the world, she had ventured +to entreat his assistance for her mother's sake. There could be no +moral doubt, therefore, that this money was intended for Mrs. Warner's +relief; and early in the morning Mr. Caleb Jennings dressed himself in +his Sunday's suit, and with a brief announcement to his landlady that +he was about to leave Watley for a day or two on a visit to a friend, +set off for the railway station. He had not proceeded far when a +difficulty struck him: the bank-notes were all twenties; and were he +to change a twenty-pound note at the station, where he was well known, +great would be the tattle and wonderment, if nothing worse, that would +ensue. So Caleb tried his credit again, borrowed sufficient for his +journey to London, and there changed one of the notes.</p> + +<p>He soon reached Bristol, and blessed was the relief which the sum of +money he brought afforded Mrs. Warner. She expressed much sorrow for +the death of Mr. Lisle, and great gratitude to Caleb. The worthy man +accepted with some reluctance one of the notes, or at least as much as +remained of that which he had changed; and after exchanging promises +with the widow and her relatives to keep the matter secret, departed +homewards. The young woman, Mrs. Warner's daughter, who had brought +the letter to Watley, was, Caleb noticed, the very image of her +mother, or rather of what her mother must have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> when young. This +remarkable resemblance it was, no doubt, which had for the moment so +confounded and agitated Mr. Lisle.</p> + +<p>Nothing occurred for about a fortnight after Caleb's return to +disquiet him, and he had begun to feel tolerably sure that his +discovery of the notes would remain unsuspected, when, one afternoon, +the sudden and impetuous entrance of Mr. Sowerby into his stall caused +him to jump up from his seat with surprise and alarm. The attorney's +face was deathly white, his eyes glared like a wild beast's, and his +whole appearance exhibited uncontrollable agitation. "A word with you, +Mr. Jennings," he gasped—"a word in private, and at once!" Caleb, in +scarcely less consternation than his visitor, led the way into his +inner room, and closed the door.</p> + +<p>"Restore—give back," screamed the attorney, vainly struggling to +dissemble the agitation which convulsed him—"that—that which you +have purloined from the chest of drawers!"</p> + +<p>The hot blood rushed to Caleb's face and temples; the wild vehemence +and suddenness of the demand confounded him; and certain previous dim +suspicions that the law might not only pronounce what he had done +illegal, but possibly felonious, returned upon him with terrible +force, and he quite lost his presence of mind.</p> + +<p>"I can't—I can't," he stammered. "It's gone—given away"——</p> + +<p>"Gone!" shouted, or more correctly howled, Sowerby, at the same time +flying at Caleb's throat as if he would throttle him. "Gone—given +away! You lie—you want to drive a bargain with +me—dog!—liar!—rascal!—thief!"</p> + +<p>This was a species of attack which Jennings was at no loss how to +meet. He shook the attorney roughly off, and hurled him, in the midst +of his vituperation, to the further end of the room.</p> + +<p>They then stood glaring at each other in silence, till the attorney, +mastering himself as well as he could, essayed another and more +rational mode of attaining his purpose.</p> + +<p>"Come, come, Jennings," he said, "don't be a fool. Let us understand +each other. I have just discovered a paper, a memorandum of what you +have found in the drawers, and to obtain which you bought them. I +don't care for the money—keep it; only give me the +papers—documents."</p> + +<p>"Papers—documents!" ejaculated Caleb in unfeigned surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes—yes; of use to me only. You, I remember, cannot read writing; +but they are of great consequence to me—to me only, I tell you."</p> + +<p>"You can't mean Mrs. Warner's letter?"</p> + +<p>"No—no; curse the letter! You are playing with a tiger! Keep the +money, I tell you; but give up the papers—documents—or I'll +transport you!" shouted Sowerby with reviving fury.</p> + +<p>Caleb, thoroughly bewildered, could only mechanically ejaculate that +he had no papers or documents.</p> + +<p>The rage of the attorney when he found he could extract nothing from +Jennings was frightful. He literally foamed with passion, uttered the +wildest threats; and then suddenly changing his key, offered the +astounded cobbler one—two—three thousand pounds—any sum he chose to +name—for the papers—documents! This scene of alternate violence and +cajolery lasted nearly an hour; and then Sowerby rushed from the +house, as if pursued by the furies, and leaving his auditor in a state +of thorough bewilderment and dismay. It occurred to Caleb, as soon as +his mind had settled into something like order, that there might be +another secret drawer; and the recollection of Mr. Lisle's journey to +London returned suggestively to him. Another long and eager search, +however, proved fruitless; and the suspicion was given up, or, more +correctly, weakened.</p> + +<p>As soon as it was light the next morning, Mr. Sowerby was again with +him. He was more guarded now, and was at length convinced that +Jennings had no paper or document to give up. "It was only some +important memoranda," observed the attorney carelessly, "that would +save me a world of trouble in a lawsuit I shall have to bring against +some heavy debtors to Mr. Lisle's estate; but I must do as well as I +can without them. Good morning." Just as he reached the door, a sudden +thought appeared to strike him. He stopped and said: "By the way, +Jennings, in the hurry of business I forgot that Mr. Lisle had told me +the chest of drawers you bought, and a few other articles, were family +relics which he wished to be given to certain parties he named. The +other things I have got: and you, I presume, will let me have the +drawers for—say a pound profit on your bargain?"</p> + +<p>Caleb was not the acutest man in the world; but this sudden +proposition, carelessly as it was made, suggested curious thoughts. +"No," he answered; "I shall not part with it. I shall keep it as a +memorial of Mr. Lisle."</p> + +<p>Sowerby's face assumed, as Caleb spoke, a ferocious expression. "Shall +you?" said he. "Then, be sure, my fine fellow, that you shall also +have something to remember me by as long as you live!"</p> + +<p>He then went away, and a few days afterwards Caleb was served with a +writ for the recovery of the two hundred pounds.</p> + +<p>The affair made a great noise in the place; and Caleb's conduct being +very generally approved, a subscription was set on foot to defray the +cost of defending the action—one Hayling, a rival attorney to +Sowerby, having asserted that the words used by the proprietor of the +chest of drawers at the sale barred his claim to the money found in +them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> This wise gentleman was intrusted with the defence; and, +strange to say, the jury, a common one—spite of the direction of the +judge, returned a verdict for the defendant, upon the ground that +Sowerby's jocular or sneering remark amounted to a serious, valid +leave and license to sell two hundred pounds for five pounds ten +shillings!</p> + +<p>Sowerby obtained, as a matter of course, a rule for a new trial; and a +fresh action was brought. All at once Hayling refused to go on, +alleging deficiency of funds. He told Jennings that in his opinion it +would be better that he should give in to Sowerby's whim, who only +wanted the drawers in order to comply with the testator's wishes. +"Besides," remarked Hayling in conclusion, "he is sure to get the +article, you know, when it comes to be sold under a writ of <i>fi. fa.</i>" +A few days after this conversation, it was ascertained that Hayling +was to succeed to Sowerby's business, the latter gentleman being about +to retire upon the fortune bequeathed him by Mr. Lisle.</p> + +<p>At last Caleb, driven nearly out of his senses, though still doggedly +obstinate, by the harassing perplexities in which he found himself, +thought of applying to us.</p> + +<p>"A very curious affair, upon my word," remarked Mr. Flint, as soon as +Caleb had unburdened himself of the story of his woes and cares; "and +in my opinion by no means explainable by Sowerby's anxiety to fulfil +the testator's wishes. He cannot expect to get two hundred pence out +of you; and Mrs. Warner, you say, is equally unable to pay. Very odd +indeed. Perhaps if we could get time, something might turn up."</p> + +<p>With this view Flint looked over the papers Caleb had brought, and +found the declaration was in <i>trover</i>—a manifest error—the notes +never admittedly having been in Sowerby's actual possession. We +accordingly demurred to the form of action, and the proceedings were +set aside. This, however, proved of no ultimate benefit: Sowerby +persevered, and a fresh action was instituted against the unhappy +shoemender. So utterly overcrowed and disconsolate was poor Caleb, +that, he determined to give up the drawers, which was all Sowerby even +now required, and so wash his hands of the unfortunate business. +Previous, however, to this being done, it was determined that another +thorough and scientific examination of the mysterious piece of +furniture should be made; and for this purpose, Mr. Flint obtained a +workman skilled in the mysteries of secret contrivances, from the desk +and dressing-case establishment in King-street, Holborn, and proceeded +with him to Watley.</p> + +<p>The man performed his task with great care and skill: every depth and +width was gauged and measured, in order to ascertain if there were any +false bottoms or backs; and the workman finally pronounced that there +was no concealed receptacle in the article.</p> + +<p>"I am sure there is," persisted Flint, whom disappointment as usual +rendered but the more obstinate; "and so is Sowerby; and he knows, +too, that it is so cunningly contrived as to be undiscoverable, except +by a person in the secret, which he no doubt at first imagined Caleb +to be. I'll tell you what we will do: you have the necessary tools +with you. Split the confounded chest of drawers into shreds: I'll be +answerable for the consequences."</p> + +<p>This was done carefully and methodically, but for some time without +result. At length the large drawer next the floor had to be knocked to +pieces; and as it fell apart, one section of the bottom, which, like +all the others, was divided into two compartments, dropped asunder, +and discovered a parchment laid flat between the two thin leaves, +which, when pressed together in the grooves of the drawer, presented +precisely the same appearance as the rest. Flint snatched up the +parchment, and his eager eye scarcely rested an instant on the +writing, when a shout of triumph burst from him. It was the last will +and testament of Ambrose Lisle, dated August 21, 1838—the day of his +last hurried visit to London. It revoked the former will, and +bequeathed the whole of his property, in equal portions, to his +cousins Lucy Warner and Emily Stevens, with succession to their +children; but with reservation of one-half to his brother Robert or +children, should he be alive, or have left offspring.</p> + +<p>Great, it may be supposed, was the jubilation of Caleb Jennings at +this discovery; and all Watley, by his agency, was in a marvelously +short space of time in a very similar state of excitement. It was very +late that night when he reached his bed; and how he got there at all, +and what precisely had happened, except, indeed, that he had somewhere +picked up a splitting headache, was, for some time after he awoke the +next morn, very confusedly remembered.</p> + +<p>Mr. Flint, upon reflection, was by no means so exultant as the worthy +shoemender. The odd mode of packing away a deed of such importance, +with no assignable motive for doing so, except the needless awe with +which Sowerby was said to have inspired his feeble-spirited client, +together with what Caleb had said of the shattered state of the +deceased's mind after the interview with Mrs. Warner's daughter, +suggested fears that Sowerby might dispute, and perhaps successfully, +the validity of this last will. My excellent partner, however, +determined, as was his wont, to put a bold face on the matter; and +first clearly settling in his own mind what he should and what he +should <i>not</i> say, he waited upon Mr. Sowerby. The news had preceded +him, and he was at once surprised and delighted to find that the +nervous, crestfallen attorney was quite unaware of the advantages of +his position. On condition of not being called to account for the +moneys he had received and expended, about £1200, he destroyed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> the +former will in Mr. Flint's presence, and gave up at once all the +deceased's papers. From these we learned that Mr. Lisle had written a +letter to Mrs. Warner, stating what he had done, where the will would +be found, and that only herself and Jennings would know the secret. +From infirmity of purpose, or from having subsequently determined on a +personal interview, the letter was not posted; and Sowerby +subsequently discovered it, together with a memorandum of the numbers +of the bank-notes found by Caleb in the secret drawer—the eccentric +gentleman appears to have had quite a mania for such hiding-places—of +a writing-desk.</p> + +<p>The affair was thus happily terminated: Mrs. Warner, her children, and +sister, were enriched, and Caleb Jennings was set up in a good way of +business in his native place, where he still flourishes. Over the +centre of his shop there is a large nondescript sign, surmounted by a +golden boot, which, upon close inspection, is found to bear some +resemblance to a huge bureau chest of drawers, all the circumstances +connected with which may be heard, for the asking, and in much fuller +detail than I have given, from the lips of the owner of the +establishment, by any lady or gentleman who will take the trouble of a +journey to Watley for that purpose.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>MY NOVEL:</h2> +<h3> +OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE,<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> +</h3> +<h3>BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON.</h3> + + +<h4>BOOK VI.—INITIAL CHAPTER.</h4> + +<p>"Life," said my father, in his most dogmatical tone, "is a certain +quantity in time, which may be regarded in two ways—first, as life +<i>Integral</i>; second, as life <i>Fractional</i>. Life integral is that +complete whole, expressive of a certain value, large or small, which +each man possesses in himself. Life fractional is that same whole +seized upon and invaded by other people, and subdivided amongst them. +They who get a large slice of it say, 'a very valuable life +this!'—those who get but a small handful say, 'so, so, nothing very +great!'—those who get none of it in the scramble exclaim, 'Good for +nothing!'"</p> + +<p>"I don't understand a word you are saying," growled Captain Roland.</p> + +<p>My father surveyed his brother with compassion—"I will make it all +clear even to your understanding. When I sit down by myself in my +study, having carefully locked the door on all of you, alone with my +books and thoughts, I am in full possession of my integral life. I am +<i>totus, teres, atque rotundus</i>—a whole human being—equivalent in +value we will say, for the sake of illustration, to a fixed round +sum—£100, for example. But when I come forth into the common +apartment, each of those to whom I am of any worth whatsoever puts his +fingers into the bag that contains me and takes out of me what he +wants. Kitty requires me to pay a bill; Pisistratus to save him the +time and trouble of looking into a score or two of books; the children +to tell them stories; or play at hide-and-seek; the carp for +breadcrumbs; and so on throughout the circle to which I have +incautiously given myself up for plunder and subdivision. The £100 +which I represented in my study is now parcelled out; I am worth £40 +or £50 to Kitty, £20 to Pisistratus, and perhaps 30<i>s.</i> to the carp. +This is life fractional. And I cease to be an integral till once more +returning to my study, and again closing the door on all existence but +my own. Meanwhile, it is perfectly clear that, to those who, whether I +am in the study or whether I am in the common sitting-room, get +nothing at all out of me, I am not worth a farthing. It must be wholly +indifferent to a native of Kamschatka whether Austin Caxton be or be +not rased out of the great account-book of human beings."</p> + +<p>"Hence," continued my father—"hence it follows that the more +fractional a life be—<i>id est</i>, the greater the number of persons +among whom it can be subdivided—why, the more there are to say, 'a +very valuable life that!' Thus, the leader of a political party, a +conqueror, a king, an author who is amusing hundreds or thousands, or +millions, has a greater number of persons whom his worth interests and +affects than a Saint Simon Stylites could have when he perched himself +at the top of a column; although, regarded each in himself, Saint +Simon, in his grand mortification of flesh, in the idea that he +thereby pleased his Divine Benefactor, might represent a larger sum of +moral value <i>per se</i> than Bonaparte or Voltaire."</p> + +<p><i>Pisistratus.</i>—"Perfectly clear, sir, but I don't see what it has to +do with My Novel."</p> + +<p><i>Mr. Caxton.</i>—"Every thing. Your novel, if it is to be a full and +comprehensive survey of the '<i>Quicquid agunt homines</i>', (which it +ought to be, considering the length and breadth to which I foresee, +from the slow development of your story, you meditate extending and +expanding it,) will embrace the two views of existence, the integral +and the fractional. You have shown us the former in Leonard, when he +is sitting in his mother's cottage, or resting from his work by the +little fount in Riccabocca's garden. And in harmony with that view of +his life, you have surrounded him with comparative integrals, only +subdivided by the tender hands of their immediate families and +neighbors—your Squires and Parsons, your Italian exile and his +Jemima. With all these, life is more or less the life natural, and +this is always more or less the life integral. Then comes the life +artificial, which is always more or less the life fractional. In the +life natural, wherein we are swayed but by our own native impulses and +desires, subservient only to the great silent law of virtue, (which +has pervaded the universe since it swung out of chaos,) a man is of +worth from what he is in himself—Newton<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> was as worthy before the +apple fell from the tree as when all Europe applauded the discoverer +of the principle of gravity. But in the life artificial we are only of +worth in as much as we affect others. And, relative to that life, +Newton rose in value more than a million per cent. when down fell the +apple from which ultimately sprang up his discovery. In order to keep +civilization going, and spread over the world the light of human +intellect, we have certain desires within us, ever swelling beyond the +ease and independence which belong to us as integrals. Cold man as +Newton might be, (he once took a lady's hand in his own, Kitty, and +used her forefinger for his tobacco-stopper; great philosopher!)—cold +as he might be, he was yet moved into giving his discoveries to the +world, and that from motives very little differing in their quality +from the motives that make Dr. Squills communicate articles to the +Phrenological Journal upon the skulls of Bushmen and wombats. For it +is the <i>property of light to travel</i>. When a man has light in him, +forth it must go. But the first passage of genius from its integral +state (in which it has been reposing on its own wealth) into the +fractional, is usually through a hard and vulgar pathway. It leaves +behind it the reveries of solitude—that self-contemplating rest which +may be called the Visionary, and enters suddenly into the state that +may be called the Positive and Actual. There, it sees the operation of +money on the outer life—sees all the ruder and commoner springs of +action—sees ambition without nobleness—love without romance—is +bustled about, and ordered, and trampled, and cowed—in short, it +passes an apprenticeship with some Richard Avenel, and does not yet +detect what good and what grandeur, what addition even to the true +poetry of the social universe, fractional existences like Richard +Avenel's bestow; for the pillars that support society are like those +of the court of the Hebrew Tabernacle—they are of brass, it is true, +but they are filleted with silver. From such intermediate state genius +is expelled, and driven on in its way, and would have been so in this +case, had Mrs. Fairfield (who is but the representative of the homely +natural affections, strongest ever in true genius—for light is warm) +never crushed Mr. Avenel's moss rose on her sisterly bosom. Now, forth +from this passage and defile of transition into the larger world, must +genius go on, working out its natural destiny amidst things and forms +the most artificial. Passions that move and influence the world are at +work around it. Often lost sight of itself, its very absence is a +silent contrast to the agencies present. Merged and vanished for a +while amidst the practical world, yet we ourselves feel all the while +that it is <i>there</i>—is at work amidst the workings around it. This +practical world that effaces it rose out of some genius that has gone +before; and so each man of genius, though we never come across him, as +his operations proceed, in places remote from our thoroughfares, is +yet influencing the practical world that ignores him, for ever and +ever. That is <span class="smcap">genius</span>! We can't describe it in books—we can only hint +and suggest it, by the accessaries which we artfully heap about it. +The entrance of a true probationer into the terrible ordeal of +practical life is like that into the miraculous cavern, by which, +legend informs us, St. Patrick converted Ireland."</p> + +<p><i>Blanche.</i>—"What is that legend? I never heard of it."</p> + +<p><i>Mr. Caxton.</i>—"My dear, you will find it in a thin folio at the right +on entering my study, written by Thomas Messingham, and called +'Florilegium Insulæ Sanctorum,' &c. The account therein is confirmed +by the relation of an honest soldier, one Louis Ennius, who had +actually entered the cavern. In short, the truth of the legend is +undeniable, unless you mean to say, which I can't for a moment +suppose, that Louis Ennius was a liar. Thus it runs:—St. Patrick, +finding that the Irish pagans were incredulous as to his pathetic +assurances of the pains and torments destined to those who did not +expiate their sins in this world, prayed for a miracle to convince +them. His prayer was heard; and a certain cavern, so small that a man +could not stand up therein at his ease, was suddenly converted into a +Purgatory, comprehending tortures sufficient to convince the most +incredulous. One unacquainted with human nature might conjecture that +few would be disposed to venture voluntarily into such a place; on the +contrary, pilgrims came in crowds. Now, all who entered from vain +curiosity, or with souls unprepared, perished miserably; but those who +entered with deep and earnest faith, conscious of their faults, and if +bold, yet humble, not only came out safe and sound, but purified, as +if from the waters of a second baptism. See Savage and Johnson at +night in Fleet-street, and who shall doubt the truth of St. Patrick's +Purgatory?" Therewith my father sighed—closed his Lucian, which had +lain open on the table, and would read nothing but "good books" for +the rest of the evening.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER II.</h4> + +<p>On their escape from the prison to which Mr. Avenel had condemned +them, Leonard and his mother found their way to a small public-house +that lay at a little distance from the town, and on the outskirts of +the high-road. With his arm round his mother's waist, Leonard +supported her steps and soothed her excitement. In fact the poor +woman's nerves were greatly shaken, and she felt an uneasy remorse at +the injury her intrusion had inflicted on the young man's worldly +prospects. As the shrewd reader has guessed already, that infamous +Tinker was the prime agent of evil in this critical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> turn in the +affairs of his quondam customer. For, on his return to his haunts +around Hazeldean and the Casino, the Tinker had hastened to apprise +Mrs. Fairfield of his interview with Leonard, and on finding that she +was not aware that the boy was under the roof of his uncle, the +pestilent vagabond (perhaps from spite against Mr. Avenel, or perhaps +from that pure love of mischief by which metaphysical critics explain +the character of Iago, and which certainly formed a main element in +the idiosyncrasy of Mr. Sprott) had so impressed on the widow's mind +the haughty demeanor of the uncle and the refined costume of the +nephew, that Mrs. Fairfield had been seized with a bitter and +insupportable jealousy. There was an intention to rob her of her +boy!—he was to be made too fine for her. His silence was now +accounted for. This sort of jealousy, always more or less a feminine +quality, is often very strong amongst the poor; and it was the more +strong in Mrs. Fairfield, because, lone woman as she was, the boy was +all in all to her. And though she was reconciled to the loss of his +presence, nothing could reconcile her to the thought that his +affections should be weaned from her. Moreover, there were in her mind +certain impressions, of the justice of which the reader may better +judge hereafter, as to the gratitude, more than ordinarily filial, +which Leonard owed to her. In short, she did not like, as she phrased +it, "to be shaken off;" and after a sleepless night she resolved to +judge for herself, much moved thereto by the malicious suggestions to +that effect made by Mr. Sprott, who mightily enjoyed the idea of +mortifying the gentleman by whom he had been so disrespectfully +threatened with the treadmill. The widow felt angry with Parson Dale, +and with the Riccaboccas; she thought they were in the plot against +her; she communicated, therefore, her intention to none—and off she +set, performing the journey partly on the top of the coach, partly on +foot. No wonder that she was dusty, poor woman.</p> + +<p>"And, oh, boy!" said she, half sobbing, "when I got through the lodge +gates, came on the lawn, and saw all that power o' fine folk—I said +to myself, says I—(for I felt fritted)—I'll just have a look at him +and go back. But ah, Lenny, when I saw thee, looking so handsome—and +when thee turned and cried 'Mother!' my heart was just ready to leap +out o' my mouth—and so I could not help hugging thee, if I had died +for it. And thou wert so kind, that I forgot all Mr. Sprott had said +about Dick's pride, or thought he had just told a fib about that, as +he had wanted me to believe a fib about thee. Then Dick came up—and I +had not seen him for so many years—and we come o' the same father and +mother; and so—and so"—the widow's sobs here fairly choked her. +"Ah," she said, after giving vent to her passion, and throwing her +arms round Leonard's neck, as they sat in the little sanded parlor of +the public-house—"Ah, and I've brought thee to this. Go back, go +back, boy, and never mind me."</p> + +<p>With some difficulty Leonard pacified poor Mrs. Fairfield, and got her +to retire to bed; for she was indeed thoroughly exhausted. He then +stepped forth into the road, musingly. All the stars were out; and +Youth, in its troubles, instinctively looks up to the stars. Folding +his arms, Leonard gazed on the heavens, and his lips murmured.</p> + +<p>From this trance, for so it might be called, he was awakened by a +voice in a decidedly London accent; and, turning hastily round, saw +Mr. Avenel's very gentlemanlike butler. Leonard's first idea was that +his uncle had repented, and sent in search of him. But the butler +seemed as much surprised at the rencontre as himself; that personage, +indeed, the fatigues of the day being over, was accompanying one of +Mr. Gunter's waiters to the public-house, (at which the latter had +secured his lodging,) having discovered an old friend in the waiter, +and proposing to regale himself with a cheerful glass, and—<i>that</i> of +course—abuse of his present sitivation.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Fairfield!" exclaimed the butler, while the waiter walked +discreetly on.</p> + +<p>Leonard looked, and said nothing. The butler began to think that some +apology was due for leaving his plate and his pantry, and that he +might as well secure Leonard's propitiatory influence with his +master—</p> + +<p>"Please, sir," said he, touching his hat, "I was just a-showing Mr. +Giles the way to the Blue Bells, where he puts up for the night. I +hope my master will not be offended. If you are a-going back, sir, +would you kindly mention it?"</p> + +<p>"I am not going back, Jarvis," answered Leonard, after a pause; "I am +leaving Mr. Avenel's house, to accompany my mother; rather suddenly. I +should be very much obliged to you if you would bring some things of +mine to me at the Blue Bells. I will give you the list, if you will +step back with me to the inn."</p> + +<p>Without waiting for a reply, Leonard then turned towards the inn, and +made his humble inventory: item, the clothes he had brought with him +from the Casino; item, the knapsack that had contained them; item, a +few books, ditto; item, Dr. Riccabocca's watch; item, sundry MSS., on +which the young student now built all his hopes of fame and fortune. +This list he put into Mr. Jarvis's hand.</p> + +<p>"Sir," said the butler, twirling the paper between his finger and +thumb, "you are not a-going for long, I hope;" and as he thought of +the scene on the lawn, the report of which had vaguely reached his +ears, he looked on the face of the young man, who had always been +"civil spoken to him," with as much, curiosity and as much compassion +as so apathetic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> and princely a personage could experience in matters +affecting a family less aristocratic than he had hitherto condescended +to serve.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Leonard, simply and briefly; "and your master will no +doubt excuse you for rendering me this service."</p> + +<p>Mr. Jarvis postponed for the present his glass and chat with the +waiter, and went back at once to Mr. Avenel. That gentleman, still +seated in his library, had not been aware of the butler's absence; and +when Mr. Jarvis entered and told him that he had met Mr. Fairfield, +and, communicating the commission with which he was intrusted, asked +leave to execute it, Mr. Avenel felt the man's inquisitive eye was on +him, and conceived new wrath against Leonard for a new humiliation to +his pride. It was awkward to give no explanation of his nephew's +departure, still more awkward to explain.</p> + +<p>After a short pause, Mr. Avenel said sullenly, "My nephew is going +away on business for some time—do what he tells you;" and then turned +his back, and lighted his cigar.</p> + +<p>"That beast of a boy," said he, soliloquizing, "either means this as +an affront, or an overture; if an affront, he is, indeed, well got rid +of; if an overture, he will soon make a more respectful and proper +one. After all, I can't have too little of relations till I have +fairly secured Mrs. McCatchly. An Honorable! I wonder if that makes me +an Honorable too? This cursed Debrett contains no practical +information on these points."</p> + +<p>The next morning, the clothes and the watch with which Mr. Avenel had +presented Leonard were returned, with a note meant to express +gratitude, but certainly written with very little knowledge of the +world, and so full of that somewhat over-resentful pride which had in +earlier life made Leonard fly from Hazeldean, and refuse all apology +to Randal, that it is not to be wondered at that Mr. Avenel's last +remorseful feelings evaporated in ire. "I hope he will starve!" said +the uncle, vindictively.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER III.</h4> + +<p>"Listen to me, my dear mother," said Leonard the next morning, as with +his knapsack on his shoulder and Mrs. Fairfield on his arm, he walked +along the high road; "I do assure you, from my heart, that I do not +regret the loss of favors which I see plainly would have crushed out +of me the very sense of independence. But do not fear for me; I have +education and energy—I shall do well for myself, trust me. No; I +cannot, it is true, go back to our cottage—I cannot be a gardener +again. Don't ask me—I should be discontented, miserable. But I will +go up to London! That's the place to make a fortune and a name: I will +make both. O yes, trust me, I will. You shall soon be proud of your +Leonard; and then we will always live together—always! Don't cry."</p> + +<p>"But what can you do in London—such a big place, Lenny?"</p> + +<p>"What! Every year does not some lad leave our village, and go and seek +his fortune, taking with him but health and strong hands? I have +these, and I have more: I have brains, and thoughts, and hopes, +that—again I say, No, no—never fear for me!"</p> + +<p>The boy threw back his head proudly; there was something sublime in +his young trust in the future.</p> + +<p>"Well—but you will write to Mr. Dale, or to me? I will get Mr. Dale, +or the good Mounseer (now I knew they were not agin me) to read your +letters."</p> + +<p>"I will, indeed!"</p> + +<p>"And, boy, you have nothing in your pockets. We have paid Dick; these, +at least, are my own, after paying the coach fare." And she would +thrust a sovereign and some shillings into Leonard's waistcoat pocket.</p> + +<p>After some resistance, he was forced to consent.</p> + +<p>"And there's a sixpence with a hole in it. Don't part with that, +Lenny; it will bring thee good luck."</p> + +<p>Thus talking, they gained the inn where the three roads met, and from +which a coach went direct to the Casino. And here, without entering +the inn, they sat on the green sward by the hedge-row, waiting the +arrival of the coach. Mrs. Fairfield was much subdued in spirits, and +there was evidently on her mind something uneasy—some struggle with +her conscience. She not only upbraided herself for her rash visit; but +she kept talking of her dead Mark. And what would he say of her, if he +could see her in heaven?</p> + +<p>"It was so selfish in me, Lenny."</p> + +<p>"Pooh, pooh! Has not a mother a right to her child?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, ay!" cried Mrs. Fairfield: "I do love you as a child—my own +child. But if I was not your mother, after all, Lenny, and cost you +all this—oh, what would you say of me then?"</p> + +<p>"Not my own mother!" said Leonard, laughing, as he kissed her. "Well, +I don't know what I should say then differently from what I say +now—that you who brought me up, and nursed and cherished me, had a +right to my home and my heart, wherever I was."</p> + +<p>"Bless thee!" cried Mrs. Fairfield, as she pressed him to her heart. +"But it weighs here—it weighs"—she said, starting up.</p> + +<p>At that instant the coach appeared, and Leonard ran forward to inquire +if there was an outside place. Then there was a short bustle while the +horses were being changed; and Mrs. Fairfield was lifted up to the +roof of the vehicle. So all future private conversation between her +and Leonard ceased. But as the coach whirled away, and she waved her +hand to the boy, who stood on the road-side gazing after her, she +still murmured—"It weighs here—it weighs!"—<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>—</p> + + +<p>CHAPTER IV.</p> + +<p>Leonard walked sturdily on in the high-road to the Great City. The day +was calm and sunlit, but with a gentle breeze from gray hills at the +distance; and with each mile that he passed, his step seemed to grow +more firm, and his front more elate. Oh! it is such joy in youth to be +alone with one's day dreams. And youth feels so glorious a vigor in +the sense of its own strength, though the world be before and—against +it! Removed from that chilling counting-house—from the imperious will +of a patron and master—all friendless, but all independent—the young +adventurer felt a new being—felt his grand nature as Man. And on the +Man rushed the genius long interdicted—and thrust aside—rushing +back, with the first breath of adversity to console—no! the Man +needed not consolation,—to kindle, to animate, to rejoice! If there +is a being in the world worthy of our envy, after we have grown wise +philosophers of the fireside, it is not the palled voluptuary, nor the +care-worn statesman, nor even the great prince of arts and letters, +already crowned with the laurel, whose leaves are as fit for poison as +for garlands; it is the young child of adventure and hope. Ay, and the +emptier his purse, ten to one but the richer his heart, and the wider +the domains which his fancy enjoys as he goes on with kingly step to +the Future.</p> + +<p>Not till towards the evening did our adventurer slacken his pace, and +think of rest and refreshment. There, then, lay before him, on either +side the road, those wide patches of uninclosed land, which in England +often denote the entrance to a village. Presently one or two neat +cottages came in sight—then a small farm-house, with its yard and +barns. And some way farther yet, he saw the sign swinging before an +inn of some pretensions—the sort of inn often found on a long stage +between two great towns, commonly called "The Half-way House." But the +inn stood back from the road, having its own separate sward in front, +whereon were a great beech tree (from which the sign extended) and a +rustic arbor—so that, to gain the inn, the coaches that stopped there +took a sweep from the main thoroughfare. Between our pedestrian and +the inn there stood naked and alone, on the common land, a church; our +ancestors never would have chosen that site for it; therefore it was a +modern church—modern Gothic—handsome to an eye not versed in the +attributes of ecclesiastical architecture—very barbarous to an eye +that was. Somehow or other the church looked cold and raw and +uninviting. It looked a church for show—much too big for the +scattered hamlet—and void of all the venerable associations which +give their peculiar and unspeakable atmosphere of piety to the +churches in which succeeding generations have knelt and worshipped. +Leonard paused and surveyed the edifice with an unlearned but poetical +gaze—it dissatisfied him. And he was yet pondering why, when a young +girl passed slowly before him, her eyes fixed on the ground, opened +the little gate that led into the churchyard, and vanished. He did not +see the child's face; but there was something in her movements so +utterly listless, forlorn, and sad, that his heart was touched. What +did she there? He approached the low wall with a noiseless step, and +looked over it wistfully.</p> + +<p>There, by a grave evidently quite recent, with no wooden tomb nor +tombstone like the rest, the little girl had thrown herself, and she +was sobbing loud and passionately. Leonard opened the gate, and +approached her with a soft step. Mingled with her sobs, he heard +broken sentences, wild and vain, as all human sorrowings over graves +must be.</p> + +<p>"Father!—oh, father! do you not really hear me? I am so lone—so +lone! Take me to you—take me!" And she buried her face in the deep +grass.</p> + +<p>"Poor child!" said Leonard, in a half whisper—"he is not there. Look +above!"</p> + +<p>The girl did not heed him—he put his arm round her waist gently—she +made a gesture of impatience and anger, but she would not turn her +face—and she clung to the grave with her hands.</p> + +<p>After clear sunny days the dews fall more heavily; and now, as the sun +set, the herbage was bathed in a vaporous haze—a dim mist rose +around. The young man seated himself beside her, and tried to draw the +child to his breast. Then she turned eagerly, indignantly, and pushed +him aside with jealous arms. He profaned the grave! He understood her +with his deep poet heart, and rose. There was a pause.</p> + +<p>Leonard was the first to break it.</p> + +<p>"Come to your home with me, my child, and we will talk of <i>him</i> by the +way."</p> + +<p>"Him! Who are you? You did not know him?" said the girl, still with +anger. "Go away—why do you disturb me? I do no one harm. Go—go!"</p> + +<p>"You do yourself harm, and that will grieve him if he sees you yonder! +Come!"</p> + +<p>The child looked at him through her blinding tears, and his face +softened and soothed her.</p> + +<p>"Go!" she said very plaintively, and in subdued accents. "I will but +stay a minute more. I—I have so much to say yet."</p> + +<p>Leonard left the churchyard, and waited without; and in a short time +the child came forth, waved him aside as he approached her, and +hurried away. He followed her at a distance, and saw her disappear +within the inn.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER V.</h4> + +<p>"Hip—hip—Hurrah!" Such was the sound that greeted our young +traveller as he reached the inn door—a sound joyous in itself, but +sadly out of harmony with the feelings which the child's sobbing on +the tombless grave had left at his heart. The sound<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> came from within, +and was followed by thumps and stamps, and the jingle of glasses. A +strong odor of tobacco was wafted to his olfactory sense. He hesitated +a moment at the threshold. Before him on benches under the beech-tree +and within the arbor, were grouped sundry athletic forms with "pipes +in the liberal air." The landlady, as she passed across the passage to +the tap-room, caught sight of his form at the doorway, and came +forward. Leonard still stood irresolute. He would have gone on his +way, but for the child; she had interested him strongly.</p> + +<p>"You seem full, ma'am," said he. "Can I have accommodation for the +night?"</p> + +<p>"Why, indeed, sir," said the landlady, civilly, "I can give you a +bedroom, but I don't know where to put you meanwhile. The two parlors +and the tap-room and the kitchen are all chokeful. There has been a +great cattle-fair in the neighborhood, and I suppose we have as many +as fifty farmers and drovers stopping here."</p> + +<p>"As to that, ma'am, I can sit in the bedroom you are kind enough to +give me; and if it does not cause you too much trouble to let me have +some tea there, I should be glad; but I can wait your leisure. Do not +put yourself out of the way for me."</p> + +<p>The landlady was touched by a consideration she was not much +habituated to receive from her bluff customers.</p> + +<p>"You speak very handsome, sir, and we will do our best to serve you, +if you will excuse all faults. This way, sir." Leonard lowered his +knapsack, stepped in the passage, with some difficulty forced his way +through a knot of sturdy giants in top-boots or leathern gaiters who +were swarming in and out the tap-room, and followed his hostess up +stairs to a little bedroom at the top of the house.</p> + +<p>"It is small, sir, and high," said the hostess apologetically. "But +there be four gentlemen farmers that have come a great distance, and +all the first floor is engaged; you will be more out of the noise +here."</p> + +<p>"Nothing can suit me better. But, stay—pardon me;" and Leonard, +glancing at the garb of the hostess, observed she was not in mourning. +"A little girl whom I saw in the churchyard yonder, weeping very +bitterly—is she a relation of yours? Poor child, she seems to have +deeper feelings than are common at her age."</p> + +<p>"Ah, sir," said the landlady, putting the corner of her apron to her +eyes, "it is a very sad story—I don't know what to do. Her father was +taken ill on his way to Lunnun, and stopped here, and has been buried +four days. And the poor little girl seems to have no relations—and +where is she to go? Laryer Jones says we must pass her to Marybone +parish, where her father lived last; and what's to become of her then? +My heart bleeds to think on it." Here then rose such an uproar from +below, that it was evident some quarrel had broken out; and the +hostess, recalled to her duties, hastened to carry thither her +propitiatory influences.</p> + +<p>Leonard seated himself pensively by the little lattice. Here was some +one more alone in the world than he. And she, poor orphan, had no +stout man's heart to grapple with fate, and no golden manuscripts that +were to be as the "Open Sesame" to the treasures of Aladdin. By-and-by +the hostess brought him up a tray with tea and other refreshments, and +Leonard resumed his inquiries. "No relatives?" said he; "surely the +child must have some kinsfolk in London? Did her father leave no +directions, or was he in possession of his faculties?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; he was quite reasonable-like to the last. And I asked him +if he had not any thing on his mind, and he said, 'I have.' And I +said, 'Your little girl, sir?' And he answered, 'Yes, ma'am;' and +laying his head on his pillow, he wept very quietly. I could not say +more myself, for it set me off to see him cry so meekly; but my +husband is harder nor I, and he said, 'Cheer up, Mr. Digby; had not +you better write to your friends?'"</p> + +<p>"'Friends!' said the gentleman, in such a voice! 'Friends I have but +one, and I am going to Him! I cannot take her there!' Then he seemed +suddenly to recollect hisself, and called for his clothes, and +rummaged in the pockets as if looking for some address, and could not +find it. He seemed a forgetful kind of gentleman, and his hands were +what I call <i>helpless</i> hands, sir! And then he gasped out, +'Stop—stop! I never had the address. Write to Lord Les—,' something +like Lord Lester—but we could not make out the name. Indeed he did +not finish it, for there was a rush of blood to his lips; and though +he seemed sensible when he recovered, (and knew us and his little girl +too, till he went off smiling,) he never spoke word more."</p> + +<p>"Poor man," said Leonard, wiping his eyes. "But his little girl surely +remembers the name that he did not finish?"</p> + +<p>"No. She says, he must have meant a gentleman whom they had met in the +Park not long ago, who was very kind to her father, and was Lord +something; but she don't remember the name, for she never saw him +before or since, and her father talked very little about any one +lately, but thought he should find some kind friends at Screwstown, +and travelled down there with her from Lunnon. But she supposes he was +disappointed, for he went out, came back, and merely told her to put +up the things, as they must go back to Lunnon. And on his way there +he—died. Hush what's that? I hope she did not overhear us. No, we +were talking low. She has the next room to your'n, sir. I thought I +heard her sobbing. Hush!"</p> + +<p>"In the next room? I hear nothing. Well, with your leave, I will speak +to her before I quit you. And had her father no money with him?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, a few sovereigns, sir; they paid for his funeral, and there is a +little left still, enough to take her to town; for my husband said, +says he, 'Hannah, the widow <i>gave</i> her mite, and we must not <i>take</i> +the orphans;' and my husband is a hard man, too, sir. Bless him!"</p> + +<p>"Let me take your hand, ma'am. God reward you both."</p> + +<p>"La, sir!—why, even Dr. Dosewell said, rather grumpily though, 'Never +mind my bill; but don't call me up at six o'clock in the morning +again, without knowing a little more about people.' And I never afore +knew Dr. Dosewell go without his bill being paid. He said it was a +trick o' the other Doctor to spite him."</p> + +<p>"What other Doctor?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, a very good gentleman, who got out with Mr. Digby when he was +taken ill, and stayed till the next morning; and our Doctor says his +name is Morgan, and he lives in—Lunnon, and is a homy—something." +"Homicide," suggested Leonard ignorantly.</p> + +<p>"Ah—homicide; something like that, only a deal longer and worse. But +he left some of the tiniest little balls you ever see, sir, to give +the child; but, bless you, they did her no good—how should they?"</p> + +<p>"Tiny balls, oh—homœopathist—I understand. And the Doctor was +kind to her; perhaps he may help her. Have you written to him?"</p> + +<p>"But we don't know his address, and Lunnon is a vast place, sir."</p> + +<p>"I am going to London, and will find it out."</p> + +<p>"Ah, sir, you seem very kind; and sin' she must go to Lunnon, (for +what can we do with her here?—she's too genteel for service,) I wish +she was going with you."</p> + +<p>"With me?" said Leonard startled; "with me! Well, why not?"</p> + +<p>"I am sure she comes of good blood, sir. You would have known her +father was quite the gentleman, only to see him die, sir. He went off +so kind and civil like, as if he was ashamed to give so much +trouble—quite a gentleman, if ever there was one. And so are you, +sir, I'm sure," said the landlady, curtseying; "I know what gentlefolk +be. I've been a housekeeper, in the first of families in this very +shire, sir, though I can't say I've served in Lunnon; and so, as +gentlefolks know each other, I've no doubt you could find out her +relations. Dear—dear! Coming, coming!"</p> + +<p>Here there were loud cries for the hostess, and she hurried away. The +farmers and drovers were beginning to depart, and their bills were to +be made out and paid. Leonard saw his hostess no more that night. The +last hip-hip-hurrah, was heard; some toast, perhaps, to the health of +the county members;—and the chamber of woe, beside Leonard's, rattled +with the shout. By-and-by silence gradually succeeded the various +dissonant sounds below. The carts and gigs rolled away; the clatter of +hoofs on the road ceased; there was then a dumb dull sound as of +locking-up, and low humming voices below and footsteps mounting the +stairs to bed, with now and then a drunken hiccup or maudlin laugh, as +some conquered votary of Bacchus was fairly carried up to his +domicile.</p> + +<p>All, then, at last was silent, just as the clock from the church +sounded the stroke of eleven.</p> + +<p>Leonard, meanwhile, had been looking over his MSS. There was first a +project for an improvement on the steam-engine—a project that had +long lain in his mind, begun with the first knowledge of mechanics +that he had gleaned from his purchases of the Tinker. He put that +aside now—it required too great an effort of the reasoning faculty to +re-examine. He glanced less hastily over a collection of essays on +various subjects, some that he thought indifferent, some that he +thought good. He then lingered over a collection of verses, written in +his best hand with loving care—verses first inspired by his perusal +of Nora's melancholy memorials. These verses were as a diary of his +heart and his fancy—those deep unwitnessed struggles which the +boyhood of all more thoughtful natures has passed in its bright yet +murky storm of the cloud and the lightning flash; though but few boys +pause to record the crisis from which slowly emerges Man. And these +first, desultory grapplings with the fugitive airy images that flit +through the dim chambers of the brain, had become with each effort +more sustained and vigorous, till the phantoms were spelled, the +flying ones arrested, the immaterial seized, and clothed with Form. +Gazing on his last effort, Leonard felt that there at length spoke +forth a Poet. It was a work which, though as yet but half completed, +came from a strong hand; not that shadow trembling on unsteady waters, +which is but the pale reflex and imitation of some bright mind, +sphered out of reach and afar; but an original substance—a life—a +thing of the <i>Creative</i> Faculty—breathing back already the breath it +had received. This work had paused during Leonard's residence with Mr. +Avenel, or had only now and then, in stealth, and at night, received a +rare touch. Now, as with a fresh eye, he re-perused it; and with that +strange, innocent admiration, not of self—(for a man's work is not, +alas! himself—it is the beatified and idealized essence, extracted he +knows not how from his own human elements of clay)—admiration known +but to poets—their purest delight, often their sole reward. And then, +with a warmer and more earthly beat of his full heart, he rushed in +fancy to the Great City, where all rivers of Fame meet, but not to be +merged and lost—sallying forth again, individualized and separate, to +flow through that one vast thought of God which we call <span class="smcap">The World</span>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<p>He put up his papers; and opened his window, as was his ordinary +custom, before he retired to rest—for he had many odd habits; and he +loved to look out into the night when he prayed. His soul seemed to +escape from the body—to mount on the air—to gain more rapid access +to the far Throne in the Infinite—when his breath went forth among +the winds, and his eyes rested fixed on the stars, of Heaven.</p> + +<p>So the boy prayed silently; and after his prayer he was about +lingeringly to close the lattice, when he heard distinctly sobs close +at hand. He paused, and held his breath; then gently looked out; the +casement next his own was also open. Some one was also at watch by +that casement—perhaps also praying. He listened yet more attentively, +and caught, soft and low, the words. "Father—father—do you hear me +<i>now</i>?"</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER VI.</h4> + +<p>Leonard opened his door and stole towards that of the room adjoining; +for his first natural impulse had been to enter and console. But when +his touch was on the handle, he drew back. Child, though the mourner +was, her sorrows were rendered yet more sacred from intrusion by her +sex. Something, he knew not what, in his young ignorance, withheld him +from the threshold. To have crossed it then would have seemed to him +profanation. So he returned, and for hours yet he occasionally heard +the sobs, till they died away, and childhood wept itself to sleep.</p> + +<p>But the next morning, when he heard his neighbor astir, he knocked +gently at her door: there was no answer. He entered softly, and saw +her seated very listlessly in the centre of the room—as if it had no +familiar nook or corner as the rooms of home have—her hands drooping +on her lap, and her eyes gazing desolately on the floor. Then he +approached and spoke to her.</p> + +<p>Helen was very subdued, and very silent. Her tears seemed dried up; +and it was long before she gave sign or token that she heeded him. At +length, however, he gradually succeeded in rousing her interest; and +the first symptom of his success was in the quiver of her lip, and the +overflow of the downcast eyes.</p> + +<p>By little and little he wormed himself into her confidence; and she +told him, in broken whispers, her simple story. But what moved him the +most was, that, beyond her sense of loneliness, she did not seem to +feel her own unprotected state. She mourned the object she had nursed, +and heeded, and cherished; for she had been rather the protectress +than the protected to the helpless dead. He could not gain from her +any more satisfactory information than the landlady had already +imparted, as to her friends and prospects; but she permitted him +passively to look among the effects her father had left—save only +that if his hand touched something that seemed to her associations +especially holy, she waved him back, or drew it quickly away. There +were many bills receipted in the name of Captain Digby—old yellow +faded music-scores for the flute—extracts of Parts from Prompt +Books—gay parts of lively comedies, in which heroes have so noble a +contempt for money—fit heroes for a Sheridan and a Farquhar; close by +these were several pawnbroker's tickets; and, not arrayed smoothly, +but crumpled up, as if with an indignant nervous clutch of the old +helpless hands, some two or three letters. He asked Helen's permission +to glance at these, for they might give a clue to friends. Helen gave +the permission by a silent bend of the head. The letters, however, +were but short and freezing answers from what appeared to be distant +connections or former friends, or persons to whom the deceased had +applied for some situation. They were all very disheartening in their +tone. Leonard next endeavored to refresh Helen's memory as to the name +of the nobleman which had been last on her father's lips, but there he +failed wholly. For it may be remembered that Lord L'Estrange, when he +pressed his loan on Mr. Digby, and subsequently told that gentleman to +address him at Mr. Egerton's, had, from a natural delicacy, sent the +child on, that she might not hear the charity bestowed on the father; +and Helen said truly, that Mr. Digby had sunk into a habitual silence +on all his affairs latterly. She might have heard her father mention +the name, but she had not treasured it up; all she could say was, that +she should know the stranger again if she met him, and his dog too. +Seeing that the child had grown calm, Leonard was then going to leave +the room, in order to confer with the hostess, when she rose suddenly, +though noiselessly, and put her little hand in his, as if to detain +him. She did not say a word—the action said all—said "Do not desert +me." And Leonard's heart rushed to his lips, and he answered to the +action as he bent down and kissed her cheek, "Orphan, will you go with +me? We have one Father yet to both of us, and He will guide us on +earth. I am fatherless like you." She raised her eyes to his—looked +at him long—and then leant her head confidingly on his strong young +shoulder.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER VII.</h4> + +<p>At noon that same day, the young man and the child were on their road +to London. The host had at first a little demurred at trusting Helen +to so young a companion, but Leonard, in his happy ignorance, had +talked so sanguinely of finding out this lord, or some adequate +protection for the child, and in so grand a strain, though with all +sincerity, had spoken of his own great prospects in the metropolis (he +did not say what they were!) that had it been the craftiest imposter, +he could not have more taken in the rustic host.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> And while the +landlady still cherished the illusive fancy that all gentlefolks must +know each other in London, as they did in a county, the landlord +believed, at least, that a young man, so respectably dressed, although +but a foot-traveller—who talked in so confident a tone, and who was +so willing to undertake what might be rather a burdensome charge, +unless he saw how to rid himself of it—would be sure to have friends, +older and wiser than himself, who could judge what could best be done +for the orphan.</p> + +<p>And what was the host to do with her? Better this volunteered escort, +at least, than vaguely passing her on from parish to parish, and +leaving her friendless at last in the streets of London. Helen, too, +smiled for the first time on being asked her wishes, and again put her +hand in Leonard's. In short, so it was settled.</p> + +<p>The little girl made up a bundle of the things she most prized or +needed. Leonard did not feel the additional load, as he slung it to +his knapsack. The rest of the luggage was to be sent to London as soon +as Leonard wrote, (which he promised to do soon,) and gave an address.</p> + +<p>Helen paid her last visit to the churchyard; and she joined her +companion as he stood on the road, without the solemn precincts. And +now they had gone on some hours, and when he asked if she was tired, +she still answered "No." But Leonard was merciful, and made their +day's journey short; and it took them some days to reach London. By +the long lonely way, they grew so intimate, at the end of the second +day they called each other brother and sister; and Leonard, to his +delight, found that as her grief, with the bodily movement and the +change of scene, subsided from its first intenseness and its +insensibility to other impressions, she developed a quickness of +comprehension far beyond her years. Poor child! <i>that</i> had been forced +upon her by Necessity. And she understood him in his spiritual +consolations,—half poetical, half religious; and she listened to his +own tale, and the story of his self-education and solitary +struggles—those, too, she understood. But when he burst out with his +enthusiasm, his glorious hopes, his confidence in the fate before +them, then she would shake her head very quietly and very sadly. Did +she comprehend <i>them</i>? Alas! perhaps too well. She knew more as to +real life than he did. Leonard was at first their joint treasurer, but +before the second day was over, Helen seemed to discover that he was +too lavish; and she told him so, with a prudent grave look, putting +her hand on his arm, as he was about to enter an inn to dine; and the +gravity would have been comic, but that the eyes through their +moisture were so meek and grateful. She felt he was about to incur +that ruinous extravagance on her account. Somehow or other, the purse +found its way into her keeping, and then she looked proud, and in her +natural element.</p> + +<p>Ah! what happy meals under her care were provided: so much more +enjoyable than in dull, sanded inn parlors, swarming with flies, and +reeking with stale tobacco. She would leave him at the entrance of a +village, bound forward, and cater, and return with a little basket and +a pretty blue jug—which she had bought on the road—the last filled +with new milk, the first with new bread and some special dainty in +radishes or water-cresses. And she had such a talent for finding out +the prettiest spot whereon to halt and dine: sometimes in the heart of +a wood—so still, it was like a forest in fairy tales, the hare +stealing through the alleys, or the squirrel peeping at them from the +boughs; sometimes by a little brawling stream, with the fishes seen +under the clear wave, and shooting round the crumbs thrown to them. +They made an Arcadia of the dull road up to their dread +Thermopylæ—the war against the million that waited them on the other +side of their pass through Tempe.</p> + +<p>"Shall we be as happy when we are <i>great</i>?" said Leonard, in his grand +simplicity.</p> + +<p>Helen sighed, and the wise little head was shaken.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER VIII.</h4> + +<p>At last they came within easy reach of London; but Leonard had +resolved not to enter the metropolis fatigued and exhausted, as a +wanderer needing refuge, but fresh and elate, as a conqueror coming in +triumph to take possession of the capital. Therefore they halted early +in the evening of the day preceding this imperial entry, about six +miles from the metropolis, in the neighborhood of Ealing, (for by that +route lay their way.) They were not tired on arriving at their inn. +The weather was singularly lovely, with that combination of softness +and brilliancy which is only known to the rare true summer days of +England: all below so green, above so blue—days of which we have +about six in the year, and recall vaguely when we read of Robin Hood +and maid Marian, of Damsel and Knight, in Spenser's golden Summer +Song, or of Jacques, dropped under the oak tree, watching the deer +amidst the dells of Ardennes. So, after a little pause in their inn, +they strolled forth, not for travel, but pleasure, towards the cool of +sunset, passing by the grounds that once belonged to the Duke of Kent, +and catching a glimpse of the shrubs and lawns of that beautiful +domain through the lodge-gates; then they crossed into some fields, +and came to a little rivulet called the Brent. Helen had been more sad +that day than on any during their journey. Perhaps, because, on +approaching London, the memory of her father became more vivid; +perhaps from her precocious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> knowledge of life, and her foreboding of +what was to befall them, children that they both were. But Leonard was +selfish that day; he could not be influenced by his companion's +sorrow, he was so full of his own sense of being, and he already +caught from the atmosphere the fever that belongs to anxious capitals.</p> + +<p>"Sit here, sister," said he imperiously, throwing himself under the +shade of a pollard tree that overhung the winding brook, "sit here and +talk."</p> + +<p>He flung off his hat, tossed back his rich curls, and sprinkled his +brow from the stream that eddied round the roots of the tree that +bulged out, bald and gnarled, from the bank, and delved into the waves +below. Helen quietly obeyed him, and nestled close to his side.</p> + +<p>"And so this London is very vast?—<span class="smcap">very</span>?" he repeated inquisitively.</p> + +<p>"Very," answered Helen, as abstractedly she plucked the cowslips near +her, and let them fall into the running waters. "See how the flowers +are carried down the stream! They are lost now. London is to us what +the river is to the flowers—very vast—very strong;" and she added, +after a pause, "very cruel!"</p> + +<p>"Cruel! Ah, it <i>has</i> been so to you; but <i>now</i>!—now I will take care +of you!" he smiled triumphantly; and his smile was beautiful both in +its pride and its kindness. It is astonishing how Leonard had altered +since he had left his uncle's. He was both younger and older; for the +sense of genius, when it snaps its shackles, makes us both older and +wiser as to the world it soars to—younger and blinder as to the world +it springs from.</p> + +<p>"And it is not a very handsome city either, you say?"</p> + +<p>"Very ugly, indeed," said Helen, with some fervor; "at least all I +have seen of it."</p> + +<p>"But there must be parts that are prettier than others? You say there +are parks; why should not we lodge near them, and look upon the green +trees?"</p> + +<p>"That would be nice," said Helen, almost joyously; "but—" and here +the head was shaken—"there are no lodgings for us except in courts +and alleys."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Why?" echoed Helen, with a smile, and she held up the purse.</p> + +<p>"Pooh! always that horrid purse; as if, too, we were not going to fill +it. Did I not tell you the story of Fortunio? Well, at all events, we +will go first to the neighborhood where you last lived, and learn +there all we can; and then the day after to-morrow, I will see this +Dr. Morgan, and find out the Lord—"</p> + +<p>The tears startled to Helen's soft eyes. "You want to get rid of me +soon, brother."</p> + +<p>"I! ah, I feel so happy to have you with me, it seems to me as if I +had pined for you all my life, and you had come at last; for I never +had brother, nor sister, nor any one to love, that was not older than +myself, except—"</p> + +<p>"Except the young lady you told me of," said Helen, turning away her +face; for children are very jealous.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I loved her, love her still. But that was different," said +Leonard, with a heightened color. "I could never have talked to her as +to you, to you I open my whole heart; you are my little Muse, Helen, I +confess to you my wild whims and fancies as frankly as if I were +writing poetry." As he said this, a step was heard, and a shadow fell +over the stream. A belated angler appeared on the margin, drawing his +line impatiently across the water, as if to worry some dozing fish +into a bite before it finally settled itself for the night. Absorbed +in his occupation, the angler did not observe the young persons on the +sward under the tree, and he halted there, close upon them.</p> + +<p>"Curse that perch!" said he aloud.</p> + +<p>"Take care, sir," cried Leonard; for the man, in stepping back, nearly +trod upon Helen.</p> + +<p>The angler turned. "What's the matter? Hist! you have frightened my +perch. Keep still, can't you?"</p> + +<p>Helen drew herself out of the way, and Leonard remained motionless. He +remembered Jackeymo, and felt a sympathy for the angler.</p> + +<p>"It is the most extraordinary perch, that!" muttered the stranger, +soliloquizing. "It has the devil's own luck. It must have been born +with a silver spoon in its mouth, that damned perch! I shall never +catch it—never! Ha!—no—only a weed. I give it up." With this, he +indignantly jerked his rod from the water, and began to disjoint it. +While leisurely engaged in this occupation, he turned to Leonard.</p> + +<p>"Humph! are you intimately acquainted with this stream, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No," answered Leonard. "I never saw it before."</p> + +<p><i>Angler</i>, (solemnly.)—"Then, young man, take my advice, and do not +give way to its fascinations. Sir, I am a martyr to this stream; it +has been the Dalilah of my existence."</p> + +<p><i>Leonard</i>, (interested, the last sentence seemed to him +poetical.)—"The Dalilah! sir, the Dalilah!"</p> + +<p><i>Angler.</i>—"The Dalilah. Young man, listen, and be warned by example. +When I was about your age, I first came to this stream to fish. Sir, +on that fatal day, about 3 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, I hooked up a fish—such a big one, +it must have weighed a pound and a half. Sir, it was that length;" and +the angler put finger to wrist. "And just when I had got it nearly +ashore, by the very place where you are sitting, on that shelving +bank, young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> man, the line broke, and the perch twisted himself among +those roots, and—caco dæmon that he was—ran off, hook and all. Well, +that fish haunted me; never before had I seen such a fish. Minnows I +had caught in the Thames and elsewhere, also gudgeons, and +occasionally a dace. But a fish like that—a PERCH—all his fins up +like the sails of a man-of-war—a monster perch—a whale of a +perch!—No, never till then had I known what leviathans lie hid within +the deeps. I could not sleep till I had returned; and again, sir,—I +caught that perch. And this time I pulled him fairly out of the water. +He escaped; and how did he escape? Sir, he left his eye behind him on +the hook. Years, long years, have passed since then; but never shall I +forget the agony of that moment."</p> + +<p><i>Leonard.</i>—"To the perch, sir?"</p> + +<p><i>Angler.</i>—"Perch! agony to him! He enjoyed it:—agony to me. I gazed +on that eye, and the eye looked as sly and as wicked as if it was +laughing in my face. Well, sir, I had heard that there is no better +bait for a perch than a perch's eye. I adjusted that eye on the hook, +and dropped in the line gently. The water was unusually clear; in two +minutes I saw that perch return. He approached the hook; he recognized +his eye—frisked his tail—made a plunge—and, as I live, carried off +the eye, safe and sound; and I saw him digesting it by the side of +that water-lily. The mocking fiend! Seven times since that day, in the +course of a varied and eventful life, have I caught that perch, and +seven times has that perch escaped."</p> + +<p><i>Leonard</i>, (astonished.)—"It can't be the same perch; perches are +very tender fish—a hook inside of it, and an eye hooked out of it—no +perch could withstand such havoc in its constitution."</p> + +<p><i>Angler</i>, (with an appearance of awe.)—"It does seem supernatural. +But it <i>is</i> that perch; for harkye, sir, there is <span class="smcap">only one</span> perch in +the whole brook! All the years I have fished here, I have never caught +another perch here; and this solitary inmate of the watery element I +know by sight better than I know my own lost father. For each time +that I have raised it out of the water, its profile has been turned to +me, and I have seen, with a shudder, that it has had only—One Eye! It +is a most mysterious and a most diabolical phenomenon that perch! It +has been the ruin of my prospects in life. I was offered a situation +in Jamaica; I could not go, with that perch left here in triumph. I +might afterwards have had an appointment in India, but I could not put +the ocean between myself and that perch: thus have I fritted away my +existence in the fatal metropolis of my native land. And once a-week, +from February to December, I come hither—Good Heavens! if I should +catch the perch at last, the occupation of my existence will be gone."</p> + +<p>Leonard gazed curiously at the angler, as the last thus mournfully +concluded. The ornate turn of his periods did not suit with his +costume. He looked woefully threadbare and shabby—a genteel sort of +shabbiness too—shabbiness in black. There was humor in the corners of +his lip; and his hands, though they did not seem very clean—indeed +his occupation was not friendly to such niceties—were those of a man +who had not known manual labor. His face was pale and puffed, but the +tip of his nose was red. He did not seem as if the watery element was +as familiar to himself as to his Dalilah—the perch.</p> + +<p>"Such is life!" recommenced the angler in a moralizing tone, as he +slid his rod into its canvas case. "If a man knew what it was to fish +all one's life in a stream that has only one perch!—to catch that one +perch nine times in all, and nine times to see it fall back into the +water, plump;—if man knew what it was—why, then"—Here the angler +looked over his shoulder full at Leonard—"why, then, young sir, he +would know what human life is to vain ambition. Good evening."</p> + +<p>Away he went, treading over the daisies and king cups. Helen's eyes +followed him wistfully.</p> + +<p>"What a strange person!" said Leonard, laughing.</p> + +<p>"I think he is a very wise one," murmured Helen; and she came close up +to Leonard, and took his hand in both hers, as if she felt already +that he was in need of the Comforter—the line broke, and the perch +lost!</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER IX.</h4> + +<p>At noon the next day, London stole upon them, through a gloomy, thick, +oppressive atmosphere. For where is it that we can say London <i>bursts</i> +on the sight? It stole on them through one of its fairest and most +gracious avenues of approach—by the stately gardens of +Kensington—along the side of Hyde Park, and so on towards Cumberland +Gate.</p> + +<p>Leonard was not the least struck. And yet, with a little money, and a +very little taste, it would be easy to render this entrance to London +as grand and imposing as that to Paris from the <i>Champs Elysées</i>. As +they came near the Edgeware Road, Helen took her new brother by the +hand and guided him. For she knew all that neighborhood, and she was +acquainted with a lodging near that occupied by her father (to <i>that</i> +lodging itself she could not have gone for the world), where they +might be housed cheaply.</p> + +<p>But just then the sky, so dull and overcast since morning, seemed one +mass of black cloud. There suddenly came on a violent storm of rain. +The boy and girl took refuge in a covered mews, in a street running +out of the Edgeware Road. The shelter soon became crowded; the two +young pilgrims crept close to the wall, apart from the rest;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +Leonard's arm round Helen's waist, sheltering her from the rain that +the strong wind contending with it beat in through the passage. +Presently a young gentleman, of better mien and dress than the other +refugees, entered, not hastily, but rather with a slow and proud step, +as if, though he deigned to take shelter, he scorned to run to it. He +glanced somewhat haughtily at the assembled group—passed on through +the midst of it—came near Leonard—took off his hat, and shook the +rain from its brim. His head thus uncovered, left all his features +exposed; and the village youth recognized, at the first glance, his +old victorious assailant on the green at Hazeldean.</p> + +<p>Yet Randal Leslie was altered. His dark cheek was as thin as in +boyhood, and even yet more wasted by intense study and night vigils; +but the expression of his face was at once more refined and manly, and +there was a steady concentrated light in his large eye, like that of +one who has been in the habit of bringing all his thoughts to one +point. He looked older than he was. He was dressed simply in black, a +color which became him; and altogether his aspect and figure were not +showy indeed, but distinguished. He looked, to the common eye, a +gentleman; and to the more observant, a scholar.</p> + +<p>Helter-skelter!—pell-mell! the group in the passage—now pressed each +on each—now scattered on all sides—making way—rushing down the +mews—against the walls—as a fiery horse darted under shelter; the +rider, a young man, with a very handsome face, and dressed with that +peculiar care which we commonly call dandyism, cried out, good +humoredly,—"Don't be afraid; the horse shan't hurt any of you—a +thousand pardons—so ho! so ho!" He patted the horse, and it stood as +still as a statue, filling up the centre of the passage. The groups +resettled—Randal approached the rider.</p> + +<p>"Frank Hazeldean!"</p> + +<p>"Ah—is it indeed Randal Leslie!"</p> + +<p>Frank was off his horse in a moment, and the bridle was consigned to +the care of a slim 'prentice-boy holding a bundle.</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow, how glad I am to see you. How lucky it was that I +should turn in here. Not like me either, for I don't much care for a +ducking. Staying in town, Randal?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, at your uncle's, Mr. Egerton. I have left Oxford."</p> + +<p>"For good?"</p> + +<p>"For good."</p> + +<p>"But you have not taken your degree, I think? We Etonians all +considered you booked for a double first. Oh! we have been so proud of +you—you carried off all the prizes."</p> + +<p>"Not all; but some, certainly. Mr. Egerton offered me my choice—to +stay for my degree, or to enter at once into the Foreign Office. I +preferred the ends to the means. For, after all, what good are +academical honors but as the entrance to life? To enter now is to save +a step in a long way, Frank."</p> + +<p>"Ah! you were always ambitious, and you will make a great figure, I am +sure."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps so—if I work for it. Knowledge is power."</p> + +<p>Leonard started.</p> + +<p>"And you," resumed Randal, looking with some curious attention at his +old schoolfellow. "You never came to Oxford. I did hear you were going +into the army."</p> + +<p>"I am in the Guards," said Frank, trying hard not to look too +conceited as he made that acknowledgment. "The Governor pished a +little, and would rather I had come to live with him in the old hall, +and take to farming. Time enough for that—eh? By Jove, Randall, how +pleasant a thing is life in London? Do you go to Almack's to-night?"</p> + +<p>"No; Wednesday is a holiday in the House! There is a great +parliamentary dinner at Mr. Egerton's. He is in the Cabinet now, you +know; but you don't see much of your uncle, I think."</p> + +<p>"Our sets are different," said the young gentleman, in a tone of voice +worthy of Brummell. "All those parliamentary fellows are devilish +dull. The rain's over. I don't know whether the Governor would like me +to call at Grosvenor Square; but, pray come and see me; here's my card +to remind you; you must dine at our mess. Such nice fellows. What day +will you fix?"</p> + +<p>"I will call and let you know. Don't you find it rather expensive in +the Guards? I remember that you thought the Governor, as you call him, +used to chafe a little when you wrote for more pocket-money; and the +only time I ever remember to have seen you with tears in your eyes, +was when Mr. Hazeldean, in sending you £5, reminded you that his +estates were not entailed—were at his own disposal, and they should +never go to an extravagant spendthrift. It was not a pleasant threat, +that, Frank."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried the young man, coloring deeply, "It was not the threat +that pained me, it was that my father could think so meanly of me as +to fancy that—well—well, but those were schoolboy days. And my +father was always more generous than I deserved. We must see a good +deal of each other, Randal. How good-natured you were at Eton, making +my longs and shorts for me; I shall never forget it. Do call soon."</p> + +<p>Frank swung himself into his saddle, and rewarded the slim youth with +half-a-crown; a largess four times more ample than his father would +have deemed sufficient. A jerk of the reins and a touch of the +heel—off bounded the fiery horse and the gay young rider. Randal +mused; and as the rain had now ceased, the passengers under shelter +dispersed and went their way. Only Randal, Leonard, and Helen remained +behind. Then, as Randal, still musing, lifted his eyes, they fell full +upon Leonard's face. He started, passed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> his hand quickly over his +brow—looked again, hard and piercingly; and the change in his pale +cheek to a shade still paler—a quick compression and nervous gnawing +of his lip—showed that he too had recognized an old foe. Then his +glance ran over Leonard's dress, which was somewhat dust-stained, but +far above the class amongst which the peasant was born. Randal raised +his brows in surprise, and with a smile slightly supercilious—the +smile stung Leonard; and with a slow step Randal left the passage, and +took his way towards Grosvenor Square. The Entrance of Ambition was +clear to <i>him</i>.</p> + +<p>Then the little girl once more took Leonard by the hand, and led him +through rows of humble, obscure, dreary streets. It seemed almost like +an allegory personified, as the sad, silent child led on the penniless +and low-born adventurer of genius by the squalid shops, and through +the winding lanes, which grew meaner and meaner, till both their forms +vanished from the view.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER X.</h4> + +<p>"But do come; change your dress, return and dine with me; you will +have just time, Harley. You will meet the most eminent men of our +party; surely they are worth your study, philosopher that you affect +to be."</p> + +<p>Thus said Audley Egerton to Lord L'Estrange, with whom he had been +riding (after the toils of his office.) The two gentlemen were in +Audley's library. Mr. Egerton, as usual, buttoned up, seated in his +chair, in the erect posture of a man who scorns "inglorious ease." +Harley, as usual, thrown at length on a sofa, his long hair in +careless curls, his neckcloth loose, his habiliments flowing—<i>simplex +munditiis</i>, indeed—his grace all his own; seemingly negligent, never +slovenly; at ease every where and with every one, even with Mr. Audley +Egerton, who chilled or awed the ease out of most people.</p> + +<p>"Nay, my dear Audley, forgive me. But your eminent men are all men of +one idea, and that not a diverting one—politics! politics! politics! +The storm in the saucer."</p> + +<p>"But what is your life, Harley?—the saucer without the storm?"</p> + +<p>"Do you know, that's very well said, Audley? I did not think you had +so much liveliness of repartee. Life—life! it is insipid, it is +shallow. No launching Argosies in the saucer. Audley, I have the +oddest fancy—"</p> + +<p>"<i>That</i> of course," said Audley drily; "you never have any other. What +is the new one?"</p> + +<p><i>Harley</i>, (with great gravity.)—"Do you believe in Mesmerism?"</p> + +<p><i>Audley.</i>—"Certainly not."</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"If it were in the power of an animal magnetizer to get me +out of my own skin into somebody else's! <i>That's</i> my fancy! I am so +tired of myself—so tired! I have run through all my ideas—know every +one of them by heart; when some pretentious imposter of an idea perks +itself up and says, 'Look at me, I'm a new acquaintance'—I just give +it a nod, and say, 'Not at all, you have only got a new coat on; you +are the same old wretch that has bored me these last twenty years; get +away.' But if one could be in a new skin! if I could be for half an +hour your tall porter, or one of your eminent matter-of-fact men, I +should then really travel into a new world.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> Every man's brain must +be a world in itself, eh? If I could but make a parochial settlement +even in yours, Audley—run over all your thoughts and sensations. Upon +my life, I'll go and talk to that French mesmerizer about it."</p> + +<p><i>Audley</i>, (who does not seem to like the notion of having his thoughts +and sensations rummaged even by his friend, and even in +fancy.)—"Pooh, pooh, pooh! Do talk like a man of sense."</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"Man of sense! Where shall I find a model! I don't know a +man of sense!—never met such a creature. Don't believe it ever +existed. At one time I thought Socrates must have been a man of +sense;—a delusion; he would stand gazing into the air, and talking to +his Genius from sunrise to sunset. Is that like a man of sense? Poor +Audley, how puzzled he looks! Well, I'll try and talk sense to oblige +you. And first, (here Harley raised himself on his elbow)—first, is +it true, as I have heard vaguely, that you are paying court to the +sister of that infamous Italian traitor?"</p> + +<p>"Madame di Negra? No; I am not paying <i>court</i> to her," answered Audley +with a cold smile. "But she is very handsome; she is very clever; she +is useful to me—I need not say how or why; that belongs to my +<i>métier</i> as politician. But, I think, if you will take my advice, or +get your friend to take it, I could obtain from her brother, through +my influence with her, some liberal concessions to your exile. She is +very anxious to know where he is."</p> + +<p>"You have not told her?"</p> + +<p>"No; I promised you I would keep that secret."</p> + +<p>"Be sure you do; it is only for some mischief, some snare, that she +could desire such information. Concessions! pooh! This is no question +of concessions, but of rights."</p> + +<p>"I think you should leave your friend to judge of that."</p> + +<p>"Well, I will write to him. Meanwhile, beware of this woman. I have +heard much of her abroad, and she has the character of her brother for +duplicity and—"</p> + +<p>"Beauty," interrupted Audley, turning the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> conversation with practised +adroitness. "I am told that the Count is one of the handsomest men in +Europe, much handsomer than his sister still, though nearly twice her +age. Tut—tut—Harley! fear not for me. I am proof against all +feminine attractions. This heart is dead."</p> + +<p>"Nay, nay; it is not for you to speak thus—leave that to me. But even +<i>I</i> will not say it. The heart never dies. And you; what have you +lost?—a wife; true: an excellent noble-hearted woman. But was it love +that you felt for her? Enviable man, have you ever loved?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not, Harley," said Audley, with a sombre aspect, and in +dejected accents; "very few men ever have loved, at least as you mean +by the word. But there are other passions than love that kill the +heart, and reduce us to mechanism."</p> + +<p>While Egerton spoke, Harley turned aside, and his breast heaved. There +was a short silence. Audley was the first to break it.</p> + +<p>"Speaking of my lost wife, I am sorry that you do not approve what I +have done for her young kinsman, Randal Leslie."</p> + +<p><i>Harley</i>, (recovering himself with an effort.)—"Is it true kindness +to bid him exchange manly independence for the protection of an +official patron?"</p> + +<p><i>Audley.</i>—"I did not bid him. I gave him his choice. At his age I +should have chosen as he has done."</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"I trust not; I think better of you. But answer me one +question frankly, and then I will ask another. Do you mean to make +this young man your heir?"</p> + +<p><i>Audley</i>, (with a slight embarrassment.)—"Heir, pooh! I am young +still. I may live as long as he—time enough to think of that."</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"Then now to my second question. Have you told this youth +plainly that he may look to you for influence, but not for wealth?"</p> + +<p><i>Audley</i>, (firmly.)—"I think I have; but I shall repeat it more +emphatically."</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"Then I am satisfied as to your conduct, but not as to his. +For he has too acute an intellect not to know what it is to forfeit +independence; and, depend upon it, he has made his calculations, and +would throw you into the bargain in any balance that he could strike +in his favor. You go by your experience in judging men—I by my +instincts. Nature warns us as it does the inferior animals—only we +are too conceited, we bipeds, to heed her. My instincts of soldier and +gentleman recoil from the old young man. He has the soul of the +Jesuit. I see it in his eye—I hear it in the tread of his foot; +<i>volto sciolto</i>, he has not; <i>i pensieri stretti</i> he has. Hist! I hear +now his step in the hall. I should know it from a thousand. That's his +very touch on the handle of the door."</p> + +<p>Randal Leslie entered. Harley—who, despite his disregard for forms +and his dislike to Randal, was too high-bred not to be polite to his +junior in age or inferior in rank—rose and bowed. But his bright +piercing eyes did not soften as they caught and bore down the deeper +and more latent fire in Randal's. Harley then did not resume his seat, +but moved to the mantel-piece, and leant against it.</p> + +<p><i>Randal.</i>—"I have fulfilled your commissions, Mr. Egerton. I went +first to Maida Hill, and saw Mr. Burley. I gave him the check, but he +said it was too much, and he should return half to the banker; he will +write the article as you suggested. I then—"</p> + +<p><i>Audley.</i>—"Enough, Randal. We will not fatigue Lord L'Estrange with +these little details of a life that displeases him—the life +political."</p> + +<p><i>Harley.</i>—"But <i>these</i> details do not displease me—they reconcile me +to my own life. Go on, pray, Mr. Leslie."</p> + +<p>Randal had too much tact to need the cautioning glance of Mr. Egerton. +He did not continue, but said, with a soft voice, "Do you think, Lord +L'Estrange, that the contemplation of the mode of life pursued by +others <i>can</i> reconcile a man to his own, if he had before thought it +needed a reconciler?"</p> + +<p>Harley looked pleased, for the question was ironical; and, if there +was a thing in the world he abhorred, it was flattery.</p> + +<p>"Recollect your Lucretius, Mr. Leslie, <i>Suave mare</i>, &c., 'pleasant +from the cliff to see the mariners tossed on the ocean.' Faith, I +think that sight reconciles one to the cliff—though, before, one +might have been teased by the splash from the spray, and deafened by +the scream of the sea-gulls. But I leave you, Audley. Strange that I +have heard no more of my soldier. Remember I have your promise when I +come to claim it. Good-bye, Mr. Leslie, I hope that Mr. Burley's +article will be worth the—check."</p> + +<p>Lord L'Estrange mounted his horse, which was still at the door, and +rode through the Park. But he was no longer now unknown by sight. Bows +and nods saluted him on every side.</p> + +<p>"Alas, I am found out, then," said he to himself. "That terrible +Duchess of Knaresborough, too—I must fly my country." He pushed his +horse into a canter, and was soon out of the Park. As he dismounted at +his father's sequestered house, you would have hardly supposed him the +same whimsical, fantastic, but deep and subtle humorist that delighted +in perplexing the material Audley. For his expressive face was +unutterably serious. But the moment he came into the presence of his +parents, the countenance was again lighted and cheerful. It brightened +the whole room like sunshine.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XI.</h4> + +<p>"Mr. Leslie," said Egerton, when Harley had left the library, "you did +not act with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> your usual discretion in touching upon matters connected +with politics in the presence of a third party."</p> + +<p>"I feel that already, sir. My excuse is, that I held Lord L'Estrange +to be your most intimate friend."</p> + +<p>"A public man, Mr. Leslie, would ill serve his country if he were not +especially reserved towards his private friends,—when they do not +belong to his party."</p> + +<p>"But, pardon me my ignorance: Lord Lansmere is so well known to be one +of your supporters that I fancied his son must share his sentiments, +and be in your confidence."</p> + +<p>Egerton's brows slightly contracted, and gave a stern expression to a +countenance always firm and decided. He however answered in a mild +tone.</p> + +<p>"At the entrance into political life, Mr. Leslie, there is nothing in +which a young man of your talents should be more on his guard than +thinking for himself. He will nearly always think wrong. And I believe +that is one reason why young men of talent disappoint their friends, +and—remain so long out of office."</p> + +<p>A haughty flush passed over Randal's brow, and faded away quickly. He +bowed in silence.</p> + +<p>Egerton resumed, as if in explanation, and even in kindly apology—</p> + +<p>"Look at Lord L'Estrange himself. What young man could come into life +with brighter auspices? Rank, wealth, high animal spirits, (a great +advantage those same spirits, Mr. Leslie,) courage, self-possession, +scholarship as brilliant perhaps as your own; and now see how his life +is wasted! Why! He always thought fit to think for himself. He could +never be broken into harness, and never will be. The state coach, Mr. +Leslie, requires that all the horses should pull together."</p> + +<p>"With submission, sir," answered Randal, "I should think that there +were other reasons why Lord L'Estrange, whatever be his talents—and +indeed of these you must be an adequate judge—would never do any +thing in public life."</p> + +<p>"Ay, and what?" said Egerton, quickly.</p> + +<p>"First," said Randal, shrewdly, "private life has done too much for +him. What could public life give to one who needs nothing? Born at the +top of the social ladder, why should he put himself voluntarily at the +last step, for the sake of climbing up again! And secondly, Lord +L'Estrange seems to me a man in whose organization <i>sentiment</i> usurps +too large a share for practical existence."</p> + +<p>"You have a keen eye," said Audley, with some admiration; "keen for +one so young. Poor Harley!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Egerton's last words were said to himself. He resumed quickly—</p> + +<p>"There is something on my mind, my young friend. Let us be frank with +each other. I placed before you fairly the advantages and +disadvantages of the choice I gave you. To take your degree with such +honors as no doubt you would have won, to obtain your fellowship, to +go to the bar, with those credentials in favor of your talents—this +was one career. To come at once into public life, to profit by my +experience, avail yourself of my interest, to take the chances of or +fall with a party—this was another. You chose the last. But, in so +doing, there was a consideration which might weigh with you; and on +which, in stating your reasons for your option, you were silent."</p> + +<p>"What's that, sir?"</p> + +<p>"You might have counted on my fortune should the chances of party fail +you;—speak—and without shame if so; it would be natural in a young +man, who comes from the elder branch of the house whose heiress was my +wife."</p> + +<p>"You wound me, Mr. Egerton," said Randal, turning away.</p> + +<p>Mr. Egerton's cold glance followed Randal's movement; the face was hid +from the glance—it rested on the figure, which is often as +self-betraying as the countenance itself. Randal baffled Mr. Egerton's +penetration—the young man's emotion might be honest pride, and pained +and generous feeling; or it might be something else. Egerton continued +slowly.</p> + +<p>"Once for all then, distinctly and emphatically, I say—never count +upon that; count upon all else that I can do for you, and forgive me, +when I advise harshly or censure coldly; ascribe this to my interest +in your career. Moreover, before decision becomes irrevocable, I wish +you to know practically all that is disagreeable or even humiliating +in the first subordinate steps of him who, without wealth or station, +would rise in public life. I will not consider your choice settled, +till the end of a year at least—your name will be kept on the college +books till then; if, on experience, you should prefer to return to +Oxford, and pursue the slower but surer path to independence and +distinction, you can. And now give me your hand, Mr. Leslie, in sign +that you forgive my bluntness;—it is time to dress."</p> + +<p>Randal, with his face still averted, extended his hand. Mr. Egerton +held it a moment, then dropping it, left the room. Randal turned as +the door closed. And there was in his dark face a power of sinister +passion, that justified all Harley's warnings. His lips moved, but not +audibly; then, as if struck by a sudden thought, he followed Egerton +into the Hall.</p> + +<p>"Sir," said he, "I forgot to say that on returning from Maida Hill, I +took shelter from the rain under a covered passage, and there I met +unexpectedly with your nephew, Frank Hazeldean."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Egerton indifferently, "a fine young man; in the Guards. It +is a pity that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> my brother has such antiquated political notions; he +should put his son into parliament, and under my guidance; I could +push him. Well, and what said Frank?"</p> + +<p>"He invited me to call on him. I remember that you once rather +cautioned me against too intimate an acquaintance with those who have +not got their fortune to make."</p> + +<p>"Because they are idle, and idleness is contagious. Right—better not +be intimate with a young Guardsman."</p> + +<p>"Then you would not have me call on him, sir? We were rather friends +at Eton; and if I wholly reject his overtures, might he not think that +you—"</p> + +<p>"I!" interrupted Egerton. "Ah, true; my brother might think I bore him +a grudge; absurd. Call then, and ask the young man here. Yet still, I +do not advise intimacy."</p> + +<p>Egerton turned into his dressing-room. "Sir," said his valet, who was +in waiting, "Mr. Levy is here—he says, by appointment; and Mr. +Grinders is also just come from the country."</p> + +<p>"Tell Mr. Grinders to come in first," said Egerton, seating himself. +"You need not wait; I can dress without you. Tell Mr. Levy I will see +him in five minutes."</p> + +<p>Mr. Grinders was steward to Audley Egerton.</p> + +<p>Mr. Levy was a handsome man, who wore a camelia in his +button-hole—drove, in his cabriolet, a high stepping horse that had +cost £200: was well known to young men of fashion, and considered by +their fathers a very dangerous acquaintance.</p> + + +<h4>CHAPTER XII.</h4> + +<p>As the company assembled in the drawing-rooms, Mr. Egerton introduced +Randal Leslie to his eminent friends in a way that greatly contrasted +the distant and admonitory manner which he had exhibited to him in +private. The presentation was made with that cordiality, and that +gracious respect by which those who are in station command notice for +those who have their station yet to win.</p> + +<p>"My dear Lord, let me introduce to you a kinsman of my late wife's (in +a whisper)—the heir to the elder branch of her family. Stranmore, +this is Mr. Leslie, of whom I spoke to you. You, who were so +distinguished at Oxford, will not like him the worse for the prizes he +gained there. Duke, let me present to you, Mr. Leslie. The duchess is +angry with me for deserting her balls; I shall hope to make my peace, +by providing myself with a younger and livelier substitute. Ah, Mr. +Howard, here is a young gentleman just fresh from Oxford, who will +tell us all about the new sect springing up there. He has not wasted +his time on billiards and horses."</p> + +<p>Leslie was received with all that charming courtesy which is the <i>To +Kalon</i> of an aristocracy.</p> + +<p>After dinner, conversation settled on politics. Randal listened with +attention and in silence, till Egerton drew him gently out; just +enough, and no more—just enough to make his intelligence evident, +without subjecting him to the charge of laying down the law. Egerton +knew how to draw out young men—a difficult art. It was one reason why +he was so peculiarly popular with the more rising members of his +party.</p> + +<p>The party broke up early.</p> + +<p>"We are in time for Almack's," said Egerton, glancing at the clock, +"and I have a voucher for you; come."</p> + +<p>Randal followed his patron into the carriage. By the way, Egerton thus +addressed him—</p> + +<p>"I shall introduce you to the principal leaders of society; know them +and study them; I do not advise you to attempt to do more—that is, to +attempt to become the fashion. It is a very expensive ambition; some +men it helps, most men it ruins. On the whole, you have better cards +in your hands. Dance or not, as it pleases you—don't flirt. If you +flirt, people will inquire into your fortune—an inquiry that will do +you little good; and flirting entangles a young man into marrying. +That would never do. Here we are."</p> + +<p>In two minutes more they were in the great ball-room, and Randal's +eyes were dazzled with the lights, the diamonds, the blaze of beauty. +Audley presented him in quick succession to some dozen ladies, and +then disappeared amidst the crowd. Randal was not at a loss; he was +without shyness; or if he had that disabling infirmity, he concealed +it. He answered the languid questions put to him, with a certain +spirit that kept up talk, and left a favorable impression of his +agreeable qualities. But the lady with whom he got on the best, was +one who had no daughters out, a handsome and witty woman of the +world—Lady Frederick Coniers.</p> + +<p>"It is your first ball at Almack's, then, Mr. Leslie?"</p> + +<p>"My first."</p> + +<p>"And you have not secured a partner? Shall I find you one? What do you +think of that pretty girl in pink?"</p> + +<p>"I see her—but I cannot <i>think</i> of her."</p> + +<p>"You are rather, perhaps, like a diplomatist in a new court, and your +first object is to know who is who."</p> + +<p>"I confess that on beginning to study the history of my own day, I +should like to distinguish the portraits that illustrate the memoir."</p> + +<p>"Give me your arm, then, and we will come into the next room. We shall +see the different <i>notabilités</i> enter one by one, and observe without +being observed. This is the least I can do for a friend of Mr. +Egerton's."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Egerton, then," said Randal,—(as they threaded their way through +the space<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> without the rope that protected the dancers)—"Mr. Egerton +has had the good fortune to win your esteem, even for his friends, +however obscure?"</p> + +<p>"Why, to say truth, I think no one whom Mr. Egerton calls his friend +need long remain obscure, if he has the ambition to be otherwise. For +Mr. Egerton holds it a maxim never to forget a friend, nor a service."</p> + +<p>"Ah, indeed!" said Randal, surprised.</p> + +<p>"And, therefore," continued Lady Frederick, "as he passes through +life, friends gather round him. He will rise even higher yet. +Gratitude, Mr. Leslie, is a very good policy."</p> + +<p>"Hem," muttered Mr. Leslie.</p> + +<p>They had now gained the room where tea and bread and butter were the +homely refreshments to the <i>habitués</i> of what at that day was the most +exclusive assembly in London. They ensconced themselves in a corner by +a window, and Lady Frederick performed her task of cicerone with +lively ease, accompanying each notice of the various persons who +passed panoramically before them with sketch and anecdote, sometimes +good-natured, generally satirical, always graphic and amusing.</p> + +<p>By-and-by Frank Hazeldean, having on his arm a young lady of haughty +air, and with high though delicate features, came to the tea-table.</p> + +<p>"The last new Guardsman," said Lady Frederick; "very handsome, and not +yet quite spoiled. But he has got into a dangerous set."</p> + +<p><i>Randal.</i>—"The young lady with him is handsome enough to be +dangerous."</p> + +<p><i>Lady Frederick</i>, (laughing.)—"No danger for him there,—as yet at +least. Lady Mary (the duke of Knaresborough's daughter) is only in her +second. The first year, nothing under an earl; the second, nothing +under a baron. It will be full four years before she comes down to a +commoner. Mr. Hazeldean's danger is of another kind. He lives much +with men who are not exactly <i>mauvais ton</i>, but certainly not of the +best taste. Yet he is very young; he may extricate himself—leaving +half his fortune behind him. What, he nods to you! You know him?"</p> + +<p>"Very well; he is nephew to Mr. Egerton."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! I did not know that. Hazeldean is a new name in London. I +heard his father was a plain country gentleman, of good fortune, but +not that he was related to Mr. Egerton."</p> + +<p>"Half-brother."</p> + +<p>"Will Mr. Egerton pay the young gentleman's debts? He has no sons +himself."</p> + +<p><i>Randal.</i>—"Mr. Egerton's fortune comes from his wife, from my +family—from a Leslie, not from a Hazeldean."</p> + +<p>Lady Frederick turned sharply, looked at Randal's countenance with +more attention than she had yet vouchsafed to it, and tried to talk of +the Leslies. Randal was very short there.</p> + +<p>An hour afterwards, Randal, who had not danced, was still in the +refreshment room, but Lady Frederick had long quitted him. He was +talking with some old Etonians who had recognized him, when there +entered a lady of very remarkable appearance, and a murmur passed +through the room as she appeared.</p> + +<p>She might be three or four and twenty. She was dressed in black +velvet, which contrasted with the alabaster whiteness of her throat +and the clear paleness of her complexion, while it set off the +diamonds with which she was profusely covered. Her hair was of the +deepest jet, and worn simply braided. Her eyes, too, were dark and +brilliant, her features regular and striking; but their expression, +when in repose, was not prepossessing to such as love modesty and +softness in the looks of woman. But when she spoke and smiled, there +was so much spirit and vivacity in the countenance, so much +fascination in the smile, that all which might before have marred the +effect of her beauty, strangely and suddenly disappeared.</p> + +<p>"Who is that very handsome woman?" asked Randal.</p> + +<p>"An Italian—a Marchesa something," said one of the Etonians.</p> + +<p>"Di Negra," suggested another, who had been abroad; "she is a widow; +her husband was of the great Genoese family of Negra—a younger branch +of it."</p> + +<p>Several men now gathered thickly around the fair Italian. A few ladies +of the highest rank spoke to her, but with a more distant courtesy +than ladies of high rank usually show to foreigners of such quality as +Madame di Negra. Ladies of a rank less elevated seemed rather shy of +her;—that might be from jealousy. As Randall gazed at the Marchesa +with more admiration than any woman, perhaps, had before excited in +him, he heard a voice near him say—</p> + +<p>"Oh, Madame di Negra is resolved to settle amongst us, and marry an +Englishman."</p> + +<p>"If she can find one sufficiently courageous," returned a female +voice.</p> + +<p>"Well, she is trying hard for Egerton, and he has courage enough for +any thing."</p> + +<p>The female voice replied with a laugh, "Mr. Egerton knows the world +too well, and has resisted too many temptations, to be—"</p> + +<p>"Hush!—there he is."</p> + +<p>Egerton came into the room with his usual firm step and erect mien. +Randal observed that a quick glance was exchanged between him and the +Marchesa; but the Minister passed her by with a bow.</p> + +<p>Still Randal watched, and, ten minutes afterwards, Egerton and the +Marchesa were seated apart in the very same convenient nook that +Randal and Lady Frederick had occupied an hour or so before.</p> + +<p>"Is this the reason why Mr. Egerton so insultingly warns me against +counting on his fortune?" muttered Randal. "Does he mean to marry +again?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>Unjust suspicion!—for, at that moment these were the words that +Audley Egerton was dropping forth from his lips of bronze—</p> + +<p>"Nay, dear Madam, do not ascribe to my frank admiration more gallantry +that it merits. Your conversation charms me, your beauty delights me; +your society is as a holiday that I look forward to in the fatigues of +my life. But I have done with love, and I shall never marry again."</p> + +<p>"You almost pique me into trying to win, in order to reject you," said +the Italian, with a flash from her bright eyes.</p> + +<p>"I defy even you," answered Audley, with his cold hard smile. "But to +return to the point: You have more influence at least over this subtle +Ambassador; and the secret we speak of I rely on you to obtain me. Ah, +Madam, let us rest friends. You see I have conquered the unjust +prejudice against you; you are received and <i>fêted</i> every where, as +becomes your birth and your attractions. Rely on me ever, as I on you. +But I shall excite too much envy if I stay here longer, and am vain +enough to think that I may injure you if I provoke the gossip of the +ill-natured. As the avowed friend, I can serve you—as the supposed +lover, No—" Audley rose, as he said this, and, standing by the chair, +added carelessly, "Apropos, the sum you do me the honor to borrow will +be paid to your bankers to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"A thousand thanks!—my brother will hasten to repay you."</p> + +<p>Audley bowed. "Your brother, I hope, will repay me in person, not +before. When does he come?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he has again postponed his visit <i>to</i> London; he is so much +needed in Vienna. But while we are talking of him, allow me to ask if +Lord L'Estrange is indeed still so bitter against that poor brother of +mine?"</p> + +<p>"Still the same!"</p> + +<p>"It is shameful," cried the Italian with warmth; "what has my brother +ever done to him, that he should intrigue against the Count in his own +court?"</p> + +<p>"Intrigue! I think you wrong Lord L'Estrange; he but represented what +he believed to be the truth, in defence of a ruined exile."</p> + +<p>"And you will not tell me where that exile is, or if his daughter +still lives?"</p> + +<p>"My dear Marchesa, I have called you friend, therefore, I will not aid +L'Estrange to injure you or yours. But I call L'Estrange a friend +also; and I cannot violate the trust that—" Audley stopped short, and +bit his lip. "You understand me," he resumed, with a genial smile, and +took his leave.</p> + +<p>The Italian's brows met as her eye followed him; then, as she too +rose, that eye encountered Randal's. Each surveyed the other—each +felt a certain strange fascination—a sympathy—not of affection, but +of intellect.</p> + +<p>"That young man has the eye of an Italian," said the Marchesa to +herself; and as she passed by him into the ball-room, she turned and +smiled.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Continued from page 557, vol. iii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> If, at the date in which Lord L'Estrange held this +conversation with Mr. Egerton, Alfred de Musset had written his +comedies, we should suspect that his lordship had plagiarized from one +of them the whimsical idea that he here vents upon Audley. In +repeating it, the author at least cannot escape from the charge of +obligation to a writer whose humor, at least, is sufficiently opulent +to justify the loan.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From the London Examiner.</h4> +<h2>IMAGINARY CONVERSATION AT WARSAW.</h2> +<h3>NICHOLAS AND NESSELRODE.</h3> + +<h3>BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.</h3> + + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—God fights for us visibly. You look grave, Nesselrode! is +it not so? Speak, and plainly.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Sire, in my humble opinion, God never fights at all.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—Surely he fought for Israel, when he was invoked by +prayer.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Sire, I am no theologian; and I fancy I must be a bad +geographer, since I never knew of a nation which was not Israel when +it had a mind to shed blood and to pray. To fight is an exertion, is +violence; the Deity in His omnipotence needs none. He has devils and +men always in readiness for fighting; and they are the instruments of +their own punishment for their past misdeeds.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—The chariots of God are numbered by thousands in the +volumes of the Psalmist.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—No psalmist, or engineer, or commissary, or +arithmetician, could enumerate the beasts that are harnessed to them, +or the fiends that urge them on.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—Nesselrode! you grow more and more serious.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Age, sire, even without wisdom, makes men serious +whether they are inclined or not. I could hardly have been so long +conversant in the affairs of mankind (all which in all quarters your +majesty superintends and directs) without much cause for seriousness.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—I feel the consciousness of Supreme Power, but I also +feel the necessity of subordinate help.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Your majesty is the first monarch, since the earlier +Cæsars of Imperial Rome, who could control, directly or indirectly, +every country in our hemisphere, and thereby in both.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—There are some who do not see this.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—There were some, and they indeed the most acute and +politic of mankind, who could not see the power of the Macedonian king +until he showed his full height upon the towers of Cheronœa. There +are some at this moment in England who disregard the admonitions of +the most wary and experienced general of modern times, and listen in +preference to babblers holding forth on economy and peace from +slippery sacks of cotton and wool.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—Hush! hush! these are our men; what should we do without +them? A single one of them in the parliament or town-hall is worth to +me a regiment of cuirassiers. These are the true bullets with conical +heads which carry far and sure. Hush! hush!</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—They do not hear us: they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> do not hear Wellington: they +would not hear Nelson were he living.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—No other man that ever lived, having the same power in +his hands, would have endured with the same equanimity as Wellington, +the indignities he suffered in Portugal; superseded in the hour of +victory by two generals, one upon another, like marsh frogs; people of +no experience, no ability. He might have become king of Portugal by +compromise, and have added Gallicia and Biscay.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—The English, out of parliament, are delicate and +fastidious. He would have thought it dishonorable to profit by the +indignation of his army in the field, and of his countrymen at home. +Certainty that Bonaparte would attempt to violate any engagement with +him might never enter into the computation; for Bonaparte could less +easily drive him again out of Portugal than he could drive the usurper +out of Spain. We ourselves should have assisted him actively; so would +the Americans; for every naval power would be prompt at diminishing +the preponderance of the English. Practicability was here with +Wellington; but, endowed with it a keener and a longer foresight than +any of his contemporaries, he held in prospective the glory that +awaited him, and felt conscious that to be the greatest man in England +is somewhat more than to be the greatest in Portugal. He is +universally called <i>the</i> duke; to the extinction or absorption of that +dignity over all the surface of the earth: in Portugal he could only +be called king of Portugal.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—Faith! that is little: it was not overmuch even before +the last accession. I admire his judgment and moderation. The English +are abstinent: they rein in their horses where the French make them +fret and curvett. It displeases me to think it possible that a subject +should ever become a sovran. We were angry with the Duke of Sudermania +for raising a Frenchman to that dignity in Sweden, although we were +willing that Gustavus, for offences and affronts to our family, should +be chastized, and even expelled. Here was a bad precedent. Fortunately +the boldest soldiers dismount from their chargers at some distance +from the throne. What withholds them?</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Spells are made of words. The word <i>service</i> among the +military has great latent negative power. All modern nations, even the +free, employ it.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—An excellent word indeed! It shows the superiority of +modern languages over ancient; Christian ideas over pagan; living +similitudes of God over bronze and marble. What an escape had England +from her folly, perversity, and injustice! Her admirals had the same +wrongs to avenge: her fleets would have anchored in Ferrol and Coruna; +thousands of volunteers from every part of both islands would have +assembled round the same standard; and both Indies would have bowed +before the conqueror. Who knows but that Spain herself might have +turned to the same quarter, from the idiocy of Ferdinand, the +immorality of Joseph, and the perfidy of Napoleon?</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—England seems to invite and incite, not only her +colonies, but her commanders, to insurrection. Nelson was treated even +more ignominiously than Wellington. A man equal in abilities and in +energy to either met with every affront from the East India Company. +After two such victories in succession as the Duke himself declared +before the Lords that he had never known or read of, he was removed +from the command of his army, and a general by whose rashness it was +decimated was raised to the peerage. If Wellington could with safety +have seized the supreme power in Portugal, Napier could with greater +have accomplished it in India. The distance from home was farther; the +army more confident; the allies more numerous, more unanimous. One +avenger of <i>their</i> wrongs would have found a million avengers of +<i>his</i>. Affghanistan, Cabul, and Scinde, would have united their +acclamations on the Ganges: songs of triumph, succeeded by songs of +peace, would have been chanted at Delhi, and have re-echoed at +Samarcand.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—I am desirous that Persia and India should pour their +treasures into my dominions. The English are so credulous as to +believe that I intend, or could accomplish, the conquest of Hindostan. +I want only the commerce; and I hope to share it with the Americans; +not I indeed, but my successors. The possession of California has +opened the Pacific and the Indian seas to the Americans, who must, +within the life-time of some now born, predominate in both. Supposing +that emigrants to the amount of only a quarter of a million settle in +the United States every year, within a century from the present day, +their population must exceed three hundred millions. It will not +extend from pole to pole, only because there will be room enough +without it.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Religious wars, the most sanguinary of any, are stifled +in the fields of agriculture; creeds are thrown overboard by commerce.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—Theological questions come at last to be decided by the +broadsword; and the best artillery brings forward the best arguments. +Montecuculi and Wallenstein were irrefragable doctors. Saint Peter was +commanded to put up his sword; but the ear was cut off first.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—The blessed saint's escape from capital punishment, +after this violence, is among the greatest of miracles. Perhaps there +may be a perplexity in the text. Had he committed so great a crime +against a person so highly protected as one in the high-priest's +household, he never would have lived long enough to be crucified at +Rome, but would have carried his cross up to Calvary three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> days after +the offence. The laws of no country would tolerate it.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—How did he ever get to Rome at all? He must have been +conveyed by an angel, or have slipt on a sudden into a railroad train, +purposely and for the nonce provided. There is a controversy at the +present hour about his delegated authority, and it appears to be next +to certain that he never was in the capital of the west. It is my +interest to find it decided in the negative. Successors to the +emperors of the east, who sanctioned and appointed the earliest popes, +as the bishops of Rome are denominated, I may again at my own good +time claim the privilege and prerogative. The cardinals and their +subordinates are extending their claws in all directions: we must +throw these crabs upon their backs again.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Some among the Italians, and chiefly among the Romans, +are venturing to express an opinion that there would be less of false +religion, and more of true, if no priest of any description were left +upon earth.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—Horrible! unless are exempted those of the venerable +Greek church. All others worship graven images: we stick to pictures.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—One scholar mentioned, not without an air of derision, +that a picture had descended from heaven recently on the coast of +Italy.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—Framed? varnisht? under glass? on panel? on canvas? What +like?</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—The Virgin Mary, whatever made of.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—She must be ours then. She missed her road: she never +would have taken her place among stocks and stones and blind +worshipers. Easterly winds must have blown her toward a pestilential +city, where at every street-corner is very significantly inscribed its +true name at full length, <i>Immondezzaio</i>. But I hope I am guilty of no +profaneness or infidelity when I express a doubt if every picture of +the Blessed Virgin is sentient; most are; perhaps not every one. If +they want her in England, as they seem to do, let them have her ... +unless it is the one that rolls the eyes: in that case I must claim +her: she is too precious by half for papist or tractarian. I must +order immediately these matters. No reasonable doubt can be +entertained that I am the visible head of Christ's church. Theologians +may be consulted in regard to St. Peter, and may discover a manuscript +at Novgorod, stating his martyrdom there, and proving his will and +signature.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Theologians may find perhaps in the <i>Revelations</i> some +Beast foreshadowing your Majesty.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—How? sir! how?</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Emperors and kings, we are taught, are designated as +great beasts in the Holy Scriptures ... (<i>Aside</i>) ... and elsewhere.</p> + + +<h4>SECOND CONVERSATION.</h4> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—We have disposed of our brother, his Prussian Majesty, +who appeared to be imprest by the apprehension that a portion of his +dominions was in jeopardy.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Possibly the scales of Europe are yet to be adjusted.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—When the winds blow high they must waver. Against the +danger of contingencies, and in readiness to place my finger on the +edge of one or other, it is my intention to spend in future a good +part of my time at Warsaw, that city being so nearly central in my +dominions. Good Nesselrode! there should have been a poet near you to +celebrate the arching of your eyebrows. They suddenly dropt down again +under the horizontal line of your Emperor's. Nobody ever stared in my +presence; but I really do think you were upon the verge of it when I +inadvertently said <i>dominions</i> instead of <i>dependencies</i>. Well, well: +dependencies are dominions; and of all dominions they require the +least trouble.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Your Majesty has found no difficulty with any, +excepting the Circassians.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—The Circassians are the Normans of Asia; equally brave, +more generous, more chivalrous. I am no admirer of military trinkets; +but I have been surprised at the beauty of their chain-armor, the +temper of their swords, the richness of hilt, and the gracefulness of +baldric.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—It is a pity they are not Christians and subjects of +your Majesty.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—If they would become my subjects, I would let them, as I +have let other Mahometans, become Christians at their leisure. We must +brigade them before baptism.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—It is singular that this necessity never struck those +religious men who are holding peace conferences in various parts of +Europe.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—One of them, I remember, tried to persuade the people of +England that if the bankers of London would negotiate no loan with me +I could carry on no war.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Wonderful! how ignorant are monied men of money +matters. Your Majesty was graciously pleased to listen to my advice +when hostilities seemed inevitable. I was desirous of raising the +largest loan possible, that none should be forthcoming to the urgency +of others. At that very moment your Majesty had in your coffers more +than sufficient for the additional expenditure of three campaigns. +Well may your Majesty smile at this computation, and at the blindness +that suggested it. For never will your Majesty send an army into any +part of Europe which shall not maintain itself there by its own +prowess. Your cavalry will seize all the provisions that are not +stored up within the fortresses; and in every army those are to be +found who for a few thousand roubles are ready to blow up their +ammunition-wagons. We know by name almost every discontented man in +Europe.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—To obtain this information, my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> yearly expenses do not +exceed the revenues of half a dozen English bishops. Every +<i>table-d'hôte</i> on the continent, you tell me, has one daily guest sent +by me. Ladies in the higher circles have taken my presents and +compliments, part in diamonds and part in smiles. An emperor's smiles +are as valuable to them as theirs are to a cornet of dragoons. Spare +nothing in the boudoir and you spare much in the field.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Such appears to have been the invariable policy of the +Empress Catharine, now with God.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—My father of glorious memory was less observant of it. He +had prejudices and dislikes; he expected to find every body a +gentleman, even kings and ministers. If they were so, how could he +have hoped to sway them? and how to turn them from the strait road +into his?</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Your Majesty is far above the influence of antipathies; +but I have often heard your Majesty express your hatred, and sometimes +your contempt, of Bonaparte.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—I hated him for his insolence, and I despised him alike +for his cowardice and falsehood. Shame is the surest criterion of +humanity. When one is wanting, the other is. The beasts never indicate +shame in a state of nature; in society some of them acquire it; +Bonaparte not. He neither blushed at repudiating a modest woman, nor +at supplanting her by an immodest one. Holding a pistol to the +father's ear, he ordered him to dismount from his carriage; to deliver +up his ring, his watch, his chain, his seal, his knee-buckle; +stripping off galloon from trouser, and presently trouser too: caught, +pinioned, sentenced, he fell on both knees in the mud, and implored +this poor creature's intercession to save him from the hangman. He +neither blushed at the robbery of a crown nor at the fabrication of +twenty. He was equally ungrateful in public life and in private. He +banished Barras, who promoted and protected him: he calumniated the +French admiral, whose fleet for his own safety he detained on the +shores of Egypt, and the English admiral who defeated him in Syria +with a tenth of his force. Baffled as he often was, and at last +fatally, and admirably as in many circumstances he knew how to be a +general, never in any did he know how to be a gentleman. He was fond +of displaying the picklock keys whereby he found entrance into our +cabinets, and of twitching the ears of his accomplices.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—Certainly he was less as an emperor than as a soldier.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—Great generals may commit grievous and disastrous +mistakes, but never utterly ruinous. Charles V., Gustavus Adolphus, +Peter the Great, Frederic of Prussia, Prince Eugene, Marlborough, +William, Wellington, kept their winnings, and never hazarded the last +crown-piece. Bonaparte, when he had swept the tables, cried <i>double or +quits</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—The wheel of Fortune is apt to make men giddier, the +higher it rises and the quicklier it turns: sometimes it drops them on +a barren rock, and sometimes on a treadmill. The nephew is more +prudent than the uncle.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—You were extremely wise, my dear Nesselrode, in +suggesting our idea to the French President, and in persuading him to +acknowledge in the face of the world that he had been justly +imprisoned by Louis Philippe for attempting to subvert the existing +powers. Frenchmen are taught by this declaration what they may expect +for a similar crime against his own pretensions. We will show our +impartiality by an equal countenance and favor toward all parties. In +different directions all are working out the design of God, and +producing unity of empire "on earth as it is in heaven." Until this +consummation there can never be universal or indeed any lasting peace.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—This, lying far remote, I await your Majesty's commands +for what is now before us. Your Majesty was graciously pleased to +express your satisfaction at the manner in which I executed them in +regard to the President of the French Republic.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—Republic indeed! I have ordered it to be a crime in +France to utter this odious name. President forsooth! we have directed +him hitherto; let him now keep his way. Our object was to stifle the +spirit of freedom: we tossed the handkerchief to him, and he found the +chloroform. Every thing is going on in Europe exactly as I desire; we +must throw nothing in the way to shake the machine off the rail. It is +running at full speed where no whistle can stop it. Every prince is +exasperating his subjects, and exhausting his treasury in order to +keep them under due control. What nation on the continent, mine +excepted, can maintain for two years longer its present war +establishment? And without this engine of coercion what prince can be +the master of his people? England is tranquil at home; can she +continue so when a foreigner would place a tiara over her crown, +telling her who shall teach and what shall be taught. Principally, +that where masses are not said for departed souls, better it would be +that there were no souls at all, since they certainly must be damned. +The school which doubts it is denounced as godless.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—England, sire, is indeed tranquil at home; but that +home is a narrow one, and extends not across the Irish channel. Every +colony is dissatisfied and disturbed. No faith has been kept with any +of them by the secretary now in office. At the Cape of Good Hope, +innumerable nations, warlike and well-armed, have risen up +simultaneously against her; and, to say nothing of the massacres in +Ceylon, your Majesty well knows what atrocities her Commissioner has +long exercised in the Seven Isles. England looks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> on and applauds, +taking a hearty draught of Lethe at every sound of the scourge.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—Nesselrode! You seem indignant. I see only the cheerful +sparks of a fire at which our dinner is to be dressed; we shall soon +sit down to it; Greece must not call me away until I rise from the +dessert; I will then take my coffee at Constantinople. The crescent +ere long will become the full harvest-moon. Our reapers have already +the sickles in their hands.</p> + +<p><i>Nesselrode.</i>—England may grumble.</p> + +<p><i>Nicholas.</i>—So she will. She is as ready now to grumble as she +formerly was to fight. She grumbles too early; she fights too late. +Extraordinary men are the English. They raise the hustings higher than +the throne; and, to make amends, being resolved to build a new palace, +they push it under an old bridge. The Cardinal, in his way to the +Abbey, may in part disrobe at it. Noble vestry-room! where many +habiliments are changed. Capacious dovecote! where carrier-pigeons and +fantails and croppers, intermingled with the more ordinary, bill and +coo, ruffle and smoothen their feathers, and bend their versicolor +necks to the same corn.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Bentley's Miscellany for July.</h4> +<h2>LONDON, PARIS, AND NEW-YORK.</h2> + + +<p>Standing in the City Hall, New-York, and drawing from that point a +circle whose radius shall be three miles, we embrace a population of +three-quarters of a million. We say this at the outset, by way of +securing respect for our theme.</p> + +<p>New-York is a mere Jonah's gourd or Jack the Giant-killer's beanstalk +compared with London. London was London when St. Paul was a prisoner +in Rome, ten years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Sixteen +hundred years afterwards, when New-York was but just named, London +lost some seventy thousand inhabitants by the plague, and more than +thirteen thousand houses by the Great Fire, and hardly missed them.</p> + +<p>Before this period, however, the little Dutch town of Niew Amsterdam, +called by the aborigines Manahatta, or Manhattan, had commenced a +dozing existence, under the government of Walter the Doubter and Peter +the Headstrong, celebrated by that great chronicler, Diedrich +Knickerbocker. Some consider this a mythic period, and class the +legends of Wilhelmus Van Kieft's wisdom, and Peter Stuyvesant's valor, +with the stories of Romulus and Remus, and the Horatii and Curiatii. +But to cast any doubt upon a historian like Knickerbocker—the Grote +of colonial history—at once minute and philosophical, just and +enthusiastic—is surely unwise. His picture of the portly burghers of +Niew Amsterdam, their habits and manners, pursuits, politics, and +laws, is verified by the impress left on their descendants. All the +foreign floods that have swept over the city have not been able to +wash out the footsteps of the original settlers; and Walter the +Doubter and Peter the Headstrong still figure, it is said, in the +Assembly of the City Fathers, though the voluminous nether +habiliments, which characterized them of old, have dwindled to the +modern pantaloon.</p> + +<p>Casting our eyes backward for a moment, let us imagine the condition +of things before English innovation had interfered with the quiet +current of Dutch ideas in the metropolis of the West. "The modern +spectator," says our historian, "who wanders through the streets of +this populous city, can scarcely form an idea of their appearance in +the primitive days of the Doubter. The grass grew quietly in the +highways; bleating sheep and frolicksome calves sported about that +verdant ridge where now the Broadway loungers take their morning +stroll. The cunning fox and ravenous wolf skulked in the woods where +now are to be seen the dens of the righteous fraternity of +money-brokers. The houses of the higher class were generally +constructed of wood, excepting the gable end, which was of small black +and yellow Dutch bricks, and always faced the street. The house was +always furnished with abundance of large doors, and small windows on +every floor; the date of its erection was curiously designated by iron +figures on the front, and on the top of the roof was perched a fierce +weathercock, to let the family know which way the wind blew. The front +door was never opened, except on marriages, funerals, New Year's days, +the festival of St. Nicholas, or some such great occasion * * *. A +passion for cleanliness was the leading principle in domestic economy. +The whole house was constantly in a state of inundation, under the +discipline of mops and brooms, and scrubbing-brushes; and the good +housewives of that day were a kind of amphibious animal, delighting +exceedingly to be dabbling in water; insomuch, that many of them grew +to have webbed fingers like a duck. In those happy days a +well-regulated family always rose with the dawn, dined at eleven, and +went to bed at sundown. Fashionable parties were confined to the +higher class, or <i>noblesse</i>; that is to say, such as kept their own +cows or drove their own wagons. The company commonly assembled at +three o'clock, and went away about six; unless it was winter-time, +when the fashionable hours were a little earlier, that the ladies +might get home before dark. At these tea-parties the utmost propriety +and dignity of deportment prevailed. No flirting or coquetting; no +gambling of old ladies, nor chattering and romping of young ones; no +self-satisfied strutting of wealthy gentlemen with their brains in +their pockets," &c.</p> + +<p>Speaking further of the ladies, Mr. Knickerbocker says: "Their hair, +untortured by the abominations of art, was scrupulously pomatumed back +from their foreheads with a candle, and covered with a little cap of +quilted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> calico. Their petticoats of linsey-woolsey, were striped with +a variety of gorgeous dyes, and all of their own manufacture. These +were the honest days, in which every woman stayed at home, read the +Bible, and wore pockets, and that too of a goodly size, fashioned with +patch-work of many curious devices, and ostentatiously worn on the +outside. Every good housewife made the clothes of her husband and +family," &c.</p> + +<p>Such and so homely was the germ of the present goodly town that sits, +like a queen, throned between two mighty streams, with a magnificent +bay at her feet. Marks of her Dutch origin were numerous a few years +since, and are still to be found, though sparely. Of the national +customs enumerated and described by the veracious Diedrich, we find at +the present day but few. The last of the gable-fronted houses, with +curious steps in the brickwork on the sides of the peak, disappeared +some years since. Calves never frisk in Broadway now, though they +sometimes pass through it tied in carts, in defiance of humanity and +decency. The year of building is no longer written in iron on the +fronts of the houses, for</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Panting Time toils after us in vain,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and chronology is out of date. Large doors have now large windows to +keep them company, and weather-cocks are rendered unnecessary by the +arrival of vessels from some part of the earth with every wind that +blows. The front door is now opened to every body but the master of +the house, who goes out of it in the morning not to see it again till +evening. The practice of daily inundation is now nearly limited to the +street, since Kidderminster, Brussels, and Wilton, conspire to cover +every inch of floor; but the annual house-cleaning is still in full +vogue, and no amount of slop, discomfort, destruction, and +self-sacrifice, is considered too great in the accomplishment of this +civic festival. As to rising with the dawn, the citizen of to-day +considers breakfast-time daybreak; and the dinner-hour is as various +as the fluctuations of business and pleasure. "Fashionable society" +has, at present, no very decided limits, as few of the inhabitants +keep a cow, and many of the highest pretenders to <i>bon ton</i> do not +drive their own wagons—getting home before dark! New-York ladies make +a point of getting home before light; and if they assemble at three +o'clock it is for a <i>déjeûner</i>, or a <i>matinée dansante</i>. As for Mr. +Knickerbocker's further characterization of the genteel manners of the +olden time, it would be unhandsome in us to pursue our +counter-picture; but this we will say, in mere justice, and all joking +aside, that there are no gambling ladies in New-York, either young or +old.</p> + +<p>Thinking of New-York in her early life, we were about to say that from +1614 to 1674 she was a mere shuttlecock between the Dutch and English; +but the recollection that neither of the contending parties ever +tossed her towards the other, spoiled our figure, and we find her more +like the unfortunate baby whom it took all Solomon's wisdom to save +from utter destruction between rival mothers. The Dutch certainly had +the prior claim; but that circumstance, though something in a case of +maternity, seems far from conclusive in the matter of adoption. The +little Dutch city had accumulated a thousand inhabitants, and wrenched +from the home government leave to govern itself, by the aid of a +schout, burgomasters, and schepens, when King Charles II., of pious +memory, coolly gave a grant of the entire province to his brother +James, Duke of York, who forthwith proved his right (that of the +strongest), and put an English governor in place of Peter Stuyvesant, +called by Knickerbocker, "a tough, valiant, sturdy, weather-beaten, +mettlesome, obstinate, leathern-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited +old governor," who nearly burst with rage when obliged to sign the +capitulation, and who finished by dying of sheer mortification on +hearing that the combined English and French fleets had beaten the +Dutch under De Ruyter. Nine years after, the tables were turned, and +Dutch rule once more brought in sour-krout and oly-koeks; but, in +1674, New-York became English by treaty, and so remained until +November, 1783.</p> + +<p>Since that epoch, although growth and prosperity have been the general +rule, yet the island city has had her ups and downs, by means of fire, +pestilence, war, embargo, mobs, &c., quite enough to stimulate the +energy of her sons and ripen the wisdom of her councils. In 1825, the +completion of the Erie Canal, which united the Atlantic with the great +lakes, gave a prodigious impulse to trade. In 1832 came the cholera, +threatening utter desolation; and in 1835 a fire, which consumed +property worth twenty millions of dollars. Yet, in 1842, the Great +Aqueduct was finished, at a cost of thirteen million dollars. Thus +much premised, let us look at New-York of to-day.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i9">"She has no time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To looken backe, her eyne be fixed before."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In describing American towns, if we would make our picture a likeness, +we must</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of the minute."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The New-York of 1851 resembles her of fifty years ago scarcely more +than the West End of London resembles Birmingham or Bristol. In 1800, +one might easily believe the old story, that the streets were +originally laid out by the cows, as they went out to pasture and +returned at evening. Streets running in all sorts of curves crossed +each other at all conceivable angles, making a maze without a plan, +through which strangers needed to drop beans, like the children in the +fairy-tale, to avoid being wholly lost. Fortunately, the city is not +very wide, so that Broadway, which always ran lengthwise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> through the +centre, has served as a tolerable clue from the beginning. Great +sacrifices have been made for the sake of regularity, and there is now +a tolerable degree of it, even in the old, or south part of the city, +cross streets running from Broadway to either river with an approach +to parallelism. In the early time, the town presented no bad +resemblance in shape to the phenomenon called a "mackerel sky," +Broadway representing the spine, and the streets running to either +river the ribs, while northward and southward was a tapering off; on +the south, where the Battery juts into the bay, and on the north, +where the uppermost houses gradually narrowed till Broadway came to an +end, with few buildings on either side of it. But in these later days, +when Knickerbocker limits no longer confine the heterogeneous +thousands that have pushed the old race from their stools, sixteen +great avenues, each a hundred feet wide, run parallel with Broadway +and the rivers, cut at right angles by wide streets, lined with costly +dwellings, churches, schools, and other edifices. As is usual in great +commercial towns, the lowest portion of the population haunt the +neighborhood of the wharfs; and, in New-York, the eastern side of the +city in particular attracts this class. But, perhaps, no city of the +size has fewer streets of squalid poverty, although the encouragement +given to immigration is such that there must necessarily be great +numbers of wretched immigrants who have neither the will nor the power +to live by honest industry. It is in truth for this class of persons +that hospitals and penitentiaries are here built, foreigners supplying +at least nine-tenths of the inmates of those institutions in New-York.</p> + +<p>As to clean and healthy streets, the upper and newer part of the city +has, of course, the advantage. It is laid out with special attention +to drainage, for which the ridged shape of the ground affords great +facility; the island on which New-York is built being highest in the +middle, and sloping off, east and west, towards the Hudson and East +Rivers.</p> + +<p>Manhattan island is about fourteen miles long, with an average breadth +of one mile and a half, the greatest width being two and a half miles. +At the southerly point of the island, where the Hudson unites with the +strait called the East River, lies one of the finest harbors in the +world, affording anchorage for ships of the largest size, and +surrounded by cultivated land and elegant residences. Several +fortified islands diversify this bay, and numerous forts occupy the +points and headlands on either side. The general appearance of the bay +is that of great beauty, of the milder sort. The shores are rather +low, but finely wooded, and the approach to the city from the ocean +very striking. The battery, a promenade covered with fine old trees, +offers a rural front, but the forests of masts stretching far up +either river attract the stranger's attention much more forcibly. The +<i>coup d'œil</i> is here magnificent. Brooklyn, on Long Island, a large +city, whose white columned streets gleam along the heights, giving a +palatial grandeur to the view, is just opposite New-York, on the +south-east, and divided from it by so narrow a strait that it appears +more truly to be a part of it than the Surrey side of the Thames to +belong to London, although the rush of commerce forbids bridges. On +the west side, the banks of the Hudson are lined with towns, an +outcrop of the central metropolis.</p> + +<p>Entering the city from any quarter, we are sure to find ourselves in +Broadway, long the pride of the inhabitants, though its glories are +rather traditional than actual, as compared with the greatest +thoroughfares of commerce in older cities. It extends, eighty feet in +width, two miles and a half in a straight line, northward from the +Battery; and then, making a slight deflection at Union Park, runs on, +<i>ad infinitum</i>, though it is at present but sparely built after +another mile or so. Nearly all the best shops in the retail trade are +in this street, some of them comparable to the richest of London and +Paris, and the whole affording means for every device of elegant +decoration and boundless expenditure. Residences here are +comparatively few, especially in the lower part, the din of business +and the ceaseless thunder of omnibuses having driven far away every +family that has the liberty of choice. Many churches still exist in +Broadway, which, on Sunday, is as quiet as any other street. Other +architectural decorations there are few. The City Hall, a costly +building of white marble, too long and low to make a dignified +appearance, but standing in a well-wooded park, of some eleven or +twelve acres in extent, has a certain beauty, especially when seen +gleaming through the spray of a fountain, which sends up a tall jet at +some distance in front of the building. Farther on is a hospital, of +rather ancient date for this western world—built in 1775, and now +surrounded by venerable trees, and clothed in the richest ivy. After +this, scarcely a break in the line of dazzling shops, until we reach +the vicinity of Union Square, a pretty oval park, with a noble +fountain in the midst, and lofty and handsome houses all round, +situated on perhaps the highest ground on this part of the island. +Half a mile beyond is Madison Square, a green expanse, about which +wealthy citizens are now building elegant residences of brown +freestone, with some attempt at architectural display. Near this, +still northward, is the lower or distributing reservoir of the Croton +Aqueduct, standing on high ground, and looking something like a +fortress—no great ornament, perhaps, but an object of much interest.</p> + +<p>Fifth Avenue, on the west of Broadway, stretching north from +Washington Square—an inclosure of about ten acres, well planted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> with +elms and maples—it is the Belgravia of New-York—in the estimation of +those who inhabit it; a paradise of marble, upholstery and cabinet +work, at least; not much dignified, as yet, by works of high art, +though the region boasts a few specimens, ancient and modern; but in +luxury and extravagance emulating the repudiated aristocracy of the +old world. This is, and is to be, a street of palaces and churches +throughout its whole extent, always provided that the changeful +current of Fashion do not set in some other direction too soon, +carrying with it all the <i>millionaires</i> that are yet to arise within +the century. In that event, the costly mansions of Fifth Avenue will +inevitably become hotels and boarding-houses,—a reverse which so many +grandly intended houses of elder New-York have already experienced.</p> + +<p>The distinction of East and West is marked in New-York as in London, +though for different reasons. In London, the prevalence of westerly +winds drives the surge waves of coal-smoke eastward, blackening every +thing; in New-York the western part of the town is cleaner, because +newer and built on a better plan. Broadway is the dividing line; and +it is a violent strain upon one's standing in fashionable life to live +eastward of it, below Union Square, even in the most expensive style. +But the eastward world has its own great thoroughfare, wider than +Broadway, though not as long, running nearly parallel with the main +artery of the grander world. The Bowery—so called when it was the +high road leading through the public farms or <i>Boweries</i>—is a sort of +exaggerated Bishopsgate-street and Shoreditch united; more trades and +callings, more articles offered for sale in the open air, more noise, +more people, and at least as much natural, undisguised, vulgar life. A +railway for horse-carriages passes through it, and hundreds of +omnibuses and stage coaches, not to speak of carts and country wagons +without number. A "rowdy" theatre or two, a hay-market, great +clothing-shops, and livery-stables, a riding-school, an anatomical +museum—such are its ornaments. Not a church countenances its entire +length, nor any other public building aiming at elegance or dignity. +The goods displayed in the windows are of a secondary quality, at +best; and the people who throng the pavements are people who want +second-rate articles. Yet the Bowery is worth walking through by a +stranger, little as it is known or valued by the native citizen, whose +lot has been cast in choicer neighborhood. The common pulse of +humanity beats audibly and visibly there, wrapped in no cloak of +convention or pseudo-refinement. The fundamental business of life is +carried on there as being confessedly the main business; not, as in +Broadway, as if it were a thing to be huddled into a corner to make +way for the carved-work and gilding, the drapery and color of the +great panorama. There is another reason why the Bowery has a claim on +our attention. Strange as it may seem, it is from the people who haunt +the Bowery that the United States take their character abroad. +Foreigners insist upon considering the "Bowery b'hoys,"—a class at +once an enigma and a terror to the greater portion of their +fellow-citizens,—as distinctive specimens of Americanism, much to the +horror of their more fastidious countrymen. This we think a great +mistake, though truly there are worse people in the world than the +"Bowery b'hoys," who are noted for a sort of <i>bonhomie</i>, in the midst +of all their coarseness.</p> + +<p>As to parks and public promenades, New-York is lamentably +deficient—the whole space thus appropriated being hardly more than +eighty acres, for the refreshment of a population which will soon +cease to be counted by hundreds of thousands. "Eight million dollars +worth of land," say the city fathers, "is as much as we can afford!" +The penurious estimate which has resulted in this miserable deficiency +has been long and ably combated by patriotic and clear-headed +citizens, but their influence has as yet proved wholly unavailing. +Public meetings have been now and then held, with a view of exciting a +general interest in this important matter, but they invariably end in +fruitless resolutions. The island still affords good sites for public +gardens, but there is scarce a gleam of hope that any of them will be +reserved. The few breathing spaces that now exist, are thronged, and +by the very people who most need them—children and laboring people. +The vicinity of the fountains is full of loiterers, quietly watching +the play of the bright water, and growing, we may hope, milder and +better by the gentle influence. At certain hours of the day whole +troops of merry children, with their attendants, make the walks alive +and resounding. The hoop, the ball, the velocipede, the skipping-rope, +rejoice the grass and sunshine, and the eyes of the thoughtful +spectator, who sees health in every bounding motion, and hears joy in +every tiny shout. It is strange that the citizens do not, one and all, +cry aloud for the easy and happy open-air extension of their too often +crowded homes. London is the world's example in this thing.</p> + +<p>A park suited to riding and driving is especially needed because of +the wretched pavement which still disgraces the greater portion of +New-York. The first thing that strikes an American returning from +Europe is the inferiority of the pavements of the Atlantic cities; and +New-York, in particular, is, in this respect, hardly a whit before the +far-famed corduroy roads of the wild West. In 1846 a great improvement +was begun, called, after the inventor, the Russ pavement, and thus far +seeming to meet all the difficulties of the case, including the severe +frosts and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> sudden changes of the climate. The plan is, however, so +expensive that it will probably be long before it is fully adopted. It +requires square blocks of stone, about ten inches in depth, laid +diagonally with the wheel-track, and resting on a substructure of +concrete, which again rests upon a foundation of granite chips, the +whole forming a consolidated mass, eighteen inches thick, so arranged +as to be lifted in sections to afford access to the gas and water +pipes. This has been largely tried in Broadway, and has stood the test +for six years.</p> + +<p>Foreigners are apt to complain, not only, as they justly may, of the +bad pavements of New-York, but, somewhat unreasonably, of the +obstructions in the street, caused by incessant building, laying +pipes, &c. They say, "Will the city never be finished?" Not very soon, +we think. It is difficult to do in fifty years the work of five +hundred, without a good deal of bustle and inconvenience. Rapid growth +in population and wealth necessitates continual improvement in +accommodation. We may, indeed, be allowed to fret a little, when the +street is for weeks or months encumbered by the building materials of +a merchant, who sees fit to pull down a very good house in order to +erect one that shall cost a quarter of a million, merely because his +neighbor has contrived to outshine him in that particular. But when +sewers and gas, and Croton water, are in question, we must not +grumble. These great public blessings are spreading into every +quarter, carrying health and decency with them. The great sewers are +arched canals of hard brick, from three to nine feet in diameter, and +laid in mortar in the most durable manner. Above them are the +gas-pipes, an immense net-work; and nearly on a level with these last +are the huge veins and arteries, by means of which the Croton supplies +life and health to the inhabitants, once half-poisoned by water which +shared every salt that enters into the subsoil of a great city. +Analysis shows the Croton water to be of great purity—holding in +solution the salts of lime and magnesia in proportions hardly +appreciable, only about two and eight-tenths of a grain to the gallon. +The river springs from granitic hills, and flows through a clear +upland region, free from marsh, and covered with grazing farms.</p> + +<p>When the Aqueduct was undertaken, New-York numbered but two hundred +and eighty thousand inhabitants, so that the supply provided was a +magnificent gift to the future. The work was completed within five +years, years of great commercial difficulty; and what is more +remarkable, the whole cost came <i>within</i> the estimate of the chief +engineer. The abundance of water may be guessed from the fact that two +of the city fountains throw away more water than would suffice for the +consumption of a large city. The solidity of the structure is such +that none but slight repair can be needed for centuries to come.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>This great work was opened, with appropriate ceremonies, and a +splendid civic festival, on the 14th of October, 1842. The British +consul, in accepting the invitation of the Common Council, to assist +at this festival, justly remarked, "Tyrants have left monuments which +call for admiration, but no similar work of a free people, for +magnitude and utility, equals this great enterprise." Public feeling +was very warm on this occasion. Of the procession of the trades, &c., +which was three hours passing a given point, an enthusiastic citizen +declared in print, that he "watched and scrutinized it closely, and +could discover neither a drunkard nor a fool from first to last." It +might be a difficult matter to decide on the moral and intellectual +condition of the individuals composing such a procession, but we may +concede that drunkards and fools are not the persons most likely to +join in rejoicing for the introduction of pure water without stint or +measure.</p> + +<p>The great Aqueduct is forty-one miles in length, commencing with a dam +across the Croton river, six miles above its mouth. This raises the +water one hundred and sixty-six feet above tide level, forming a lake +or reservoir of four hundred acres in extent, containing five hundred +million gallons, above the level that would allow the Aqueduct to +discharge thirty-five million gallons per day. From the Croton Dam to +Harlem River, something less than thirty-three miles, the Aqueduct is +an uninterrupted conduit of hydraulic masonry, of stone and brick; the +greatest interior width, seven feet five inches; the greatest height, +eight feet five inches; the floor an inverted arch. The commissioners +and chief engineers passed through its whole length on foot, as soon +as it was completed; and, when the water was admitted, traversed it +again in a boat built for the purpose. It crosses the Harlem River by +a bridge of stone, fourteen hundred and fifty feet long, and one +hundred and fourteen feet above high-water mark. At the Receiving +Reservoir forty miles from the Dam, the masonry gives place to iron +pipes, through which the water is conveyed two miles further, to the +distributing reservoir, from which point it runs, by means of several +hundred miles of pipes, to every corner of the city. On the line of +the Aqueduct are one hundred and fourteen culverts, and sixteen +tunnels, and ventilators occur at the distance of one mile apart +throughout the route. The Receiving Reservoir covers thirty-five +acres, and contains one hundred and fifty million imperial gallons. +The Distributing Reservoir has walls forty-nine feet in height, and +contains twenty million gallons. The supply to each citizen is at +present almost unlimited, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> afforded at a very moderate annual +rate. The managers complain to the Common Council of the enormous +waste during the summer, when "sixty imperial gallons each twenty-four +hours to every inhabitant," are delivered. But even at this enormous +rate the quantity is ample, and it can be increased at will by new +reservoirs. No decent house is now constructed without a bath, an +advantage to the health and comfort of the city, hardly to be +over-rated. Fountains adorn almost all the public places of any +importance, and although in few instances as yet dignified by +sculpture, these tastes and glimpses of Nature are in themselves +invaluable, offering to the people at large a continual reminder of +beauty, tranquillity, and innocent pleasure in the open air. There +remains yet to be added those public vats for the use of poor women in +washing, that may be found in so many European towns.</p> + +<p>The facilities afforded by this abundance of water for the +extinguishment of fires, are such as can hardly be over-rated. We have +no space for details on this point, nor does it need. It will easily +appear that, with an unlimited supply of water, and plenty of +fire-plugs, a few moments suffice to bring into action whatever is +needed in case of conflagration—a glorious contrast to the tardy +succor of former days, when water was laboriously pumped from the +rivers on either side the city, and conveyed by means of hose to the +scene of danger. The perfection of the London Fire Brigade is yet to +be accomplished for New-York; but promptness, or rather zeal of +service, distinguishes the corps of firemen, who make their business a +passion, and the perfection of their instruments their pride and +glory. They receive no remuneration except exemption from military and +jury duty.</p> + +<p>After these few words on the supply of pure and life-preserving water, +we may turn, by no very violent transition, to the facilities extended +by New-York to her children in the matter of education,—a point on +which she is naturally and justly somewhat vainglorious. The number of +public, and absolutely free schools, is one hundred and ninety-nine; +embracing fifteen schools for the instruction of colored children. +More than one hundred thousand scholars attend in the course of the +year; though the average for each day is something less than forty +thousand. All is gratuitous at these schools—instruction, books, +stationery, washing-apparatus, fuel, &c. Besides these, there are +fifteen evening schools, for those who cannot avail themselves of the +other public schools, and whose only leisure time is after the close +of the labors of the day. The ages of the scholars in these schools +vary from twelve to forty-five years.</p> + +<p>This magnificent offer of instruction by the city to her children is +confined to no class, country, sect, nor fortune. Every child, without +exception, is received, taught, and furnished with all the requisites +for a good school education. Not content with this, a free academy for +the classics, modern languages, natural sciences, and drawing, was +established in 1848, with fourteen professors, and proper appliances, +including a handsome and commodious building. This academy receives +male pupils from the common schools, after due examination; and +retains them for a four years' course, or longer, if desirable. It is +contemplated to establish a free high school for females, on a +corresponding plan.</p> + +<p>It is not to be supposed that the benefit of the public school system +is shared only by the necessitous. The children of respectable +citizens, of the plainer sort, make up a large part of the attendance. +It is computed that only about twenty thousand children of both sexes +are found in private schools. There are many free schools of private +charity, some of which receive by law a certain share of public money, +as the school of the House of Refuge, various orphan asylums, &c., +including, in all, about three thousand five hundred children. The +Roman Catholics have some free schools of their own, but most Roman +Catholic children are educated at the public schools. The prodigious +amount of immigration (on the day on which we write, we happen to know +that the number of steerage passengers arrived in the city is +seventeen hundred and seventy-nine, and, on another, within a week, +three thousand)—makes this provision for education doubly important; +since a large portion of the hordes thus emptied on these hospitable +shores are entirely unable to pay any thing for the instruction of +their children.</p> + +<p>This fact gives added lustre to the no less munificent provision by +the city for the gratuitous care of the sick and indigent—a care +almost monopolized by foreigners, because comparatively few Americans +are in a condition to need it. All accidental cases are provided for +at the New-York Hospital; the attendant physicians and surgeons of +which, selected from the most eminent of the profession, give their +services without pecuniary remuneration. A branch of this institution +is the Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane. The New-York Dispensary +provides some thirty thousand patients annually with advice, +medicines, and vaccination, gratis. The Almshouse Department maintains +five establishments, which, together, support about seven thousand +persons, and afford weekly aid to some three thousand others. The +Nursery Branch of this department maintains and instructs more than a +thousand children of paupers and convicts. The Institution for the +care of deaf mutes has about two hundred and fifty pupils, of whom one +hundred and sixty are supported at the expense of the State. The +Asylum for the Blind, originally established by a few members of the +Society of Friends, has about one hundred and fifty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> pupils. Besides +these, private charity has opened refuges for almost every form of +human misery and destitution, so that it may safely be said that no +one of any age, sex, nation, or character <i>need</i> suffer, in New York, +for lack of Christian kindness in its ordinary manifestations. Among +these beneficent offers of relief and aid, we may mention one in +particular, whose worth is not as fully appreciated by the public as +that of some others, though none is more needed. The Prison +Association takes care of the interests of accused persons, whose +poverty and ignorance make them the easy prey of the designing and +heartless; attends to them while in prison, and after their release, +holds out the helping hand, and provides relief, occupation, and +countenance for all those who are willing to reform. A house with +matrons is provided for discharged female convicts, who are instructed +and initiated into various modes of employment until they have had +time to prove themselves fit to be recommended to places. The success +of this most benign and difficult charity has been very encouraging.</p> + +<p>It would be vain to attempt, in this desultory sketch, any account of +the means of morals and religion in New-York. In these respects she +differs but little from English commercial towns. The number of places +of worship is something under three hundred, and each form of +religious benevolence has its appropriate society, as elsewhere. +Sabbath Schools are very popular, and attended by the children of the +first citizens. An immense number of persons are associated as Sons +and Daughters of Temperance, who present a strong front against that +vice which turns the wise man into a fool. But as there is nothing +distinctive in these and similar associations, we pass them by. A +puritan tone of manners prevails; that is to say, with the mass of the +well-to-do citizens, puritan manners are the beau-ideal of propriety +and safety. Yet New-York is fast assuming a cosmopolitan tone which +will make it difficult, before very long, to speak of any particular +style of manners as prevailing. Representatives of every nation, and +tongue, and kindred, and people, meeting on a footing of perfect +equality of political advantages, must in time produce a social state, +differing in some important particulars from any that the world has +yet seen. The population of New-York will, at the past rate of +increase, be in ten years greater than that of Paris, and in thirty +equal to that of London. How can one speculate on a social state +formed under such circumstances? The present aspect of what claims to +be New-York society is certainly rather anomalous.</p> + +<p>An exceptional American—John Quincy Adams—in some patriotic speech, +mentioned, among other occasions of thankfulness to Heaven, that +excellent gift, "a heritable habitation;" but there is nothing which +the prosperous citizen of New-York so much despises. If he read +Ruskin, he thinks the man benighted when he utters such sentiments as +these: "There must be a strange dissolution of natural affection; a +strange unthankfulness for all that homes have given and parents +taught; a strange consciousness that we have been unfaithful to our +father's honor, or that our lives are not such as would make our +dwellings sacred to our children, when each man would fain build to +himself, and build for the little revolution of his own life only * * +* *. Our God is a household god, as well as a heavenly one. He has an +altar in every man's dwelling; let men look to it when they rend it +lightly, and pour out its ashes!"</p> + +<p>If ever there were any substantial tenements of stone and brick on +which might well be written the motto "Passing away!" it is those of +the great commercial metropolis of the western world. The material +substance is enduring enough to last many generations; their soul is a +thing of the moment. After it has inhabited its proud apartments, and +looked out of its beautiful windows for a few years, it departs, to +return no more for ever, and its deserted home becomes at once the +receptacle of a soul of lower grade, and its destiny is to pass down, +and down, and down, in the scale, as time wears on, and "improvement" +sanctifies new regions. One might suppose the pleasure and pride of +building would be quite killed by the idea that as soon as one's head +is laid in the dust, all the achievements of taste, all the devices of +ingenious affection, all the personality, in short, of one's dwelling +would be turned out to the gaze and comment of the curious world now +so carefully shut out; exposed, depreciated, contemned, and sold to +the highest bidder, under circumstances of inevitable degradation. But +the ruling spirit of the New World progress seems to reconcile even +the reflective to these things. They shrug their shoulders, and say it +cannot be helped! Truly, these seem the days "when every man's aim is +to be in some more elevated sphere than his natural one, and every +man's past life is his habitual scorn; when men build in the hope of +leaving the places they have built, and live in the hope of forgetting +the years they have lived; when the comfort, the peace, and the +religion of home have ceased to be felt." In these particulars, +however, the severity of the New World is in a state of transition. +Under circumstances so novel, it is not to be wondered at that no +leisure has yet been found for the complete harmonization of the +social theory in all its parts.</p> + +<p>Whether the universal and incessant subdivision of estates will ever +be found to allow the addition of the charm of poetic associations to +the possession of wealth is a question not yet determined. When all +passes under the hammer, what becomes of heir-looms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> and whatever +else in which family life and interest are bound up? And why should +splendor prepare for perpetuity when that which supports it is to be +shared among half a dozen or a dozen descendants? Will a rich man be +likely to collect works of art under the consciousness that, when +"cutting up" time comes, not one of his children will probably be rich +enough to retain possession of these treasures that bring no tangible +income? Truly, republicans ought to be philosophers, caring only for +things of highest moment, and capable of saying to all others—"Get ye +behind me!"</p> + +<p>But the denizens of New-York Belgravia are not philosophers, at least +not philosophers of this stamp. Content with the good things of +to-day, they leave the morrow to take care of itself; and many of them +live in a style which, even to those who have seen European splendor, +seems no less than superb. Their dwellings are unsurpassed in +convenience of arrangement and luxury of appliance; their +entertainments are of regal magnificence, so far as regal magnificence +is purchasable; and for dress and equipage they pour out money like +water. In cultivation and accomplishments, they are of course very +unequal; for, in a country where the great field of competition has a +thousand gates, all opened wide to all comers, and moneyed magnates +come from every class in society, and bring with them, to the new +sphere, just what of a strictly personal kind they possessed in the +old. He that was refined is refined still, and he that was sordid is +sordid still. If the gentleman enjoys the power of indulging his +tastes, and choosing his pursuits, so does the vulgarian; and, +unhappily, no Belgravia, English or American, has yet been found +capable of inspiring its inmates with dignified tastes or elevated +aims. There is no permanent nucleus of elegant society in New-York; no +reservoir of indisputable social grace, from which succeeding sets and +advancing circles can draw rules and imbibe tastes. There is not, even +at any one time, an acknowledged first circle, to whose standard +others are willing to refer. This being so, the most incongruous +manners often encounter in the social arena; and it is only in very +limited association that any appreciable degree of congeniality is +expected. Wealth always fraternizes with wealth to a certain extent. +The maxim announced here on a certain public occasion, that "the +possession of wealth is always to be received as evidence of the +possession of merit of some kind," is conscientiously acted upon; but +beyond this, social affinity is very limited as yet. Conversation has +no recognized place among accomplishments, and of course only a +doubtful one among pleasures. Coteries are unknown, and the continual +shifting of circles precludes the pleasure of long-ripened +intellectual intercourse. Many there are who regret this state of +things in a society in which there is in reality so great a share of +general good feeling; but they are found not among the rich, who +possess some of the means of remedying the evil, but among those who, +removed from the temptations which riches, suddenly acquired, array +against intellectual pleasures, lack, on the other hand, the means of +uniting with those pleasures, the <i>agrémens</i> which are at the command +of easy fortune. In Paris, intellect and cultivation can draw together +those who value them, even though the place of meeting be a shabby +house in the suburbs; in New-York it is not yet so, nor could it be +expected. No social <i>posé</i> has yet been attained; and each is too much +absorbed in making good his general claims to consideration, to have +leisure for the calmer enjoyments that might be snatched during the +contest. Ostentation is, as yet, too prominent in the entertainments +of the rich; and the not rich, with republican pride, will rather +renounce the pleasures and advantages of society than receive company +in an inexpensive way. Even public amusements are not fashionable. +Large numbers, it is true, attend them, but not of the fashionable +classes. The Opera, alone, has a sort of popularity with these, but it +is as an elegant lounger, and a chance of distinction from the vulgar. +A low-priced opera, like those of the Continent, with music as the +main object, and magnificent costume put out of the question by +twilight houses, is yet to be tried in New-York. In the opinion of +some, this is one day to be the touchstone of American musical taste. +A passion for popular music the Americans certainly have. The Negro +Melodists, numerous as they are, draw throngs every night; and their +music, whether gay or sad, has all the charm that could be desired for +the popular heart. But the people of any pretensions enjoy this kind +of music, as it were by stealth, not considering that the pleasure it +gives is in fact a test of its excellence. Many of the negro airs are +worthy of symphonies and accompaniments by Beethoven or Schubert, but +until they have been endorsed by science the New-Yorker would rather +not be caught enjoying them.</p> + +<p>If we should venture to suggest what it is that New-York society most +lacks, we should say Courage—courage to enjoy and make the most of +individual tastes and feelings. The spirit of imitation robs social +life of all that is picturesque and poetical. Living for the eyes of +our neighbors is stupefying and belittling. It gives an air of +hollowness and tinsel to our homes, stealing even from the heartiness +of affection, and sapping the disinterestedness of friendship. It +tends to the general impoverishment of home-life, the privacy of which +is the soil of originality and the nursery of accomplishments. It is +hardly consistent with the pursuit of literature or art for its own +sake, since a desire to do what others do, and avoid what others +contemn, excludes private and independent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> choice, except where the +natural bias is irresistibly strong. There is, in truth, very little +relish for home accomplishments in New-York. Music is too much a thing +of exhibition, and drawing is scarcely practised at all. Two or three +of the modern languages are taught at every fashionable school; but +the use of these is seldom kept up in after life, even by reading. No +people are so poorly furnished with foreign tongues as the Americans, +and New-York forms no exception to the general remark.</p> + +<p>We shall not venture to touch that most sensitive of all topics, +native art, on which no opinion can be expressed with safety, Suffice +it to say, that New-York has a National Academy of Design; the nucleus +of a free gallery; an Art-Union, largely patronized; an Artists' +Association, with a gallery of its own; and various exhibitions of +European pictures. Lessing's Martyrdom of Huss has been for some time +exhibiting in a collection of paintings of the Düsseldorf school. +Statuary is as yet comparatively rare; for, although American art has +sprung at once to high excellence in this direction, the sculptors +generally reside abroad, for the sake of superior advantages for +execution. The present year sees the <i>début</i> of a young sculptor of +New-York, named Palmer, who has just finished a work of great promise, +for this spring's exhibition of the National Academy, an exhibition +most cheering to the friends of American art, from its marked +superiority in many respects to any that have gone before it. A +Home-Book of Beauty is in progress, for which a young English artist, +son of the celebrated Martin, is making the portraits. This promises +to be very popular, since the reputation of American female beauty is +world-wide.</p> + +<p>These slight notices of New-York as she is, are intended rather to +give foreign visitors a hint what <i>not</i> to expect, than to serve as +any thing deserving the name of a description of one of the commercial +centres of the world. It is quite possible to come to New-York with +such letters of introduction as shall open to the stranger society as +intelligent and well-bred as any in Europe; but as this is composed of +people who never run after notabilities as such, it is often unknown +and unsuspected by the visitor from abroad, who, consequently, returns +home with such broad views as we have been attempting, quite satisfied +that there is nothing more worth seeking. It is noticeable that the +most favorable accounts of American manners have been given by the +best-bred and highest-born foreign travellers; while disparagement and +abuse have been the retaliation of those who have, to their surprise, +found the Americans quite capable of distinguishing between snobs and +gentlemen. The intelligent traveller must know how to take New-York +for what she is, and he will not undervalue her for not being what she +is not. She is a magnificent city—a city of unexampled growth and +energy; of the noblest public works, of unbounded charity, of a most +intelligent providence in the instruction of her children, of fearless +liberality in the reception and treatment of foreigners, and of a +growing interest in all the arts which adorn and harmonize society. +Those who visit her prepared to find these traits will not be +disappointed; those who will accept nothing in an American city of +yesterday but the tranquil and delicate tone of an assured +civilization, should not come westward. Yet in real, essential +civilization, that city cannot be far behindhand, in which the duties +of a street police are almost nominal, and where every ill that can +afflict humanity is cared for gratuitously, and in the most humane +spirit. Justly proud of these proofs of her preparation for the +outward gloss of manners which is all in all to the superficial +observer, New-York can well afford to invite the scrutiny of the +intelligent citizen of the world.</p> + +<p>As we began our little sketch with some Knickerbocker reminiscences, +so we feel bound, before we close, to say a word or two of the traces +that still remain of the honored origin of much of the wealth and +respectability of New-York. Whatever we may allow for our English +superstructure, we cannot forget that the Dutch foundation was most +excellent. "The Batavians," says Tacitus, "are distinguished among the +neighboring nations for their valor;" and in the seventeenth century +the countrymen of Van Tromp and De Ruyter had not degenerated from +their Batavian ancestors; and in the gentler qualities of peace, +industry, perseverance, energy, honesty, and enterprise, the +States-General were surpassed by no European community. For their +notions of law, we may consult Grotius; for their taste for art, the +exquisite works which constitute a school of their own. The Dutch +masters of New-York were people of high tone and character, and to +this day there lingers a flavor of nobility and dignity about the very +names of Van Rensselaer, Van Cortlandt, Van Zandt, Brinkerhoff, +Stuyvesant, Rutgers, Schermerhorn, &c., represented by families who +still retain much of their ancient wealth, and a great deal of their +ancient aristocratic feeling. Many jokes have been founded upon the +unwillingness of these lords of the soil to be disturbed; one of the +best of which is Washington Irving's story of Wolfert Webber, who +thought he must inevitably die in the almshouse, because the +Corporation ruined his cabbage-garden by running a street through it. +But they make excellent citizens, and their aversion to change has +been but a much needed balance to the wild go-ahead restlessness of +the full-blooded Yankee, who sees nothing but the future. The Dutch +have customs, and, of course, manners; while the tendency of modern +New-York<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> life is adverse to both. The citizen of to-day cannot help +looking on the Dutch spirit as "slow," but he has an instinctive +respect for it, notwithstanding.</p> + +<p>One single Dutch custom still maintains its ground triumphantly, in +spite of the hurry of business, the selfishness of the commercial +spirit, and the efforts of a few paltry fashionists, who would fain +put down every thing in which a suspicion of heartiness can be +detected. It is the custom of making New Year visits on the first day +of January, when every lady is at home, and every gentleman goes the +rounds of his entire acquaintance; flying in and flying out, it is +true, but still with an expression of good-will and friendly feeling +that is invaluable in a community where daily life is so much under +the control of that cabalistic word—business. Ladies are in high +party-trim, and refreshments of various kinds are offered; but the +main point and recognized meaning of the whole is the interchange of +friendly greetings.</p> + +<p>No one, not to the manor born, can estimate the glow of feeling that +characterizes these flying visits. "As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth +the countenance of a man his friend." The mere looking into each +other's faces is good for human creatures; and when the sincere even +though transient light of kindly feeling beams from the eyes that thus +encounter, something is done against egotism, haughty disregard and +blank oblivion. Many a coolness dies on New Year's Day, under a +battery of smiles; many a hard thought is shamed away by the good +wishes of the season. Old friends, who are inevitably separated most +of the time, thus meet at least once a year, for the enthusiasm of the +hour is potent enough to make the valetudinarian forsake his easy +chair, and the cripple his crutches. Visiting hours are extended so as +to include all the hours from ten in the morning until ten at night, +and, in order to make the most of these, the gentlemen take carriages +and scour the streets at the true American pace, so as to lose as +little time as possible on the way. If a storm occur, it is considered +quite a public misfortune, since it lessens, though it never +altogether prevents the fulfilment of the annual ceremony. It is true +that both ladies and gentlemen are death-weary when bed-time comes, +but that for once a year is no great evil. It is true that some young +men will take more whisky-punch, or champagne, than is becoming; but +for one who does this, there are many who decline "all that can +intoxicate," except smiles and kind words. In some houses the blinds +are closed, the gas lighted, and a band of music in attendance; and +each batch of visitors inveigled into polkas, or kedowas, for which +the lady of the house has taken care to provide partners. But this is +considered a degeneracy, and voted <i>mauvais ton</i> by those who +understand the thing. To "throw a perfume o'er the violet," bespeaks +the French <i>coiffeur</i> or the <i>parvenu</i>; the simplicity of the ancient +Dutch custom of New Year visits is its dignity and glory. Long may it +live unspotted by vulgar fashion! Well were it for the island city if +she had kept a loving hold on many another quaint festivity of her +ancestors on the other side of the water. Her prosperity would be none +the worse of a respectful reference to the good things of the past.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Among the causes of decay in the Roman aqueducts, was +the strong concretion formed on the bottom and sides by matter +deposited by the water. No such deposit is made by the water of the +Croton.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Fraser's Magazine</h4> +<h2>A JUNGLE RECOLLECTION.</h2> +<h3>BY CAPTAIN HARDBARGAIN.</h3> + + +<p>The hot season of 1849 was peculiarly oppressive, and the irksome +garrison duty at Cherootabad, in the south of India, had for many +months been unusually severe. The colonel of my regiment, the +brigadier, and the general, having successively acceded to my +application for three weeks' leave, and that welcome fact having been +duly notified in orders, it was not long before I found myself on the +Coimbatore road, snugly packed guns and all, in a country +bullock-cart, lying at full length on a matress, with a thick layer of +straw spread under it.</p> + +<p>All my preparations had been made beforehand; relays of bullocks were +posted for me at convenient intervals, and I arrived at Goodaloor, a +distance of a hundred and ten miles, in rather more than forty-eight +hours.</p> + +<p>Goodaloor is a quiet little village, about eleven miles from +Coimbatore;—but don't suppose I was going to spend my precious three +weeks there.</p> + +<p>After breakfasting at the traveller's bungalow, we started off again. +The bungalow is on the right hand side of the road; and when we had +proceeded about two hundred yards, the bullock-cart turned into the +fields to the left, and got along how it could across country, towards +some low rocky hills, which ran parallel, and at about three miles +distance from the Coimbatore road.</p> + +<p>After about two miles of this work, sometimes over fallow ground, +sometimes through fields of growing grain, (taking awful liberties +with the loose hedges of cut brambles, which, however, we had the +conscience to build up again as we passed them,) sometimes over broken +stony ground, and once or twice lumbering heavily through a rocky +watercourse, we at last found ourselves on the grassy margin of a +pretty little stream. Fifty yards beyond it, under the shade of a fine +mango-tree, my little tent was already pitched; in five minutes I lay +stretched on my bed, listening with ravished ears to the glorious +accounts of my old Shikaree, who had just come in, hot and tired, from +the jungle. He had much to tell,—how since he had been out, three +days, he had tracked the tiger every morning up and down a certain +nullah; how the brindled monster had been seen by different shepherds; +and what was still more satisfactory, how he had but yesterday killed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +a cow near the spot where the hut had been built. It was now +midday;—how to spend the long hours till sunset?</p> + +<p>After making the tired man draw innumerable sketch-maps in the sand, +with reiterated descriptions of the hut, &c., I allowed the poor +wretch to go to his dinner; and in anticipation of a weary night's +watch, I squeezed my eyes together and tried to sleep.</p> + +<p>The sun begins to acquire his evening slant, and I joyfully leave my +bed to prepare for my nocturnal expedition. The cook is boiling fowl +and potatoes; they are ready; and now he pours his clear strong coffee +into the three soda-water bottles by his side; everything is ready, in +the little basket, not forgetting a bottle of good beer. Now then +commences the pleasing task of carefully loading our battery.</p> + +<p>Come, big "Sam Nock," king of two-ouncers, what is to be the fate of +these two great plumbs that you are now to swallow? Am I to cut them +out of the tiger's ribs to-morrow?—or are they idly to be fired away +into the trunk of a tree, or drawn again?</p> + +<p>All loaded, and pony saddled, let us start: the two white cows and +their calves; the matress and blanket rolled up and carried on a +Cooly's head: Shikaree, horsekeeper, and a village man with the three +guns, while I myself bring up the rear. Over a few ploughed fields, +and past that large banian-tree, the jungle begins.</p> + +<p>What is this black thing? and what are those people doing? That +hideous black image is the jungle god, and to him the villagers look +for protection for their flocks.</p> + +<p>How they stare at the man dressed in his mud-colored clothes, who has +come so far, and sacrifices sleep and comfort, to sit and watch at +night for the evil genius of their jungles. Children are held up to +look at him—at the English jungle-wallah, who drinks brandy as they +drink milk, and who is on his way to the deepest fastnesses of the +wooded waste, to watch for the tiger alone—a man who laughs at gods +and devils—a devil himself. The Shikaree, who had been earnestly +engaged in conversation with the oldest looking man of the group, now +ran up and informed me that the Gooroo had given him to understand +that the Sahib would certainly kill the tiger this night, and that it +was expected that he would subscribe fifteen rupees to the god, in the +event of the prediction proving true. Come, we have no time for +talking. Hurry on, cows and guns, hurry on! through the silent jungle, +along the narrow path. How much farther yet. Not more than a quarter +of a mile; we are close to it. And now the people who know the +whereabouts stop and look smilingly on one another, and then at the +Sahib, whose practised eye has but just discovered the well-built +ambush.</p> + +<p>In a small clump of low jungle, on the sloping bank of a broad, sandy +watercourse, the casual passer-by would not have perceived a snug and +tolerably strong little hut,—the white ends of the small branches +that were laid over it, and the mixture of foliage, alone revealing +the fact to the observant eye of a practised woodman. No praise could +be too strong to bestow on the faithful Shikaree; had I chosen the +spot myself, after a week's survey of the country, it could not have +been more happily selected. The watercourse wound its way through the +thickest and most <i>tigerish</i> section of the jungle, and had its origin +at the very foot of the hills, where tigers were continually seen by +the woodcutters and shepherds. There was little or no water within +many miles, except the few gallons in a basin of rock, which I could +almost reach from my little bower; and, to crown all, there were the +broad, deep <i>puggs</i> of a tiger, up and down the nullah, in the dry +sand, near the water's edge, of all ages, from the week, perhaps, up +to the unmistakable fresh puggs of last night.</p> + +<p>Let us get off the pony, and have a look at the hut. Pulling a few dry +branches on one side, the small hurdle-door at the back is exposed to +view, hardly big enough to admit a large dog; down on your knees and +crawl in. Five feet long, four feet wide, and four feet high in the +centre, is the extent of the little palace; a platform, a foot from +the ground, occupies the whole extent to within a foot of the front +end facing the bed of the watercourse. On this platform the matress is +laid, and some big coats and the blankets make a very comfortable +pillow. Remove that little screen of leaves, and you look through a +window, ten inches square, that commands a view fifty paces up and +down the sandy nullah. Sitting on the end of the bed-place, just +behind the window, with your feet on the ground, nothing can be more +comfortable; and when tired, you only have to draw up your legs, and +curl yourself on the matress to enjoy a short nap, if your prudence +cannot conquer sleep. Into this hut which I have endeavored to +describe, did I now crawl; the matress was arranged, the handsome and +carefully loaded battery was next handed in, and each gun placed ready +for action; the cold fowl and bottle of Bass were in the mean while +disposed of, and the soda-water bottles of cold coffee were stowed +away in cunning corners.</p> + +<p>The sun is resting on the hill-tops, and will soon disappear behind +them; the peafowl and jungle-cock are noisily challenging amongst +themselves, and the latest party of woodcutters have just passed by, +showing, by their brisk pace and loud talking, that they consider it +high time for prudent men to quit the jungle.</p> + +<p>To the deeply-rooted stump of a young tree on the opposite bank, one +of the white cows has been made fast by a double cord passed twice +round her horns. Nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> remains to be done; the little door is +fastened behind me, the prickly acacia boughs are piled up against it +on the outside, and my people are anxious to be off. The old Shikaree +makes his appearance in the nullah, and wishing me success through the +window, asks if "all is right?" "Every thing; get home as fast as you +can: if you should hear three shots in succession before dark, come +back for me,—otherwise, bring the pony at six to-morrow morning,—and +a cup of hot coffee, tell the cook."</p> + +<p>They are gone; I still hear them every now and then, as they shout to +one another, and as the pony is scrambling through some loose stones +in the bed of a [missing words/letters] through which the road lies.</p> + +<p>The poor cow, too, listens with dismay to the retreating footsteps of +the party, and has already made some furious plunges to free herself +and rejoin the rest of the kine, who have been driven off, nothing +loth, towards home. Watch her: how intently she stares along the path +by which the people have deserted her. Were it not for the occasional +stamp of her fore leg, or the impatient side-toss of the head, to keep +off the swarming flies, she might be carved out of marble. And now a +fearful and anxious gaze up the bed of the nullah, and into the thick +fringe of Mimoso, one ear pricked and the other back alternately, show +that <i>instinct</i> has already whispered the warning of impending danger. +Another plunge to get loose, and a searching gaze up the path; see her +sides heave. Now comes what we want—that deep low! it echoes again +among the hills: another, and another. Poor wretch! you are hastening +your doom; far or near the tiger hears you—under rock or thicket, +where he has lain since morning sheltered from the scorching sun, his +ears flutter as if they were tickled every time he hears that music: +his huge green eyes, heretofore half-closed, are now wide open, and, +alas! poor cow, gaze truly enough in thy direction; but he has not +stirred yet, and nobody can say in which direction giant death will +yet stalk forth.</p> + +<p>Which ever of my readers who has never had to wait in solitude, in a +strange room of a strange house, has not indulged in that idle +speculative curiosity peculiar to such a situation, gazing on the +pictures, and counting perhaps tables and chairs with an absurd +earnestness of purpose,—will not understand how I spent the first +half hour of my solitude; how I idly counted the stakes that formed +the framework of the hut, or watched with interest the artful tactics +of another Shikaree, in the shape of a slippery-looking green lizard, +who was cautiously "stalking" the insects among the rafters.</p> + +<p>The cow, tired with struggling and plunging, appears to have become +tolerably resigned to her situation, and has lain down, her ears, +however, in continual motion, and the jaw sometimes suddenly arrested, +while in the act of chewing the cud, to listen, as some slight noise +in the thicket attracts her attention. Gracious! what is that down the +nullah to the left? A peacock only. How my heart beat at first! what a +splendid train the fellow has. Here he comes, evidently for the water; +and now his seraglio,—one, two, four, five, buff-breasted, +modest-looking little quakeresses. What a contrast to his splendid +blue and gold! All to the water—dive in your bills and toss back your +heads with blinking eyes, as you quaff the delicious fluid; little do +you dream that there is a gun within five paces, although you are +quite safe. But stop! here are antics. The old boy is happy, and up +goes his tail, to the admiration of his hens, and the extreme +wonderment of the cow, who with open eyes is staring with all her +might at the glories of the expanded fan; and now slowly goes he round +and round, like a solemn Jack o' the Green, his spindle shanks looking +disreputably thin in the waning light.</p> + +<p>They quit the water-side, and disappear; and I can hear their heavy +wings as they one after another mount a tall tree for the night.</p> + +<p>The moon is up—all nature still; the cow, again on her legs, is +restless, and evidently frightened. Oh! reader, even if you have the +soul of a Shikaree, I despair of being able to convey in words a tithe +of the sensations of that solitary vigil: a night like that is to be +enjoyed but seldom—a red-letter day in one's existence.</p> + +<p>Where is the man who has never experienced the poetic influence of a +moonlit scene! Fancy, then, such a one as here described; a crescent +of low hills—craggy, steep, and thickly wooded—around you on three +sides, and above them, again, at twenty miles' distance, the clear +blue outline of the Neilgherry Hills; in your front the silver-sand +bed of the dry watercourse divides the thick and sombre jungle with a +stream of light, till you lose it in the deep shadows at the foot of +the hills,—all quiet, all still, all bathed in the light of the moon, +yourself the only man for miles to come; a solitary watcher, your only +companion the poor cow, who, full of fears and suspicions at every +leaf-fall, reminds you that a terrible struggle is about to take place +within a few feet of your bed, and that there will be noise and +confusion, when you must be cool and collected. Your little kennel +would not be strong enough to resist a determined charge, and you are +alone, if three good guns are not true friends.</p> + +<p>Let me, good reader, give way to the pleasures of memory,—let me +fancy myself back again, seated in my dear little hut, full of hope +and expectation, now drinking the ice-cold coffee from one of the +soda-water bottles, re-corking it, and placing it slowly and +noiselessly in its corner. Hark to the single ring of a silver bell, +and its echo among the hills! a spotted deer—why does she call? has +she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> seen any thing? Again, and again, and answered from a long +distance! 'Tis very odd, that when one should be most wakeful, there +should be always an inclination to sleep. A raw nip of aqua-vitæ, and +a little of the same rubbed round the eyes, nostrils and behind the +ears, make us wakeful again.</p> + +<p>Oh! that I could express sounds on paper as music is written in notes. +No, reader, you must do as I have done—you must be placed in a +similar situation, to hear and enjoy the terrible roar of a hungry +tiger—not from afar off and listened for, but close at hand and +unexpected. It was like an electric shock;—a moment ago, I was dozing +off, and the cow, long since lain down, appeared asleep; that one roar +had not died away among the hills when she had scrambled on her legs, +and stood with elevated head, stiffened limbs, tail raised, and breath +suspended, staring full of terror in the direction of the sound. As +for the biped, with less noise and even more alacrity, he had grasped +his "Sam Nock," whose polished barrels just rested on the lower ledge +of the little peephole; perhaps his eyes were as round as saucers, and +heart beating fast and strong.</p> + +<p>Now for the struggle;—pray heaven that I am cool and calm, and do not +fire in a hurry, for one shot will either lose or secure my +well-earned prize.</p> + +<p>There he is again! evidently in that rugged, stony watercourse which +runs parallel, and about two hundred yards behind the hut. But what is +that? Yes, lightning: two flashes in quick succession, and a cold +stream of air is rustling through the half-withered leaves of my +ambush. Taking a look to the rear through an accidental opening among +the leaves, it was plain that a storm, or, as it would be called at +sea, a squall, was brewing. An arch of black cloud was approaching +from the westward, and the rain descending, gave it the appearance of +a huge black comb, the teeth reaching to the earth. The moon, half +obscured, showed a white mist as far as the rain had reached. Then was +heard in the puffs of air the hissing of the distant but approaching +down-pour: more lightning—then some large heavy drops plashed on the +roof, and it was raining cats and dogs.</p> + +<p>How the scene was changed! Half-an-hour ago, solemn, and still, and +wild, as nature rested, unpolluted, undefaced, unmarked by +man—sleeping in the light of the moon, all was tranquillity; the +civilized man lost his idiosyncrasy in its contemplation—forgot +nation, pursuits, creed,—he felt that he was Nature's child, and +adored the God of Nature.</p> + +<p>But the beautiful was now exchanged for the sublime, when that scene +appeared lit up suddenly and awfully by lightning, which now +momentarily exchanged a sheet of intensely dazzling blue light, with a +darkness horrible to endure—a light which showed the many streams of +water, which now appeared like ribbons over the smooth slabs of rock +that lay on the slope of the hills, and gave a microscopic accuracy of +outline to every object,—exchanged as suddenly for a darkness which +for the moment might be supposed the darkness of extinction—of utter +annihilation,—while the crash of thunder overhead rolled over the +echoes of the hills, "I am the Lord thy God."</p> + +<p>The hut, made in a hurry, was not thatched (as it might have been), +and the half-dried foliage which covered it collected drops only to +pour down continuous streams from the stem of every twig.</p> + +<p>So much for sitting up for tigers! will most of my readers exclaim, +and laugh at the monomaniac who would subject himself to such misery; +but the thorough-bred Shikaree is game and stanch to the backbone, and +will not be stopped by a night's wetting. For myself, I can only say +in extenuation, that I was born on the 12th of August.</p> + +<p>A heavy and continuous down-pour soon showed its effects, and although +I had lots of big coats, and was not altogether unprepared for such an +emergency, an hour had not elapsed before I was obliged to confess +myself tolerably wet through. The matress just collected the water and +made a good hip-bath, for there was no other seat. The nullah, +heretofore as I have described, was now a turbid stream of red water, +which falling over a slab of rock into the small basin before +mentioned, kept up an unceasing din. Tired and disgusted, I rolled a +doubled blanket, although saturated with water, tight round me, and +was soon warm and asleep. About two o'clock in the morning the clouds +broke and the rain ceased; the boiling stream ran down to half its +size, and a concert of thousands of frogs, bass, tenor, and treble, +kept up a monotonous croaking enough to wake the dead.</p> + +<p>The moon appeared again, and I attacked both cold coffee and brandy, +and made myself as comfortable as possible under existing +circumstances—to wit, wringing the water out of my jacket and cap, +and putting them on again warm and comparatively dry. The cow even +shook herself, and appeared glad of the change of weather, and I had +no doubt that she would go back with me to the tent in the morning to +gladden the eyes of her young calf and all good Hindoos. The nullah +had run dry again, and even the infernal frogs, as if despairing of +more rain, had ceased their din: damp and sleepy, with arms folded and +eyes sometimes open, but often shut, I kept an indifferent watch, when +the cow struggling on her legs and a choking groan brought me to my +senses! There they were! No dream! A huge tiger holding her just +behind the ears, shaking her like a fighting dog! By the doubtful +light of a watery moon did I calmly and noiselessly run out the muzzle +of my single J. Lang rifle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> + +<p>I saw him, without quitting his grip of the cow's neck, leap over her +back more than once—she sank to the earth, and he lifted her up +again: at the first opportunity I pulled trigger—snick! The rifle was +withdrawn, and big Sam Nock felt grateful to the touch. Left +barrel—snick! Right barrel—snick, bang!</p> + +<p>Whether hanging fire is an excuse or not, the tiger relinquished his +hold, and in one bound was out of sight. The cow staggered for two or +three seconds, fell with a heavy groan, and ceased to move. Tiger +gone!—cow dead!—was it a dream? Killed the cow within five paces and +gone away scathless.</p> + +<p>For a long time I felt benumbed; I had missed many near shots, even +many at tigers, and some like this at night, but never before under +such favorable circumstances. Why, I almost dreaded the morning, when +my Shikaree and people would come and find the cow killed, and I +should have in fairness to account for the rest. The first streak of +daylight did shortly appear, and every familiar sound of awaking +nature succeeded each other, from the receding hooting of the huge +horned owl, to the noisy crowing of the jungle cock and the call of +the peafowl. The sun got up, and soon I heard, first doubtfully and +then distinctively, the approach of my people. A sudden start, and +stop, when they came in full view of the slaughtered cow; and then, a +look up and down the nullah, as if they had not seen all. The reader +must spare me the recollection of a scene that vexes me even at this +distance of time, as if it had occurred but yesterday. The next +half-hour was spent sitting on the carcass of the cow, staring at the +enormous and deeply indented prints of the tiger's feet, and looking +with sorrow and vexation and some compunction at the poor little calf +which had been driven back to its mother, neither to see her alive nor +her death avenged.</p> + +<p>It was quite evident that the tiger had not been hit, for there was +neither hair nor blood to be seen, and one or two small branches in +the jungle beyond the cow showed, either by being cut down or barked, +that the ball had passed over the mark. So on the pony and back to the +tent to sleep or sulk out the next twelve hours.</p> + +<p>Somehow or other that pony, generally so clever and pleasant, was +inclined to kick his toes against every stone, and be perverse all the +way home; at any rate I fancied so, and am ashamed to say that I gave +him the spur, or jerked the curb rein on the slightest pretence. My +people, like all Indians, read the case thoroughly, and trudged along +without hazarding a remark on any subject. We passed under the +identical banian-tree and by the disgusting little black image +described in the commencement of the story, and never did I feel more +indignant against all idolatry, or more inclined to smash a Hindoo +god. We also had to pass a small jungle village, and, as if on +purpose, it appeared that every man, woman, and child were posted to +have a good look. Several of them who knew some of my party, asked a +hurried question, and I could hear, though I would not look, that the +answer was given—"Had a shot, but missed." "Yes," said I to myself, +"quite true—why should I be angry?" "Here goes the man that missed an +animal as big as a bullock at ten paces,—more power to his elbow!"</p> + +<p>The tent gained, I was soon lying on my back on the bed kicking out my +heels, calling for breakfast, and appearing to be very hungry, or very +sleepy, or very any thing but what I was—mortified and disgusted. +Breakfast over, my good old Shikaree was sent for, and the whole +affair gone over again. The rain, the unexpected time of night, and +above all, the two first shots <i>snicking</i>, and the third hanging fire +being considered, we two being judge and jury, it was decided that not +the slightest blame attached to the defendant, who was too well known +as a very fine shot to regard a mistake of this kind; and, moreover, +that as it was certain that the tiger was not hurt, but only +frightened, there was strong reason for hoping that he would return at +nightfall to the carcass. Men were therefore sent out to watch that +the place should not in any way be disturbed, or the dead cow touched +or moved, and I resigned myself to a pleasant sleep. I awoke about +three in the afternoon; the guns had, thanks to a good Shikaree, been +washed, dried, and slightly oiled, and were all laid on the table, +looking as if a month of rain would not make them miss fire. A bath, +clean clothes, guns loaded, pony saddled—and once more off to try my +luck.</p> + +<p>The pony was active and cheerful, and even the beastly image under the +banian-tree did not look so grim. On our arrival at the ground, the +half-wild fellows who had watched all day, dropped down from their +trees, and reported that nothing had happened during the day, and that +the place had been undisturbed. A few vultures appeared about midday +and settled on the carcass, but had been driven off; further they had +nothing to say.</p> + +<p>They were referred to the tent for payment for their day's work, and, +in due course, took their departure with my people.</p> + +<p>Once more left alone!—this time quite alone, for my poor companion of +last night lay stiff and stark in the position I saw her fall, when +the tiger relinquished his hold.</p> + +<p>Alarmed by the already slightly smelling carrion, or finding water +elsewhere, left by the down-pour of last night, no peaceful or other +living thing paid me a visit, if I except some few crows, who with +heavy wings swept past, or perched on neighboring trees, cawing, and +winking their eyes, and peering cautiously and inquisitively at the +dead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> cow. Only one among the crew hovered and lighted on the dead +beast's head; but although he made several picks at the lips and eyes, +opening and shutting his wings the while on his strong, sleek, +wiry-looking body, and cawing lustily, nobody heeded him; so, +appearing to be alarmed at being solus in the scene, he took his +departure.</p> + +<p>Night succeeded day, and the moon, in unclouded beauty, made the dark +jungle a fairy scene. There was but one drawback; the cow lay dead, +the tiger had been fired at, and experience whispered, 'the +opportunity has gone by.'</p> + +<p>By-and-by a jackal passed, like a shadow among the bushes, so +small-looking, so much the color of all around, that it remained a +doubt; more of these passed to and fro, and then a bolder ventured on +the plain sand, and up to the rump of the dead beast, took two or +three hard tugging bites, and was gone. As the night grew later, they +became less fearful, and half-a-dozen of them together were tugging +and tearing, till breaking the entrails, the gas escaped in a loud +rumbling, which dispersed my friends among the bushes in a moment; but +they were almost immediately back, and the confidence with which they +went to work, convinced me that my hope was hopeless.</p> + +<p>It must have been eleven o'clock when my ears caught the echo among +the rocks, and then the distant roar—nearer—nearer—nearer; and—oh, +joy!—answered. Tiger and tigress!—above all hope!—coming to +recompense me for hundreds of night-watchings—to balance a long +account of weary nights in the silent jungle, in platforms on trees, +in huts of leaf and bramble, and in damp pits on the water's edge—all +bootless;—coming—coming—nearer, and nearer.</p> + +<p>Music nor words, dear reader, can stand me in any stead to convey the +sound to you; the first note like the trumpet of a peacock, and the +rest the deepest toned thunder. Stones and gravel rattled just behind +the hut on the path by which we came and went, and a heavy stey passed +and descended the slope into the nullah. I heard the sand crunching +under his weight before I dared look. A little peep. Oh, heavens! +looming in the moonlight, there he stood, long, sleek as satin, and +lashing his tail—he stood stationary, smelling the slaughtered cow. +No longer the cautious, creeping tiger, I felt how awful a brute he +was to offend. I remembered how he had worried a strong cow in half a +minute, and that with his weight alone my poor rickety little citadel +would fall to pieces. As if the excitement of the moment was +insufficient, the monster, gazing down the dry watercourse, caught +sight of his companion, who, advancing up the bed of the nullah, stood +irresolutely about twenty yards off. A terrific growl from him, +answered not loud but deeply, and I was the strange and unsuspected +witness to a catawauling which defies description—a monstrous +burlesque on those concerts of tigers in miniature which are +occasionally got up, on a cold, clear night, in some of the squares in +London, when all the cats for half a mile around get by some queer +accident into one area.</p> + +<p>Whether it is an axiom among tigers that possession is nine points of +the law, or the other monster was the weaker vessel, I know not, but I +soon perceived that as <i>my</i> friend made more noise, the other became +more subdued, and finally left the field, and retired growling among +the bushes. The bully, who was evidently the male, after smelling at +the head, came round the carcass, making a sort of complacent +purring—"humming a kind of animal song," and to it he went tooth and +nail. As he stood with his two fore feet on the haunch, while he +tugged and tore out a beef-steak, I once more grasped old "Sam Nock," +and ran the muzzle out of the little port. The white linen band marked +a line behind his shoulders, and rather low, but, from the continued +motion of his body, it was some moments before eye and finger agreed +to pull trigger—bang! A shower of sand rattled on the dry leaves, and +a roar of rage and pain satisfied me, even before the white smoke +which hung in the still air had cleared away, to show the huge monster +writhing and plunging where he had fallen. Either directed by the +fire, or by some slight noise made in the agitation of the moment, he +saw me, and with a hideous yell, scrambled up: the roaring thunder of +his voice filled the valley, and the echoes among the hills answered +it, with the hootings of tribes of monkeys, who, scared out of sleep, +sought the highest branches, at the sound of the well-known voice of +the tyrant of the jungle. I immediately perceived, to my great joy, +that his hind-quarters were paralyzed and useless, and that all danger +was out of the question. He sank down again on his elbows, and as he +rested his now powerless limbs, I saw the blood welling out of a wound +in the loins, as it shone in the moonlight, and trickled off his +sleek-painted hide, like globules of quicksilver. As I looked into his +countenance, I saw all the devil alive there. The will remained—the +power only had gone. It was a sight never to be forgotten. With head +raised to the full stretch of his neck, he glared at me with an +expression of such malignity, that it almost made one quail. I thought +of the native superstition of singing off the whiskers of the +newly-killed tiger to lay his spirit, and no longer wondered at it. +With ears back, and mouth bleeding, he growled and roared in fitful +uncertainty, as if he were trying, but unable, to measure the extent +of the force that had laid him low.</p> + +<p>Motionless myself, provocation ceased, and without further attempt to +get on his legs, he continued to gaze on me; when I slowly lowered my +head to the sight, and again pulled trigger. This time, true to the +mark, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> ball entered just above the breast-bone, and the smoke +cleared off with his death groan. There he lay, foot to foot with his +victim of last night, motionless—dead. My first impulse was to tear +down the door behind, and get a thorough view of his proportions; but +remembering that his companion, the tigress, had only vanished a short +time ago close to the scene of action, I thought it as well to remain +where I was; so, enlarging the windows with my hands, I took a long +look, and then jovially attacked the coffee and brandy bottles, +without reference to noise, and fell back on the mattress to sleep, or +to think the night's work over. "At last, I have got him: his skin +will be pegged out to-morrow, drying before the tent door." When my +people came in the morning, they found me seated on the dead tiger. +Coolies were sent for to carry the beast, and I gave the pony his +reins all the way back to the tent.</p> + +<p>After breakfast, the sound of tomtoms and barbarous music greeted our +ears; for the Gooroo and half the little village had turned out, and +were bringing in the tiger like an Irish funeral. I had a chair +brought out, and under the shade of a fine tree superintended the +skinning of the tiger; and as I had had no sleep for the last two +nights, I determined to make holiday. Dined at half-past six, and had +a bottle of <i>Frederick Giesler</i>, and the fumes of his glorious +champagne inspired me: "The first rainy day, I will put last night's +adventure on paper, and send it home to my old friend Regina."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From Bentley's Miscellany.</h4> +<h2>A VISIT TO THE "MAID OF ATHENS."</h2> +<h3>BY MRS. BUXTON WHALLEY.</h3> + +<p>"<i>Buon giorno, signora! Vi è veramente una bella città! Mà, dov' è la +Fenice?</i>" Such was the morning salutation of the Venetian captain in +command of the Austrian Loyd steamer which had conveyed us up the Gulf +of Corinth, as he pointed derisively to a collection of huts about a +stone's throw from the shore, and wondered what could induce any one, +voluntarily, to abandon his "sea Cybele" for such as these! So few +were they in number, and so small in size, that they had hitherto +eluded our notice; nevertheless, they constituted, insignificant as +they appeared, the town of Lutraki. The captain's interruption, +awakening us from a dream of "Gods and god-like men," was as +disagreeable as all such interruptions must be, alike indicating +ignorance, and that want of sympathy, which is its natural result. But +to the English traveller, who now scarcely dares to hope to find a +spot left on Europe where he may look on Nature, unseared by +cockneyfied sights and sounds, it ought not to form a very serious +subject for complaint. To such an one, sick of Italian cities, where +his countrymen assemble but to parade their <i>ennui</i> and their vices, +as of German steamboats, on the decks of which they listlessly throng, +dividing their glances pretty equally between castles and cutlets—a +rock and a <i>ragout</i>—how invigorating is the first sight of Greece, in +all its primitive and majestically tranquil simplicity! And what a +strangely felicitous epithet does that seem of "voiceless" bestowed by +Byron on those shores where nothing is heard, save occasionally the +plaintive cry of a sea-gull, and the very gentlest murmur from the +waves. There, may be observed in perfection the truth of +Chateaubriand's remark, that, "<i>le paysage n'est creé que par le +soleil; c' est la lumière qui fait le paysage</i>."</p> + +<p>However, our present purpose is to narrate a short episode in modern +Athenian life, rather than to dwell on scenes with which genius even +can but imperfectly familiarize the world, either by pen or pencil.</p> + +<p>Near the solitary palm-tree, which grows in the middle of the highway +affecting to communicate<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> between Athens and the Piræus, a +polygonal structure has been built, which is entered through a dark, +narrow passage leading from the road in front to a yard at its rear. A +ladder fixed against the wall forms the usual mode of ingress to a +very small room, which on a certain carnival night, not long ago, was +crowded by hats, cloaks, and Greeks, both male and female; the former +busily occupied in smoking, the latter in concocting some +indescribable liquid intended as a light refreshment to wearied +dancers. For the Maid of Athens—the quondam Mariana Macri—the actual +Mrs. Black, was about to give a ball. From the before-mentioned small +entrance-room the guests passed into the principal saloon, exactly +coinciding in its strange shape with the exterior of the house. At the +upper end an open door revealed a bed, on which shortly afterwards the +orchestra, consisting of two fiddlers, took up their position, with +knees protruding into the ball-room.</p> + +<p>Every thing was of the rudest, the most unadorned, and Robinson +Crusoe-like, description. At the first glance it became evident that +the "geraniums and Grecian balms," which an enthusiastic traveller +once endeavored to magnify into "waving aromatic plants," had long ago +withered from the hostess's possession, never to be replaced. But she, +the fairest flower of all, with her two sisters, still retain no +inconsiderable remnants of beauty; which is the more remarkable in a +country where good looks vanish, and age arrives, so speedily. Indeed, +good looks at all are rare among the continental Greek women; the +celebrated beauties being usually islanders, and chiefly Hydriotes. +Mrs. Black was attired in her coquettish native costume, consisting of +a red fez, profusely ornamented with gold embroidery, placed on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> one +side of the head; a long flowing silk petticoat, and a close-fitting, +dark velvet jacket. A similar dress was worn by her sister, Madame +Pittakis, the wife of the celebrated antiquary, and <i>guardian of the +Acropolis</i>; in virtue of which magnificent title he receives two +drachmæ (about 1<i>s.</i> 7<i>d.</i>) per head for admission to the Parthenon. +The third Grace, being a widow, was dressed entirely in black. The +company comprised a motley assemblage in Frank, and the varying +provincial Greek costumes, diversified here and there by personages in +King Otho's uniform. But the dancers of the <i>beau sexe</i> were extremely +few, and, to say the least of them, very indifferent performers. +However, what they needed in skill and energy, was amply made up by +the vivacity of their graceful and vainglorious lords; who, despite +the clouds of dust from the dirty floor, and equally dirty shoes, +continued an almost ceaseless round of their national dance, the +Romaïka, only pausing at intervals to recruit their strength with +glasses of burning rakee, the beverage most in demand. Those bowls of +Samian wine which figure so charmingly in poetry, form, alas! but +sorry items in prosaic matter-of-fact repasts; and one feels, indeed, +disposed to dash them any where <i>but</i> down one's throat. Of the +dancers, one of the most active was Mrs. Black's son, a handsome +youth, apparently about eighteen years of age; together with her +husband, who, from being a Norfolk farmer, is now elevated to the +somewhat anomalous position of English Professor at the Athenian +University. The fair Mariana herself is quiet and retiring; and +seemingly little anxious to profit by the factitious interest with +which Byron's transient admiration continues to invest her; for, in +reply that night to a blundering Englishman's point blank queries +concerning the poet, she answered, "<i>Non mi ricordo più di lui</i>."</p> + +<p>Soon after midnight the guests departed, at the imminent hazard of +breaking their necks, either down Mrs. Black's ladder, or in the +numerous holes that intervened between her residence and their +respective abodes. But we could not help thinking, that, uncouth as +had been the entertainment, it was more in accordance with the social +position of a people whose Ministers are not always competent to read +or write, and whose legislators occasionally enforce their political +arguments by flinging their shoes in the faces of the opposition, than +the exotic civilization of the gaudy little court, presided over by +that loveliest of royal ladies, Queen Amalia.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> At the period of which I write, this road, although the +principal approach to the capital, was impassable, and passengers +pursued, instead, a devious and uncertain track through corn-fields, +ditches, and the rocky bed of the Cyphissus.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>From the French of Eugene de Mirecourt,</h4> +<h2>THE HISTORY OF A ROSE</h2> + +<p>The gallery parallel to the course of the Seine, and which joins the +Palace of the Tuileries to the Louvre, was designed by Philibert de +l'Orme, and finished towards the end of 1663. On the 15th of January, +1664, Louis the Fourteenth descended into the vast greenhouses, where +his gardener, Le Nôtre, had collected from all parts of the world the +rarest and most beautiful plants and flowers.</p> + +<p>The air was soft and balmy as that of spring-time in the south. At the +right of the great monarch stood Colbert, silently revolving gigantic +projects of state; at the left was Lauzun, that ambitious courtier, +who, not possessing sufficient tact to discern royal hatred under the +mask of court favor, was afterwards destined to expiate, at Pignerol, +the crime of being more amiable and handsomer than the king.</p> + +<p>"Messieurs," said Louis, showing to his companions a long and +richly-laden avenue of orange trees, "are not these a noble present +from our ancient enemy, Philip the Fourth, now our father-in-law? He +has rifled his own gardens to deck the Tuileries; and the Infanta, we +hope, when walking beneath these trees, will cease to regret the shade +of the Escurial."</p> + +<p>"Sire," said Colbert gravely, "the Queen mourns a much greater +loss—that of your majesty's affections."</p> + +<p>"<i>Parbleu!</i>" exclaimed Lauzun, gayly; "in order to lose any thing, one +must first have possessed it. Now, if I don't mistake,—"</p> + +<p>"Silence! M. le Duc. M. de Colbert, my marriage was the work of +Mazarin—quite sufficient to guarantee that the <i>heart</i> was not +consulted."</p> + +<p>The minister bowed, without replying.</p> + +<p>"As to you, M. de Lauzun," continued the king, "beware, henceforward, +how you forget that Maria Theresa is Queen of France, and that the +nature of our feelings towards her is not to be made a subject of +discussion."</p> + +<p>"Sire, forgive my—"</p> + +<p>"Enough!" interrupted Louis, approaching a man, who, unmindful of the +king's presence, had taken off his coat, in order the more easily to +prune a tall flowering shrub.</p> + +<p>This was the celebrated gardener, Le Nôtre. Absorbed in some +unpleasant train of thought, he had not heeded the approach of +visitors, and continued to mutter and grumble to himself, while +diligently using the pruning-knife.</p> + +<p>"What! out of humor?" asked Louis.</p> + +<p>Without resuming his coat, the gardener cried eagerly—"Sire, justice! +This morning, the Queen Dowager's maids of honor came hither, and, in +spite of my remonstrances, did an infinity of mischief. See this +American magnolia, the only one your Majesty possesses. Well, Sire, +they cut off its finest blossoms: neither oranges nor roses could +escape them. Happily I succeeded in hiding from them my favorite +child—my beautiful rose-tree, which I have nursed with so much care, +and which will live for fifty years, provided care be taken not to +allow it to produce more than one rose in the season." Then pointing +to the plant of which he spoke, Le Nôtre continued: "'Tis the +hundred-leaved rose, Sire! Hitherto I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> have saved it from pillage; but +I protest, if such conduct can be renewed.</p> + +<p>"Come, come!" interposed the monarch, "we must not be too hard on +young girls. They are like butterflies, and love flowers."</p> + +<p>"<i>Morbleu!</i> Sire, butterflies don't break boughs, and eat oranges!"</p> + +<p>Louis deigned to smile at this repartee. "Tell us," he said, "who were +the culprits?"</p> + +<p>"All the ladies, Sire! Yet, no. I am wrong. There was one young +creature, as fresh and lovely as this very rose, who did not imitate +her companions. The poor child even tried to comfort me, while the +others were tearing my flowers: they called her Louise."</p> + +<p>"It was Mademoiselle de la Vallière," said Lauzun, "the young person +whom your Majesty remarked yesterday in attendance on Madame +Henriette."</p> + +<p>"She shall have her reward," said Louis. "Let Mademoiselle de la +Vallière be the only maid of honor invited to the ball to be given +here to-night."</p> + +<p>"A ball! Ah, my poor flowers!" cried Le Nôtre, clasping his hands in +despair.</p> + +<p>Colbert ventured to remind his Majesty that he had promised to give an +audience that evening to two architects, Claude Perrault and Liberal +Bruant; of whom, the first was to bring designs for the Observatory; +the second, a plan for the Hôtel des Invalides.</p> + +<p>"Receive these gentlemen yourself," replied the king; "while we are +dancing, M. de Colbert will labor for our glory; posterity will never +be the wiser! Only, in order to decorate these bare walls, have the +goodness to send to the manufactory of the Gobelins, which you have +just established, for some of the beautiful tapestry you praise so +highly."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, to the utter despair of Le Nôtre, the ball took place in +the greenhouses, metamorphosed, as if by magic, into a vast gallery, +illumined by a thousand lustres, sparkling amid flowers and precious +stones. Each fragrant orange-tree bore wax-lights amid its branches, +and many lovely faces gleamed amongst the flowery thickets; while +bright eyes watched the footsteps of the mighty master of the revel. +The cutting north-east wind blew outside; poor wretches shivered on +the pavement; but what did that matter while the court danced and +laughed amid trees and flowers, and breathed the soft sweet summer +air?</p> + +<p>Maria Theresa did not mingle in the scene. Timid and retiring, the +young Queen fled from the noisy gayety of the court, and usually +remained with her aunt, the Queen Mother. On this occasion, therefore, +the ball was presided over by Madame Henriette, and by Olympia +Mancini, Countess of Soissons. The gentle La Vallière kept, modestly, +in the background, until espied by the King, beneath the magnolia, +which her companions had so recklessly despoiled of its flowers, and +which had cost them exclusion from the <i>fête</i>.</p> + +<p>The next moment the hand of Louise trembled in that of her sovereign; +for Louis the Fourteenth had chosen the maid of honor for his partner +in the dance. At the close of the evening, Le Nôtre, who had received +private orders, brought forward his favorite rose-tree, transplanted +into a richly-gilded vase. The poor man looked like a criminal +approaching the place of execution. He laid the flower on a raised +step near the throne; and on the front of its vase every one read the +words which had formerly set Olympus in a flame—"To the most +beautiful!"</p> + +<p>Many rival belles grew pale when they heard the Duc de Lauzun ordered +by Louis to convey the precious rose-tree into the apartment of +Mademoiselle de la Vallière. But Le Nôtre rejoiced, for the fair one +gave him leave to come each day and attend to the welfare of his +beloved flower.</p> + +<p>The rose-tree soon became to the favorite a mysterious talisman by +which she estimated the constancy of Louis the Fourteenth. She watched +with anxiety all its changes of vegetation, trembling at the fall of a +leaf, and weeping whenever a new bud failed to replace a withered +blossom. Louise had yielded her erring heart to the dreams of love, +not to the visions of ambition. "Tender, and ashamed of being so," as +Madame de Sevigné has described her, the young girl mourned for her +fault at the foot of the altar. Remorse punished her for her +happiness; and more than once has the priest, who read first mass at +the chapel of Versailles, turned at the sound of stifled sobs +proceeding from the royal recess, and seen there a closely-veiled +kneeling figure.</p> + +<p>The fallen angel still remembered heaven.</p> + +<p>Thus passed ten years. At their end, the rose-tree might be seen +placed on a magnificent stand in the Palace of St. Germain; but +despite of Le Nôtre's constant care, the flower bent sadly on its +blighted stem. Near it the Duchess de la Vallière (for so she had just +been created) was weeping bitterly. Her most intimate friend, +Françoise Athenaïs de Montemar, Comtesse de Montespan, entered, and +exclaimed, "What, weeping, Louise! Has not the King just given you the +<i>tabouret</i> as a fresh proof of his love?"</p> + +<p>Without replying, La Vallière pointed to her rose.</p> + +<p>"What an absurd superstition!" cried Madame de Montespan, seating +herself near her friend. "'Tis really childish to fancy that the +affections of a Monarch should follow the destiny of a flower. Come, +child," she continued, playfully slapping the fair mourner's hands +with her fan, "you know you are always adorable, and why should you +not be always adored!"</p> + +<p>"Because another has had the art to supplant me."</p> + +<p>Athenaïs bit her lip. Louise had at length discovered that her +pretended friend was seeking to undermine her. On the previous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> +evening the King had conversed for a long time with Madame de +Montespan in the Queen's apartments. He had greatly enjoyed her clever +mimicry of certain court personages; and when La Vallière had ventured +to reproach him tenderly, he had replied—</p> + +<p>"Louise, you are silly; your rose-tree speaks untruly when it +calumniates me."</p> + +<p>None but Athenaïs, to whom alone it had been confided, could have +betrayed the secret. And now, at the entrance of her rival, la +Vallière hastened to dry up her tears, but not so speedily as to +prevent the other from perceiving them. Her feigned caresses, and +ill-disguised tone of triumph, provoked Louise to let her see that she +discerned her treachery. But Athenaïs pretended not to feel the shaft.</p> + +<p>"Supplant you, dear Louise!" she said in a tone of surprise; "it would +be difficult to do that, I should think, when the King is wholly +devoted to you!"</p> + +<p>Rising with a careless air, she approached the rose-tree, drew from +her glove an almost invisible phial, and, with a rapid gesture, poured +on its footstalk the corrosive liquid which the tiny flask contained.</p> + +<p>This was the third time that Madame de Montespan had practised this +unworthy manœuvre, unknown to the sorrowful favorite, who, as her +insidious rival well knew, would believe the infidelity of the King, +only on the testimony of his precious gift.</p> + +<p>Next morning, Le Nôtre found the rose-tree quite dead. The poor old +man loved it as if it had been his child, and his eyes were filled +with tears as he carried it to its mistress.</p> + +<p>Then Louise felt, indeed, that no hope remained. Pale and trembling, +she took a pair of scissors, cut off the withered blossom, and placed +it under a crystal vase. Afterwards she prayed to Heaven for strength +to fulfil the resolution she had made.</p> + +<p>The age of Louis the Fourteenth passed away, with its glory and with +its crimes. France had now reached that disastrous epoch, when famine +and pestilence mowed down the peaceful inhabitants, and Marlborough +and Prince Eugene cut the royal army to pieces on the frontiers.</p> + +<p>One day, the death-bell tolled from a convent tower in the Rue St. +Jacques, and two long files of female Carmelites bore, to her last +dwelling, one of the sisters of their strict and silent order. When +the last offices were finished, and all the nuns had retired to their +cells, an old man came and knelt beside the quiet grave. His trembling +hand raised a crystal vase which had been placed on the stone; he took +from beneath it a withered rose, which he pressed to his lips, and +murmured, in a voice broken by sobs:—</p> + +<p>"Poor heart! Poor flower!"</p> + +<p>The old man was Le Nôtre; and the Carmelite nun, buried that morning, +was <i>Sister Louise de la Miséricorde</i>, formerly Duchesse de la +Vallière.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>From the London Times</h4> +<h2>THE STORY OF STUART OF DUNLEATH.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></h2> + +<p>The story is truthful, plaintive, and full of beauty. At a very early +age Eleanor Raymond loses her father, who has held a high appointment +in India, and news of his death is brought while she is still a child +to her mother's house in England. The bearer of the sad intelligence +is David Stuart, of Dunleath, the penniless representative of a ruined +Scottish house. David had been secretary to Sir John Raymond, whose +eyes he had closed, and he comes to the widow recommended to her +sisterly love, and the appointed guardian of her youthful daughter. +Lady Raymond, it must be added, had been previously married, and is +the mother of a burly sailor, promoted by Sir John's interest, and at +sea at the time of his stepfather's death. We need not stay to dwell +upon the feeble helplessness, physical and mental, of her Ladyship, or +to contrast it with the overbearing disposition of her son, whose +strong attachment to his mother is the redeeming feature of his +character. The young ex-secretary and present guardian proceeds to the +fulfilment of his duty, as it seems, with a conscientious mind. His +ward is an heiress, and will be surrounded with trials of many kinds. +She is fair to behold, ingenuous, trustful, is neglected by her +surviving parent,—less from want of affection than from lack of +interest—who, then, so suited for monitor and instructor both, as the +highly-disciplined and well-informed Stuart himself? David has been a +great traveller, has read much, and observed more. His intellect is +commanding, and he is noble in form. He notes the quickness of his +ward, is captivated by her girlish enthusiasm and untiring zeal. He +will engage no masters when he can teach so accurately himself. She +requires no instructors but the master from whom she learns so +willingly and so well. Perilous devotion of a teacher (it may be of +twenty) with so fond a pupil, though her years number but ten! What +man of twenty-eight ever thought himself old in the presence of a +maiden of eighteen? What girl of eighteen ever deemed herself too +young to be wooed and won by a man of twenty-eight? For eight years +guardian and ward live under one roof, partaking of the same +influences, the same pleasures, the same daily occupations, and +divided from all around them by the superiority of their own minds and +the congeniality of their pursuits. Pity the poor country girl in +constant presence of that cultivated intellect, fine understanding, +and beaming countenance, never weary of smiling on her life. What +wonder that as the flower expands in beauty it gradually unfolds to +blissful consciousness? Eleanor secretly loves her guardian, and +glories in the passion. He is poor, but she is rich beyond her wishes, +did her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> wishes comprehend aught else but the desire to make him +happy. Dunleath has passed from David Stuart's family. Eleanor has +listened a thousand times to her guardian's fond regrets for his lost +inheritance, and to the descriptions of that once happy home, the +memory of which Stuart carries about with him to darken his best and +brightest hours. What privilege to restore the coveted possession to +its natural owner, and to enrich herself by parting with the gift! +What happiness for the wife of David Stuart to bring back the smile to +his cheek, and to purchase a joy for him for ever! Sweet dreamer! She +dreams on, until reality begins. Her education ends. She goes at the +instance of her mother and half-brother to London. She takes up her +abode with a friend of her guardian's, the Lady Margaret Fordyce, and +enters upon London life. Lady Margaret is a widow, young, benevolent, +and beautiful. The fame of Eleanor's wealth is soon known to +fortune-hunters, and suitors crowd about her. One, Sir Stephen +Penrhyn, a coarse, sensual, and brutal personage, captivated by her +beauty, and sufficiently wealthy himself, proposes in proper form. +Godfrey, the half-brother, explains to David Stuart that Eleanor's +family approve the match, and require his formal consent to the union. +Stuart sends for Eleanor. He points out to her the advantages of the +marriage and the wishes of her friends. The child trembles. She cannot +marry, she hurriedly says, a man whom she does not love, and moreover +she has seen another whom she prefers. Stuart has only one question to +ask. "Is that other rich?" "He has no more," replies Eleanor, "than my +father bequeathed to you." Stuart's heart beats guiltily as she speaks +of her father's bounty, and, with a meaning which the girl fails to +interpret, he anxiously bids her mention the favored man's name. The +effort is too intense—her heart is nigh to bursting—she faints, and +her mother enters her apartment to find her senseless in the arms of +her tutor. The last object Eleanor beholds from her window that night, +is David Stuart, looking up, with folded arms, to her room.</p> + +<p>She rises the next morning to find that Stuart has suddenly quitted +the house, having left a sealed letter for her perusal. She reads it. +The whole brilliant fabric of her girlhood tumbles down to earth long +before she reaches its close. David Stuart loves her not. He is +ignorant of her strong affection. He has dissipated her whole vast +fortune. With the hope of realizing a sum sufficient to win back +Dunleath, he has been tempted to speculations which have beggared his +confiding ward. He recommends marriage with Sir Stephen Penrhyn, and +takes leave of her for ever, for he has resolved upon self-murder. He +asks her to approach the adjacent river on some day of peace and +sunshine hereafter—the river which they have so often visited +together in sunshine before—to breathe out forgiveness for him there, +if she will, and then to forget him. A search is made near the spot +indicated. A torn handkerchief hangs on one of the leafless branches; +the river is dragged, but the body is not found. Eleanor knows David +Stuart is dead, and the knowledge gives color and shape to her +remaining days.</p> + +<p>Ruin has overtaken the family of Eleanor Raymond, but Sir Stephen +Penrhyn is still content with his bargain. He proposed for the person, +not for the fortune of Eleanor, and he will take her, beggared as she +is. Eleanor's mother needs a home. To give her a sanctuary, Eleanor +consents to become Lady Penrhyn. What blessing can attend the union? +She gives birth to twins, one a sickly boy, the other ruddy, strong, +and full of health. They grow up to become the mother's last and best +consolation, and then she loses both by a violent death at one and the +same moment. Sir Stephen has a remedy for parental sorrow, which but +increases the great woe of Eleanor. What need to refer to it? Eleanor +passes the lodge gate on her estate one day to be made aware of her +husband's gross infidelity, and to behold living evidences of his +guilt. Is her cup of sorrow full? Not yet. She utters no complaint, +but bears her yoke of suffering meekly and resignedly, waiting +patiently and beseechingly, rather than with murmurs, for the hour of +dismissal. Light, however, is to gleam upon the checkered path before +the journey closes. Another eight years may have elapsed since David +Stuart took his last leave of Eleanor, and a stranger presents himself +with unexpected news. Sir Stephen is from home, and a traveller has +arrived at his house, with a letter from a distant country. Wondrous +disclosure! Stuart lives! Mercifully saved on the night on which he +attempted suicide, he proceeded to America, where by dint of years of +steady exertion and co-operation with the authors of his former great +calamity he contrived to re-establish the affairs of the bankrupt +house with which he had connected himself, and to recover the whole of +Eleanor's sacrificed patrimony. The bearer of the letter, Mr. Stuart's +confidential agent, is authorized to restore her fortune, and to +communicate all particulars respecting his past history. Oh, to see +the man who had lately seen him living and safe in far off America! +She hurries to meet him, and grasps the hand of—David Stuart. When +Sir Stephen comes home, at Mr. Stuart's earnest request and against +the wish of Eleanor, the guardian is introduced as Mr. Lindsay. +"Nothing," he says, "is to be gained by self-betrayal," the more +especially as he intends shortly to return to his adopted home. But +before Stuart can make up his mind to departure, he is made aware, +first of a circumstance which it is much to be wondered has never +occurred to him before, viz.: the former perfect uncalculating +devotion of his ward;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> and then of the more poignant fact that misery, +suffering, insult, and cruelty had attended her whole married life. +Intolerable injury reaches its height! Sir Stephen brings his bastards +into his house, and commands his wife to show them respect. Wild with +sorrow and indignation, she is advised by Stuart of Dunleath to leave +her home, to go to London, to seek a lawyer of eminence, and to sue +for a divorce. That obtained, <i>then</i> will come, after much delay, that +"happier future," of which the counsellor dares not trust himself to +speak. The resolve is taken, the journey is made. But time brings +reflection, and reflection, reason. It is not her husband's sin that +took her from his roof, but the visionary sin of her own love; it was +"the desire to swear at the altar of God to be true to David Stuart +till death, that prompted her to plan her breaking of her first vow." +She will not undo that vow to indulge her own undying love. Still +urged by David Stuart to the act, she resists the great temptation, +and retires meekly into solitude, to pay the full penalty of her +submission to the call of virtue. To return to the pollution of her +husband's house is not to be thought of. To partake of sin with David +Stuart is a suggestion not more to be tolerated in her pure and +agitated soul.</p> + +<p>One other drop, and the cup is full indeed. We have spoken of Lady +Margaret Fordyce, but we have thought it unnecessary to mingle the +history of that admirable person with the main current of our +narrative. Lady Margaret, as we have said, is an old friend of Mr. +David Stuart. She has taken a sisterly interest in the career of +Eleanor, but has never ascertained from her the secret of her early +and pure affection for her guardian. Inheriting a goodly fortune, the +first care of Lady Margaret is to purchase the estate of Dunleath. She +is not long mistress of it before the recovered property is in the +hands of the man who, in his youth, became a criminal in order to +possess it. David Stuart marries Lady Margaret Fordyce. Eleanor +receives the intelligence while she is languishing abroad under the +care of her foster-brother and his wife. The news goes silently to her +heart as a lancet might travel thither, giving no external indication +of the mortal wound inflicted. But the blood flows unseen within, and +life stops, as it needs must, from the cruel laceration. Eleanor +dies—still without a murmur. She had borne daily outrage from her +husband, and confined the knowledge of her wrongs to her own bosom. +She owed her sufferings to the first great fault of her guardian, yet +she would never listen to one unkind word against his memory when she +deemed him lost, and her love for him suffered no tarnish at any time +for his offence. Shall she complain now that he is happy, and is +master of Dunleath? She dies indeed broken-hearted, but good, gentle, +uncomplaining, and forgiving, to the last.</p> + +<p>The characters that move in the various scenes that make up this +melancholy play are sketched out with a skilful and well disciplined +hand, and are creditable to the authoress's creative powers. Great +knowledge of human nature is indicated throughout the work. There is +nothing overdrawn; the plot is natural, and the style fluent and +poetical.</p> + +<p>A word or two are necessary before we close, with reference to one +remarkable phenomenon in connection with a leading personage in the +drama. By a singular coincidence, not only Mrs. Norton, but every +person in the book, is in perfect ignorance of a fact that is present +to our mind almost from the first page to the last. David Stuart, of +Dunleath, we grieve to say, is not only a very selfish gentleman, but +a most accomplished rascal, yet not a human creature, but the reader +and ourselves, has the least idea of it. Just look at him! Appointed +the guardian of a helpless girl, he makes away with her fortune in a +fruitless endeavor to enrich himself. He hears from the maiden's own +lips that her heart is irrevocably bestowed upon a man whom she +adores, yet he coolly recommends her to form an alliance with a brute +for whom she cares nothing at all, in order that she may recover the +wealth of which he, the adviser, has deliberately robbed her. +Returning to England, and taking up his residence with the husband of +his ward, he places the poor girl in a cruelly false position, and all +but blasts her reputation, by compelling her to keep a secret, the +communicating which could at the worst only occasion him a very +trifling inconvenience. Quitting the husband's house, and learning +quite soon enough for the lady's happiness that he had been the object +of Eleanor's early choice, he advises an action for divorce, promising +his hand in the event of a triumphant verdict. Finding the wife more +honest than himself, he smothers his affection and looks elsewhere for +crumbs of comfort. He finds them at the table of Lady Margaret +Fordyce, whom he condescendingly weds, because, we are compelled to +suppose, she has Dunleath to throw into the bargain. That Stuart is +unnaturally described we will not say; but that Mrs. Norton should be +so profoundly ignorant of his faults—should take such pains to hold +him up as a high-minded gentleman—that Lady Margaret should imagine +him a paragon of perfection and positively adore him—that her +brother, the Duke of Lanark, should be "fond of him,"—and that an +incalculable amount of respect and love should be thrown away by all +parties concerned upon so worthless an object is, we must confess, +somewhat disgusting in an age when even the highest merit fails too +often of securing its deserts. One good action alone saves David +Stuart from utter detestation. He recovered and restored the fortune +of Eleanor Raymond—but many a transported forger has been capable of +heroism as lofty, with incitements to honesty about as pure.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Stuart of Dunleath</i>: by Mrs. Norton. New-York, Harpers, +1851.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> +<h2><i>Authors and Books.</i></h2> + + +<p>The student of classic mythology, who loves with Hammer Purgstall and +Kreutzer to dive into the oriental depths of ancient myths, will +welcome the recent appearance of a work by <span class="smcap">Ludwig Mercklin</span>, entitled +<i>Die Talos-Sage, und das Sardonische Lachen</i>. The story of Talus, and +the Sardonic Laughter—a contribution to the history of Grecian legend +and art—St. Petersburg and Leipsic, 1851. In this work we learn that +the Cretan Talus was beyond doubt the Phœnician sun-god, and that +he was identical with the Athenian of the same name. The Cretan Talus, +according to the mythological account, was a brazen image, which +Vulcan gave to Minos, or Jupiter to Europa. He defended the island by +heating himself in the fire and embracing his enemies. More literal +commentators have attempted to prove that Talus was a brazen statue or +beacon, like the Colossus of Rhodes, placed by the Phœnicians on +the Cretan promontory. The Athenian Talus, inventor of the compass and +saw, was slain by his uncle Dædalus, who was envious of his talent. +The gods changed him to a partridge. After identifying the twain, +Mercklin attempts to prove that the elements of this myth are to be +sought in the ancient dogmas of lustration, and that they may be still +further referred to the worship of Apollo. In connection with this +Talus legend, he closely scrutinizes the account of the so called +Sardonic laughter, and its relation to the same religious rites. "In +conclusion, he discusses those ancient works of art which illustrate +this subject, namely, the medals of Phaistos and the celebrated vase +of Ruvo, of which he gives a new, and on the whole certainly correct +account." In connection with this work we may notice another which +appeared in April, entitled <i>Bellerophon</i>, by <span class="smcap">Herman Alex. Fischer</span>. +From the subject we infer that this Fischer is identical with +<i>Vischer</i> who published three years ago one of the best <i>Æsthetics</i> on +philosophies of art, ever written even in Germany. We are told in a +short notice, that the author attempts, by a study of the myth of +Bellerophon and those works of art relating to it, including the +etymological signification of the name, to establish the identity of +Bellerophon with the sun-god. Φοντης is by him derived or +varied from Θαντης and Βελλερο, explained as +identical with ἡελιος, ελη, σελας, and +σεληνη.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Some anonymous scribbler in Berlin has recently put forth a treatise +on free trade, entitled <i>Tempus omnia revelat</i>: of which a reviewer, +in conjecturing the cause of its publication, remarks, that "as it +treats generally of every thing else besides free trade, it is +probable that the Free Trade Union have not deemed it worth while to +hear him through."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among the more recent curiosities of German medical literature, we +find that <span class="smcap">Jos. Heinrich Beisen</span> of Quedlinburg, has written a work on +homœpathy as applicable to the diseases of swine. <span class="smcap">J. Hoppe</span> of +Magdeburg, has set forth another, entitled <i>Linen and cotton Garments +considered in a medical light</i>, which is highly recommended by a +competent judge. <span class="smcap">C. Gerold</span>, of Vienna, publishes for the Count (and +physician—we know not which is the more honorable title)—<span class="smcap">Von +Feuchtersleben</span>, a singular book, entitled <i>Zur Diätetik der Seele, +Valere aude!</i> which is not, however, as one might infer from the +title, a theory of the method whereby the health of the soul itself +may be preserved; but the art of regulating our physical well being by +a correct management and strengthening of our mental powers. Count +Feuchtersleben had already attained a reputation as a writer, and the +work referred to, though in many particulars superficial, is not +without merit. Last and least, Dr. <span class="smcap">Gideon Brecher</span>, hospital physician +at Pressnitz, publishes through Asher & Co., in Berlin, an octavo on +<i>Transcendental Magic, and the supernatural methods of curing Disease, +as given in the Talmud</i>, in which he enters largely into Theo-Dæmon +and Angelology; as well as dreams, visions, biblical seraphims, cosmic +and magic influences of the soul, with a scattering fire of amulets, +spells and charms. We congratulate the medical faculty on this +important addition to the literature of the healing art.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>No department of ancient art is more interesting, or indeed more +necessary to the student, than that relating to theatres and other +aids to the practical illustration of dramatic art. No characteristic +of modern continental life, is so striking to the traveller as the +earnestness with which the opera is discussed by all classes, and its +powerful influence upon social life in nearly every relation. But even +the earnest attention which is directed at the present day in Naples +or Vienna to some new incarnation of the all governing spirit of +amusement, is nothing when compared with the same as it existed among +the ancients, to whom it was literally <i>life</i>. '<i>Panem et +circenses</i>'—bread and the public games—with these the Roman citizen +of the later empire, like the modern lazzarone, with his maccaroni and +San Carlino, could dream away life and be happy. Mindful of the +importance of this branch of ancient art in its manifold relations, +<span class="smcap">Fried. Wieseler</span> has recently set forth a book,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> declared by +competent authority to be the best in the world on this subject. He +has chosen judiciously from the immense mass of material extant; and +according to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> prescribed limits conveyed all the information +possible. "The first part of the work embraces a series of well +executed plans and outlines of ancient theatres, of different +countries and ages, with every requisite detail, followed by +engravings and descriptions of every particular pertaining to the +representation of plays. This is succeeded by an admirable collection +of masks, scenes, figures and costumes, illustrative not only of the +ancient drama, but also of its subdivisions of comedy, tragedy, the +satyr-drama and the Italian phylace, with singing and music. The +illustrations are admirably accurate—more particularly the colored +plates of the Cyrenæan wall paintings, and the mosaics of the Vatican, +by which the rare and costly work of <span class="smcap">Milli</span> is rendered unnecessary." +More than one eminent German authority speaks in terms of high praise, +of the accuracy and unwearied erudition which characterize the +accompanying test.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The second and third parts of the <i>Holzschnitte Derühmter Meister</i>, or +woodcuts of celebrated masters, have made their appearance, +containing, 1st. smaller woodcuts by Hans Holbein the younger (A. D., +1498-1554), being selections from the Dance of Death, and the +Peasants' and Children's Alphabets; 2d. a large engraving after +Michael Wohlzemuth (1434-1519), being the Glorification of Christ, and +a Madonna and child of Hans Bürkmayer's; also, from the Dutch school, +after Dirk de Bray (ob. 1680), a portrait of the artist's father, and +the celebrated engraving of Rembrandt's, known as the philosopher with +the hour-glass. For the information of artists we mention that these +copies are executed with exquisite accuracy, and that the work, though +gotten up in every particular in the most elegant manner, is afforded +at a very moderate price.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Recent German poetry offers little for remark. <span class="smcap">Tellkampf</span> has published +a poem in hexameters in the style of Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea, +founded upon an incident in the battle of Leipsic, called <i>Irmengard</i>. +It has passed into a second edition. <span class="smcap">Emil Leonhard</span>, a poet not +unknown, has written a poem upon Bürger, whose wild life had already +furnished Müller subject for a romance and Mosenthal for a drama, and +which is too unpleasant to be made attractive even by the poetic +talent of Leonhard. We note, however an interesting work, entitled +<i>Prussia's Mirror of Honor</i>, a collection of Prussian national songs, +from the earliest period to the year 1840. They have much allusion to +old Fritz, and are interesting as an indication of the popular +feeling, which is always expressed in such songs, toward that national +hero.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>An interesting contribution to contemporary history is <span class="smcap">I. Venedy's</span> +<i>Schleswig-Holstein in 1850</i>. A diary.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Herman Fritsche</span>, of Leipsig, has recently published a work by one +<span class="smcap">Sohnland Schubauer</span>, entitled <i>Consecrated souvenirs of the virtues of +our earliest ancestors: Collected with the aid of a Philologist</i>. This +book we are told contains (though we should never have inferred it +from the title), a collection and explanation of old German proper +names, both masculine and feminine. The author in his preface gives it +as his opinion that since the introduction of Christianity "a dreadful +thousand-year-long night has brooded over Germany, and that the best +method of dissipating this darkness, would be to revive the old German +proper names!" "The poet discovers the sanctity of these primitive +German names in the holy star-night, and he will, the higher these +rise to the ideal, find in them a full accord with holy nature." His +principal sources are the verbal assertions of Dr. <span class="smcap">Alex. Vollmer</span>: for +example in page 1st, where he questions whether "<span class="smcap">Anno</span>" signifies a +year, and decides that it is originally German, from <i>an</i>, <i>un</i> and +<i>unst</i>; to which add a G, whence results <i>Gunst</i>, meaning good +fortune, success, or favor!—a bit of ingenuity which reminds us of +several scraps of Horne Tooke's comic philology, as well as the +glove-maker's motto, <i>Kunst macht Gunst</i>—skill makes (or wins) +success. Dr. Vollmer is an amiable and hard-working scholar of immense +erudition, and possessed of a boundless enthusiasm on the subject of +early German and Gothic dialects. We regret that his learning should +be lent to the support of such singular vagaries.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Carl Gutzkow</span>, who seemed by his first literary failure, the <i>Walley</i>, +in 1835, to have sunk irretrievably, but has since risen to a +brilliant eminence by the publication of <i>Uriel Akasta</i>, the <i>Zopf und +Schwert</i>, and other writings, has recently put forth another, noticed +as the <i>Ritter von Geiste</i>. <span class="smcap">G. Reimer</span> at Berlin, has published the +first volume of a second edition of <span class="smcap">Böckh's</span> inestimable work, <i>Die +Staatshaushaltung der Athener</i>—the political economy of the +Athenians. Prof. <span class="smcap">Ant. Gubitz</span>, the celebrated wood engraver, publisher +of an annual comic almanac, and in fact the father of all the popular +German illustrated almanacs of the present day, has written and +published three dramas, entitled <i>The Emperor Henry and his Sons</i>, +<i>Sophonisba</i>, and <i>Johann der Ziegler</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>Macchiavelli und der Gang der Europäischen Politik</i> (Macchiavelli, +and the Course of European Policy), by <span class="smcap">Theodore Mundt</span>, is the last +discussion of the political system of the "Regent of the Devil." The +doctrines of <i>The Prince</i> Herr Mundt supposes have influenced the late +reactionary events in Germany, and he thinks that work will again be +the favorite text-book of despots. His exposition of the character and +doctrines of Machiavelli, and his influence on European policy, is an +interesting historical study.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<p>The German press is no less prolific of novels than that of England +and America. We observe the last month <i>Stories and Pictures from the +Bohemian Forest</i>, by <span class="smcap">Joseph Rank</span>, a romance of provincial life, not +without interest; <i>The Children of God</i>, by <span class="smcap">Max Ring</span>, a story of the +court of Augustus the Strong, and of the origin of the sect of the +Herrnhutters. Its sketches of character are called sprightly and +successful. <i>The Castle of Ronceaux</i>, from an old manuscript, is an +episode from the history of the Huguenot war. A piquant title is that +of Madame <span class="smcap">Ida Von Duringsfeld's</span> book, <i>A Pension</i> (boarding-house) +<i>upon the Lake of Geneva, two Romances in one house</i>, which recalls +the stories of the Countess Hahn-Hahn before she ceased writing +pleasant tales for us, and began histories of religious experience. +But with less talent, the present author has more knowledge of men. +The book is <i>sent la Politique</i> a little too much. But German ladies +who write books love to say a word in them about every thing.</p> + +<p><i>A Pilgrim and his Companions</i> is still another romance, by <span class="smcap">Lorenzo +Dieffenbach</span>, not of a religions tone, as the title suggests, but +purely political. It is a story of the German "March-Days," the days +of Revolution. The author is bold and large in thought, but the want +of sharp outline in his characters indicates the poor or unpractised +artist. <i>The Oath</i> is the appropriately melodramatic title of a +romance of the Venetian Inquisition, by <span class="smcap">David</span>. It is well written, +simple and natural. Remarkable qualities with so passionate a theme.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ludwig Bauer</span> has published through G. Jonghaus of Darmstadt, a work +which reminds us of the <i>Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda</i>, being the +<i>Urkundenbuch des Klosters Arnsburg in d. Wetterau</i>, containing as yet +unprinted documents of the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries, relating to the history of the monastery. We are +happy to observe that notwithstanding the check given to general +literature by the recent political troubles in Germany, this +department of mediæval antiquity is rapidly advancing. When we +remember the immense amount of material as yet unavailable which is +still requisite to form an accurate history of the middle ages, with +<i>reliable</i> accounts of its varied literature and customs, or when we +reflect on the spoil and devastation which every day brings to the +ancient hoard, we should feel grateful to those untiring antiquaries, +who thus rescue a few literary gems from the flood of time.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <i>Manuscripts of Peter Schlemil</i>, naturally awakens attention, but +proves to be an extravaganza of <span class="smcap">Louis Bechstein</span>, humorous and +intelligent withal. But the humor is not intelligible, and the +intelligence is not humorous, says a sharp reviewer.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Prof. O. L. B. Wolff</span>, well known to every amateur German scholar in +this country and England, as the publisher of the celebrated +<i>Poetischer und Prosaischer Hausschatz</i>, or Poetic and Prosaic Home +Treasury, has edited and published by Otto Wigand of Leipsic, that +singular romance of <i>Caspar von Grimmelshausen</i>, first printed in +1669, which is, as a picture of German social life during the period +of the thirty years' war, extremely interesting. We need, however, +hardly caution our lady readers against its perusal. Its title is as +follows: <i>Der abenteuerliche Simplicius Simplicissimus</i>. The +adventurous Simplicius Simplicissimus. That is the true, copious, and +very remarkable biography of an odd, wonderful and singular man, +<span class="smcap">Sternfels Von Fuchsheim</span>, how he passed his youth in Spessart, of his +varied and remarkable destinies in the thirty years' war, and of the +numerous sufferings, sorrows and dangers which he experienced, with +his ultimate good fortune.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A German critic, who of course belongs to the conservative party, +writing under date of June 16, says of Miss <span class="smcap">Helen Weber</span>, the inventor +of the hybrid costume which <i>Punch</i> satirizes as an <i>American</i> +absurdity, that "except in a certain disregard of public decencies +there is nothing by which to distinguish her from the mass of vulgar +women of the middling classes; she is about thirty-five years of age, +and appears to be willing to do or say any thing that may be required +for the attraction of observation; from her writings, throw out what +is stolen or compiled, and there is nothing left to evince even a +mediocrity of talent." This is less favorable than an account we +published in an early number of the <i>International</i> (vol. i. 463), but +it may be quite as just.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When Professor <span class="smcap">Zahn</span> sojourned in Naples, he took an active part in the +excavations of Pompeii—studies which eventually led to the +publication of his meritorious work on this subject. At the same time +he faithfully reported the progress of these operations to old Goethe. +The poet's replies to these communications on the ancient paintings of +Pompeii, its theatres, and other buildings, were replete with those +sparks of genius he exhibited on every occasion. This rather +voluminous correspondence, long laid up at Naples, has been lately +discovered, and will be published by Professor Zahn.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>Geschichte der Deutschen Stadte und des Deutschen Burgerthums</i> +(History of the Cities of Germany, and of German Citizenship), by <span class="smcap">F. +W. Barthold</span>, is the first of a series of painstaking and exhausting +books of German historical materiel, in course of publication by +Weizel, of Leipsic. The style of treatment resembles that adopted in +<i>The Pictorial History of England</i>, which will make the work easy of +reference.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dr. Cornill</span> publishes a dissertation upon Louis Feuerbach and his +position toward the religion and philosophy of the present time. The +author finds in every thing the famous professor does a farther +religious development. But it is very doubtful if Feurbach has +advanced at all since his memorable essay in the Halle <i>Book of the +Year</i>, upon the relation of philosophy to theology. Since then he has +only varied this theme, and his last work, upon the transcendental +thesis <i>Man is what he eats</i>, in which the worthy Professor with +Teutonic energy seeks to seduce the immorality of the age from the +potato disease, the German critics declare to be totally devoid of +that bold and thoughtful spirit which formerly fought so well for the +emancipation of the understanding from its long scholastic thraldom.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A most mystical and metaphysical treatise is that of <span class="smcap">Ernst</span>, <i>A new +Book of the Planets, or Mikro and Makrokosmos</i>. It sings with +Klopstock of the souls of the stars. It speculates with Jacob Böhme, +with Retif de la Bretonne, with the Rabbins, and other mighty mystics, +upon the origin of thought. The essential difference in speculative +science between ether and thought, the unity of matter and spirit, the +eternity and evanescence of matter, the thoughts, feelings, and +sensations of God, and the final explication of the trinity. All this +and more. In fine, says a German critic, it is a very jocose book, +strongly to be commended for the consolation of political prisoners.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Waldmeister's</span> <i>Bridal-Tour</i>, a story of the Rhine, Wine, and Travel, +is the pleasant and appropriate title of the last book of <span class="smcap">Otto +Roquette</span>. It is the story of a spring tour along the Rhine. The fire +of its wine, the golden gleam of its vineyards, the faint, penetrant +delicacy of the grape-blossom, the luring look of the Love-Lei, the +mystery of ruins, the distant baying of the wild huntsman's +pack,—they all breathe, and bloom, and sound through the little book. +It is a genuine song of spring. The poet is young,—he feels, dreams, +and sings—what needs poet more?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A German version of Copway the Indian's work is announced under the +title of <i>Kah-ge-ga-gah-bouh, Hauptling d'Ojibway Nation: Die Ojibway +Eroberung</i>: Translated from the English, by <span class="smcap">N. Adler</span>, and published at +Frankfort-on-the-Main. This we presume is an after-shot from the Peace +Convention.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among the new books announced in Germany we see <i>The Institutions of +the United States, and their Lessons of American Experience to +Europe</i>. It appears to be anonymous. One or two other German works on +this country we shall notice particularly in our next number.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Russian literature is gradually made accessible to the general student +by German and French translations, and we shall soon begin to learn +more of the mysterious despotism that towers like a fateful cloud +along the eastern horizon of Europe, in its influence upon social and +artistic life. The publisher Brockhaus of Leipsic has recently issued +a collection in three volumes of the Russian novelists. Yet, whether +from the want of tact in the selection or from the absence of +characteristic qualities in the tales themselves, the authors are +weakest in their delineation of popular life and manners, in this +resembling fine society in Russia, which ignores <i>Russianism</i>, and +believes in Parisian manners, language, and life, every thing but +Parisian politics. Among the authors whose works are quoted we note +<span class="smcap">Alexander Pushkin</span>, the pride of Russian literature, born in 1799, and +died in a duel in 1837. <span class="smcap">Helena Hahn</span>, born in 1815, who, married at +sixteen to a soldier, travelled through a large part of Russia, and +died in 1832. Her novels were first published after her death, but +seem to be not of the highest merit. <span class="smcap">Alexander Herzen</span>, born in 1812, +has zealously studied Hegel, and written a series of humorous tales, +the best of which is called <i>Taras Bulwa</i>. Since 1847 he has been a +wanderer, pursued as a democrat, and now proposes to visit the United +States.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Emperor of Austria has appointed <span class="smcap">Aaron Wolfgang Messeley</span>, a Jew, +Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Prague. M. Messeley had +long filled the chair of the Hebrew Language and Literature in the +same University. The numbers of Jews now attached as professors to the +different universities and educational establishments in the Austrian +states is seventeen; of whom fifteen were named by the late Emperor, +and two by the present.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Alexander Dumas</span>, who, as a simple story writer is perhaps deserving of +the highest place in the temple of letters—whose <i>Three Guardsmen</i>, +with its several continuations, making some twenty volumes, is the +most entertaining, and in certain characteristics the best sustained +novel written in our days,—announces in Paris a new tale, <i>Un Drame +de '93</i>, and he occupies the <i>feuilleton</i> of the <i>Presse</i> every week +with another, <i>Ange Pitou</i>, of which the scene and time are also +France during the first revolution.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Madame Charles Reybaud</span>, authoress of <i>The Cadet de Calobriéres</i>, has +just published another story, <i>Faustine</i>, wherein provincial life in +France is daguerreotyped.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among the announcements in Paris we notice one of the tenth volume of +<span class="smcap">Thiers's</span> <i>Histoire du Consulat</i>. The eleventh volume is also said to +be nearly ready.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Mignet</span> has nearly completed his <i>Life and Times of Mary, Queen of +Scots</i>, the third work on the subject produced in France within a year +and a half. Mignet, however, is the most eminent person who has ever +essayed this service, and he has had some peculiar and important +advantages. He has made use of the collection of letters published by +Prince Labanoff; of researches made in the State Paper Office of +England by Mr. Tytler, and of other unpublished documents which he has +himself collected, in order to form more correct opinions with regard +to some of the darkest and most controverted events in the queen's +life. These documents, chiefly from the archives of Spain, (to which +M. Mignet was enabled to obtain access only at the express request of +the French Government,) are of much importance, for they bring to +light the negotiations carried on with Philip II. for the deliverance +of Mary from her imprisonment—a part of her history to which previous +biographers have paid little attention.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the political literature of France a new pamphlet by <span class="smcap">Cormenin</span> is +remarkable. It is entitled <i>Revision</i>, and its substance is this: +Having recounted the history of the Republican Charter, elaborated +during many months by men especially delegated to the work, and by a +suffrage really universal, debated long and earnestly in the +committee, amended by the eighteen delegates of the assembly, reviewed +by the commission, deliberated by the chamber, discussed by the +press,—M. Cormenin establishes that this constitution, so elaborately +matured, if it has nothing which promises eternal duration, yet +satisfies all the conditions essential to present permanence, and will +well lead the nation to that moment, when, personal passion being +somewhat allayed, it may be wisely and conscientiously reviewed. This +is the pith of the pamphlet. It appeals to no passions, and justifies +no excess, and is a notable and intelligent effort at the resolution +of the question.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. de Marcellus</span>, an old French ambassador, has published two volumes +entitled <i>Literary Episodes in the East</i>. His oriental travel dates +back as far as 1818, but the beautiful vision has pursued him ever +since, and he knew no better way to lay it than by painting it, and +making it real. The volume opens with a confession that all travel and +all scenery have only reminded him most strongly of his eastern +experiences, and that now, chilled with age, and hoping nothing of the +future, he has especial pleasure in recurring to the past. It is a +series of colloquial, familiar sketches and anecdotes, and will +doubtless be a pleasant companion for the eastern tour. M. de +Marcellus will follow this work with <i>A Collection of Popular Songs in +Greece</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Victor Hugo</span>, who has always been opposed to the punishment of death, +and whose <i>Last Days of Condemned</i>, one of his most powerful fictions, +had a large influence every where against the death penalty, was +lately before the Court of Assizes in Paris as an advocate in behalf +of his son, who was on trial for publishing an article calculated to +bring into disrespect the administrators of the law. The veteran poet +was allowed to deliver an elaborate and characteristic harangue in +defence of the article. He tasked himself for his most brilliant +antithetical rhetoric, denouncing the scaffold, and the legislation of +death. The son, however, was convicted, and sentenced to a fine of +five hundred francs and imprisonment for six months.</p> + +<p>Victor Hugo has published a volume containing twelve speeches +delivered on various occasions while he has been a <i>representant du +peuple</i>. They are on the Bonaparte family, the punishment of death, +universal suffrage, the liberty of the press, the affairs of Rome, +&c., and are all written with the author's customary fine rhetoric; +indeed in thought and style they are among his best performances.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Madame Bocarme</span>, who probably was a party to the late murder of her +brother, for which her husband the Count de Bocarme is to be executed, +was an intimate friend of Balzac. The great novelist dedicated one of +his works to her, and another of them was written in the Château de +Bitremont. Balzac, while on a visit to the château, was taken to see a +farmer, and, as usual, interested himself so much in the cattle, that +after an hour's conversation he was amused to find that, the farmer +had taken him, H. de Balzac, the brilliant Parisian, for a cattle +dealer! The forthcoming memoirs of Balzac will perhaps contain +something about this woman, who seems to have won for herself the +execration of all France.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Paris correspondent of the <i>Literary Gazette</i> affirms that, on the +whole, the French press has gained by the regulation requiring +signatures to original articles. The abler class of contributors have +profited greatly, as they have obtained a position in popular esteem, +and consequently a claim on their employers, which years of anonymous +drudgery would not have secured. Nor have readers, it is remarked, any +cause to complain; for "men, remembering that 'those who live to +please must please to live,' take far greater pains with the articles +to which they have to attach their names, than to those which are +unsigned."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Arago</span>, the great astronomer, who is passing the summer at the +mineral springs of Vichy, is nearly blind, and probably will entirely +lose his sight. His brother, who is likewise a man of extraordinary +abilities, has been blind many years.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">George Sand</span> dedicates her last performance to <span class="smcap">Dumas</span>, "because," she +says, "I wish to protest against the tendency that may be attributed +to me of regarding the absence of action as a systematic reaction +against the school of which you are the chief. Far from me such a +blasphemy against movement and life! I am too fond of your works; I +read them and listen to them with too much attention and emotion; I am +too much an artist in feeling to wish the slightest lessening of your +triumphs. Many believe that artists are necessarily jealous of each +other. I pity those who believe it, pity them for having so little of +the artist as not to understand that the idea of assassinating our +rivals would be that of our own suicide."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>A Critical History of the Philosophical School of Alexandria</i> is the +title of a work of serious philosophical claims, by <span class="smcap">M. Vacherot</span>. He +had already published two volumes analyzing and developing the +doctrines of the Alexandrian philosophy. In the present volume he has +traced its influence upon the subsequent schools, passing in review +Plotinus and his successors. The scope of the work invites and permits +a discussion of the profoundest problems that now agitate the world of +thought, and M. Vacherot has the credit of acquitting himself +adequately and admirably of his task.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rousseau</span>, on his death, left several papers to his friend Moulton, and +the heirs of that person, in 1794, caused them to be deposited in the +public library of Neufchatel, in Switzerland. There they have remained +unknown until a few weeks since, when M. Bovet, of that town, examined +them, and found that they embraced an essay entitled <i>Avant-propos et +Preface a mes Confessions</i>, which has just been printed. Of course it +will appear with all future editions of the Confessions.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Balzac</span>, besides his <i>Memoirs</i>, which are soon to appear in Paris, it +is now stated left two other works, one a romance called <i>Les +Paysans</i>, finished only a short time before his death, the other a +collection of confidential letters to a lady, in which, it is said, he +took pleasure in laying bare the secrets of his heart, and his real +opinion of men and things.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Nisard</span> was a few weeks ago received into the <i>Academie Française</i>. +He succeeds the late M. Feletz, and has written a history of French +literature, a book of <i>études</i> on the Latin poets, and superintended a +translation of all the Latin writers.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Gautier</span>, formerly a deputy from the Gironde, a peer of France, +Minister of Finance, and sub-governor of the Bank of France, has +published a volume <i>On the Causes which disturb Order in France, and +the means of Reëstablishing it</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Guizot</span> is about to publish the <i>Histoire des Origines du Gouvernement +Représentatif</i>. This is a new work, being the revised issue of his +lectures from 1820 to 1822, which have never yet been printed, except +in the imperfect <i>comptes rendus</i> of the <i>Journal des Cours Public</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>Le Drame de '93</i>, by <span class="smcap">Alexandre Dumas</span>, turns out to be a narrative of +the Revolution, in his rapid dramatic style.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">M. Pierre Dufour</span> is publishing a work of great value entitled the +<i>History of Prostitution among all Nations and at all Times</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A cheap edition of the chief writings on affairs, by <span class="smcap">Emilie de +Girardin</span>, is published in eleven volumes.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><i>Mademoiselle de Belle Isle</i>, written by Dumas for Mademoiselle +Mars—a sprightly, dissolute comedy, full of the life which animates +the <i>Mémoires</i> of the time, and complicated in its construction with +the skill of a Lope de Vega—was translated in New-York a year or two +ago by Mrs. Fanny Kemble Butler, and brought out at the Astor Place +Opera House. Our theatre-going people, however, declined a piece so +broadly licentious, and it was soon withdrawn. We see that another +version of it has been made in London, and that it has been played +there very successfully.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The London editors lack something of the honesty of the Americans: +they never give credit for an article, but if making up an entire +number of a periodical from American sources, would permit their +readers to suppose it all original. <i>Sharpe's Magazine</i> is +particularly addicted to this infirmity, and the July issue of it +contains our excellent friend the Rev. F. W. Shelton's paper on +<i>Boswell, the Biographer</i>, which appeared originally in <i>The +Knickerbocker</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Rev. Charles Kingsley</span>, Jr., rector of Eversley, best known to +American readers as the author of the Chartist novel of <i>Alton Locke</i>, +and <i>Yeast, a Problem</i>, has been an industrious writer. He is now +about fifty years of age, and besides the above works and a vast +number of papers in <i>Fraser's Magazine</i>, he has published <i>The +Christian Socialist(!)</i>, <i>Politics for the People</i>, <i>Village Sermons</i>, +and <i>The Saint's Tragedy</i>—in point of art the best of his +performances. We see by the English papers that he preached a sermon +lately in Fitzroy Square, London, on the "Gospel Message to the Poor." +It was so full of "socialistic" thoughts, and so severe on the richer +classes, that the rector of the church, when he had finished, arose in +his pew, and protested vehemently against its doctrines. The +congregation dispersed in great disorder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>We doubt whether any living Englishman is capable of surpassing Sir +Bulwer Lytton's version of the Ballads of Schiller, but Mr. <span class="smcap">Edgar +Alfred Bowring</span>, a son of the well-known Dr. Bowring who has published +translations from so many languages, has just published a volume +entitled <i>The Poems of Schiller complete, including all his early +Suppressed Pieces, attempted in English</i>. The word "complete" +expresses its difference from the many Schillers in English that have +previously appeared. An <i>Anthology</i> edited by Schiller in 1782, when +he had just commenced his career, contains several poems which the +critics recognize as his. This remained unknown, however, except as a +literary curiosity, till a few months ago; and several of the poems +had been omitted in all the collections of Schiller's works. But the +republication of the <i>Anthology</i> has brought to light the suppressed +poems (in number twenty-eight, comprising nearly twelve hundred +verses), and those are translated for the first time by Mr. Bowring, +whose versions are much commended.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among the new books of English verse, some of the most noticeable are +<i>The Fair Island, in Six Cantos</i>, by <span class="smcap">Edmund Peel</span>: in the Spenserian +measure, with passages of fair description; <i>Ballad Romances</i>, by <span class="smcap">R. +H. Horne</span>, author of "Orion," &c.—a book containing genuine poetry; +<i>The Reign of Avarice</i>, an allegorical satire, in four cantos; +<i>Philosophy in the Fens</i>, in the style of Peter Pindar; and <i>Marican</i>, +a Chilian tale, by <span class="smcap">Henry Inglis</span>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Warren</span>, the author of "Ten Thousand a Year," has just published a new +novel under the title of <i>The Lily and the Bee, a Romance of the +Crystal Palace</i>. The name savors of the huckster, and we shall look +for a more melancholy failure than his last previous performance.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Levi Woodbury's</span> <i>Miscellaneous Writings, Addresses, and Judicial +Opinions</i>, will be published in four octavo volumes, by Little & +Brown, of Boston.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <i>North American Review</i> for the July quarter is in many respects +characteristic. Six months after every Review published in Great +Britain had had its paper on Southey, and when the subject is quite +worn out, the <i>North American</i> furnishes us with a leading article +upon it, in which there is neither an original thought nor a new +combination of thoughts that are old. Colton's <i>Public Economy</i> gives +a title to an article, in which the book is treated superciliously, +and some ideas by Henry C. Carey are presented as the original +speculations of the reviewer. It is deserving of remark that the <i>Past +and Present</i>, and more recent works of Mr. Carey, which among thinking +men throughout the world have commanded more attention than any other +writings in political philosophy during the last five years, have +never been even referred to in this periodical, which arrogates to +itself the leadership of American literature. The eighth article of +the number is on the Unity of the Human Race, and considering the +place it occupies in the <i>North American Review</i>, for July, 1851, it +is contemptible. It is based on five publications made in England +previous to 1847, and ignores all the research and discussion since +that time, notwithstanding the facts that the subject never was so +amply, so profoundly, or so luminously discussed as during the last +year—that the very writers referred to in the article have for the +chief part published their most important treatises upon it since +1847—that within six months its literature has received large +accessions in France, Germany, and Italy,—and that in <i>our own +country</i>, of whose intellectual advancement this Review is bound to +give some sort of an index, the four years since Latham's "Present +State and Recent Progress of Ethnological Philosophy" appeared, have +furnished important works by Albert Gallatin, Mr. Hale of the +Exploring Expedition, the Rev. Dr. Bachman, the Rev. Dr. Smyth, and +several others, all of which should have been considered in any new, +especially in any American <i>resume</i> of the discussion. Johnston's +<i>Notes on North America</i> is treated with a spleen excited by the +author's refusal to recognize the greatness assumed for certain +persons connected with Harvard College, and Mr. Bowen is weak enough +to say, or to permit a contributor to say, "we <i>understand</i>(!) Mr. +Johnston has a high reputation," &c. Pish! And what does the reader +suppose is the theme—the fresh, before unheard-of theme—of another +paper? what new star, in the heaven of mind, demanded most the +exploration and illustration of the <i>North American Review</i>, for this +July quarter, in 1851? The best guesser of riddles would not in fifty +years hit upon Mr. Gilfillan's book of rigmarole entitled <i>The Bards +of the Bible</i>, but this performance, which had been criticised in +every other quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily, in the English +language, that would descend to it, crowds out the subjects of "great +pith and moment" upon which a periodical of such claims should have +spoken with wise authority.</p> + +<p>Our own country is full of suggestive topics for thoughtful, earnest, +and learned men, and it is fit that the closet should send out its +instruction to calm the turbulence awakened by tempests from the +rostrum—that affairs should be subjected to the criticism of +experience, and that what is new in discovery, in opinion, or in +suggestion, should have quick and popular recognition and justice. We +need—we must have—for this purpose a powerful and really national +<i>Review</i>, to reflect and guide the life and aspirations of the +country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We mentioned some time ago that Mr. <span class="smcap">William W. Story</span>, a son of the +late Justice Story, was preparing for the press a life of his father, +and we now understand that the work will soon be ready, in two large +octavo volumes, to be published by Little & Brown. It will come too +late. Such a memoir would have been very well received any time within +a year after Judge Story's death: now the public mind is settled in an +unalterable conviction that Judge Story was an over-rated man, and a +consideration of the processes by which his fame was acquired is +likely for a long time to sink it below its just level. We but echo +the opinion of more than one eminent person connected with the very +school in which he was a teacher, as well as the common judgment of +the leading men of the profession in all the states, when we say that +Judge Story was not a great lawyer; two or three of his books were +good, but the rest were made for cash profits, and sold by means of +ingenious advertising. Now they will answer for the country courts, +and the inferior courts of the cities, where no opposing lawyer has +enough wit and knowledge to oppose Story against Story, but they are +no longer weighty authorities, and every term they are found to be of +declining influence. As a man of letters, Judge Story's rank will be +still lower. He has left nothing to carry his name into another age. +Yet he was a man of much professional learning, of taste, sagacity, an +extraordinary command of his resources, and a most amiable and +pleasing character, and his memoirs and correspondence, if fitly +presented, will constitute an attractive and valuable contribution to +the history of American society.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For several years it has been known to many students of our early +history, that Mr. <span class="smcap">Lyman C. Draper</span> was devoting his time and estate, +and faculties admirably trained for such pursuits, to the collection +of whatever materials still exist for the illustration of the lives of +the Western Pioneers. He has carefully explored all the valley of the +Mississippi, under the most favorable auspices—by his intelligence +and enthusiasm and large acquaintance with the most conspicuous +people, commended to every family which was the repository of special +traditions or of written documents—and he has succeeded in amassing a +collection of MS. letters, narratives, and other papers, and of +printed books, pamphlets, magazines, and journals, more extensive than +is possessed by many of the state historical societies, while in +character it is altogether and necessarily unique. He proposes soon to +publish his first work, <i>The Life and Times of General George Rogers +Clarke</i>, (whose papers have been long in his possession, and whose +surviving Indian fighters and other associates he has personally +visited), in two octavo volumes, to be followed by shorter historical +memoirs of Colonel Daniel Boone, General Simon Kenton, General John +Sevier of East Tennessee, General James Robertson, Captain Samuel +Brady, Colonel William Crawford, the Wetzells, &c., &c. The field of +his researches, it will be seen, embraces the entire sweep of the +Mississippi, every streamlet flowing into which has been crimsoned +with the blood of sanguinary conflicts, every sentinel mountain +looking down to whose waves has been a witness of more terrible and +strange vicissitudes and adventures than have been invented by all the +romancers.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <i>Dublin University Magazine</i> is not very kind in the matter of the +American poem of <i>Frontenac</i>, but suggests that as the author's name +is <span class="smcap">Street</span>, he cannot object to being "walked into."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Southworth's</span> story of <i>Retribution</i> is being republished in +<i>Reynolds's Miscellany</i>, edited by G. W. M. Reynolds, the novelist. +Those who are acquainted with the productions of Reynolds will perhaps +recognize the fitness of the association.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Mowatt</span>, who has just returned from a professional residence in +England, we understand will soon give the public a collection of her +miscellaneous writings, prefaced by Mary Howitt. The authoress of <i>The +Fortune Hunter</i>, under various signatures, has been a very voluminous +as well as a very clever writer. She will in a few weeks appear at the +Broadway Theatre.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Miss Beecher</span> has published (through Phillips & Sampson of Boston), her +<i>True Remedy for the Wrongs of Women</i>, and the book is much below her +reputation. From a person of her character and unquestionable +abilities, we looked for a rebuke of those females who have unsexed +themselves, such a rebuke as should have brought to life all the +latent shame in their natures, and for ever prevented any renewals of +the melancholy displays they have made of an unfeminine passion for +notoriety. The "wrongs of woman," in the state of New-York at least, +are purely ideal; here woman has all the privileges and protections +compatible with her destined offices in a civilized society. She +undoubtedly has a share of the sufferings to which human nature is +subject, but has literally nothing to complain of at the hands of man +in the social organization. The individual wrongs of which she is the +victim, are for the most part penalties of individual indiscretions, +and the remedy for them is to be found in the education of woman for +her proper sphere and duties, such education as shall develope her +capacities for the relations of domestic life, most of all, for +maternity. Miss Beecher treats parties with respect who are entitled +to no respect, acknowledges evils which do not exist, and proposes for +the elevation of female character plans of very questionable +influence.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <span class="smcap">Wieseler, Friedrich.</span> Theatergebäude und Denkmaler des +Buhnenwesens, beiden Gricchen und Römern. Göttingen, 1851. +Vandenhœik und Ruprecht.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> +<h2><i>The Fine Arts.</i></h2> + + +<p>All Europe abounds in memorials of illustrious men, and in the present +time there is more than ever before a disposition manifested to +consecrate art to the honor of the benefactors of mankind, or to those +who have been most eminent for great qualities. From Munich, we learn +by the latest journals, that two colossal statues—those of Gustavus +Adolphus and of the Swedish poet Tegner—have just been cast at the +royal foundry of that capital, with complete success. Both were +modelled by Schwanthaler, and are destined for public places in the +city of Stockholm. In France, the inhabitants of Andelys have been +inaugurating a statue of Nicolas Poussin, with great ceremonial. On +the same day a statue to Poisson, an eminent mathematician, was +inaugurated with pomp, at his native place, Pithiviers, near Orleans. +A little before, one was erected to Froissart, the quaint old +chronicler of knightly deeds, at Valenciennes, where he was born. +Jeanne Hachette is about to have one at Beauvais; Gresset, the author +of '<i>Vert Vert</i>', at Amiens; and the village of Rollot, in Picardy, +has just caused to be placed in its public square a bust of the +translator into French of the <i>Thousand and One Nights</i>, Antony +Galland. He was sent by Colbert to the East on account of his great +knowledge of the Hebrew and other oriental languages, and on his +return published the Arabian Nights, and a treatise on the origin of +coffee.</p> + +<p>There is, in fact, scarcely a Frenchman of real eminence in poetry, +literature, war, science, statesmanship, or the arts, who is not +honored with a statue, either in his birthplace, or in the town made +his own by adoption. Most of the statues are erected at the expense of +the respective localities; the good people thinking it a duty to +render every respect to their illustrious dead. And when they happen +to be too poor to incur much cost, they erect a fountain, or some +other useful work, which bears the great man's name. In the small and +poor village of Chatenay, near Paris, where Voltaire was born, you +see, for example, a small plaster bust of him, in an iron cage, and on +the parish pump the words "à Voltaire." And, as the <i>Literary Gazette</i> +has it, very justly, "the man who should scoff at this simple tribute +to genius would be an ass,—it is all that poor peasants can afford to +pay." The names of distinguished men are also frequently given by the +French to streets and squares. In Paris alone, Molière, Racine, +Corneille, Voltaire, Boileau, Montaigne, and I know not how many +others, together with men of science by the hundred, have streets +named after them: so have Chateaubriand and Béranger; so have even the +English Lord Byron and the Italian Rossini. The ships in the navy, +too, receive also the names of distinguished men, foreign as well as +native—there is a man-of-war named after Newton, and several public +works have the name of our own Franklin. But in the United States, +although we have sometimes named after soldiers and statesmen, we have +scarce any monuments, and no statues at all, except a few of men +distinguished in affairs. In Union Square, opposite the house in which +he lived, there should be a statue of the great Chancellor Kent; in +Richmond, one of Marshall, next to Washington, the greatest of +Virginians; in Northampton, one to Jonathan Edwards; in New Haven, one +to Timothy Dwight; before the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, one +to Franklin, one to Rittenhouse, and one to Alex. Wilson; at +Cambridge, one to Allston; in Boston, one to Bowditch; and in +New-York, memorials of some sort to Audubon, Gallatin, Hamilton, &c.</p> + +<p>In the new park which is to be reserved in the upper part of the city, +we have an opportunity to commemorate the patriotism and misfortunes +of the first magistrate chosen by the people of New-York, the first +under whom municipal elections were held here, and the first martyr to +Liberty in the New World—Governor Leisler. <span class="smcap">Leisler Park</span> sounds well, +and it has additional fitness from the fact, that the unfortunate +governor was once proprietor of a part of the grounds to be so +appropriated. If it shall not be called Leisler Park, there is another +illustrious New-Yorker, whose name appears to have been forgotten by +those who have given names to public places here,—Governor Colden, +who wrote the <i>History of the Five Nations</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When the Emperor of Russia was at Rome, four or five years ago, he +engaged Barberi, the worker in mosaic, to undertake certain large +works, and with the instruction of six Russian students with a view to +the establishment of a great school of mosaic art in St. Petersburgh. +Since that time Barberi and his pupils have been occupied with works +for the imperial residence, the last of which, just completed, +consists of an octagonal mosaic pavement, from the ancient design of +the round hall in the Vatican Museum, with twenty-eight figures, a +colossal head of Medusa in the centre, and a variety of ornaments, all +inclosed in a brilliant wreath of fruits, flowers, and foliage. The +series already executed consist of four scenic masques, each of which +is valued at £5200 sterling. With these finished works Cavaliere +Barberi is about to forward to St. Petersburgh a number of vitreous +mosaic tablets of every shade and style of drawing and decoration, as +models for younger students.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tenerani</span>, the most eminent of contemporary Italian sculptors, has +finished a statue of Bolivar. The figure is standing, full draped, and +holding a laurel crown in the left hand. The pediment is ornamented +with three bas-reliefs, the three provinces, Peru, Bolivia, and +Colombia. Two statues, Justice and Liberality, symbols of the hero's +virtues, stand at the side of the monument, which will be erected in +the cathedral of Caraccas. It is a fine instance of the beauty and +delicate grace of Tenerani's treatment. The expressive head of "The +Liberator," with the high, arched brow, the large, soft, and sagacious +eyes, the sharply chiselled but agreeable features, beaming with +intellectual radiance, are happily conceived and exquisitely executed.</p> + +<p>In the same kind we note an equestrian statue of Bernadotte by +<span class="smcap">Togelberg</span>, a Swede resident in Rome. The horseman's mantle has fallen +aside, the staff of a commander is in his hand, and the able marshal, +"king that shall be," looks graciously down from his horse. In his +face there is the imperial force of military genius, with the genial +grace of sensibility. The horse is finely done.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Steinhauser's</span> statue of Hahnemann, the father of homœopathy, +destined for Leipsic, is almost finished. The same artist has in hand +the Goethe monument, designed by Bettina von Arnim. The sketch serves +as the illuminated title-page to the second volume of the +correspondence with a child. She describes it as follows: "Goethe sits +upon a throne, within a semi-niche, his head reaches over the niche, +which is not closed above, but is cut away, and seems, half seen, like +the moon rising over the rim of a mountain. The mantle, tied round the +neck, falls back over the shoulders, and is brought forward again +under the arms into the lap. The left hand rests upon the lyre, +supported upon the left knee. The right hand, which holds my flowers, +is sunk negligently in the same way, and, forgetting fame, he holds +the laurel wreath, and looks toward heaven. The young Psyche stands +before him, as then I stood, raises herself upon tip-toe to touch the +strings of the lyre, which he permits, lost in inspiration."</p> + +<p>The artist has appreciated this conception. He has represented Goethe +not as an old man, but as a man of ideal expression, holding indeed +the well-won laurel, but with the harp in hand, as if inspiration were +exhaustless.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Herr Kiss's</span> group in bronze of an Amazon encountering a lion has been +purchased by the Prince of Prussia as a present for the Queen of +England. A copy of the same work in zinc has been purchased by a +gentleman from the United States for £2500. It is said that Kiss has +received a commission for two other copies for persons in the United +States.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The English critics complain that they have not any longer a great +portrait painter. This branch of art is declining, and the walls of +the Academy this year bear testimony to the fact. From the death of +Lawrence to the present time, now more than twenty years, it has been +gradually subsiding into the mere record of literal fact—ignoring +those great principles which made it once a means of historical +record. In America we have occasion for no such regrets. Elliot is +equal to any man in the world for a masculine and noble head, and +Hicks and several others would in any country or in any time command +the applause due to great masters.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For three years Mr. <span class="smcap">Pyne</span>, the landscape painter, has been taking a +series of views in the lake counties of England. The pictures comprise +all the important objects in a tour through the country they +illustrate, treated under a variety of aspects, which renders the +collection valuable in an artistic point of view. A feeling for +atmospheric distance is one of Mr. Pyne's most important attributes, +and in representing wide reaching views of mountains and lakes he has +had full scope for his talent. The pictures are to be copied in a +series of colored lithographs, and published in a volume.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Among the pictures in the Royal Academy this season are several by +British army officers on foreign duty. By the Hon. Lieutenant Colonel +Percy there are, <i>A Study of Niagara from the under Horse-Shoe Fall, +The River St. Lawrence and Mouth of the Saguenay</i>, and a view on the +same river <i>Near the Chaudiere Bridge, Quebec</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rauch</span>, the sculptor, whose statue of Frederic the Great has just been +erected in Berlin, has been the object of an artistic ovation. The +Academy of Sciences gave a banquet in his honor, the king, royal +family, and ministers assisted, and Meyerbeer composed a <i>Cantata</i> for +the occasion.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Healy's</span> picture of Mr. Webster replying to Colonel Hayne is +completed, in Paris, and will be brought to New-York in the present +month (of August). It is twenty-eight feet long. The painter has +published proposals for engravings of it, at twenty dollars per copy.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>An original painting by Raphael, <i>The Boar Hunt</i>, was destroyed in a +recent fire at Downhill House, the family seat of Sir Hervey Bruce, in +England.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The French and English journals mention several important improvements +of the daguerreotype, some of which are of the same character as Mr. +Hill's. Mr. Brady, of this city, has gone to London, to establish a +branch of his house in that city.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> +<h2><i>Historical Review of the Month.</i></h2> + + +<h4>THE UNITED STATES.</h4> + +<p>On the 4th of July the corner stone of the Capitol extension at +Washington was laid, before the President of the United States, the +Cabinet, army and navy officers, and a very large assemblage of +citizens. Mr. Webster delivered on the occasion an address, in which +he pointed out with his customary eloquent clearness the extraordinary +advances of the country since General Washington, fifty-eight years +before, had performed there a similar duty, and for the advantage of +condensation and exactness he presented many important facts in the +form of a comparative table, as follows:</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>1793.</td><td align='right'>1851.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Number of States</td><td align='right'>15</td><td align='right'>31</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Representatives and Senators in Congress</td><td align='right'>135</td><td align='right'>295</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Population of the U. States, 1850</td><td align='right'>3,929,328</td><td align='right'>23,267,498</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do. Boston, do.</td><td align='right'>18,038</td><td align='right'>136,871</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do. Baltimore, do.</td><td align='right'>13,503</td><td align='right'>169,054</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do. Philadelphia, do.</td><td align='right'>42,520</td><td align='right'>409,045</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do. New-York (city), do.</td><td align='right'>33,121</td><td align='right'>515,507</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do. Washington, do.</td><td align='right'>——</td><td align='right'>40,075</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Amount of receipts into Treasury, do.</td><td align='right'>$5,720,624</td><td align='right'>$43,774,848</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Am't of expenditures of U.S., do.</td><td align='right'>7,529,575</td><td align='right'>39,355,268</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Amount of imports, do.</td><td align='right'>31,000,000</td><td align='right'>178,138,318</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do. Exports, do.</td><td align='right'>26,109,000</td><td align='right'>151,898,720</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do. Tonnage, do.</td><td align='right'>525,764</td><td align='right'>3,535,454</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Area of the United States, do.</td><td align='right'>805,461</td><td align='right'>3,314,365</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Rank and file of the army</td><td align='right'>5,110</td><td align='right'>10,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Militia (enrolled),</td><td align='right'>——</td><td align='right'>2,006,456</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Navy of the United States (vessels),</td><td align='right'>None</td><td align='right'>76</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do. Armament (ordinance),</td><td align='right'>—</td><td align='right'>2,012</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Number of treaties and conventions with foreign powers</td><td align='right'>9</td><td align='right'>90</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Number of lighthouses and light-boats</td><td align='right'>7</td><td align='right'>372</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Expenditures for do.</td><td align='right'>$12,061</td><td align='right'>529,265</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Area of the first capitol building in square feet</td><td align='right'>——</td><td align='right'>14,641</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do. present capitol (including extension)</td><td align='right'>——</td><td align='right'>4-1/3 acres</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Lines of railroads in miles</td><td align='right'>——</td><td align='right'>8,500</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Do. Telegraphs</td><td align='right'>——</td><td align='right'>15,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Number of post-offices</td><td align='right'>209</td><td align='right'>21,551</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Number of miles of post route</td><td align='right'>5,642</td><td align='right'>178,671</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Amount of revenue from post-offices</td><td align='right'>$104,747</td><td align='right'>$5,552,971</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Amount of expenditures in the Post-Office Department</td><td align='right'>72,040</td><td align='right'>5,212,953</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Number of miles of mail transportation</td><td align='right'>——</td><td align='right'>46,541,423</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Miles of railroad</td><td align='right'>——</td><td align='right'>8,500</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Public libraries</td><td align='right'>35</td><td align='right'>694</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Number of volumes in do.</td><td align='right'>75,000</td><td align='right'>2,201,632</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>School libraries</td><td align='right'>——</td><td align='right'>10,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Number of volumes in do.</td><td align='right'>——</td><td align='right'>$2,000,000</td></tr> +</table></div> +<p>The recent anniversary—being three quarters of a century from the +Declaration of Independence—was celebrated with unusual enthusiasm in +nearly all parts of the United States. One small party of +secessionists in a southern state chose the occasion for some farcical +expressions of treason, and members of another party, equally insane +or wicked, in the north, chose to violate the sacredness of the time +by avowing a disregard of the Constitution; but on the whole the +displays of feeling were such as to gratify a patriotic and hopeful +spirit. The new constitution of Maryland went into effect on that day, +and in obedience to one of its provisions all the persons confined in +its several prisons for debt were then released.</p> + +<p>The correspondence between the British Minister and the Secretary of +State respecting the long-pending difficulties in Central America is +not yet concluded. It appears that Great Britain is ready to +relinquish her peculiar relations with the so-called Mosquito Kingdom, +and surrender her control over San Juan; but she refuses to make that +surrender to Nicaragua, which claims an unconditional right in the +case, and refuses to submit to any restrictions. There are other +territorial difficulties between Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the other +states, which seem difficult of adjustment. On these subjects Sir +Henry Bulwer has addressed to the American Government a communication +urging its interference to produce an amicable settlement. Mr. Webster +has left Washington for a temporary residence in the country, and it +is probable that this correspondence will not be concluded until his +return, and the return of the British Minister from a contemplated +visit to London.</p> + +<p>It is supposed that an extensive fraud has been committed against the +United States Government in the settlement of Mexican claims. The +person accused, a Dr. Gardner, received a large sum from the Mexican +Commission, but as is now stated, by fraudulent evidence. He is absent +in Europe, but the grand jury of Washington has found a bill against +him, and his brother and another party implicated in the transaction +have been held to bail for perjury.</p> + +<p>The Tehuantepec Surveying Expedition has returned to New Orleans. +Surveys, which show the practicability of the railroad route, are +complete. A few parties have been left on the ground to survey a line +for the construction of a carriage road. The Coatzacoatlcos River is +reported navigable, for twenty-five miles above its mouth, for ships +drawing eleven feet of water. The climate is believed to be healthy. +The Mexican government having evinced some unfriendliness to the +Tehuantepec project, the interference of the United States has been +solicited, but declined. The balance of the fourth installment of the +Mexican Indemnity, under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, was paid at +the U.S. Treasury on the 28th of June—amounting to $1,815,400. The +whole amount of the installment is $3,360,000. The Court Martial +convened at Washington on the 23d June, for the trial of General +Talcott, chief of the ordnance department, has closed its labors by +the conviction of the accused of all the charges preferred against +him, and his dismissal from the service. The charges were: a violation +of the 132d article of the regulations for the government of the +Ordnance Department; wilful disobedience of orders and instructions +from the Secretary of War in relation to a contract for supplies; and +conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, among other things, in +making a declaration which was positively and wilfully false, and +intended to deceive the Secretary of War.</p> + +<p>Preparations for the next presidential canvass are being commenced in +many of the States. General Scott has received the nomination of two +state conventions—that of Ohio, and that of Pennsylvania—besides +having been nominated at public meetings in Delaware, Indiana, and +other places. Mr. Woodbury has been nominated in New Hampshire, and +meetings of various degrees of importance have expressed preferences +for other candidates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> in various parts of the country. The crops of +all sorts are represented as being in a very prosperous condition +throughout all sections: of wheat and potatoes more abundant than ever +before, and of cotton and rice very much better than the drought in +the early part of the season promised. The Extra Session of the +New-York legislature adjourned on the 11th of July, after passing +several important bills. That for the enlargement of the Erie Canal is +a measure of great moment to the industry and commerce of the state. +It provides for the complete enlargement of the Erie Canal within four +years, thus securing the immense business which would else seek other +avenues to the seaboard, and endowing the state with a large revenue +independent of taxes. Chief Justice Bronson, whose political relations +give to his opinions in this case a peculiar value, has published an +elaborate vindication of the bill's constitutionality. The legislature +of New Hampshire adjourned on the 5th of July. The legislature of +Connecticut has also adjourned, having elected no Senator in the place +of Mr. Baldwin. Resolutions approving of the Compromise Measures, +<i>including the Fugitive Slave Law</i>, passed the House by a vote of 113 +to 35, but in the Senate they were indefinitely postponed. The +Virginia Reform Convention struck out the section of the Constitution +prohibiting the legislature from passing a law to allow the +emancipation of slaves, and inserted a provision that an emancipated +slave remaining in the state over twelve months shall be sold. The +legislature is allowed to impose restrictions on the owners of slaves +who are disposed to emancipate, but the section giving the legislature +power to remove free negroes from the state is stricken out. The +murderers of the Cosden family, in Kent Co., Maryland, are sentenced +to be hung on the first Friday of the present month.</p> + +<p>From California we have intelligence to the 15th of June. San +Francisco and Stockton seem to have almost entirely recovered from the +effects of the late conflagrations; the burnt districts were being +restored with a rapidity surpassing all previous examples of +Californian energy, and business, far from being prostrated, had +resumed its former activity. The accounts from the mines continued to +be encouraging, the yield of gold not having been diminished by the +unusual dryness of the winter. The Indian Commissioners have met with +great success in their work of pacification, although there were +rumors of skirmishes in the northern part of the state. A man named +Jennings was lately seized at San Francisco while attempting to escape +with a bag of stolen money, and was, after being arrested and tried by +a self-constituted Vigilance Committee, condemned, brought out into +the plaza, and publicly hung in the presence of a large crowd. A crime +so monstrous may well startle the world. If the persons composing the +Vigilance Committee have respectable positions in society, this fact +but increases the infamy of the transaction, and gives it a more fatal +influence. Every member of the committee, consenting to its action, +should be deemed guilty of murder, and punished as a murderer, though +the magistracy of California should have to invoke for its support in +enforcing the laws the whole force of the nation. There is no safety, +nor true liberty, where there is not obedience; and it had been better +that all the thieves in California in half a century escaped +punishment than that one should be punished in this manner.</p> + +<p>In the Mormon territory of Utah ground was broken for the Great Salt +Lake and Mountain Railway on the 1st of May. When this enterprise is +completed, preparations will be more vigorously prosecuted for the +erection of the Temple. The condition of affairs in the new +settlements is represented as encouraging.</p> + +<p>The tide of emigration continues to flow into Texas from European +ports. Milam District, on the Upper Brazos, seems at present to be the +favorite point for the colonists. The new town of Kent has lately been +erected at Kimball's Bend, and under the auspices of Captain Sir +Edward Belcher, R.N., made up of hardy English and Scotch settlers. +With the payment of its debt insured by the ten millions received from +the United States, Texas must become one of the most flourishing +states of the Union.</p> + + +<h4>MEXICO.</h4> + +<p>Recent advices from Mexico lead to apprehensions that the unquiet and +unsettled state of affairs may result in open attempts at a revolution +in the government, and an effort by the partisans of General Santa +Anna to recall him from exile, and place him at the head of the +administration. It is understood that the President has abandoned the +liberal party and allied himself with the clergy. A vigorous newspaper +war is waged against the priests. The Mexican congress is engaged in +devising ways and means to raise the necessary revenue to carry on the +government. The proposition to impose an additional tax of eight per +cent on all foreign merchandise imported into the Republic, has been +adopted by the Chamber of Deputies.</p> + + +<h4>BRITISH AMERICA.</h4> + +<p>The subject of the clergy reserves, which for a quarter of a century +has almost been constantly debated in Upper Canada, has lately been +agitated with unprecedented earnestness and bitterness. The popular +and English party advocate the appropriation of the funds thus +accruing to purposes of general education. The Board of Trade of +Toronto has passed a vote of censure upon the Council, for having +memorialized the government to impose differential duties against +American manufactures. The census returns for 1850 give the population +of Canada at nearly 800,000. The proceeds of clergy reserve sales, +during the year, were $220,428. In the Legislative Assembly, a series +of resolutions has been moved for the repeal of the union between +Upper and Lower Canada. Efforts are being made to construct a railroad +from Halifax to Hamilton, where it is to join the Great Western road, +constituting a continuous line from Halifax to Detroit.</p> + + +<h4>WEST INDIES.</h4> + +<p>We have dates of Port-au-Prince to the 30th of June. The coronation of +the Emperor Soulouque will take place very soon. Should no bishop +arrive from Rome, the Emperor may create a native bishop. At the +coronation, a general amnesty is expected for all political exiles, +whose return to Hayti will be beneficial, for among them are men of +wealth and intelligence. The affairs of the country have assumed a +more pacific aspect. Immediately after the recent proclamation of the +Emperor to the Dominicans, several agents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> were sent to different +points on the frontier, to induce the enemy to enter on amicable +relations. With a single exception, these missions were successful, +and a number of Dominicans were expected in Port-au-Prince, for +purposes of trade. The universal desire of the Haytian people, as well +as of the government, is said to be that the dispute may be honorably +settled. The Emperor, however, has not relinquished the idea of +effecting a reannexation of the territory of Dominica to Hayti. The +excessive issues of Treasury bonds and paper currency are proving +prejudicial to the true interests of the country. The number of +negroes brought to Cuba from the coast of Africa, during the past +fourteen months, is 14,500. Very heavy rains have fallen in the +interior and in the neighborhood of Manzanilla.</p> + + +<h4>SOUTH AMERICA.</h4> + +<p>In the number of the <i>Christian Review</i> for the July quarter is a very +comprehensive, intelligible, and apparently perfectly correct survey +of the condition of the South American states, to which we refer +readers who would possess more minute information on the subject than +can be embraced in this summary.</p> + +<p>The condition of <span class="smcap">Peru</span> appears favorable for the maintenance of peace +and order. The laws relating to elections, municipal governments, and +other topics connected with the internal affairs of the country, have +been considered by Congress, in accordance with the recommendation of +the President. The election of Gen. Vivanca, the unsuccessful +candidate for the Presidency, as representative in Congress, has been +pronounced invalid, on account of his not holding the rights of +citizenship. The change of ministry was received with satisfaction in +all the departments, except Arequipa, which continued in a state of +disturbance. The Governor's proclamation, requiring that all arms +should be surrendered to the government, was the occasion of a fresh +outbreak. Arequipa was thrown into a state of siege: the streets were +filled with barricades: trenches were constructed at all the avenues +to the city: and every obstacle opposed to the entrance of the troops +which were encamped in the vicinity. Gen. Vivanca, whose party have +caused these disturbances, is in prison at Lima; but whether he is +personally implicated is uncertain.</p> + +<p>The Government of <span class="smcap">Bolivia</span> has issued the plan of a new Constitution, +proposing among other measures, the preservation of the Roman Catholic +religion as the religion of the state, the maintenance of amicable +relations with American and European states, the liberty of the press, +the independence of the judicial authority, the freedom of opinion on +political subjects, and the protection of foreigners in the exercise +of commercial pursuits. A National Convention has been convoked for +the 16th of July. The number of deputies was to be 53.</p> + +<p>An insurrection has taken place in New-Grenada—the two southern +provinces, Pasto and Tuquerres, having united in an attempt to +overthrow the government, with the aid and encouragement of Ecuador. +The President at once dispatched a military force to the scene of the +revolt, but at the last advices it had not succeeded in its object, +though two or three engagements had taken place. The government has +issued proposals for a loan of $400,000 in specie, and unless this is +effected soon, recourse must be had to forced contributions to defray +the expenses of the war. Congress has abolished slavery, requiring +only certain payments to the masters. No disturbance had arisen from +the measure.</p> + + +<h4>GREAT BRITAIN.</h4> + +<p>In the British Parliament important reforms in the Chancery system are +still under discussion, and Lord Brougham is as ardent a reformer as +he was thirty years ago. The census of Great Britain, taken on the +31st of March last, is a remarkable document. It shows that the small +cluster of the British isles contains a larger population than the +whole of this republic, exclusive of its slaves. The metropolis +numbers upwards of two millions and a quarter, and added to its +denizens during the last ten years about as many souls as New-York now +reckons within its limits. But a more extraordinary and altogether +different result appears in Ireland. It seems that the population of +Ireland is at this moment very little more than six millions and a +half. It is absolutely less than it was in 1821, and more than two +millions short of the number that would have been reached in the +natural order of things, but for the extraordinary occurrences of the +last ten years. So startling a fact will of course become the subject +of the closest inquiries.</p> + +<p>The Anti-Papal Bill finally passed the House of Commons, by a large +majority, on the 4th of July. It had previously been amended on the +motion of Sir F. Thesiger, and in spite of the opposition of the +ministers, so as to be much more than the Government had designed. +These amendments make provisions of the bill extend to all Papal bulls +and rescripts, impose a penalty of one hundred pounds upon any who +obtain or publish them, and make it the right of any individual to sue +for the recovery of the fine. The law is stringent, and in America +would be both impolitic and unnecessary. But there is no doubt that +the Lords will adopt the bill, and that it will become the law of the +land. The state of the Church and its abuses have been presented in +the Commons by Mr. Horsman, Sir B. Hall, and Lord Blandford, who +brought up various facts, and contended that a bishop need not have +better pay than a prime minister, that the funds of the establishment +were enough to support an efficient clergy and leave something for +national schools, and that the Church does not supply the spiritual +wants of the people. Such discussions must finally result in the +overthrow of the establishment. Some excitement is caused by an appeal +addressed to the Italians by the authorities at Rome asking for aid to +Roman Catholic missions in London, in which "this great work is most +earnestly recommended to the charity of Italian believers, and to the +zeal of the bishops of Italy." Archbishop Minucci, of Florence, has +also called on the people of his diocese for aid in constructing an +Italian church in London, where "the spiritual wants of the faithful" +may be cared for, and announcing <i>an indulgence of one hundred days</i> +for those who shall contribute for this object.</p> + +<p>An attempt has been made to prevent the adulteration of coffee with +chicory. It was thought possible to do this by means of a government +inspection, but the motion failed. The Exhibition is still prosperous. +The gross receipts already amount to a million and a half of dollars.</p> + +<p>The number of troops in Ireland has, in consequence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> of the quiet and +improved condition of that country, been reduced from about 26,000 to +the present strength of 18,000 men. The decrees of the Thurles synod, +condemning the Queen's colleges, as institutions "dangerous to faith +and morals," have been sanctioned by the Pope, without any change or +qualifications. Some slight alterations have been made in the statutes +of the synod, respecting matters of ecclesiastical discipline in the +various dioceses; but those which refer to the colleges have been +approved without any modification. The <i>Cork Constitution</i> says, +"There is a great diminution in the number of emigrants proceeding to +America. Only four or five vessels are now at the quays preparing to +leave. It is with difficulty the requisite number of emigrants can be +made up, many preferring to go by Liverpool."</p> + +<p>Nearly a hundred Hungarian refugees had arrived at Southampton, from +Constantinople. Lord John Russell has intimated that the Government +will defray the expense of their passage to New-York, and of their +subsistence during the time they may remain in Southampton, waiting +arrangements for this purpose. Amongst the refugees is the +distinguished Hungarian Lieut. General Loisar Messaros.</p> + +<p>Preparations for another <i>Peace Congress</i> have been made on a large +scale. In one important particular the London Congress will be +distinguished above all others; and that is, in the greater breadth of +representative character which it will acquire; for associated bodies +who have never hitherto manifested a direct interest in the peace +question are preparing to send delegates on this occasion.</p> + +<p>The official returns of the <i>shipwrecks of the United Kingdom</i> during +the past year, show that the average is nearly two a day; and the +amount, thus far, four vessels only propelled by steam, and six +hundred and sixty-eight sailing vessels of every description. The +difference in the number of steam and sailing vessels afloat is far +from the proportion of disasters. Navigation by steam is thus +demonstrated to be much the safest.</p> + +<p>The 4th of July was celebrated in London with appropriate honors by +the American residents and others. Mr. George Peabody issued cards of +invitation to meet the United States Minister and Mrs. Lawrence at a +fête which he was to give in the evening, and about seven or eight +hundred persons were present, including the American families in +London, and a large proportion of the nobility and public persons in +England, by whom the idea was received with the greatest satisfaction. +The Duke of Wellington, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Lord +Mayor, the Duke of Valencia, the Count and Countess Pulzki, Lord +Glenelg, Viscount Canning, Miss Burdett Coutts, the American Ministers +to London, St. Petersburg, and Brussels, and a great number of other +eminent persons attended, besides Catharine Hayes, Lablache, Gardoni, +and Cruvelli, who sang during the evening, and were received with more +than usual applause. The affair was one of the grandest of the season.</p> + + +<h4>FRANCE.</h4> + +<p>In France the chief events of importance are connected with the +project for the revision of the Constitution. After a long struggle +the subject was given to a committee, at the head of which was De +Tocqueville. His report, as presented to the committee on the 4th of +July, had not at the last dates received when this sheet goes to +press, come before the public in an authentic form; but it is +understood that it treats of three principal points. In the first +place, M. de Tocqueville enters boldly into the question between the +republicans and monarchists. He examines with skill the pretensions of +the republic to Divine right put forward in the Commission itself by +General Cavaignac, and sustained by him with impassioned energy and an +accent of conviction which astonished the members. M. de Tocqueville +denies this pretended Divine right, and maintains that of the nation +to choose the form of government that may best suit it—a right which +is absolute, superior, and indisputable. Secondly, he is said to +oppose, by anticipation, any species of amendment which would have the +effect of confining the next Constituent Assembly within any limits, +or force on it the obligation of revising the constitution for the +sole end of ameliorating and consolidating them, and to maintain that +the Constituent Assembly should be invested with a general and +unlimited mission, in order that it may act in the plenitude of a +really constituent power; and thirdly, he is described as expressing +hopes that the Assembly will adopt the proposition accepted by the +majority of the commission; that a constituent assembly will be +chosen; that the constitution will be revised or remodelled; and in +such case that all will consider it their duty to conform to it; that +if the proposition of revision be not admitted, the constitution of +1848 shall remain as the supreme and sovereign law for all; that the +only alternative will be to maintain, until the term of a new period +of three years, the provisional form of the actual government—it +being of course understood, that, in such case, each person will feel +it his duty to conform to the constitution, and to abstain from every +act which would be tantamount to its violation. It is added that M. de +Tocqueville developes this proposition in such a manner as to oppose +<i>all unconstitutional candidateships</i>; that is, of the actual +President, the Prince de Joinville, and Ledru Rollin. The friends of +Louis Napoleon have favored the revision, in the hope that by it they +might prolong his term. Several speeches lately made by the president +have given a more favorable impression than that which he made at +Dijon. One at Poitiers, on the occasion of the opening of a railroad, +has given satisfaction to moderate men of all parties, who believe it +honest.</p> + +<p>A bill to interdict clubs has been again adopted without any attempt +at alteration. General Aupick is announced as the new ambassador to +Spain. Count Colonna Walewski, an illegitimate son of the Emperor +Napoleon, has reached the highest round of the diplomatic ladder by +being sent as ambassador to the Court of St. James. The <i>Pays</i> +announces that the question of Abd-el-Kader's captivity is on the +point of receiving a satisfactory solution. The committee charged to +examine the bill for the ratification of the treaties of La Plata is +disposed to propose simply the ratification of those treaties. At +Charente, recently, thirty-two adult Roman Catholics of both sexes, in +the presence of a numerous congregation, in the Protestant church, +publicly abjured the Roman Catholic and embraced the Protestant faith.</p> + +<p>A measure introduced by M. de St. Beuve in the National Assembly for a +commercial reform,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> by modifying the present restrictive tariff, so as +to accomplish a gradual approach to free trade, had been rejected by a +majority of 428 to 199. M. Thiers on this occasion made a great speech +against free trade, which is much criticised by the English press. The +London <i>Times</i> calls Thiers the evil genius of France.</p> + +<p>The most recent commercial letters received from various parts of +France represent affairs as somewhat recovering from the gloomy +appearance they wore some days since. The manufacturers have received +numerous orders for the great fair of Beaucaire, which will be held in +July. The Bank of France has announced a dividend of fifty-five francs +per share for the first half year of 1851.</p> + + +<h4>ITALY.</h4> + +<p>On the evening of the 7th of May, the Count Piero Guicciardini, the +descendant of the great historian, had met in a private house in +Florence six persons whose names are given in a decree, and before the +party broke up, Count Guicciardini read and expounded a chapter of the +Gospel of St. John. At ten o'clock the house was entered by eight +gendarmes; a perquisition began, in the style now customary in +Tuscany; the depositions of the party assembled were taken down; and +as it was fully proved by such depositions that a chapter of the Bible +had been read by Count Guicciardini, the whole of the seven offenders +were straightway led to the police delegation of Santa Maria Novella, +where their arrest was signed by the delegate, and a little after +midnight they were lodged in the Bargello, or public prison. For ten +days Count Guicciardini and his companions were kept in confinement +and subjected to repeated examinations, and finally the sentence of +forced residence in different parts of the Tuscan Maremme was passed +on each of the accused. This illustration of the liberality of the +Roman Catholic Church—though in perfect keeping with its perpetual +policy—has produced a profound sensation. It might have escaped +without much observation but for the eminence of the parties, and the +claims made lately in England, that the Roman Catholic authorities +were as tolerant as they asked that others should be to them, in all +matters of personal rights.</p> + +<p>The French military commandant in Rome has been exercising his +authority with great, but probably requisite severity. Two Roman +soldiers have been tried by French court martial, and executed for +riotous conduct, and seven others have been doomed to the same fate. +The Pope also has been threatened with expulsion from the Quirinal +Palace, which the above-mentioned authority thought at one time would +be essential as a military post. So far, the weak-minded holder of St. +Peter's keys has not suffered the mortification of a second forced +retreat, although, between his military guardians of France and +Austria and his own discontented subjects, his position is scarcely an +enviable one. The three young Englishmen arrested at Leghorn yet +remain imprisoned; but their real names do not appear.</p> + + +<h4>GERMANY.</h4> + +<p>The military authorities of Austria give as much offence in Germany as +the French in Rome. At Hamburg, several citizens have been killed in a +fray with the Austrian soldiers, begun by the insolence of the latter. +In Hesse Cassel, the Government has been compelled to grant immunities +to the Roman Catholic clergy, scarcely compatible with the +institutions of a Protestant country, under the compulsion of Austrian +bayonets.</p> + +<p>The Göttingen Professors have decided that the Government of Electoral +Hesse was not required by the Constitution to procure the assent of +the Chambers to the levy of taxes last year; this is the point on +which the revolutionary manifestations turned. We have not the +Constitution at hand, and cannot apprehend the grounds of this +decision, but it is singular that all the magistrates and people of +the country, who ought to have known something of their constitution, +should have unanimously held a different opinion. The Prussian +government have withdrawn the summons for the assembling of the +provincial diets, no doubt on account of the universal condemnation +excited by it. A decided schism has of late manifested itself in the +commercial policy advocated by North and South Germany. Whilst the +attempt to procure higher protective duties in the Zollverein has +continually been defeated by the liberal principals supported by +Prussia. South Germany, on the other hand, has come forward openly +with the intention to assert an independent line of action.</p> + + +<h4>SPAIN.</h4> + +<p>Accounts from Madrid of the 2d July, state that M. Jose Sanchez Ocana, +director general of the public treasury, has been appointed under +secretary of state of the finance department, in the place of M. +Bordia, director general of the customs. M. Rudulfo, inspector of the +finances at Madrid, succeeded M. Ocana in the direction of the public +treasury. France, by her diplomatic agents at Madrid, strives to +influence the Spanish government in regard to a more active repression +of the slave trade in its colonies. Mr. Schoelcher adverted to the +passage of the recent speech of the Emperor of Brazil, touching the +abolition of the traffic, as meant simply to please England—"like all +other speeches from thrones, in which the design is to give a sort of +satisfaction to the foreign powers with whom friendly relations are +desirable." The amendment was rejected by 339 nays to 230 ayes.</p> + + +<h4>RUSSIA.</h4> + +<p>Letters from Posen allude to an ukase which had appeared, compelling +all individuals throughout Russia and Poland to sell to the +government, within a specified period, whatever uncoined silver they +might have in their possession. An indemnity in paper money was +authorized to be given on behalf of the treasury. A body of Belgian +weavers and dyers has been engaged to go to St. Petersburg to set up +their trade. In Circassia the Russian army has met with a serious +defeat; in a battle where it had 25,000 men engaged, it lost 5,000.</p> + + +<h4>AUSTRIA AND TURKEY.</h4> + +<p>The Emperor has appointed Count Rechburg Internuncio at the court of +Constantinople. Accounts from Comorn state that violent shocks of an +earthquake were felt there on the 1st. The shocks were accompanied by +violent claps of thunder. The clocks in all the church towers struck; +scarcely a single house remained uninjured; numerous chimneys fell in, +and the furniture and utensils in the rooms were overthrown and +broken. Many accidents had occurred, but providentially, not any of a +fatal nature are yet known.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> +<h2><i>Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies.</i></h2> + + +<p>The <span class="smcap">British Association</span> met this year on the second of July, at +Ipswich. Among those present we notice the names of Prince Albert, the +Prince of Canino, the Duke of Argyle, the Earl of Rosse, the Earl of +Enniskillen, the Earl of Sheffield, Lord Monteagle, Lord +Londesborough, Lord Stradbroke, Lord Rendlesham, Lord Abercorn, Lord +Alfred Paget, Lord Wrottesley, the Bishop of Oxford, Sir Charles +Lemon, Sir Roderick Murchison, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Henry de la +Beche, Sir Edward Cust, Sir William Jardine, Sir William Middleton, +Sir W. J. Hooker, Sir J. T. Boileau, Professors Airy, Asa Gray, +Harvey, Sedgwick, Henslow, Owen, Sylvester, Forbes, Bell, Anstead, +Phillips, and Faraday, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Dr. Hooker, and many eminent +scientific men.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At a recent meeting of the <span class="smcap">Asiatic Society</span> in London, a report of the +Oriental Translation Committee mentioned the printing of the second +volume of the <i>Travels of Evliva Effendi</i>, of the fifth volume of +<i>Haji Khalfæ Lexicon</i>, and of the <i>Makamat</i> of Hariri. The Committee +had received from Col. Rawlinson the offer of a translation of the +valuable and rare geographical work of Yakút, which it accepted, and +is about to proceed with the printing of the third and concluding +volume of M. Garcin de Tassy's <i>Histoire de la Littérature Hindoui et +Hindoustani</i>, including a Memoir on Hindústani Songs, with numerous +translations. The Report concluded with noticing the presentation of +William the Fourth's gold medal to Prof. H. H. Wilson, in +acknowledgment of his services to Oriental literature generally, and +especially in testimony of the merits of his translation of the +<i>Vishnu Purana</i>.</p> + +<p>The annual Report of the Council gave some notice of the progress of +Babylonian and Assyrian decipherment as carried out by Colonel +Rawlinson, and now in the course of communication to the world by the +Society. The Babylonian version of the great Behistún inscription was +exhibited on the table; and, in allusion to it, the Report contained a +concise <i>résumé</i> of what had been done from the information of Colonel +Rawlinson himself, who is of opinion that the inscriptions read extend +over a period of 1,000 years—from <span class="smcap">b.c.</span> 2000 to 1000; that he has +ascertained the religion of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians to +have been strictly Astral or Sabæan; and as he finds among the gods +the names of Belus, Ninus and Semiramis, he thinks that the dynasties +given by the Greeks were, in fact, lists of mythological names. The +geography of Western Asia as it was 4,000 years ago appears to be +clearly made out. Col. Rawlinson finds a king of Cadytis, or +Jerusalem, named Kanun, a tributary of the king who built the palace +of Khursabad, warring with a Pharaoh of Egypt, and defeating his +armies on the south frontier of Palestine. The Meshec and Tubal of +Scripture were dwelling in North Syria, the Hittites held the centre +of the province, and the commercial cities of Tyre and Sidon and Gaza +and Acre flourished on the coasts. And so well does Colonel Rawlinson +find the geography made out, that he is of opinion he can identify +every province and city named in the inscriptions.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The last Bulletin of the <span class="smcap">Geographical Society</span> of Paris, opens with an +appeal to the governments of Europe and America, for the adoption of a +Common First Meridian. The author, M. Sedillor, is a high authority in +geographical science, and would trace an imaginary line in the midst +of the Ocean; designate it by some "systematic term," acceptable to +all, and bring, thus, Europe and the new world into a community of +views and interests apart from all national prejudices or pretension. +The appeal followed by a letter of M. Jomard on the same subject, and +another from the traveller Antony D'Abbadie, who prefers Mont Blanc, +or Jerusalem—"against which the Christians of America can have no +objection." Among the contents of the Bulletin, is a notice of Lieut. +Com. MacArthur's report, eighteenth December, 1850, to Professor +Bache, which has been translated entire for the <i>Hydrographical +Annals</i>, a periodical work. Mr. Squier's Observations on the Route of +the Proposed Canal across the Isthmus of Nicaragua, are also +translated. There is a paper of some compass, on the various projects +and undertakings for a communication between the Oceans and a like one +on the services rendered to geography by the French and British +missionaries. Those of the German and American, who have not been less +zealous, will be duly credited and recorded, when materials can be +obtained for the purpose.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At the meeting for the 22nd May, of the <span class="smcap">Royal Society of Literature</span>, +in London, a very interesting Greek MS. was exhibited. It is owned by +a Mr. Arden, who purchased it of an Arab near Thebes. It is nearly +four yards long, divided into pages or columns containing twenty-eight +lines, the length of which exceeds six inches, and the breadth two +inches; the whole is written in a large and clear hand, with great +accuracy, since few corrections or interpolations are visible. +Although it is difficult to assign to it the actual age, still there +seems to be every reason to conjecture that it is of the commencement +of the present era—or indeed, which is by no means improbable, that +it was written a century or two before the birth of Christ. The +delicacy of the texture of the papyrus will afford a strong +presumption in favor of the latter period; for it is well known to +Egyptologists that a coarseness and inferiority of papyrus indicate a +more recent date. The first portion of the MS. is much broken, and +presents many gaps and fragments; the end of it bears the title of an +Apology, or Defence of Lycophron. The second, or larger portion of the +MS., is much more perfect, as it contains only here and there an +hiatus, which will probably be easily restored; at its termination we +are informed that it is a Defence of the accusation of Euxenippus +against Polyeuctus. The author of these orations will, in all +likelihood, prove to be the great Athenian orator Hyperides, whose +works have been long lost. Indeed, this appears to be almost certain, +since some of the Greek lexicographers mention a speech of Hyperides +'for Lycophron,' and another 'against Polyeuctus concerning the +accusation.' But who Lycophron was, and what was the nature of the +defence for him, remain to be more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> amply detailed. The subject of +this second oration, however, appears to be known,—for Polyeuctus, +the Athenian orator, was accused, with Demosthenes, of receiving a +bribe from Harpalus. Moreover, the fragments of a papyrus MS. procured +a few years ago at Egyptian Thebes by Dr. Harris, lately ably edited +by Mr. Babington, at Cambridge, and proved to be parts of the oration +of Hyperides against Demosthenes, are so exceedingly similar, both in +handwriting and the papyrus, to the present MS. belonging to Mr. +Arden, that it is not improbable but that they may have been copied by +the same Greek scribe and may originally have formed one entire MS. +roll of the orations of Hyperides. A careful examination and +comparison of these interesting MSS. will, after a time, decide these +questions.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At a late sitting of the <i>Paris Academy of Medicine</i>, <span class="smcap">M. Orfila</span>, the +celebrated toxicologist, read a paper on <i>Nicotine</i>—the poison used +in the Bocarme murder. It is the essential principle of tobacco. +Virginia tobacco yields the largest proportion of <i>nicotine</i>; from +twenty pounds, were extracted four hundred <i>grammes</i> of the poison; a +gramme is equal to 15·444 grains troy. The Maryland leaf affords about +a third of that quantity. Nicotine is nearly as powerful and rapid as +prussic acid with the animal economy. Five or six drops applied to the +tongue of a dog, killed in ten minutes. The progress which medical +jurisconsults have made recently, is so great, that poisoning by +morphine, strychnine, prussic acid, and other vegetable substances, +hitherto regarded as inaccessible to our means of investigation, may +now be detected and recognized in the most incontestable manner. M. +Ortila, in closing his notice, says: "After these results of judicial +medical investigation, the public need be under no apprehension. No +doubt intelligent and clever criminals, with a view to thwart the +surgeons, will sometimes have recourse to very active poisons little +known by the mass, and difficult of detection, but science is on the +alert, and soon overcomes all difficulty; penetrating into the utmost +depths of our organs, it brings out the proof of the crime, and +furnishes one of the greatest pieces of evidence against the guilty."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the <span class="smcap">London Royal Institution</span>, May 23, M. Ebelman, of the Sèvres +works, near Paris, being present with various specimens of the +minerals which he has produced artificially,—Mr. Faraday stated the +process and results generally. The process consists in employing a +solvent, which shall first dissolve the mineral or its constituents; +and shall further, either on its removal or on a diminution of its +dissolving powers, permit the mineral to aggregate in a crystaline +condition. Such solvents are boracic acid, borax, phosphate of soda, +phosphoric acid, &c.:—the one chiefly employed by M. Ebelman is +boracic acid. By putting together certain proportions of alumina and +magnesia, with a little oxide of crome or other coloring matter, and +fused boracic acid into a fit vessel, and inclosing that in another, +so that the whole could be exposed to the high heat of a porcelain or +other furnace, the materials became dissolved in the boracic acid; and +then as the heat was continued the boracic acid evaporated, and the +fixed materials were found combined and crystallized, and presenting +new specimens of spinel. In this way crystals having the same form, +hardness, color, specific gravity, composition, and effect on light as +the true ruby, the cymophane, and other mineral bodies were prepared, +and were in fact identical with them. Chromates were made, the emerald +and corundum crystalized, the peridot formed, and many combinations as +yet unknown to mineralogists produced.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At a meeting of the <span class="smcap">Berlin Academy of Sciences</span>, held on May 31 last, +the venerable Alexander von Humboldt made an interesting communication +upon some observations of singular <i>movements of fixed stars</i>. It +seems that at Trieste, January 17, 1851, between 7 and 8 o'clock P.M., +before the rising of the moon, when the star Sirius was not far from +the horizon, it was seen to perform a remarkable series of eccentric +movements. It rose and sank, moved left and right, and sometimes +seemed to move in a curved line. The observers were Mr. Keune, a +student in the upper class of the gymnasium, and Mr. Thugutt, a +saddler, both certified to be reliable persons. The family of the +latter also beheld the phenomena, Mr. Keune, with his head leaned +immovably against a wall, saw Sirius rise in a right line above the +roof of a neighboring house, and immediately again sink out of sight +behind it, and then again appear. Its motions were so considerable +that for some time the beholders thought it was a lantern suspended by +a kite. It also varied in brilliancy, growing alternately brighter and +fainter, and now and then being for moments quite invisible, though +the sky was perfectly clear. As far as it is known, this phenomenon +has been remarked but twice before, once in 1799 from the Peak of +Teneriffe by Von Humboldt himself, and again nearly fifty years later, +by a well-informed and careful observer, Prince Adalbert, of Prussia.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"In the great Exhibition," the <i>Athenæum</i> says, "Daguerreotypes are +largely displayed by the French,—as might have been expected, that +country being proud of the discovery: but the examples exhibited by +the Americans surpass in general beauty of effect any which we have +examined from other countries. This has been attributed to difference +in the character of the solar light as modified by atmospheric +conditions; we are not, however, disposed to believe that to be the +case. We have certain indications that an increased intensity of light +is not of any advantage, but rather the contrary, for the production +of daguerreotypes; the luminous rays appearing to act as balancing +powers against the chemical rays. Now, this being the case, we know of +no physical cause by which the superiority can be explained,—and we +are quite disposed to be sufficiently honest to admit that the mode of +manipulation has more to do with the result than any atmospheric +influences. However this may be, the character of the daguerreotypes +executed in America is very remarkable. There are a fulness of tone +and an artistic modulation of light and shadow which in England we do +not obtain. The striking contrasts of white and black are shown +decidedly enough in the British examples exhibited in the +gallery,—but here there are coldness and hardness of outline. Within +the shadow of the eagle and the striped banner we find no lights too +white and no shadows too dark: they dissolve, as in Nature, one into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +the other in the most harmonious and truthful manner,—and the result +is, more perfect pictures. The Hyalotypes or glass pictures are of a +remarkable character. They are but a modification of the processes of +Mr. Talbot and of M. Evrard as applied to glass; but the idea of +copying Nature on this material,—and, having obtained a fixed picture +of the shadowed image, of magnifying it by means of the magic lantern, +and thus producing a truthful representation of the original,—is +certainly due to the artist of Philadelphia. Many beautiful views of +the Smithsonian Institute, of the Custom-house at Philadelphia, and of +churches in several cities in the United States, show the minuteness +of the detail which can be obtained by the use of the albuminized +glass. Amongst the professed improvements Mr. Beard exhibits some +enamelled daguerreotypes, in which the permanence of the picture is +secured by a lacquer."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the <span class="smcap">Royal Geographical Society</span>, in London, the President, +regretting the undignified controversies respecting the rise and +course of the Nile which had taken place, unhesitatingly expressed his +conviction that no European traveller, from Bruce downwards, had yet +seen the source of the true White Nile. Concerning this, we may still +exclaim "<i>Ignotum, plus notus, Nile, per ortum.</i>"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Experiments with chloroform as a propelling power, in the place of +steam, are now making in the port of L'Orient; and there is reason to +hope, from the success which has already attended them, that they will +result in causing a considerable saving to be effected in cost and in +space.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Geological Society of France</span> will hold its annual meeting this +year at Dijon. The Congress will commence on the 14th of September.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><i>Recent Deaths.</i></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">General M. Arbuckle, U.S.A.</span>, died on the 11th of June, at Fort Smith. +He was about 75 years of age, and had been nearly fifty years in the +army, and twenty on the Arkansas frontier. At the time of his death, +he was commander of the 7th Military Department of the United States +Army, and had held that station for several years, and was peculiarly +calculated for the office, being thoroughly acquainted with the +Indians, and Indian character, he always had their confidence, and by +that means, kept up and maintained friendly relations with them on +behalf of the United States. The St. Louis <i>Republican</i> remarks that, +"as a man, Gen. <span class="smcap">Arbuckle</span> was honest and humane, loved and respected by +every person with whom he had intercourse. No one pursued a more +straight-forward course in all transactions. He was strictly +economical in expenditures for the Government. His whole mind was +engrossed with the present expedition of the 5th Infantry to the +Brazos, and on the frontier of Texas, and he gave orders and +directions for conducting, it as long as he was able to converse."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Chevalier Parisot de Guymont</span>, who belonged to the family of +Lavalette, the illustrious Grand Master of the Order of Malta, of +which the chevalier was one of the few surviving knights, has just +died in the convent of St. Jean de Catane, in Sicily, to which the +directing chapter of that celebrated order had retired. He +distinguished himself in the expedition which the last grand master +sent against Algiers towards the end of the eighteenth century; and +General Bonaparte, when he took possession of Malta, demanded to see +M. de Guymont, and received him with marked distinction. He was in the +seventy-seventh year of his age.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir J. Graham Dalzell, Bart.</span>, died on the seventeenth of June in +Edinburgh, aged seventy-seven years. He was president of the Society +for promoting Useful Arts in Scotland, vice-president of the African +institute of Paris, and author of several works on science and +history, and of various articles in the 'Encyclopædia Britannica.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The widow of <span class="smcap">Thomas Sheridan</span>, died in London on the ninth of June. She +was the author of <i>Carwell</i>, a very striking story illustrating the +inequalities of punishment in the laws against forgery. In a later +novel, <i>Aims and Ends</i>, the same feminine and truthful spirit showed +itself in lighter scenes of social life, observing keenly, and +satirizing kindly. Mrs. Sheridan wrote always with ease, +unaffectedness, and good-breeding, her books every where giving +evidence of the place she might have taken in society if she had not +rather desired to refrain from mingling with it, and keep herself +comparatively unknown. After her husband's early death she had devoted +herself in retirement to the education of her orphan children; when +she re-appeared in society it seemed to be solely for the sake of her +daughters, on whose marriages she again withdrew from it; and to none +of her writings did she ever attach her name. Into the private sphere +where her virtues freely displayed themselves, and her patient yet +energetic life was spent, it is not permitted us to enter; but we +could not pass without this brief record what we know to have been a +life as much marked by earnestness, energy, and self-sacrifice, as by +those qualities of wit and genius which are for ever associated with +the name of Sheridan. Three daughters survive her, and one son—Lady +Dufferin, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lady Seymour, and Mr. Brinsley +Sheridan, the member of Parliament for Shaftesbury.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>From Stockholm we hear of the death of Mr. <span class="smcap">Andre Carlsson</span>, Bishop of +Calmar, and author of numerous and important works on philology, +theology and jurisprudence. He occupied at one time the chair of Greek +language and literature at the University of Lund, and was, say the +Swedish papers, in his place in the Diet, a champion of religious +liberty and parliamentary reform. He has died at the great age of 94.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Poland has lost a writer of distinction, chiefly on geographical +subjects, in the person of Count <span class="smcap">Stanislaus Plater</span>. He had long been +eminent both in society and in literature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">General James Miller</span> died in Temple, New-Hampshire, on the 7th of +July, of paralysis, aged 76 years. He was born in Peterboro, N. H., +and bred to the profession of the law. In 1810 he entered the Army, +and served with distinction throughout the last war with Great +Britain. He rose rapidly from the rank of captain to that of major +general. He was present at Tippecanoe, under Gen. Harrison, but was +prevented by sickness from taking part in the battle. He rendered +eminent services in the battles of Chippeway, Bridgewater, and Lundy's +Lane, making himself conspicuous by his courageous and intrepid +conduct. It was at the last named battle that he is said to have +uttered the renowned declaration, "I'll try, sir," when asked if he +could storm an important and nearly impregnable position of the enemy. +Gen. Miller was subsequently made Governor of the Territory of +Arkansas. Afterwards he was collector of the port of Salem, which post +he resigned in 1840. He is the "old soldier collector" referred to in +the introduction to Hawthorne's <i>Scarlet Letter</i>.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The celebrated Polish General <span class="smcap">Uminski</span> died at Wiesbaden on the 16th of +June. He was one of the most prominent actors in the last Polish +Revolution, but for several years had lived in great retirement at +Wiesbaden. He was born in the year 1780, in the Grand Duchy of Posen. +As early as 1794 he commenced his military career, as a volunteer +under Kosciusko. When the Poles were summoned to new efforts for +freedom by Dombrowski, in 1806, Uminski was among the first to take up +arms. He formed a Polish Guard of Honor for Napoleon, fought at +Dantzick, received a wound at Dirschau, where he was taken prisoner +and sentenced to death by a Prussian Court Martial. His sentence was +not executed, however, as Napoleon threatened reprisals. In the war +against Austria he commanded Dombrowski's advanced guard, was made +Colonel, and formed the 10th. hussar-regiment, which signalized itself +at Masaisk, in 1812, and at whose head he was the first to enter +Moscow. In the retreat, he saved the life of Poniatowski. At the +battle of Leipsic, where he acted as Brigadier General, he was again +wounded and taken prisoner. After the dissolution of the national army +of Poland, he entered into the Polish-Russian service but soon +obtained his discharge, and lived in retirement in Posen, though +without intermitting his efforts for the freedom of Poland. In the +year 1821 he helped to found a patriotic union, was arrested after +accession of Nicholas I, and in the year 1826 sentenced to six years' +imprisonment in the fortress of Glogau. Escaping from this in 1831, he +went to Warsaw, and took part as a common soldier in the battle of +Wawre. The next day he was made General of Division. On the 25th of +February he beat Diebitsch at Grodno, and distinguished himself in +several other battles. Outlawed and hung in effigy at Kosen, he found +an asylum in France. The remainder of his subsequent life he passed in +Wiesbaden. Uminski was also known as a writer on military affairs. +Those who knew him in the latter years of his exile, are loud in their +praises of the sweetness, benevolence, and dignity of his character. +He will be remembered for his devotion to Polish liberty, and the +people, who in future times shall struggle for the same boon, will +gain new encouragement from his glorious example.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Viscount Melville</span> died on the tenth of June. He was in his eightieth +year, having been born in 1771. In 1809, he (then the Right Honorable +Robert Dundas), was President of the Board of Trade under the Perceval +administration. He succeeded his father in 1811, and, in 1812, when +Lord Liverpool assumed the reins, he became first Lord of the +Admiralty, which office he held during that long administration which +ceased in April, 1827, by the death of the Premier. Mr. Canning having +been called to power, Lord Melville retired with the majority of his +former colleagues, which caused some surprise at the time, as he was +favorable to the claims of the Catholics, which was understood to +constitute the bond of the new administration. The Canning +administration had a brief career, and that of Lord Goderich, the +present Earl of Ripon, which attempted to carry on affairs after the +death of Canning, was still more brief. On the Duke of Wellington +becoming Prime Minister, early in 1822, Lord Melville resumed his +former office, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and continued until +the breaking up of the Tory Administration, and the advent of the +Reform Ministry of Earl Grey, in November, 1830. He then ended his +official career, but for several years attended occasionally in the +House of Lords, but he chiefly resided at the family seat.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Dyce Sombre</span> died in London, July 1. His history is very generally +known. He was understood to be the son of a German adventurer in +India, of the name of Summer, who espoused the late Begum Oomroo. All +manner of wild and scandalous stories are afloat as to the life of +this woman and the death of her husband. After her death, Mr. Dyce +Sombre came to Europe, and first made himself remarkable, in Italy, by +the extraordinary black marble monument which he caused to be executed +and sent to India in memory of his benefactress. His arrival in +England, with a reputation of almost fabulous wealth, attracted much +notice. He became one of the fêted lions of the season, and ultimately +married, in 1840, Mary Anne, daughter of the Earl St. Vincent. A +separation soon took place, and the legal proceedings consequent on +this ill-starred marriage, followed by those adopted for the purpose +of establishing Mr. Dyce Sombre's lunacy—were long matters of public +talk and universal notoriety. His attempt to enter public life was +seconded by the "worthy and enlightened" electors of Sudbury, who sent +him to Parliament, from whence he was speedily ejected on +petition—the borough being soon afterwards disfranchised. For the +last few years Mr. Sombre has resided on the Continent, to escape the +effects of the decision of the Court of Chancery in his case—a +decision against which he had come over to petition when he was seized +with his fatal illness. In consequence of his death in a state of +lunacy, his money in the funds, railway shares, and other property, of +the annual value of £11,000, will become divisible between Captain +Troup and General Soldoli, the husbands of his two sisters, who are +next of kin. An additional sum, producing £4,000 a year, will also +fall to their families on the death of Mrs. Dyce Sombre.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bishop Medano</span>, of Buenos Ayres, died in the second week of April. He +was 83 years old.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <span class="smcap">Earl of Shaftesbury</span>, one of the most notable of the members of the +House of Lords, died at his country residence in Dorsetshire, on the +2d of June, aged eighty-four years. Though neither an orator nor a +statesman, he was one of the most remarkable personages of the age in +which he lived. His position as a public servant was quite peculiar; +and his character, though it could not be called eccentric, had little +in common with the world around him. <span class="smcap">Croply Ashley Cooper</span>, was the +second son of the fourth Lord Shaftesbury. That Lord Shaftesbury who +became Chancellor in the reign of Charles II. was the first peer in +the Cooper family, and under the title of Lord Ashley was a member of +the Cabinet well known by the name of "the Cabal" To him we are +indebted for the Habeas Corpus Act, at least for being its chief +promoter; and he is likewise entitled to the gratitude of posterity +for having introduced a measure to render the Judges independent of +the crown. The third Earl—grandson of the first—was the celebrated +author of the <i>Characteristics</i>. The fourth was his son; the fifth and +sixth Earls were his grandsons; the former of these dying without male +issue in 1811, the earldom devolved on the deceased, who was born in +London on the 21st of December, 1768. From Winchester, where he was +contemporaneous with Sidney Smith, and Archbishop Howley, he in due +course went to Christchurch, where he passed his time as most young +men of rank do at college, and graduated with quite as much credit as +was then usually attained by the son of an Earl; after which he made +those excursions on the continent of Europe that our ancestors were +accustomed to call "the grand tour;" and all these operations he +brought to a close before he had completed his twenty-second year. His +next step was to get into Parliament, and a seat in the House of +Commons was obtained for him in the usual way by family influence, +Dorchester having had the advantage of calling him its member from the +thirtieth of January, 1790, for a period exceeding twenty-one years. +This was pretty good experience in the more active branch of the +Legislature, though the body that elected him was of that small and +quiet order of constituencies that do not greatly overburden their +members with the labors of representation. Mr. Cropley Ashley Cooper +had, therefore, had a long apprenticeship to political life, when, by +the death of his elder brother, on the fourteenth of May, 1811, he +succeeded to the peerage as sixth Earl of Shaftesbury.</p> + +<p>The Earl was nearly forty years of age when, upon the death of Fox, +the Tories recovered their long possession of office, and among their +good deeds may be reckoned their appointment of Lord Shaftesbury, then +Mr. Cooper, to the office of Clerk of the Ordnance. To the duties of +his department he applied himself with marvellous zeal, and it was +always his own opinion that he there first acquired those habits of +industry and method which rendered him one of the most efficient +members of the Upper House. When, on the death of his elder brother, +he reached the dignity of the peerage, he thought it necessary to +resign the clerkship of the Ordnance, though his private fortune was +scarcely sufficient for a man encumbered with an earldom and a large +family. He took his seat as a peer in June, 1811, and it was not until +November, 1814, that he became permanently the Chairman of Committees; +the duties of which place were well done for nearly forty years by +"old" Lord Shaftesbury, who was never old when business pressed. +Strong common sense, knowledge of the statute law, and above all, +uncompromising impartiality, made him an autocrat in his department. +When once he heard a case, and deliberately pronounced judgment, +submission almost invariably followed. A man of the largest experience +as a Parliamentary agent has been heard to say that he remembered only +one case in which the House reversed a decision of Lord Shaftesbury; +and on that occasion it became necessary to prevail on the Duke of +Wellington to speak in order to overcome the "old Earl." It would not +be easy to cite many instances of men who have taken as active part in +the business of a deliberative assembly after the age of 75; but the +labors of Lord Shaftesbury were continued beyond that of fourscore. To +all outward seeming he was nearly as efficient at one period of his +life as at another. By the time he had reached the age of +fifty,—which was about half-way through the fifteen years that Lord +Liverpool's Ministry held the government,—Lord Shaftesbury's +knowledge of his duties as chairman to the Lords was complete, and +then he appeared to settle down in life with the air, the habits, the +modes of thought and action, natural to old age. Although there are +few men now alive whose experience would enable them to contrast his +performance of official duties with the manner in which they were +discharged by his predecessor, yet, even in the absence of any thing +like <i>data</i>, there seems to be a general impression that the House of +Lords never could have had a more efficient chairman. He was certainly +a man of undignified presence, of indistinct and hurried speech, of +hasty and brusque manner, the last person whom a superficial observer +would think of placing in the chair of the greatest senate that the +world has ever seen; yet it cannot be said that their lordships were +ever wrong in their repeated elections of Lord Shaftesbury; for in the +formal business of committees he rarely allowed them to make a +mistake, while he was prompt as well as safe in devising the most +convenient mode of carrying any principle into practical effect. He +was no theorist; there was nothing of the speculative philosopher in +the constitution of his mind; and he therefore readily gained credit +for being what he really was, an excellent man of business. It is well +known that the Lords, sitting in committee, are less prone to run riot +than the other House; still it required no small ability to keep them +always in the right path, as was the happy practice of Lord +Shaftesbury. In dealing with minute distinctions and mere verbal +emendations, a deliberative assembly occasionally loses its way, and +members sometimes ask, "What is it we are about?" This was a question +which Lord Shaftesbury usually answered with great promptitude and +perspicuity, rarely failing to put the questions before their +Lordships in an unmistakable form. Another valuable quality of Lord +Shaftesbury as a chairman consisted in his impatience of prosy, +unprofitable talk, of which, doubtless, there is comparatively little +in the Upper House; but even that little he labored to make less by +occasionally reviving attention to the exact points at issue, and +sometimes, by an excusable manœuvre, shutting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> out opportunity for +useless discussion. When he sat on the woolsack as speaker, in the +absence of the Lord Chancellor, he deported himself after the manner +of Chancellors; but when he got into his proper element at the table +of the house, nothing could be more rapid than his evolutions; no +hesitation, no dubiety, nor would he allow any one else to pause or +doubt. Often has he been heard to say, in no very gentle tones, "Give +me in that clause <i>now</i>;"—"That's enough;"—"It will do very well as +it is;"—"If you have anything further to propose, move at +once;"—"Get through the bill now, and bring up that on the third +reading." He always made their Lordships feel that, come what might, +it was their duty to "get through the bill;" and so expeditious was +the old Earl, that he would get out of the chair, bring up his report, +and move the House into another committee in the short time that +sufficed for the Chancellor to transfer himself from the woolsack to +the Treasury bench and back again.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Thomas Wright Hill</span>, eminent in England for some of the most +important improvements that have been made in the means of education +during this century, died on the 9th of June, at the age of +eighty-eight. Hazelwood School, near Birmingham, established by Mr. +Hill, was the most successful, as it was the first large experiment as +to the practicability of governing boys by other principles than that +of terror, of extending the range of scholastic acquirements beyond a +superficial knowledge of the learned languages, and of making the +acquisition of sound knowledge not only a duty but a delight. The +views of Mr. Hill were set forth in <i>Plans for the Government and +Liberal Instruction of Boys in large numbers, drawn from Experience</i>, +first published in 1823; and a very elaborate paper in the <i>Edinburgh +Review</i> of Jan. 1825, brought the system into general notice.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The <i>London Builder</i> contains a brief notice of <span class="smcap">Melchior Boisserée</span>, +brother to Sulpize Boisserée, whose death is much regretted throughout +Germany. It was so far back as the year 1804, that three young men, +citizens of Cologne, conceived the idea of collecting and +resuscitating the mediæval art-relics of the Rhine-lands. But what +was, probably, but contemplated as a provincial undertaking, soon +attracted the eyes of Europe, and became a great fact of modern +art-history. When, about 1808, Sulpize Boisserée determined to devote +himself entirely to the work on the Cologne Cathedral, Melchior and +his brother Bertram continued the research and collection of ancient +paintings. But already in 1810, the old pictures had outgrown the +scanty spaces appropriable to them at Cologne. They were transferred +first to Heidelberg, and in 1819 the three brothers migrated with them +to Stuttgardt, where the king afforded room to this unique gathering +of mediæval art. It was Melchior who chiefly attended to the +restoration of the pictures, and enriched the collection during his +travels in the Netherlands, in 1812 and 1813. Having found some of the +pictures of Hemling and Memling, it was he who first attracted notice +to these excellent, hitherto hardly known artists. In 1827 the +collection was sold to Ludwig of Bavaria, and as the Pinakotheka +(where they were to be placed) was not ready, the pictures were +conveyed to Schleissheim. In this retirement, Melchior Boisserée +devoted his whole attention to the art of glass painting, which at +that time was nigh considered as lost. If now such great things are +accomplished at Munich in this department of Art, it was Melchior +(conjointly with his brother Bertram) who paved the way by this +collection of old specimens, seen with astonishment by travellers from +the whole of Europe. When Bertram had died (about 1830), Melchior +joined his brother Sulpize at Bonn, where Melchior, in the prosecution +of his favored Art-studies, concluded his life in serene quiet and +contentment.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the death of <span class="smcap">Christian Tieck</span>, German sculpture has lost one of its +most illustrious ornaments, a man of rare intelligence, of long +experience, and of profound artistic cultivation. He was born in +Berlin, on the 14th of August, 1776, and early destined for a +sculptor. The poetic genius and rare qualities of his brother Lewis +Tieck, the poet, his elder by three years, and the graceful artistic +and literary accomplishments of a sister, afterward the Baroness +Knooring, inspired the young sculptor with the warmest interest in the +then young and hopeful German literature and art. This taste he never +lost. Perhaps no artist, so distinguished as an artist, was ever so +devoted to various study, to the last moment of his life.</p> + +<p>In 1797, he went to Paris as Royal Pensioner, and although a sculptor, +entered David's studio, and in the year 1800 took the prize for +sculpture. In 1801 he returned to Berlin, and his distinguished talent +was acknowledged. Goethe immediately summoned him to Weimar, and +employed him in the adorning of the Ducal palace, and in the moulding +of a series of busts. Of this latter an idealized head of Goethe and +of the philologist Frederic August Wolf, are the best. The young Tieck +continued in the closest correspondence with his brother, who was then +pursuing his poetical studies at Jena and Dresden, and they went with +Rumohr to Italy, in the year 1805, and there by his beautiful busts, +won the friendship of William Von Humboldt, a man of the most delicate +and accurate artistic taste, as well as of the noblest character and +intellectual ability. Madame de Staël invited Tieck to execute +sculptures at Coppet, for the Neckar family, and in 1809 the Prince +Royal of Bavaria, Louis, selected Tieck to mould the busts for the +projected Walhalla. He did them, and in 1812 passed into Switzerland. +He lived in Zurich, where Rauch was then engaged upon his noble work, +the reclining statue of Queen Louisa, now at Charlottenburg, and a +warm friendship was formed between the sculptors. In 1819 he returned +to Berlin, was elected into the Senate of the Academy, and appointed +Professor by the Grand Duke of Weimar. He then quietly devoted himself +to his art, and Berlin is beautiful with Tieck's sculptures. Named, in +1830 director of the Gallery of Sculpture, he did not relax his +artistic activity, and after a long illness he died gently in the +spring of his year, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.</p> + +<p>His elder brother Lewis, the most deservedly famous of the living +illustrations of German literature, the only worthy translator of +Shakspeare, the most genial friend, the most single-hearted of poets, +whom the King honors and who loved Novalis—now seventy-eight years +old, awaits in continued and patiently endured illness the gentle +guiding of death to his best friend and brother.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> +<h2><i>Ladies' Summer Fashions.</i></h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 455px;"> +<img src="images/i153.jpg" width="455" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + + +<p>The strong and superb stuffs of winter are quite superseded by ball +dresses, at the various watering places. The <i>élégantes</i> seek +<i>toilettes</i> which, without being rich, are remarkable for lightness +and tasteful patterns. We commend a white mousseline dress, with three +flounces, simply hemmed; a long sash of ribbon of colored taffeta; +natural flowers in the hair and on the front of the dress; a dress of +colored taffeta, white or straw ground, or blue or pink ground; these +stuffs are striped, or running and small patterns, or great branches +with detached bouquets. Barèges are also much worn, with white ground +sprinkled with little rose-buds; silk barège, with wreaths of flowers, +are newer. The shape of the bodies of evening dresses has not +undergone much change. <i>Berthes</i> are still worn, forming a point in +front, only varying in the disposition of the ornaments, interspersed +with small ribbons or lace and mousseline. Natural flowers will be +worn for headdresses and bouquets. Walking dresses are much in vogue +of barèges and mousseline, the body skirted, open in front, and lower +down than in winter. We must mention a new dress, named <i>Albanaise</i>, +made of barège. It is of several shades, but the most <i>recherché</i> are +<i>gris poussière</i>, or dust gray. Five dull silk stripes begin from the +bottom of the dress; then an intervening space and four other stripes; +another space and, to finish, three more stripes ending right in the +belt, always diminishing in size. We have also seen a jaconet dress, +embroidered <i>à l'Anglaise</i> as an apron to the waist; the body +embroidered at the edge flat, as well as in the skirts and sleeves; +and three knots of blue taffeta fastened the bodice. For the country, +dresses of Chinese nankeen and Persian jaconet are worn; and to +protect from the sun, a kind of hood, of similar stuff. There are a +great many black lace <i>schales</i>, embroidered muslins, printed barège, +square or long, with cashmere patterns.</p> + +<p>The scarf <i>mantelet</i> is also much in fashion, and the article which +permits of the most frequent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> change; a point scarcely perceptible in +the middle of the back makes it still more graceful. It is made in all +shades, but the most <i>comme-il-faut</i> are black; it is more suitable, +and sets off the freshness of the dress. It is trimmed with lace, +fringe, or net, covered with small velvet dots. We have seen some +quite covered with common embroidery; others embroidered with +arabesques intermingled with braid and silk, and black jet.</p> + +<p>For the seaside there are also worn many <i>mantelets</i>, which remind us +of the winter by their shape; but the materials are somewhat lighter, +chiefly of thin summer cloth, or felt of gray shades.</p> + +<p>The <i>Promenade Dress</i>, on the preceding page, is of a rich plain +chocolate-colored silk, made perfectly simple. Pardessus of a +damson-colored brocaded silk, the lower part of which, as well as the +large sleeves, being decorated with a magnificent double fringe, the +under and deepest being of black, and the upper composed of long silk +tassels, put at equal distances. Leghorn bonnet, trimmed with pink +silk, cut the width of a broad ribbon, and pinked at the edge; the +interior having a fulling of the pink silk encircling the face, with +brides to match.</p> + +<p>Coarse straw <i>chapeaux</i>, though principally intended for the country, +are employed, though not much, for morning <i>neglige</i>, in town, and +will be very much in request for the watering-places; they are of the +<i>capote</i> form, in open-work, and lined with taffeta, of one of the +colors of the ribbon that trims them. The ribbon is always plaided, +and the most fashionable has a great variety of colors; the knots are +large, and formed of several <i>coques</i>, divided in the middle by a +torsade of ribbons; some are decorated with ribbons only, but small +flowers and foliage may be employed to trim the interior of the brim. +Fancy <i>chapeaux</i> are composed of bands of <i>paille dentelle</i>, +alternating with rose-colored taffeta <i>biais</i>, &c. Rice straw is also +employed a good deal for fancy <i>chapeaux</i> that are formed of more than +one material.</p> + +<p>The following figures are copied from Parisian fashion plates for +1811. The shortness of the frocks should certainly satisfy the most +extreme innovators of the present time.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 472px;"> +<img src="images/i154.jpg" width="472" height="500" alt="LADIES' FASHIONS IN PARIS FORTY YEARS AGO." title="" /> +<span class="caption">LADIES' FASHIONS IN PARIS FORTY YEARS AGO.</span> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 4, +No. 1, August, 1851, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 36124-h.htm or 36124-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/2/36124/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The International Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, August, 1851 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: May 16, 2011 [EBook #36124] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + + + + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + + + + + + + +THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE + +Of Literature, Science, and Art. + + +VOLUME IV + +AUGUST TO DECEMBER, 1851. + +NEW-YORK: +STRINGER & TOWNSEND, 222 BROADWAY. +FOR SALE BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. +BY THE NUMBER, 25 CTS.; THE VOLUME, $1; THE YEAR, $3. + +Transcriber's note: Contents for entire volume 4 in this text. However +this text contains only issue Vol. 4, No. 1. Minor typos have been +corrected and footnotes moved to the end of the article. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE FOURTH VOLUME. + + +The conclusion of the Fourth Volume of a periodical may be accepted as +a sign of its permanent establishment. The proprietors of the +INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE have the satisfaction of believing that, while +there has been a steady increase of sales, ever since the publication +of the first number of this work, there has likewise been as regular +an augmentation of its interest, value, and adaptation to the wants of +the reading portion of our community. While essentially an Eclectic, +relying very much for success on a reproduction of judiciously +selected and fairly acknowledged Foreign Literature, it has contained +from month to month such an amount of New Articles as justified its +claim to consideration as an Original Miscellany. And in choosing from +European publications, articles to reprint or to translate for these +pages, care has been taken not only to avoid that vein of +licentiousness in morals, and skepticism in religion, which in so +lamentable a degree characterize a large portion of the popular +literature of this age, but also to extract from foreign periodicals +that American element with which the rising importance of our country +has caused so many of them to be infused; so that, notwithstanding the +fact that more than half the contents of the INTERNATIONAL are from +the minds of Europeans, the Magazine is essentially more _American_ +than any other now published. + +For the future, the publishers have made arrangements that will insure +very decided and desirable improvements, which will be more fully +disclosed in the first number of the ensuing volume; eminent original +writers will be added to our list of contributors; from Germany, +France, and Great Britain, we have increased our literary resources; +and more attention will be given to the pictorial illustration of such +subjects as may be advantageously treated in engravings. Among those +authors whose contributions have appeared in the INTERNATIONAL +hitherto, we may mention: + +MISS FENIMORE COOPER, +MISS ALICE CAREY, +MRS. E. OAKES SMITH, +MRS. M. E. HEWITT, +MRS. ALICE B. NEAL, +BISHOP SPENCER, +HENRY AUSTIN LAYARD, +PARKE GODWIN, +JOHN R. THOMPSON, +W. C. RICHARDS, +W. GILMORE SIMMS, +BAYARD TAYLOR, +ROBERT HENRY STODDARD, +ALFRED B. STREET, +THOMAS EWBANK, +E. W. ELLSWORTH, +G. P. R. JAMES, +DR. JOHN W. FRANCIS, +MAUNSELL B. FIELD, +DR. STARBUCK MAYO, +JOHN E. WARREN, +A. OAKEY HALL, +HORACE GREELEY, +RICHARD B. KIMBALL, +THE AUTHOR OF "NILE NOTES," +THE AUTHOR OF "HARRY FRANCO." +REV. J. C. RICHMOND, +REV. H. W. PARKER, +JAMES T. FIELDS, +R. S. CHILTON. + +The foreign writers, from whom we have selected, need not be +enumerated; they embrace the principal living masters of literary art; +and we shall continue to avail ourselves of their new productions as +largely as justice to them and the advantage and pleasure of our +readers may seem to justify. + +NEW-YORK, December 1, 1851. + + + + +CONTENTS: + +VOLUME IV. AUGUST TO DECEMBER, 1851. + + +Alred.--_By Elmina W. Carey_, 27 + +Alexander, Last days of the Emperor.--_A. Dumas_, 233 + +America, as Abused by a German, 448 + +American Intercommunication, 461 + +American Literature, Studies of.--_Philarete Chasles_, 163 + +American and European Scenery Compared.--_By the late J. F. Cooper_, 625 + +Anacreon. Twentieth Ode of.--_By Mary E. Hewitt_, 20 + +Animal Magnetism. Christopher North on, 27 + +Ariadne.--_By William C. Bennett_, 315 + +Autumn Ballad, An.--_By W. A. Sutliffe_, 598 + +August Reverie.--_By A. Oakey Hall_, 477 + +Art Expression. 401 + +Arts among the Aztecs and Indians.--_By Thomas Ewbank._ (Ten +Engravings.) 307 + +_Arts, the Fine._--Monuments to Public Men in Europe and America, +130.--Mosaics for the Emperor of Russia, 130.--Tenarani, the Italian +Sculptor, 131.--Group by Herr Kiss, 131.--English and American +Portrait Painters, 131--Mr. Pyne's English Landscapes, 131.--Paintings +by British Officers in Canada, 131.--Ovation to Rauch at Berlin, +131.--Healy's Picture of Webster's Reply to Hayne, +131.--Newly-discovered Raphael, 131.--Daguerreotypes, 131.--Letter +from Hiram Powers, 279.--Monument to Wordsworth, 279.--Monument to +Weber, 279.--Works of Cornelius, 279.--Greenonga's Group for the +Capital, 279.--The Twelve Virgins of Raphael, 279.--Tributes by Greece +to her Benefactors, 279.--Paul Delaroche, 417.--Winterhalter, +417.--New Scriptures in the Crystal Palace, 417.--London Art-Union, +417.--American Art-Union. 417.--Powers's Eve, 417.--Leutze, 417.--The +London Art-Journal on the Engravings of the American Art-Union. +561.--The Philadelphia Art-Union, 561.--The Western Art-Union, +562.--Mr. Healy's Picture of Webster's Reply to Hayne, 562.--Mr. +Lentze's Washington Crossing the Delaware, 562--Illustrations of +Martin Luther, 562.--Lentze's Washington. 743.--Colossal Statue of +Washington at Munich, 703.--Kaulbach's Frescoes, 703.--Cadame's +Compositions of the Seasons, 703.--Portraits of Bishop White and +Daniel Webster, 703. + +_Authors and Books._--The Story of Talns, and the Sardonic Laughter, +by Merehlen, 122.--A German Treatise on Free Trade, 122.--Curious +Medical Works in Germany, 122.--Weiseler on the Theatre, +122.--Woodcuts of celebrated Masters, 123.--Recent German Poetry, +123.--Venedy's Schleswig-Holstein in 1850, 123.--Souvenirs of Early +Germans, 123.--Gutzkow, Reimer, and Gubitz. 123.--Mundi's Macchiavelli +and the Course of European Policy, 123.--New German Novels, +124.--Baner's Documents respecting the Monastery of Arnsburg, +121.--Mss. of Peter Schlemil, 124.--Professor O. L. B. Wohl's Poetic +and Prosaic Home Treasury, 124.--German opinion of Miss Weber, +124.--Professor Zahn at Pompeii, 124.--Barthohl's History of German +Cities, 124.--Cornell on Feurebach, 125.--New Book of the Planets by +Ernst, 125.--Waldmeister's Bridal Tour, 125.--German version of George +Copyway's Book, 125.--German Survey of American Institutions, +125.--Russian Literature, 125.--Jewish Professors in Austria, +125.--Dumas's new Works, 125.--Madame Reybaud, 125.--New Volume of +Thier's History of the Empire, 125.--Mignet's Life of Mary Queen of +Scots, 126.--Cormenin on the Revision of the Constitution, +126.--Literary Episodes in the East, by Marcellus, 126.--Victor Hugo. +126.--Madame Bocarme, 126.--Signatures to Articles in the French +Journals, 126.--Arago's loss of sight, 126.--George Sand to Dumas, +127.--Vacherot on the Philosophical School of Alexandria, 127.--Mss. +of Rousseau, 127.--Unpublished works of Balzac, 127.--M. Nisard, +127.--M. Gautier, 127.--Guizot's History of Representative Government, +127.--Mademoiselle de Belle Isle, 127.--Rev. T. W. Shelton, in +Sharpe's Magazine, 127.--Rev. Charles Kingsley, author of Alton Locke, +127.--Bowring's Translation of Schiller, 128.--New English Poems, +128.--New Novel by Warren, 128.--Judge Woodbury's Works, 128.--The +North American Review, 128--Life of Judge Story, 123.--Contributions +to the History of the West, by Lyman C. Draper, 129.--The Dublin +University Magazine on Streets Frontenac, 129.--Mrs. Southworth in +England. 129.--Return of Mrs. Mowatt, 129.--Miss Beecher's new Work on +the Writings of Women, 129.--Ludwig Feuerback, 268.--August Kopish on +the Monument to Frederic the Great, 269.--The _Janus_ Review, +269.--Franz Kugler on the Theatre, 269.--Von Muller's History of the +Swiss Confederation, 269.--Memoir of Bretschneider, 269.--Dr. Worth, +269.--Herr Christern's Book Store, 269.--German Periodicals, 270.--The +Hungarian Refugees in Turkey, 270.--The Youth of Thorwaldsen, +270.--Old and New Songs and Fables for Children, 270.--Convention of +Sclavic Scholars, 270.--German Translation of Milton's Areopagitica, +270.--Eccentricities of German Medical Literature, 271.--German Poems, +271.--Shakspeare in Sweden, 271.--Neander's Lectures, 271.--George +Sand and her Husband, 271.--New work by Comte, 271.--Lamartine's New +History, 271.--Michelet's _Legendes de la Democratie_, 272.--Guizot's +History of Representative Government, 272.--Prudhon's Idea of +Revolution, 272.--Miss Martineau and her Master, 272.--Rumored +Discoveries of Greek MSS, 272.--Bunsen on the supposed MS. of Origen, +272.--New English Poems, 272.--Herodotus and the Discoveries of +Nineveh, 273.--Sir James Stephen's History of France, 273.--J. S. +Buckingham, 273.--Mrs. Jamieson, 273.--New Books of Travels, 273.--Dr. +Wilkinson and Henry James, 273.--New Novels, 273.--New Books on the +Apocalypse, 274.--Finchman on Ship Building, 274.--The Grenville +Papers, 274.--Sir W. Parish on Buenos Ayres, 274.--Works of Bishop +Whately, 274.--Macaulay's New Volumes, 274.--Poems of Edith May, +274.--Ware's European Capitals, 274.--New Romance by Thomas H. Shreve, +274.--More about American Reviews, 275.--Poem on Woman, by J. W. +Ward, 275.--Novellettes of Musicians, 275.--Dr. Huntington's Alban, +276.--Simms's Poetical Works, 276.--Dr. Tyng and Bickersteth, +276.--Mr. Putnam's forthcoming Souvenir Books, 276.--Kitto's Biblical +Cyclopedia, 276.--Episodes of Insect Life, 276.--History of Oneida +County, 276.--Mrs. Nichols's Poem's, 276.--New Translations of the +Bible, 277.--Sale of Dr. Jarvis's Library, 277.--Ik Marvell's New +Work, 277.--Mr. Longfellow's New Poem, 277.--Books on the Mechanic +Arts, 278.--Dr. Wainwright's Work on Egypt, 278.--Mr. Jefferson's MSS. +Work on Grammar, 278.--Dr. Williams on the Lord's Prayer, 278.--Works +of John Adams, 278.--Publications of James Munroe, 278.--German +Magazines, 403.--German Poets, 403, 405.--Freilegrath, 403.--New +edition of Brockhaus' Lexicon, 403.--German View of Lamartine, +403.--Prutz in a Novel, 403.--Stahl on Paris, 404.--Kohler on Ancient +Cameos, &c., 404.--Children's Picture Books, 404.--Latin Life of +Zumpt, 404.--New work by Robert Remak, 405.--The German Element in +English Language, 405.--Count Blumberg on the Higher Classes, +405.--Auerbach's German Evenings, 405.--Gailhabaud's Monuments of +Architecture, 405.--A Life Spent in Studying Thrushes, 405.--Gust's +Bibliotheca Biographia Lutherana, 405.--New work on Monarchy, +405.--New German Works on the Middle Ages, 406.--Konig and Gelzer on +Luther, 406.--The Bible and the Almanac, 406.--Austrian Biographical +Dictionary, 406.--New Book by Hans Andersen, 406--Zeise, the Danish +Novelist, 407.--Poems of Tegner, 407.--Bohemian Songs, 407.--Italian +Histories of To-day, 407.--Bible Plays by Wiese, 408.--Colins on +Socialism, 408.--Memoirs by Captain Laconte, 408.--Villemarque's +Breton Poems, 408.--Perrymond _vs._ Thiers, 408.--The French Orators, +408.--Histories of the Reformation in France, 408.--M. Guizot, +409.--Jules Janin, 409.--Montbeillard on Spinoza, 409.--Punishment of +a Socialist Dramatist, 409.--Marriage of "Bon Gaultier," 409.--Visits +to De Quincy and Burns's Sister, 410.--The "Baroness Von Beck," +410.--Thackeray's New Novel, 410.--Literary Pensions in England, +410.--Tributes to James Montgomery, 410.--New editor of the +Westminster Review, 410.--New Lives of Mary, Queen of Scots, +411.--Publications of Moore & Co., of Cincinnati, 411.--Rivers of the +Bible, 411.--Mexican Documents collected by the Abbe Bourbourg, +412.--Mr. Schoolcraft and the Publishers, 412.--Mr. Simms's New +Tragedy, 412.--Dr. Albro's Life of Shepherd, the Puritan, 412.--New +Edition of Fielding, 413.--Theory of Human Progression, 413.--The Nile +Boat, 413.--Kitto's Bible Illustrations, 413.--Poore's Life of +Napoleon, 413.--Indications of the Creator, by George Taylor, +413.--Parkman's History of Pontiac, 413.--De Quiney's Works, +413.--Mrs. Judson, 413.--Hart's Female Prose Writers of America, +414.--Mrs. Lee's Memoirs of Buckminster, 415.--Rochefoucauld, +415.--Dr. Huntington and his Novels, Letters, and Life, 415.--New +Works in Press by the Harpers, 415.--By Redfield, do., 416.--New Work +by Dr. Boardman, 416.--Carl Immerman's Letters on the Theatre, +551.--Kohl's last book of Travels, 551.--L'Eco d'Italia, +551.--Narcissa Zwichowska, 551.--Baron Baerst on Cooking, +551.--Brinckle's-Butterfly Book, 552.--Stein's History of the Social +Movement in France, 552.--Dr. Schleiden's Work on Animalculae, +552.--History of Education, by Kranse, 552.--Handbook of Catholic +Pulpit Eloquence, 552.--Popular Songs of Southern Russia, +552.--Hogarth's Works in Germany, 552.--Dr. Andree's Work on America, +553.--Studies of German Lore, 553.--Hase's New Prophets, +553.--Wanderings in Slavonia, 553.--A reply to the Countess +Hahn-Hahn's last book, 554.--A Review of Lamartine's Parasite History, +554.--Humboldt's Kosmos, 554.--History of Polish Literature, +554.--Russian Archaeology, 554.--Siegfried Weiss on German Trade +Policy, 554.--Periodicals in Asia, 554.--German Translation of +Hawthorne, 554.--The German Universities, 555.--New German Poems, +555.--Literary Statistics of Poland, 555.--Work on Russia by +Tegoborski, 555.--Ritter's History of Philosophy, 555.--De Flotte on +the Sovereignty of the People, 555.--Nineveh, 555.--New Series of +Eugene Sue's Mysteries of the People, 556.--Second Part of Michelet's +History of the French Revolution, 556.--Julian's History of Porcelain +Manufacture, 556.--Felix de Verneihl on the Cologne Cathedral, +556.--Andre Cochat on French Workingmen's Associations, 556.--New +edition of George Sand's Works, 556.--Letter from Alexander Dumas, +556.--Alfred de Musset, 557.--Translations of Comte's Philosophy, +557.--Jules Janin's new Romance, 557.--Ferdinand Hiller, 557.--James +T. Fields, 557.--New Histories of the Mexican War, 557.--Horace Mann +on the Sphere of Woman, 557.--General Morris not guilty of Plagiarism, +558.--Torrey's Translation of Neander, 558.--Translations of Dante, +559.--Alice Carey's Recollections of Our Neighborhood in the West, +559.--Modern Miracles, by Henry Ingalls, 559.--New Novel by Mr. James +and Mr. Field, 559.--History of the German Reformed Church, +559.--Professor Hackett's Commentary on the Acts, 559.--The Whale, by +Herman Melville, 559.--Mr. Herbert's work on Ancient Battles, &c., +560.--Glances at Europe, by H. Greeley, 560.--Hungary and Kossuth, +560.--Richard B. Kimball, 560.--Mr. Judd's Margaret, 560.--Pendant to +Professor Creasy's _Decisive Battles of the World_, +693.--Correspondence respecting the Thirty Years' War, 693.--German +collection of English Songs, 693.--German Philologists, 693.--Weil's +History of the Califs, 693.--The Germans in Bohemia, 693.--Andree's +Work on America, 694.--Works on Spinoza, 694.--New Goethean +Literature, 694.--The British Empire in Europe, by Meidinger, +694.--The Play of the Resurrection, 694.--German History of French +Literature, 694.--New work on German Knighthood, &c., 694.--German +Romanee in the 18th Century, 695.--Madame Blaze de Bury's New Novel, +695.--Richter's History of the Evangelical German Churches, +695.--German Life of Sir Robert Peel, 695.--Zimmermann on the English +Revolution, 695.--History of Norway, 695.--Reguly, the Hungarian +Traveller, 695.--Political Notabililities of Hungary, 695.--Speeches, +&c., by King William of Prussia, 695.--Pictures from the North, +695.--History of the Swiss Confederation, 695.--Bem's System of +Chronology, by Miss Peabody, 695.--French Almanacs, 695.--M. +Croce-Spinelli's Work on Popular Government, 696.--Works by the Paris +Asiatic Society, 696.--Caesar Daly on Parisian Architecture, +696.--Fignier's Modern Discoveries, 696.--The _Annuaire des Deux +Mondes_, 696.--Calvin's Inedited Letters, 697.--Lacretelle, +697.--Critical Studies of Socialism, 697.--Memoirs of Mademoiselle +Mars, 697.--The Institute of France, 697.--Grille on the War in La +Vendee, 697.--History of the Bourgeoisie of Paris, 697.--_Archives des +Missions Scientifiques_, &c., 697.--Travels in Africa, 698.--Spirit of +New Roman Catholic Literature, 698.--Garcin de Tassy on Mr. +Salisbury's Unpublished Arabic Documents, 699.--New Travels in +Palestine, 698.--The Abaddie Travellers, 699.--French, English, and +American Missionaries, as Scholars, 699.--The Westminster Review, +699.--A Grandson of Robert Burns, 699.--Friends in Council, &c., by +Mr. Helps, 699.--New English Announcements, 700.--New Dissenters' +College, 700.--Sir Charles Lyell and the "Free Thinkers," 700.--Prof. +Wilson, 700.--Miss Kirkland's Evening Book, 700.--Works by Mrs. Lee, +701.--Mr. Boyd's edition of Young's Night Thoughts, 702.--"Injustice +to the South," 702.--Splendid American Gift Books for 1852, 703.--New +American Works in Press, 703, &c. British Humorists.--_By W. M. +Thackeray_, 24 + +Boker, George II.--_By Bayard Taylor_. (Portrait.) 156 + +Bohemian Glass. (Six Engravings.) 291 + +Ballad of Sir John Franklin.--_By George H. Boker_, 473 + +Bryant, and his Works, William Cullen. (Portrait.) 588 + +Bull Fight at Ronda, 681 + +Calvin Colton, Rev., and his Works. (Portrait.) 1 + +Castle of Belvor: An Incident in the Life of Arago, 41 + +Count Monte-Leone. (Concluded), 42, 202, 327, 500 + +China, Our Phantom Ship, 67 + +Chest of Drawers.--_By an Attorney_, 73 + +Cicada, The.--_By H. J. Crate_, 164 + +Charlemagne, Times of.--_By Sir Francis Palgrave_, 169 + +Calhoun, Private Life of John C.--_By Miss M. Bates_, 173 + +Copenhagen, 238 + +Cooper, J. F., Portrait and View of his Residence, _Frontispiece_. + +Cooke, Sketch of Philip Pendleton. (Portrait.) 300 + +Chamois Hunting, 344 + +Cleopatra's Needle, 367 + +Cheap Postage System, 370 + +Country Gentleman at Home.--_By C. A. Bristed_, 389 + +Cooper, Reminiscences of J. Fenimore.--_By Dr. Francis_, 458 + +Cooper, Public Honors to the Memory of Mr., 456 + +Chimes, The.--_By E. W. Ellsworth_, 487 + +Carlyle's Life of John Sterling, 599 + +Calcutta: Social, Industrial, Political, 611 + +Captain and the Negro, The, 646 + +Crebillon, the French AEschylus, 520 + +Dramatic Fragments.--_By R. H. Stoddard_, 17 + +Decorative Arts in America, 171 + +Deserted Mansion, 227 + +Dirge for an Infant--_By R. S. Chilton_, 487 + +Death in Youth.--_By H. W. Parker_, 598 + +Dutch Governors of Niew Amsterdam.--_By J. R. Brodhead_, 597 + +Drinking Experiences: A Temperance Lecture by "Nimrod," 621 + +_Deaths, Recent._--General Arbuckle, 139.--Mrs. Thomas Sheridan, +139.--Bishop Carlson, 139.--Sir J. E. Dalzell, 139.--Chevalier Parisot +de Guyrmont, 139.--General James Miller, 140.--General Uminski, +140.--Viscount Melville, 140.--Mr. Dyce Sombre, 140.--Bishop Medrano, +140.--The Earl of Shaftesbury, 141.--Mr. Thomas Wright Hill, +142.--Melchior Boisseree, 142.--Christian Tieck, the Sculptor, +142.--Rev. Stephen Olin, D.D., 282.--Baron de Leideni, 282.--Edward +Quillinan, 282.--Harriet Lee, 282.--Dr. Julius, 282.--Rev. Azariah +Smith, 282.--General Henry A. S. Dearborn, 283.--D. M. Mon, 228, +283.--General Sir Roger Sheafe, 283.--M. Daguerre, (Portrait), +283.--Rev. Dr. Lingard, (Portrait), 285.--Marshal Sebastian, 287.--J. +Fenimore Cooper, 428.--Rev. T. H. Gallaudet, 428.--Judge Beverly +Tucker, 428.--Levi Woodbury, 429.--General McClure, 429.--Lorenz +Ocken, 429.--Count Killmansegge, 430.--H. E. G. Paulus, 430.--Joseph +Rusiecki, 430.--John Gottfried Gruber, 430.--The Earl of Clare, +431.--Sir Henry Jardine, 431.--Mrs. Sherwood, 572.--Rev. James H. +Hotchkiss, 572.--General Henry Whitney, 572.--Commodore Warrington, +572.--Professor Kidd, 573.--The Earl of Donoughmore, 573.--William +Nicol, 574.--Mr. Freeman, the Missionary, 574.--James Richardson, +574.--William Willshire, 574.--J. R. Dubois, 575.--Gustav Carlin, +575.--Archibald Alexander, D. D., 705.--J. Kearney Rogers, M.D., +705.--Rev. Wm. Croswell, D.D., 706.--Granville Sharpe Pattison, M.D., +706.--Mr. Stephens, author of _The Manuscripts of Erdeley_, 706.--Mr. +Gutzlaff, the Missionary, 707.--Don Manuel Godoy, the Prince of the +Peace, 708.--George Baker, 708.--M. de Savigny, 708.--Archbishop +Wingard, 708.--Samuel Beaseley, author of _The Roue_, 708.--H. P. +Borrell, 708.--James Tyler, R. D., 708.--Emma Martin, 709.--Yar +Mohammed, 709.--Alexander Lee, 710.--Prince Frederick of Prussia, 710. + +Exile's Sunset Song.--_By John R. Thompson_, 26 + +Egypt, The last Joseph in, 185 + +English in America.--_By the author of "Sam Slick,"_ 186 + +Egypt under Abbas Pasha,--_By Bayle St. John_, 259 + +Earthquake in Europe, The Last, 467 + +Fleischmann, Herr, on Life in America, 158 + +Fallen Genius.--_By Miss Alice Carey_, 288 + +Flying Artist, 398 + +Franklin, Inedited Letter of Dr., 472 + +Fragments from a New Volume of Poems.--_By Thomas L. Beddoes_, 550 + +French Flower Girl, The, 641 + +Fragments of a Poem.--_By H. W. Parker_, 189 + +Great Fair at Rochester. (Fifteen Engravings.) 438 + +Gold-Quartz and Society in California, 472 + +Greenwood.--_By Maunsell B. Field_, 476 + +Ghost Story of Normandy, 512 + +Gerard, and the Baron Munchausen, in Africa, M. Jules, 587 + +German Handbook of America, 598 + +Gondolettas: Two Songs.--_By Alice B. Neal_, 597 + +Hahn-Hahn, The Countess Ida, 17 + +History of a Rose, 117 + +Huntington, Dr., on Copyright, 308 + +Heroines of History: Laura.--_By Mary E. Hewitt_, 480 + +Habits of Frederick the Great, 528 + +Herman Melville's New Novel of "The Whale," 602 + +_Historical Review of the Month._--The United States: Elections, &c., +567.--Foreign Relations, 567.--Mexico, 568.--South American States, +568.--Great Britain, 568.--France, Italy, Russia, &c., 569.--The East, +&c., 569.--The American Elections, 704.--Kossuth in England, +704.--Europe, and the East, 704. + +Imaginary Conversations at Warsaw.--_By Walter Savage Landor_, 98 + +In the Harem.--_By R. H. Stoddard_, 164 + +Illustrations of Motives, 280 + +International Copyright, 386 + +Jules Janin and the Paris Feuilletonistes, 18 + +Jungle Recollection.--_By Captain Hardbargain_, 110 + +Jews in China, 264 + +Jefferson, Mr., on the Study of the Anglo-Saxon Language, 468 + +Landscapes, Swedish.--_By Hans Christian Andersen_, 20 + +London, Paris, and New-York, 100 + +Ladies' Fashions. (Illustrated.) 142, 288, 431, 575, 710 + +Latham, on the People of the Mosketo Kingdom, 471 + +My Novel: or, Varieties in English Life.--_By Sir E. Bulwer + Lytton_, 80, 243, 371, 534, 688 + +Moir, David Macbeth.--_By George Gilfillan_, 233 + +Music.--_By H. W. Parker_, 327 + +Meeting of the Vegetarians, 402 + +Newspaper Poets: Charles Weldon, 201 + +Nauvoo and Deseret: The Mormons. (Six Engravings.) 577 + +_Noctes Amicitiae._--English Opinions of the "American Department" in +the Crystal Palace, 563.--Ridiculous Convention of Women, at +Worcester, 563.--Bloomerism in London, 563.--Defenders of the Catholic +Practices, 563.--Anecdote of Tom Cook, 563.--Capital Anecdote of +Charles XII, 564.--A Superfluous Amount of Name, 564.--G. P. R. James +in the Law Courts, 564.--Nursery Rhymes, 564.--The London Printers, +564.--The Japanese and French Civilization, 565.--Extraordinary +Suicides in Paris, 565, &c. + +October.--_By Alice Carey_, 371 + +Obelisks of Egypt, 469 + +Old Man's Death, The.--_By Alice Carey_, 529 + +Ottoman History, The Three Eras of, 643 + +Parodies, A Chapter of, 23 + +Passages in the Life of a Dutch Poet, 65 + +Phantasy, A.--_By R. H. Stoddard_, 169 + +Paris, Reminiscences of, from 1817 to 1851, 182 + +Poulailler, the Robber, 216 + +Questions from a worn-out Lorgnette.--_By O. A. Hall_, 187 + +Reminiscence, A.--_By Alice Carey_, 360 + +Remarkable Prophecy, 474 + +Revolutions in Russia.--_By Alexander Dumas_, 616 + +Story Without A Name.--_By G. P. R. James, Esq._, + (Concluded), 28, 189, 316, 487, 604 + +Stuart of Dunleath, 119 + +Sailors, Institutions for, in New-York. (Six Engravings.) 145 + +Scenes in the Old Dominion (Six Engravings.) 151 + +Styles of Philosophies.--_By Rev. J. R. Morell_, 180 + +Shadow of Lucy Hutchinson, 239 + +Saxe, John G., and his Satires. (Portrait.) 289 + +Sandwich Islands To-Day. (Two Engravings.) 298 + +Shadow of Margery Paston, 363 + +Saint Escarpacio's Bones.--_From the French_, 483 + +Sonnets: Truth--The Future, 499 + +Sliding Scales of Despair, 592 + +Songs of the Cascade.--_By A. Oakey Hall_, 602 + +Spendthrift's Daughter: In Six Chapters, The, 664 + +_Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies._--The +British Association, 137.--Asiatic Society, 137.--Paris Geographical +Society, 137.--Royal Society of Literature, 137.--Paris Academy of +Sciences, 138.--London Royal Institution, 138.--Berlin Academy of +Sciences, 138.--Improvements in Photographs, 138.--Colonel Rawlinson +on the last Discoveries of Nineveh and Babylon, 426.--New attempts to +discover Perpetual Motion, 426.--Document respecting the discovery of +Steam Navigation at Venice, 427.--English Athletes, compared with +Greek Statues, 427.--Discoveries at Memphis, 427.--Scientific +Conventions, 427.--The Russian Academy, 571.--Scientific Congress in +France, 571.--Paris Academy of Sciences, 571.--Ethnological Society, +571. + +Trot on the Island.--_By C. Astor Bristed_, 54 + +To the Author of Eothen.--_By Barry Cornwall_, 315 + +The King and the Outlaw.--_By an Old Contributor_, 482 + +Verses.--_By R. H. Stoddard_, 22 + +Visit to the "Maid of Athens," 116 + +Visit to the late Dr. Lingard.--_By Rev. J. C. Richmond_, 172 + +Veneer, Fraser's Magazine on English, 306 + +Visit to the Aberdeen Comb-Works, 856 + +Vagaries of the Imagination, 638 + +Veiled Picture: A Traveller's Story, The, 648 + +Watering Places, A Glance at the. (Fifteen Engravings.) 4 + +Webster, Noah, LL. D. (Portrait and birthplace.) 12 + +Waterloo, Tricks on Travellers at, 164 + +Wives of Southey, Coleridge, and Lovell, 241 + +Wallace, William Ross. (Portrait.) 444 + +Windsor Castle and its Associations. (Two Engravings.) 585 + + + + +THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE + +_Of Literature, Art, and Science._ + +Vol. IV. NEW-YORK, AUGUST 1, 1851. No. I. + + + + +REV. CALVIN COLTON. + +[Illustration] + + +Mr. Colton is a man of very decided abilities, voluminous and various +in their manifestation, and assiduously cultivated during a long life, +in which he has never failed of the curiosity, ambition, and industry +of a learner. The untiring freshness and hopefulness of his spirit is +shown by his undertaking the study of the French language not more +than three or four years ago, and obtaining such a mastery of it as to +read with delight its most abstruse authors, and to preach in it with +fluency and even with eloquence. It is characteristic of him that he +is always earnest, and that he considers whatever he has to do worthy +of his best abilities, so that in writing of theology, economy, +polity, or manners, he arrays in order for each particular subject all +the forces of his understanding, and makes its discussion their +measure and illustration. He has been in an eminent degree devoted to +literature as a profession, and although he has produced works which +may be deemed unfortunate in design or defective in execution, it must +be admitted that he is entitled to a highly respectable position as a +thinker and as a writer, and that in opinion and in affairs he has +exercised a steady and large influence. + +He was born in Long Meadow, Massachusetts, graduated at Yale College +in 1812, studied divinity at Andover, and in 1815 took orders in the +Presbyterian church. For several years he was settled in the village +of Batavia in western New-York, but his voice failing in 1826, he +became a contributor to several of the principal periodicals occupied +with religion and learning, and in the summer of 1831, after an +extended tour through the western states and territories, proceeded to +London, as a correspondent of the New-York Observer. + +In England, he led a life of remarkable literary activity. In 1832 he +published a _Manual for Emigrants to America_, which had a large sale +among the middling classes; and _The History and Character of American +Revivals of Religion_, of which there were two or three editions. In +1833, in a volume entitled _The Americans, by an American in London_, +he replied, with an unanswerable display of facts, to the libels on +this country by British travellers and reviewers; and published _The +American Cottager_, a religious narrative. _A Tour of the American +Lakes and among the Indians of the North-West Territory_, in two +volumes, and _Church and State in America_, a vindication of the +religious character of the country and the voluntary principle for the +support of religion, in reply to the Bishop of London, who had +endeavored to show that the United States were going back to paganism +because the church was not here connected with the state. + +Returning to New-York, in 1835, he published _Four Years in Great +Britain_, in two volumes, which were soon after reprinted, with some +additions, in a more popular form. In 1836 he gave to the public +anonymously, _Protestant Jesuitism_, a criticism of the constitution, +extreme opinion, and unwise action of many of the benevolent and +religious societies; and having taken orders in the Episcopal church, +_Thoughts on the Religious State of the Country, and Reasons for +preferring Episcopacy_, a work which was much read and the cause of +much critical observation in Great Britain as well as in the United +States. + +From that time Mr. Colton has written very little on any subject +intimately connected with religion, but directing his attention to +public affairs, has been as conspicuous in the state as he was +previously in the church. In 1838 he published _Abolition a Sedition_, +and _Abolition and Colonization Contrasted_, in which he contended +with equal earnestness and ability that the entire subject of slavery +is beyond the limits of the proper action of the national government, +and that there is no justification of its discussion, except in the +states where slavery is established, or for the wise and really +philanthropic purpose of promoting African Colonization. In 1839 he +again took up the argument of our social relations with Great Britain, +in a work written in Philadelphia, but published in London, under the +title of _A Voice from America to England, By an American Gentleman_. +The plan was judicious: it was not so much to express opinions as to +state facts which should compel opinions in the adverse audience he +addressed. While mainly defensive, he was at the same time bravely +critical. He contended that in its constitution our government was +republican and not democratic, but that the extraordinary force of +public opinion among us has made it democratic in fact. A large +portion of the work was devoted to the several ecclesiastical polities +existing here, which he treated with singular freedom and originality, +so that the frequent impertinences of ignorant laymen and +obtrusively-meddling women, in the affairs of churches, rendering the +clerical profession humiliating and difficult to a person of manly +character and cultivation, were stated without any hesitation or +attempt at concealment. The entire performance is still attractive for +frequent sound observation upon institutions, judicious criticism of +manners, happy illustration, and good humor, and its opportune +appearance was advantageous to the best fame of the country. + +In 1840 he made a more distinct and powerful impression than ever +before, by the publication of _The Crisis of the Country, American +Jacobinism_, and _One Presidential Term_, a series of tracts under the +name of "Junius," which were circulated in all the states by thousands +and hundreds of thousands, and were supposed to have had great +influence in the overthrow of the democratic administration. In 1842 +he edited at Washington a paper called _The True Whig_, and in 1843 +and 1844 he brought out a second series, embracing ten publications, +still more popular than the first, of the _Junius Tracts_. + +In the autumn of the latter year, when the fortunes of the whig party +seemed to be entirely broken, when full half the nation felt a +personal grief for the defeat of a leader, added to the mortification +of political discomfiture, Mr. Colton determined to write the life of +the chief he had followed with unwavering admiration and unfaltering +activity. Casting aside all other cares, so that his every thought +might be given to the work until its completion, he set out for +Kentucky, where he was sure of the friendly assistance of Mr. Clay in +whatever concerned the investigation of facts. In November, 1844, he +reached Lexington, where Mr. Clay laid open to him the stores of his +correspondence, and the documentary history of his career. The work +was finished in the spring of 1846, and published in two large +octavos; and so great was the demand for it, that the first impression +of five thousand copies was sold in six months. It is unquestionably +an able performance, and from the circumstances under which it was +composed and the conclusiveness of some of its arguments it is +probable that it will always be regarded as a valuable portion of the +material for contemporary political history; but, it appears to me +very unequal in execution, and signally unfortunate in design, if +considered either as a biography or a history. For the subjective +rather than the chronological arrangement of the facts in it there is +however this defence, that it rendered the work much more easy of +citation, and therefore more valuable as a magazine for partisan +controversy. The influence it obtained may be illustrated by reference +to a single point: for a quarter of a century the staple of +declamation against Mr. Clay, the opposition which thrice cost him the +presidency, was his supposed bargain with John Quincy Adams; but since +the appearance of Mr. Colton's exposition of this subject any person +in an intelligent society would forfeit the consideration given to a +gentleman who should repeat the charge. + +For several years the attention of Mr. Colton had been more and more +attracted to the literature and philosophy of political economy. In +1846 he printed his first work in which it is formally treated, _The +Rights of Labor_, in which he asserted, illustrated, and with +unanswerable logic vindicated the American doctrine of the privileges +and dignity of Industry; and in 1848 he gave to the world his last and +most important work, _Public Economy for the United States_. From the +formation of the first system of society the subjects embraced in this +production have employed the most powerful intellects of all nations. +But though illustrated by the liveliest genius and the profoundest +reflection, they have not until recently assumed even the forms of +science. We cannot tell what formulae of economical truth passed from +existence in the lost books of Aristotle. The father of the +peripatetic philosophy undoubtedly brought to public economics the +severe method which enabled him to construct so much of the +everlasting science of which the history goes back to his times; but +whatever direction he gave to the subject, by the investigation of its +ultimate principles and their phenomena, his successors, and the +writers upon it since the revival of learning, have generally been +guided by empirical laws, which in an especial degree have obtained in +regard to the economy of commerce. Scarcely any of the literature or +reflection upon the subject has gone behind the bold hypotheses of +free trade theorists, which have been as unsubstantial as the fanciful +systems of the universe swept from existence by the demonstrations of +Newton. Not only have economical systems generally been made up of +unproven hypotheses, but they have rarely evinced any such clear +apprehension and constructive ability as are essential in the +formation and statement of principles; and down to the chaos of Mr. +Mills's last essay there is scarcely a volume on political economy +which rewards the wearied attention with any more than a vague +understanding of the shadowy design that existed in the author's +brain. + +In the eminently original and scientific work of Mr. Colton we see +economy subjected to fundamental and ultimate methods of investigation +of which the results have a mathematical certainty. We have new facts, +new reasonings, new deductions; and if the paramount ideas are not +altogether original, they are discovered by original processes, and +their previous existence is but an illustration of the truth that the +instinctive perspicacity of the common mind often surpasses the +logical faculty in recognizing laws before they are discovered from +elements and relations. Mr. Colton has not rejected the title +"_political_ economy" because he proposed to enter a different field, +or because the subject and argument have no relation to politics, but +chiefly because the term has been so much abused in the rude agitation +of what are commonly called politics, that he does not think it +comports with the dignity of the theme; and the second part of his +title is adopted from a conviction that the economical principles of +states _are to be deduced from their separate experience and adapted +to their individual condition_. The task which he proposed to himself +is, the exhibition of the merits of the protective and free trade +systems as they apply to the United States. He expresses at the outset +his opinion that the settlement of the question is one of the most +desirable, and will be one of the most important results which remain +to be achieved in the progress of the country; and we can assure him +that the accomplishment of it will be rewarded by the best approval of +these times, and an enduring name. The second chapter of his work is a +statement of the new points which it embraces. By new points he does +not mean that all thus described are entirely original, though many of +them are so; but that on account of the importance of the places he +has assigned them as compared with those they occupy in other works of +the kind, they are entitled to be presented as new. Many of them +involve fundamental and pervading principles that have not hitherto +appeared in speculations on the subject, but which are destined to an +important influence in its discussion. Some of the most prominent are, +that public economy is the application of knowledge, derived from +experience, to given positions, interests and institutions, for the +increase of wealth; that it has never been reduced to a science, and +that the propositions of which it has been for the most part composed, +down to this time, are empirical; that protective duties in the United +States are not taxes, and that a protective system rescues the country +from a system of foreign taxation; that popular education is a +fundamental element of public economy; that freedom is a thing of +commercial value, and that the history of freedom for all time, shows +it to be identical with protection. + +Recently the renewal of his voice has enabled Mr. Colton to devote +more attention to the favorite pursuit of his life, and he is a very +frequent preacher, in French or English. He resides in New-York. + + + + +A GLANCE AT THE WATERING PLACES. + +[Illustration: THE YOUNG MARRIED GENTLEMAN WHO "COULD NOT POSSIBLY GO +TO THE SPRINGS."] + + +All the gay world of the cities, and even of the villages and country +homes, who can do so, by the first of August are "going," or "gone," +as Mr. John Keese says of a last invoice, to the watering places, and +other summer resorts, which serve as fairs for the disposal of +valueless time and "remainders" of marriageable daughters. With the +crowds intent on speculation are a few invalids, a few students of +human nature, and the common proportion of mere lookers-on, who have +no purpose but to be amused. Times have changed, manners have changed, +since Paulding gave us his _Mirror for Travellers_, though Saratoga +still maintains the ascendency she was then acquiring, and for certain +inalienable natural advantages is likely to do so for a part at least +of every season. + +New-York is the grand rendezvous: once settled in our hotels, the +splendid Astor, the comfortable American, the busy Irving, the gay +New-York, or the quiet Union Place or Clarendon, the stranger has +little desire to go further, until the last and imperative demands of +Fashion compel him to abandon the study of those noble institutions we +described in the last _International_, and to forego the observation +of those great public works in which the energy of our rich men has +flowered, or those appointments of Providence which render New-York a +rival of Dublin, Naples, or Constantinople, in scenic magnificence. + +Many indeed who come from distant parts of the country, linger all +summer in the vicinity of the city, in the hottest days quitting +Broadway for a sail or drive, to the Bath House, Rockaway, Coney +Island, New Brighton, Long Branch, or Fort Hamilton, where they dine, +or perhaps stay over night. At Fort Hamilton, indeed, Mr. Clapp is apt +to keep those who venture into his hotel, with its luxurious tables, +pleasant rooms, cool breezes from the ocean, and fair sights in all +directions, for a much longer time; and every one of these places, in +the hot months, has attractions that would make a visitor at the Spas +of France, Germany, or Italy, could he wake in them, think he had +eluded the watchful guard St. Peter keeps at the gateway of another +retirement, to the which, it may be feared, the gay world has far less +anxiety to go. + +[Illustration: FORT HAMILTON HOUSE, LONG ISLAND.] + +[Illustration: PROPOSED SUMMER HOTEL AT THE HIGHLANDS OF NEVERSINK.] + +Ascending the Hudson, from the social metropolis of this continent, to +which all "capitals" of states or nations, from Patagonia to +Greenland, are in some way subject and tributary, the traveller finds +the palace in which he rides, continually near embowered pavilions for +the public, and clusters of private residences, which but add to their +enjoyableness. Cozzens's Hotel at West Point, is perhaps as well +known as any house of the same class in the world, and its picturesque +situation, as well as the admirable manner in which it is kept, will +preserve for it a place in the list of favorite resorts. The Catskill +Mountain House, in the midst of grand and peculiar scenery, on the +verge of a rock two thousand and five hundred feet above the +Hudson--seen with its various fleets at a distance from the long +colonnade--is thronged even more than West Point. There are other +pleasant houses on the river, and many turn from its various points to +visit newer or less crowded places than Saratoga along the lines of +the western railroads, as Trenton Falls, Sharon Springs, or Avon, or +further still, the towns by the borders of the great lakes. + +[Illustration: CATSKILL MOUNTAIN HOUSE.] + +[Illustration: HOTEL AT TRENTON FALLS.] + +Saratoga is now for several weeks the gayest scene of all. At the +United States Hotel, with its fine grounds, are the leaders of +fashion; at Congress Hall, with its clean and quiet rooms and +unsurpassed _cuisine_, are representatives of the substantial families +that have had grandfathers, and in the dozen or twenty smaller houses +about the village are "all sorts and conditions of men," and eke of +women. With drives, dinners, flirtations, drinking of drinks, and, +once in a long while, imbibitions of a little congress water, all goes +merry as a marriage bell--except with ladies of uncertain ages who are +disappointed of that blessed music--until the Grand Ball gives signal +for departure to other places. + +[Illustration: SARATOGA SPRINGS.] + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: THE NOTCH HOUSE, WHITE MOUNTAINS.] + +From Saratoga parties go northward to Lake George, (for which region, +of the most romantic beauty, they should be prepared by a perusal of +Dudley Bean's admirable sketch of its revolutionary history;) and down +the Champlain toward Montreal, whence they return by way of the +Ontario and Niagara Falls (where our engraver Orr's _Pictorial Guide +Book_ is indispensable to the best enjoyment), or go through the +glorious hills of northern Vermont and New Hampshire to the White +Mountains. All the last grand region has been most truthfully and +effectively represented in a small folio volume of drawings from +nature, by Isaac Sprague, described by William Oakes, and published in +Boston by Crosby & Nichols. We commend the book to summer tourists. + +[Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS.] + +[Illustration: OCEAN HOUSE, NEWPORT.] + +A considerable proportion of the guests who are at Saratoga in the +earlier part of the season, proceed to Newport in time for the Fancy +Ball which every year closes the campaign there. Newport increases in +attractions. Its historical associations, fine atmosphere, beautiful +position, and facilities for sea-bathing, fishing, sailing, riding, +and other amusements, are continually drawing to its neighborhood new +families, whose cottages add much to the beauty of the town, as they +themselves to the pleasantness of its society; and for transient +visitors no place in the world has better hotels or boarding-houses. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, VIRGINIA.] + +After the season closes at Newport, and from her Ocean House the last +unwilling traveller has taken his way, strewn with regrets, many +linger at the more quiet summer haunts scattered through New-England +and New-York, particularly at the rural and luxurious hotel of +Lebanon--a country palace which a king might covet--filled always with +good society; or go southward to the Virginia Springs, which have many +attractions peculiar to themselves, and with their unique pastimes, +their tournaments, field sports, &c., happily vary a summer's life +commenced at the more northern watering places. + +[Illustration: COLUMBIA HALL, LEBANON SPRINGS.] + +[Illustration: MOULTRIE HOUSE, SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, NEAR CHARLESTON.] + +The South Carolinians have this year seceded from the northern +resorts, and those who do not go from Charleston to the up-country or +to Georgia, may well be content with Captain Payne's spacious and +splendid hotel on Sullivan's Island--the coolest and most agreeable +place by the seaside we have visited, north or south, for years. From +the south, and indeed from all parts of the country, parties go more +and more every year to the Mammoth Cave, (of which we have in store a +particular and profusely illustrated account), and up the great rivers +and lakes of the west, all along which, first-class hotels, +steamboats, &c., render travel as easy and delightful as on the old +summer routes in the middle and eastern states. + +--Thus we have taken our readers--some of whom haply cannot this +season go by other ways--the circuit of the principal scenes of +enjoyment to which the denizens of the hot cities are intent to escape +through July, August, and September. If any have till this time +hesitated where to go, possibly we have aided them to an election: +certainly, we have led them cheaply along the fashionable tour. + +[Illustration: MAMMOTH CAVE HOTEL.] + + + + +NOAH WEBSTER. + +[Illustration] + + +The above portrait of the author of _The American Spelling-Book_, of +which there have been sold thirty millions of copies, and of the +_American Dictionary_, of which his publishers have hopes of selling +as great a number, is very life-like; it is from a painting by +Professor Morse, and the last time we saw the veteran scholar and +schoolmaster, he wore the very expression caught by that always +successful artist. Noah Webster's is the most universally familiar +name in our history; every body, from first to second childhood, from +end to end and side to side of the continent, knows it as well as his +own; and he who made it so famous was worthy of his reputation. + +Noah Webster was born in Hartford, Connecticut, October 16th, 1758. He +was a descendant, in the fourth generation, of John Webster, one of +the first settlers of Hartford, and afterwards governor of the colony. +In 1774 he was admitted to Yale College. His studies were frequently +interrupted during the Revolution, and for a time he himself served as +a volunteer in the army, with his father and two brothers. He +graduated, with honor, in 1778, in the same class with Joel Barlow, +Oliver Wolcott, Uriah Tracy, and other distinguished men, and +immediately opened a school, residing meanwhile in the family of +Oliver Ellsworth, afterward chief justice of the United States. He +soon commenced the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in +1781; but the poverty and unsettled state of the country prevented any +immediate success in the courts, and he resumed the business of +instruction in 1782, at Goshen, Orange county, New-York. It was here +that he began the preparation of books for the schools. He was led to +do so in despondency of success in his profession; but it changed the +course of his life. Having exhibited the rude sketch of his initial +effort to Mr. Madison (afterwards President), and Dr. Stanhope Smith, +Professor in Princeton college, he was encouraged by them to publish +the "First Part of a Grammatical Institute of the English Language." +The second and third parts of the series soon followed. A generation +has not passed since some of these books were occasionally seen in New +England. It may be that here and there a copy may still be lurking in +the garret of some ancient family, or on the dusty shelves of a +collector of antiquities. There is no more striking contrast than that +suggested by a comparison of Webster's "Third Part," as it was +familiarly styled, with the admirably printed school books now in +every family. Webster's were the first school books published in the +United States. In 1847 twenty-four million copies of the Spelling Book +had been sold, and for several years the demand for it has been at the +rate of a million a year. + +Dr. Webster did not confine his attention to his own publications; but +having learned that a copy of Winthrop's Journal was in the +possession of Governor Trumbull, he caused it to be transcribed and +published at his own risk. In this way was given to the public one of +the most important memorials of our early history, and the first +example furnished of printing the documents, and other materials, +illustrative of our original experience. Mr. Webster was poor, and the +country had never yet evinced any disposition to encourage enterprises +of this sort; but he had always a confidence that it was safe to do +what was right and necessary, and therefore disregarded in this, as in +many other cases, the opinions of his friends that he would incur +inevitable loss. + +The peace of 1783 involved the whole country in political agitation, +at certain points of which the calmest and wisest well nigh despaired +of the republic. At that time the influence of the pen was greater +than ever before. It seemed that the decision of principles which were +to last for centuries was dependent on the force of a single argument, +or the earnestness of one appeal. In this conflict the ambitious and +self-relying spirit of Mr. Webster led him to take an active part, and +from the peace till the close of Washington's administration, he was +an industrious and efficient writer. No period in the history of this +country was ever more critical; in none were so many principles +subjected to experiment, in none was discussion more able, exhausting, +and high-toned. + +The first topic which engaged Mr. Webster's attention was the decision +of Congress to remunerate the army, then recently disbanded. This +measure was violently opposed in all parts of the country. Meetings +were held to organize resistance to the law, and two-thirds of the +towns of Connecticut were represented in a convention for this +purpose. Mr. Webster was then twenty-five years of age, but he +contributed to the leading paper of the state a series of essays, +signed HONORIUS, which induced a decisive change in the public +feeling; and he received for his important services the thanks of +Governor Trumbull. In the winter of 1784--5 he published a tract, +_Sketches of American Policy_, in which he advanced the doctrine, that +to meet the crisis and secure the prosperity of the whole country, a +government should be organized that would act, not upon the states, +but directly on the people, vesting in Congress full authority to +execute its own acts. A copy of this essay was presented by the author +to Washington, and it is believed that it contained the first distinct +proposal of the new constitution. About the same time, he exerted +himself successfully for what was then called an "International +Copyright" law between the several sovereign states; and at a later +period he spent a winter in Washington, to procure an extension of the +period for which a copyright might be enjoyed. In 1785, he prepared a +series of lectures on the English language, which he delivered in the +larger towns, and in 1789 published, under the title of _Dissertations +on the English Language_. In 1787-8, he spent the winter in +Philadelphia, as a teacher. The convention called to frame the new +constitution was in session during a part of the year, and after its +labors were completed, Mr. Webster undertook to recommend the result +to the then doubtful favor of the people. This he did in a tract, +entitled _An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal +Constitution_. In the next year he established in New-York _The +American Magazine_, but it was unsuccessful. In 1789 he opened a +law-office in Hartford, and his reputation, diligence, and abilities, +insured business and profits. He was now married to Miss Greenleaf, of +Boston, and enjoyed the advantage of one of the most brilliant +literary circles of the country, consisting of Joel Barlow, Lemuel +Hopkins, John Trumbull, and others who at that time were eminent for +their capacities. + +But the political excitement of 1793, caused by the proclamation of +neutrality, disturbed his plans, and brought him again into the arena +of affairs. The sympathy for the new French republic, natural and +pardonable as it was, overran all limits of reason. The popularity and +influence of Washington were hardly sufficient for the repression of +disorder and violence, and an armed espousal of the cause of the +French. Mr. Webster was solicited to devote himself to the support of +the administration, and means were furnished for the establishment by +him of a daily paper in New-York. He accordingly commenced _The +Minerva_, and soon after, a semi-weekly, _The Herald_, which +ultimately received the names which they now retain, of _The +Commercial Advertiser_, and _The New-York Spectator_. + +Another agitation soon followed, if possible, still more +alarming--that which grew out of Jay's Treaty with England. The +discussions to which this gave rise were earnest, often angry and +vituperative, but always able, enlisting the most accomplished men of +the country. In these discussions Mr. Webster was, as might have been +anticipated, remarkably active. A series of papers by him, under the +signature of CURTIUS, had an unquestionable influence on the whole +nation. They were extensively reprinted and afterwards collected in a +volume. Mr. Rufus King said to Mr. Jay, that they had done more than +any others to allay the popular opposition to the treaty. During these +conflicts, Mr. Webster often encountered as an antagonist the +celebrated William Cobbett, at that time conducting a journal in +Philadelphia, distinguished alike for ability and for unscrupulous +violence. + +While Mr. Webster lived in New-York, the yellow fever prevailed in +this city and in Philadelphia, and he wrote a minute and comprehensive +_History of Pestilential Diseases_, in two volumes, which was +published in New-York and in London. It attracted much attention in +its time, and was referred to with interest during the subsequent +prevalence of the cholera. He also published in 1802 an able treatise +on _The Rights of Neutral Nations in time of War_, occasioned by the +interference of the French government with the shipping of the world, +and its seizure of American vessels, under the proclamation of a +blockade. He also published _Historical Notices of the Origin and +State of Banking Institutions and Insurance Offices_, a work of +authority and popularity. + +In 1798 he removed to New Haven, but retained the direction of his +paper at New-York for several years. After disposing of his interest +in it he devoted the remainder of his life to literary pursuits. + +His first work was a _Philosophical and Practical English Grammar_, +printed in 1807. It was in many respects original, acute, and +excellently fitted for the purposes of instruction. It was, however, +only one of the studies for his subsequent and far more important +performance. For more than twenty years he had been a close student of +the elements and sources of the English language; he had gradually, as +his various occupations permitted, accumulated and arranged materials +for its exposition, and he now felt himself at liberty to forego all +other pursuits and ambitions to devote himself for the remainder of +his life to the great labors which have made his name so honorably +eminent in the history of the intellectual advances of his country and +of the Saxon family. The preparation of a Dictionary, under any +circumstances, must be regarded as a very formidable task, involving +even for an enthusiast the most dry and wearying researches, +unenlivened by any of the pleasing excitements which vary the monotony +and relieve the tedium of ordinary literary pursuits. Mr. Webster from +the beginning had a just conception of the duties and difficulties +before him; he was assured that no superficial study or careless +execution would command or in any degree deserve approval, in one who +followed in the track of Johnson. He was not disposed to make the work +of that great man a basis for his own; to be simply an editor, whose +duties should be fulfilled by additions of the new words and new +definitions introduced in seventy years; he determined to make a new +and altogether original work; to study the English language in the +writings of its most distinguished authors, to inquire into its actual +usage in conversation and public discourse, not by loosely gathered +and ill arranged groups of synonymes, but by a clear and precise +statement of meanings, illustrated, whenever it should be necessary, +by various instances. In this work, Johnson had made a beginning; he +first conceived the plan of defining by descriptions, instead of +synonymes; and he had introduced into his larger dictionary quotations +from the best authors. But his work, valuable as it was, was +imperfect, even in regard to the words current in his time, and which +he succeeded in collecting. But, if Johnson had perfectly accomplished +his design, the lapse of seventy years of such extraordinary and +various activity in every department of human action and aspiration, +would have rendered a New Dictionary indispensable. New sciences and +arts had been discovered, which, in their manifold applications to +industry, had changed or wonderfully augmented the technology and +common speech of every class and description of workers. New +experiments had been made in governments; new institutions had been +introduced; literature had assumed new forms; and speculation, with +perfect freedom and gigantic force, had forged new weapons for its new +endeavors. The necessity for a new Dictionary of the English language, +indeed is, demonstrated in the simple fact that the first edition of +Webster's great work contained twelve thousand words not in Johnson; +the second, thirty thousand. This statement does not, however, give a +just impression of the difference between Johnson and Webster, or of +the actual labor which Webster performed. The new definitions, many of +which were fruits, not more of patient research than of nice +discrimination, the arrangement of these definitions, so as to exhibit +the history of words as it had been slowly developed, cost the author +an amount of toil which can with difficulty be measured. We hazard +little concerning the importance or difficulties of the work, when we +quote the remark of Coleridge, that the history of a word is often +more important than that of a campaign. + +The etymology of the language, was a subject to which he devoted much +attention, and in which he made great advances. To qualify himself for +tracing the derivations of English words, he studied some twenty +languages, and wrote out a synopsis of the leading words of each, and +incorporated the chief results of this extraordinary investigation in +the very full and instructive statement of words of similar imports, +which in the larger Dictionary is prefixed to English words, and which +he prepared for the press also, as a separate work, of about half the +size of the _American Dictionary_, entitled "_A Synopsis of Words in +Twenty Languages_," which is still unpublished. + +In 1812, he removed to Amherst, in Massachusetts, where he devoted ten +years entirely to these labors. He returned to New Haven in 1822; in +the following year he received from Yale College the degree of LL. D., +and in the spring of 1824 he proceeded to Paris to consult in the +_Bibliotheque du Roi_ some works not accessible in this country, and +then went to England and passed eight months in the libraries of the +University of Cambridge. + +Returning to America, he made arrangements for the publication of his +great work, and it finally appeared, near the end of 1826, in an +edition of twenty-five hundred copies, in two quarto volumes, which +were sold at twenty dollars per copy. An edition of three thousand +copies was soon after printed in England. + +Dr. Webster was now seventy years of age, and he considered his +life-task accomplished; but habits of literary occupation had become +fixed and necessary, and after a few months he began to rewrite his +_History of the United States for Schools_. In 1840 he published a +second edition of the _Dictionary_, in two octavo volumes; in 1843, _A +Collection of Papers, on Political, Literary and Moral Subjects_, +selected from his various writings in early life; and in 1847 another +edition of the _American Dictionary_ appeared, after a thorough +revision of it by Professor Goodrich, of Yale College. In this edition +very large additions were made, amounting to a fifth of the whole +work. There were new words, and new definitions, when needed; careful +attention was bestowed on technical terms of science and art; and it +was made a general cyclopaedia of knowledge. Yet by employing a finer +type, and adopting a close yet clear style of printing, the original +work, with all these copious additions, was brought within the compass +of a single quarto, which has been styled the finest specimen of +book-manufacture ever produced in America. A revised edition of the +abridgement was issued at the same time, and both volumes have had a +circulation which evinces the general appreciation of their value. +Several of the New England states, we believe, have furnished a copy +of the quarto Dictionary to every school district within their limits, +and the legislature of New-York, during its recent session, passed a +law for the distribution of some thousands of copies in the school +districts of this state also. Whatever may be said of the Dictionary +by Dr. WEBSTER, it will not be questioned by the disinterested scholar +that it is one of the most extraordinary and honorable monuments of +well-directed intellectual labor of which we have any account in the +histories of literature or learning. It is as great an advance from +the work of Dr. Johnson, as that was from the wretched vocabularies of +the English language which existed before his time; and so accurate +and exhausting has been the investigation which it displays that no +rival work is likely to take its place until sufficient time has +elapsed for the language itself to pass into a new condition. + +[Illustration: THE BIRTHPLACE OF NOAH WEBSTER.] + +Much has been said of Dr. Webster's innovations, but for the most +part, by persons altogether ignorant of the philosophy of languages in +general, as well as of the character and condition of the English +language. Dr. Webster attempted, and with eminent success, to reduce +the English language to order, and to subject it to the operation of +principles. The changes which he made, though in a few instances, +necessary for consistency, striking, are much less numerous than is +commonly supposed, and even to scholars, with whom the study of +languages is not a _specialite_, they would not be very apparent but +for the frequent attempts which are made to prejudice the public +against the work. An amusing illustration of this fact occurred a few +years ago, when, a concerted assault upon the Dictionary having been +made, and sustained for some time, a distinguished author who had a +new book in the press of the Harpers, was alarmed by intelligence that +they intended to adopt for it Webster's orthography. He wrote to +these publishers his apprehensions that the success of his +performance and his own good reputation could not fail of exceeding +injury, if their design should be executed, and begged them to adopt +some other work as a medium for the display of the Websterian +innovations. The Harpers replied that he might select his own +standard; they believed he had, perhaps unconsciously, followed +Webster in his _manuscript_, and that the several productions of his +which they had published in previous years had all been printed +according to Webster's Dictionary, which was the guide used in their +printing offices. + +The incidents of Dr. Webster's life after the publication of the +second edition of his Dictionary, in 1840, were few and unimportant. +Indeed, with that effort he regarded his public life as brought to a +close. He passed through a serene old age, which was terminated by a +peaceful death, on the twenty-eighth of May, 1843, when he was in the +eighty-fifth year of his age. + + + + +DR. MERLE D'AUBIGNE AND THE ENGLISH CHURCH. + + +The celebrated German historian, Dr. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, is now in +England, and in consequence of certain proceedings growing out of his +occupation of an Episcopal pulpit recently, he has published a letter +to the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the general subject of the +exclusion of continental Protestant ministers from the pulpits of +English churches. He is aware that, in consequence of the Act of +Uniformity, there are churches which cannot be opened to those +ministers, but he hopes that this law of exclusion will be repealed. +"It is no longer in harmony with the spirit and the wants of the +church in the age in which we live." The Calvinistic historian +expresses his conviction that the reestablishment of the Annual +Convocation would not reform the Church. The Convocation has been for +more than a century deprived of its powers, and it is to Parliament +that the question now belongs. He says: + + "Why should I not express to you, my lord, a desire which I + have long had in my heart? This desire is, that being + surrounded by ministers and members of the Church the most + enlightened and most devoted to God and to his word, you + should digest and present to Parliament a plan, not to + _effect_ (_sic_) a reform of the Church, but to _establish + the authority_ (_sic_) which should be charged with its + reform and government. It seems to me that the best way + would be to establish a body similar to that which governs + the Episcopal church of America, composed of three chambers, + that of the bishops, that of the presbyters, and that of the + members of the Church, the two latter being ordinarily + united in one. The Americans of the United States have + received so much from you (they have received every thing, + even their very existence), why should you not take + something from them? I am convinced that sooner or later a + reform _must_ take place in the government of the Church of + England: it is important that it should be done well. I + think that there would be some hope of its being + accomplished in a good sense, if it were done while you, my + lord, are Primate of the Church, and while Victoria is Queen + of England." + +Every thing seems to tend to an entire revolution in the British +ecclesiastical system, and the cooeperation of Dr. Merle and other +continental writers with those who are agitating the subject in +England--demanding the separation of the church from the state--makes +the prospect of such a separation more imminent than it has ever been +hitherto. + + + + +THE EXILE'S SUNSET SONG. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE + +BY J. R. THOMPSON. + + + When from thy side, love, + In silence and gloom, + Half broken-hearted + Fate tore me away, + All humbled in pride, love, + I thought in my doom, + That Hope had departed + For ever and aye! + + But Fate may not banish + From memory's store, + That blissful communion + Of years that are flown, + Nor make yet to vanish + The lustre which o'er + Our fond thoughts of union, + So tenderly shone. + + And still o'er the ocean + My fancy takes flight, + Where oft I see gleaming + Thy figure afar; + And I think with emotion, + That sometimes at night, + We watch the same beaming + And tremulous star. + + The sunsets so golden. + That stream round me here, + But call up thy shadow + The landscape between: + And when in the olden + Dim season so dear, + It tripped o'er the meadow + With step of a queen. + + As the light of the moon, love, + Like snow softly falls, + And rests on the mountain, + And silvers the sea, + That midnight in June, love, + My mem'ry recalls, + When up to the fountain + I clambered with thee. + + How sweetly the river + Reflected the ray + Of moon through the willows + Or sun o'er the hill: + Does the moonbeam there quiver, + The sunset there play, + Upon its gay billows + As splendidly still? + + My spirit is weary-- + An exile I grieve, + When morn's early voices + A glad song proclaim, + And the faint Miserere + Of nature at eve, + To me but rejoices + To murmer thy name. + + Yet Hope, reappearing, + A vision unfolds, + Of rapture together + In joy's happy reign, + When love all endearing + The full eye beholds, + We'll walk o'er the heather + At sunset again. + +RICHMOND, Va. + + + + +DRAMATIC FRAGMENTS. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, + +BY R. H. STODDARD. + + +THE GAME OF CHESS. + + We played at chess, Bianca and myself, + One afternoon, but neither won the game, + Both absent-minded, thinking of our hearts + Moving the ivory pawns from black to white, + Shifted to little purpose round the board; + Sometimes we quite forgot it in a sigh + And then remembered it, and moved again; + Looking the while along the slopes beyond, + Barred by blue peaks, the fountain, and the grove + Where lovers sat in shadow, back again, + With sideway glances in each other's eyes; + Unknowingly I made a lucky move, + Whereby I checked my mate, and gained a queen; + My couch drew nearer hers, I took her hand-- + A soft white hand that gave itself away-- + Told o'er the simple story of my love, + In simplest phrases which are always best, + And prayed her if she loved me in return-- + A fabled doubt--to give her heart to me; + And then, and there, above that game of chess, + Not finished yet, in maiden trustfulness, + She gave me, what I knew was mine, her heart! + + +FROM A PLAY. + + Alas! I think of you the live-long day, + Plying my needle by the little stand, + And wish that we had never, never met, + Or I were dead, or you were married off, + Though that would kill me; I lay down my work, + And take the lute you gave me, but the strings + Have grown so tuneless that I cannot play; + I sing the favorite airs we used to sing, + The sweet old tunes we love, and weep aloud! + I sought forgetfulness, and tried to-day + To read a chapter in the Holy Book; + I could not see a line, I only read + The solemn sonnets that you sent to me: + Nor can I pray as I was wont to do, + For you come in between me and the Lord, + And when I strive to lift my soul above, + My wits are wandering, and I sob your name! + And nights, when I am lying on my bed, + (I hope such thoughts are not unmaidenly,) + I think of you, and fall asleep, and dream + I am your own, your wedded, happy wife,-- + But that can never, never be on earth! + + + + +THE COUNTESS IDA HAHN-HAHN. + + +We gave in the last _International_ a short notice of "_Von Babylon +nach Jerusalem_" (A Journey from Babylon to Jerusalem), by Ida, +Countess of Hahn-Hahn, in which she declares her conversion to +Christianity and Catholicism. What the Germans themselves think of +this work may be gathered from the following brief review, which has +just fallen under our notice in the _Central Blatt_. The article is +curious, from the "intensely German" style and spirit in which it is +written, though we cannot very warmly commend either. + +"The above-mentioned work," which contains an account of the +conversion of its celebrated authoress to the Catholic belief, says +the critic, "presents a sad picture of the complete decay and +dissolution of a _void subjectivity_ (a vacant mind). + +"The writer falls a sacrifice to her exclusive, aristocratic position +in society. Without occupying any place in the world, won and +maintained by personal ability, and consequently without a +well-grounded moral standard, she wanders like a homeless being from +land to land, every where influenced, 'as far as it agreed with her +disposition,' by her momentary interests, and thus rendering apparent +the barrenness of her soul. But this had been developed at an early +period. 'That this feeling (that of joy) was occasionally accompanied +by the deepest discontent, appearing as an unearthly _ennui_--and that +over it swept the darkest melancholy, will be readily intelligible to +every one, for they are the twin sisters of the fortune of this +world.' 'And occasionally it was a kind of heroism, in that I sat +myself down, and--wrote a romance. Was it finished, I travelled--did I +return, I described the tour--was there a time when the book was +complete and circumstances did not permit of travelling, I took with +raging appetite to reading--and when I no longer wrote, no longer +travelled, and could no longer read for any determined +purpose--because I had none--I knew not what to do with my time. I +could not create illusions, and say to myself, Try this! try that! +perhaps the world hath yet somewhat hidden for thee--the call of +Knowledge is incessant. No, no! she hath nothing. Well--what then? +God? There stood the Word, the One, the Eternal.' Thereupon she reads +the greater and lesser catechisms of Luther, the creeds of the +evangelic reformed church, and the decrees and canons of the Council +of Trent. 'But only the Catholic church hath under roof and proof +brought her dogma-buildings to a tower, provided with the +lightning-rod of authority.' Thereupon she determines, 'I asked no +human being for explanation, information, or counsel--not even +myself.' Three months after, on the first day of January, 1850, she +wrote to the Cardinal Prince-Bishop of Breslau, to beg of him aid in +her entrance to the church. + +"The moral vacancy displayed in these quotations corresponds with the +shallow manner and half romantic, half French style of the book. +Though the first part be written in a fresher and livelier style than +the second, there is still not to be found in the whole a single +well-determined and clearly-impressed thought, and whenever we imagine +that we have hit upon such a thing, straightway we find whirling forth +the dust-clouds of an obscure, phrase-laden, highly affected +sentimental feeling, which, without any real energy, stirs itself up +with repeated 'ohs!' and 'ahs!' and other forced sighs and artificial +aids. In place of such thoughts we find a shallow and occasionally +insupportably wearisome speech on the ideal of Catholicism, or 'the +heathenish abomination in art and literature, which, after the fall of +Byzantium was transported thence to Italy, and there received with +that love which impels sensuous mortals to joyfully draw into the +sphere of his life the new and glittering, because it promises fresh +and shining pleasures.'(!) In another place she speaks of the +reformers as 'miserable, narrow-minded heads, who should have chosen +other ground whereon to exercise their love of quarrelling;' while +the second half of her book is confined almost exclusively to the +democrats, and the events which took place from 1847 to 1849. In this +part the authoress displays the greatest want of intellect, and is +sadly wearisome; but her frivolity of manners and morals appears most +repulsive in her account of the Reformation. None of the +Catholics--not even Cochlaeus himself--has so far degraded himself as +to interpret in such a vulgar manner the deeds of the reformers (more +particularly Luther's) as is here done by--a lady! + +"If the Countess places at the conclusion of her work the words 'Soli +Deo Gloria,' this is merely in accordance with a Catholic custom, and +by no means meant in earnest, since the work is more particularly +adapted to flatter the vanity and self-conceit of its composer, who +cannot imagine why she should suffer the disgrace to belong to the +German nation. A vain, coquettish self-regard, an affected, +aristocratic-noble nonchalance, and a contradicting, heresy-accusing +confidence of judgment, meet us on every side, and render us +completely opposed to the pretence and moral vacancy of this book." + +These are bitter words, and bitterly spoken, when thus applied to a +woman. The reader will in their perusal remember that the writer is +evidently influenced by a deep feeling against all that savors of +conservatism in politics, and shares in an unusual degree the popular +German feeling against _emancipiste Frauen_, or women who strive +against the bonds which the customs of society have imposed on the +sex,--a feeling, which, however creditable it may be when applied to +undue extravagances of manners or morals, should be carefully guarded +against when it threatens an unconditional restraint of every exertion +of feminine genius and talent. + + + + +JULES JANIN, AND THE PARIS FEUILLETONISTES. + + +Jules Janin, whose name, of so constant recurrence in the contemporary +history of light literature, artistic criticism, and _feuilleton_, is +the Prince Royal of the brilliant court of gifted, tasteful, witty and +_spirituel_ writers, who compose the body of Parisian +_feuilletonistes_. These are men who write, not because they have any +thing especial to say--for their peculiar function is to say nothing, +in a pointed and brilliant manner--but because they love leisure and +luxury, the opera, pictures, and beautiful ballet girls, and must +themselves make the golden lining to their purses, which they can do +by the very simple process of weaving the similar lining of their +brains into a _feuilleton_. They are often scholars, men of fine +cultivation and genius, whose tastes however are so imperious, and who +enjoy so much the ease thus facilely achieved, that they accomplish no +great work, win no lasting name. Of course the _feuilletonist_ proper +is to be distinguished from the author or novelist who publishes a +work in the _Feuilleton_, as Lamartine his _Confidences_, and Sue and +Dumas and George Sand, their romances. We propose now to follow +briefly the sparkling career of JULES JANIN as the type of the life, +character, and success of the _feuilletonistes_. + +He came to Paris, a Jew: as Meyerbeer, Heine, Grisi, Rachel, and the +long luminous list of contemporary artists who have made fame in +Paris, are Jews. He supported himself by teaching--doing nothing, but +very conscious that he could do something--at all events he could +lecture upon the Syrian language, if for a week he could prepare +himself. Then he wrote in little theatrical papers, and received +twenty-five francs a month. But in 1830 he happily succeeded to his +present position in the _Journal des Debats_. He is now a rich man. He +gives splendid soirees in his saloons glittering with oriental luxury, +and artists and authors bow before him. Like Henry Heine, his +contemporary, whom he as much resembles in talent as in manner, he +declared now for the Republic and Freedom, now for the Church and +King, until his connection with the _Debats_ impressed upon him the +conservative seal. He since loudly declaims for public +morality--against the prostitution of the press; but his early works +were the most licentious of any that have swarmed from the fertile +French genius of social protestantism. His first novel, published in +1829, _The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman_, is the history of a +prostitute, from the brothel, to the murder of her child, and her +execution, garnished with Byronic sentimentalities upon the +transitoriness of things temporal. + +Jules Janin's next work was one of the most instructive illustrations +of the character of French romance at that period when literary +feeling and taste seemed to reach the artificial point that is +artistically achieved by the melo-dramas of Chatham-street and the +Strand. We record it as a literary curiosity, as the work of a "fast" +Frenchman, a Parisian Vivian Grey, on a small scale. It is called _The +Penitent_, and was published in 1830. It opens with a marriage. The +bride, who has been violently dancing, retires, overcome with sleep, +and the husband in his rage at her sleepiness smothers her. It is +nominally supposed that she has been stricken with apoplexy, but a +Jesuit, who meditates many mysteries, understands the whole matter, +yet observes the most discreet silence. The young man, who is somewhat +conscience-pricked, still persists in profligacy, until he is +overwhelmed by remorse, and rushes to the church to receive +absolution. He seeks a trusty confessor, and of course finds the old +Jesuit; but as he finds it difficult to obtain access to him, makes +the acquaintance of a girl, with whom the Jesuit has some kind of +relation, and in order to win her to his will, seduces her! Then comes +the Jesuit and begins to fulminate excommunications and damnations. +But the youth bursts into a passionate strain of repentance, and is +told by the old Jesuit, that the difficulty in his case, is a +religious one, that in fact the murder was "a circumstance" arising +from his irreligious state, and that by genuine repentance the matter +will be arranged. _Presto_: The youth repents and enters the church, +is made Bishop and proceeds through an endless course of fat capon and +Chateau Margaux to an edifying end! + +The boldest efforts of young France and young Germany, are feeble by +the side of this extraordinary effort. His earlier tales, which are +somewhat in the style of Hoffmann, Jules Janin published in the year +1833, under the title of _Fantastic Tales_, and a series of works of +less size and importance followed, until the series of papers, half +fiction, half fact, which, in the novel form, treated a great variety +of historico-literary subjects. His last romance is the _Nun of +Toulouse_, written during the revolution of '48. It sparkles with the +same sprightly skepticism and spiritual coquetry that distinguished +his earlier works, yet he celebrates in it those beautiful times, the +"old times," in which the serenity of faith was never ruffled by +impertinent thought; and in his recent letters from the Great +Exhibition, he indulges in the same strain, and sighs for the +magnificence of the monarchy. + +But his weekly contributions to the _Debats_, the rapid dashing review +of the dramatic novelties and incidents in a metropolis where alone a +living drama survives, and which he serves up garnished with the most +felicitous verbal graces and the most charming intellectual conceits, +every Monday morning--these are the flowers whence the brilliant Jules +Janin builds the honey hive of his reputation. He has decreed the +fashion of the _Feuilleton_, and the other Parisian critics flash and +snap and sparkle, as much like Jules Janin as possible. Their articles +are the streak of _light_ in the dimness of the preponderating +political literature of the week. They hold high holiday at the bottom +of the page, although the history of revolutions, and woes, and the +rumors of wars and impending millenniums may throw their sombre +shadows along the columns above. They raise their banner of a +butterfly's wing, emblazoned with _Vive la Bagatelle_, and march on to +the tournament of wit and beauty. They belong to France; their game is +the gambol of the exuberance of French genius. They are more than +witty, they are _spirituel_; and they have more than talent, they have +taste. + +In a day of such rapid and facile printing as ours, this department of +literary labor was a necessity. Every man who has a conceit and can +write, may parade it before the world. In the mass of pleasant +common-place, what is _bizarre_ may supplant the symmetrically +beautiful. To seize therefore what every man saw, and with nimble +fingers to weave a transparent tissue of gorgeous words through which +every man's impressions of what he saw look large and graceful and +piquant--to sum up a vaudeville in a _bon mot_, and a ballet in a +voluptuous trope,--_voila! c'est fait_, you have the recipe of a +successful _feuilletoniste_. Hence, the influence of these writers, +upon _words_, has been remarkable. The French language, long so +precise, is now among the most dissolute of tongues. It reels through +the columns of a _feuilleton_, drunk and dim-eyed with expletives and +exaggerations and beatified adjectives, so that, fascinated with the +casket, you quite forget the jewel. The language of dramatic and +operatic criticism in Paris is now inexplicable to any one but an +_habitue_. If you should tell John Bull, who wishes to go to the +opera, that Alboni's singing is _pyramidale_, he would expect to see +the fair and fat contralto sharpened to a point at top,--but, I grant, +if you should call it "jolly" or "stunning," he would entirely +comprehend that you meant to express your admiration in superlatives. + +I must not longer gossip as these gay gossips do, these fanciful +_feuilletonistes_, nor seek more deeply to draw the outline of these +rainbow bubbles upon the stream of the time, whether it flow turbid or +transparent. One cannot live upon sugar and nutmeg, or even upon +allspice. But our friends are a literary phenomenon not to be omitted, +and if you love the Muses, you will not omit to snuff the azure +incense offered weekly by the _feuilletonistes_. + +Jules Janin shall show us out of this article as he ushered us in. The +Great Mogul of the _Feuilleton_ had purchased a carriage whose luxury, +and taste of appointment, and perfection of footman, was unsurpassed +in the Champs Elysee. But the gods are jealous and the +_feuilletonistes_ have thus the highest authority for jealousy. So, on +one evening when the exquisite equipage awaited its master at the +grand opera, a crowd of lesser critical luminaries gathered around it, +and both reviled and envied the fortunate owner. While they were thus +engaged, the great critic came out of the opera house and saw his +contemporaries engaged in longing and envious remark. Now tact is the +sublimest secret of success--and smilingly Jules Janin advanced +cheerily, greeted his friends cordially, and piled into the carriage +all of them who lived in his neighborhood. + +They naturally reserved the seat of honor for the owner, but this +great General seizing the most inimical of all the party who lived in +a quarter of the city farthest from his own home, pushed him into the +vacant seat, ordered his coachman to set him down first, and then +humming the finale of the opera, lighted a cigar and sauntered +leisurely down the street. It was like Jules Janin to make his own +marriage the subject of a _Feuilleton_. In his case the man and the +_feuilletoniste_ are the same. + + + + +ODE XX. OF ANACREON. + +TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF MADAME DACIER FOR THE INTERNATIONAL +MAGAZINE, + +BY MARY E. HEWITT. + + + Niobe, maddened by her woes, of yore. + The gods in pity turned to marble fair; + And wretched Progne, doomed for evermore, + Changed to a swallow wings the upper air. + + But ah! would Love, whom I, enslaved, obey, + By his sweet power transform me, I would be + The mirror in thy hand, if thus, alway, + Thy gentle eyes would fondly turn on me. + + Or, I would be the perfume that reveals + Its fragrance 'mid the tresses of thy hair; + Or, that soft veil which o'er thy bosom steals, + And jealous, hides the ivory treasure there. + + Or I would be the robe that round thee flows, + The zone that circles thee with fond caress; + The rivulet that with thy beauty glows, + And to its breast enclasps thy loveliness. + + Or I were blest those envied pearls to be + That closely thus thy swan-white neck entwine; + Or e'en to be the sandal, pressed by thee, + Were, for thy lover, destiny divine. + + + + +SWEDISH LANDSCAPES: BY HERR ANDERSEN. + + +In the last _International_ we gave some characteristic historical +sketches from Hans Christian Andersen's latest and most delightful +book, the _Pictures of Sweden_; but the inspiration of nature is more +powerful with him than that of history, and he is never so felicitous +as when painting the scenery of his native country, though he has +certainly indulged, to a greater extent than a sober taste can +approve, in that passion for the fantastic and visionary, which has +been but too visibly manifested in some of his later and slighter +works. Our readers, however, shall judge for themselves. The forests +of Sweden and its rivers give the most noticeable features to its +landscape. This is how they appeared to Andersen--the forest first: + + "We are a long way over the elv. We have left the + corn-fields behind, and have just come into the forest, + where we halt at that small inn which is ornamented over the + doors and windows with green branches for the midsummer + festival. The whole kitchen is hung round with branches of + birch and the berries of the mountain ash; the oat cakes + hang on long poles under the ceiling; the berries are + suspended above the head of the old woman who is just + scouring her brass kettle bright. + + "The tap-room, where the peasants sit and carouse, is just + as finely hung round with green. Midsummer raises its leafy + arbor every where, yet it is most flush in the forest which + extends for miles around. Our road goes for miles through + that forest, without seeing a house, or the possibility of + meeting travellers, driving, riding, or walking. Come! The + ostler puts fresh horses to the carriage; come with us into + the large woody desert: we have a regular trodden way to + travel, the air is clear, here is summer's warmth and the + fragrance of birch and lime. It is an up-and-downhill road, + always bending, and so, ever changing, but yet always + forest-scenery--the close, thick forest. We pass small + lakes, which lie so still and deep, as if they concealed + night and sleep under their dark, glassy surfaces. + + "We are now on a forest plain, where only charred stumps of + trees are to be seen; this long tract is black, burnt, and + deserted, not a bird flies over it. Tall, hanging birches + now greet us again; a squirrel springs playfully across the + road, and up into the tree; we cast our eyes searchingly + over the wood-grown mountain side, which slopes so far, far + forward, but not a trace of a house is to be seen: nowhere + does that bluish smoke-cloud rise, that shows us, here are + fellow-men. The sun shines warm; the flies dance around the + horses, settle on them, fly off again, and dance as though + it were to qualify themselves for resting and being still. + They perhaps think, 'Nothing is going on without us: there + is no life while we are doing nothing.' They think, as many + persons think, and do not remember that time's horses always + fly onward with us! + + "How solitary is it here! so delightfully solitary! one is + so entirely alone with God and one's self. As the sunlight + streams forth over the earth, and over the extensive + solitary forests, so does God's Spirit stream over and into + mankind; ideas and thoughts unfold themselves--endless, + inexhaustible, as He is--as the magnet which apportions its + powers to the steel, and itself loses nothing thereby. As + our journey through the forest scenery here along the + extended solitary road, so, travelling on the great high + road of thought, ideas pass through our head. Strange, rich + caravans pass by from the works of poets, from the home of + memory, strange and novel; for capricious fancy gives birth + to them at the moment. There comes a procession of pious + children with waving flags and joyous songs; there come + dancing Menades, the blood's wild Bacchantes. The sun pours + down hot in the open forest; it is as if the Southern summer + had laid itself up here to rest in Scandinavian forest + solitude, and sought itself out a glade where it might lie + in the sun's hot beams and sleep; hence this stillness as if + it were night. Not a bird is heard to twitter, not a pine + tree moves. Of what does the Southern summer dream here in + the North, amongst pines and fragrant birches? + + "In the writings of the olden time, from the classic soil of + the South, are sagas of mighty fairies, who, in the skins of + swans, flew towards the North, to the Hyperboreans' land, to + the east of the north winds; up there, in the deep still + lakes, they bathed themselves, and acquired a renewed form. + We are in the forest by these deep lakes; we see swans in + flocks fly over us, and swim upon the rapid elv and on the + still waters...." + + "Woodland solitude! what images dost thou not present to our + thoughts! Woodland solitude! through thy vaulted halls + people now pass in the summer time with cattle and domestic + utensils; children and old men go to the solitary pasture + where echo dwells, where the national song springs forth + with the wild mountain flower! Dost thou see the procession? + Paint it if thou canst! The broad wooden cart, laden high + with chests and barrels, with jars and with crockery. The + bright copper kettle and the tin dish shine in the sun. The + old grandmother sits at the top of the load, and holds her + spinning wheel, which complete the pyramid. The father + drives the horse, the mother carries the youngest child on + her back, sewed up in a skin, and the procession moves on + step by step. The cattle are driven by the half-grown + children; they have stuck a birch branch between one of the + cows' horns, but she does not appear to be proud of her + finery; she goes the same quiet pace as the others, and + lashes the saucy flies with her tail. If the night becomes + cold on this solitary pasture, there is fuel enough; here + the tree falls of itself from old age, and lies and rots. + + "But take especial care of the fire--fear the fire-spirit in + the forest desert! He comes from the unextinguishable pile; + he comes from the thunder-cloud, riding on the blue + lightning's flame, which kindles the thick, dry moss of the + earth: trees and bushes are kindled; the flames run from + tree to tree, it is like a snow-storm of fire! the flames + leap to the tops of the trees. What a crackling and roaring, + as if it were the ocean in its course! The birds fly upward + in flocks, and fall down suffocated by the smoke; the + animals flee, or, encircled by the fire, are consumed in it! + Hear their cries and roars of agony! The howling of the wolf + and the bear, dost thou know it? A calm rainy day, and the + forest-plains themselves alone are able to confine the fiery + sea, and the burnt forest stands charred, with black trunks + and black stumps of trees, as we saw them here in the forest + by the broad high-road. On this road we continue to travel, + but it becomes worse and worse; it is, properly speaking, no + road at all, but it is about to become one. Large stones lie + half dug up, and we drive past them; large trees are cast + down, and obstruct our way, and therefore we must descend + from the carriage. The horses are taken out, and the + peasants help to lift and push the carriage forward over + ditches and opened paths. The sun now ceases to shine; some + few rain-drops fall, and now it is a steady rain. But how it + causes the birch to shed its fragrance! At a distance there + are huts erected of loose trunks of trees and fresh green + boughs, and in each there is a large fire burning. See where + the blue smoke curls through the green leafy roof; peasants + are within at work, hammering and forging; here they have + their meals. They are now laying a mine in order to blast a + rock, and the pine and birch emit a finer fragrance. It is + delightful in the forest." + +So say we. It is delightful in the forest; not less so on the +torrent-river of Scandinavia: + + "Before Homer sang, there were heroes; but they are not + known, no poet celebrated their fame. It is just so with the + beauties of nature; they must be brought into notice by + words and delineations, be brought before the eyes of the + multitude; get a sort of world's patent for what they are. + The elvs of the North have rushed and whirled along for + thousands of years in unknown beauty. The world's great + high-road does not take this direction; no steam-packet + conveys the traveller comfortably along the streams of the + Dal-elvs; fall on fall makes sluices indispensable and + invaluable. Schubert is, as yet, the only stranger who has + written about the magnificence and southern beauty of + Dalecarlia, and spoken of its greatness. + + "Clear as the waves of the sea does the mighty elv stream in + endless windings through forest deserts and varying plains, + sometimes extending its deep bed, sometimes confining it, + reflecting the bending trees and the red-painted + block-houses of solitary towns, and sometimes rushing like a + cataract over immense blocks of rock. + + "Miles apart from one another, out of the ridge of mountains + between Sweden and Norway, come the east and west Dal-elvs, + which first become confluent and have one bed above Balstad. + They have taken up rivers and lakes in their waters. Do but + visit this place! here are pictorial riches to be found: the + most picturesque landscapes, dizzyingly grand, smilingly + pastoral, idyllic; one is drawn onward up to the very source + of the elv, the bubbling well above Finman's hut; one feels + a desire to follow every branch of the stream that the river + takes in. + + "The first mighty fall, Njupesker's Cataract, is seen by the + Norwegian frontier in Semasog. The mountain stream rushes + perpendicularly from the rock to a depth of seventy fathoms. + + "We pause in the dark forest, where the elv seems to collect + within itself nature's whole deep gravity. The stream rolls + its clear waters over a porphyry soil, where the mill-wheel + is driven, and the gigantic porphyry bowls and sarcophagi + are polished. + + "We follow the stream through Siljan's lake, where + superstition sees the water-sprite swim like the sea-horse, + with a mane of green seaweed; and where the aerial images + present visions of witchcraft in the warm summer day. + + "We sail on the stream from Siljan's lake under the weeping + willows of the parsonage, where the swans assemble in + flocks; we glide along slowly with horses and carriages on + the great ferry-boat, away over the rapid current under + Balstad's picturesque shore. Here the elv widens and rolls + its billows majestically in a woodland landscape, as large + and extended as if it were in North America. + + "We see the rushing, rapid stream under Avista's yellow clay + declivities; the yellow water falls, like fluid amber, in + picturesque cataracts before the copper works, where + rainbow-colored tongues of fire shoot themselves upwards, + and the hammer's blow on the copper-plates resound to the + monotonous, roaring rumble of the elv-fall." + +And so on, past the famous fall down which the waters gush, ere they +lose themselves in the waters of the Baltic. One glimpse more ere they +reach their resting-place. We take them up as they are circling the +garden of a trim Swedish manor-house: + + "The garden itself was a piece of enchantment. There stood + three transplanted beech trees, and they throve well. The + sharp north wind had rounded off the tops of the wild + chestnut trees of the avenue in a singular manner; they + looked as if they had been under the gardener's shears. + Golden yellow oranges hung in the conservatory; the splendid + Southern exotics had to-day got the windows half open, so + that the artificial warmth met the fresh, warm, sunny air of + the Northern summer. + + "The branch of the Dal-elv which goes round the garden is + strewn with small islands, where beautiful hanging birches + and fir-trees grow in Scandinavian splendor. There are small + islands with green, silent groves; there are small islands + with rich grass, tall brakens, variegated bell flowers, and + cowslips. No Turkey carpet has fresher colors. The stream + between these islands and holmes is sometimes rapid, deep, + and clear; sometimes like a broad rivulet with silky green + rushes, water lilies, and brown feathered reeds; sometimes + it is a brook with a stony ground, and now it spreads itself + out in a large, still mill-dam. + + "Here is a landscape in midsummer for the games of the + river-sprites, and the dancers of the elves and fairies! + There, in the lustre of the full moon, the dryads can tell + their tales, the water-sprites seize the golden harp, and + believe that one can be blessed, at least for one single + night, like this. + + "On the other side of Ens Bruck is the main stream--the full + Dal-elv. Do you hear the monotonous rumble? It is not from + Elvkarleby Fall that it reaches hither; it is close by; it + is from Laa Foss in which lies Ash Island: the elv streams + and rushes over the leaping salmon. + + "Let us sit here, between the fragments of rock by the + shore, in the red evening sunlight, which sheds a golden + lustre on the waters of the Dal-elv. + + "Glorious river! But a few seconds' work hast thou to do in + the mills yonder, and thou rushest foaming on over + Elvkarleby's rocks, down into the deep bed of the river, + which leads thee to the Baltic--thy eternity." + +We could fill half our number with passages just as beautiful; but +will leave the rest of the poet's landscapes till some American +publisher brings out the book. We must nevertheless quote one picture +of a different kind. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin;" +and the sorrows of the palace and the cottage alike find their level +and their rest in the grave. The "Mute Book" speaks with a moving +eloquence to those who can read it aright: + + "By the high-road into the forest there stood a solitary + farm-house. One way lay right through the farm-yard; the sun + shone; all the windows were open; there was life and bustle + within, but in the yard, in an arbor of flowering lilacs, + there stood an open coffin. The corpse had been placed out + here, and it was to be buried that forenoon. No one stood + by, and wept over that dead man; no one hung sorrowfully + over him. His face was covered with a white cloth, and under + his head there lay a large, thick book, every leaf of which + was a whole sheet of gray paper, and, between each, lay + withered flowers, deposited and forgotten,--a whole + herbarium, gathered in different places. He himself had + requested that it should be laid in the grave with him. A + chapter of his life was blended with every flower! 'Who is + that dead man?' we asked, and the answer was, 'The old + student from Upsala. They say he was once very clever; he + knew the learned languages, could sing and write verses too; + but then there was something that went wrong, and so he gave + both his thoughts and himself up to drinking spirits, and, + as his health suffered by it, he came out here into the + country, where they paid for his board and lodging. He was + as gentle as a child when the dark humor did not come over + him, for then he was strong, and ran about in the forest + like a hunted deer; but when we got him home, we persuaded + him to look into the book with the dry plants. Then he would + sit the whole day, and look at one plant, and then at + another, and many a time the tears ran down his cheeks. God + knows what he then thought! But he begged that he might have + the book with him in his coffin; and now it lies there, and + the lid will soon be fastened down, and then he will take + his peaceful rest in the grave!' + + "They raised the winding sheet. There was peace in the face + of the dead. A sunbeam fell on it; a swallow, in its + arrow-flight, darted into the new-made arbor, and in its + flight circled twittering over the dead man's head. + + "How strange it is!--we all assuredly know it--to take out + old letters from the days of one's youth, and read them: a + whole life, as it were, then rises up, with all its hopes + and all its troubles. How many of those with whom we, in + their time, lived so devotedly, are now even as the dead to + us, and yet they still live! But we have not thought of them + for many years--them whom we once thought we should always + cling to, and share our mutual joys and sorrows with! + + "The withered oak-leaf in the book here, is a memorial of + the friend--the friend of his school days--the friend for + life. He fixed this leaf on the student's cap, in the + greenwood, when the vow of friendship was concluded for the + whole life. Where does he now live? The leaf is preserved; + friendship forgotten. Here is a foreign conservatory plant, + too fine for the gardens of the North. It looks as if there + still were fragrance in it. _She_ gave it to him--she, the + lady of that noble garden! + + "Here is the marsh-lotus, which, he himself has plucked and + watered with salt tears--the marsh-lotus from the fresh + waters! And here is a nettle; what do its leaves say! What + did he think on plucking it?--on preserving it? Here are + lilies of the valley, from the woodland solitudes; here are + honeysuckles from the village ale-house flower-pot; and here + the bare, sharp blade of grass. The flowering lilac bends + its fresh, fragrant clusters over the dead man's head; the + swallow again flies past--'qui-vit! qui-vit!' Now the men + come with nails and hammer; the lid is placed over the + corpse, whose head rests on the 'Mute + Book'--preserved--forgotten!" + +The book, to those who are not repelled by a certain quaintness of +manner from the enjoyment of a work of true genius, will form a +permanent and delightful addition to those pictures of many lands +which the enterprise and accomplishment of modern travellers is +creating for the delight of those whose range of locomotion is bounded +by the limits of their own country, or by the four walls of a sick +chamber. + +Andersen has grown old in years, and with age he has increase of art, +but he was never younger in spirit, and his genius never blossomed +with more freshness and beauty. + + + + +VERSES + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, + +BY R. H. STODDARD. + + + My desk is heaped with niceties + From tropic lands divine, + But this is braver far than all-- + A flask of Chian wine! + + Brim up my golden drinking-cup, + And reach a dish of fruit, + And then unlock my cabinet, + And hand me out my lute; + + For when these luxuries have fed + And filled my brain with light, + I must compose a nuptial song, + To suit my bridal night! + + + + +A CHAPTER OF PARODIES. + + +Parodies have been much in vogue in almost every age; among the +Greeks, Latins, Germans, French, and English, it has been among the +commonest of literary pleasantries to turn verses into ridicule by +applying them to a purpose never dreamed of by their authors, or to +burlesque serious pieces by affecting to observe the same rhymes, +words, and cadences. The wicked arts of Charles the Second's time thus +made fun of the hymns of the Roundheads, and pious people have since +turned the tables by adapting to good uses the profane airs and +sensual songs of the opera house. Of the class of puns, parodies have +in the scale of art a much higher rank, and occasionally they furnish +specimens of genuine poetry. Among the best we have ever seen are a +considerable number attributed to Miss Phebe Carey, of Ohio; they are +rich in quaint and natural humor, and as a London critic describes +them, "wonderfully American." In its way, we have seen nothing better +than this reflex of Bayard Taylor's poem of "Manuela." + + +MARTHA HOPKINS. + +A BALLAD OF INDIANA. + + From the kitchen, Martha Hopkins, as she stood there making pies, + Southward looks along the turnpike, with her hand above her eyes; + Where along the distant hill-side, her yearling heifer feeds, + And a little grass is growing in a mighty sight of weeds. + + All the air is full of noises, for there isn't any school, + And boys, with turned-up pantaloons, are wading in the pool; + Blithely frisk, unnumbered chickens cackling for they cannot laugh, + Where the airy summits brighten, nimbly leaps the little calf. + + Gentle eyes of Martha Hopkins! tell me wherefore do ye gaze + On the ground that's being furrowed for the planting of the maize? + Tell me wherefore down the valley, ye have traced the turnpike's way, + Far beyond the cattle pasture, and the brick-yard with its clay? + + Ah! the dog-wood tree may blossom, and the door-yard grass may shine, + With the tears of amber dropping from the washing on the line; + And the morning's breath of balsam, lightly brush her freckled cheek,-- + Little recketh Martha Hopkins of the tales of spring they speak. + + When the summer's burning solstice on the scanty harvest glowed, + She had watched a man on horseback riding down the turnpike road; + Many times she saw him turning, looking backward quite forlorn, + Till amid her tears she lost him, in the shadow of the barn. + + Ere supper-time was over, he had passed the kiln of brick, + Crossed the rushing Yellow River and had forded quite a creek, + And his flat-boat load was taken, at the time for pork and beans, + With the traders of the Wabash, to the wharf at New Orleans. + + Therefore watches Martha Hopkins--holding in her hands the pans, + When the sound of distant footsteps seems exactly like a man's; + Not a wind the stove-pipe rattles, nor a door behind her jars, + But she seems to hear the rattle of his letting down the bars. + + Often sees she men on horseback, coming down the turnpike rough, + But they come not as John Jackson, she can see it well enough; + Well she knows the sober trotting of the sorrel horse he keeps, + As he jogs along at leisure with his head down like a sheep's. + + She would know him 'mid a thousand, by his home-made coat and vest; + By his socks, which were blue woollen, such as farmers wear out west; + By the color of his trousers, and his saddle, which was spread + By a blanket which was taken for that purpose from the bed. + + None like he the yoke of hickory, on the unbroke ox can throw, + None amid his father's corn-fields use like him the spade and hoe; + And at all the apple-cuttings, few indeed the men are seen, + That can dance with him the polka, touch with him the violin. + + He has said to Martha Hopkins, and she thinks she hears him now, + For she knows as well as can be, that he meant to keep his vow, + When the buck-eye tree has blossomed, and your uncle plants his corn, + Shall the bells of Indiana usher in the wedding morn. + + He has pictured his relations, each in Sunday hat and gown, + And he thinks he'll get a carriage, and they'll spend a day in town; + That their love will newly kindle, and what comfort it will give, + To sit down to the first breakfast, in the cabin where they'll live. + + Tender eyes of Martha Hopkins! what has got you in such scrape, + 'Tis a tear that falls to glitter on the ruffle of her cape, + Ah! the eye of love may brighten, to be certain what it sees, + One man looks much like another, when half hidden by the trees. + + But her eager eyes rekindle, she forgets the pies and bread, + As she sees a man on horseback, round the corner of the shed. + Now tie on another apron, get the comb and smooth your hair, + 'Tis the sorrel horse that gallops, 'tis John Jackson's self that's there! + +Here is one scarcely less happy upon Mr. Willis's "Better Moments:" + + +WORSER MOMENTS. + + That fellow's voice! how often steals + Its cadence o'er my lonely days! + Like something sent on wagon wheels, + Or packed in an unconscious chaise. + I might forget the words he said + When all the children fret and cry, + But when I get them off to bed, + His gentle tone comes stealing by-- + And years of matrimony flee, + And leave me sitting on his knee. + + The times he came to court a spell, + The tender things he said to me, + Make me remember mighty well + My hopes that he'd propose to me. + My face is uglier, and perhaps + Time and the comb have thinned my hair; + And plain and common are the caps, + And dresses that I have to wear-- + But memory is ever yet + With all that fellow's flat'ries writ. + + I have been out at milking-time + Beneath a dull and rainy sky, + When in the barn 'twas time to feed, + And calves were bawling lustily-- + When scattered hay, and sheaves of oats, + And yellow corn-ears, sound and hard, + And all that makes the cattle pass + With wilder richness through the yard-- + When all was hateful, then have I, + With friends who had to help me milk, + Talked of his wife most spitefully, + And how he kept her dressed in silk; + And when the cattle, running there, + Threw over me a shower of mud, + That fellow's voice came on the air, + Like the light chewing of the cud-- + And resting near some spreckled cow, + The spirit of a woman's spite, + I've poured a low and fervent vow, + To make him, if I had the might, + Live all his life-time just as hard, + And milk his cows in such a yard. + + I have been out to pick up wood + When night was stealing from the dawn, + Before the fire was burning good, + Or I had put the kettle on + The little stove--when babes were waking + With a low murmur in the beds, + And melody by fits was breaking + Above their little yellow heads-- + And this when I was up perhaps + From a few short and troubled naps-- + And when the sun sprang scorchingly + And freely up, and made us stifle, + And fell upon each hill and tree + The bullets from his subtle rifle-- + I say a voice has thrilled me then, + Hard by that solemn pile of wood, + Or creeping from the silent glen, + Like something on the unfledged brood, + Hath stricken me, and I have pressed + Close in my arms my load of chips, + And pouring forth the hatefulest + Of words that ever passed my lips, + Have felt my woman's spirit rush + On me, as on that milking night, + And, yielding to the blessed gush + Of my ungovernable spite, + Have risen up, the wed, the old, + Scolding as hard as I could scold. + +And in the same vein "The Annoyer," in which is imitated one of the +most delicate pieces of sentiment and fancy which Willis has given us: + + +THE ANNOYER. + + "Common as light is love, + And its familiar voice wearies not ever."--SHELLEY. + + Love knoweth every body's house, + And every human haunt, + And comes unbidden, every where, + Like people we don't want. + The turnpike roads and little creeks + Are written with love's words, + And you hear his voice like a thousand bricks + In the lowing of the herds. + + He peeps into the teamster's heart, + From his Buena Vista's rim, + And the cracking whips of many men + Can never frighten him. + He'll come to his cart in the weary night, + When he's dreaming of his craft; + And he'll float to his eye in the morning light, + Like a man on a river raft. + + He hears the sound of the cooper's adz, + And makes him too his dupe, + For he sighs in his ear from the shaving pile + As he hammers on the hoop. + The little girl, the beardless boy, + The men that walk or stand, + He will get them all in his mighty arms + Like the grasp of your very hand. + + The shoemaker bangs above his bench, + And ponders his shining awl, + For love is under the lap-stone hid, + And a spell is on the wall. + It heaves the sole where he drives the pegs, + And speaks in every blow, + 'Till the last is dropped from his crafty hand, + And his foot hangs bare below. + + He blurs the prints which the shopmen sell, + And intrudes on the hatter's trade, + And profanes the hostler's stable-yard + In the shape of a chamber-maid. + In the darkest night, and the bright daylight, + Knowing that he can win, + In every home of good-looking folks + Will human love come in. + +The next is from Poe's "Annabel Lee:" + + +SAMUEL BROWN. + + It was many and many a year ago, + In a dwelling down in town, + That a fellow there lived whom you may know + By the name of Samuel Brown; + And this fellow he lived with no other thought + Than to our house to come down. + + I was a child and he was a child, + In that dwelling down in town, + But we loved with a love that was more than love, + I and my Samuel Brown-- + With a love that the ladies coveted, + Me and Samuel Brown. + + And this was the reason that, long ago, + To that dwelling down in town, + A girl came out of her carriage, courting + My beautiful Samuel Brown; + So that her high-bred kinsman came + And bore away Samuel Brown, + And shut him up in a dwelling-house, + In a street quite up in town. + + The ladies, not half so happy up there, + Went envying me and Brown; + Yes! that was the reason, (as all men know, + In this dwelling down in town,) + That the girl came out of the carriage by night + Coquetting and getting my Samuel Brown. + + But our love is more artful by far than the love + Of those who are older than we-- + Of many far wiser than we-- + And neither the girls that are living above, + Nor the girls that are down in town, + Can ever discover my soul from the soul + Of the beautiful Samuel Brown. + + For the morn never shines without bringing me lines + From my beautiful Samuel Brown; + And the night is never dark, but I sit in the park + With my beautiful Samuel Brown. + And often by day, I walk down in Broadway, + With my darling, my darling, my life, and my stay, + To our dwelling down in town, + To our house in the street down town. + +The two poems that have been most parodied in this country are the +"Woodman spare that tree," of General Morris, and Poe's "Raven." There +have been an incredible number of burlesques of the former, and of the +latter we have seen a collection of seventeen, some of which are +scarcely less clever than the original performance. + + + + +THE BRITISH HUMORISTS: DESCRIBED + +BY MR. THACKERAY. + + +In the last _International_, we gave sketches of the first and second +of the series of lectures Mr. Thackeray is now delivering in London, a +series which we may regard with more interest because it is to be +repeated in Boston, New-York, and other American cities. The subjects +of the lectures already noticed were SWIFT, CONGREVE, and ADDISON. The +third lecture was upon + + SIR RICHARD STEELE. + + "Having," says the _Times_, "to deal with a personage whose + character was any thing but perfection, Mr. Thackeray + started with a good-humored declamation against perfection + in general. A perfect man would be intolerable--he could not + laugh and he could not cry, neither could he hate nor even + love, for love itself implied an unjust preference of one + person over another, which was so far an imperfection. The + interest which a man takes in the progress of his own boy at + school, while he is indifferent about other boys who are + probably better and more clever, his choice that a death + should occur in his neighbor's house rather than in his own, + and various traits of a similar kind, are all so many + manifestations of selfishness, and therefore so many removes + from perfection. + + "After this preface, Mr. Thackeray discoursed upon Steele's + career at school. At the Charter-house he distinguished + himself as a good-natured _mauvais sujet_--idle beyond the + average mark. By his scholastic acquisitions he gave little + satisfaction to his masters, and was flogged more frequently + than any boy in the school. Moreover, he was in debt to all + the vendors of juvenile delicacies in the neighborhood; and, + if any boy came to school with money to lend, Dick Steele + was certain to appear as the person to borrow. These facts, + given with much minuteness, were followed by an assertion on + the part of the lecturer that he had no authority for them + whatever. It was an admitted truth that 'the child is the + father of the man,' and on this principle he felt he had a + right, from his intimate knowledge of Captain Steele, to + deduce what sort of a personage Master Dicky Steele was + likely to be. + + "This bit of mock biography gave the key-note to the entire + lecture. While Mr. Thackeray admitted that Steele was a far + less brilliant man than any who had formed the subjects of + the preceding discourses, and far less entitled to + admiration than Addison, he spoke of him in a tone of warmer + affection than he had displayed when talking of the great + Joseph. He dilated with unction on Steele's many follies and + vices--his strange medley of piety and debauchery, his + inordinate love of dress, his insensibility as to the duty + of meeting pecuniary obligations; he even read an + ill-natured description by John Dennis, remarking that it + was substantially true, but at the same time he constantly + kept before the minds of his hearers the kindliness of + Steele's heart. He did not call upon them to worship him as + a moral being or as a talent, aware that many others much + more deserved such honor, but he exhorted them to love him + as a friend: 'If Steele is not a friend, he is nothing.' + + "The great number of letters which Steele wrote to his wife, + and which are still extant, furnished Mr. Thackeray with + much of the knowledge he possessed as to the character of + his hero. With these he could pursue him through every + variety of joy and sorrow, difficulty and triumph, and, as + they were evidently written for none but her to whom they + were addressed, he could be sure that the writer spoke from + his own heart. On the literary productions of Steele, Mr. + Thackeray dwelt very little, but he pointed out in them this + peculiarity, that the author showed a reverence for woman + unknown to his contemporaries. Swift hated women just as he + hated men; Congreve regarded them as so many fortresses to + be conquered by a superior general; even Addison sneered at + them with a gentle sneer; but Steele really spoke of them in + a tone of affectionate respect, and this gives a charm to + his comedies not to be found in more brilliant productions. + + "Mr. Thackeray took occasion to illustrate by these extracts + the characteristic differences of Swift, Addison, and + Steele. He had already drawn a ludicrous picture of the + relative positions of Steele and Addison, remarking that the + latter had been through life to the former what a 'head boy' + is to an inferior boy at school. Now by Swift's poem on the + 'Day of Judgment'--an extract from the _Spectator_, + containing Addison's reflections in Westminster Abbey--and a + passage from Steele, he showed how the subject of Death was + treated by the three writers. Swift's poem savagely treats + as fools all who pretend to know any thing beyond the grave, + including the teachers of the several sects. Addison's tone + was kinder, but, while he was benevolent in his skepticism, + he came to nearly the same result as the ferocious Dean. + Steele, on the other hand, was content to remember, as his + first grief, the death of his father, when he was five years + old, and the dignified sorrow of his mother. + + "By way of an additional comical apology for the foibles of + Steele, Mr. Thackeray concluded his lecture by remarking on + the atrocities of the age when poor Dick lived,--an age when + young ladies, at dinner, actually put their knives into + their mouths. The social peculiarities of the period he + illustrated by a sort of summary of Swift's _Polite + Conversation_, which led up to an ironical praise of the + nineteenth century, as a century whose anomalies are + unknown." + +The fourth lecture on the humorists was of Prior, Gay, and Pope, Mr. +Thackeray choosing to consider Pope, who was not a humorist, but a +wit, the greatest humorist of all: + + MATHEW PRIOR. + + "Prior he characterizes as the foremost of lucky wits, + abounding in good nature and acuteness. He loved--he + drank--he sang. Some verses at Cambridge first rendered him + an object of notice, and by the 'City Mouse and Country + Mouse,' which, jointly with Montague, he wrote against + Dryden, and which, Mr. Thackeray ironically asserted, all + his hearers knew, of course, by heart, he gained the post of + Secretary to the Embassy at the Hague, in accordance with + the usage then prevalent of rewarding a talent for correct + alcaics or biting epigrams with important diplomatic + appointments. However, his fortune was but transient, since + he fell with his patron Montague. As a poet, Mr. Thackeray + praised Prior highly, calling him the most charming of + English lyrists, and comparing him with Horace on one side + and Moore on the other. At the same time he referred to a + certain statement that Prior, after he had spent the evening + with the first men of the day, would retire to Long-acre to + smoke a pipe with two very intimate acquaintances--a soldier + and his wife--adding that many of his writings seemed to be + under the influence of his Long-acre friends." + + + JOHN GAY. + + "Gay was pointed out as a remarkable instance of kindliness + and good humor, gaining the love even of the most savage + wits of the day, and incurring the hatred of none. The + ferocious giant Swift loved him as the Brobdignag loved + Gulliver, and was afraid to open the packet which contained + the tidings of his death. This kindliness is an especial + feature in Gay's writings, even in his _Beggars' Opera_, and + as Rubini was said to have, 'une larme dans la voix,' so was + there in all that Gay produced a tone of the gentlest + pathos. This peculiarity he illustrated by reading the well + known story of the two devoted lovers struck dead by + lightning. As for Gay's life, it was easy enough. He failed, + indeed, to make his fortune, but he led a comfortable + existence with his noble patrons the Duke and Duchess of + Queensbury, living like a little round French _abbe_, eating + and drinking well and growing more melancholy as he + increased in fat." + + + ALEXANDER POPE. + + "For a guaranty of Pope's merits, Mr. Thackeray especially + referred to the _Rape of the Lock_ and the _Dunciad_. He + insisted on his claims to admiration as a great literary + artist, always bent on the perfection of his work and gladly + adopting the thoughts of others if they would serve to + complete his own. This peculiarity of carefulness was early + shown in the fact that Pope began by imitation. The five + happiest years of his life were devoted to the study of the + best authors, especially poets, and the intellectual + enjoyment was heightened by the feeling that genius was + throbbing in his heart and awakening within him dreams of + future glory. He too should sing--he too should love. Of + love, indeed, Pope did not make a great deal, and as his + addresses to Lady Wortley Montague were a failure, so was + his first amour a sham love for a sham mistress. A + particular pleasure in reading the works of Pope consists in + the fact that they bring the reader into the very best + company--a company whose manners are, to be sure, a little + stiff and stately, and whose voices are pitched somewhat + beyond the ordinary conversation key, but there is something + ennobling about them. _Apropos_ of this peculiarity, Mr. + Thackeray took occasion to dwell with great unction on the + advantages of high society, and said, for the benefit of any + young hearer who might be present, 'Young hearer, keep + company with your betters.' Addison, as we have seen, is Mr. + Thackeray's moral hero. He considers, however, that he has + one great blemish in his dislike of Alexander Pope. The + young poet was too conscious of his own powers to be a mere + attendant at the Court of King Joseph, and King Joseph did + not like this independence. The support given by the Addison + _clique_ to Tickell's translation of Homer might naturally + enough be construed by the Pope faction as proceeding from + an ungenerous wish to depreciate their chieftain's version, + and they might easily suppose that what was emulation in + Tickell was envy in Addison. The verses which Pope wrote on + this occasion and sent to Addison, had the satisfactory + effect that the great Joseph was civil ever afterwards. But + still Mr. Thackeray surmised that their sting was never + forgotten, and that the saintly Addison might be painted as + a Sebastian, with this one arrow sticking in him. + + "The causes that led to the writing of the _Dunciad_ were + laid down, chiefly with a view of justifying the author, + though Mr. Thackeray admitted that Pope's arrows are so + sharp, and his slaughter so wholesale, that the reader's + sympathies are often enlisted on the side of the devoted + inhabitants of Grub-street. The vile jokes and libels that + were aimed against the illustrious poet, and the paltry + allusions to his personal defects, were brought forward as + sufficient motives; and the lecturer dwelt with admiration + on the personal courage which the "gallant little cripple" + displayed when the indignant dunces threatened him with + corporeal chastisement. At the same time, he declared it his + conviction that the _Dunciad_ had done the greatest possible + harm to the literary profession. Prior to its publication + there were great prizes for literary men in the shape of + government appointments and the like; but Pope, a lover of + high society--a man so refined that he kept thin while his + friends grew fat--hated the rank and file of literature, and + if there was one point in his assailants on which he dwelt + with savage partiality, it was their abject poverty. He it + was who brought the notion of a vile Grub-street before the + minds of the general public; he it was who created such + associations as author and rags--author and dirt--author and + gin. The occupation of authorship became ignoble through his + graphic descriptions of misery, and the literary profession + was for a long time destroyed. + + "Pope's well known affection for his mother, on which Mr. + Thackeray feelingly expatiated, and the love which his + friends entertained for him, were introduced as a + sentimental relief in describing the character of a man + whose career Mr. Thackeray compared to that of a great + general, obtaining his end by a series of brilliant + conquests." + + + HOGARTH, SMOLLETT, AND FIELDING. + + "In his fifth lecture," says the _Leader_, "Mr. Thackeray + dwelt at great length on Hogarth, and pointed out how much + of his success lay in the simple conventional morals of his + works; gave a graphic analysis of the _Marriage a la Mode_ + and the _Idle and Industrious Apprentices_; and humorously + set forth Hogarth's pretensions to the sublime in historical + painting. Smollett was dismissed in a few pleasant + paragraphs. Fielding called out the hearty admiration of the + author of _Vanity Fair_; and amidst the panegyric there were + some admirable passages, notably one on the scorn and hatred + Richardson and Fielding unaffectedly felt for each other, + and the sincerity which may animate even the most + contemptuous criticism. The opinions Thackeray stamps with + his authority, we constantly find open to question; but it + is not as a Course of Criticism that these Lectures have + their inexpressible charm, and it would be possible for a + man to dissent _in toto_ from the views put forth, while at + the same time he held them to be among the most delightful + lectures he ever listened to." + + + STERNE AND GOLDSMITH. + + In the sixth and last lecture of the course, Mr. Thackeray's + subjects were Sterne and Goldsmith. He stigmatized severely + all Sterne's relations with women, showed up the sham + sensibility which wept through his writings, dwelt on the + perilous thing it was to make a market of one's sorrows, and + sell the deepest experiences of one's life at so much per + volume, and wound up with an emphatic condemnation of the + pruriency of Sterne's writings, contrasting that pruriency + with the purity of Dickens. All the generosity, sweetness, + and improvidence of Goldsmith's Irish nature were earnestly + and genially presented. + +This course of lectures has been described as "a review of the +humorists, by their master," but Mr. Thackeray is not a humorist--at +least humor is not his distinguishing quality; he is a cold satirist, +sneering at humanity, and in all his writings never exhibiting a spark +of the genial fire which should commend an author to the affections of +his readers. Gentlemen may be amused by him--he may be even +punctilious and sincere in the observance of all honorable +conduct--but judging him by his works, he is one of the last men +living whom any person with the instincts of a gentleman would admit +to his friendship. Some of his books are amazingly clever, but others, +as the _Kickleburys on the Rhine_, are but unredeemable vulgarity. He +has been taken up very much by the snobs--a class somewhat remarkable +for misapprehensions of their real relations--and we find the snobs of +this country as well as of England lauding the satirist as an enemy of +their own peculiar caste. This is a mistake: Mr. Thackeray has painted +to the life the sentimental snob, indeed, but he is himself a chief of +a different and far less endurable class in this division of the +race--_the snob cynical and supercilious_. + + + + +ALRED. + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE, + +BY ELMINA WALDO CAREY. + + + Do you remember, Alred dear, + The peach-tree's cool and ample shade, + Where first our hearts learned love and fear, + And vows of constancy were made? + + The peach-tree stands there, now as then, + Its shadow just as dim and mild, + And over all the sacred glen + The vines of strawberries run wild. + + Still all about the water's edge + Beds of green flags in beauty lie, + And, sloping towards the elder-hedge, + Are fields of graceful waving rye. + + But, Alred dear, not by our feet + Will the round clover-heads be pressed, + For years must pass before we meet + In that dear valley of the west. + + Sometimes my heart is filled with fear, + Yet if not, Alred, in that land, + 'Tis bliss to know, in some bright sphere + You'll wait to take my trembling hand. + + + + +CHRISTOPHER NORTH ON ANIMAL MAGNETISM. + + +The July number of _Blackwood's Magazine_ has a long paper under the +title of _What is Mesmerism?_ in which the question is discussed with +ingenuity, apparent candor, and occasional eloquence. The editor, +however, does not altogether agree with his contributor, and adds to +the article the following postscript. Undoubtedly a large proportion +of the "professors of magnetism" are mere mountebanks, and the +pretenders to clairvoyance may in all cases probably be set down as +knaves, or as very ignorant or feeble-minded persons. Nevertheless, we +cannot quite agree with Professor Wilson in all his propositions: + + WHAT IS MESMERISM? + + "It must be admitted that our excellent correspondent has + set forth the claims of 'Adolphe' and 'Alexis,' and similar + interesting abstractions, to the powers of omnipresence and + omniscience, with great candor and becoming gravity. We are + sorry that we cannot follow what many of our readers may + consider so excellent an example. We have no faith in those + dear creatures without surnames: we have no faith in animal + magnetism, either in its lesser or in its larger + pretensions; but we have an unbounded faith in the + imbecility, infatuation, vanity, credulity, and knavery of + which human nature is capable. And we are of opinion that + there is not a single well-authenticated mesmeric phenomenon + which is not fully explicable by the operation of one or + more of these causes, or of the whole of them taken in + conjunction. + + "The question in regard to mesmerism is two-fold: _first_, + how is the mesmeric prostration to be accounted for? and + _secondly_, how is it to be disposed of? It may be accounted + for, we conceive, by the natural tendencies just recited, + without its being necessary to postulate any new or unknown + agency; it may be disposed of by the influence of public + opinion, which would very soon put a stop to these pitiable + exhibitions, and very soon extinguish the magnetizer's power + and the patient's susceptibility, if it were but to visit + the performers with the contempt and reprobation they + deserve. A few words on each of these heads may not be out + of place, as a qualifying postscript to the foregoing + letter, which, in our opinion, treats the mesmeric + superstition with far too much indulgence. + + "I. The existence of any physical force or fluid in man or + in nature, by which the mesmeric phenomena are induced, has + been distinctly disproved by every carefully conducted + experiment. _No person was ever magnetized when totally + unsuspicious of the operation of which he was the subject._ + This is conclusive; because a physical agent, which never + does, _of itself_ and unheralded, produce any effect, is no + physical agent at all. Then, again, let certain persons be + prepared for the magnetic condition, and aware of what is + expected of them, and the effects are equally produced, + whether the intended influence be exerted or not. It seems + simply ridiculous to postulate an _odylic_ (we should like + to be favored with the derivation of this word) fluid to + account for phenomena which show themselves just as + conspicuously when no such fluid is or can be in operation. + + "But it is argued by some of the advocates of mesmeric + influence, that their agent, though perhaps not physical, is + at any rate moral--that the will, or some spiritual energy + on the part of the mesmerist, is the power by which his + victims are entranced and rendered obedient to his bidding. + Here, too, all the well-authenticated cases establish a + totally different conclusion. They prove that the will or + spiritual power of the mesmerist has _of itself_ no + ascendency or control whatsoever over the body or mind of + his victim. Every well-guarded series of experiments has + exhibited the mesmerist and his patient at cross-purposes + with each other--the patient frequently doing those things + which the mesmerist was desirous he should not do, and not + doing those things which the operator was desirous he should + do. As for the buffoonery begotten by mesmerism on + phrenology, this exhibition can scarcely be expected to + provoke much astonishment, or credence, or comment, except + among professional artists themselves-- + + 'Like Katterfelto, with their hair on end, + At their own wonders, _wondering for their bread_!' + + "The true explanation of mesmerism is to be found, as we + have said, in the weakness or infatuation of human nature + itself. No other causes are at all necessary to account for + the mesmeric prostration. There is far more craziness, both + physical and moral, in man than he usually gives himself + credit for. The reservoir of human folly may be in a great + measure occult, but it is always full; and all that + silliness, whether of body or mind, at any time wants, is + _to get its cue_. + + "These general remarks are of course more applicable to some + individuals than they are to others. In soft and weak + natures, where the nervous system is subject to cataleptic + seizures, mental and bodily prostration is frequently almost + the normal condition. Such of our readers as may have + frequented mesmeric exhibitions must have observed a kind of + _semi-humanity_ visible in the expression and demeanor of + most of the subjects whom the professional operators carry + about with them. These poor creatures are at all times ready + to imbibe the magnetic stupefaction, because it is only by + an effort that they are ever free from it. There is always + at work within them an occult tendency to + self-abandonment--an unintentional proclivity to + aberration, imitation, and deceit, which only requires a + signal to precipitate its morbid deposits. This + constitutional infirmity of body and of mind furnishes to + the mesmerist a basis for his operations, and is the source + of all the wonders which he works. + + "It is only in the case of individuals who, without being + fatuous, are hovering on the verge of fatuity, that the + magnetic phenomena and the mesmeric prostration can be + admitted to be in any considerable degree real. Real to a + certain extent they may be; marvellous they certainly are + not. Imbecility of the nervous system, a ready abandonment + of the will, a facility in relinquishing every endowment + which makes man _human_--these intelligible causes, eked out + by a vanity and cunning which are always inherent in natures + of an inferior type, are quite sufficient to account for the + effects of the mesmeric manipulations on subjects of + peculiar softness and pliancy. + + "In those persons of a better organized structure, who yield + themselves up to the mesmeric degradation, the physical + causes are less operative; but the moral causes are still + more influential. In all cases the prostration is + self-induced. But in the subjects of whom we have spoken, it + is mainly induced by physical depravity, although moral + frailties concur to bring about the condition. In persons of + a superior type, the condition is mainly due to moral + causes, although physical imbecility has some share in + facilitating the result. These people have much vanity, much + curiosity, and much credulity, together with a _weak_ + imagination--that is to say, an imagination which is easily + excited by circumstances which would produce no effect upon + people of stronger imaginative powers. Their vanity shows + itself in the desire _to astonish others_, and get + themselves talked about. They think it rather creditable to + be susceptible subjects. It is a point in their favor! Their + credulity and curiosity take the form of a powerful wish _to + be astonished themselves_. Why should they be excluded from + a land of wonders which others are permitted to enter? The + first step is now taken. They are ready for the sacrifice, + which various motives concur to render agreeable. They + resign themselves passively, mind and body, into the hands + of the manipulator; and by his passes and grimaces, they are + cowed pleasurably, bullied delightfully, into _so much_ of + the condition which their inclinations are bent upon + attaining, as justifies them, they think, in laying claim to + the _whole_ condition, without bringing them under the + imputation of being downright impostors. _Downright_ + impostors they unquestionably are not. We believe that their + condition is frequently, though to a very limited extent, + _real_. We must also consider, that, in a matter of this + kind, which is so deeply imbued with the ridiculous, a + mesmeric patient may, and doubtless often does, justify to + his own conscience a considerable deviation from the truth, + on the ground of waggery or hoaxing. Why should an audience, + which has the patience to put up with such spectacles, not + be fooled to the top of its bent? + + "II. How, then, is the miserable nonsense to be disposed of? + It can only be put a stop to by the force of public opinion, + guided of course by reason and truth. Let it be announced + from all authoritative quarters that the magnetic + sensibility is only another name for an unsound condition of + the mental and bodily functions--that it may be always + accepted as an infallible index of the position which an + individual occupies in the scale of humanity--that its + manifestation (when real) invariably betokens a _physique_ + and a _morale_ greatly below the average, and a character to + which no respect can be attached. Let this + announcement--which is the undoubted truth--be made by all + respectable organs of public opinion, and by all who are in + any way concerned in the diffusion of knowledge, or in the + instruction of the rising generation, and the magnetic + superstition will rapidly decline. Let this--the correct and + scientific explanation of the phenomena--be understood and + considered carefully by all young people of both sexes, and + the mesmeric ranks will be speedily thinned of their + recruits. Our young friends who may have been entrapped into + this infatuation by want of due consideration, will be wiser + for the future. If they allow themselves to be experimented + upon, they will at any rate take care not to disgrace + themselves by yielding to the follies to which they may be + solicited both from within and from without; and we are much + mistaken if, when they know what the penalty is, they will + abandon themselves to a disgusting condition which is + characteristic only of the most abject specimens of our + species." + + + + +A STORY WITHOUT A NAME.[1] + +WRITTEN FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE, + +BY G. P. R. JAMES, ESQ. + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +John Ayliffe, as we may now once more very righteously call him, was +seated in the great hall of the old house of the Hastings family. Very +different indeed was the appearance of that large chamber now from +that which it had presented when Sir Philip Hastings was in +possession. All the old, solid, gloomy-looking furniture, which +formerly had given it an air of baronial dignity, and which Sir Philip +had guarded as preciously as if every antique chair and knotted table +had been an heir-loom, was now removed, and rich flaunting things of +gaudy colors substituted. Damask, and silk, and velvet, and gilt +ornaments in the style of France, were there in abundance, and had it +not been for the arches overhead, and the stone walls and narrow +windows around, the old hall might have passed for the saloon of some +newly-enriched financier of Paris. + +The young man sat at table alone--not that he was by any means fond of +solitude, for on the contrary he would have fain filled his house with +company--but for some reason or another, which he could not divine, he +found the old country gentlemen in the neighborhood somewhat shy of +his society. His wealth, his ostentation, his luxury--for he had begun +his new career with tremendous vehemence--had no effect upon them. +They looked upon him as somewhat vulgar, and treated him with mere +cold, supercilious civility as an upstart. There was one gentleman of +good family, indeed, at some distance, who had hung a good deal about +courts, had withered and impoverished himself, and reduced both his +mind and his fortune in place-hunting, and who had a large family of +daughters, to whom the society of John Ayliffe was the more +acceptable, and who not unfrequently rode over and dined with +him--nay, took a bed at the Hall. But that day he had not been over, +and although upon the calculation of chances, one might have augured +two to one John Ayliffe would ultimately marry one of the daughters, +yet at this period he was not very much smitten with any of them, and +was contemplating seriously a visit to London, where he thought his +origin would be unknown, and his wealth would procure him every sort +of enjoyment. + +Two servants were in the Hall, handing him the dishes. Well-cooked +viands were on the table, and rich wine. Every thing which John +Ayliffe in his sensual aspirations had anticipated from the possession +of riches was there--except happiness, and that was wanting. To sit +and feed, and feel one's self a scoundrel--to drink deep draughts, +were it of nectar, for the purpose of drowning the thought of our own +baseness--to lie upon the softest bed, and prop the head with the +downiest pillow, with the knowledge that all we possess is the fruit +of crime, can never give happiness--surely not, even to the most +depraved. + +That eating and drinking, however, was now one of John Ayliffe's chief +resources--drinking especially. He did not actually get intoxicated +every night before he went to bed, but he always drank to a sufficient +excess to cloud his faculties, to obfuscate his mind. He rather liked +to feel himself in that sort of dizzy state where the outlines of all +objects become indistinct, and thought itself puts on the same hazy +aspect. + +The servants had learned his habits already, and were very willing to +humor them; for they derived their own advantage therefrom. Thus, on +the present occasion, as soon as the meal was over, and the dishes +were removed, and the dessert put upon the table--a dessert consisting +principally of sweetmeats, for which he had a great fondness, with +stimulants to thirst. Added to these were two bottles of the most +potent wine in his cellar, with a store of clean glasses, and a jug of +water, destined to stand unmoved in the middle of the table. + +After this process it was customary never to disturb him, till, with a +somewhat wavering step, he found his way up to his bedroom. But on the +night of which I am speaking, John Ayliffe had not finished his fourth +glass after dinner, and was in the unhappy stage, which, with some +men, precedes the exhilarating stage of drunkenness, when the butler +ventured to enter with a letter in his hand. + +"I beg pardon for intruding, sir," he said, "but Mr. Cherrydew has +sent up a man on horseback from Hartwell with this letter, because +there is marked upon it, 'to be delivered with the greatest possible +haste.'" + +"Curse him!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, "I wish he would obey the orders +I give him. Why the devil does he plague me with letters at this time +of night?--there, give it to me, and go away," and taking the letter +from the man's hand, he threw it down on the table beside him, as if +it were not his intention to read it that night. Probably, indeed, it +was not; for he muttered as he looked at the address, "She wants more +money, I dare say, to pay for some trash or another. How greedy these +women are. The parson preached the other day about the horse-leech's +daughter. By ---- I think I have got the horse-leech's mother!" and he +laughed stupidly, not perceiving that, the point of his sarcasm +touched himself. + +He drank another glass of wine, and then looked at the letter again; +but at length, after yet another glass, curiosity got the better of +his moodiness, and he opened the epistle. + +The first sight of the contents dispelled not only his indifference +but the effects of the wine he had taken, and he read the letter with +an eager and a haggard eye. The substance was as follows: + +"MY DEAREST BOY: + +"All is lost and discovered. I can but write you a very short account +of the things that have been happening here, for I am under what these +people call the surveillance of the police. I have got a few minutes, +however, and I will pay the maid secretly to give this to the post. +Never was such a time as I have had this morning. Four men have been +here, and among them Atkinson, who lived just down below at the +cottage with the gray shutters. He knew me in a minute, and told +everybody who I was. But that is not the worst of it, for they have +got a commissioner of police with him--a terrible looking man, who +took as much snuff as Mr. Jenkins, the justice of peace. They had got +all sorts of information in England about me, and you, and every body, +and they came to me to give them more, and cross-questioned me in a +terrible manner; and that ugly old Commissioner, in his black coat and +great wig, took my keys, and opened all the drawers and places. What +could I do to stop them? So they got all your letters to me; because I +could not bear to burn my dear boy's letters, and that letter from old +Sir John to my poor father, which I once showed you. So when they got +all these, there was no use of trying to conceal it any more, and, +besides, they might have sent me to the Bastile or the Tower of +London. So every thing has come out, and the best thing you can do is +to take whatever money you have got, or can get, and run away as fast +as possible, and come over here and take me away. One of them was as +fine a man as ever I saw, and quite gentleman, though very severe. + +"Pray, my dear John, don't lose a moment's time, but run away before +they catch you; for they know every thing now, depend upon it, and +nothing will stop them from hanging you or sending you to the colonies +that you can do; for they have got all the proofs, and I could see by +their faces that they wanted nothing more; and if they do, my heart +will be quite broken, that is, if they hang you or send you to the +colonies, where you will have to work like a slave, and a man standing +over you with a whip, beating your bare back very likely. So run away, +and come to your afflicted mother." + +She did not seem to have been quite sure what name to sign, for she +first put "Brown," but then changed the word to "Hastings," and then +again to "Ayliffe." There were two or three postscripts, but they were +of no great importance, and John Ayliffe did not take the trouble of +reading them. The terms he bestowed upon his mother--not in the +secrecy of his heart, but aloud and fiercely--were any thing but +filial, and his burst of rage lasted full five minutes before it was +succeeded by the natural fear and trepidation which the intelligence +he had received might well excite. Then, however, his terror became +extreme. The color, usually high, and now heightened both by rage and +wine, left his cheeks, and, as he read over some parts of his mother's +letter again, he trembled violently. + +"She has told all," he repeated to himself, "she has told all--and +most likely has added from his own fancy. They have got all my letters +too, which the fool did not burn. What did I say, I wonder? Too +much--too much, I am sure. Heaven and earth, what will come of it! +Would to God I had not listened to that rascal Shanks! Where should I +go now for advice? It must not be to him. He would only betray and +ruin me--make me the scape-goat--pretend that I had deceived him, I +dare say. Oh, he is a precious villain, and Mrs. Hazleton knows that +too well to trust him even with a pitiful mortgage--Mrs. Hazleton--I +will go to her. She is always kind to me, and she is devilish clever +too--knows a good deal more than Shanks if she did but understand the +law--I will go to her--she will tell me how to manage." + +No time was to be lost. Ride as hard as he could it would take him +more than an hour to reach Mrs. Hazleton's house, and it was already +late. He ordered a horse to be saddled instantly, ran to his bedroom, +drew on his boots, and then, descending to the hall, stood swearing at +the slowness of the groom till the sound of hoofs made him run to the +door. In a moment he was in the saddle and away, much to the +astonishment of the servants, who puzzled themselves a little as to +what intelligence their young master could have received, and then +proceeded to console themselves according to the laws and ordinances +of the servants' hall in such cases made and provided. The wine he had +left upon the table disappeared with great celerity, and the butler, +who was a man of precision, arrayed a good number of small silver +articles and valuable trinkets in such a way as to be packed up and +removed with great facility and secrecy. + +In the meanwhile John Ayliffe rode on at a furious pace, avoiding a +road which would have led him close by Mr. Shanks's dwelling, and +reached Mrs. Hazleton's door about nine o'clock. + +That lady was sitting in a small room behind the drawing-room, which I +have already mentioned, where John Ayliffe was announced once more as +Sir John Hastings. But Mrs. Hazleton, in personal appearance at least, +was much changed since she was first introduced to the reader. She was +still wonderfully handsome. She had still that indescribable air of +calm, high-bred dignity which we are often foolishly inclined to +ascribe to noble feelings and a high heart; but which--where it is not +an art, an acquirement--only indicates, I am inclined to believe, when +it has any moral reference at all, strength of character and great +self-reliance. But Mrs. Hazleton was older--looked older a good +deal--more so than the time which had passed would alone account for. +The passions of the last two or three years had worn her sadly, and +probably the struggle to conceal those passions had worn her as much. +Nevertheless, she had grown somewhat fat under their influence, and a +wrinkle here and there in the fair skin was contradicted by the +plumpness of her figure. + +She rose with quiet, easy grace to meet her young guest, and held out +her hand to him, saying, "Really, my dear Sir John, you must not pay +me such late visits or I shall have scandal busying herself with my +good name." + +But even as she spoke she perceived the traces of violent agitation +which had not yet departed from John Ayliffe's visage, and she added, +"What is the matter? Has any thing gone wrong?" + +"Every thing is going to the devil, I believe," said John Ayliffe, as +soon as the servant had closed the door. "They have found out my +mother at St. Germain." + +He paused there to see what effect this first intelligence would +produce, and it was very great; for Mrs. Hazleton well knew that upon +the concealment of his mother's existence had depended one of the +principal points in his suit against Sir Philip Hastings. What was +going on in her mind, however, appeared not in her countenance. She +paused in silence, indeed, for a moment or two, and then said in her +sweet musical voice, "Well, Sir John, is that all?" + +"Enough too, dear Mrs. Hazleton!" replied the young man. "Why you +surely remember that it was judged absolutely necessary she should be +supposed dead--you yourself said, when we were talking of it, 'Send +her to France.' Don't you remember?" + +"No I do not," answered Mrs. Hazleton, thoughtfully; "and if I did it +could only be intended to save the poor thing from all the torment of +being cross-examined in a court of justice." + +"Ay, she has been cross-examined enough in France nevertheless," said +the young man bitterly, "and she has told every thing, Mrs. +Hazleton--all that she knew, and I dare say all that she guessed." + +This news was somewhat more interesting than even the former; it +touched Mrs. Hazleton personally to a certain extent, for all that +Jane Ayliffe knew and all that she guessed might comprise a great deal +that Mrs. Hazleton would not have liked the world to know or guess +either. She retained all her presence of mind however, and replied +quite quietly "Really, Sir John, I cannot at all form a judgment of +these things, or give you either assistance or advice, as I am anxious +to do, unless you explain the whole matter fully and clearly. What has +your mother done which seems to have affected you so much? Let me hear +the whole details, then I can judge and speak with some show of +reason. But calm yourself, calm yourself, my dear sir. We often at the +first glance of any unpleasant intelligence take fright, and thinking +the danger ten times greater than it really is, run into worse dangers +in trying to avoid it. Let me hear all, I say, and then I will +consider what is to be done." + +Now Mrs. Hazleton had already, from what she had just heard, +determined precisely and entirely what she would do. She had divined +in an instant that the artful game in which John Ayliffe had been +engaged, and in which she herself had taken a hand, was played out, +and that he was the loser; but it was a very important object with her +to ascertain if possible how far she herself had been compromised by +the revelations of Mrs. Ayliffe. This was the motive of her gentle +questions; for at heart she did not feel the least gentle. + +On the other hand John Ayliffe was somewhat angry. All frightened +people are angry when they find others a great deal less frightened +than themselves. Drawing forth his mother's letter then, he thrust it +towards Mrs. Hazleton, almost rudely, saying, "Read that, madam, and +you'll soon see all the details that you could wish for." + +Mrs. Hazleton did read it from end to end, postscript and all, and she +saw with infinite satisfaction and delight, that her own name was +never once mentioned in the whole course of that delectable epistle. +As she read that part of the letter, however, in which Mrs. Ayliffe +referred to the very handsome gentlemanly man who had been one of her +unwished for visitors, Mrs. Hazleton said within herself, "This is +Marlow; Marlow has done this!" and tenfold bitterness took possession +of her heart. She folded up the letter with neat propriety, however, +and handed it back to John Ayliffe, saying, in her very sweetest +tones, "Well, I do not think this so very bad as you seem to imagine. +They have found out that your mother is still living, and that is all. +They cannot make much of that." + +"Not much of that!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, now nearly driven to +frenzy, "what if they convict me of perjury for swearing she was +dead?" + +"Did you swear she was dead?" exclaimed Mrs. Hazleton with an +exceedingly well assumed look of profound astonishment. + +"To be sure I did," he answered. "Why you proposed that she should be +sent away yourself, and Shanks drew out the affidavit." + +A mingled look of consternation and indignation came into Mrs. +Hazleton's beautiful face; but before she could make any reply he went +on, thinking he had frightened her, which was in itself a satisfaction +and a sort of triumph. + +"Ay, that you did," he said, "and not only that, but you advanced me +all the money to carry on the suit, and I am told that that is +punishable by law. Besides, you knew quite well of the leaf being torn +out of the register, so we are in the same basket I can tell you, Mrs. +Hazleton." + +"Sir, you insult me," said the lady, rising with an air of imperious +dignity. "The charity which induced me to advance you different sums +of money, without knowing what they were to be applied to--and I can +prove that some of them were applied to very different purposes than a +suit at law--has been misunderstood, I see. Had I advanced them to +carry on this suit, they would have been paid to your and my lawyer, +not to yourself. Not a word more, if you please! You have mistaken my +character as well as my motives, if you suppose that I will suffer you +to remain here one moment after you have insulted me by the very +thought that I was any sharer in your nefarious transactions." She +spoke in a loud shrill tone, knowing that the servants were in the +hall hard by, and then she added, "Save me the pain, sir, of ordering +some of the men to put you out of the house by quitting it directly." + +"Oh, yes, I will go, I will go," cried John Ayliffe, now quite +maddened, "I will go to the devil, and you too, madam," and he burst +out of the room, leaving the door open behind him. + +"I can compassionate misfortune," cried Mrs. Hazleton, raising her +voice to the very highest pitch for the benefit of others, "but I will +have nothing to do with roguery and fraud," and as she heard his +horse's feet clatter over the terrace, she heartily wished he might +break his neck before he passed the park gates. How far she was +satisfied, and how far she was not, must be shown in another chapter. + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +John Ayliffe got out of the park gates quite safely, though he rode +down the slope covered with loose stones, as if he had no +consideration for his own neck or his horse's knees. He was in a state +of desperation, however, and feared little at that moment what became +of himself or any thing else. With fierce and angry eagerness he +revolved in his own mind the circumstances of his situation, the +conduct of Mrs. Hazleton, the folly, as he was pleased to term it, of +his mother, the crimes which he had himself committed, and he found no +place of refuge in all the dreary waste of thought. Every thing around +looked menacing and terrible, and the world within was all dark and +stormy. + +He pushed his horse some way on the road which he had come, but +suddenly a new thought struck him. He resolved to seek advice and aid +from one whom he had previously determined to avoid. "I will go to +Shanks," he said to himself, "he at least is in the same basket with +myself. He must work with me, for if my mother has been fool enough to +keep my letters, I have been wise enough to keep his--perhaps +something may be done after all. If not, he shall go along with me, +and we will try if we cannot bring that woman in too. He can prove all +her sayings and doings." Thus thinking, he turned his horse's head +towards the lawyer's house, and rode as hard as he could go till he +reached it. + +Mr. Shanks was enjoying life over a quiet comfortable bowl of punch in +a little room which looked much more tidy and comfortable, than it had +done twelve or eighteen months before. Mr. Shanks had been well paid. +Mr. Shanks had taken care of himself. No small portion of back rents +and costs had gone into the pockets of Mr. Shanks. Mr. Shanks was all +that he had ever desired to be, an opulent man. Moreover, he was one +of those happily constituted mortals who knew the true use of +wealth--to make it a means of enjoyment. He had no scruples of +conscience--not he. He little cared how the money came, so that it +found its way into his pocket. He was not a man to let his mind be +troubled by any unpleasant remembrances; for he had a maxim that every +man's duty was to do the very best he could for his client, and that +every man's first client was himself. + +He heard a horse stop at his door, and having made up his mind to end +the night comfortably, to finish his punch and go to bed, he might +perhaps have been a little annoyed, had he not consoled himself with +the thought that the call must be upon business of importance, and he +had no idea of business of importance unconnected with that of a large +fee. + +"To draw a will, I'll bet any money," said Mr. Shanks to himself; "it +is either old Sir Peter, dying of indigestion, and sent for me when +he's no longer able to speak, or John Ayliffe broken his neck leaping +over a five-barred gate--John Ayliffe, bless us all, Sir John Hastings +I should have said." + +But the natural voice of John Ayliffe, asking for him in a loud +impatient tone, dispelled these visions of his fancy, and in another +moment the young man was in the room. + +"Ah, Sir John, very glad to see you, very glad to see you," said Mr. +Shanks, shaking his visitor's hand, and knocking out the ashes of his +pipe upon the hob; "just come in pudding time, my dear sir--just in +time for a glass of punch--bring some more lemons and some sugar, +Betty. A glass of punch will do you good. It is rather cold to-night." + +"As hot as h--l," answered John Ayliffe, sharply; "but I'll have the +punch notwithstanding," and he seated himself while the maid proceeded +to fulfil her master's orders. + +Mr. Shanks evidently saw that something had gone wrong with his young +and distinguished client, but anticipating no evil, he was led to +consider whether it was any thing referring to a litter of puppies, a +favorite horse, a fire at the hall, a robbery, or a want of some more +ready money. + +At length, however, the fresh lemons and sugar were brought, and the +door closed, before which time John Ayliffe had helped himself to +almost all the punch which he had found remaining in the bowl. It was +not much, but it was strong, and Mr. Shanks applied himself to the +preparation of some more medicine of the same sort. John Ayliffe +suffered him to finish before he said any thing to disturb him, not +from any abstract reverence for the office which Mr. Shanks was +fulfilling, or for love of the beverage he was brewing, but simply +because John Ayliffe began to find that he might as well consider his +course a little. Consideration seldom served him very much, and in the +present instance, after he had labored hard to find out the best way +of breaking the matter, his impetuosity as usual got the better of +him, and he thrust his mother's letter into Mr. Shanks's hand, out of +which as a preliminary he took the ladle and helped himself to another +glass of punch. + +The consternation of Mr. Shanks, as he read Mrs. Ayliffe's letter, +stood out in strong opposition to Mrs. Hazleton's sweet calmness. He +was evidently as much terrified as his client; for Mr. Shanks did not +forget that he had written Mrs. Ayliffe two letters since she was +abroad, and as she had kept her son's epistles, Mr. Shanks argued that +it was very likely she had kept his also. Their contents, taken alone, +might amount to very little, but looked at in conjunction with other +circumstances might amount to a great deal. + +True, Mr. Shanks had avoided, as far as he could, any discussions in +regard to the more delicate secrets of his profession in the presence +of Mrs. Ayliffe, of whose discretion he was not as firmly convinced as +he could have desired; but it was not always possible to do so, +especially when he had been obliged to seek John Ayliffe in haste at +her house; and now the memories of many long and dangerous +conversations which had occurred in her presence, spread themselves +out before his eyes in a regular row, like items on the leaves of a +ledger. + +"Good God!" he cried, "what has she done?" + +"Every thing she ought not to have done, of course!" replied John +Ayliffe, replenishing his glass, "but the question now is, Shanks, +what are we to do? That is the great question just now." + +"It is indeed," answered Mr. Shanks, in great agitation; "this is very +awkward, very awkward indeed." + +"I know that," answered John Ayliffe, laconically. + +"Well but, sir, what is to be done?" asked Mr. Shanks, fidgeting +uneasily about the table. + +"That is what I come to ask you, not to tell you," answered the young +man; "you see, Shanks, you and I are exactly in the same case, only I +have more to lose than you have. But whatever happens to me will +happen to you, depend upon it. I am not going to be the only one, +whatever Mrs. Hazleton may think." + +Shanks caught at Mrs. Hazleton's name; "Ay, that's a good thought," he +said, "we had better go and consult her. Let us put our three heads +together, and we may beat them yet--perhaps." + +"No use of going to her," answered John Ayliffe, bitterly; "I have +been to her, and she is a thorough vixen. She cried off having any +thing to do with me, and when I just told her quietly that she ought +to help me out of the scrape because she had a hand in getting me into +it, she flew at my throat like a terrier bitch with a litter of +puppies, barked me out of the house as if I had been a beggar, and +called me almost rogue and swindler in the hearing of her own +servants." + +Mr. Shanks smiled--he could not refrain from smiling with a feeling of +admiration and respect, even in that moment of bitter apprehension, at +the decision, skill, and wisdom of Mrs. Hazleton's conduct. He +approved of her highly; but he perceived quite plainly that it would +not do for him to play the same game. A hope--a feeble hope--light +through a loop-hole, came in upon him in regard to the future, +suggested by Mrs. Hazleton's conduct. He thought that if he could but +clear away some difficulties, he too might throw all blame upon John +Ayliffe, and shovel the load of infamy from his own shoulders to those +of his client; but to effect this, it was not only necessary that he +should soothe John Ayliffe, but that he should provide for his safety +and escape. Recriminations he was aware were very dangerous things, +and that unless a man takes care that it shall not be in the power or +for the interest of a fellow rogue to say _tu quoque_, the effort to +place the burden on his shoulders only injures him without making our +own case a bit better. It was therefore requisite for his purposes +that he should deprive John Ayliffe of all interest or object in +criminating him; but foolish knaves are very often difficult to deal +with, and he knew his young client to be eminent in that class. +Wishing for a little time to consider, he took occasion to ask one or +two meaningless questions, without at all attending to the replies. + +"When did this letter arrive here?" he inquired. + +"This very night," answered John Ayliffe, "not three hours ago." + +"Do you think she has really told all?" asked Mr. Shanks. + +"All, and a great deal more," replied the young man. + +"How long has she been at St. Germain?" said the lawyer. + +"What the devil does that signify?" said John Ayliffe, growing +impatient. + +"A great deal, a great deal," replied Mr. Shanks, sagely. "Take some +more punch. You see perhaps we can prove that you and I really thought +her dead at the time the affidavit was made." + +"Devilish difficult that," said John Ayliffe, taking the punch. "She +wrote to me about some more money just at that time, and I was obliged +to answer her letter and send it, so that if they have got the letters +that won't pass." + +"We'll try at least," said Mr. Shanks in a bolder tone. + +"Ay, but in trying we may burn our fingers worse than ever," said the +young man. "I do not want to be tried for perjury and conspiracy, and +sent to the colonies with the palm of my hand burnt out, whatever you +may do, Shanks." + +"No, no, that would never do," replied the lawyer. "The first thing to +be done, my dear Sir John, is to provide for your safety, and that can +only be done by your getting out of the way for a time. It is very +natural that a young gentleman of fortune like yourself should go to +travel, and not at all unlikely that he should do so without letting +any one know where he is for a few months. That will be the best plan +for you--you must go and travel. They can't well be on the look-out +for you yet, and you can get away quite safely to-morrow morning. You +need not say where you are going, and by that means you will save both +yourself and the property too; for they can't proceed against you in +any way when you are absent." + +John Ayliffe was not sufficiently versed in the laws of the land to +perceive that Mr. Shanks was telling him a falsehood. "That's a good +thought," he said; "if I can live abroad and keep hold of the rents we +shall be safe enough." + +"Certainly, certainly," said Mr. Shanks, "that is the only plan. Then +let them file their bills, or bring their actions or what not. They +cannot compel you to answer if you are not within the realm." + +Mr. Shanks was calling him all the time, in his own mind, a +jolter-headed ass, but John Ayliffe did not perceive it, and replied +with a touch of good feeling, perhaps inspired by the punch, "But what +is to become of you, Shanks?" + +"Oh, I will stay and face it out," replied the lawyer, "with a bold +front. If we do not peach of each other they cannot do much against +us. Mrs. Hazleton dare not commit us, for by so doing she would commit +herself; and your mother's story will not avail very much. As to the +letters, which is the worst part of the business, we must try and +explain those away; but clearly the first thing for you to do is to +get out of England as soon as possible. You can go and see your mother +secretly, and if you can but get her to prevaricate a little in her +testimony it will knock it all up." + +"Oh, she'll prevaricate enough if they do but press her hard," said +John Ayliffe. "She gets so frightened at the least thing she does'nt +know what she says. But the worst of it is, Shanks, I have not got +money enough to go. I have not got above a hundred guineas in the +house." + +Mr. Shanks paused and hesitated. It was a very great object with him +to get John Ayliffe out of the country, in order that he might say any +thing he liked of John Ayliffe when his back was turned, but it was +also a very great object with him to keep all the money he had got. He +did not like to part with one sixpence of it. After a few moments' +thought, however, he recollected that a thousand pounds' worth of +plate had come down from London for the young man within the last two +months, and he thought he might make a profitable arrangement. + +"I have got three hundred pounds in the house," he said, "all in good +gold, but I can really hardly afford to part with it. However, rather +than injure you, Sir John, I will let you have it if you will give me +the custody of your plate till your return, just that I may have +something to show if any one presses me for money." + +The predominant desire of John Ayliffe's mind, at that moment, was to +get out of England as fast as possible, and he was too much blinded by +fear and anxiety to perceive that the great desire of Mr. Shanks was +to get him out. But there was one impediment. The sum of four hundred +pounds thus placed at his command would, some years before, have +appeared the Indies to him, but now, with vastly expanded ideas with +regard to expense, it seemed a drop of water in the ocean. "Three +hundred pounds. Shanks," he said, "what's the use of three hundred +pounds? It would not keep me a month." + +"God bless my soul!" said Mr. Shanks, horrified at such a notion, "why +it would keep me a whole year, and more too. Moreover, things are +cheaper there than they are here; and besides you have got all those +jewels, and knick-knacks, and things, which cost you at least a couple +of thousand pounds. They would sell for a great deal." + +"Come, come, Shanks," said the young man, "you must make it five +hundred guineas. I know you've got them in your strong box here." + +Shanks shook his head, and John Ayliffe added sullenly, "Then I'll +stay and fight it out too. I won't go and be a beggar in a foreign +land." + +Shanks did not like the idea of his staying, and after some farther +discussion a compromise was effected. Mr. Shanks agreed to advance +four hundred pounds. John Ayliffe was to make over to him, as a +pledge, the whole of his plate, and not to object to a memorandum to +that effect being drawn up immediately, and dated a month before. The +young man was to set off the very next day, in the pleasant gray of +the morning, driving his own carriage and horses, which he was to sell +as soon as he got a convenient distance from his house, and Mr. Shanks +was to take the very best possible care of his interests during his +absence. + +John Ayliffe's spirits rose at the conclusion of this transaction. He +calculated that with one thing or another he should have sufficient +money to last him a year, and that was quite as far as his thoughts or +expectations went. A long, long year! What does youth care for any +thing beyond a year? It seems the very end of life to pant in +expectation, and indeed, and in truth, it is very often too long for +fate. + +"Next year I will"--Pause, young man! there is a deep pitfall in the +way. Between you and another year may be death. Next year thou wilt do +nothing--thou wilt be nothing. + +His spirits rose. He put the money into his pocket, and, with more wit +than he thought, called it "light heaviness," and then he sat down and +smoked a pipe, while Mr. Shanks drew up the paper; and then he drank +punch, and made more, and drank that too, so that when the paper +giving Mr. Shanks a lien upon the silver was completed, and when a +dull neighbor had been called in to see him sign his name, it needed a +witness indeed to prove that that name was John Ayliffe's writing. + +By this time he would very willingly have treated the company to a +song, so complete had been the change which punch and new prospects +had effected; but Mr. Shanks besought him to be quiet, hinting that +the neighbor, though as deaf as a post and blind as a mole, would +think him as the celebrated sow of the psalmist. Thereupon John +Ayliffe went forth and got his horse out of the stable, mounted upon +his back, and rode lolling at a sauntering pace through the end of +the town in which Mr. Shanks's house was situated. When he got more +into the country he began to trot, then let the horse fall into a walk +again, and then he beat him for going slow. Thus alternately +galloping, walking, and trotting, he rode on till he was two or three +hundred yards past the gates of what was called the Court, where the +family of Sir Philip Hastings now lived. It was rather a dark part of +the road, and there was something white in the hedge--some linen put +out to dry, or a milestone. John Ayliffe was going at a quick pace at +that moment, and the horse suddenly shied at this white +apparition--not only shied, but started, wheeled round, and ran back. +John Ayliffe kept his seat, notwithstanding his tipsiness, but he +struck the furious horse over the head, and pulled the rein violently. +The animal plunged--reared--the young man gave the rein a furious tug, +and over went the horse upon the road, with his driver under him. + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +There was a man lay upon the road in the darkness of the night for +some five or six minutes, and a horse galloped away snorting, with a +broken bridle hanging at his head, on the way towards the park of Sir +Philip Hastings. Had any carriage come along, the man who was lying +there must have been run over; for the night was exceedingly dark, and +the road narrow. All was still and silent, however. No one was seen +moving--not a sound was heard except the distant clack of a water-mill +which lay further down the valley. There was a candle in a cottage +window at about a hundred yards' distance, which shot a dim and feeble +ray athwart the road, but shed no light on the spot where the man lay. +At the end of about six minutes, a sort of convulsive movement showed +that life was not yet extinct in his frame--a sort of heave of the +chest, and a sudden twitch of the arm; and a minute or two after, John +Ayliffe raised himself on his elbow, and put his hand to his head. + +"Curse the brute," he said, in a wandering sort of way, "I wonder, +Shanks, you don't--damn it, where am I?--what's the matter? My side +and leg are cursed sore, and my head all running round." + +He remained in the same position for a moment or two more, and then +got upon his feet; but the instant he did so he fell to the ground +again with a deep groan, exclaiming, "By ----, my leg's broken, and I +believe my ribs too. How the devil shall I get out of this scrape? +Here I may lie and die, without any body ever coming near me. That is +old Jenny Best's cottage, I believe. I wonder if I could make the old +canting wretch hear," and he raised his voice to shout, but the pain +was too great. His ribs were indeed broken, and pressing upon his +lungs, and all that he could do was to lie still and groan. + +About a quarter of an hour after, however, a stout, middle-aged +man--rather, perhaps, in the decline of life--came by, carrying a +hand-basket, plodding at a slow and weary pace as if he had had a long +walk. + +"Who's that? Is any one there?" said a feeble voice, as he approached; +and he ran up, exclaiming, "Gracious me, what is the matter? Are you +hurt, sir? What has happened?" + +"Is that you, Best?" said the feeble voice of John Ayliffe, "my horse +has reared and fallen over with me. My leg is broken, and the bone +poking through, and my ribs are broken too, I think." + +"Stay a minute, Sir John," said the good countryman, "and I'll get +help, and we'll carry you up to the Hall." + +"No, no," answered John Ayliffe, who had now had time for thought, +"get a mattress, or a door, or something, and carry me into your +cottage. If your son is at home, he and you can carry me. Don't send +for strangers." + +"I dare say he is at home, sir," replied the man. "He's a good lad, +sir, and comes home as soon as his work's done. I will go and see. I +won't be a minute." + +He was as good as his word, and in less than a minute returned with +his son, bringing a lantern and a straw mattress. + +Not without inflicting great pain, and drawing forth many a heavy +groan, the old man and the young one placed John Ayliffe on the +paliasse, and carried him into the cottage, where he was laid upon +young Best's bed in the back room. Good Jenny Best, as John Ayliffe +had called her--an excellent creature as ever lived--was all kindness +and attention, although to say truth the suffering man had not shown +any great kindness to her and hers in his days of prosperity. She was +eager to send off her son immediately for the surgeon, and did so in +the end; but to the surprise of the whole of the little cottage party, +it was not without a great deal of reluctance and hesitation that John +Ayliffe suffered this to be done. They showed him, however, that he +must die or lose his limb if surgical assistance was not immediately +procured, and he ultimately consented, but told the young man +repeatedly not to mention his name even to the surgeon on any account, +but simply to say that a gentleman had been thrown by his horse, and +brought into the cottage with his thigh broken. He cautioned father +and mother too not to mention the accident to any one till he was well +again, alluding vaguely to reasons that he had for wishing to conceal +it. + +"But, Sir John," replied Best himself, "your horse will go home, +depend upon it, and your servants will not know where you are, and +there will be a fuss about you all over the country." + +"Well, then, let them make a fuss," said John Ayliffe, impatiently. "I +don't care--I will not have it mentioned." + +All this seemed very strange to the good man and his wife, but they +could only open their eyes and stare, without venturing farther to +oppose the wishes of their guest. + +It seemed a very long time before the surgeon made his appearance, but +at length the sound of a horse's feet coming fast, could be +distinguished, and two minutes after the surgeon was in the room. He +was a very good man, though not the most skilful of his profession, +and he was really shocked and confounded when he saw the state of Sir +John Hastings, as he called him. Wanting confidence in himself, he +would fain have sent off immediately for farther assistance, but John +Ayliffe would not hear of such a thing, and the good man went to work +to set the broken limb as best he might, and relieve the anguish of +the sufferer. So severe, however, were the injuries which had been +received, that notwithstanding a strong constitution, as yet but +little impaired by debauchery, the patient was given over by the +surgeon in his own mind from the first. He remained with him, watching +him all night, which passed nearly without sleep on the part of John +Ayliffe; and in the course of the long waking hours he took an +opportunity of enjoining secrecy upon the surgeon as to the accident +which had happened to him, and the place where he was lying. Not less +surprised was the worthy man than the cottager and his wife had been +at the young gentleman's exceeding anxiety for concealment, and as his +licentious habits were no secret in the country round, they all +naturally concluded that the misfortune which had overtaken him had +occurred in the course of some adventure more dangerous and +disgraceful than usual. + +Towards morning John Ayliffe fell into a sort of semi-sleep, restless +and perturbed, speaking often without reason having guidance of his +words, and uttering many things which, though disjointed and often +indistinct, showed the good man who had watched by him that the mind +was as much affected as the body. He woke confused and wandering about +eight o'clock, but speedily returned to consciousness of his +situation, and insisted, notwithstanding the pain he was suffering, +upon examining the money which was in his pockets to see that it was +all right. Vain precaution! He was never destined to need it more. + +Shortly after the surgeon left him, but returned at night again to +watch by his bedside. The bodily symptoms which he now perceived would +have led him to believe that a cure was possible, but there was a deep +depression of mind, a heavy irritable sombreness, from the result of +which the surgeon augured much evil. He saw that there was some +terrible weight upon the young man's heart, but whether it was fear or +remorse or disappointment he could not tell, and more than once he +repeated to himself, "He wants a priest as much as a physician." + +Again the surgeon would often argue with himself in regard to the +propriety of telling him the very dangerous state in which he was. "He +may at any time become delirious," he said, "and lose all power of +making those dispositions and arrangements which, I dare say, have +never been thought of in the time of health and prosperity. Then, +again, his house and all that it contains is left entirely in the +hands of servants--a bad set too, as ever existed, who are just as +likely to plunder and destroy as not; but on the other hand, if I tell +him it may only increase his dejection and cut off all hope of +recovery. Really I do not know what to do. Perhaps it would be better +to wait awhile, and if I should see more unfavorable symptoms and no +chance left, it will then be time enough to tell him his true +situation and prepare his mind for the result." + +Another restless, feverish night passed, another troubled sleep +towards morning, and then John Ayliffe woke with a start, exclaiming, +"You did not tell them I was here--lying here unable to stir, unable +to move--I told you not, I told you not. By ----" and then he looked +round, and seeing none but the surgeon in the room, relapsed into +silence. + +The surgeon felt his pulse, examined the bandages, and saw that a +considerable and unfavorable change had taken place; but yet he +hesitated. He was one of those men who shrink from the task of telling +unpleasant truths. He was of a gentle and a kindly disposition, which +even the necessary cruelties of surgery had not been able to harden. + +"He may say what he likes," he said, "I must have some advice as to +how I should act. I will go and talk with the parson about the matter. +Though a little lacking in the knowledge of the world, yet Dixwell is +a good man and a sincere Christian. I will see him as I go home, but +make him promise secrecy in the first place, as this young baronet is +so terribly afraid of the unfortunate affair being known. He will die, +I am afraid, and that before very long, and I am sure he is not in a +fit state for death." With this resolution he said some soothing words +to his patient, gave him what he called a composing draught, and sent +for his horse from a neighboring farm-house, where he had lodged it +for the night. He then rode at a quiet, thoughtful pace to the +parsonage house at the gates of the park, and quickly walked in. Mr. +Dixwell was at breakfast, reading slowly one of the broad sheets of +the day as an especial treat, for they seldom found their way into his +quiet rectory; but he was very glad to see the surgeon, with whom he +often contrived to have a pleasant little chat in regard to the +affairs of the neighborhood. + +"Ah, Mr. Short, very glad to see you, my good friend. How go things +in your part of the world? We are rather in a little bustle here, +though I think it is no great matter." + +"What is it, Mr. Dixwell?" asked the surgeon. + +"Only that wild young man, Sir John Hastings," said the clergyman, +"left his house suddenly on horseback the night before last, and has +never returned. But he is accustomed to do all manner of strange +things, and has often been out two or three nights before without any +one knowing where he was. The butler came down and spoke to me about +it, but I think there was a good deal of affectation in his alarm, for +when I asked him he owned his master had once been away for a whole +week." + +"Has his horse come back?" asked the surgeon. + +"Not that I know of," replied Mr. Dixwell. "I suppose the man would +have mentioned it if such had been the case. But what is going on at +Hartwell?" + +"Nothing particular," said the surgeon, "only Mrs. Harrison brought to +bed of twins on Saturday night at twenty minutes past eleven. I think +all those Harrisons have twins--but I have something to talk to you +about, my good friend, a sort of case of conscience I want to put to +you. Only you must promise me profound secrecy." + +Mr. Dixwell laughed--"What, under the seal of confession?" he said. +"Well, well, I am no papist, as you know, Short, but I'll promise and +do better than any papist does, keep my word when I have promised +without mental reservation." + +"I know you will, my good friend," answered the surgeon, "and this is +no jesting matter, I can assure you. Now listen, my good friend, +listen. Not many evenings ago, I was sent for suddenly to attend a +young man who had met with an accident, a very terrible accident too. +He had a compound fracture of the thigh, three of his ribs broken, and +his head a good deal knocked about, but the cranium uninjured. I had +at first tolerable hope of his recovery; but he is getting much worse +and I fear that he will die." + +"Well, you can't help that," said Mr. Dixwell, "men will die in spite +of all you can do, Short, just as they will sin in spite of all I can +say." + +"Ay, there's the rub," said the surgeon. "I fear he has sinned a very +tolerably sufficient quantity, and I can see that there is something +or another weighing very heavy on his mind, which is even doing great +harm to his body." + +"I will go and see him, I will go and see him," said Mr. Dixwell, "it +will do him good in all ways to unburden his conscience, and to hear +the comfortable words of the gospel." + +"But the case is, Mr. Dixwell," said Short, "that he has positively +forbidden me to let any of his friends know where he lies, or to speak +of the accident to any one." + +"Pooh, nonsense," said the clergyman, "if a man has fractured his +skull and you thought it fit to trepan him, would you ask him whether +he liked it or not? If the young man is near death, and his conscience +is burdened, I am the physician who should be sent for rather than +you." + +"I fancy his conscience is burdened a good deal," said Mr. Short, +thoughtfully; "nay, I cannot help thinking that he was engaged in some +very bad act at the time this happened, both from his anxiety to +conceal from every body where he now lies, and from various words he +has dropped, sometimes in his sleep, sometimes when waking confused +and half delirious. What puzzles me is, whether I should tell him his +actual situation or not." + +"Tell him, tell him by all means," said Mr. Dixwell, "why should you +not tell him?" + +"Simply because I think that it will depress his mind still more," +replied the surgeon, "and that may tend to deprive him even of the +very small chance that exists of recovery." + +"The soul is of more value than the body," replied the clergyman, +earnestly; "if he be the man you depict, my friend, he should have as +much time as possible to prepare--he should have time to repent--ay, +and to atone. Tell him by all means, or let me know where he is to be +found, and I will tell him." + +"That I must not do," said Mr. Short, "for I am under a sort of +promise not to tell; but if you really think that I ought to tell him +myself, I will go back and do it." + +"If I really think!" exclaimed Mr. Dixwell, "I have not the slightest +doubt of it. It is your bounden duty if you be a Christian. Not only +tell him, my good friend, but urge him strongly to send for some +minister of religion. Though friends may fail him, and he may not wish +to see them--though all worldly supports may give way beneath him, and +he may find no strengthening--though all earthly hopes may pass away, +and give him no mortal cheer, the gospel of Christ can never fail to +support, and strengthen, and comfort, and elevate. The sooner he knows +that his tenement of clay is falling to the dust of which it was +raised, the better will be his readiness to quit it, and it is wise, +most wise, to shake ourselves free altogether from the dust and +crumbling ruins of this temporal state, ere they fall upon our heads +and bear us down to the same destruction as themselves." + +"Well, well, I will go back and tell him," said Mr. Short, and bidding +the good rector adieu, he once more mounted his horse and rode away. + +Now Mr. Dixwell was an excellent good man, but he was not without +certain foibles, especially those that sometimes accompany +considerable simplicity of character. "I will see which way he takes," +said Mr. Dixwell, "and go and visit the young man myself if I can find +him out;" and accordingly he marched up stairs to his bedroom, which +commanded a somewhat extensive prospect of the country, and traced +the surgeon, as he trotted slowly and thoughtfully along. He could not +actually see the cottage of the Bests, but he perceived that the +surgeon there passed over the brow of the hill, and after waiting for +several minutes, he did not catch any horseman rising upon the +opposite slope over which the road was continued. Now there was no +cross road in the hollow and only three houses, and therefore Mr. +Dixwell naturally concluded that to one of those three houses the +surgeon had gone. + +In the mean while, Mr. Short rode on unconscious that his movements +were observed, and meditating with a troubled mind upon the best means +of conveying the terrible intelligence he had to communicate. He did +not like the task at all; but yet he resolved to perform it manfully, +and dismounting at the cottage door, he went in again. There was +nobody within but the sick man and good old Jenny Best. The old woman +was at the moment in the outer room, and when she saw the surgeon she +shook her head, and said in a low voice, "Ah, dear, I am glad you have +come back again, sir, he does not seem right at all." + +"Who's that?" said the voice of John Ayliffe; and going in, Mr. Short +closed the doors between the two rooms. + +"There, don't shut that door," said John Ayliffe, "it is so infernally +close--I don't feel at all well, Mr. Short--I don't know what's the +matter with me. It's just as if I had got no heart. I think a glass of +brandy would do me good." + +"It would kill you," said the surgeon. + +"Well," said the young man, "I'm not sure that would not be best for +me--come," he continued sharply, "tell me how long I am to lie here on +my back?" + +"That I cannot tell, Sir John," replied the surgeon, "but at all +events, supposing that you do recover, and that every thing goes well, +you could not hope to move for two or three months." + +"Supposing I was to recover!" repeated John Ayliffe in a low tone, as +if the idea of approaching death had then, for the first time, struck +him as something real and tangible, and not a mere name. He paused +silently for an instant, and then asked almost fiercely, "what brought +you back?" + +"Why, Sir John, I thought it might be better for us to have a little +conversation," said the surgeon. "I can't help being afraid, Sir John, +that you may have a great number of things to settle, and that not +anticipating such a very severe accident, your affairs may want a good +deal of arranging. Now the event of all sickness is uncertain, and an +accident such as this especially. It is my duty to inform you," he +continued, rising in resolution and energy as he proceeded, "that your +case is by no means free from danger--very great danger indeed." + +"Do you mean to say that I am dying?" asked John Ayliffe, in a hoarse +voice. + +"No, no, not exactly dying," said the surgeon, putting his hand upon +his pulse, "not dying I trust just yet, but--" + +"But I shall die, you mean?" cried the other. + +"I think it not at all improbable," answered the surgeon, gravely, +"that the case may have a fatal result." + +"Curse fatal results," cried John Ayliffe, giving way to a burst of +fury; "why the devil do you come back to tell me such things and make +me wretched? If I am to die, why can't you let me die quietly and know +nothing about it?" + +"Why, Sir John, I thought that you might have many matters to settle," +answered the surgeon somewhat irritated, "and that your temporal and +your spiritual welfare also required you should know your real +situation." + +"Spiritual d----d nonsense!" exclaimed John Ayliffe, furiously; "I +dare say it's all by your folly and stupidity that I am likely to die +at all. Why I hear of men breaking their legs and their ribs every day +and being none the worse for it." + +"Why, Sir John, if you do not like my advice you need not have it," +answered the surgeon; "I earnestly wished to send for other +assistance, and you would not let me." + +"There, go away, go away and leave me," said John Ayliffe; but as the +surgeon took up his hat and walked towards the door, he added, "come +again at night. You shall be well paid for it, never fear." + +Mr. Short made no reply, but walked out of the room. + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +Solitude and silence, and bitter thought are great tamers of the human +heart. "As ye sow, so shall ye reap," says the Apostle, and John +Ayliffe was now forced to put in the sickle. Death was before his +eyes, looming large and dark and terrible, like the rock of adamant in +the fairy tale, against which the bark of the adventurous mariner was +sure to be dashed. Death for the first time presented itself to his +mind in all its grim reality. Previously it had seemed with him a +thing hardly worth considering--inevitable--appointed to all men--to +every thing that lives and breathes--no more to man than to the sheep, +or the ox, or any other of the beasts that perish. He had contemplated +it merely as death--as the extinction of being--as the goal of a +career--as the end of a chase where one might lie down and rest, and +forget the labor and the clamor and the trouble of the course. He had +never in thought looked beyond the boundary--he had hardly asked +himself if there was aught beyond. He had satisfied himself by saying, +as so many men do, "Every man must die some time or another," and had +never asked his own heart, "What is it to die?" + +But now death presented itself under a new aspect; cold and stern, +relentless and mysterious, saying in a low solemn tone, "I am the +guide. Follow me there. Whither I lead thou knowest not, nor seest +what shall befall thee. The earth-worm and the mole fret but the +earthly garment of the man; the flesh, and the bones, and the beauty +go down to dust, and ashes, and corruption. The man comes with me to a +land undeclared--to a presence infinitely awful--to judgment and to +fate; for on this side of the dark portal through which I am the +guide, there is no such thing as fate. It lies beyond the grave, and +thither thou must come without delay." + +He had heard of immortality, but he had never thought of it. He had +been told of another world, but he had never rightly believed in it. +The thought of a just judge, and of an eternal doom, had been +presented to him in many shapes, but he had never received it; and he +had lived and acted, and thought and felt, as if there were neither +eternity, nor judgment, nor punishment. But in that dread hour the +deep-rooted, inexplicable conviction of a God and immortality, +implanted in the hearts of all men, and only crushed down in the +breasts of any by the dust of vanity and the lumber of the world, rose +up and bore its fruits according to the soil. They were all bitter. If +there were another life, a judgment, an eternity of weal or woe, what +was to be his fate? How should he meet the terrors of the +judgment-seat--he who had never prayed from boyhood--he who through +life had never sought God--he who had done in every act something that +conscience reproved, and that religion forbade? + +Every moment as he lay there and thought, the terrors of the vast +unbounded future grew greater and more awful. The contemplation almost +drove him to frenzy, and he actually made an effort to rise from his +bed, but fell back again with a deep groan. The sound caught the ear +of good Jenny Best, and running in she asked if he wanted any thing. + +"Stay with me, stay with me," said the unhappy young man, "I cannot +bear this--it is very terrible--I am dying, Mrs. Best, I am dying." + +Mrs. Best shook her head with a melancholy look; but whether from +blunted feelings, from the hard and painful life which they endured, +or from a sense that there is to be compensation somewhere, and that +any change must be for the better, or cannot be much worse than the +life of this earth, or from want of active imagination, the poorer and +less educated classes I have generally remarked view death and all its +accessories with less of awe, if not of dread, than those who have +been surrounded by luxuries, and perhaps have used every effort to +keep the contemplation of the last dread scene afar, till it is +actually forced upon their notice. Her words were homely, and though +intended to comfort did not give much consolation to the dying man. + +"Ah well, sir, it is very sad," she said, "to die so young; though +every one must die sooner or later, and it makes but little difference +whether it be now or then. Life is not so long to look back at, sir, +as to look forward to, and when one dies young one is spared many a +thing. I recollect my poor eldest son who is gone, when he lay dying +just like you in that very bed, and I was taking on sadly, he said to +me, 'Mother don't cry so. It's just as well for me to go now when I've +not done much mischief or suffered much sorrow.' He was as good a +young man as ever lived; and so Mr. Dixwell said; for the parson used +to come and see him every day, and that was a great comfort and +consolation to the poor boy." + +"Was it?" said John Ayliffe, thoughtfully. "How long did he know he +was dying?" + +"Not much above a week, sir," said Mrs. Best; "for till Mr. Dixwell +told him, he always thought he would get better. We knew it a long +time however, for he had been in a decline a year, and his father had +been laying by money for the funeral three months before he died. So +when it was all over we put him by quite comfortable." + +"Put him by!" said John Ayliffe. + +"Yes, sir, we buried him, I mean," answered Mrs. Best. "That's our way +of talking. But Mr. Dixwell had been to see him long before. He knew +that he was dying, and he wouldn't tell him as long as there was any +hope; for he said it was not necessary--that he had never seen any one +better prepared to meet his Maker than poor Robert, and that it was no +use to disturb him about the matter till it came very near." + +"Ah, Dixwell is a wise man and a good man," said John Ayliffe. "I +should very much like to see him." + +"I can run for him in a minute sir," said Dame Best, but John Ayliffe +replied, in a faint voice, "No, no, don't, don't on any account." + +In the mean while, the very person of whom they were speaking had +descended from the up-stairs room, finished his breakfast in order to +give the surgeon time to fulfil his errand, and then putting on his +three-cornered hat had walked out to ascertain at what house Mr. Short +had stopped. The first place at which he inquired was the farm-house +at which the good surgeon had stabled his horse on the preceding +night. Entering by the kitchen door, he found the good woman of the +place bustling about amongst pots and pans and maidservants, and other +utensils, and though she received him with much reverence, she did not +for a moment cease her work. + +"Well, Dame," he said, "I hope you're all well here." + +"Quite well, your reverence--Betty, empty that pail." + +"Why, I've seen Mr. Short come down here," said the parson, "and I +thought somebody might be ill." + +"Very kind, your reverence--mind you don't spill it.--No, it warn't +here. It's some young man down at Jenny Best's, who's baddish, I +fancy, for the Doctor stabled his horse here last night." + +"I am glad to hear none of you are ill," said Mr. Dixwell, and bidding +her good morning, he walked away straight to the cottage where John +Ayliffe lay. There was no one in the outer room, and the good +clergyman, privileged by his cloth, walked straight on into the room +beyond, and stood by the bedside of the dying man before any one was +aware of his presence. + +Mr. Dixwell was not so much surprised to see there on that bed of +death the face of him he called Sir John Hastings, as might be +supposed. The character which the surgeon had given of his patient, +the mysterious absence of the young man from the Hall, and the very +circumstance of his unwillingness to have his name and the place where +he was lying known, had all lent a suspicion of the truth. John +Ayliffe's eyes were shut at the moment he entered, and he seemed +dozing, though in truth sleep was far away. But the little movement of +Mr. Dixwell towards his bedside, and of Mrs. Best giving place for the +clergyman to sit down, caused him to open his eyes, and his first +exclamation was, "Ah, Dixwell! so that damned fellow Short has +betrayed me, and told when I ordered him not." + +"Swear not at all," said Mr. Dixwell. "Short has not betrayed you, Sir +John. I came here by accident, merely hearing there was a young man +lying ill here, but without knowing actually that it was you, although +your absence from home has caused considerable uneasiness. I am very +sorry to see you in such a state. How did all this happen?" + +"I will not tell you, nor answer a single word," replied John Ayliffe, +"unless you promise not to say a word of my being here to any one. I +know you will keep your word if you say so, and Jenny Best too--won't +you, Jenny?--but I doubt that fellow Short." + +"You need not doubt him, Sir John," said the clergyman; "for he is +very discreet. As for me, I will promise, and will keep my word; for I +see not what good it could be to reveal it to any body if you dislike +it. You will be more tenderly nursed here, I am sure, than you would +be by unprincipled, dissolute servants, and since your poor mother's +death--" + +John Ayliffe groaned heavily, and the clergyman stopped. The next +moment, however, the young man said, "Then you do promise, do you?" + +"I do," replied Mr. Dixwell. "I will not at all reveal the facts +without your consent." + +"Well, then, sit down, and let us be alone together for a bit," said +John Ayliffe, and Mrs. Best quietly quitted the room and shut the +door. + +John Ayliffe turned his languid eyes anxiously upon the clergyman, +saying, "I think I am dying, Mr. Dixwell." + +He would fain have had a contradiction or even a ray of earthly hope; +but he got none; for it was evident to the eyes of Mr. Dixwell, +accustomed as he had been for many years to attend by the bed of +sickness and see the last spark of life go out, that John Ayliffe was +a dying man--that he might live hours, nay days; but that the +irrevocable summons had been given, that he was within the shadow of +the arch, and must pass through! + +"I am afraid you are, Sir John," he replied, "but I trust that God +will still afford you time to make preparation for the great change +about to take place, and by his grace I will help you to the utmost in +my power." + +John Ayliffe was silent, and closed his eyes again. Nor was he the +first to speak; for after having waited for several minutes, Mr. +Dixwell resumed, saying in a grave but kindly tone, "I am afraid, Sir +John, you have not hitherto given much thought to the subject which is +now so sadly fixed upon you. We must make haste, my good sir; we must +not lose a moment." + +"Then do you think I am going to die so soon?" asked the young man +with a look of horror; for it cost him a hard and terrible struggle to +bring his mind to grasp the thought of death being inevitable and nigh +at hand. He could hardly conceive it--he could hardly believe it--that +he who had so lately been full of life and health, who had been +scheming schemes, and laying out plans, and had looked upon futurity +as a certain possession--that he was to die in a few short hours; but +whenever the wilful heart would have rebelled against the sentence, +and struggle to resist it, sensations which he had never felt before, +told him in a voice not to be mistaken, "It must be so!" + +"No one can tell," replied Mr. Dixwell, "how soon it may be, or how +long God may spare you; but one thing is certain, Sir John, that years +with you have now dwindled down into days, and that days may very +likely be shortened to hours. But had you still years to live, I +should say the same thing, that no time is to be lost; too much has +been lost already." + +John Ayliffe did not comprehend him in the least. He could not grasp +the idea as yet of a whole life being made a preparation for death, +and looked vacantly in the clergyman's face, utterly confounded at the +thought. + +Mr. Dixwell had a very difficult task before him--one of the most +difficult he had ever undertaken; for he had not only to arouse the +conscience, but to awaken the intellect to things importing all to the +soul's salvation, which had never been either felt or believed, or +comprehended before. At first too, there was the natural repugnance +and resistance of a wilful, selfish, over-indulged heart to receive +painful or terrible truths, and even when the obstacle was overcome, +the young man's utter ignorance of religion and want of moral feeling +proved another almost insurmountable. He found that the only access to +John Ayliffe's heart was by the road of terror, and without scruple he +painted in stern and fearful colors the awful state of the impenitent +spirit called suddenly into the presence of its God. With an unpitying +hand he stripped away all self-delusions from the young man's mind and +laid his condition before him, and his future state in all their dark +and terrible reality. + +This is not intended for what is called a religious book, and +therefore I must pass over the arguments he used, and the course he +proceeded in. Suffice it that he labored earnestly for two hours to +awaken something like repentance in the bosom of John Ayliffe, and he +succeeded in the end better than the beginning had promised. When +thoroughly convinced of the moral danger of his situation, John +Ayliffe began to listen more eagerly, to reply more humbly, and to +seek earnestly for some consolation beyond the earth. His depression +and despair, as terrible truths became known to him were just in +proportion to his careless boldness and audacity while he had remained +in wilful ignorance, and as soon as Mr. Dixwell saw that all the +clinging to earthly expectations was gone--that every frail support of +mortal thoughts was taken away, he began to give him gleams of hope +from another world, and had the satisfaction of finding that the +doubts and terrors which remained arose from the consciousness of his +own sins and crimes, the heavy load of which he felt for the first +time. He told him that repentance was never too late--he showed, him +that Christ himself had stamped that great truth with a mark that +could not be mistaken in his pardon of the dying thief upon the cross, +and while he exhorted him to examine himself strictly, and to make +sure that what he felt was real repentance, and not the mere fear of +death which so many mistake for it in their last hours, he assured him +that if he could feel certain of that fact, and trust in his Saviour, +he might comfort himself and rest in good hope. That done, he resolved +to leave the young man to himself for a few hours that he might +meditate and try the great question he had propounded with his own +heart. He called in Mistress Best, however, and told her that if +during his absence Sir John wished her to read to him, it would be a +great kindness to read certain passages of Scripture which he pointed +out in the house Bible. The good woman very willingly undertook the +task, and shortly after the clergyman was gone John Ayliffe applied to +hear the words of that book against which he had previously shut his +ears. He found comfort and consolation and guidance therein; for Mr. +Dixwell, who, on the one subject which had been the study of his life +was wise as well as learned, had selected judiciously such passages as +tend to inspire hope without diminishing penitence. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Continued from page 488, vol. iii. + + + + +THE CASTLE OF BELVER. + +AN INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF ARAGO. + + +The castle of Belver is the state prison of the island of Majorca. The +Rev. Henry Christmas, F.R.S., has just published in London three +volumes entitled _The Shores and Islands of the Mediterranean_, in +which he gives the following account of the confinement within its +walls of the illustrious Arago: + + "Charged by the Emperor Napoleon with the admeasurement of + the meridian, Arago was in 1808 in Majorca, and occupying a + cottage on the mountain called Clot de Galatzo, when the + news came to the island of the recent events at Madrid, and + the carrying away of the king. The populace of Palma, never + very favorably disposed towards the French, and altogether + incapable of comprehending either the merits or the mission + of Arago, easily mistook the great astronomer for a + political spy, and exasperated at the insult offered to + their king and country, determined to take a signal + vengeance on the only Frenchman within their power. They + took their way in great numbers towards the mountain on + which Arago had taken up his abode, fortified in their + belief of his evil designs by the fact that he frequently + made fires on the mountain-side, and which they took for + signals to an imaginary French fleet just about to land an + army for the reduction of the island. + + "The mountain rises just above the coast on which Don Jaime + the Conqueror made his descent, and thus it will seem that + the islanders were not destitute of some grounds for the + suspicions which they entertained, nor without some + palliating circumstances in the outrage which they + contemplated. It was, however, happily only a design, for M. + Arago, warned in time, left his mountain, and directed his + steps towards Palma. The person who advertised him of his + peril was a man named Damian, the pilot of the brig placed + by the Spanish Government at the disposal of the + philosopher. Himself a Majorcan, he was taken into the + counsel of the plotters, and was thus enabled to save the + life of his master. + + "Dressed in the clothes of a common seaman, with which + Damian had provided him, he met on his way the mob, who were + bent on his destruction, and who stopped him to inquire + about that _maldito gabacho_, of whom they meant to rid the + island. As he spoke the language of the country fluently, he + gave them that kind of information which was most desirable + both to him and to them, and as soon as he arrived at Palma, + he made his way to the Spanish brig; but the captain, Don + Manual de Vacaro, a Catalonian, (his name ought to be known, + to his disgrace, as well as that of Damian to his credit,) + absolutely refused to take the astronomer to Barcelona, + alleging that he was at Palma for a specific purpose, and + could not leave without orders from his Government. When + Arago pointed out the danger which threatened his life, and + of which the captain was as well aware as himself, the + latter coolly pointed out a chest, in which he proposed + that M. Arago should take refuge. To this Arago replied by + measuring the chest, and showing that there was not room for + him in the inside. The next day a frantic mob was assembled + on the shore, and it became clear that it was their + intention to board the brig. Alarmed now for himself as well + as for his colleague, Don Manual assured Arago that he would + not answer for his life, and recommended him to constitute + himself a prisoner in the castle of Belver, offering to + conduct him hither in one of the ship's boats. Seeing what + kind of a man, as well as what kind of a mob, he had to do + with, Arago accepted the proposal, and just arrived time + enough to hear the castle gates closed against his furious + pursuers. It seems that all the motions of those on board + were watched from the shore, and as soon as the boat was + seen to depart, and to take the direction of Belver, the + populace poured forth, towards the castle, and had not Arago + been a little in advance, his life would have been + sacrificed.... He was there as a prisoner two months. + + "During that time he was told, and he seems to have believed + the report, that the monks in the island had attempted to + bribe the soldiers to poison him, but that the latter would + not consent. It is likely enough that monks, considered as + monks, would think it rather meritorious than otherwise to + destroy a Frenchman, and a free-thinker, but it would be + less probable of Majorcan monks than of any other, and + poisoning is not the custom of the island. At the same time + the very vehement feeling of the people against him, might + put it into the minds of the monks to use monastic arts, and + there is an additional probability given to the notion by + the conduct of the Captain-general, who, after two months of + captivity, sent a message to the prisoner that he would do + well to make his escape, and that if he did, it would be + winked at. Arago took this excellent advice, sent for M. + Rodriguez, who had been appointed by the Spanish Government + to aid him in his scientific labors, and by his aid opened a + communication with Damian. This worthy man procured a + fishing-boat, and took him to Algiers, not daring to land + him in France or Spain, and absolutely refusing very large + offers made to him for that purpose." + + + + +THE COUNT MONTE-LEONE: OR, THE SPY IN SOCIETY.[2] + +TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM THE FRENCH OF +M. DE ST. GEORGES. + + +XVI.--MADEMOISELLE CREPINEAU'S LOVER. + +About the end of May, 1819, on one of those bright sunny days which +bring out the blossoms of the lilac, make invalids strong, and young +girls healthy, the Duchess of Palma was sitting in the garden of her +hotel, in the same place and under the same tree in which we saw her +take refuge, to conceal her sorrow and tears, a few months before, on +the evening of the brilliant festival when all the principal +personages of our story met. A general languor and oppression with +complete weakness, the ordinary consequences of her unhappy attempt to +commit suicide, had ensued. The deep distress which gnawed at her +heart added moral to physical tortures. The Duke of Palma at last +perceived the deep indifference of La Felina towards him, and without +divining the cause, said that having married without love, all his +cares and tenderness had not sufficed to win her heart. He therefore +said, that he should be a fool to devote himself any longer to her, +and to consecrate his life to a woman to whom, notwithstanding the +prejudices of the world, he had given his title and name, without +having, as yet, received the most trifling acknowledgment in return! + +Yet young, immensely rich, volatile and handsome, it was probable that +the Duke would not look in vain for some one to console him for the +severity of his Duchess. Like many other persons in Paris, the Duke +lived _en garcon_ with two houses, two establishments, and, morally +speaking, two wives. His second wife was a celebrated _danseuse_ of +the Royal Academy of Music, Mlle. G., known as a very agreeably thin +woman, and arms rather larger than the true academic +proportions--which, however, enabled her to entwine her partner, with +an _undulous grace_ that highly excited the old _habitues_ of the +opera. The reign of Louis XVIII. was also emphatically the reign of +the _danseuses_. Princes, marshals, generals, and nobles, selected +their mistresses in the _seraglio_ of the opera. The reign of these +ladies was, however, almost _emphyteotic_, that is to say, permanent, +and often resulted in the consecration of illegitimate pleasures. MM. +de Lauraguais, de Conti, de Letoriers, and others, would have laughed +at this. The external life of the Duke was full of attention to the +Duchess, with whom he dined regularly. He never, however, breakfasted +at the embassy, nor was he there except at his regular receptions. The +pious people who had been so shocked at his marriage, took care to say +that the Duchess's conduct was the sole cause of her husband's +misbehavior. There was nothing, though, in the world to sustain this; +for no one had the slightest idea of the secret _liaison_ of +Monte-Leone and the embassadress. That was a transient affair, and the +shores of the _Lago di Como_ alone had been witnesses of it. Some +excuse, however, was indispensably necessary for him. + +La Felina, as isolated as ever, then sat in a beautiful garden which +overlooked the _Champs Elysees_, on the morning we have described. Her +face was pale and wearied, and her eyes red from want of sleep. With +her head resting on her chest, she seemed a prey to the greatest +sorrow. Just then they came to tell her of the visit of Taddeo Rovero. + +"At last," said she, gladly, "I will know all." + +Taddeo was close behind the servant who had announced him. He could +not repress his surprise, when he saw how changed the Duchess was. The +latter saw it and said, "You did not expect, signor, to see an old and +ugly woman instead of her you once thought, so beautiful. I have, +however, suffered a great deal during the three months you have been +away. Without meaning to reproach you, let me say it is three months +since I saw you." + +"Ah! Signora, to me you may assume any guise you please; for neither +my eyes, nor heart, distinguish any alteration." + +"So much the better," said the Duchess with a smile, "for you are +perhaps the only person who think me as beautiful as once was. It is +something to be thought beautiful when we are not. What, though, is +come over you? Why have you been so long in Italy?" + +"Alas! Signora, bad inducements took me from Paris and from yourself." + +"All they say, then, is true?" said the Duchess, making Taddeo sit by +her; "the Marquise de Maulear has lost her husband? She is a widow?" +said she, sadly, and with an effort. + +"The Marquis died three months since at Rome," said Taddeo. + +"It is terrible," said the ambassadress, "public rumor said so--I, +though, live so much alone that I know nothing more. Excuse me, if I +inquire into family secrets--were it not for the interest I entertain +for your sister and yourself, I would not do so--" + +"The death of the Marquis," said Taddeo, "is really a family secret. +There is no reason, however, why you should not know it. I am aware to +whom I confide it, and have no hesitation in doing so. My story will +be brief. The Marquis and I set out for Rome three months ago, to +receive the estate of my uncle, Cardinal Felippo Justiniani. We met +with many difficulties, but eventually received it. The total was a +million of francs, in bonds of the principal bankers of Rome. The half +of this sum was paid in cash. I was in mourning, and did not go into +society. Besides," added Taddeo, looking tenderly at La Felina, "I had +left my heart in Paris--and society and the Carnival pleasures had no +charms for me. The Marquis seemed more anxious for amusement than +propriety permitted. A few days after having received the half of our +inheritance, of which the Marquis had possession, I was surprised to +hear that he had not returned home at night. I did not, however, dare +to question him; for I thought that he had been tempted by some +pleasure party and might be unwilling to answer me. I pretended not to +be aware that he was away. For several successive nights this +occurred, and at last I ventured to speak to him, telling him what +danger he exposed himself to, by straying thus in the streets of Rome. +'I am well armed,' said he, 'and can protect myself against robbers.' +Day after day the Marquis seemed more and more engaged. He avoided me, +and scarcely ever returned home. One day he was absent. Afraid lest he +might have been attacked in the night, I went to the French minister's +and caused a minute search to be made--and learned that my +brother-in-law had put an end to his own life. He had been enticed by +some of his French friends into a gaming house, which foreign +speculators had obtained leave to open during the Carnival, and had +there lost the five hundred thousand francs which belonged to his +wife. In his despair he had drowned himself in the Tiber." + +"This is terrible," said the Duchess, "are you sure this is so?" + +"Too sure," said Taddeo, "for not long after, the discovery of the +body put all beyond doubt. These, Signora, are the facts of the case; +though to save the Marquise's honor we attribute his death to a +natural cause." + +"I thank you, Signor, for your confidence; especially since it gives +me a right to pity the sister you love so well, yet more--and also to +console you for the death of M. de Maulear. But when did you return?" + +"A few days ago. I was forced to remain yet longer in Rome to get +possession of the remnant of the Cardinal's fortune. My mother also +came to Rome to tell Aminta of her misfortune." + +"How cruelly the young _Marquise_ must suffer," said the Duchess; "how +she must need compassion and care!" + +"She will have ours; and her father-in-law, overcoming his own sorrow, +is as tender and fond of her as ever." + +"Then," said the Duchess, concealing a distress she could not lay +aside, "she yet has true and excellent friends--the Count Monte-Leone, +for instance, who was so fond of her--" + +"The Count," said Taddeo, looking strangely at the Duchess, who did +not meet his glance, "was received a few days ago by the Marquise." + +"He will make up for lost time," said La Felina, bitterly, "for now, +or perhaps some day, his old hopes may again arise, and perhaps be +realized." + +Taddeo understood why she spoke thus. For a long time his forbearance +had been pushed to extremities, and this passion of the Duchess for +his friend had given rise to new tortures, too severe to repress the +idea of vengeance. He was cruel and barbarous; but he had too severely +suffered from La Felina. By a violent course, also, he perhaps wished +to crush the love which tortured him. + +He remarked: "Even though I afflict you, I must say your fancy is +likely enough to be realized. The Count possesses rank and a spotless +reputation--for without the latter--" + +"With but the latter," said the Duchess, "he could not enter our +family." + +"Certainly, the Count prepares the Marquise for a future courtship by +very constant visits now." + +"He comes every day to the Hotel to see the Prince and myself. My +sister loves to hear him speak of Italy, of which you know he talks so +well." + +La Felina could bear no more. She gave her hand to Taddeo, and with a +voice trembling with emotion said: "For the present, adieu! You owe me +some compensation for your long absence, and if the lonely life I +lead does not afflict you, if you are not too much afraid of an +anchorite, come to see me, and you will find me always glad to see +you." + +Taddeo kissed her hand and left her, almost repenting in his generous +mind that he had spoken as he did. He was fully avenged, for the +Duchess's grief was so great that she felt her heart grow chilled, her +limbs stiffen, and her eyes close. Her conversation with Taddeo soon +returned to her mind, and she uttered a cry of agony. Her _femme de +chambre_ bore her to the Hotel. When alone in her room she said to +herself: "He swore to me that he would never be her lover. She may now +be his wife. Ah!" continued she, "with cruel and sombre fury, it would +have been better for both of us had he let me die." + +"Tell him who waits to come," said she to the servant. + +The woman left, and soon after came in with a man whom the Duchess +made sit beside her. The woman left the room. We will leave the +Duchess with the stranger and go to No. 13 _rue de Babylonne_, where +one month after we shall find Mlle. Celestine Crepineau, a prey to the +tenderest emotions. We must say for about two months the heart of that +lady had been speaking. This lady's heart, like that of old +thorough-bred horses, of whom we read every once in a while, had a +return of ardor, and laid aside all its ascetic devotion to become +intense living and burning, as it had been in youth. This was the sure +premonition of old age. If anything could justify this resurrection, +it is what we are about to tell. + +A new star shone in _la rue de Babylonne_. A beautiful stranger +calling himself a Spaniard, a statement made probable by his dark +complexion, sun-burnt brow, black hair, and brilliant eyes, +established himself in a modest garret of No. 12, just opposite the +house of the _hangman_, now occupied by Matheus. The charming Spaniard +had no decided profession. His dress was that of an artisan in his +Sunday best: and his velvet vest covered a prominent and Herculean +_torso_. He was tall; and walked squarely on his large feet; a +circumstance which made Mlle. Crepineau think him majestic. He said he +was a bear-hunter from the Pyrenees, who had been forced to expatriate +himself because _in a duel he had wounded the governor of his +province_. It may be imagined that so rare a profession excited much +admiration among the natives of _la rue Babylonne_, especially as the +famous Nimrod passed his time at the door of No. 12, under the pretext +that he was accustomed to the pure mountain air, and that he did not +wish any of the neighbors anxious to make inquiries about his terrible +profession, to have the trouble of asking for him. At one of these +hall-door entertainments one summer night, the handsome Nunez saw and +captivated Mlle. Celestine Crepineau. Do not let any one fancy the +modest girl had given any encouragement to the stranger. They had +restricted themselves to glances, _double entendres_, and the +countless amiable pioneers of the army of Cupid. Mlle. Crepineau saw +the stranger come every day to assist her in opening the heavy door of +No. 13. Nunez took charge of the watering pot of which the +commissaries are so fond, and dispersed an agreeable freshness in +front of the house during the warm hours of the day, to protect, he +said, the color and complexion of his mistress. Often Mlle. +Celestine's nerves were refreshed by a delicate perfume which strayed +through the bars of her lodge, and on inquiry saw a sprig of some +sweet and odorous plant which had been placed there by the Spaniard. +At last Mlle. Crepineau gave him permission to visit her. This was an +important favor, and was the passage of the rubicon. By doing so, +Celestine placed her reputation in the power of her evil-disposed +neighbors. She was, however, in love. "Besides," said she, with noble +pride, "my conscience sustains me, and envy will fall abashed before +the sacred torch of hymen." This _respectable_ phrase was the last +remnant of the romances of Ducray-Dumenil, the first books Celestine +ever read when she was cook of the advocate her god-father. + +But this interesting love passion was suddenly brought to a close by a +very painful circumstance for the vanity of the young lady. Whether +Mlle. Crepineau had laced herself more tightly even than usual, or +that in aspirations after sylphic grace, she had been rather too +active when Senor Nunez was by--she was seized one fine day with a +pain in the small of her back, translatable only by the word +rheumatism--a constant attendant of her delicate organization. A +forced construction was put on the pain--which became a cold or a +strain, but she had, in spite of the effort to get rid of it by an +_euphonism_, to go to bed. Then the devotion of the Spaniard became +heroic. He was unwilling that Mlle. Celestine should intrust any one +else with her daily occupation, and undertook to replace her in the +menage of Doctor Matheus. The proposition did not awaken much of the +doctor's gratitude; and though he accepted the substitute, he promised +to watch him very closely. One morning the doctor was forced to leave +very suddenly, just as the Spaniard was cleaning and dusting the +consultation room. Matheus had been sent for by the Duke d'Harcourt, +and apprehending some new indisposition of his young patient, Von +Apsberg, for the first time left the Senor Nunez in his room. + +For a few moments, the Spaniard continued his occupation. When, +however, he saw the doctor leave, and from the window saw him turn +down the _rue de Bac_, he said, "Now what I have so long sought for is +in my grasp." Looking on every side of the room, lifting up the +papers, opening the portfolios and examining the furniture, he +discovered a secret drawer in a bureau, within which he found a key. + +"Here," said he, "is the key of the laboratory--of the mysterious room +in which I shall find all I need. This is it," said he, looking +anxiously at the key, "I know it by its shape." Hurrying to the third +floor of the house, he paused at the door. His hand trembled--the key +entered--turned--the wards moved, and the stranger entered the +laboratory. + +The table which, when we paid our first visit to Matheus, was covered +with maps, pamphlets, etc., now had nothing on it. "All is locked up," +said the man. "I have bad luck." He soon, however, aroused himself, +and taking a ball of wax from his pocket, and pointing to a massive +secretary, said, "There they are--there are their plans and papers, +their lists and names." Approaching the secretary again, he took an +exact impression of the lock, and also made a copy of the key of the +laboratory. He then uttered a cry of joy. "I have them all," said he. +"I am their master, and not one of the accursed Carbonari can escape +me." He then left the room as expeditiously as he had entered, went to +the first story, replaced the key where he had found it in the secret +drawer, and hurried to find Mlle. Celestine Crepineau, who had become +very uneasy about her lover. + + +XVIII. RUIN. + +A few days after the pretended bear-hunter, the handsome Spaniard, +adored by the amiable Mlle. Crepineau, had gone stealthily into the +studio of Dr. Matheus to obtain possession of the secrets of the +Carbonari, our three friends Taddeo Rovero, Von Apsberg, and the +Vicomte d'Harcourt, were at the Count's hotel. The house of +Monte-Leone was in Verneuil street. It was small, mysterious, and +recherche. The court-yard was of modest size, with turf in the centre, +and sanded walks around it. The steps had a balcony at the top and +several marble vases, from which grew geraniums in summer and heath in +the winter. It was a regular bachelor's house, having every thing +demanded by the exigencies of a tenant of that condition. It had all +the broad, tall, low, narrow, visible, and invisible doors, for +troublesome cases and exits, for the actors and actresses of the every +day drama of the life of a young, rich, and independent man. No love +drama was ever performed, though, on this theatre. One of another and +more brilliant kind was being prepared. He gave a dinner to young men, +a regular one, without a single woman. Men alone were welcomed by the +noble Amphytrion. The house was furnished as luxuriously as possible, +for only recently have people conceived the happy idea of making +dining-rooms comfortable. Of this our fathers were entirely ignorant. +Once people eat much or little, well or badly; they breakfasted, +dined, or took tea--that was all. They sat on straw or hair chairs; +they were warmed by bad stoves, the smell of which was intolerable; +the feet rested on marble blocks, bright, but cold as ice. Such was +the gastronomical trilogy of Parisians. The large hotels, and even the +smaller establishments of our renowned libertines had a more splendid +refectory, which, however, was not more favorable to the comfort of +the guests. The dark and rich tapestries which hung on the walls, the +marble on the floor, the pictures, though by Boucher or Watteau, were +artistic and costly, but nothing less than the eyes of La Guimard, the +lips of Sophie Arnould, those of La Maupin or La Duthe, could warm +those cold arenas, where Bernis, Larenaudie, Fronsac, Bouret, and +Beaujon sacrificed to Comus in the company of the Loves. Now all is +changed. Not only gastronomy, but the art of living well has been +discovered not to exist alone in wines and cookery, and it has become +a proverb, that "beans in china are better than truffles in +earthenware." In 1819 Count Monte-Leone had a presentiment of our +taste in 1848, and he was therefore spoken of as a foreign sybarite, +whose extravagant tastes never would be imitated. Though people +blamed, they envied, and _tried to imitate_. + +The dining-room of the Count, therefore, glittered with lights, and +around a table filled with the rarest glass, from which was exhaled +the perfume of a dinner fit for Lucullus, were about a dozen men, some +of whom, Matheus, Taddeo, and d'Harcourt, we know already. The others, +of whom we will hereafter speak more fully, were famous Carbonari, the +founders of the French order, General A...., the banker H...., Count +de Ch...., the merchant Ober, the _Avocat_ C...., and the illustrious +Professor C.... Two of these gentlemen had come from Italy, and +brought to Monte-Leone new orders from the central Venta of Naples, +and also curious details about the progress or rather maturity of +Carbonarism in the Two Sicilies and the neighboring countries. It had +however been by common consent determined among the guests that none +of the grave secrets of the order should be revealed at their joyous +repast--that political questions should be postponed to more serious +conferences: not that the members were not satisfied of the prudence +of each other, but inquisitive ears hovered around this table, and +with the exception of those of the prudent old Giacomo none could be +trusted. There was especial reason for this, as vague rumors had for +some time made the Carbonari distrustful. It was said that the +Minister of Police had placed Count Monte-Leone under the strictest +surveillance in consequence of his previous history. The objects of +this dinner, which beyond doubt was subjected to some particular +notice, was to prove that all the persons assembled were men of +pleasure, and not agents of discord or conspirators. + +"To our host," said d'Harcourt, filling his glass, "to his loves and +conquests!" + +"You will get drunk," said one of the guests, "if you drink to all of +his conquests." + +"All calumny," said Matheus. "The conversion of St. Augustine is no +miracle since that of Monte-Leone. The gallant Italian is now a fresh +anchorite, avoiding the pomps of Satan and the opera in this +_Thebais_. With his friends he atones for past errors." + +"The fact is, no one knows any thing about the Count's amours," said +one of the guests. + +"Well, then," said another, "that for one in society, as Monte-Leone +is, he makes bad use of his eyes. The very mention of his Neapolitan +adventures would turn the heads of ten Parisian women." + +"You are wrong, my dear B....," said the Count. "The women of Paris +are not so headlong as you think. They reason with their hearts, and +pay attention to convenances without regard to inclination. Besides, +the man they love occupies only the second place in their hearts. +_They_ come first and _he_ afterwards. Often, too, the toilette +occupies the second place with amusements and pleasures. They prefer +the attention of one to the love of all. _Liasons_ in France are +elegant, _recherche_, and refined. They never violate good taste, and +even in their despair French women are charming. They quarrel behind a +fan, tear a bouquet to pieces, and shred the lace of a handkerchief. +They weep, and stop soon enough not to stain the eyes, and when they +have fainting-fits, are very careful not to disturb their curls. Great +suffering just stops short of a nervous attack, and fury never breaks +either china bracelets or jewelry, though it is merciless on lovers' +miniatures. Three months after, if the offended lady meet the +gentleman in a drawing-room, she will ask the person next her, 'Pray +tell me who that gentleman is, I think I have seen him somewhere.' In +Spain and Italy they avenge themselves, and do not pardon men who are +inconstant until they too are false. Woe to him whose love is the +first to end. He henceforth has but the storm and the thunder-bolt. +Hatred and vengeance--the first is found in France--women in Italy +kill. I tell you your countrywomen are not romantic, and suffer +themselves to be led astray only after due reflection." + +"Well, for my own part," said d'Harcourt to Monte-Leone, "I know a +woman who adores you in secret, who never speaks of you without +blushing, who looks down when your name is mentioned, and who looks up +when she sees you." + +Taddeo looked at the Vicomte with surprise. Two names occurred to him, +that of the Duchess, and yet of another person. Monte-Leone, like +Taddeo, was afraid that the young fool, whose greatest virtue was not +temperance, would be indiscreet. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "the Vicomte is about to be stupid. In the name +of our friendship I beg him to be silent." + +"Bah, bah!" said d'Harcourt, becoming yet more excited, and draining +his glass of champagne, _in vino veritas_. "The proof of what I say is +that Monte-Leone is afraid. I shall name the victim of the passion he +has inspired. I wish to reinstate him in your eyes, for he has +represented himself as deserted and abandoned by the fair sex, when +one of the fairest adores him, and would sacrifice name and rank for +him." + +"Vicomte," said Monte-Leone, enraged and rising, "do not make me +forget my intimacy with you of five years' duration." + +"You will not forget it--you will like me all the better for what I am +about to say. Besides it is nothing but humanity. You would not let +the poor woman die when you can save her?" + +"Again I ask you to stop," said Monte-Leone. + +"You are too late," said the Vicomte, taking another glass of wine. "I +drink to the Attala, the Ariana, the Psyche of our illustrious host, +to a charming widow we all admire, to _Madame de Bruneval_." + +One shout of joy burst from all. Monte-Leone felt a burden of trouble +lifted from him, and Taddeo breathed more freely. + +"Gentlemen," said Monte-Leone, resuming his _sangfroid_, "I protest +that I was not aware of the happiness with which I am menaced. Though +I do justice to the precious qualities of Mme. de Bruneval--to her +lofty virtue, with which all of you are familiar--I should be afraid +of following in the footsteps of the illustrious dead. Since, however, +the widow has been spoken of, I will propose a toast to the speedy +cure of her heart, provided I am not expected to become its surgeon." + +All drank; and amid the sound of their laughter, Giacomo entered, and +on a salver handed the Count a letter. "It is from Naples," said he; +and having opened, he read it. As he did so he grew pale. + +"Any bad news?" said Matheus. + +"No," said Monte-Leone, with an effort to restrain himself; "no, my +friends"--taking advantage of the temporary absence of the servants, +who had placed the dessert on the table, and who then retired, as is +the custom in all well regulated households--"No bad news to our +cause. This letter is on private business. I have another toast," said +he, in a lower tone. "To the brethren who are my guests to-day!" + +"To the absent!" said Taddeo. + +"Well, well," said Dr. Matheus, looking uneasily around; "let us have +done with toasts. As a doctor, I may speak. Too many of this kind may +endanger _our lives_," added he, emphasizing the last words. "Let us +enjoy the pleasures heaven has granted us. Our first masters in good +cheer, the Greeks and Romans, surrounded their tables with flowers and +crowned their cups with roses. Let us laugh, then, my friends, at +fools, intriguers, and apostates. Let us laugh at each other, and +especially at unreasonable d'Harcourt, who can drown his own mind in a +single bottle of champagne, and which makes him about as sensible as a +fly." + +The sallies and follies of after dinner followed this pompous harangue +of Matheus. Had any one witnessed this scene, they would have fancied +the actors a party of young mousquetaires of the regency, rather than +conspirators who aspired to convulse the world. When the guests of +Monte-Leone were gone, and only d'Harcourt, Matheus, and Taddeo +remained, the Count took his dispatch out of his bosom, and bade the +latter read it. It was as follows: + + + "NAPLES, September 10, 1819. + + "COUNT:--I am sorry to inform you that the banker Antonio + Lamberti, to whom you had confided your fortune, and with + whom you bade me deposit the price of your palace, sold for + six hundred thousand francs, has failed, and fled with all + your fortune. + + "Your respectful attorney, + + "GUISEPPE FARNUCCI." + + + +The three friends embraced Monte-Leone, and Von Apsberg said, "You +knew this, yet could share our gayety. Did you not say yourself +laughter is as necessary for digestion as it is to the heart?" + +"I fulfilled my duties of host to the letter. I needed all my courage, +though, having lost more than my fortune--my happiness. The morning's +papers will announce the failure of Antonio Lamberti, and all Paris +will know of the ruin of the brilliant Count Monte-Leone." + +With fortune, the Count had also lost the hope of happiness. The +widowhood of the Marquise de Maulear had revived all his hopes, as La +Felina had foreseen, and his rank and title enabled him again to +aspire to Aminta's hand. All this prospect his misfortune annihilated. +What had he to offer now to Aminta? The name, the eclat of which he +could sustain no longer--an existence endangered by a political plot, +the triumph of which was far from certain--sumptuous tastes, which he +would not be permitted to gratify--privations, especially cruel as +they would follow closely on luxury and opulence, of which he had, so +to say, built himself a temple. + +Ten months had passed by since the Marquis's death, and the grief of +his widow had been most sincere. Though Aminta had never entertained a +very profound love for her husband, she had been much attached to him +from a reason common enough: she was strong and he unusually weak. +When, therefore, a terrible vice had seized on him, and sought, as it +were, to wrest him from her arms, not a reproach had been uttered by +Aminta against the sacrifice of her money and his neglect to an +ignoble propensity. She forgave the gamester who was faithful to her, +and had wept over him when she would have had no tears for the +unfaithful husband. This soul so full of love was not slumbering in +the arms of marriage. The energetical character which Aminta had often +exhibited would, had it found traits of manhood properly expanded in +her husband, have possibly modified her feelings, if he had possessed +that burning imagination, that secret imagination which creates deep +love, and for which too she seemed to have been created. She might +have said this. She was too chaste to do so. Yet sometimes, in her +long and dreamy solitudes, an image rose before her, especially when +her husband was away. She dreamed of an exalted love, full of ardor +and devotion, indomitable courage, sacrifice of life to duty, a noble +and generous soul, which divined her own, and linked itself to it. All +this assumed the form of the man she had rejected, of whom she had +been afraid, and for her ingratitude to whom she now blushed. + +The Count had been received by Aminta, in the early months of her +widowhood, but he had refrained, from respectful motives, to allude to +his feelings. His visits to the Marquise were short and ceremonious, +feeling that love should not be veiled by the crape of mourning. Like +the Prince de Maulear, and all Paris in fact, Aminta had heard of the +Count's misfortune, and the blow made a deep impression on her. The +absence of the Count became prolonged. He had not visited her since +his misfortune, and she could not but feel a deep interest for him to +whom fate reserved such severe trials. One evening, when she was more +melancholy than usual, and sat in the saloon with her head leaning on +her hand, and dreaming over the incidents of her life in which +Monte-Leone had figured, she thought without remorse of scenes it had +been once her duty to forget. A stifled sigh escaped from her bosom, +and a kind of moan near her induced her to shake off her reverie. She +saw Scorpione lying at her feet as he used to, and looking fixedly and +sadly at her. + +Tonio, whom, like the children of Sorrento, we have often called +Scorpione, after having wandered along the sea-shore at the time of +Aminta's marriage, had been found exhausted on the sands, and been +taken to Signora Rovero, on the very day that Aminta set out for +France. Since then, vegetating rather than living with the mother of +Aminta, Signora Rovero was unwilling to trust her daughter's preserver +to servants, when she heard of the death of her son-in-law. Signora +Rovero had such delicate health as to be unable to bear the climate of +Paris, and had six months before returned to Italy; but Tonio was +unwilling to leave her, and yielding to his mute prayers, Aminta had +consented for him to remain, for his sufferings to save her had made a +deep impression on her. Tonio was in fact but the shadow of himself, +the soul alone seeming to support him. Even his soul was changed. +Fearful and timid when with Aminta, the passion the unfortunate boy +had once experienced for her became humble and respectful submission. +His very mind became extinct; and the only glimmerings of it now +seemed to be a kind of instinctive sympathy with his mistress. He +smiled when the Marquise did, and that was but rarely. He wept when +tears hung on her eyelids. When he looked as we have described at +Aminta, her sadness was perfectly mirrored on his face. Scorpione was, +in fact, less than man, and more than a brute--he was an idiot. + +"You suffer, because I suffer," said Aminta. + +He replied, "Yes." + +By one of those ideas which take possession of the time, but which it +shrinks to confess, she said in a weak and almost tender voice to the +idiot, as children do to toys, "If I were happy, would you be?" +Scorpione looked fixedly at her, as if trying to understand her; and +she added, "If any one loved me, and I loved him also, would you wish +me to be happy?" blushing as she spoke. + +Heavy tears rolled down his cheeks, and he said, taking Aminta's hand, +"Yes." + +"Poor child!" said she, with tears also, "once he loved me for his own +sake--now he loves me for my own." + +"Yes," said the idiot, hiding his face with his hands. + +Just then the Prince de Maulear was announced. + + +XVIII. THE KING. + +The Prince adored his daughter-in-law, and with tears in his eyes he +besought Signora Rovero not to take her from him. "Remember," said he, +"that I am old, and have but a few years more to live before I reach +the end of my journey, to which the death of my unfortunate son has +brought me years nearer. Do not, Signora, deprive me of the only being +I love on earth. Make this sacrifice to Rovero's friend. In his name I +ask you to do so. Have a little patience with the old man, and let +Aminta close his eyes. I will soon restore her to you." + +The mother made this sacrifice to the broken-hearted father, who +almost on his knees besought her to give him her daughter to replace +his lost son. In his suffering the Prince seemed to become doubly fond +of the young woman. Her own father could not have been more anxious to +spare her pain and to satisfy her least desires. + +"She is my Antigone," said he, proudly, to all who met him leaning on +the Marquise's arm. "I am, though, happier than Oedipus, for I can +look at and admire her." + +"When the Prince came into the drawing-room of his daughter he seemed +excited. The Marquise bade Scorpione leave her, and the idiot crawled +rather than walked to the door, through which he disappeared; not, +however, until he had cast one glance on the young woman, as if to +become satisfied that her features expressed neither menace nor anger. + +"Good and kind as ever," said the Prince to Aminta; "you certainly +appear to advantage with that hideous and deformed being. No one but a +person generous as you are would keep so awful a being by you." + +"To do so, father, I need only appeal to memory, and that will aid me. +I cannot forget that I am indebted to him for my life, and above all, +for the boon of being loved by you." + +"Certainly," said the Prince, "I know all that; but you might take +care of and watch over him, and make his life pleasant, without +keeping him ever before you. I, who am not at all timid, assure you +that I never see him without apprehension at your feet, hugging the +fire like a serpent to quicken the icy blood in his veins." + +"I will send him away if you wish me to." + +"I wish you to do as you please. That you know well enough, my child. +Keep the Scorpione, as you sometimes call him, and nurse up any +horrible monster you please besides, and I will think it charming, or +at least will not reproach you. My dear child, I have few amusements +for you, and now your life must be sad indeed." + +"No, no! dear father, I do not complain. The hotel is only sad when +you are not here." + +"Alas!" said the Prince, "there can be found but little interest in +one as old as I am, and so unhappy too. Listen to me, Aminta, it is +cruel to make children die before their parents. It reverses the order +of nature to see the flower wither while the parent stem is green. I +spoke to you of fate, because I was unwilling to mention God. Grief +makes us pious. I dare not object to your decrees." + +"Have you not yet a daughter?" said Aminta, passing her arm around the +Prince's neck; "have you not a daughter who loves you?" + +"Yes, yes, _my daughter_." The Prince laid an emphasis on the last +word. "You are now my only child, and I wish to secure your happiness; +and for that purpose will consecrate to you the remnant of my life. +Yet I do not know what to do." + +The young woman blushed--for perhaps she could have made a suggestion. +The Prince, though, did not remark it, and continued: + +"Our life is sadder even than it was. The friends of this world are +like bees who hover only around flowers when they bloom, and scorn +those which begin to wither. They avoid this house--" + +"All friends do not act thus," said Aminta, concealing her emotion; +"one of them, one who pleases you most, whom you love, Signor +Monte-Leone, often comes hither to see you alone--" + +"To see me?" said the Prince, looking shrewdly at his daughter-in-law; +"perhaps he comes to see you. Since, however, his misfortune, the +Count never comes near us. Perhaps he judges us incorrectly. He may +have fancied the loss of fortune involved the sacrifice of our +friendship. It is a bad judgment, and I say it with regret, of a bad +heart." + +"Ah father," said Aminta, "the Count must have had another reason to +keep him away." + +"Certainly," said M. de Maulear, "but these reasons have not kept him +from seeing me. During the last fortnight, I have been ten times to +his house. I am, however, glad he has acted thus, for his conduct will +diminish my sorrow at his departure--" + +"His departure?" said Aminta, unable to restrain an expression of +surprise. + +"His departure for Italy," said the Prince; "he was ordered this +morning, by the French government, to leave France within twenty-four +hours." + +"And why?" said Aminta. + +"He is accused," said Maulear, "of being concerned in some conspiracy +contrary to the safety of the country." + +"Ah, my God!" said the young woman, "then he is exiled and expelled +from the kingdom." + +"Decidedly; and he is forbidden ever to return." + +Aminta, as she heard these words, felt as if her heart would burst. +The Prince saw her agitation. + +"What is the matter my child?" said he. "Why are you so sad?" + +"Nothing, nothing, but a nervous attack, to which I am used." + +Maulear looked at the Marquise for a few moments, and then said: "My +child, there is no true love without confidence. My love gives me +sacred rights over you. Do not be afraid to confide in me. Let not +even the memory of the departed restrain you. You are twenty years of +age; and your life has not approached its end. I am now about to tell +you what I have often intended to: your happiness is the main object +of my life, and never forget that, whatever may be your name, I shall +always look on you as a daughter!" + +Aminta threw herself into the Prince's arms and hid there her tears of +gratitude and her blushes. De Maulear took his beautiful +daughter-in-law on his knee, as he would have taken a child, and then +lifting up Aminta's head with exquisite kindness, said: "Does he love +you?" + +"He did before I was married," said the young woman, looking down. + +"And since then?" + +"He has never spoken of love." + +"He should not have done so," said the Prince; "often, though, the +eyes say such things; and his, probably, are not inexpressive." + +Aminta did not reply. + +"All is clear," said the Prince; "the Count avoids us from a sentiment +of delicacy which does him honor. He has no longer reason to hope, +being ruined, for what, when rich, he would have given his life and +fortune." + +"He will go," said Aminta faintly. + +"He will not, he shall not go. This conspiracy is, after all, only one +of the phantoms ever arising before a terrified government. If the +really revolutionary mind of Count Monte-Leone has involved him, I +will promise to make him listen to reason, especially if you will aid +me--as for this order to leave so abruptly, I hope my arm is long +enough to interpose." + +"What then will you do?" asked Aminta, anxiously. + +"_Parbleu!_ I will go to the King himself--not to the ministers, but +to the KING--to GOD, not to the saints. Mind, for the proverb's sake +alone I apply that word to those gentry. The King is an old friend, a +brother in exile. I never asked a favor of him, though he has often +asked me to do so. We will see if he will refuse me." + +"But," said Aminta, "time is short." + +"Then," said the Prince, "to-morrow morning I will go to the +Tuileries, and we will see what the minister will say when he hears +Louis XVIII. say, _I will!_" + +"Think you he will say so?" + +"He must," said the Prince, kissing her; "for you and I say, _we +will_. What a woman wills----To-morrow you shall have good news." He +went away.... + +At that time the appearance of the Tuileries was very imposing. To the +forms of the empire had succeeded the more luxurious and aristocratic +ones of the restoration. + +The stern military garb of the Imperial Guard, and of the Dragoons of +the Empress, was replaced by the brilliant uniforms of the King's +body-guards, of the _hundred Swiss_, an old name now replaced by the +almost grotesque appellation of the _Gardes a pied ordinaires du corps +du roi_, a species of giants, commanded by the Count of Tisseuil, a +person only about four feet high, but an excellent soldier for all +that. Then came the Swiss, the Royal guard, and on days of public +ceremonies, the _Gardes de la Manche_, whose duty had special relation +to the religious ceremonies of the chapel of the palace. The reception +rooms, the great gallery, the hall of the marshals, glittered with +embroidered dresses, _cordons_, collars and orders of every kind, both +French and foreign. There were the stars of the empire--those of the +monarchy--Russian, English, Austrian, Italian--the stars of all +Europe. A large portion of the continent was in Paris. This portion +was the most brilliant of all; for having tasted of Parisian +refinement it was not at all anxious to return home. His majesty +Louis XVIII., dressed in blue and wearing the royal cordon of the +Saint Esprit, with his hair _a l'oisseu-royal_, and his legs hidden in +broad pantaloons, which concealed their size, with his feet in shoes +of buckskin, and pleasant and agreeable as ever, had been rolled by +his footman from the room where he breakfasted, to his study. MM. de +Blacas, d'Escars, and de Damas, his gentlemen in waiting, and many +courtiers, had followed his majesty's chair to the very door of his +study, where they paused. Then the human horses, who dragged the +chair, having turned him around _on his own pivot_, bore him into the +recesses of the room. The object of the manoeuvre we have described +was to place the King vis-a-vis to his courtiers, to whom he bowed +graciously. This was a signal for them to leave. The doors then closed +with not a little noise, and this was all the public knew of royal +life. Private matters, interviews with the ministers, audiences, had +particular modes of entrance leading to the King's rooms and office. +The latter was the sanctuary of royal thought, where great and petty +acts were consummated, and where many confessions and audiences had +been heard and given. There this literary King, better educated than +half of his academy, had made commentaries on many learned Latins, +especially on Horace. The King appropriated several hours of every day +to study. To derange the distribution of this time, to take him from +Juvenal, Tacitus, or Cicero, to discuss a plan of Villele or Angles, +was almost high treason. One person alone dared to do this, and this +person was above law. The reason was, he was more powerful than the +King, having even majesty in subjection. The name of this man was +Father Elysee. It was his business to keep the King alive. This was, +as will be seen, a very important matter. + +This man went into the King's room without notice, and without even +tapping at his door. He did so, by virtue of the sovereign power of +the patient over the invalid--by virtue of science over suffering +humanity. The King, however, sometimes used to say, when Elysee made a +very _brusque_ entrance: "_I only wish one thing, that disease may not +break in on me brusquely as you do_." + +As a fine and acute courtier, as an old slouth-hound of the palace +with a keen scent, the Prince de Maulear went to Father Elysee for the +purpose of obtaining a speedy audience. + +"Is it you?" said the King, behind whom opened a door looking into the +reception room. + +"Yes," said the doctor, "I wish your majesty would not pay too much +attention to your Latin and study. Nothing injures the digestive +organs like study, especially after meals. Mind and matter then +contend, and the body is almost always overcome." + +"If I had to do only with my old friends, Horace and Petronius," said +the King, "my digestion would be all right. Unfortunately I have found +a few modern subjects well calculated to annoy Master Gaster--for the +vermin of Juvenal and Persius would be honey of Hymethus compared with +the bile of the books I speak of--" + +The King pointed out to the doctor a few open pamphlets which lay +about the table. + +"_Norman Letters. The Man in the Grey Coat_--MINERVA," said the +doctor, looking at them; "who dared to bring these books hither?" + +"My majesty dared. I am as good a doctor as you are, but I have more +patients. I have a whole nation to cure, and to administer a tonic we +must at least be aware of the debility. Look hither," said the King, +"here is an antidote to poison. _The Conservative_, edited by the most +learned doctors of the political faculty--by de Chateaubriand, de +Bonald, de Villele, Fievee. Castelbajac, and a certain Abbe de +Lamennais, an eloquent, sharp, and able man, I am sure, who has, +though, one fault, he is a greater royalist than his King." + +"And may I venture to ask your majesty how the works of Etienne, Jay, +Jony and company, came hither?" + +"Smuggled in," said Louis XVIII., with a smile; "F----, one of my +_valets de chambre_, whom I have placed at the head of what I call my +secret ministry, brings them to me. The fellow has taste. He said to +me the other day: '_I have something devilish good here. The +scoundrels do not spare your majesty_.' But," continued the King, "no +man can be great to his valet or his physician, and I will therefore +confess that the works of these liberal gentlemen trouble my digestion +not a little, and I wish my good friend the Duke d'Escars to bring me +back that _puree de cailles truffees_, of which he is the inventor. He +is the Prince of Gourmands." + +"Then," said Pere Elysee, glad to be able thus to pass to the +principal object of his visit, "I am just in time to amuse your +majesty, and to announce the visit of one of your best friends--the +Prince de Maulear." + +"Just in time," said the King; "he is a gentleman of the old school, +and has chosen _for fifty years_ to be such. He yet believes in a King +of France, fully, perhaps more fully, than he does in God. He is a +true enemy of the Jacobins and Revolutionists. Tell him to come in, +doctor, and we will be able to bear up against the attacks of the +authors of those books." + +The doctor soon brought the Prince de Maulear, and then left. + +"Come in, my dear Prince," said the King; "you do not spoil your +friends, and I see you too rarely, as I see others too frequently, to +be able to forget you." + +Kings, however unpleasant they may be, have this analogy with the sun, +all come to warm themselves by his rays. + +"I thank your majesty for your kind reception." + +"You were my friend and shared my exile." + +"It was a sad season," said the Prince, sitting on the chair the King +pushed towards him. + +"Not so, Prince; then we had no cares and no enemies, above all we had +no court. We were independent, calm, and happy." + +"Perhaps you had health, but you had no crown." + +"Think you that a great misfortune?" + +"Perhaps not to your majesty, but it was to France." + +"How? Does our friend the Prince de Maulear, contrary to every +expectation, become a flatterer in his old age? In what part of the +Tuileries did he contract that disease? Listen, my dear de Maulear. +You as well as I know that _love of France_ is but a word. Once in +France, people loved the King--now, though, France above all other +things loves itself. This love is, if you please, egotistical, but +after all it is the only real positive good in this selfish age. Mind +I speak only of the owners, and therefore conservatives of the +kingdom. The other portion of the kingdom, anxious at any risk to +acquire, estimates the country cheaply. A few faithful hearts who +welcomed me as a Messiah expected for twenty years, true and noble +believers, looked on my return as the realization of their long and +secret hopes. To the majority of my people the Bourbon lily has been +only the olive-branch of peace purchased by twenty years of war. This +peace I would not have brought back by the bayonets of the Austrians +and Russians. But God, Buonaparte, and the Allies, so willed it. You +see, my dear Prince, that I am not mistaken in relation to my +subjects' love, and that the gems of a crown do not conceal its +thorns." + +"The King," said M. de Maulear, "at least deigns to reckon me among +the faithful subjects of whom he spoke just now?" + +"Yes, yes," said the King, "among the most faithful and most +disinterested. When I came back, there was established a very +partition of offices and places, or honors, titles, crosses and stars, +in which you took no part. Now you know you are one of those to whom I +could refuse nothing." + +"Well," said the Prince, "your majesty gives me courage to make one +request, to obtain which I come hither." + +"Bah!" said the King, "speak out my old friend, if the matter depends +on me--" + +"Cannot the King do any thing?" said the Prince. + +"The King can do very little," said Louis XVIII. + +"When your majesty says 'I will--'" + +"Others say, 'We will not.'" + +"Who will dare to use such language?" + +"The true Kings of France--the ministers--for they are responsible +while I am not. To tell the fact, though, I have credit with them and +will use it--" + +"Yet the King is King," said the Prince. + +"Ah, Prince!" said Louis XVIII, "I see plainly enough that you do not +read my books. What could you say worse to an author? Open the charter +and look--here it is: '_He reigns, but does not govern_.' This is my +Bible, my code--and I can accuse no one but myself, if I do sigh +sometimes. For all this emanates from me, and was conceived and +written by my own hand. Unfortunately," said he, with bitterness, "in +France every thing is interpreted literally." + +"The favor I ask your majesty to grant me will I hope be within your +reserved powers. Count Monte-Leone, a noble Neapolitan of my +acquaintance, has been accused, beyond doubt unjustly, of political +plots, and been abruptly ordered to leave France. I come to ask the +king to remit this mortification." + +"Ah, ah!" said Louis XVIII, gravely, "an anarchist. This is serious, +very serious. Perhaps the safety of the monarchy depends on this, as +the _Timid_[3] say. My dear brother retails a conspiracy a day to me; +perhaps, after all, he is not far wrong. I will see, Prince. I will +examine and consult a very important personage, without whom I cannot +act." + +"Will his Majesty," said the usher, who had just arrived, "receive the +prime minister?" + +"Exactly," said the King, "that is the person of whom I spoke." + +"Go in there," said the King to the Prince, pointing to the +waiting-room. "You shall have my, or rather his, answer, in a quarter +of an hour. The result though will be the same." + +The Prince obeyed, and his excellency the prime minister was received. + + +XIX. A REVELATION. + +The audience the King gave his prime minister lasted nearly an hour. +M. de Maulear began to grow impatient at his long delay, when the +usher came to tell him the King waited for him.... + +When the Prince entered, Louis XVIII. had a smile on his lips. A +skilful observer of countenances would however have remarked a shade +of malice. + +"You are then very fond of Count Monte-Leone?" said the King to the +Prince, again telling him to be seated. + +"Very, Sire," said the Prince. "Signor Monte-Leone is really a +nobleman, with old blood, a kind heart, brilliant mind, and elegant +manners. One of a race now rare. If your Majesty would but permit me +to present him to you--" + +"No, no," said the King; "I had rather not. Besides," continued he, +"with his reputation as a dreamer and a revolutionist, as an enemy of +our cousin Fernando of Naples--" + +"The Count is in the way of conversion, Sire; and if the important +person to whom your Majesty yields will suffer us to keep the Count in +Paris, I am sure we will soon be able to restore him to favor." + +"The _important person_," said Louis, with a smile, "was very much +inclined to send your dear friend to his own country. New information +in relation to this honorable and loyal noble," continued the King, +"has completely changed the intentions entertained in relation to +him." + +"Indeed," said the Prince, with delight; "and will your Majesty deign +to tell me what this information is?" + +"No, no, my dear friend. This is strictly a political question, which +cannot be divulged. One thing is certain, the Italian is no longer our +enemy, but is devoted to us. He is a lamb in a lion's hide. Not only +will we keep him in France, but will grant him immunity for all he may +do in future and has done as yet. Thus you see," said the King, "I +have done more than you asked." + +"Such kindness," said the Prince, "overwhelms me with pleasure and +gratitude." + +"Ah, Prince," said the King, ironically, "how you love your friends! +Yet distrust your heart in relation to these Italians. They are +cunning, and sometimes treacherous, but always mild and winning, so as +to lead astray our French honesty. They do not wear at their belt +their most dangerous stiletto, but have another between their jaws +which is often poisoned. God keep me from saying this of your dear +Count. I would not hurt him at all, but on the other hand wish him to +be well received and to be honored every where. This advice, however, +I wish you to consider general, and not with reference to any +particular case." + +"Count Monte-Leone," continued the Prince, "is worthy of your +Majesty's kindest wishes. He has only the noble qualities of his +nation, energy, enthusiasm, and courage. His is an exalted mind, which +a cruel family sorrow may for a time have led astray, but I will +answer for him as I would for myself." + +"Ah," said the King, "that is indeed saying much." + +"Not enough for his merit. I would be proud if I resembled him." + +At this the King could not repress his laughter, and the Prince looked +at him with surprise, and almost with anger. The King soon resumed. +"Excuse me, Prince, but you exhibited so extravagant an anxiety--no, +no, virtuous as Monte-Leone may be, I like you as you are. Do not +therefore envy his devotion, great as that may be to us. I like yours +best." + +"I will then tell the Count," said the Prince, "the favor your Majesty +has deigned to grant him." + +"No, no--not I. With affairs of that kind I have nothing to do. I +leave that honor to the minister. Adieu, Prince," said he, "and come +soon to see me again. Then ask something of me which may be worth +granting." The Prince bowed respectfully, and left. + +"Excellent man," said Louis XVIII., as he left. "He would have been +surprised had I told him.... That Italian has bewitched him...." + +On the evening before the day on which this scene took place, a man +wrote in his office by the light of a shaded lamp, which made every +thing but half visible. It was ten o'clock. A door opened, and an +officer of one of the courts appeared. M. H...., the chief of the +political police of whom we have already spoken, lifted up his head. + +"What is the matter? and who is now come to interrupt me?" said he, +with marked ill-humor. + +The officer who had come in, and who was a _Huissier_, said, "'The +Stranger,' and as Monsieur receives him always--" + +"Let him come in," said M. H...., eagerly. "You were right to announce +him." + +The person whom we have previously seen with a mask at the house of M. +H...., entered, and looked carefully around to see that he was with +the Chief of Police alone. Many months had passed, and all we have +described had taken place. For since then, we have gone, like a sound +logician, backwards, in order to expose our _data_ distinctly before +we proceed to define their consequences. Now the first appearance of +the masked man in the cabinet of M. H.... coincided with the painful +scene in which Taddeo Rovero had crushed the hopes of the Duchess of +Palma by revealing to her the probability of the marriage of +Monte-Leone and Aminta. + +"Monsieur," said the stranger to M. H...., "have I kept my promise?" + +"Yes," said H.... + +"Have I unfolded the plot of Carbonarism?" + +"You have satisfied me of the existence of the French Venta, and of +their identity with those of Italy and Spain. We have written to the +police of those nations, and all was discovered to be exact, so that +in a few days the governments of those countries will have acted." + +"Have I named you the chief Carbonari in Paris?" + +"You have." + +"Have I given you their secret notes and books?" + +"In relation to that, I am but partially satisfied, but I do not need +the copies but the documents themselves, in the handwriting of their +authors." + +"You will have them--but there is an Italian proverb, _Chi va piano, +va sano! e chi va sano, va lontano_. I told you the fruit was not yet +ripe. I think, however, the time is approaching to gather it, and in a +month I will--" + +"But," said H...., "does not this delay endanger all? May they not +act, while we pause?" + +"Do you wish to know by your own observation who are the +conspirators?" said the stranger. + +"I do," said H.... + +"Do you wish to see--to hear them?" + +"Yes, and to arrest them." + +"Not yet--it is too soon. While your fowlers entrapped a few +fledgelings the rest of the covey would escape." + +"How can I see and hear them?" + +"I alone can enable you to do so, or rather not I, but the person +whose agent I am." + +"And when?" said M. H...., impatiently. + +"In three days. It is, however, first necessary to repair a grave +error which endangers all our hopes." + +"What fault?" + +"The Minister of the Interior," continued the man, "has ordered three +foreigners, a German, a Spaniard, and an Italian, to leave France. +Those persons are Dr. Spellman of Berlin, the Duke D.... of Madrid, +and Count Monte-Leone of Naples." + +"True," said M. H.... "This is at the request of the ministers of +those three nations." + +"Well," said the mysterious man, "it must be at once revoked." + +"Why?" + +"Because, if one of these men leave Paris, you have nothing to expect +from me." + +"What say you?" asked H...., with surprise. + +"I am," said the stranger, in a low tone, "as I told you, the agent of +one of those strangers. In his name alone I can tell you what you are +so anxious to know--without him I can do nothing. The elevated +position of this man, his rank, his connection with Carbonarism, +enable him to hear and know all. Without him I am reduced to silence +and inertness; for I repeat to you, that he is the thought of which I +am the action. Destroy him, and the other is valueless, and you return +to ignorance--become especially dangerous as the time approaches for +the mine to explode beneath your feet and those of the French +monarchy." + +"Why not name that man? why does he not name himself?" + +"Because he wishes to preserve his reputation--because he would rather +die than avow his services." + +"Ah, indeed!" said H.... "The matter is difficult. The minister will +not revoke these orders: for, while one of the men ceases to be an +enemy of the country, the other two yet are." + +"More than two--twenty of the most powerful, and two hundred thousand +others to follow them." + +"But what interest," asked M. H...., who hoped to arrive by a round +about way at a discovery of the one of the three, the presence of whom +was so necessary at Paris. "What reason can your _patron_ have to +serve us, if he asks for neither gold, place, nor favor?" + +"A far deeper interest than any of them. That I can confide to +you--revenge." + +"On whom?" + +"His associates--ungrateful men, who have humiliated him in his +self-esteem." + +"How?" + +"That is my secret and his." + +"Well," said H...., "I can understand that. Hatred and revenge make as +many informers as cupidity. Our criminal archives prove that." + +"Well, to the purpose." + +"All three will leave Paris to-morrow." + +"Then with one of them will go the safety of France. His name must be +a mystery. Revoke the orders, so that our man may remain, unless you +prefer by their departure to break the only thread to guide you in +this inextricable labyrinth." + +"But you are here," said H...., unable to repress his anger, and +wearied of the bravado and menaces of the man. "What can be obtained +neither by money nor by persuasion, is often to be had by rigor." + +"Very well, Monsieur," said the stranger. "I forgot I was in a country +of treason, and you forget that you swore to use neither violence nor +trickery. You can act as you please. I will however tell you what will +be the result of your investigations. I am an humble man, and belong +to my employer as the body does to the soul, as the hand does to the +arm. It will be useless to follow me, for I have no objection to tell +you whither I go. You may inquire into my past life; that will be +vain, for I will tell you all. You may inquire into my resources, but +you will lose your time, for I will satisfy you myself. There, +however, you will lose your guide--all else will be a mystery to you, +my relations with this man being of such a nature that God alone knows +them. They can be penetrated only by my consent." + +"Listen to me," said M. H...., changing his tone: "I was wrong--I was +wrong to menace you, for I am weak, and you are strong. I have +nothing, and you have every thing. I have only control of a few people +whom I suspect, unauthenticated documents, and mere suspicions. In a +time when party spirit runs as high as it does now, after the too +frequent mistakes of our police, we must act on facts and evidence. I +see that I need you. My power, however, gives way to that of another, +and the minister alone can revoke the order of expulsion. Perhaps I +may be able to cause him to revoke it, but I must enforce that demand +by a serious motive, and must satisfy him of the necessity of +resisting the demands of the allied sovereigns, and of keeping two +dangerous men in Paris as the price of one useful one. I now +understand the meaning of the mystery which surrounds your patron, +and to prevent suspicion there must be three pardons. Give me then an +argument which cannot be contradicted. Give me the name which you now +keep secret. You know that I have kept my first oath with you, and I +swear the minister alone shall be informed of the secret." + +As he listened to M. H..., the stranger thought profoundly. He then +seemed to adopt an energetic resolution, and uttered these strange +words--"True, the higher the eminence from which a body falls, the +more crushing the blow." + +"What do you say?" said H... + +"That your idea is correct, and changes my plan. When I came hither, I +thought your will alone could correct the mistake which has been made. +I now see it cannot, and have made up my mind. Sit there," said he to +H...., who was astonished at his unceremonious tone, "sit there." He +pointed out an arm-chair before the desk. + +"What do you want now?" said H.... + +"What the favor you have asked from me authorizes me to demand. An +arm," said he, "the blows of which cannot be parried. I wish you to +sign me a letter of mark or a pass, as you please to call it, which +permits those whom you employ to pass without disturbance." + +"Beautiful!" said M. H...., with a smile; "now I understand you." + +He wrote: "I recognize as a member of my police, employed by me, +Monsieur...." He paused, and looked anxiously at the stranger. The +latter leaned towards the Chief of Police, and in so low a tone that +H.... could scarcely hear him, uttered a name which made the latter +drop his pen. He however rallied himself, and wrote down the name. +This document he afterwards authenticated by the seal of the police, +and gave to the stranger. + +"This is well," said the latter, as he received it. "Now be quick, for +time presses, and the three persons will in a few hours have left +Paris."... + +When the man had left, and was alone, an atrocious smile appeared on +his lips. This smile, however, was interrupted by an acute pain in his +left arm. Then taking the paper which H.... had given him, he placed +it on the wound, and said, "This is a cure for a wound I thought +incurable--for steel and poison." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Continued from page 504, vol. iii. + +[3] At this time one or the ultra-royalist factions, called _Les +Timides_. + + + + +From Fraser's Magazine. + +A TROT ON THE ISLAND. + +BY CHARLES ASTOR BRISTED. + + +Ashburner did leave Oldport, after all, before the end of the season, +being persuaded to accompany a countryman and schoolmate of his (whom +he had last seen two years before in Connaught, and who now happened +to pass a day at Oldport, on his way Canada-ward from the south) in a +trip to the White Mountains of New-Hampshire; though his American +acquaintances, especially the ladies, tried hard to dissuade him from +starting before the grand fancy ball, with which the season +terminated, assuring him that most of "our set" would come back, if +only for that one night, and that it would be a very splendid affair, +and so forth. Nature had more charms for him than art, and he went +away to New Hampshire, making an appointment with Benson by letter to +meet him at Ravenswood early in September. But a traveller cannot make +sure of his movements a fortnight ahead. On his return from the White +Mountains, Ashburner had his pocket picked at a railway station (these +little incidents of highly civilized life are beginning to happen now +and then in America. The inhabitants repudiate any native agency +therein, and attribute them all to the swell-mob emigrants from +England), and, in consequence, was obliged to retrace his steps as far +as New-York to visit his banker. Almost the first person he ran +against in the street was Harry Benson. + +"This _is_ an unexpected pleasure!" exclaimed the New-Yorker. "I never +thought to see you here, and you, I presume didn't expect to see me." +Ashburner explained his mishap. "Well, I meant to go straight over to +Ravenswood after the ball, but we had to come home--all of us this +time--on business. Lots of French furniture arrived for our town +house. Mrs. B. couldn't rest till she had seen it all herself, and had +it properly arranged. So here have I been five days, fussing, and +paying, and swearing (legally, you understand, not profanely) at the +custom-house, and then 'hazing'--what you call slanging upholsterers; +and now that the work is all over, I mean to take a little play, and +am just going over to see Lady Suffolk and Trustee trot on the island. +Come along. It's a beautiful drive of eight miles, and I have a +top-wagon. It is to meet me at the Park in a quarter of an hour." +Ashburner assented. "I want to buy some cigars; you have no objection +to accompany me a moment." + +So they turned down one of the cross-streets running out of the lower +part of Broadway (which, it may be here mentioned, for the benefit of +English readers and writers, is not called _the_ Broadway), and +entered a store five or six stories high, with two or three different +firms on each floor; and Benson led the way up something between a +ladder and a staircase into a small office, with "Bleecker Brothers" +dimly visible on a tin plate over the door. Three-fourths of the +apartment were filled up with all manner of inviting samples, every +wine, liquor, and liqueur under the sun, in every variety of bottle or +vial, thick with the dust of years, or open for immediate tasting; and +through the dingy panes of a half glass door a multitudinous array of +bottles might be seen loading the numerous shelves of a large +store-room beyond. In a small clearing at one corner, where a small +desk was kept in countenance by a small table, and three or four old +chairs, with a background of shelves groaning under the choicest +brands of the fragrant weed, sat the presiding deities of the +place--the two little Bleeckers--the dark brother of thirty-five, and +the light brother of twenty, like two sketches of the same man in +chalk and charcoal; both elegantly dressed--white trousers, patent +leather shoes, exuberant cravats, massive chains, and all the usual +paraphernalia of young New-York--altogether looking as much in place +as a couple of butterflies in an ant-hill. + +"Good morning, gentlemen," said Benson. "Here's our friend Ashburner," +and he pushed forward the Englishman. The brothers rose, laid down the +morning journals over which they had been lounging, and welcomed the +stranger to their place of business. "What's the news this morning?" + +"Nothing at all, I believe," replied the elder. "South Carolina has +been threatening to dissolve the Union again--and that's no news. +Stay, did you see this about Bishop Hughes and Sam Thunderbolt, the +Native American member of Congress from Pennsylvania?" + +"I haven't seen even a newspaper for the last three days." + +"Well, '+ John of New-York,'--_cross John_, as your brother Carl used +to call him--was in the same rail-car with Thunderbolt, coming from +Philadelphia to New-York; and the Congressman didn't know who he was, +but probably suspected he was a priest." + +"Yes, you can generally tell a priest by his looks. Even an +intelligent horse will do that. Once I was riding with one of our +bishops near Boston, and his nag shied suddenly at a man in a +broad-brimmed hat. Says the right reverend (we don't call 'em 'my +lord' in this country, you know, Ashburner), 'I shouldn't wonder if +that was a Romish priest;' and we looked again, and it was. There was +a Protestant horse for you! What a treasure he would have been to an +Orangeman!" + +"So Thunderbolt began to abuse the Roman Catholics generally, and the +priests particularly, and that brawling bigot Johnny Hughes most +particularly. Hughes, who is a wary man, polite and self-possessed, +sat through it all without saying a word; till another gentleman in +the car asked Thunderbolt if he knew who that was opposite him. He +didn't know. 'It's Bishop Hughes,' says the other, in a half whisper. +'Are you Bishop Hughes?' exclaims the native, quite off his guard. +'They call me so,' answered the other, with a quiet smile, expecting +to enjoy the humiliating confusion of his denouncer; and the other +passengers shared in the expectation, and were prepared for a titter +at Thunderbolt's expense. But instead of attempting any apology, or +showing any further embarrassment, he pulled out an eyeglass, and +after looking at the Jesuit through it for some time, thus announced +the result of his inspection--'Oh, you are, are you? Well, you're just +the kind of looking loafer I should have expected Johnny Hughes to +be.'" + +"I don't believe Hughes was much disconcerted either," said the elder +brother; "he doesn't lose his balance easily. I never heard of his +being put out but once, and that was when Governor Bouck met him. He +was a jolly old Dutchman, Mr. Ashburner, who used to go about +electioneering, and asking every man he came across--how he was, and +how his wife and family were. When Bishop Hughes was introduced to +him, they thought the governor would know enough to vary the usual +question a little; but he didn't, and asked after the Romish bishop's +wife and family with all possible innocence; and Hughes, for once in +his life, was nonplussed what to answer." + +"Ah, but you haven't told the end of that," put in Benson. "When the +governor's friends tried to explain to him the mistake he had made, +and the category the Romish ecclesiastics were in, he said, 'O yas, I +see, I should have asked after de children only, and said nossing +about de woman.' As you say, Hughes generally has his wits about him, +no doubt. He played our custom-house a trick that they will not forget +in a hurry. Soon after General Harrison and the Whigs came in, and +Curtis was made collector of our port, there arrived a great lot of +what the French call _articles de religion_, robes, crucifixes, and +various ornaments, for Hughes' cathedral. Now these were all French +goods, and subject to duty, and a notification to that effect was sent +to the proper quarter. Down comes Hughes in a great rage. 'Mr. Curtis, +Mr. Curtis, we never had to do this before. Your predecessor, Mr. +Hoyt, always let our articles of religion in free of duty.' 'Can't +help what my predecessor, Mr. Hoyt, used to do,' says Curtis; 'the law +is so and so, as I understand it, and these articles are subject to +duty. If you like, you may pay the duties under protest, and bring a +suit against Uncle Sam[4] to recover the money.' (You see, the Loco +Focos had always favored the Romish priests to get the Irish vote. The +Whigs didn't in those days--it was before our side had been corrupted +by Seward, and such miserable demagogues; and Curtis wasn't sorry to +see his political opponent the Bishop in a tight place.) After Hughes +had blustered awhile, and found it did no good, he tried the other +tack, and began to expostulate. 'Is there no way at all, Mr. Curtis,' +says he, 'by which these articles may be passed, free of duty?' 'None +at all,' says the other, 'unless'--and he paused, hardly knowing +whether it would do to hint at such a thing, even in jest--'unless, +bishop, you are willing to swear that these are _tools of your +trade_.' 'And sure they are that!' quoth Hughes, snapping him up, +'bring on your book;' and he had the goods sworn through in less than +no time, before Curtis could recover himself." + +"Not a bad hit," said the Englishman. "Tools of his trade! So they +were, sure enough; but one would not have expected him to own it so +coolly." + +"Unless there was something to be got by it," continued Benson. "Now +this is true--every word of it, though it _has_ been in the +newspapers; and the way I came to find it out was this. One day I saw +in the advertising columns of the _Blunder and Bluster_, a circular +from the _Secretary of the Treasury_, stating that 'crucifixes, +whether of silver or copper, images, silk and velvet vestments, and +theological books, did not come under the head of _tools of trade_, +but were subject to duty.' It was a funny looking notice, and there +was evidently something behind it; so I took the trouble to inquire, +and found that the cause of the order was this clever stroke of +Hughes. Going to the trot to-day?" + +The younger brother was going, and it was near the time when he +expected his wagon. Dicky wasn't. He had given up trots ten years +ago--thought them low. + +"Give me a few cigars before we go," said Benson. "What have you here +that's first rate? Carbagal, Firmezas, Antiguedad. H--m. I'll take a +dozen Firmezas, and you may send me the rest of the box." + +"Don't you want some champagne--veritable Cordon Bleu--only fourteen +dollars a dozen, and a discount if you take six cases?" + +"And if you wish to secure some tall Lafitte, we bought some odd +bottles at old Van Zandt's sale the other day. You remember drinking +that wine at Wilson's last summer?" + +Benson remembered it perfectly, and would take the Lafitte by all +means. "Put that down, Mr. Snipes;" and for the first time, Ashburner +was aware of the clerk--a very young gentleman, who appeared from +behind the desk, and booked the order at it. "And how about the +champagne?" + +"_J'y penserai._ Time to go. _Vamos._" And Benson carried off his +friend. + +"You were a little taken aback, weren't you?" he asked, as they went +in quest of the wagon. "When you saw these men figuring in the German +cotillion, and helping to lead the fashion at Oldport, you hardly +expected to encounter them in such a place. Well, now, let me tell you +something that will astonish you yet more. So far from its being +against these brothers in society that they are, what you would call +in plain English a superior order of grocers, it is positively in +their favor; that is to say, they are more respected, better received, +and stand a better chance of marrying well, than if they did nothing. +They might do nothing if they chose. They had enough to live very well +on _en garcon_. The Bleeckers are of our best known and most +thoroughly respectable families. The sons had no taste for books; they +have a very good taste for wine and cigars, and have undertaken what +they are best fit for. It's better than being nominal lawyers?" + +"Pecuniarily, no doubt; but is it as good for the whole development of +the man? Was it you, or your friend Harrison, who instanced Richard +Bleecker as a man who had made no progress in any thing manly for +fifteen years?" + +"That is the fault of his natural disposition, which would not be +bettered by his making believe to be a professional man, or being an +avowedly idle one. He is frivolous and ornamental for a part of his +time--during the rest, he has his business to occupy him. If he had +not that, he would spend all his time in elegant idleness, and know no +more than he does now. His pursuits bring him in money, which will be +a comfort to his wife and family when he marries--though, to be sure, +he is rather ancient for that; a single man at thirty-five is with us +a confirmed old bachelor. But his brother is in a fair way to form a +nice establishment." + +"Now tell me another thing. Suppose the Bleeckers had chosen to become +jewellers, or merchant tailors--they might be good judges of either +business, and make money by it--how would that affect their position?" + +"Unfavorably, I confess," replied Benson. "But we Gothamites have so +thorough a respect for, and appreciation of, good wine and cigars, +that the importation of them is considered particularly laudable." + +Any further discussion was stopped by their arrival at that dreary +triangular square (_more hibernico loqui_) called the Park, where +Benson's wagon awaited him--not the red-wheeled one; this vehicle was +of a uniform dark green, furnished with a top (a desirable appendage +when the thermometer stands 85 deg. in the shade,) and lined throughout +with drab. The ponies were carefully enveloped to the very tips of +their ears in white fly-nets. As the groom saw Benson approaching, he +put himself and the top through a series of queer evolutions, which +ended in the latter being lowered--a very necessary operation, to +allow any one to get in with comfort; and after Benson and Ashburner +were in, he put it up again with some ado, and then went his way, the +concern only holding two. Then Benson turned the wagon round by +backing and locking, and making it undergo a series of contortions as +if he wanted to double it up into itself, and run over himself with +his own wheels, and drove to the Fulton Ferry; for to arrive at the +Centreville Course on Long Island--familiarly designated as _the_ +island--you first pass through Brooklyn, that trans-Hudsonian suburb +of New York, which thirty years ago was a miserable little village, +and now contains upwards of ninety thousand inhabitants. + +"And how did the ball go off?" asked Ashburner, as they rolled up the +main avenue of Brooklyn, at the slowest possible trot, according to +the well known rule, always to take a fast horse easy over pavement. +On board the ferry-boat there had not been much conversation, the +horses being so worried by the flies as to require all Benson's +attention. + +"Oh, it was rather a _fiasco_, but we had some fun. Some predicted +that the fashionables would come back, but they didn't, except a few +of the young men; and all of our set that were there threatened to go +out of costume; but then we recollected that would have been a very +Irish way of serving out Mr. Grabster, as by the established +regulation in such cases, we should have had to pay double for +tickets; so most of us took sailors' or firemen's dresses--the +cheapest and commonest disguises we could get; and the ladies made +some trivial addition to their ordinary ball-dresses--a wreath or a +few extra flowers--and called themselves brides, or Floras, and so on. +And some of the crack Bostonians blasphemed the expense, and went in +plain clothes. So we had the consolation of making fun of all the +outsiders, and their attempts at costume--such supernumeraries as most +of them were! And none of the _comme-il-faut_ people would serve on +the committee, so Grabster had nobody to get up the room in proper +style, and it looked like a 'Ripton' ball-room; and _The Sewer_ +reporters were there, in all their glory. The Irishman had borrowed or +stolen a uniform somewhere, and the Frenchman was appropriately +arrayed in red as a devil, and he went about taking notes of all the +people's dresses, especially the ladies'; and as our ladies were not +in costume, he thought he must have something to do with them, and so +presented some of them with bouquets, which they wouldn't take, of +course; and the young men trod on his toes and elbowed him off till he +swore he would put them all in his paper. And we danced away, +notwithstanding _The Sewer_ and all its works. Tom Edwards was +accoutred as Mose the fireman, and Sumner had an old French +_debardeur_ dress of his, just the thing for the occasion, only his +shoes were too big; and after tripping up himself and his partner four +times, he kicked them off clean into the orchestra, and fearfully +aggravated the fiddlers; and he took it as coolly as he does every +thing--put on a pair of ordinary boots, and was polking away again in +five minutes. And we kept it up till two in the morning, polka +chiefly, with a sprinkling of _deuxtemps_, and then had a very bad +supper, and some very bad wine, of Mr. Grabster's providing--genuine +New Jersey champagne. How we looked after the dancing! Sumner's +_debardeur_ shirt might have been wrung out, it was so wet; and Mrs. +Harrison--she had got herself up as Undine--was dripping enough for +half-a-dozen water-nymphs; and Miss Friskin had a shiny green silk +dress; we had been polking together, and my white waistcoat, and +pants, and cravat, were all stained green, as if I had been playing +with a gigantic butterfly. And then after supper, when there was no +one but our German cotillion set left, and just as we had put the +chairs in order, the musicians struck work, and would not play any +more (you know what an impracticable, conceited, obstinate brute a +third-rate German musician is), saying they were only bound to play +just so long; so I gave them a good slanging in their own tongue (I +know German enough to blow up a man, and a fine strong language it is +for the purpose); and White swore it was too bad, and Edwards tried to +make them a conciliatory speech--only he was too tipsy to talk +straight; and Sumner offered them fifty dollars to go on playing. +Thereupon, up and spake the big bass-viol,--'We ton't want your money; +we want to be dreated like chentlemens;' and then Frank lost his +temper. 'I'll treat you,' says he; and with that he delivered right +and left into the bass-viol, and knocked him through his own +instrument; and then some one knocked Sumner over the head with a +trombone;--then we all set to, and gave the musicians their change (we +owed them a little before, for it wasn't the first time they had been +saucy to us,) and we thrashed them essentially, and comminuted a few +of their instruments. And half-a-dozen of the Irish waiters came out, +with their sleeves rolled up, to fight for the honor of the house, and +protect Mr. Grabster's property--meaning the musicians, I +suppose;--and Haralson of Alabama, one of your regular +six-feet-two-in-his-stockings South Western men, who had come North to +learn the polka, and become civilized--Haralson pulled out a Bowie and +swore he would whistle them up if they didn't make themselves scarce. +By Jove! you should have seen the Paddies scud! And I caught _The +Sewer_ reporter (the Irish one) in the _melee_, and let him have a +kick that landed him in the middle of the floor, telling him he might +put that into his next letter, and afterwards go to a place worse even +than _The Sewer_ office. Then, after all the enemy were fairly routed, +we adjourned to my parlor. I had some good champagne of my own, and a +_pate_ or two, and some Firmezas, and we held a jolly revel till four +o'clock, and then the ladies retired, and we quiet married men did the +same, and the boys went to fight the tiger, and Edwards lost 1400 +dollars, and some of them took to running foot-races for a bet on the +post-road. Haralson outran all the rest--and his senses too--and was +found next evening about five miles up the road with no coat or hat, +and one stocking off and the other stocking on, like my son John in +the nursery rhyme, and his watch and purse gone. And _The Sewer_ and +_Inexpressible_ said that it was the most brilliant ball that had +occurred within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. And that's a +pretty fair synopsis of the whole proceedings." + +By this time they were off the pavement,--a change very sensible and +desirable to man and horse, for an American pavement is something +beyond imagination or description, and must be experienced to be +understood. The ponies, without waiting for the word, went off on +their long steady stroke at three-quarters speed, and though the day +was warm and the road heavy, stepped over the first three miles in +twelve minutes, as Benson took care to show Ashburner by his watch. +They challenged wagon after wagon, but no one seemed inclined to race +at this stage of the proceedings, and they glided quietly by every +thing. Only once was heard the sound of competing feet, when a black +pacer swept up, with two tall wheels behind him, and a man +mysteriously balanced between them. "After the sulky is manners," said +Harry, slackening his speed, and giving the pacer a wide berth; and +the man on the wheels whizzed by like a mammoth insect, and was soon +lost to view amid a cloud of dust. + +And now they arrived at a tavern where the owners of "fast crabs" were +wont to repose, to water their horses, and brandy-and-water +themselves. The former operation is performed very sparingly, the +supply of liquid afforded to the animals consisting merely of a +spongeful passed through their mouths; the latter is usually conducted +on more liberal principles. But as our friends felt no immediate +desire to liquor, Benson amused himself while the horses rested by +putting down his top, for the sky had slightly clouded over,--a +favorable circumstance, he remarked, for the trot. Just as he was +starting his ponies, with a chirrup, a tandem developed itself from +under the shed, and its driver greeted him with a friendly nod. + +"Good afternoon, Mr. Losing," quoth Harry, raising his whip-hand in +answer to the salute; then, _sotto voce_ to Ashburner, "a Long-Island +fancy man: lots of money, and no end of fast horses." + +Mr. Losing had a thin hatchety face, and a very yellow complexion, +with hair and beard to match. He wore a yellow straw-hat, and a +yellowish-gray summer paletot, with yellowish-brown linen trousers. +His light gig (of the kind technically called a double-sulky) was +painted a dingy yellow-ochre; the horses were duns, the fly-nets drab, +and what little harness there was, retained the original law-calf +color of its leather; in short, the whole concern had a general +pervading air of dun, which but for the known wealth of its owner +might have been suggestive of unpleasant Joe-Millerisms. The only +exception was his companion, a gay horse-dealer and jockey, who acted +as amateur groom on this occasion. Mr. Van Eyck had sufficient +diversity of color in his dress to relieve the monotony of a whole +landscape,--blue coat and gilt buttons, lilac waistcoat and ditto, red +cravat and red-striped check shirt, white hat and trousers. His +apparel might have been a second-hand suit of Bird Simpson's. As the +gig came out close at the wheels of the wagon, the two whips +interchanged glances, as much as to say, "Here's at you!" and "Come +on!" and Losing tightened his reins; then, as his leader ranged up +alongside Benson's horses, the latter drew up his lines also, and the +teams went off together. + +A good team race is more exciting to both the lookers-on and the +performers than any contest of single horses; there is twice as much +noise, twice as much skill in driving, and apparently greater speed, +though in reality less. Neither had started at the top of their gait, +but they kept gradually and proportionally crowding the pace, till +they were going about seventeen miles an hour, and at that rate they +kept for the first half-mile exactly in the same relative position as +they had started. No one spoke a word; the close contact of horses in +double harness excites them so, that they require checking rather than +encouragement; but Benson with a rein in his hand was feeling every +inch of his ponies, and watching every inch of the road. Losing sat +like a statue, and his horses seemed to go of themselves. Then, as the +ground began to rise, Losing drew gradually ahead, or rather Benson's +team came back to him; still it was inch by inch; in the next quarter +the wheeler instead of the leader was alongside the other team, and +that was all Losing had gained. Then Harry, with some management, got +both reins into one hand, and lifted his nags a little with the whip. +At the same time Losing altered his hold for the first time, and shook +up his horses. There was a corresponding increase of speed in both +parties, which kept them in the same respective position, and so they +struggled on for a little while longer, till just before the road +descended again, Benson made another effort to recover his lost +ground. In so doing, he imprudently loosened his hold too much, and +his off horse went up. + +The moment Firefly lost his feet Benson threw his whole weight upon +the horses, and hauled them across the road, close in behind Losing's +gig, the break having lost him just a length, so that when they struck +into their trot again they were at the Long-Islander's wheel. Down the +hill they went, faster than ever; the wagon could not gain an inch on +the gig, or the gig shake the wagon off. But Losing had manifestly the +best of it, as all his dust went into the face of Benson and +Ashburner, enveloping and powdering them and their equipage +completely. Their only consolation was, that they were bestowing a +similar one on every wagon that they passed. As both teams were +footing their very best, Benson's only chance of getting by was in +case one of the tandems should happen to break, a chance which he +kept ready to take advantage of. By and by the leader went up, but +Losing, who had his horses under perfect command, let him run a little +way, and caught him again into his trot without losing any thing. +Nevertheless Benson, who had seen the break, made a push to go by, and +with a great shout crowded his team up to the wheeler, but there they +broke,--this time both horses,--and before he could bring them down he +was two lengths in the rear. Then Losing drew on one side, and +slackened his speed, and Benson also pulled up almost to a walk. + +"His double sulky is lighter than my wagon," said Harry, "even without +the top, and the top makes fifty pounds difference. The machine is +built a little heavier than the average, purposely because it rides +easier, and shakes the horses less when there are inequalities in the +road, so that besides being pleasanter to go in, a team can take it +along about as fast as any thing lighter for a short brush, but when +the horses are so nearly equal, and you have some miles to go on a +heavy road, the extra weight tells. However, it is no disgrace to be +beaten by Losing, any way, for his horses are his study and +_specialite_. Every fortnight the bolts and screws of his wagon are +re-arranged; his collars fit like gloves; he has a particular kind of +watering-pot made on purpose to water his horses' legs. Every trifle +is rigorously attended to. You ought to visit his, or some other +sporting man's stable here, just to note the difference between that +sort of thing with us and with you. Instead of hunters and +steeple-chasers, you will see fine trotters together that can all beat +2' 50''." + +The road happened just then to be pretty clear, so they proceeded +leisurely for some miles further, till just as they were quitting the +turnpike for a lane which led to the course, the rattle of wheels and +the shouts of drivers came up behind them. Benson, not disposed to +swallow any more of other people's dust if he could help it, waked up +his horses at once, and they clattered along the lane, up hill and +down, and over a railroad track, and past numerous wagons, at a faster +rate than ever. "_Do_ get out of the way!" shouted Henry to one +primitive gentleman, with a very tired horse, who was occupying +exactly the centre of the road. "You go to ----." The individual +addressed was probably about to say something very bad, when Benson, +who was a moral man, and had the strongest wheels, cut short any +possible profanity for the moment by driving slap into him, and +knocking him into the ditch, with the loss of a spoke or two. This +collision hardly delayed their speed an instant; and though some of +the pursuers were evidently gaining, no one overhauled them for +three-quarters of a mile, at the end of which Starlight and Firefly +swept proudly up to the course, with a long train in their rear. + +All the vicinity of the Centreville Course--not the stables and sheds +merely, but the lanes leading to it, the open ground about it, the +whole adjacent country, one might almost say--was covered with wagons +stowed together as closely as cattle in a market. If it had been +raining wagons and trotters the night before just over the place, like +showers of frogs that country editors short of copy fill a column +with, or if they had grown up there ready harnessed, there could not +have been a more plentiful supply. Wagons, wagons, wagons everywhere, +of all weights, from a hundred and eighty pounds to four hundred, with +here and there a sulky for variety--horses of all styles, colors, and +merits--no sign of a servant or groom of any kind, but a number of +boys, mostly blackies, about one to every ten horses, who earned a few +shillings by looking after the animals, and watching the carpets, +sheets, and fly-nets. The only other movables, the long-handled +short-lashed whips, were invariably carried off by their proprietors. +Whips and umbrellas are common property in America; they are an +exception to the ordinary law of _meum_ and _tuum_, and strictly +subject to socialist rules. Woe to the owner of either who lets his +property go one second out of his sight! + +"Now then, Snowball!" quoth Benson, as a young gentleman of color +rushed up on the full grin, stimulated to extra activity by the +recollection of the past and the vision of prospective +"quarters,"--"take care of the fliers, and don't let any one steal +their tails! I ought to tell you," he continued to Ashburner, leading +the way towards the big, dilapidated,[5] unpainted, barn-like +structure, which appeared to be the rear of the grandstand, "you won't +find any gentlemen here--that is, not above half-a-dozen at most." + +"I was just wondering whether we should see any ladies." + +Benson pointed over his left shoulder; and they planked their dollar +a-piece at the entrance. + +Ashburner's first impression, when fairly inside, was that he had +never seen such a collection of disreputable looking characters in +broad daylight, and under the open sky. All up the rough broad steps, +that were used indifferently to sit or stand upon; all around the +oyster and liquor stands, that filled the recess under the steps; all +over the ground between the stand and the track, was a throng of low, +shabby, dirty men, different in their ages, sizes, and professions; +for some were farmers, some country tavern-keepers, some city ditto, +some horse-dealers, some gamblers, and some loafers in general; but +alike in their slang and "rowdy" aspect. There is something peculiarly +disagreeable in an American crowd, from the fact that no class has +any distinctive dress. The gentleman and the working-man, or the +"loafer," wear clothes of the same kind, only in one case they are new +and clean, in the other, old and dirty. The ragged dress-coats and +crownless beavers of the Irish peasants have long been the admiration +of travellers; now, elevate these second-hand garments a stage or two +in the scale of preservation--let the coats be not ragged, but shabby, +worn in seam, and greasy in collar; the hats whole, but napless at +edge, and bent in brim; supply them with old trousers of the last +fashion but six, and you have the general costume of a crowd like the +present. But ordinary collections of the [Greek: oi polloi] are +relieved by the very superior appearance of the women; pretty in their +youth, lady-like and stylish even when prematurely faded, always +dressed respectably, and frequently dressed in good taste, they form a +startling relief and contrast to their cavaliers; and not only the +stranger, but the native gentleman, is continually surprised at the +difference, and says to himself, "Where in the world could such nice +women pick up those snobs?" Here, where there is not a woman within a +mile (unless that suspicious carriage in the corner contains some gay +friends of Tom Edwards'), the congregated male loaferism of these +people, without even a decent looking dog among them, is enough to +make a man button his pockets instinctively. + +Amid this wilderness of vagabonds may be seen grouped together at the +further corner of the stand the representatives of the gentlemanly +interest, numbering, as Benson had predicted, about half-a-dozen. +Losing, with his yellow blouse and moustache to match; Tom Edwards, in +a white hat and trousers, and black velvet coat; Harrison, slovenly in +his attire, and looking almost as coarse as any of the rowdies about, +till he raises his head, and shows his intelligent eyes; Bleecker, who +had just arrived; and a few specimens of Young New-York like him. +Benson carries his friend that way, and introduces him in due form to +the Long Islander, who receives him with an elaborate bow. Ashburner +offers a cigar to Losing, who accepts the weed with a nod of +acknowledgment (for he rarely opens his mouth except to put something +into it, or to make a bet), and offers one of his in return, which +Ashburner trying, excoriates his lips at the first whiff, and is +obliged to throw it away after the third, for Charley Losing has +strong tastes, will rather drink brandy than wine, any day, and smokes +tobacco that would knock an ordinary man down. + +The stranger glances his eye over the scene of action. A barouche and +four does not differ more from a trotting wagon, or a blood courser +from a Canadian pacer, than an English race-course from an American +"track." It is an ellipse of hard ground, like a good and smooth piece +of road, with some variations of ascent and descent. The distance +round is calculated at a mile, according to the scope of turning +requisite for a horse before a sulky--that being the most usual form +of trotting; for a saddle-horse that has the pole,[6] it comes +practically to a little less; for a harness-horse (especially if to a +wagon) with an outside place, to a little, or sometimes a good deal +more. Around the inclosure, within the track (which looks as if it +were trying hard to grow grass and couldn't), a few wagons, which +obtained entrance by special favor, are walking about; they belong to +the few men who have brought their grooms with them. Harrison's pet +trotter is there, a magnificent long-tailed bay, as big as a +carriage-horse, equal to 2' 50'' on the road before that wagon, and +worth fifteen hundred dollars, it is said. Just inside the track, and +opposite the main stand outside, is a little shanty of a judge's +stand, and marshalled in front of it are half a dozen notorious +pugilists, and similar characters, who, doubtless on the good old +principle of "set a thief," &c., are enrolled for the occasion as +special constables, with very special and formidable white bludgeons +to keep order, and precise suits of black cloth to augment their +dignity. + +"To come off at three o'clock," said the handbills. It is now +thirty-five minutes past three, and no signs of beginning. An American +horse and an American woman always keep you waiting an hour at least. +One of the judges comes forward, and raps on the front of the stand +with a primitive bit of wood resembling a broken boot-jack. "Bring out +your horses!" People look towards the yard on the left. Here is one of +them just led out; they pull off his sheets, his driver climbs up into +the little seat behind him. He comes down part of the stand at a +moderate gait. Hurrah for old Twenty-miles-an-hour! Trustee! Trustee! + +The old chestnut is half-blood; but you would never guess it from his +personal appearance, so chunky, and thick-limbed, and sober-looking is +he. His action is uneven, and seemingly laborious; you would not think +him capable of covering _one_ mile in three minutes, much less of +performing twenty at the same rate. No wonder he hobbles a little +behind, for his back sinews are swelled, and his legs scarred and +disfigured--the traces of injuries received in his youth, when a cart +ran into him, and cut him almost to pieces. Veterinary surgeons, who +delight in such relics, will show you pieces of sinew taken from him +after the accident. That was six or seven years ago: since then he has +solved a problem for the trotting world. + +"There," says Benson, with a little touch of triumph, "is the only +horse in the world that ever trotted twenty miles in an hour. I saw +it done myself. He was driven nearly two miles before he started, to +warm him up, and make him limber. When the word was given, he made a +skip, and though his driver, not the same that he has now, caught him +before he was fairly off his feet, he was more than three minutes +doing the first mile, which looked well for the backers of time; but +as the old fellow went on, he did every mile better than the +preceding, and the last in the best time of all, winning with nearly +half a minute to spare." + +"Has the experiment been often tried?" + +"Not more than two or three times, I believe; and the horses who +attempted it broke down in the eighteenth or nineteenth mile. +Nevertheless, I think that within the last twelve years we have had +two or three horses beside Trustee who could have accomplished the +feat; but as such a horse is worth two thousand dollars and upwards, a +heavy bet would be required to tempt a man to risk killing or ruining +his animal; and our sporting men, though they bet frequently, are not +in the habit of betting largely. That is one reason why it has not +been tried oftener; and I am inclined to think that there is another +and a better motive. The owner of a splendid horse does not like to +risk his life; and it is a risk of life to attempt to trot him twenty +miles an hour." + +Pit, pat! pit, pat! The old mare is coming down to the score. A very +ordinary looking animal in repose, the magnificence of her action +converts her into a beauty when moving. How evenly her feet rise and +fall, regularly as a machine, though she is nearly at the top of her +speed! She carries her head down, and her neck stretched out, and from +the tip of her nose to the end of her long white tail, that streams +out in the breeze made by her own progress, you might draw a straight +line, so true and right forward does she travel. Perched over her +tail, between those two tall, slender wheels, sits her owner, David +Bryan, the only man that ever handles her, in something like a jockey +costume, blue velvet jacket and cap to match, and his white hair, +whiter than his horse's tail, streaming in the wind--a respectable and +almost venerable looking man; but a hard boy for all that, say the +knowing ones. Great applause from the Long Island men, who swear by +"the Lady," and are always ready to "stake their pile" on her, for her +owner is a Long-Islander, and she is a Suffolk county, Long-Island +mare. Some eight years ago Lady Suffolk was bought out of a baker's +cart for 112 dollars, and since then she has won for "Dave" upwards of +30,000 dollars. That is what the possessor of a fast trotter most +prides himself on--to have bought the animal for a song on the +strength of his own eye for his points, and then developed him into a +"flier." When a colt is bred from a trotting stallion, put into +training at three or four years old, and sold the first time for a +high price, if he turns out well there is no particular wonder or +merit in it; if he does not, the disappointment is extreme. + +Ah, here comes Pelham at last--a clean little bay, stepping roundly, +and lifting his legs well; you might call it a perfect action, if we +had not just seen Lady Suffolk go by--but _so_ wicked about the head +and eyes! Behind the little horse sits a big Irishman, in his shirt +sleeves; and they are hauling away at each other, pull Pat, pull +Pelham, as if the man wanted to jerk the horse's head off, and the +horse to draw the man's arms out. You see the driver is holding by +little loops fastened to the reins, to prevent his grasp from +slipping. Pelham is a young horse for a trotter, say seven years old, +and has already done the fastest mile ever made in harness; but his +temper is terribly uncertain, and to-day he seems to be in a +particularly bad humor. + +Trustee, who requires much warming up, goes all round the track, +increasing his speed as he goes, till he has reached pretty nearly his +limit. Pelham also completes the circuit, but more leisurely. The Lady +trots about a quarter of a mile, then walks a little, and then brushes +back. Her returning is even faster and prettier than her going. "2' +33''," says Losing, speaking for the first time, as she crosses the +score (the line in front of the judge's stand). His eye is such that, +given the horse and the track, he can tell the pace at a glance within +half a second. + +The gentry about are beginning to bet on their respective favorites, +and some upon time--trifling amounts generally--five, ten, or twenty +dollars; and there is much pulling out, and counting, and depositing +of greasy notes. Bang! goes the broken boot-jack again. This time it +is not "Bring _out_ your horses!" but "Bring _up_ your horses!"--a +requisition which the drivers comply with by turning _away_ from the +stand. This is to get a start, a _flying start_ being the rule, which +obviously favors the backers of time, and is, in some respects, fairer +to the horses, but is very apt to create confusion and delay, +especially when three or four horses are entered. So it happens in the +present instance: half way up the quarter, the horses turn, not all +together, but just as they happen to be; and off they go, some slower +and some faster, trying to fall into line as they approach the score. +"Come back!" It's no go, this time; Pelham has broken up, and is +spreading himself all over the track. Trustee, too, is a length or +more behind the gray mare, and evidently in no hurry. They all go +back, the mare last, as she was half-way down the other quarter before +the recall was understood. + +"What a beauty she is!" says Harry. "And she has the pole too." + +"Will you bet two to three on her against the field?" asks Edwards, +who knew very well that Trustee is the favorite. Benson declines. +"Then will you go on time? Will you bet on 7' 42'', or that they don't +beat 7' 47''" (three mile heats, you will recollect, reader). No, +Harry won't bet at all; so Edwards turns to Losing. "Will you bet +three to five in hundreds on the Lady?" Losing will. They neither +plank the money, nor book the bet, but the thing is understood. + +Pelham's driver has begged the judges to give the word, even if he is +two lengths behind; he would rather do that than have his horse +worried by false starts. So this time, perhaps, they will get off. Not +yet! Bryan's mare breaks up just before they come to the score. +Harrison hints that he broke her on purpose, because Trustee was +likely to have about a neck advantage of him in the start. "Of course +they never go the first time," says Benson, "and very seldom the +second." + +"I saw nine false starts once, at Harlaem," says Bleecker, "where +there were but three horses. Better luck next time." + +It is better luck. Pelham lays in the rear full two lengths, but +Trustee and the mare come up nose and nose to the score, going at a +great pace. "Go!" At the word Trustee breaks. "Bah! take him away! +Where's Brydges?" The superior skill of his former driver, is +painfully remembered by the horse's friends. But he soon recovers, and +catches his trot about two lengths behind the mare, and as much in +advance of Pelham; for the little bay is going very badly, seems to +have no trot in him, and his driver dares not hurry him. In these +respective positions they complete the first quarter. + +As they approach the half mile, the distance renders their movements +indistinct, and their speed, positive or relative, difficult to +determine. You can only make out their position. Pelham continues to +lose, and Trustee has gained a little; but the gray mare keeps the +lead gallantly. + +"I like a trot," says Benson, "because you can watch the horses so +long. In a race they go by like a flash, once and again, and it's all +over." + +In the next quarter they are almost lost to view, and then they appear +again coming home, and you begin once more to appreciate the rate at +which they are coming. Still it is not the very best pace; the Lady is +taking it rather easy, as if conscious of having it all her own way; +and her driver looks as careless and comfortable as if he were only +taking her out to exercise, when she glides past the stand. + +"2' 35''," says Losing. He doesn't need to look at his watch; but +there is great comparing of stop-watches among the other men for the +time of the first mile. Hardly half a length behind is Trustee; he has +been gradually creeping up without any signs of being hurried, and, +clumsily as he goes, gets over the ground without heating himself. + +"John Case knows what he's about, after all," Edwards observes, "He +takes his time, and so does the old horse; wait another round, and, at +the third mile, they'll be _there_." + +"But where's Pelham? Is he lost? No, there he comes; and, Castor and +Pollux, what a burst! Something has waked him up after the other +horses have passed the stand, and while he is yet four or five lengths +from it. There's a brush for you! Did you ever see a horse foot it +so?--as if all the ideas of running that he may ever have had in his +life were arrested, and fastened down into his trot. How he is closing +up the gap! If he can hold to that stroke he will be ahead of the +field before the first quarter of this second mile is out. A mighty +clamor arises, shouts from his enemies, who want to break him, cheers +from his injudicious friends. There, he has lapped Trustee--he has +passed him; tearing at the bit harder than ever, he closes with Lady +Suffolk. Bryan does not begin to thrash his mare yet, he only shows +the whip over her; but yells like a madman at her, and at Pelham, +whose driver holds on to him as a drowning man holds on to a rope. +They are going side by side at a terrific pace. It can't last; one of +them must go up. The bay horse does go up just at the quarter pole, +having made that quarter, Benson says, in the remarkably short time of +thirty-six seconds and a half." + +Pelham's driver can't jerk him across the track; by doing so, he would +foul Trustee, who is just behind; so he has to let the chestnut go by, +and then sets himself to work to bring down his unruly animal; no easy +matter--for Pelham, frightened by the shouting, and excited by the +noise of the wheels, plunges about in a manner that threatens to spill +or break down the sulky; and twice, after being brought almost to a +full stop, goes off again on a canter. Good bye, little horse! there's +no more chance for you. By this time, the Lady is nearly a quarter of +a mile ahead, and going faster than ever. Somehow or other, Trustee +has increased his speed too, and is just where he was, a short +half-length behind her. The way in which he hangs on to the mare +begins to frighten the Long-Islanders a little, but they comfort +themselves with the hope that she has something left, and can let out +some spare foot in the third mile, or whenever it may be necessary. + +Some forty seconds more elapse; a period of time that goes like a +flash when you are training your own flier, or "brushing" on the road, +but seems long enough when you are waiting for horses to come round, +and then they appear once more coming home. The mare is still leading, +with her beautiful, steady, unfaltering stroke; but she is by no means +so fresh-looking as when she started; many a dark line of sweat marks +her white hide. Close behind her comes Trustee; the half-length gap +has disappeared, and his nose is ready to touch Bryan's jacket. There +is hardly a wet hair discernible on him; he goes perfectly at his +ease, and seems to be in hand. "He has her now," is the general +exclamation, "and can pass her when he pleases." As the mare crosses +the score, (in 2' 34'', according to Edwards's stop-watch,) Bryan +"looks over his left shoulder," like the knights in old ballads, and +becomes aware for the first time that the horse at his wheel is not +Pelham, as he had supposed, but Trustee. + +The old fellow is another man. His air of careless security has +changed to one of intense excitement. Slash! slash! slash! falls the +long whip, with half a dozen frantic cuts and an appropriate garnish +of yells. Almost any other trotter would go off in a run at one such +salute, to say nothing of five or six; but the old mare, who "has no +break in her," merely understands them as gentle intimations to go +faster--and she does go faster. How her legs double up, and what a +rush she has made! There is a gap of three lengths between her and +Trustee. He never hurries himself, but goes on steadily as ever. See, +as he passes, how he straddles behind like an old cow, and yet how +dexterously he paddles himself along, as it were, with one hind foot. +What a mixture of ugliness and efficiency his action is! At the first +quarter the Lady has come back to him. Three times during this, the +last and decisive mile, is the performance repeated. You may hear +Bryan's voice and whip completely across the course, as he hurries his +mare away from the pursuer; but each succeeding time the temporary gap +is shorter and sooner closed. + +Now they are coming down the straight stretch home. The mare leads +yet. Case appears to be talking to his horse, and encouraging him; if +it is so, you cannot hear him, for the tremendous row Lady Suffolk's +driver is making. She had the pole at starting, has kept it +throughout, and Trustee must pass her on the outside. This +circumstance is her only hope of winning. All her owner's exertions, +and all the encouraging shouts of her friends, which she now hears +greeting her from the stand, cannot enable her to shake off Trustee, +but if she can only maintain her lead for six or seven lengths more, +it is enough. The chestnut is directly in her rear; every blow gets a +little more out of her. Half the short interval to the goal is passed, +when Trustee diverges from his straight course, and shows his head +along side Bryan's wheel. Catching his horse short, Case puts his whip +upon him for the first time, shakes him up with a great shout, and +crowds him past the mare, winning the heat by a length. + +The little bay was so far behind at the end of the second mile, that +no one took any notice of him, and he was supposed to have dropped out +somewhere on the road. His position, however, was much improved on the +third mile; still, as there was a strong probability of his being shut +out, the judges dispatched one of their number to the distance-post +with a flag; a very proper proceeding, only they thought of it rather +late, for the judge arrived there only just before Pelham, and also +just before Trustee crossed the score; in fact, the three events were +all but simultaneous; the judge dropped the flag in Pelham's face, and +Pelham in return nearly ran over the judge. This episode attracted no +attention at the time of its occurrence, all eyes being directed to +the leading horses; but now it affords materials for a nice little +row, Pelham's driver protesting violently against the distance. There +is much thronging, and vociferating, and swearing about the judge's +stand, into which our burly Irishman endeavors to force his way. One +of the specials favors him with a rap on the head, that would astonish +a hippopotamus. Pat doesn't seem to mind it, but he understands it +well enough (the argument is just suited to his capacity), and remains +tolerably quiet. Finally, it is proclaimed that "Trustee wins the heat +in 7' 45'', and Pelham is distanced." + +"Best three miles ever made in harness," says Harrison, "except when +Dutchman did it in 7' 41''." + +Edwards doubts the fact, and they bet about it, and will write to the +_Spirit of the Times_ (the American _Bell's Life_). + +Ashburner and Benson descended from the stand. The horses, panting and +pouring with sweat, are rubbed and scraped by their attendants, three +or four to each. Then they are clothed, and walked up and down +quietly. They have a rest of nominally half-an-hour, and practically +at least forty minutes. Some of the crowd are eating oysters, more +drinking brandy and water, and a still greater number "loafing" about +without any particular employment. There are two or three +thimble-riggers on the ground, but they seem to be in a barren county; +nobody there is green enough for them; the very small boys take sights +at them. There is a tradition that Edwards once in his younger days +tried his fortune with them. He looked so dandified, green, and +innocent, that they let him win five dollars the first time, and then, +on the rigger's proposing to bet a hundred, his supposed victim +applied the finger of scorn to the nose of derision, and strutted off +with his V.,[7] to the great amusement of the bystanders. Tom is very +proud of this story, and likes to tell it himself. That, and his +paying a French actress with a check when he had nothing at his +banker's, are two of the great exploits of his life. + +"This _is_ rather a low assemblage, certainly," says Ashburner, after +he has contemplated it from several points of view, and observed a +great many different points of character. "Do they ever have races +here?" + +"Yes, every spring and fall, here, or on the Union Course adjoining. +They are rather more decently attended, but not over respectable, much +less fashionable. At the South, it is different; there ladies go, and +the club races are some of the most marked features of their city +life. I recollect when I was a boy, that these trotting matches were +nice things, and gentlemen used to enter their own horses; but +gradually they have gone down hill to what they are now, and the names +of the best trotters are associated with the hardest characters and +the most disreputable species of balls." + +"And when they race, do the horses run on ground like _this_?" asked +Ashburner, stamping on the track, which was as hard as Macadam. + +"Precisely on this, and run four-mile heats, too, and five of them +sometimes." + +"_Five_ four-mile heats on ground like this?" The Englishman looked +incredulous. + +"Exactly. It has happened that each of three has won a heat, and then +there was one dead heat. You will remember, though, that we run old +horses, not colts. There is no extra weight for age; they begin at +four or five years old, and go on till twelve or fourteen." + +"But they must be very liable to accidents, going on such hard soil." + +"Yes, they do break their legs sometimes, but not often. Our horses +are tougher than yours." + +As they stroll about, Benson points out several celebrated fliers that +have gained admission inside of the stand, but prefer remaining +outside the track; some pretty well worn-out and _emeriti_ like +Ripton, an old rival of Lady Suffolk (the mare has outlasted most of +her early contemporaries), some in their prime, like the trotting +stallion, Black Hawk, beautifully formed as any blood-horse, but +singularly marked, being white-stockinged all round to the knee. +"There," says Harry, "is a fellow that belies the old horse-dealer's +rhyme: + + 'Four white legs and a white nose, + Take him away, and throw him to the crows.'" + Time is up, and they return to the stand. Edwards is bantering +Losing, and asks him if he will repeat his bet on this heat. He will +fast enough, and double it on the final result. Edwards wants nothing +better. + +This time, for a wonder, the horses got off at the first start, and a +tremendous pace they make, altogether too much for Trustee, who is +carried off his feet in the first half-quarter, and the Lady goes +ahead three, four, five lengths, and has taken the pole before he can +recover. Bryan continues to crowd the pace. The mare comes round to +the score in 2' 33'', leading by four lengths, and her driver +threshing her already. "She can't stand it," say the knowing ones; +"she must drop out soon." But she doesn't drop out in the second mile +at least, for at the end of that, she is still three lengths in +advance, and Trustee does not appear so fresh as he did last heat. The +Long-Islanders are exultant, and the sporting men look shy. When they +come home in the last quarter, the chestnut has only taken one length +out of the gap; nevertheless, he goes for the outside, and makes the +best rush he can. It's no use. He can't get near her; breaks up again, +and crosses the score a long way behind. Much manifestation of +boisterous joy among the farmers. Edwards looks sold, and something +like a smile passes over Losing's unimpassioned countenance. It is +plain sailing for the judges this time. "Lady Suffolk has the heat in +7' 49''," and there is no mistake or dispute about it. + +Another long pause. Eight minutes' sport and three quarters of an hour +intermission among such a company begins to be rather dull work. All +the topics of interest afforded by the place have been exhausted. +Harrison and Benson begin to talk stocks and investments; the +juveniles are comparing their watering place experiences during the +summer. Ashburner says nothing, and smokes an indefinite number of +cigars; Losing says rather less, and smokes more. Edwards has +disappeared; gone, possibly, to talk to the doubtful carriages. It is +growing dark before they are ready for the third and decisive heat. + +One false start, and at the second trial they are off. The mare has +the inside, in right of having won the preceding heat. She crowds the +pace from the start, as usual; but Trustee is better handled this +time, and does not break. Case allows the Lady to lead him by three +lengths, and keeps his horse at a steady gait, in quiet pursuit of +her. For two miles their positions are unaltered; Bryan's friends +cheer him vociferously every time as he comes round; he replies by a +flourish of his long whip and additional shouts to his mare. In the +third mile, Trustee begins to creep up, and in the third quarter of +it, just before he gets out of sight from the stand, is only a length +and a half behind. When they appear again, there are plenty of anxious +lookers-out; and men like our friend Edwards, who have a thousand or +more at stake on the result, cannot altogether restrain their +emotions. Here they come close enough together! Trustee has lapped the +mare on the outside; his head is opposite the front rim of her wheel. +Bryan shouts and whips like one possessed; Case's small voice is also +lifted up to encourage Trustee. The chestnut is gaining, but only inch +by inch, and they are nearly home. Now Case has lifted him with the +whip, and he makes a rush and is at her shoulder. Now he will have +her. Oh, dear, he has gone up! Hurrah for the old gray! Stay! Case has +caught him beautifully; he is on his trot again opposite her wheel. +One desperate effort on the part of man and horse, and Trustee shoots +by the mare; but not till after she has crossed the score. Lady +Suffolk is quite done up; she could not go another quarter; but she +has held out long enough to win the heat and the money. + +And now, as it was somewhere in the neighborhood of seven, and neither +Ashburner nor Benson had eaten any thing since eight in the morning, +they began to feel very much inclined for dinner, or supper, or +something of the sort; and the team travelled back quite as fast as it +was safe to go by twilight; a little faster, the Englishman might have +thought, if he had not been so hungry. Then, after crossing the +Brooklyn ferry, Benson announced his intention of putting up his +horses for the night at a livery stable, and himself at Ashburner's +hotel, as it was still a long drive for that time of night to +Devilshoof; which being agreed upon, they next dived into an oyster +cellar, of which there are about two to a block all along Broadway, +and ordered an unlimited supply of the agreeable shellfish, +broiled;--_oyster chops_, Ashburner used to call them; and the term +gives a stranger a pretty good idea of what these large oysters look +like, cooked as they are with crumbs, exactly in the style of a +_cotelette panee_. And they make very nice eating, too; only they +promote thirst and induce the consumption of numerous glasses of +champagne or brandy and water, as the case may be. Whether this be an +objection to them or not, is matter of opinion. Then having adjourned +to Ashburner's apartment in the fifth story of the Manhattan hotel (it +was a room with an alcove, French fashion), and smoked numerous +Firmezas there, the Englishman turned in for the night; and Benson, +who had no notion of paying for a bed when he could get a sofa for +nothing, disposed himself at full length upon Ashburner's, without +taking off any thing except his hat, and was fast asleep in less time +than it would take _The Sewer_ to tell a lie. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] The United States government, (U. S.) + +[5] A very critical friend wants to know if the term _dilapidated_ +can, with strict propriety, be applied to a _wooden_ building. + +[6] A horse will "go the pole" in such a time, means that he will go +in double harness. A horse "has the pole," means that he has drawn the +place nearest the inside boundary fence of the track. + +[7] A five-dollar bill is so called from the designation in Roman +numerals upon it. + + + + +From Chamber's Edinburgh Journal. + +PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF A DUTCH POET. + + +The name of Wilhelm Bilderdyk is scarcely known beyond the boundaries +of his own country; and yet those who are conversant with the Dutch +language place him in a very high rank as a poet. The publication of +his first poem, _Elicus_, formed quite an era in the history of Dutch +literature. It was speedily followed by a faithful and spirited +translation of the _Oedipus_ of Sophocles, and versions of other +Greek writers. Besides his imaginative pursuits, he engaged with ardor +in the study of geology, and almost rivalled Cuvier in his +acquaintance with natural history. War and invasion, however, +interrupted the labors of Bilderdyk. He quitted Holland, travelled +through Germany, crossed over to England, and finally spent some time +amongst the Scottish Highlands, where he employed himself in +translating Ossian's poems into Dutch verse. He then went to the +principality of Brunswick, and there composed a very extraordinary +work, _The Maladies of Wise Men_, a poem whose mild, lofty sublimity, +unearthly interest, and grasp of gloomy thought, entitle it to rank +with the Inferno of Dante. + +Bilderdyk at length was able to return to his country. Louis Napoleon, +who then reigned at the Hague, chose him as his instructor in the +Dutch language, and named him president of the second class in the +Institute of Amsterdam. About this time he married a beautiful and +clever girl, named Wilhelmina; and for several years they enjoyed +together as perfect happiness as this world can give--she occupied in +domestic and maternal duties, and he adding to his fame and fortune by +the publication of several works. But at length death visited their +dwelling, and removed within a brief space three lovely children. +Their loss was commemorated in two poems--_Winter Flowers_, and _The +Farewell_. Not long afterwards, public misfortune came to aggravate +his private sorrows. Louis Napoleon left Holland, and Bilderdyk took +refuge at Groningen, where he stayed for some time, and then, +rejecting a liberal offer of employment made him by William of Orange, +he set out for France, accompanied by his wife. + +When they entered the diligence, they found it occupied but by one +person, a young female of mild and engaging appearance. No sooner did +the heavy machine begin to move than she began to scream, and +testified the most absurd degree of terror. Public carriages then were +certainly far inferior, both in safety and accommodation, to those of +modern times; yet the probable amount of danger to be apprehended did +not by any means justify the excessive apprehension manifested by the +fair traveller. On arriving at Brussels, the lady was so much overcome +that she announced her intention of stopping some days in that city to +recruit her strength before venturing again to encounter the perils of +a diligence; and taking leave of Bilderdyk and his wife, she +gratefully thanked the latter for the kind attention she had shown her +during the journey. The two Hollanders proceeded on their way to +Paris, laughing heartily from time to time at the foolish cowardice of +a woman who saw a precipice in every rut, and a certain overturn in +every jolt of the wheels. + +Arrived at their journey's end, the travellers took up their abode in +a humble dwelling in the Rue Richelieu, and commenced with the utmost +delight visiting all the wonderful things in Paris. Bilderdyk soon +found himself completely in his element. He breakfasted with Cuvier at +the Jardin des Plantes, passed his afternoon at the Bibliotheque +Richelieu, dined in the Faubourg St. Germain with Dr. Alibert, and +finished the evening at the play or the opera. One day he and his wife +were given excellent places for witnessing the ascent in a balloon of +a young woman, Mme. Blanchard, whose reckless courage enabled her to +undertake aerial voyages, despite the sad fate which befell Pilastre +de Rosiers, her own husband, and several other aeronauts. Our +Hollanders amused themselves for some time with watching the process +of inflating the balloon, and following with their eyes the course of +the tiny messenger-balloons sent up to ascertain the direction of the +upper currents of wind. At length all is ready, the band strikes up a +lively air, and Mme. Blanchard, dressed in white and crowned with +roses, appears, holding a small gay flag in her hand. With the most +graceful composure she placed herself in the boat, the cords were +loosed, and the courageous adventuress, borne rapidly upwards in her +perilous vehicle, soon appeared like a dark spot in the sky. + +When he returned to his lodging, Bilderdyk composed a poem in honor of +the brave woman who adventured her life so boldly, rivalling the free +birds of heaven in her flight, and beholding the stars face to face. +Next morning he hastened to get his production printed, and without +considering that Mme. Blanchard most likely did not understand Dutch, +he repaired to her lodgings with a copy of the poem in his hand, +intending to ask permission to present it to her. He was courteously +invited to enter the drawing-room, and there, to his great amazement, +he found himself _tete-a-tete_ with the silly, frightened lady, whose +nervous tremors in the Brussels diligence had afforded so much +amusement to him and his wife. Surprised and disconcerted, he was +beginning to apologize, when the lady interrupted him. + +"Monsieur," she said, "you are not mistaken. I am Mme. Blanchard. You +see how possible it is for the same person to be cowardly in a coach, +and courageous in a balloon." + +A good deal of conversation ensued, the poem was timidly offered, and +graciously accepted; and the fair aeronaut accepted an invitation to +dine that day with Bilderdyk and his wife. In the course of the +evening Mme. Blanchard related to them some curious circumstances in +her life. Her mother kept a humble wayside inn near La Rochelle, while +her father worked in the fields. One day a balloon descended near +their door, and out of it was taken a man, severely but not +dangerously bruised. Her parents received him with the utmost +hospitality, and supplied him with all the comforts they could give. +He had no money wherewith to repay them, but as he was about to +depart, he remarked that the mistress of the house was very near her +confinement, and he said: "Listen, and mark my words. Fortune cannot +always desert me. In sixteen years, if alive, I will return hither. If +the child who will soon be born to you should be a boy, I will then +adopt him; if a girl, I will marry her!" + +The worthy peasants laughed heartily at this strange method of paying +a bill; and although they allowed their guest to depart, they +certainly built very little on his promise. The aeronaut, however, +kept his word, and at the end of sixteen years re-appeared at the inn, +then inhabited by only a fair young girl, very lately left an orphan. +She willingly accepted Jean Pierre Blanchard as a husband, and for a +short time they lived happily together; but during an ascent which he +made in Holland, he was seized with apoplexy, and fell to the ground +from a height of sixty feet. The unhappy aeronaut was not killed on +the spot, but lingered for some time in frightful torture, carefully +and fondly attended by his wife, whom at length he left a young and +penniless widow. + +Marie Madeleine Blanchard, despite her natural timidity, resolved to +adopt her husband's perilous profession. Pride and necessity combined +do wonders; and not only did she succeed in maintaining perfect +composure while in the air, but she also displayed wonderful presence +of mind during the time of danger. On one occasion she ascended in her +balloon from Nantes, intending to come down at about four leagues from +that town, in what she believed to be a large meadow. While rapidly +descending, the cordage of the balloon became entangled in the +branches of a tree, and she found herself suspended over a vast green +marsh, whose treacherous mud would infallibly ingulf her. Drawn to the +spot by her cries, several peasants came to her assistance, and with +considerable difficulty and danger succeeded in placing her on terra +firma. + +On the day following the one on which she dined with M. and Mme. +Bilderdyk, Mme. Blanchard left Paris, promising her two friends, as +she bade them farewell, that she would soon return. Time passed on, +however, and they heard nothing of her. They were preparing to return +to Holland, when some of Bilderdyk's countrymen residing in Paris +resolved to give him a banquet on the eve of his departure. + +The entertainment took place at a celebrated restaurant, situated at +the angle formed by the Rue Cauchat and the Rue de Provence. While +enjoying themselves at table, the guests suddenly perceived the +windows darkened by the passing of some large black object. With one +accord they rose and ran out: a woman lay on the pavement, pale, +crushed, and dead. Bilderdyk gave a cry--it was Mme. Blanchard! In +what a guise to meet her again! Encouraged by the constant impunity of +her perilous ascensions, the unhappy aeronaut (the word I believe has +no feminine), finding a formidable rival in Mlle. Garnerin, resolved +to surpass her in daring by augmenting the risk of her aerial voyages. +For this purpose she lighted up her balloon car with colored lamps, +and carried with her a supply of fireworks. On the sixth of July, +1819, she rose from amid a vast concourse of spectators. The balloon +caught in one of the trees in the Champs-Elysees, but without +regarding the augury, Mme. Blanchard threw out ballast, and as she +rose rapidly in the air she spilled a quantity of lighting spirits of +wine, and then sent off rockets and Roman candles. Suddenly, with +horror, the mass of upturned eyes beheld the balloon take fire. One +piercing shriek from above mingled with the affrighted cries of the +crowd below, and then some object was seen to detach itself from the +fiery globe. As it came near the earth, it was recognized as the body +of the ill-fated Mme. Blanchard. + +Weeping and trembling, Bilderdyk aided in raising the disfigured +corpse, and wrapped it up in the net-work of the balloon, which the +hands still grasped firmly. The shock, acting on his excitable +temperament, threw him into a dangerous illness, from which, however, +he recovered, and returned to his native country. There he published +an admirable treatise, "The Theory of Vegetable Organization," and a +poem entitled, "The Destruction of the Primeval World." A French +critic has placed this latter work in the same rank with "Paradise +Lost," and says: "Old Milton has nothing finer, more energetic, or +more vast, in his immortal work." An English critic, however, would +probably scarcely concur in this judgment. + +Bilderdyk died in the town of Haarlem on the 18th of December, 1831. + + + + +From Household Words. + +OUR PHANTOM SHIP: CHINA. + + +Since a typhoon occurs not much oftener than once in about three +years, it would be odd if we should sail immediately into one; but we +are fairly in the China seas, which are the typhoon's own peculiar +sporting ground, and it is desperately sultry, and those clouds are +full of night and lightning, to say nothing of a fitful gale and angry +sea. Look out! There is the coast of China. Now for a telescope to see +the barren, dingy hills, with clay and granite peeping out, with a few +miserable trees and stunted firs. That is our first sight of the +flowery land, and we shall not get another yet, for the spray begins +to blind us; it is quite as much as we can do to see each other. Now +the wind howls and tears the water up, as if it would extract the +great waves by their roots, like so many of old Ocean's teeth; but he +kicks sadly at the operation. We are driven by the wild blast that +snaps our voices short off at the lips and carries them away; no words +are audible. We are among a mass of spars and men wild as the storm on +drifting broken junks; a vessel founders in our sight, and we are +cast, with dead and living, upon half a dozen wrecks entangled in a +mass, upon the shore of Hong Kong;--ourselves safe, of course, for we +have left at home whatever could be bruised upon the journey. How many +houses have been blown away like hats, how many rivers have been +driven back to swell canals and flood the fields, (whose harvest has +been prematurely cropped on the first warning of the typhoon's +intended visit,) we decline investigating. The evening sky is very +wild, and we were all last night under the typhoon at sea; to-night we +are in the new town of Victoria, and will be phantom bed-fellows to +any Chinaman who has been eating pork for supper. The Chinese are very +fond of pork, or any thing that causes oiliness in man. A lean man +forfeits something in their estimation; for they say, "He must have +foolishness; why has he wanted wisdom to eat more?" + +Hong Kong was one of the upshots of our cannonading in the pure and +holy Chinese war; and as for the new town of Victoria, we shall walk +out of it at once, for we have not travelled all this way to look at +Englishmen. The island itself is eight or ten miles long, and +sometimes two or sometimes six miles broad. It is the model of a grand +mountain region on a scale of two inches to the foot. There are crags, +ravines, wild torrents, fern-covered hills; but the highest mountain +does not rise two thousand feet.--We stand upon it now. Quite contrary +to usual experience, we found, in coming up, the richest flowers at +the greatest elevation. The heat and dryness of the air below, where +the sun's rays are reflected from bare surfaces, is said to be +oppressive, and perhaps the flowers down there want a pleasant shade. +From our elevation we can see few patches of cultivation, but leaping +down the rocks are many picturesque cascades. Hong Kong is christened +from its own waters, its name signifying in Chinese "the Island of +Fragrant Streams." There is a goat upon the nearest rock; but look +beyond. On one side is the bay, with shipping, and behind us the broad +expanse of the ocean; and before us is the sea, studded as far as our +eyes can reach with mountainous islands, among which we must sail to +reach Canton. Now we float onward in the Phantom, and among these +islands our sharp eyes discover craft that have more hands on board +than usually man an honest vessel. In the holes and corners of the +islands pirates lurk to prey upon the traffic of Canton. We pass Macao +on our way into the Canton river. Portugal was a nation of quality +once, with a strong constitution, and in those days, once upon a time, +wrecked Portuguese gained leave to dry a cargo on the Island of Macao. +They erected sheds a little stronger than were necessary for that +temporary purpose; in fact, they turned the accident to good account, +and established here an infant settlement, which soon grew to maintain +itself, and sent money home occasionally to assist its mother. Twice +the Emperor of China offered to make Macao an emporium for European +trade; the Portuguese preferred to be exclusive. So the settlement +fell sick, and since the English made Hong Kong a place of active +trade, very few people trouble themselves to inquire whether Macao be +dead yet, or only dying. The Portuguese town has a mournful aspect, +marked as it is by strong lines of character that indicate departed +power. + +Still sailing among islands, mountainous and barren, we soon reach the +Bocca Tigris, or mouth of the Canton river, guarded now with very +formidable forts. The Chinese, since their war with England, have been +profiting by sore experience. If their gunnery be as completely mended +as their fortifications, another war with them would not be quite so +much like an attack of grown men upon children. The poor Chinese, in +that war, were indefatigable in the endeavor to keep up appearances. +Steam ships were scarcely worth attention--they had "plenty all the +same inside:" and when the first encounter, near the spot on which we +are now sailing, between junks and men-of-war, had exhibited the +tragedy, in flesh and bone, of John Bull in a China-shop, the Chinese +Symonds, at Ningpo, was ordered to build ships exactly like the +British. He could not execute the order, and played, therefore, +executioner upon himself. Cannon were next ordered, that should be +large enough to destroy a ship at one burst. They were made, and the +first monster tried, immediately burst and killed its three +attendants; nobody could be induced to fire the others. One morning, a +British fleet was very much surprised to see the shore look formidable +with a line of cannon mouths. The telescope, which had formed no part +of the Chinese calculations, discovered them to be a row of earthern +pots. Forts, in the same way, often turned out to be dummies made of +matting, with the portholes painted; and sometimes real cannon, mere +three pounders, had their fronts turned to the sea, plugged with +blocks of wood, cut and so painted as to resemble the mouths of +thirty-two pounders shotted. However, we have passed real strong forts +and veritable heavy cannon, to get through the Bocca Tigris. Nothing +is barren now; the river widens, and looks like an inland sea; the +flat land near the shores is richly cultivated; rice is there and upon +the islands, all protected with embankments to admit or exclude the +flood in its due season, or provided with wheels for raising water +where the land is too high to be flooded in a simpler manner. The +embankments, too, yield plantain crops. The water on each side is gay +with water lilies, which are cultivated for their roots. Banyan and +fig-trees, cypress, orange, water-pines, and weeping willows, grow +beside the stream, with other trees; but China is not to be called a +richly timbered country; most of its districts are deficient in large +trees. There is the Whampoa Pagoda; there are more pagodas, towers, +joss-houses; here are the European factories, and here are boats, +boats, boats, literally, hundreds of thousands of boats--the sea-going +junk, gorgeous with griffins, and with proverbs, and with painted +eyes; the flower boat; boats of all shapes, and sizes, down to the +barber's boat, which barely holds the barber and his razor. There is a +city on the water, and the dwellers in these boats, who whether men or +women, dive and swim so naturally that they may all be fishes, +curiously claim their kindred with the earth. On every boat, a little +soil and a few flowers, are as essential as the little joss-house and +the little joss. Canals flow from the river through Canton; every +where, over the mud, upon the water side are wooden houses built on +piles. But here we will not go ashore; the suburbs of Canton are full +of thieves, and little boys who shout _fan-qui_ (foreign devil) after +all barbarians, and we should not be welcome in the city; so we will +not go where we shall not be welcome. After floating up and down the +streets and lanes of water made between the boats upon the Canton +river, pleased with the strange music, the gongs, and the incessant +chattering of women, (Chinese women are pre-eminent as chatterers,) we +sail away. We do not wait even till night to wonder at the scene by +lantern light; but returning by the way we came, repass the rice +fields, the water lilies, and the forts, the islands, and Macao, and +Hong Kong, and have again before us the expanse of ocean. Canton lies +within the tropic; sugar-cane grown in its vicinity yields brown sugar +and candy; but our lump sugar is a luxury to which the Chinese have +not yet attained. Canton lying within the tropic, we shall change our +climate on the journey northward. An empire that engrosses nearly a +tenth part of the globe, and includes the largest population gathered +under any single government, will have many climates in its eighteen +provinces. Now we are sailing swiftly northward by a barren rocky +coast, with sometimes hills of sand, and sometimes cultivated patches, +and, except for the pagodas on the highest elevations, we might fancy +we were off the coast of Scotland. + +Five ports are open to our trade upon the coast of China; one of +these, Canton, we have merely looked at, and the next, Amoy, we pass +unvisited in sailing up between the mainland and Formosa. Amoy +produces the best Chinese sailors, and it is in this port that the +native junks have most experience of foreign trade; it is a dirty, +densely-peopled town, too distant from the tea and silk regions to be +of prominent importance to the Europeans. As soon as we have passed +through the Formosa channel, we direct our course towards the river +Min, and steering safely among rocks and sand-banks, among which is a +rock cleft into five pyramids, regarded with a sort of worship by the +sailors, we float up the river to the third of the five cities, +Foo-chow-foo. The river varies in width, sometimes a mile across, +where it is flowing between plains, sometimes confined between the +hills; a hilly country is about us, with some mountains nearly twice +as high as those up which we clambered at Hong-Kong. We pass, after a +few miles' sail, the little town and fort of Mingan; we sail among +pagodas and temples, near which the priests plant dark spreading +fig-trees, terraced hills, yielding earth-nuts and sweet potatoes; we +see cultivation carried up some mountain sides beyond two thousand +feet, and barren mountains, granite rocks, islands, and villages; here +and there more wooded tracts than usually belong to a Chinese +landscape, rills of water and cascades that tumble down into the Min. +We have sailed up the river twenty miles, and here is Foo-chow-foo. We +have met on our way a good many junks, having wood lashed to their +sides; and here we see acres of wood (chiefly pine) afloat before the +suburbs, for here wood is a main article of trade. We pass under the +bridge Wanshow ("myriads of ages"), which connects the suburbs on each +bank; it is a bridge of granite slabs, supported upon fifty pillars of +strong masonry, the whole about two thousand feet in length. The +suburbs happen just now to be flooded, and the large Tartar population +here delights in mobbing a barbarian. This inhospitable character +repels men, while the floods and rapids of the river and its +tributaries, causes an uncertainty of transit, tend also to keep +European traders out of Foo-chow-foo. True, the bohea tea hills are in +the vicinity, but their bohea tea has not a first-rate character, and +the great seat of the tea trade is yet farther north. The city walls +are eight or nine miles in circumference; but we will not enter their +gates for all Chinese cities have a close resemblance to each other; +it is enough to visit one, and we can do better than visit this. We +sail back to the sea again, and there resume our northward voyage. We +have seen part of the mountainous or hilly half of China; farther +north, between the two great rivers, and beyond them to the famous +Wall, is a great plain studded in parts with lakes or swamps, and very +fertile. + +Far westward, we might journey to the high central table-land of Asia, +where there are extensive levels; but the seaward provinces are the +most fertile; and as for the Chinese themselves, they are in all +places very much alike--in body as in character. But sailing in our +ship, and talking of those plains, we may naturally recall to our +minds those ancient days when the Chinese, civilised then as now, +guided their chariots across a pathless level on the land by the same +instrument that guides our ship across a pathless level on the water. + +The coast by which we sail is studded with islands, and to reach +Ningpo, the fourth of the five ports, we pass between the mainland and +the island of Chusan. The water here is quite hemmed in with islands +forming the Chusan Archipelago. Chusan is like a piece of the Scotch +Highlands, twenty miles long, and ten or twelve broad, with rich +vegetation added. Forty miles' sail from Chusan brings us to Ningpo. +Amongst the numerous islands past which we have floated, we should +have found, on many, characters not quite Chinese. One island, visited +for water by one of our ships, was said to be an Eden for its +innocence. Crime was unknown among the islanders: and at a grave look +or a slight tap with a fan, the wrong-doer invariably desisted from +his evil course. The simplicity of the natives here consisted in the +fact, that they expected credit for the character they gave +themselves. On another island, the natives entertained snug notions of +a warm bed in the winter. Their bed was a stone trough; in winter they +spread at the bottom of this trough hot embers, and over these a large +stone, over that their bedding, and then tucked themselves comfortably +in. + +Ningpo, with its bridge of boats and Chinese shipping and pagodas, has +a picturesque appearance from the river. It is large, populous, and +wealthy; a place to which the merchant may retire to spend his gains, +more than a port for active and hard working commerce. That is the +reason why we will not land at Ningpo. Where, then, shall we land? If +you have no objection, at Shangae, the fifth and most important, +although not the largest, of these ports. But sea life is monotonous, +and therefore we will take five minutes' diversion ashore, after we +have sailed some twenty miles up this canal. Here we will land under +an avenue of pines, and walk up to a Buddhist temple. We are in the +centre of the green-tea district. + +The priests, belonging, for a wonder, to a simple-minded class, +receive us, of course hospitably. The stranger is at all times welcome +to a lodging, and to his portion of the Buddhist vegetable dinner. +These priests are like some of our monks in mendicancy charity, and +superstition. In the pagodas they always have a meal prepared for the +arrival of a hungry traveller. But hungry we are not; and we came +hither to see the tea-plantations; these we now seek out. They are +small farms upon the lower slopes of hills; the soil is rich; it must +be rich, or the tea-plant would not long endure the frequent stripping +of its leaves, which usage does of course sooner or later kill it. +Each plant is at a distance of about four feet from its neighbors, and +the plantations look like little shrubberies. The small proprietors +inhabit wretched-looking cabins, in which each of them has fixed a +flue and coppers for the drying of his tea. In the appearance of the +people there is nothing wretched; old men sit at their doors like +patriarchs, expecting and receiving reverence; young men, balancing +bales across their shoulders, travel out, and some return with strings +of copper money; the chief tea-harvest is over, and the merchants have +come down now to the little inns about the district, that each +husbandman may offer them his produce. There are three tea-making +seasons. The first is in the middle of April, just before the rains, +when the first leaves of spring are plucked; these make the choicest +tea, but their removal tries the vigor of the plant. Then come the +rains; the tea-plant pushes out new leaves, and already in May the +plantation is again dark with foliage; that is the season of the +second, the great gathering. A later gathering of coarse leaves yields +an inferior tea, scarcely worth exporting. It should be understood +that although black and green tea are both made from the same kind of +leaf, there really are two tea-plants. The plant cultivated at Canton +for black tea, and known in our gardens as _Thea Bohea_, differs from +the _Thea viridis_, which yields the harvest here. The Canton plant, +however, is not cultivated in the North; on the Bohea hills +themselves, speaking botanically, there grows no Bohea tea; the plant +there, also, is the _Thea viridis_. The difference between our green +and black tea is produced entirely in the making. Green tea is more +quickly and lightly dried, so that it contains more of the virtues of +the leaf. Black tea is dried more slowly; exposed, while moist, on +mats, when it ferments a little, and then subjected in drying to a +greater heat, which makes it blacker in its color. The bright bloom on +our green tea is added with a dye, to suit the gross taste of +barbarians. The black tea will keep better, being better dried. There +is a kind of tea called Hyson Pekoe made from the first young buds +which keeps ill, being very little fired, but when good it is +extremely costly. As for our names of teas,--of the first delicate +harvest, the black tea is called Pekoe, and the green, Young Hyson; +Hyson being the corruption of Chinese words, that mean "flourishing +spring." The produce of the main or second harvest yields, in green +tea, Hyson; out of which are picked the leaves that prove to be best +rolled for Gunpowder, or as the Chinese call it, pearl-tea. Souchong +("small or scarce sort") is the best black tea of the second crop, +followed by Congou (koong-foo, "assiduity"). Twankay is imported +largely, a green tea from older leaves, which European retailers +employ for mixing with the finer kinds. Bohea, named from the hills we +talked of, is the lowest quality of black tea, though good Bohea is +better than a middling quality of Congou. The botanical _Thea Bohea_ +comes into our pots, with refuse Congou, as Canton Bohea. At Canton, +however, Young Hyson and Gunpowder are manufactured out of these +leaves, chopped and painted; and this branch of the fine arts is +carried on extensively in Chinese manufactories established there. As +the tea-merchants go out to collect their produce of the little +farmers; so the mercers in the Nankeen districts leave their cities +for the purchase, in the same way, of home-woven cloth. It is the same +in the silk districts. If we look now into a larger Chinese farm on +our way back to the Phantom, we shall find the tenants on a larger +scale supplying their own wants, and making profit of the surplus. On +such a farm we shall find also familiar friends, fowls, ducks, geese, +pigs, goats, and dogs, bullocks, and buffaloes; indoors there will be +a best parlor in the shape of a Hall of Ancestors, containing +household gods and an ancestral picture, before which is a table or +altar with its offerings. There is the head of the family, who built a +room for each son as he married, and left each son to add other rooms +as they were necessary, till a colony arose under the common roof +about the common hall, in which rules, as a high priest and patriarch, +the living ancestor. Respect for the past is the whole essence of +Chinese religion and morality. The oldest emperors were fountain-heads +of wisdom, and he who imitates the oldest doctrine is the wisest man. +The tombs of ancestors are visited with pious care; respect and +worship is their due. This had at all times been the Chinese +principle, to which Confucius added the influence of a good man's +support. No nation has been trained into this feeling so completely as +the Chinese, and as long as they saw nothing beyond themselves, and +were taught to look down upon barbarians out of the heights of their +own ignorance concerning them, they were contented to stand still. But +the Chinese are a people sharply stimulated by the love of gain; they +despised what they had not seen, yet it is evident that they have not +been slow to profit by experience of European arts. An emigrant +Chinese became acquainted with a Prussian blue manufactory, secretly +observed the process of the manufacture, took his secret home, and +China now makes at home all the Prussian blue which was before +imported. The Chinese emigrant is active, shrewd. In Batavia he +ko-toos to the Dutch, and lets his tail down dutifully. In Singapore +he readily assumes a freer spirit, keeps his tail curled, and walks +upright among the Englishmen. + +We are now sailing towards Shangae, no very long way northward from +Ningpo, to the last of the five ports we came out to visit. It is not +necessary to return to the Yellow Sea, for all this part of China is +so freely intersected with canals that we may sail to Shangae among +farms and rice-grounds. While among the farmers, we may call to mind +that the great lord of the Chinese manor is the Emperor, to whom this +ground immediately belongs, and who receives as rent for it a tenth of +all the produce. A large part of this tenth is paid in kind. The +Emperor is the great father also; his whole care of his enormous +family distinctly assumes the paternal form, and embodies a good deal +of the maxim, that to spare the rod will spoil the child. To govern is +expressed in Chinese by the symbols of bamboo and strike; and the +bamboo does, in the way of striking a vast deal of business. The +central legislation is as a rule beneficent, and based upon an earnest +desire to do good; for the father is answerable for the welfare of his +children. National calamities have, at all times, been ascribed by the +Chinese directly to their Emperors; who must by personal humiliation +appease the anger of the gods. So large a household as this father has +to care for requires many stewards, mandarins, and others; all these +officers of state are those sons who have proved themselves to be the +wisest, on examination into their attainments. A grand system of +education pervades China; and, above the first school, to which all +are sent, there is a series of four examinations, through which every +Chinese may graduate if he will study. Not to pass the first is to be +vile, and the highest degrees qualify for all the offices of state; +but Chinese education means, after reading and writing, and moral +precepts of Confucius, little beside a knowledge of Chinese ancient +history and literature. The Emperor, belonging to a Tartar dynasty, +bestows an equal patronage on Tartars and Chinese. The officers +throughout the provinces are, as a further precaution, obliged to +serve in places distant from their own connections, in order that no +private feelings may destroy their power to be just. They are scantily +paid, however; and, as a Chinese likes profit with his honor, the +minor officials drive a trade in bribery, which often nullifies the +central edicts, and which very directly helped to bring about the +Opium war. The Emperor himself is, of course, too sublime a person to +be often seen; the Son of Heaven, he robes himself in the imperial +yellow, because that is the hue of the sun's jacket; but, once a year, +in enforcement of a main principle of the Chinese political +economy--Honor to Agriculture--he drives the plough before a state +procession; and the grain sown in those imperial furrows is afterwards +bought up by courtiers, at a most flattering price. + +Where are we now?--we have shot out upon a grand expanse of water, +like an inland sea. An horizon of water is before us--we cannot see +the other bank of the Yang-tse-Kiang, the "child of the ocean," the +great river of China; the greatest river in the old world, and +surpassed only by two on the whole globe. Here, eighty miles above the +sea, it is eight miles in breadth, and sixty feet deep, flowing five +miles an hour; and far up, off the walls of Nankin, its breadth is +three thousand six hundred feet, and its depth twenty-two fathoms, at +a distance of fifty paces from either shore. Well, this is something +like a river; from its source to its mouth, in a straight line, the +distance is one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six miles; and the +windings nearly double its real length, making three thousand three +hundred and thirty-six English miles; of which two thousand, from the +mouth upwards, are said to be quite free from all obstruction. At its +mouth it is, comparatively, shallow; much of this vast body of water +is diverted from its course and carried through the country in canals. +We are not far, now, from the great canal which cuts across this river +and the Hoang-Ho, another grand stream farther northward, with a +course of two thousand six hundred and thirty miles. Between the +Yang-tse-Kiang and Hoang-Ho the country is so flat that, if we may +judge by the scene from the mast-head of the Phantom, not a hillock +breaks the level waste of fertile land. In ancient times this country +was subjected to desolating floods, which, in fact, caused the removal +of the capital. The canal system was commenced, then, as a means of +drainage, by a wise man, who was made an emperor for his sagacity. Now +the canals serve the purposes of commerce, and agriculture also, since +water, in abundance, is essential for the irrigation of the +rice-fields. We are sailing up the Shangae river, a tributary of the +Yang-tse-Kiang; this river, at Shangae, we perceive is about as broad +as the Thames at London Bridge; for we are at Shangae. We sail through +a water-gate into the centre of the town, and land beside a fleet of +junks, into which heaps of rice are being shot; these are grain junks +sent from Pekin to receive part of the imperial tribute. + +Narrow, dirty streets, low houses, brilliant open shops, painted with +red and gold. Here is a fragrant fruit-shop, where a poor Chinese is +buying an iced slice of pine-apple for less money than a farthing. +Here is the chandler's, gay with candles of the tallow-tree coated +with colored wax. The chandler deals in puffs; and what an un-English +appeal is this from the candle-maker on behalf of his wares--"Late at +night in the snow gallery they study the books." Study the books! Yes; +through the crowd of Chinese, in their picturesque familiar dresses, +look at that man, with books upon a tray, who dives into house after +house. He lends books on hire to the poor people and servants. Who is +the puffer here? "We issue and sell Hong Chow tobacco, the name and +fame of which has galloped to the north of Kechow; and the flavor has +pervaded Keangnan in the south." Here we have "Famous teas from every +province;" and you see boiling water handy in the shop, wherewith the +customer may test his purchases. Here, on the other side of this +triumphal arch, we peep through a gateway hung with lanterns into a +small paved paradise with gold fish, (China is the home of gold fish), +and exotics, and trellis-work, and vines, and singing birds; that is a +mercer's shop, affecting style in China as in England, only in another +way. We will walk through the paradise into a grand apartment hung +with lanterns, decorated also with gilded tickets, inscribed "Pekin +satins and Canton crapes," "Hang-chow reeled silks," and so on. Here a +courtly Chinese, skilled in the lubrication of a customer, produces +the rich heavy silks for which his country is renowned, the velvets or +the satins you desire, and shaves you skilfully. Talking of shaving, +and we run against a barber as we come out of the silk shop. He +carries a fire on his head, with water always boiling; on a pole over +his shoulder he balances his water, basin, towels, razors. Will you be +shaved like a Chinese? he picks you out a reasonably quiet doorway, +shaves your head, cleans your ears, tickles your eyes, and cracks your +joints in a twinkling. Where heads are shaved, the wipings of the +razors are extensive; they are all bought up, and employed as manure. +The Chinese have so many mouths to feed, that they can afford to lose +nothing that will fertilize the ground. Instead of writing on their +walls "Commit no nuisance," they place jars, and invite or even pay +the pilgrim. + +The long tail that the barber leaves is to the Chinese his sign of +manhood. Beards do not form a feature of Mongolian faces; a few stray +coarse hairs are all they get, with their square face, high cheek +bones, slanting eyes, and long dark hair upon the head. A plump body, +long ears, and a long tail, are the respectabilities of a Chinese. The +tail is magnified by working in false hair, and it generally ends with +silk. There is a man using his tail to thrash a pig along; and one +traveler records that he has seen a Chinese servant use the same +instrument for polishing a table. It is, of course, the thing to pull +at in a street fight. Here is a phrenologist, with a large figure of a +human head mapped into regions, inviting Chinese bumpkins to submit to +him their bumps. Here is a dentist showing his teeth. Here--we must +stop here--with a gong for drum, but raised on the true pedestal, with +a man inside, who knows the veritable squeak, are Punch and Judy, all +alive. This is their native land. "Pun-tse," the Chinese call our +friend, because he is a little puppet, after all--Puntse meaning in +Chinese, "the son of an inch." Here is the very Chinese bridge that we +have learned by heart along with the pagoda, from a willow-patterned +soup-plate; steps up, steps down, and a set of Chinese lanterns. Here +is a temple, flaming with red paint. Let us go in. Images, votive +candles burning on an altar, and a woman on her face wrestling in +prayer. After praying in a sort of agony for a few minutes, she has +stopped to take a bit of stick, round on one side, for she purposes +therewith to toss up and see whether her prayer is granted. Tails! She +loses! She is wrestling on her knees again--praying, doubtless, for a +"bull child." Girls are undesirable, because they are of no use except +for what they fetch in marriage gifts, and to fetch much they must be +good-looking. Poor woman--tails again! Never mind, she must persevere, +and she will get heads presently. Here comes a grave man, who prays +for half a minute, and pulls out one from a jar of scrolls. Having +examined it, he takes one of the little books that hang against the +wall, looks happy, and departs. He has been drawing lots to see +whether the issue of some undertaking will be fortunate. Poor +woman--tails again! We cannot stop for the result; but I have no doubt +that if she persevere she will get heads up presently. Here is a man +in the street with a whole bamboo kitchen on his head, nine feet long, +by six broad, uttering all manner of good things. The poor fellow who +drove the pig stops in the street to dine. What a Soyer that fellow +is, with his herbs, and his peppers, and his magic stove, and what a +magnificent stew he gives the pig driver! Do you know, I doubt whether +the Chinese are fools. What place have we here steaming like a boiler? +This, sir, is one of the public bath establishments, where a warm +bath, towels, and a dressing closet are at the service of the pig +driver after his dinner, for five _le_--less than a farthing. There, +too, his wife may go and obtain boiling water for the day's tea, which +is to that poor Chinaman his beer, and pay for it but a single _le_. +It would cost far more to boil it for herself; fuel is dear, and +except for cooking or for manufactures, is not used in China. There +are neither grates nor stoves in any Chinese parlor. The continent of +Asia, and with it China, has a climate of extremes, great summer heat +and an excessive winter cold; so that even at Canton, within the +tropic, snow falls. But the Chinaman warms not his toes at a fire; he +accommodates his comfortable costume to the climate; puts on more +clothes as the cold makes itself felt, and takes some off again if he +should feel too warm. That building on the walls is the temple of +Spring, to which ladies repair to dress their hair with flowers when +the first buds open. This handsome structure is the temple of +Confucius. Yonder is the hall of United Benevolence, which supports a +free hospital, a foundling hospital, and makes other provision for the +poor. The Chinese charities are supported generously; the Chinese are +a liberal and kindly race. Here is a shoemaker's shop, with a huge +boot hung over the door, and an inscription which might not suit +lovers of a good fit, "All here are measured by one rule." "When +favored by merchants who bestow their regards on us, please to notice +our sign of the Double Phoenix on a board as a mark; then it will be +all right." These signs are in common use on shops in China as they +were formerly in England. In this shop there is a wild fellow, who is +beating a gong fearfully, and who has rubbed himself with stinking +filth, that he may be the greater nuisance. This is his way of +extorting charity. That shopkeeper, not having compounded with the +king of the beggars for immunity from customers of this kind, seldom +lives a day without being compelled to pay as he is now paying for a +little peace. The beggar takes his nuisance then into another shop. +This is a vast improvement upon our street fiddle and organ practice. +There is a pawnbroker's three-per-cent. per month shop. Here is a +tea-house, surrounded with huge vases for rain-water which is kept to +acquire virtue by age--of course imaginary virtue--for the making of +celestial tea. In that house there is the oven for hatching eggs. +Gateways are fitted at the end of the wide streets, locked at night to +restrain thieves; and in the first house through the gateway here a +girl is screaming dreadfully. Very likely it is a case of sore feet. +The small feet of the Chinese women--about three inches long--are +essential, for without them a girl cannot get a husband; as a wife, +she is her husband's obedient, humble servant, but as a spinster she +is her parents' plague. The operation on the feet takes place when the +girl is seven or eight years old. A young naval surgeon, in his walks, +heard screams (like those) proceeding from a cottage, and went in; he +found a little girl in bed, with her feet bandaged; he removed the +bandage, found the feet of course bent, and ulcerated. He dressed the +wounds, and warned the mother. Passing, another day, he found the +child still suffering torment, and in a hectic fever. He again removed +the bandages, and warned the mother that her child's life would be +sacrificed if she continued with the process. The next time he went by +he saw a little coffin at the door. + +The tea-gardens are in the centre of the town; we will go thither and +rest. We might have dined with a hospitable townsman, where we could +have been present at a theatrical entertainment, in which the Chinese +delight like children. But a dinner in this country is a work of many +hours; the list is very long of things that we should have to touch or +eat. Chinese eat almost any thing; their carte includes birds' nests, +delicate meal-fed puppies, sea-slugs, sharks' fins and tails, frogs, +snails, worms, lizards, tortoises, and water-snakes, with many things +that we should better understand, and a great many disguised +vegetables. A Chinese dinner is so tediously long that we escape it +altogether. Milk is not used; it is thought improper to take it from +the calves; and meat plays no very large part of the Chinese diet. +During our late war it was seriously stated, by several advisers of +the Emperor, that to forbid the English tea and rhubarb would go a +great way to destroy the nation; "for it is well known that the +barbarians feed grossly on the flesh of animals, by which their bodies +are so bound and obstructed," that rhubarb and warm tea were necessary +to be taken, daily, as correctives. Now we are in the tea-gardens, and +have passed through a happy crowd, sipping tea, smoking, eating melon +pips, walking or looking at the jugglers. Into a fairy-like house of +bamboo, perched over water, we ascend. Here is an elegant apartment, +which we claim as private. We recline, and take our cups of tea; the +cups that have been used are wiped, not washed; for washing, say the +people here, would spoil their capacity for preserving the pure flavor +of this delicate young Hyson; upon a spoonful of which, placed in the +cup, hot water is now poured. Opium pipes, bring us! Ha! a hollow +cane, closed at one end, with a mouthpiece at the other; near the +centre is the bowl, of ample size, but with an outward opening no +bigger than a pin's head. We recline luxuriously--looking down on the +gay colors of the Chinese crowd, we take our long stilettos, prick off +a little pill of opium from its ivory reservoir, and burn it, +dexterously, in the spirit lamp; then twist it, judiciously, about the +pin's head orifice. Three whiffs, and it is out, and we are more than +half deprived of active consciousness. Let us repeat the operation. +Practised smokers will go on for hours; a few whiffs are enough for +us. Another languid gaze at the pagodas, and the flowers, and the +water, and the Chinamen; now some more opium to smoke! + +The Phantom finding us intoxicated, like a good servant may have +brought us home; for, certainly, we are at home. + + + + +From "Reminiscences of an Attorney" in Chambers's Edinburgh +Miscellany. + +THE CHEST OF DRAWERS. + + +I am about to relate a rather curious piece of domestic history, some +of the incidents of which, revealed at the time of their occurrence in +law reports, may be in the remembrance of many readers. It occurred in +one of the midland counties, and at a place which I shall call Watley; +the names of the chief actors who figured in it must also, to spare +their modesty or their blushes, be changed; and should one of those +persons, spite of these precautions, apprehend unpleasant recognition, +he will be able to console himself with the reflection, that all I +state beyond that which may be gathered from the records of the law +courts will be generally ascribed to the fancy or invention of the +writer. And it is as well, perhaps, that it should be so. + +Caleb Jennings, a shoemender, or cobbler, occupied, some twelve or +thirteen years ago, a stall at Watley, which, according to the +traditions of the place, had been hereditary in his family for several +generations. He may also be said to have flourished there, after the +manner of cobblers; for this, it must be remembered, was in the good +old times, before the gutta-percha revolution had carried ruin and +dismay into the stalls--those of cobblers--which in considerable +numbers existed throughout the kingdom. Like all his fraternity whom I +have ever fallen in with or heard of, Caleb was a sturdy Radical of +the Major Cartwright and Henry Hunt school; and being withal +industrious, tolerably skilful, not inordinately prone to the +observance of Saint Mondays, possessed, moreover, of a +neatly-furnished sleeping and eating apartment in the house of which +the projecting first-floor, supported on stone pillars, overshadowed +his humble work-place, he vaunted himself to be as really rich as an +estated squire, and far more independent. + +There was some truth in this boast, as the case which procured us the +honor of Mr. Jennings's acquaintance sufficiently proved. We were +employed to bring an action against a wealthy gentleman of the +vicinity of Watley for a brutal and unprovoked assault he had +committed, when in a state of partial inebriety, upon a respectable +London tradesman who had visited the place on business. On the day of +trial our witness appeared to have become suddenly afflicted with an +almost total loss of memory; and we were only saved from an adverse +verdict by the plain, straight-forward evidence of Caleb, upon whose +sturdy nature the various arts which soften or neutralize hostile +evidence had been tried in vain. Mr. Flint, who personally +superintended the case, took quite a liking to the man; and it thus +happened that we were called upon some time afterwards to aid the said +Caleb in extricating himself from the extraordinary and perplexing +difficulty in which he suddenly and unwittingly found himself +involved. + +The projecting first floor of the house beneath which the humble +workshop of Caleb Jennings modestly disclosed itself, had been +occupied for many years by an ailing and somewhat aged gentleman of +the name of Lisle. This Mr. Ambrose Lisle was a native of Watley, and +had been a prosperous merchant of the city of London. Since his +return, after about twenty years' absence, he had shut himself up in +almost total seclusion, nourishing a cynical bitterness and acrimony +of temper which gradually withered up the sources of health and life, +till at length it became as visible to himself as it had for some time +been to others, that the oil of existence was expended, burnt up, and +that but a few weak flickers more, and the ailing man's plaints and +griefs would be hushed in the dark silence of the grave. + +Mr. Lisle had no relatives in Watley, and the only individual with +whom he was on terms of personal intimacy was Mr. Peter Sowerby, an +attorney of the place, who had for many years transacted all his +business. This man visited Mr. Lisle most evenings, played at chess +with him, and gradually acquired an influence over his client which +that weak gentleman had once or twice feebly but vainly endeavoured to +shake off. To this clever attorney, it was rumored, Mr. Lisle had +bequeathed all his wealth. + +This piece of information had been put in circulation by Caleb +Jennings, who was a sort of humble favorite of Mr. Lisle's, or, at all +events, was regarded by the misanthrope with less dislike than he +manifested toward others. Caleb cultivated a few flowers in a little +plot of ground at the back of the house, and Mr. Lisle would sometimes +accept a rose or a bunch of violets from him. Other slight +services--especially since the recent death of his old and garrulous +woman-servant, Esther May, who had accompanied him from London, and +with whom Mr. Jennings had always been upon terms of gossiping +intimacy--had led to certain familiarities of intercourse; and it thus +happened that the inquisitive shoemender became partially acquainted +with the history of the wrongs and griefs which preyed upon, and +shortened the life of, the prematurely-aged man. + +The substance of this everyday, common-place story, as related to us +by Jennings, and subsequently enlarged and colored from other sources, +may be very briefly told. + +Ambrose Lisle, in consequence of an accident which occurred in his +infancy, was slightly deformed. His right shoulder--as I understood, +for I never saw him--grew out, giving an ungraceful and somewhat +comical twist to his figure, which, in female eyes--youthful ones at +least--sadly marred the effect of his intelligent and handsome +countenance. This personal defect rendered him shy and awkward in the +presence of women of his own class of society; and he had attained the +ripe age of thirty-seven years, and was a rich and prosperous man, +before he gave the slightest token of an inclination towards +matrimony. About a twelvemonth previous to that period of his life, +the deaths--quickly following each other--of a Mr. and Mrs. Stevens +threw their eldest daughter, Lucy, upon Mr. Lisle's hands. Mr. Lisle +had been left an orphan at a very early age, and Mrs. Stevens--his +aunt, and then a maiden lady--had, in accordance with his father's +will, taken charge of himself and brother till they severally attained +their majority. Long, however, before that she married Mr. Stevens, by +whom she had two children--Lucy and Emily. Her husband, whom she +survived but two months, died insolvent; and in obedience to the dying +wishes of his aunt, for whom he appears to have felt the tenderest +esteem, he took the eldest of her orphan children into his home, +intending to regard and provide for her as his own adopted child and +heiress. Emily, the other sister found refuge in the house of a still +more distant relative than himself. + +The Stevenses had gone to live at a remote part of England--Yorkshire, +I believe--and it thus fell out, that till his cousin Lucy arrived at +her new home he had not seen her for more than ten years. The pale, +and somewhat plain child, as he had esteemed her, he was startled to +find had become a charming woman; and her naturally gay and joyous +temperament, quick talents, and fresh young beauty, rapidly acquired +an overwhelming influence over him. Strenuously but vainly he +struggled against the growing infatuation--argued, reasoned with +himself--passed in review the insurmountable objections to such a +union, the difference of age--he leading towards thirty-seven, she +barely twenty-one; he crooked, deformed, of reserved, taciturn +temper--she full of young life, and grace and beauty. It was useless; +and nearly a year had passed in the bootless struggle when Lucy +Stevens, who had vainly striven to blind herself to the nature of the +emotions by which her cousin and guardian was animated towards her, +intimated a wish to accept her sister Emily's invitation to pass two +or three months with her. This brought the affair to a crisis. Buoying +himself up with the illusions which people in such an unreasonable +frame of mind create for themselves, he suddenly entered the +sitting-room set apart for her private use, with the desperate purpose +of making his beautiful cousin a formal offer of his hand. She was not +in the apartment, but her opened writing-desk, and a partly-finished +letter lying on it, showed that she had been recently there, and would +probably soon return. Mr. Lisle took two or three agitated turns about +the room, one of which brought him close to the writing-desk, and his +glance involuntarily fell upon the unfinished letter. Had a deadly +serpent leaped suddenly upon his throat, the shock could not have been +greater. At the head of the sheet of paper was a clever pen-and-ink +sketch of Lucy Stevens and himself; he, kneeling to her in a lovelorn +ludicrous attitude, and she laughing immoderately at his lachrymose +and pitiful aspect and speech. The letter was addressed to her sister +Emily; and the enraged lover saw not only that his supposed secret was +fully known, but that he himself was mocked, laughed at for his doting +folly. At least this was his interpretation of the words which swam +before his eyes. At the instant Lucy returned, and a torrent of +imprecation burst from the furious man, in which wounded self-love, +rageful pride, and long pent-up passion, found utterance in wild and +bitter words. Half an hour afterwards Lucy Stevens had left the +merchant's house--for ever, as it proved. She, indeed, on arriving at +her sister's, sent a letter supplicating forgiveness at the +thoughtless, and, as he deemed it, insulting sketch, intended only for +Emily's eye; but he replied merely by a note written by one of his +clerks, informing Miss Stevens that Mr. Lisle declined any further +correspondence with her. + +The ire of the angered and vindictive man had, however, begun sensibly +to abate, and old thoughts, memories, duties, suggested partly by the +blank which Lucy's absence made in his house, partly by remembrance of +the solemn promise he had made her mother, were strongly reviving in +his mind, when he read the announcement of her marriage in a +provincial journal, directed to him, as he believed, in the bride's +handwriting; but this was an error, her sister having sent the +newspaper. Mr. Lisle also construed this into a deliberate mockery and +insult, and from that hour strove to banish all images and thoughts +connected with his cousin from his heart and memory. + +He unfortunately adopted the very worst course possible for effecting +this object. Had he remained amid the buzz and tumult of active life, +a mere sentimental disappointment, such as thousands of us have +sustained and afterwards forgotten, would, there can be little doubt, +have soon ceased to afflict him. He chose to retire from business, +visited Watley, and habits of miserliness growing rapidly upon his +cankered mind, never afterwards removed from the lodgings he had hired +on first arriving there. Thus madly hugging to himself sharp-pointed +memories which a sensible man would have speedily cast off and +forgotten, the sour misanthrope passed a useless, cheerless, weary +existence, to which death must have been a welcome relief. + +Matters were in this state with the morose and aged man--aged mentally +and corporeally, although his years were but fifty-eight--when Mr. +Flint made Mr. Jennings's acquaintance. Another month or so had passed +away when Caleb's attention was one day about noon claimed by a young +man dressed in mourning, accompanied by a female similarly attired, +and from their resemblance to each other he conjectured brother and +sister. The stranger wished to know if that was the house in which Mr. +Ambrose Lisle resided. Jennings said it was; and with civil alacrity +left his stall and rang the front-door bell. The summons was answered +by the landlady's servant, who, since Esther May's death, had waited +on the first-floor lodger; and the visitors were invited to go +up-stairs. Caleb, much wondering who they might be, returned to his +stall, and thence passed into his eating and sleeping room just below +Mr. Lisle's apartments. He was in the act of taking a pipe from the +mantel-shelf in order to the more deliberate and satisfactory +cogitation on such an unusual event, when he was startled by a loud +shout, or scream rather, from above. The quivering and excited voice +was that of Mr. Lisle, and the outcry was immediately followed by an +explosion of unintelligible exclamations from several persons. Caleb +was up stairs in an instant, and found himself in the midst of a +strangely-perplexing and distracted scene. Mr. Lisle, pale as his +shirt, shaking in every limb, and his eyes on fire with passion, was +hurling forth a torrent of vituperation and reproach at the young +woman, whom he evidently mistook for some one else; whilst she, +extremely terrified, and unable to stand but for the assistance of her +companion, was tendering a letter in her outstretched hand, and +uttering broken sentences, which her own agitation and the fury of Mr. +Lisle's invectives rendered totally incomprehensible. At last the +fierce old man struck the letter from her hand, and with frantic rage +ordered both the strangers to leave the room. Caleb urged them, to +comply, and accompanied them down stairs. When they reached the +street, he observed a woman on the other side of the way, dressed in +mourning, and much older apparently--though he could not well see her +face through the thick veil she wore--than she who had thrown Mr. +Lisle into such an agony of rage, apparently waiting for them. To her +the young people immediately hastened, and after a brief conference +the three turned up the street, and Mr. Jennings saw no more of them. + +A quarter of an hour afterwards the house-servant informed Caleb that +Mr. Lisle had retired to bed, and although still in great agitation, +and, as she feared, seriously indisposed, would not permit Dr. Clarke +to be sent for. So sudden and violent a hurricane in the usually dull +and drowsy atmosphere in which Jennings lived, excited and disturbed +him greatly: the hours, however, flew past without bringing any relief +to his curiosity, and evening was falling, when a peculiar knocking on +the floor overhead announced that Mr. Lisle desired his presence. That +gentleman was sitting up in bed, and in the growing darkness his face +could not be very distinctly seen; but Caleb instantly observed a +vivid and unusual light in the old man's eyes. The letter so strangely +delivered was lying open before him; and unless the shoemender was +greatly mistaken, there were stains of recent tears upon Mr. Lisle's +furrowed and hollow cheeks. The voice, too, it struck Caleb, though +eager, was gentle and wavering. "It was a mistake, Jennings," he said; +"I was mad for the moment. Are they gone?" he added in a yet more +subdued and gentle tone. Caleb informed him of what he had seen; and +as he did so, the strange light in the old man's eyes seemed to quiver +and sparkle with a yet intenser emotion than before. Presently he +shaded them with his hand, and remained several minutes silent. He +then said with a firmer voice: "I shall be glad if you will step to +Mr. Sowerby, and tell him I am too unwell to see him this evening. But +be sure to say nothing else," he eagerly added, as Caleb turned away +in compliance with his request; "and when you come back, let me see +you again." + +When Jennings returned, he found to his great surprise Mr. Lisle up +and nearly dressed; and his astonishment increased a hundred-fold upon +hearing that gentleman say, in a quick but perfectly collected and +decided manner, that he should set off for London by the mail-train. + +"For London--and by night!" exclaimed Caleb, scarcely sure that he +heard aright. + +"Yes--yes, I shall not be observed in the dark," sharply rejoined Mr. +Lisle; "and you, Caleb, must keep my secret from every body, +especially from Sowerby. I shall be here in time to see him to-morrow +night, and he will be none the wiser." This was said with a slight +chuckle; and as soon as his simple preparations were complete, Mr. +Lisle, well wrapped up, and his face almost hidden by shawls, locked +his door, and assisted by Jennings, stole furtively down stairs, and +reached unrecognized the railway station just in time for the train. + +It was quite dark the next evening when Mr. Lisle returned; and so +well had he managed, that Mr. Sowerby, who paid his usual visit about +half an hour afterwards, had evidently heard nothing of the suspicious +absence of his esteemed client from Watley. The old man exulted over +the success of his deception to Caleb the next morning, but dropped no +hint as to the object of his sudden journey. + +Three days passed without the occurrence of any incident tending to +the enlightenment of Mr. Jennings upon these mysterious events, which, +however, he plainly saw had lamentably shaken the long-since failing +man. On the afternoon of the fourth day, Mr. Lisle walked, or rather +tottered, into Caleb's stall, and seated himself on the only vacant +stool it contained. His manner was confused, and frequently +purposeless, and there was an anxious, flurried expression in his face +which Jennings did not at all like. He remained silent for some time, +with the exception of partially inaudible snatches of comment or +questionings, apparently addressed to himself. At last he said: "I +shall take a longer journey to-morrow, Caleb--much longer: let me +see--where did I say? Ah, yes! to Glasgow; to be sure to Glasgow!" + +"To Glasgow, and to-morrow!" exclaimed the astounded cobbler. + +"No, no--not Glasgow; they have removed," feebly rejoined Mr. Lisle. +"But Lucy has written it down for me. True--true; and to-morrow I +shall set out." + +The strange expression of Mr. Lisle's face became momentarily more +strongly marked, and Jennings, greatly alarmed, said: "You are ill, +Mr. Lisle; let me run for Dr. Clarke." + +"No--no," he murmured, at the same time striving to rise from his +seat, which he could only accomplish by Caleb's assistance, and so +supported, he staggered indoors. "I shall be better to-morrow," he +said faintly, and then slowly added: "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and +to-morrow! Ah me! Yes, as I said, to-morrow, I"----He paused abruptly, +and they gained his apartment. He seated himself, and then Jennings, +at his mute solicitations, assisted him to bed. + +He lay some time with his eyes closed; and Caleb could feel--for Mr. +Lisle held him firmly by the hand, as if to prevent his going away--a +convulsive shudder pass over his frame. At last he slowly opened his +eyes, and Caleb saw that he was indeed about to depart upon the long +journey from which there is no return. The lips of the dying man +worked inarticulately for some moments; and then, with a mighty +effort, as it seemed, he said, whilst his trembling hand pointed +feebly to a bureau chest of drawers that stood in the room: +"There--there for Lucy; there, the secret place is"----Some inaudible +words followed, and then, after a still mightier struggle than before, +he gasped out: "No word--no word--to--to Sowerby--for her--Lucy." + +More was said, but undistinguishable by mortal ear; and after gazing +with an expression of indescribable anxiety in the scared face of his +awestruck listener, the wearied eyes slowly reclosed--the deep silence +flowed past; then the convulsive shudder came again, and he was dead! + +Caleb Jennings tremblingly summoned the house-servant and the +landlady, and was still confusedly pondering the broken sentences +uttered by the dying man, when Mr. Sowerby hurriedly arrived. The +attorney's first care was to assume the direction of affairs, and to +place seals upon every article containing or likely to contain any +thing of value belonging to the deceased. This done, he went away to +give directions for the funeral, which took place a few days +afterwards; and it was then formally announced that Mr. Sowerby +succeeded by will to the large property of Ambrose Lisle; under trust, +however, for the family, if any, of Robert Lisle, the deceased's +brother, who had gone when very young to India, and had not been heard +of for many years--a condition which did not at all mar the joy of the +crafty lawyer, he having long since instituted private inquiries, +which perfectly satisfied him that the said Robert Lisle had died, +unmarried, at Calcutta. + +Mr. Jennings was in a state of great dubiety and consternation. +Sowerby had emptied the chest of drawers of every valuable it +contained; and unless he had missed the secret receptacle Mr. Lisle +had spoken of, the deceased's intentions, whatever they might have +been, were clearly defeated. And if he had _not_ discovered it, how +could he, Jennings, get at the drawers to examine them? A fortunate +chance brought some relief to his perplexities. Ambrose Lisle's +furniture was advertised to be sold by auction, and Caleb resolved to +purchase the bureau chest of drawers at almost any price, although to +do so would oblige him to break into his rent-money, then nearly due. +The day of sale came, and the important lot in its turn was put up. In +one of the drawers there were a number of loose newspapers, and other +valueless scraps; and Caleb, with a sly grin, asked the auctioneer if +he sold the article with all its contents. "Oh yes," said Sowerby, who +was watching the sale; "the buyer may have all it contains over his +bargain, and much good may it do him." A laugh followed the attorney's +sneering remark, and the biddings went on. "I want it," observed +Caleb, "because it just fits a recess like this one in my room +underneath." This he said to quiet a suspicion he thought he saw +gathering upon the attorney's brow. It was finally knocked down to +Caleb at L5, 10s., a sum considerably beyond its real value; and he +had to borrow a sovereign in order to clear his speculative purchase. +This done, he carried off his prize, and as soon as the closing of the +house for the night secured him from interruption, he set eagerly to +work in search of the secret drawer. A long and patient examination +was richly rewarded. Behind one of the small drawers of the +_secretaire_ portion of the piece of furniture was another small one, +curiously concealed, which contained Bank-of-England notes to the +amount of L200, tied up with a letter, upon the back of which was +written, in the deceased's handwriting, "To take with me." The letter +which Caleb, although he read print with facility, had much difficulty +in making out, was that which Mr. Lisle had struck from the young +woman's hand a few weeks before, and proved to be a very affecting +appeal from Lucy Stevens, now Lucy Warner, and a widow, with two +grown-up children. Her husband had died in insolvent circumstances, +and she and her sister Emily, who was still single, were endeavoring +to carry on a school at Bristol, which promised to be sufficiently +prosperous if the sum of about L150 could be raised, to save the +furniture from her deceased husband's creditors. The claim was +pressing, for Mr. Warner had been dead nearly a year, and Mr. Lisle +being the only relative Mrs. Warner had in the world, she had ventured +to entreat his assistance for her mother's sake. There could be no +moral doubt, therefore, that this money was intended for Mrs. Warner's +relief; and early in the morning Mr. Caleb Jennings dressed himself in +his Sunday's suit, and with a brief announcement to his landlady that +he was about to leave Watley for a day or two on a visit to a friend, +set off for the railway station. He had not proceeded far when a +difficulty struck him: the bank-notes were all twenties; and were he +to change a twenty-pound note at the station, where he was well known, +great would be the tattle and wonderment, if nothing worse, that would +ensue. So Caleb tried his credit again, borrowed sufficient for his +journey to London, and there changed one of the notes. + +He soon reached Bristol, and blessed was the relief which the sum of +money he brought afforded Mrs. Warner. She expressed much sorrow for +the death of Mr. Lisle, and great gratitude to Caleb. The worthy man +accepted with some reluctance one of the notes, or at least as much as +remained of that which he had changed; and after exchanging promises +with the widow and her relatives to keep the matter secret, departed +homewards. The young woman, Mrs. Warner's daughter, who had brought +the letter to Watley, was, Caleb noticed, the very image of her +mother, or rather of what her mother must have been when young. This +remarkable resemblance it was, no doubt, which had for the moment so +confounded and agitated Mr. Lisle. + +Nothing occurred for about a fortnight after Caleb's return to +disquiet him, and he had begun to feel tolerably sure that his +discovery of the notes would remain unsuspected, when, one afternoon, +the sudden and impetuous entrance of Mr. Sowerby into his stall caused +him to jump up from his seat with surprise and alarm. The attorney's +face was deathly white, his eyes glared like a wild beast's, and his +whole appearance exhibited uncontrollable agitation. "A word with you, +Mr. Jennings," he gasped--"a word in private, and at once!" Caleb, in +scarcely less consternation than his visitor, led the way into his +inner room, and closed the door. + +"Restore--give back," screamed the attorney, vainly struggling to +dissemble the agitation which convulsed him--"that--that which you +have purloined from the chest of drawers!" + +The hot blood rushed to Caleb's face and temples; the wild vehemence +and suddenness of the demand confounded him; and certain previous dim +suspicions that the law might not only pronounce what he had done +illegal, but possibly felonious, returned upon him with terrible +force, and he quite lost his presence of mind. + +"I can't--I can't," he stammered. "It's gone--given away"---- + +"Gone!" shouted, or more correctly howled, Sowerby, at the same time +flying at Caleb's throat as if he would throttle him. "Gone--given +away! You lie--you want to drive a bargain with +me--dog!--liar!--rascal!--thief!" + +This was a species of attack which Jennings was at no loss how to +meet. He shook the attorney roughly off, and hurled him, in the midst +of his vituperation, to the further end of the room. + +They then stood glaring at each other in silence, till the attorney, +mastering himself as well as he could, essayed another and more +rational mode of attaining his purpose. + +"Come, come, Jennings," he said, "don't be a fool. Let us understand +each other. I have just discovered a paper, a memorandum of what you +have found in the drawers, and to obtain which you bought them. I +don't care for the money--keep it; only give me the +papers--documents." + +"Papers--documents!" ejaculated Caleb in unfeigned surprise. + +"Yes--yes; of use to me only. You, I remember, cannot read writing; +but they are of great consequence to me--to me only, I tell you." + +"You can't mean Mrs. Warner's letter?" + +"No--no; curse the letter! You are playing with a tiger! Keep the +money, I tell you; but give up the papers--documents--or I'll +transport you!" shouted Sowerby with reviving fury. + +Caleb, thoroughly bewildered, could only mechanically ejaculate that +he had no papers or documents. + +The rage of the attorney when he found he could extract nothing from +Jennings was frightful. He literally foamed with passion, uttered the +wildest threats; and then suddenly changing his key, offered the +astounded cobbler one--two--three thousand pounds--any sum he chose to +name--for the papers--documents! This scene of alternate violence and +cajolery lasted nearly an hour; and then Sowerby rushed from the +house, as if pursued by the furies, and leaving his auditor in a state +of thorough bewilderment and dismay. It occurred to Caleb, as soon as +his mind had settled into something like order, that there might be +another secret drawer; and the recollection of Mr. Lisle's journey to +London returned suggestively to him. Another long and eager search, +however, proved fruitless; and the suspicion was given up, or, more +correctly, weakened. + +As soon as it was light the next morning, Mr. Sowerby was again with +him. He was more guarded now, and was at length convinced that +Jennings had no paper or document to give up. "It was only some +important memoranda," observed the attorney carelessly, "that would +save me a world of trouble in a lawsuit I shall have to bring against +some heavy debtors to Mr. Lisle's estate; but I must do as well as I +can without them. Good morning." Just as he reached the door, a sudden +thought appeared to strike him. He stopped and said: "By the way, +Jennings, in the hurry of business I forgot that Mr. Lisle had told me +the chest of drawers you bought, and a few other articles, were family +relics which he wished to be given to certain parties he named. The +other things I have got: and you, I presume, will let me have the +drawers for--say a pound profit on your bargain?" + +Caleb was not the acutest man in the world; but this sudden +proposition, carelessly as it was made, suggested curious thoughts. +"No," he answered; "I shall not part with it. I shall keep it as a +memorial of Mr. Lisle." + +Sowerby's face assumed, as Caleb spoke, a ferocious expression. "Shall +you?" said he. "Then, be sure, my fine fellow, that you shall also +have something to remember me by as long as you live!" + +He then went away, and a few days afterwards Caleb was served with a +writ for the recovery of the two hundred pounds. + +The affair made a great noise in the place; and Caleb's conduct being +very generally approved, a subscription was set on foot to defray the +cost of defending the action--one Hayling, a rival attorney to +Sowerby, having asserted that the words used by the proprietor of the +chest of drawers at the sale barred his claim to the money found in +them. This wise gentleman was intrusted with the defence; and, +strange to say, the jury, a common one--spite of the direction of the +judge, returned a verdict for the defendant, upon the ground that +Sowerby's jocular or sneering remark amounted to a serious, valid +leave and license to sell two hundred pounds for five pounds ten +shillings! + +Sowerby obtained, as a matter of course, a rule for a new trial; and a +fresh action was brought. All at once Hayling refused to go on, +alleging deficiency of funds. He told Jennings that in his opinion it +would be better that he should give in to Sowerby's whim, who only +wanted the drawers in order to comply with the testator's wishes. +"Besides," remarked Hayling in conclusion, "he is sure to get the +article, you know, when it comes to be sold under a writ of _fi. fa._" +A few days after this conversation, it was ascertained that Hayling +was to succeed to Sowerby's business, the latter gentleman being about +to retire upon the fortune bequeathed him by Mr. Lisle. + +At last Caleb, driven nearly out of his senses, though still doggedly +obstinate, by the harassing perplexities in which he found himself, +thought of applying to us. + +"A very curious affair, upon my word," remarked Mr. Flint, as soon as +Caleb had unburdened himself of the story of his woes and cares; "and +in my opinion by no means explainable by Sowerby's anxiety to fulfil +the testator's wishes. He cannot expect to get two hundred pence out +of you; and Mrs. Warner, you say, is equally unable to pay. Very odd +indeed. Perhaps if we could get time, something might turn up." + +With this view Flint looked over the papers Caleb had brought, and +found the declaration was in _trover_--a manifest error--the notes +never admittedly having been in Sowerby's actual possession. We +accordingly demurred to the form of action, and the proceedings were +set aside. This, however, proved of no ultimate benefit: Sowerby +persevered, and a fresh action was instituted against the unhappy +shoemender. So utterly overcrowed and disconsolate was poor Caleb, +that, he determined to give up the drawers, which was all Sowerby even +now required, and so wash his hands of the unfortunate business. +Previous, however, to this being done, it was determined that another +thorough and scientific examination of the mysterious piece of +furniture should be made; and for this purpose, Mr. Flint obtained a +workman skilled in the mysteries of secret contrivances, from the desk +and dressing-case establishment in King-street, Holborn, and proceeded +with him to Watley. + +The man performed his task with great care and skill: every depth and +width was gauged and measured, in order to ascertain if there were any +false bottoms or backs; and the workman finally pronounced that there +was no concealed receptacle in the article. + +"I am sure there is," persisted Flint, whom disappointment as usual +rendered but the more obstinate; "and so is Sowerby; and he knows, +too, that it is so cunningly contrived as to be undiscoverable, except +by a person in the secret, which he no doubt at first imagined Caleb +to be. I'll tell you what we will do: you have the necessary tools +with you. Split the confounded chest of drawers into shreds: I'll be +answerable for the consequences." + +This was done carefully and methodically, but for some time without +result. At length the large drawer next the floor had to be knocked to +pieces; and as it fell apart, one section of the bottom, which, like +all the others, was divided into two compartments, dropped asunder, +and discovered a parchment laid flat between the two thin leaves, +which, when pressed together in the grooves of the drawer, presented +precisely the same appearance as the rest. Flint snatched up the +parchment, and his eager eye scarcely rested an instant on the +writing, when a shout of triumph burst from him. It was the last will +and testament of Ambrose Lisle, dated August 21, 1838--the day of his +last hurried visit to London. It revoked the former will, and +bequeathed the whole of his property, in equal portions, to his +cousins Lucy Warner and Emily Stevens, with succession to their +children; but with reservation of one-half to his brother Robert or +children, should he be alive, or have left offspring. + +Great, it may be supposed, was the jubilation of Caleb Jennings at +this discovery; and all Watley, by his agency, was in a marvelously +short space of time in a very similar state of excitement. It was very +late that night when he reached his bed; and how he got there at all, +and what precisely had happened, except, indeed, that he had somewhere +picked up a splitting headache, was, for some time after he awoke the +next morn, very confusedly remembered. + +Mr. Flint, upon reflection, was by no means so exultant as the worthy +shoemender. The odd mode of packing away a deed of such importance, +with no assignable motive for doing so, except the needless awe with +which Sowerby was said to have inspired his feeble-spirited client, +together with what Caleb had said of the shattered state of the +deceased's mind after the interview with Mrs. Warner's daughter, +suggested fears that Sowerby might dispute, and perhaps successfully, +the validity of this last will. My excellent partner, however, +determined, as was his wont, to put a bold face on the matter; and +first clearly settling in his own mind what he should and what he +should _not_ say, he waited upon Mr. Sowerby. The news had preceded +him, and he was at once surprised and delighted to find that the +nervous, crestfallen attorney was quite unaware of the advantages of +his position. On condition of not being called to account for the +moneys he had received and expended, about L1200, he destroyed the +former will in Mr. Flint's presence, and gave up at once all the +deceased's papers. From these we learned that Mr. Lisle had written a +letter to Mrs. Warner, stating what he had done, where the will would +be found, and that only herself and Jennings would know the secret. +From infirmity of purpose, or from having subsequently determined on a +personal interview, the letter was not posted; and Sowerby +subsequently discovered it, together with a memorandum of the numbers +of the bank-notes found by Caleb in the secret drawer--the eccentric +gentleman appears to have had quite a mania for such hiding-places--of +a writing-desk. + +The affair was thus happily terminated: Mrs. Warner, her children, and +sister, were enriched, and Caleb Jennings was set up in a good way of +business in his native place, where he still flourishes. Over the +centre of his shop there is a large nondescript sign, surmounted by a +golden boot, which, upon close inspection, is found to bear some +resemblance to a huge bureau chest of drawers, all the circumstances +connected with which may be heard, for the asking, and in much fuller +detail than I have given, from the lips of the owner of the +establishment, by any lady or gentleman who will take the trouble of a +journey to Watley for that purpose. + + + + +MY NOVEL: + +OR, VARIETIES IN ENGLISH LIFE,[8] + +BY PISISTRATUS CAXTON. + + +BOOK VI.--INITIAL CHAPTER. + +"Life," said my father, in his most dogmatical tone, "is a certain +quantity in time, which may be regarded in two ways--first, as life +_Integral_; second, as life _Fractional_. Life integral is that +complete whole, expressive of a certain value, large or small, which +each man possesses in himself. Life fractional is that same whole +seized upon and invaded by other people, and subdivided amongst them. +They who get a large slice of it say, 'a very valuable life +this!'--those who get but a small handful say, 'so, so, nothing very +great!'--those who get none of it in the scramble exclaim, 'Good for +nothing!'" + +"I don't understand a word you are saying," growled Captain Roland. + +My father surveyed his brother with compassion--"I will make it all +clear even to your understanding. When I sit down by myself in my +study, having carefully locked the door on all of you, alone with my +books and thoughts, I am in full possession of my integral life. I am +_totus, teres, atque rotundus_--a whole human being--equivalent in +value we will say, for the sake of illustration, to a fixed round +sum--L100, for example. But when I come forth into the common +apartment, each of those to whom I am of any worth whatsoever puts his +fingers into the bag that contains me and takes out of me what he +wants. Kitty requires me to pay a bill; Pisistratus to save him the +time and trouble of looking into a score or two of books; the children +to tell them stories; or play at hide-and-seek; the carp for +breadcrumbs; and so on throughout the circle to which I have +incautiously given myself up for plunder and subdivision. The L100 +which I represented in my study is now parcelled out; I am worth L40 +or L50 to Kitty, L20 to Pisistratus, and perhaps 30_s._ to the carp. +This is life fractional. And I cease to be an integral till once more +returning to my study, and again closing the door on all existence but +my own. Meanwhile, it is perfectly clear that, to those who, whether I +am in the study or whether I am in the common sitting-room, get +nothing at all out of me, I am not worth a farthing. It must be wholly +indifferent to a native of Kamschatka whether Austin Caxton be or be +not rased out of the great account-book of human beings." + +"Hence," continued my father--"hence it follows that the more +fractional a life be--_id est_, the greater the number of persons +among whom it can be subdivided--why, the more there are to say, 'a +very valuable life that!' Thus, the leader of a political party, a +conqueror, a king, an author who is amusing hundreds or thousands, or +millions, has a greater number of persons whom his worth interests and +affects than a Saint Simon Stylites could have when he perched himself +at the top of a column; although, regarded each in himself, Saint +Simon, in his grand mortification of flesh, in the idea that he +thereby pleased his Divine Benefactor, might represent a larger sum of +moral value _per se_ than Bonaparte or Voltaire." + +_Pisistratus._--"Perfectly clear, sir, but I don't see what it has to +do with My Novel." + +_Mr. Caxton._--"Every thing. Your novel, if it is to be a full and +comprehensive survey of the '_Quicquid agunt homines_', (which it +ought to be, considering the length and breadth to which I foresee, +from the slow development of your story, you meditate extending and +expanding it,) will embrace the two views of existence, the integral +and the fractional. You have shown us the former in Leonard, when he +is sitting in his mother's cottage, or resting from his work by the +little fount in Riccabocca's garden. And in harmony with that view of +his life, you have surrounded him with comparative integrals, only +subdivided by the tender hands of their immediate families and +neighbors--your Squires and Parsons, your Italian exile and his +Jemima. With all these, life is more or less the life natural, and +this is always more or less the life integral. Then comes the life +artificial, which is always more or less the life fractional. In the +life natural, wherein we are swayed but by our own native impulses and +desires, subservient only to the great silent law of virtue, (which +has pervaded the universe since it swung out of chaos,) a man is of +worth from what he is in himself--Newton was as worthy before the +apple fell from the tree as when all Europe applauded the discoverer +of the principle of gravity. But in the life artificial we are only of +worth in as much as we affect others. And, relative to that life, +Newton rose in value more than a million per cent. when down fell the +apple from which ultimately sprang up his discovery. In order to keep +civilization going, and spread over the world the light of human +intellect, we have certain desires within us, ever swelling beyond the +ease and independence which belong to us as integrals. Cold man as +Newton might be, (he once took a lady's hand in his own, Kitty, and +used her forefinger for his tobacco-stopper; great philosopher!)--cold +as he might be, he was yet moved into giving his discoveries to the +world, and that from motives very little differing in their quality +from the motives that make Dr. Squills communicate articles to the +Phrenological Journal upon the skulls of Bushmen and wombats. For it +is the _property of light to travel_. When a man has light in him, +forth it must go. But the first passage of genius from its integral +state (in which it has been reposing on its own wealth) into the +fractional, is usually through a hard and vulgar pathway. It leaves +behind it the reveries of solitude--that self-contemplating rest which +may be called the Visionary, and enters suddenly into the state that +may be called the Positive and Actual. There, it sees the operation of +money on the outer life--sees all the ruder and commoner springs of +action--sees ambition without nobleness--love without romance--is +bustled about, and ordered, and trampled, and cowed--in short, it +passes an apprenticeship with some Richard Avenel, and does not yet +detect what good and what grandeur, what addition even to the true +poetry of the social universe, fractional existences like Richard +Avenel's bestow; for the pillars that support society are like those +of the court of the Hebrew Tabernacle--they are of brass, it is true, +but they are filleted with silver. From such intermediate state genius +is expelled, and driven on in its way, and would have been so in this +case, had Mrs. Fairfield (who is but the representative of the homely +natural affections, strongest ever in true genius--for light is warm) +never crushed Mr. Avenel's moss rose on her sisterly bosom. Now, forth +from this passage and defile of transition into the larger world, must +genius go on, working out its natural destiny amidst things and forms +the most artificial. Passions that move and influence the world are at +work around it. Often lost sight of itself, its very absence is a +silent contrast to the agencies present. Merged and vanished for a +while amidst the practical world, yet we ourselves feel all the while +that it is _there_--is at work amidst the workings around it. This +practical world that effaces it rose out of some genius that has gone +before; and so each man of genius, though we never come across him, as +his operations proceed, in places remote from our thoroughfares, is +yet influencing the practical world that ignores him, for ever and +ever. That is GENIUS! We can't describe it in books--we can only hint +and suggest it, by the accessaries which we artfully heap about it. +The entrance of a true probationer into the terrible ordeal of +practical life is like that into the miraculous cavern, by which, +legend informs us, St. Patrick converted Ireland." + +_Blanche._--"What is that legend? I never heard of it." + +_Mr. Caxton._--"My dear, you will find it in a thin folio at the right +on entering my study, written by Thomas Messingham, and called +'Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum,' &c. The account therein is confirmed +by the relation of an honest soldier, one Louis Ennius, who had +actually entered the cavern. In short, the truth of the legend is +undeniable, unless you mean to say, which I can't for a moment +suppose, that Louis Ennius was a liar. Thus it runs:--St. Patrick, +finding that the Irish pagans were incredulous as to his pathetic +assurances of the pains and torments destined to those who did not +expiate their sins in this world, prayed for a miracle to convince +them. His prayer was heard; and a certain cavern, so small that a man +could not stand up therein at his ease, was suddenly converted into a +Purgatory, comprehending tortures sufficient to convince the most +incredulous. One unacquainted with human nature might conjecture that +few would be disposed to venture voluntarily into such a place; on the +contrary, pilgrims came in crowds. Now, all who entered from vain +curiosity, or with souls unprepared, perished miserably; but those who +entered with deep and earnest faith, conscious of their faults, and if +bold, yet humble, not only came out safe and sound, but purified, as +if from the waters of a second baptism. See Savage and Johnson at +night in Fleet-street, and who shall doubt the truth of St. Patrick's +Purgatory?" Therewith my father sighed--closed his Lucian, which had +lain open on the table, and would read nothing but "good books" for +the rest of the evening. + + +CHAPTER II. + +On their escape from the prison to which Mr. Avenel had condemned +them, Leonard and his mother found their way to a small public-house +that lay at a little distance from the town, and on the outskirts of +the high-road. With his arm round his mother's waist, Leonard +supported her steps and soothed her excitement. In fact the poor +woman's nerves were greatly shaken, and she felt an uneasy remorse at +the injury her intrusion had inflicted on the young man's worldly +prospects. As the shrewd reader has guessed already, that infamous +Tinker was the prime agent of evil in this critical turn in the +affairs of his quondam customer. For, on his return to his haunts +around Hazeldean and the Casino, the Tinker had hastened to apprise +Mrs. Fairfield of his interview with Leonard, and on finding that she +was not aware that the boy was under the roof of his uncle, the +pestilent vagabond (perhaps from spite against Mr. Avenel, or perhaps +from that pure love of mischief by which metaphysical critics explain +the character of Iago, and which certainly formed a main element in +the idiosyncrasy of Mr. Sprott) had so impressed on the widow's mind +the haughty demeanor of the uncle and the refined costume of the +nephew, that Mrs. Fairfield had been seized with a bitter and +insupportable jealousy. There was an intention to rob her of her +boy!--he was to be made too fine for her. His silence was now +accounted for. This sort of jealousy, always more or less a feminine +quality, is often very strong amongst the poor; and it was the more +strong in Mrs. Fairfield, because, lone woman as she was, the boy was +all in all to her. And though she was reconciled to the loss of his +presence, nothing could reconcile her to the thought that his +affections should be weaned from her. Moreover, there were in her mind +certain impressions, of the justice of which the reader may better +judge hereafter, as to the gratitude, more than ordinarily filial, +which Leonard owed to her. In short, she did not like, as she phrased +it, "to be shaken off;" and after a sleepless night she resolved to +judge for herself, much moved thereto by the malicious suggestions to +that effect made by Mr. Sprott, who mightily enjoyed the idea of +mortifying the gentleman by whom he had been so disrespectfully +threatened with the treadmill. The widow felt angry with Parson Dale, +and with the Riccaboccas; she thought they were in the plot against +her; she communicated, therefore, her intention to none--and off she +set, performing the journey partly on the top of the coach, partly on +foot. No wonder that she was dusty, poor woman. + +"And, oh, boy!" said she, half sobbing, "when I got through the lodge +gates, came on the lawn, and saw all that power o' fine folk--I said +to myself, says I--(for I felt fritted)--I'll just have a look at him +and go back. But ah, Lenny, when I saw thee, looking so handsome--and +when thee turned and cried 'Mother!' my heart was just ready to leap +out o' my mouth--and so I could not help hugging thee, if I had died +for it. And thou wert so kind, that I forgot all Mr. Sprott had said +about Dick's pride, or thought he had just told a fib about that, as +he had wanted me to believe a fib about thee. Then Dick came up--and I +had not seen him for so many years--and we come o' the same father and +mother; and so--and so"--the widow's sobs here fairly choked her. +"Ah," she said, after giving vent to her passion, and throwing her +arms round Leonard's neck, as they sat in the little sanded parlor of +the public-house--"Ah, and I've brought thee to this. Go back, go +back, boy, and never mind me." + +With some difficulty Leonard pacified poor Mrs. Fairfield, and got her +to retire to bed; for she was indeed thoroughly exhausted. He then +stepped forth into the road, musingly. All the stars were out; and +Youth, in its troubles, instinctively looks up to the stars. Folding +his arms, Leonard gazed on the heavens, and his lips murmured. + +From this trance, for so it might be called, he was awakened by a +voice in a decidedly London accent; and, turning hastily round, saw +Mr. Avenel's very gentlemanlike butler. Leonard's first idea was that +his uncle had repented, and sent in search of him. But the butler +seemed as much surprised at the rencontre as himself; that personage, +indeed, the fatigues of the day being over, was accompanying one of +Mr. Gunter's waiters to the public-house, (at which the latter had +secured his lodging,) having discovered an old friend in the waiter, +and proposing to regale himself with a cheerful glass, and--_that_ of +course--abuse of his present sitivation. + +"Mr. Fairfield!" exclaimed the butler, while the waiter walked +discreetly on. + +Leonard looked, and said nothing. The butler began to think that some +apology was due for leaving his plate and his pantry, and that he +might as well secure Leonard's propitiatory influence with his +master-- + +"Please, sir," said he, touching his hat, "I was just a-showing Mr. +Giles the way to the Blue Bells, where he puts up for the night. I +hope my master will not be offended. If you are a-going back, sir, +would you kindly mention it?" + +"I am not going back, Jarvis," answered Leonard, after a pause; "I am +leaving Mr. Avenel's house, to accompany my mother; rather suddenly. I +should be very much obliged to you if you would bring some things of +mine to me at the Blue Bells. I will give you the list, if you will +step back with me to the inn." + +Without waiting for a reply, Leonard then turned towards the inn, and +made his humble inventory: item, the clothes he had brought with him +from the Casino; item, the knapsack that had contained them; item, a +few books, ditto; item, Dr. Riccabocca's watch; item, sundry MSS., on +which the young student now built all his hopes of fame and fortune. +This list he put into Mr. Jarvis's hand. + +"Sir," said the butler, twirling the paper between his finger and +thumb, "you are not a-going for long, I hope;" and as he thought of +the scene on the lawn, the report of which had vaguely reached his +ears, he looked on the face of the young man, who had always been +"civil spoken to him," with as much, curiosity and as much compassion +as so apathetic and princely a personage could experience in matters +affecting a family less aristocratic than he had hitherto condescended +to serve. + +"Yes," said Leonard, simply and briefly; "and your master will no +doubt excuse you for rendering me this service." + +Mr. Jarvis postponed for the present his glass and chat with the +waiter, and went back at once to Mr. Avenel. That gentleman, still +seated in his library, had not been aware of the butler's absence; and +when Mr. Jarvis entered and told him that he had met Mr. Fairfield, +and, communicating the commission with which he was intrusted, asked +leave to execute it, Mr. Avenel felt the man's inquisitive eye was on +him, and conceived new wrath against Leonard for a new humiliation to +his pride. It was awkward to give no explanation of his nephew's +departure, still more awkward to explain. + +After a short pause, Mr. Avenel said sullenly, "My nephew is going +away on business for some time--do what he tells you;" and then turned +his back, and lighted his cigar. + +"That beast of a boy," said he, soliloquizing, "either means this as +an affront, or an overture; if an affront, he is, indeed, well got rid +of; if an overture, he will soon make a more respectful and proper +one. After all, I can't have too little of relations till I have +fairly secured Mrs. McCatchly. An Honorable! I wonder if that makes me +an Honorable too? This cursed Debrett contains no practical +information on these points." + +The next morning, the clothes and the watch with which Mr. Avenel had +presented Leonard were returned, with a note meant to express +gratitude, but certainly written with very little knowledge of the +world, and so full of that somewhat over-resentful pride which had in +earlier life made Leonard fly from Hazeldean, and refuse all apology +to Randal, that it is not to be wondered at that Mr. Avenel's last +remorseful feelings evaporated in ire. "I hope he will starve!" said +the uncle, vindictively. + + +CHAPTER III. + +"Listen to me, my dear mother," said Leonard the next morning, as with +his knapsack on his shoulder and Mrs. Fairfield on his arm, he walked +along the high road; "I do assure you, from my heart, that I do not +regret the loss of favors which I see plainly would have crushed out +of me the very sense of independence. But do not fear for me; I have +education and energy--I shall do well for myself, trust me. No; I +cannot, it is true, go back to our cottage--I cannot be a gardener +again. Don't ask me--I should be discontented, miserable. But I will +go up to London! That's the place to make a fortune and a name: I will +make both. O yes, trust me, I will. You shall soon be proud of your +Leonard; and then we will always live together--always! Don't cry." + +"But what can you do in London--such a big place, Lenny?" + +"What! Every year does not some lad leave our village, and go and seek +his fortune, taking with him but health and strong hands? I have +these, and I have more: I have brains, and thoughts, and hopes, +that--again I say, No, no--never fear for me!" + +The boy threw back his head proudly; there was something sublime in +his young trust in the future. + +"Well--but you will write to Mr. Dale, or to me? I will get Mr. Dale, +or the good Mounseer (now I knew they were not agin me) to read your +letters." + +"I will, indeed!" + +"And, boy, you have nothing in your pockets. We have paid Dick; these, +at least, are my own, after paying the coach fare." And she would +thrust a sovereign and some shillings into Leonard's waistcoat pocket. + +After some resistance, he was forced to consent. + +"And there's a sixpence with a hole in it. Don't part with that, +Lenny; it will bring thee good luck." + +Thus talking, they gained the inn where the three roads met, and from +which a coach went direct to the Casino. And here, without entering +the inn, they sat on the green sward by the hedge-row, waiting the +arrival of the coach. Mrs. Fairfield was much subdued in spirits, and +there was evidently on her mind something uneasy--some struggle with +her conscience. She not only upbraided herself for her rash visit; but +she kept talking of her dead Mark. And what would he say of her, if he +could see her in heaven? + +"It was so selfish in me, Lenny." + +"Pooh, pooh! Has not a mother a right to her child?" + +"Ay, ay, ay!" cried Mrs. Fairfield: "I do love you as a child--my own +child. But if I was not your mother, after all, Lenny, and cost you +all this--oh, what would you say of me then?" + +"Not my own mother!" said Leonard, laughing, as he kissed her. "Well, +I don't know what I should say then differently from what I say +now--that you who brought me up, and nursed and cherished me, had a +right to my home and my heart, wherever I was." + +"Bless thee!" cried Mrs. Fairfield, as she pressed him to her heart. +"But it weighs here--it weighs"--she said, starting up. + +At that instant the coach appeared, and Leonard ran forward to inquire +if there was an outside place. Then there was a short bustle while the +horses were being changed; and Mrs. Fairfield was lifted up to the +roof of the vehicle. So all future private conversation between her +and Leonard ceased. But as the coach whirled away, and she waved her +hand to the boy, who stood on the road-side gazing after her, she +still murmured--"It weighs here--it weighs!"---- + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Leonard walked sturdily on in the high-road to the Great City. The day +was calm and sunlit, but with a gentle breeze from gray hills at the +distance; and with each mile that he passed, his step seemed to grow +more firm, and his front more elate. Oh! it is such joy in youth to be +alone with one's day dreams. And youth feels so glorious a vigor in +the sense of its own strength, though the world be before and--against +it! Removed from that chilling counting-house--from the imperious will +of a patron and master--all friendless, but all independent--the young +adventurer felt a new being--felt his grand nature as Man. And on the +Man rushed the genius long interdicted--and thrust aside--rushing +back, with the first breath of adversity to console--no! the Man +needed not consolation,--to kindle, to animate, to rejoice! If there +is a being in the world worthy of our envy, after we have grown wise +philosophers of the fireside, it is not the palled voluptuary, nor the +care-worn statesman, nor even the great prince of arts and letters, +already crowned with the laurel, whose leaves are as fit for poison as +for garlands; it is the young child of adventure and hope. Ay, and the +emptier his purse, ten to one but the richer his heart, and the wider +the domains which his fancy enjoys as he goes on with kingly step to +the Future. + +Not till towards the evening did our adventurer slacken his pace, and +think of rest and refreshment. There, then, lay before him, on either +side the road, those wide patches of uninclosed land, which in England +often denote the entrance to a village. Presently one or two neat +cottages came in sight--then a small farm-house, with its yard and +barns. And some way farther yet, he saw the sign swinging before an +inn of some pretensions--the sort of inn often found on a long stage +between two great towns, commonly called "The Half-way House." But the +inn stood back from the road, having its own separate sward in front, +whereon were a great beech tree (from which the sign extended) and a +rustic arbor--so that, to gain the inn, the coaches that stopped there +took a sweep from the main thoroughfare. Between our pedestrian and +the inn there stood naked and alone, on the common land, a church; our +ancestors never would have chosen that site for it; therefore it was a +modern church--modern Gothic--handsome to an eye not versed in the +attributes of ecclesiastical architecture--very barbarous to an eye +that was. Somehow or other the church looked cold and raw and +uninviting. It looked a church for show--much too big for the +scattered hamlet--and void of all the venerable associations which +give their peculiar and unspeakable atmosphere of piety to the +churches in which succeeding generations have knelt and worshipped. +Leonard paused and surveyed the edifice with an unlearned but poetical +gaze--it dissatisfied him. And he was yet pondering why, when a young +girl passed slowly before him, her eyes fixed on the ground, opened +the little gate that led into the churchyard, and vanished. He did not +see the child's face; but there was something in her movements so +utterly listless, forlorn, and sad, that his heart was touched. What +did she there? He approached the low wall with a noiseless step, and +looked over it wistfully. + +There, by a grave evidently quite recent, with no wooden tomb nor +tombstone like the rest, the little girl had thrown herself, and she +was sobbing loud and passionately. Leonard opened the gate, and +approached her with a soft step. Mingled with her sobs, he heard +broken sentences, wild and vain, as all human sorrowings over graves +must be. + +"Father!--oh, father! do you not really hear me? I am so lone--so +lone! Take me to you--take me!" And she buried her face in the deep +grass. + +"Poor child!" said Leonard, in a half whisper--"he is not there. Look +above!" + +The girl did not heed him--he put his arm round her waist gently--she +made a gesture of impatience and anger, but she would not turn her +face--and she clung to the grave with her hands. + +After clear sunny days the dews fall more heavily; and now, as the sun +set, the herbage was bathed in a vaporous haze--a dim mist rose +around. The young man seated himself beside her, and tried to draw the +child to his breast. Then she turned eagerly, indignantly, and pushed +him aside with jealous arms. He profaned the grave! He understood her +with his deep poet heart, and rose. There was a pause. + +Leonard was the first to break it. + +"Come to your home with me, my child, and we will talk of _him_ by the +way." + +"Him! Who are you? You did not know him?" said the girl, still with +anger. "Go away--why do you disturb me? I do no one harm. Go--go!" + +"You do yourself harm, and that will grieve him if he sees you yonder! +Come!" + +The child looked at him through her blinding tears, and his face +softened and soothed her. + +"Go!" she said very plaintively, and in subdued accents. "I will but +stay a minute more. I--I have so much to say yet." + +Leonard left the churchyard, and waited without; and in a short time +the child came forth, waved him aside as he approached her, and +hurried away. He followed her at a distance, and saw her disappear +within the inn. + + +CHAPTER V. + +"Hip--hip--Hurrah!" Such was the sound that greeted our young +traveller as he reached the inn door--a sound joyous in itself, but +sadly out of harmony with the feelings which the child's sobbing on +the tombless grave had left at his heart. The sound came from within, +and was followed by thumps and stamps, and the jingle of glasses. A +strong odor of tobacco was wafted to his olfactory sense. He hesitated +a moment at the threshold. Before him on benches under the beech-tree +and within the arbor, were grouped sundry athletic forms with "pipes +in the liberal air." The landlady, as she passed across the passage to +the tap-room, caught sight of his form at the doorway, and came +forward. Leonard still stood irresolute. He would have gone on his +way, but for the child; she had interested him strongly. + +"You seem full, ma'am," said he. "Can I have accommodation for the +night?" + +"Why, indeed, sir," said the landlady, civilly, "I can give you a +bedroom, but I don't know where to put you meanwhile. The two parlors +and the tap-room and the kitchen are all chokeful. There has been a +great cattle-fair in the neighborhood, and I suppose we have as many +as fifty farmers and drovers stopping here." + +"As to that, ma'am, I can sit in the bedroom you are kind enough to +give me; and if it does not cause you too much trouble to let me have +some tea there, I should be glad; but I can wait your leisure. Do not +put yourself out of the way for me." + +The landlady was touched by a consideration she was not much +habituated to receive from her bluff customers. + +"You speak very handsome, sir, and we will do our best to serve you, +if you will excuse all faults. This way, sir." Leonard lowered his +knapsack, stepped in the passage, with some difficulty forced his way +through a knot of sturdy giants in top-boots or leathern gaiters who +were swarming in and out the tap-room, and followed his hostess up +stairs to a little bedroom at the top of the house. + +"It is small, sir, and high," said the hostess apologetically. "But +there be four gentlemen farmers that have come a great distance, and +all the first floor is engaged; you will be more out of the noise +here." + +"Nothing can suit me better. But, stay--pardon me;" and Leonard, +glancing at the garb of the hostess, observed she was not in mourning. +"A little girl whom I saw in the churchyard yonder, weeping very +bitterly--is she a relation of yours? Poor child, she seems to have +deeper feelings than are common at her age." + +"Ah, sir," said the landlady, putting the corner of her apron to her +eyes, "it is a very sad story--I don't know what to do. Her father was +taken ill on his way to Lunnun, and stopped here, and has been buried +four days. And the poor little girl seems to have no relations--and +where is she to go? Laryer Jones says we must pass her to Marybone +parish, where her father lived last; and what's to become of her then? +My heart bleeds to think on it." Here then rose such an uproar from +below, that it was evident some quarrel had broken out; and the +hostess, recalled to her duties, hastened to carry thither her +propitiatory influences. + +Leonard seated himself pensively by the little lattice. Here was some +one more alone in the world than he. And she, poor orphan, had no +stout man's heart to grapple with fate, and no golden manuscripts that +were to be as the "Open Sesame" to the treasures of Aladdin. By-and-by +the hostess brought him up a tray with tea and other refreshments, and +Leonard resumed his inquiries. "No relatives?" said he; "surely the +child must have some kinsfolk in London? Did her father leave no +directions, or was he in possession of his faculties?" + +"Yes, sir; he was quite reasonable-like to the last. And I asked him +if he had not any thing on his mind, and he said, 'I have.' And I +said, 'Your little girl, sir?' And he answered, 'Yes, ma'am;' and +laying his head on his pillow, he wept very quietly. I could not say +more myself, for it set me off to see him cry so meekly; but my +husband is harder nor I, and he said, 'Cheer up, Mr. Digby; had not +you better write to your friends?'" + +"'Friends!' said the gentleman, in such a voice! 'Friends I have but +one, and I am going to Him! I cannot take her there!' Then he seemed +suddenly to recollect hisself, and called for his clothes, and +rummaged in the pockets as if looking for some address, and could not +find it. He seemed a forgetful kind of gentleman, and his hands were +what I call _helpless_ hands, sir! And then he gasped out, +'Stop--stop! I never had the address. Write to Lord Les--,' something +like Lord Lester--but we could not make out the name. Indeed he did +not finish it, for there was a rush of blood to his lips; and though +he seemed sensible when he recovered, (and knew us and his little girl +too, till he went off smiling,) he never spoke word more." + +"Poor man," said Leonard, wiping his eyes. "But his little girl surely +remembers the name that he did not finish?" + +"No. She says, he must have meant a gentleman whom they had met in the +Park not long ago, who was very kind to her father, and was Lord +something; but she don't remember the name, for she never saw him +before or since, and her father talked very little about any one +lately, but thought he should find some kind friends at Screwstown, +and travelled down there with her from Lunnon. But she supposes he was +disappointed, for he went out, came back, and merely told her to put +up the things, as they must go back to Lunnon. And on his way there +he--died. Hush what's that? I hope she did not overhear us. No, we +were talking low. She has the next room to your'n, sir. I thought I +heard her sobbing. Hush!" + +"In the next room? I hear nothing. Well, with your leave, I will speak +to her before I quit you. And had her father no money with him?" + +"Yes, a few sovereigns, sir; they paid for his funeral, and there is a +little left still, enough to take her to town; for my husband said, +says he, 'Hannah, the widow _gave_ her mite, and we must not _take_ +the orphans;' and my husband is a hard man, too, sir. Bless him!" + +"Let me take your hand, ma'am. God reward you both." + +"La, sir!--why, even Dr. Dosewell said, rather grumpily though, 'Never +mind my bill; but don't call me up at six o'clock in the morning +again, without knowing a little more about people.' And I never afore +knew Dr. Dosewell go without his bill being paid. He said it was a +trick o' the other Doctor to spite him." + +"What other Doctor?" + +"Oh, a very good gentleman, who got out with Mr. Digby when he was +taken ill, and stayed till the next morning; and our Doctor says his +name is Morgan, and he lives in--Lunnon, and is a homy--something." +"Homicide," suggested Leonard ignorantly. + +"Ah--homicide; something like that, only a deal longer and worse. But +he left some of the tiniest little balls you ever see, sir, to give +the child; but, bless you, they did her no good--how should they?" + +"Tiny balls, oh--homoeopathist--I understand. And the Doctor was +kind to her; perhaps he may help her. Have you written to him?" + +"But we don't know his address, and Lunnon is a vast place, sir." + +"I am going to London, and will find it out." + +"Ah, sir, you seem very kind; and sin' she must go to Lunnon, (for +what can we do with her here?--she's too genteel for service,) I wish +she was going with you." + +"With me?" said Leonard startled; "with me! Well, why not?" + +"I am sure she comes of good blood, sir. You would have known her +father was quite the gentleman, only to see him die, sir. He went off +so kind and civil like, as if he was ashamed to give so much +trouble--quite a gentleman, if ever there was one. And so are you, +sir, I'm sure," said the landlady, curtseying; "I know what gentlefolk +be. I've been a housekeeper, in the first of families in this very +shire, sir, though I can't say I've served in Lunnon; and so, as +gentlefolks know each other, I've no doubt you could find out her +relations. Dear--dear! Coming, coming!" + +Here there were loud cries for the hostess, and she hurried away. The +farmers and drovers were beginning to depart, and their bills were to +be made out and paid. Leonard saw his hostess no more that night. The +last hip-hip-hurrah, was heard; some toast, perhaps, to the health of +the county members;--and the chamber of woe, beside Leonard's, rattled +with the shout. By-and-by silence gradually succeeded the various +dissonant sounds below. The carts and gigs rolled away; the clatter of +hoofs on the road ceased; there was then a dumb dull sound as of +locking-up, and low humming voices below and footsteps mounting the +stairs to bed, with now and then a drunken hiccup or maudlin laugh, as +some conquered votary of Bacchus was fairly carried up to his +domicile. + +All, then, at last was silent, just as the clock from the church +sounded the stroke of eleven. + +Leonard, meanwhile, had been looking over his MSS. There was first a +project for an improvement on the steam-engine--a project that had +long lain in his mind, begun with the first knowledge of mechanics +that he had gleaned from his purchases of the Tinker. He put that +aside now--it required too great an effort of the reasoning faculty to +re-examine. He glanced less hastily over a collection of essays on +various subjects, some that he thought indifferent, some that he +thought good. He then lingered over a collection of verses, written in +his best hand with loving care--verses first inspired by his perusal +of Nora's melancholy memorials. These verses were as a diary of his +heart and his fancy--those deep unwitnessed struggles which the +boyhood of all more thoughtful natures has passed in its bright yet +murky storm of the cloud and the lightning flash; though but few boys +pause to record the crisis from which slowly emerges Man. And these +first, desultory grapplings with the fugitive airy images that flit +through the dim chambers of the brain, had become with each effort +more sustained and vigorous, till the phantoms were spelled, the +flying ones arrested, the immaterial seized, and clothed with Form. +Gazing on his last effort, Leonard felt that there at length spoke +forth a Poet. It was a work which, though as yet but half completed, +came from a strong hand; not that shadow trembling on unsteady waters, +which is but the pale reflex and imitation of some bright mind, +sphered out of reach and afar; but an original substance--a life--a +thing of the _Creative_ Faculty--breathing back already the breath it +had received. This work had paused during Leonard's residence with Mr. +Avenel, or had only now and then, in stealth, and at night, received a +rare touch. Now, as with a fresh eye, he re-perused it; and with that +strange, innocent admiration, not of self--(for a man's work is not, +alas! himself--it is the beatified and idealized essence, extracted he +knows not how from his own human elements of clay)--admiration known +but to poets--their purest delight, often their sole reward. And then, +with a warmer and more earthly beat of his full heart, he rushed in +fancy to the Great City, where all rivers of Fame meet, but not to be +merged and lost--sallying forth again, individualized and separate, to +flow through that one vast thought of God which we call THE WORLD. + +He put up his papers; and opened his window, as was his ordinary +custom, before he retired to rest--for he had many odd habits; and he +loved to look out into the night when he prayed. His soul seemed to +escape from the body--to mount on the air--to gain more rapid access +to the far Throne in the Infinite--when his breath went forth among +the winds, and his eyes rested fixed on the stars, of Heaven. + +So the boy prayed silently; and after his prayer he was about +lingeringly to close the lattice, when he heard distinctly sobs close +at hand. He paused, and held his breath; then gently looked out; the +casement next his own was also open. Some one was also at watch by +that casement--perhaps also praying. He listened yet more attentively, +and caught, soft and low, the words. "Father--father--do you hear me +_now_?" + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Leonard opened his door and stole towards that of the room adjoining; +for his first natural impulse had been to enter and console. But when +his touch was on the handle, he drew back. Child, though the mourner +was, her sorrows were rendered yet more sacred from intrusion by her +sex. Something, he knew not what, in his young ignorance, withheld him +from the threshold. To have crossed it then would have seemed to him +profanation. So he returned, and for hours yet he occasionally heard +the sobs, till they died away, and childhood wept itself to sleep. + +But the next morning, when he heard his neighbor astir, he knocked +gently at her door: there was no answer. He entered softly, and saw +her seated very listlessly in the centre of the room--as if it had no +familiar nook or corner as the rooms of home have--her hands drooping +on her lap, and her eyes gazing desolately on the floor. Then he +approached and spoke to her. + +Helen was very subdued, and very silent. Her tears seemed dried up; +and it was long before she gave sign or token that she heeded him. At +length, however, he gradually succeeded in rousing her interest; and +the first symptom of his success was in the quiver of her lip, and the +overflow of the downcast eyes. + +By little and little he wormed himself into her confidence; and she +told him, in broken whispers, her simple story. But what moved him the +most was, that, beyond her sense of loneliness, she did not seem to +feel her own unprotected state. She mourned the object she had nursed, +and heeded, and cherished; for she had been rather the protectress +than the protected to the helpless dead. He could not gain from her +any more satisfactory information than the landlady had already +imparted, as to her friends and prospects; but she permitted him +passively to look among the effects her father had left--save only +that if his hand touched something that seemed to her associations +especially holy, she waved him back, or drew it quickly away. There +were many bills receipted in the name of Captain Digby--old yellow +faded music-scores for the flute--extracts of Parts from Prompt +Books--gay parts of lively comedies, in which heroes have so noble a +contempt for money--fit heroes for a Sheridan and a Farquhar; close by +these were several pawnbroker's tickets; and, not arrayed smoothly, +but crumpled up, as if with an indignant nervous clutch of the old +helpless hands, some two or three letters. He asked Helen's permission +to glance at these, for they might give a clue to friends. Helen gave +the permission by a silent bend of the head. The letters, however, +were but short and freezing answers from what appeared to be distant +connections or former friends, or persons to whom the deceased had +applied for some situation. They were all very disheartening in their +tone. Leonard next endeavored to refresh Helen's memory as to the name +of the nobleman which had been last on her father's lips, but there he +failed wholly. For it may be remembered that Lord L'Estrange, when he +pressed his loan on Mr. Digby, and subsequently told that gentleman to +address him at Mr. Egerton's, had, from a natural delicacy, sent the +child on, that she might not hear the charity bestowed on the father; +and Helen said truly, that Mr. Digby had sunk into a habitual silence +on all his affairs latterly. She might have heard her father mention +the name, but she had not treasured it up; all she could say was, that +she should know the stranger again if she met him, and his dog too. +Seeing that the child had grown calm, Leonard was then going to leave +the room, in order to confer with the hostess, when she rose suddenly, +though noiselessly, and put her little hand in his, as if to detain +him. She did not say a word--the action said all--said "Do not desert +me." And Leonard's heart rushed to his lips, and he answered to the +action as he bent down and kissed her cheek, "Orphan, will you go with +me? We have one Father yet to both of us, and He will guide us on +earth. I am fatherless like you." She raised her eyes to his--looked +at him long--and then leant her head confidingly on his strong young +shoulder. + + +CHAPTER VII. + +At noon that same day, the young man and the child were on their road +to London. The host had at first a little demurred at trusting Helen +to so young a companion, but Leonard, in his happy ignorance, had +talked so sanguinely of finding out this lord, or some adequate +protection for the child, and in so grand a strain, though with all +sincerity, had spoken of his own great prospects in the metropolis (he +did not say what they were!) that had it been the craftiest imposter, +he could not have more taken in the rustic host. And while the +landlady still cherished the illusive fancy that all gentlefolks must +know each other in London, as they did in a county, the landlord +believed, at least, that a young man, so respectably dressed, although +but a foot-traveller--who talked in so confident a tone, and who was +so willing to undertake what might be rather a burdensome charge, +unless he saw how to rid himself of it--would be sure to have friends, +older and wiser than himself, who could judge what could best be done +for the orphan. + +And what was the host to do with her? Better this volunteered escort, +at least, than vaguely passing her on from parish to parish, and +leaving her friendless at last in the streets of London. Helen, too, +smiled for the first time on being asked her wishes, and again put her +hand in Leonard's. In short, so it was settled. + +The little girl made up a bundle of the things she most prized or +needed. Leonard did not feel the additional load, as he slung it to +his knapsack. The rest of the luggage was to be sent to London as soon +as Leonard wrote, (which he promised to do soon,) and gave an address. + +Helen paid her last visit to the churchyard; and she joined her +companion as he stood on the road, without the solemn precincts. And +now they had gone on some hours, and when he asked if she was tired, +she still answered "No." But Leonard was merciful, and made their +day's journey short; and it took them some days to reach London. By +the long lonely way, they grew so intimate, at the end of the second +day they called each other brother and sister; and Leonard, to his +delight, found that as her grief, with the bodily movement and the +change of scene, subsided from its first intenseness and its +insensibility to other impressions, she developed a quickness of +comprehension far beyond her years. Poor child! _that_ had been forced +upon her by Necessity. And she understood him in his spiritual +consolations,--half poetical, half religious; and she listened to his +own tale, and the story of his self-education and solitary +struggles--those, too, she understood. But when he burst out with his +enthusiasm, his glorious hopes, his confidence in the fate before +them, then she would shake her head very quietly and very sadly. Did +she comprehend _them_? Alas! perhaps too well. She knew more as to +real life than he did. Leonard was at first their joint treasurer, but +before the second day was over, Helen seemed to discover that he was +too lavish; and she told him so, with a prudent grave look, putting +her hand on his arm, as he was about to enter an inn to dine; and the +gravity would have been comic, but that the eyes through their +moisture were so meek and grateful. She felt he was about to incur +that ruinous extravagance on her account. Somehow or other, the purse +found its way into her keeping, and then she looked proud, and in her +natural element. + +Ah! what happy meals under her care were provided: so much more +enjoyable than in dull, sanded inn parlors, swarming with flies, and +reeking with stale tobacco. She would leave him at the entrance of a +village, bound forward, and cater, and return with a little basket and +a pretty blue jug--which she had bought on the road--the last filled +with new milk, the first with new bread and some special dainty in +radishes or water-cresses. And she had such a talent for finding out +the prettiest spot whereon to halt and dine: sometimes in the heart of +a wood--so still, it was like a forest in fairy tales, the hare +stealing through the alleys, or the squirrel peeping at them from the +boughs; sometimes by a little brawling stream, with the fishes seen +under the clear wave, and shooting round the crumbs thrown to them. +They made an Arcadia of the dull road up to their dread +Thermopylae--the war against the million that waited them on the other +side of their pass through Tempe. + +"Shall we be as happy when we are _great_?" said Leonard, in his grand +simplicity. + +Helen sighed, and the wise little head was shaken. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +At last they came within easy reach of London; but Leonard had +resolved not to enter the metropolis fatigued and exhausted, as a +wanderer needing refuge, but fresh and elate, as a conqueror coming in +triumph to take possession of the capital. Therefore they halted early +in the evening of the day preceding this imperial entry, about six +miles from the metropolis, in the neighborhood of Ealing, (for by that +route lay their way.) They were not tired on arriving at their inn. +The weather was singularly lovely, with that combination of softness +and brilliancy which is only known to the rare true summer days of +England: all below so green, above so blue--days of which we have +about six in the year, and recall vaguely when we read of Robin Hood +and maid Marian, of Damsel and Knight, in Spenser's golden Summer +Song, or of Jacques, dropped under the oak tree, watching the deer +amidst the dells of Ardennes. So, after a little pause in their inn, +they strolled forth, not for travel, but pleasure, towards the cool of +sunset, passing by the grounds that once belonged to the Duke of Kent, +and catching a glimpse of the shrubs and lawns of that beautiful +domain through the lodge-gates; then they crossed into some fields, +and came to a little rivulet called the Brent. Helen had been more sad +that day than on any during their journey. Perhaps, because, on +approaching London, the memory of her father became more vivid; +perhaps from her precocious knowledge of life, and her foreboding of +what was to befall them, children that they both were. But Leonard was +selfish that day; he could not be influenced by his companion's +sorrow, he was so full of his own sense of being, and he already +caught from the atmosphere the fever that belongs to anxious capitals. + +"Sit here, sister," said he imperiously, throwing himself under the +shade of a pollard tree that overhung the winding brook, "sit here and +talk." + +He flung off his hat, tossed back his rich curls, and sprinkled his +brow from the stream that eddied round the roots of the tree that +bulged out, bald and gnarled, from the bank, and delved into the waves +below. Helen quietly obeyed him, and nestled close to his side. + +"And so this London is very vast?--VERY?" he repeated inquisitively. + +"Very," answered Helen, as abstractedly she plucked the cowslips near +her, and let them fall into the running waters. "See how the flowers +are carried down the stream! They are lost now. London is to us what +the river is to the flowers--very vast--very strong;" and she added, +after a pause, "very cruel!" + +"Cruel! Ah, it _has_ been so to you; but _now_!--now I will take care +of you!" he smiled triumphantly; and his smile was beautiful both in +its pride and its kindness. It is astonishing how Leonard had altered +since he had left his uncle's. He was both younger and older; for the +sense of genius, when it snaps its shackles, makes us both older and +wiser as to the world it soars to--younger and blinder as to the world +it springs from. + +"And it is not a very handsome city either, you say?" + +"Very ugly, indeed," said Helen, with some fervor; "at least all I +have seen of it." + +"But there must be parts that are prettier than others? You say there +are parks; why should not we lodge near them, and look upon the green +trees?" + +"That would be nice," said Helen, almost joyously; "but--" and here +the head was shaken--"there are no lodgings for us except in courts +and alleys." + +"Why?" + +"Why?" echoed Helen, with a smile, and she held up the purse. + +"Pooh! always that horrid purse; as if, too, we were not going to fill +it. Did I not tell you the story of Fortunio? Well, at all events, we +will go first to the neighborhood where you last lived, and learn +there all we can; and then the day after to-morrow, I will see this +Dr. Morgan, and find out the Lord--" + +The tears startled to Helen's soft eyes. "You want to get rid of me +soon, brother." + +"I! ah, I feel so happy to have you with me, it seems to me as if I +had pined for you all my life, and you had come at last; for I never +had brother, nor sister, nor any one to love, that was not older than +myself, except--" + +"Except the young lady you told me of," said Helen, turning away her +face; for children are very jealous. + +"Yes, I loved her, love her still. But that was different," said +Leonard, with a heightened color. "I could never have talked to her as +to you, to you I open my whole heart; you are my little Muse, Helen, I +confess to you my wild whims and fancies as frankly as if I were +writing poetry." As he said this, a step was heard, and a shadow fell +over the stream. A belated angler appeared on the margin, drawing his +line impatiently across the water, as if to worry some dozing fish +into a bite before it finally settled itself for the night. Absorbed +in his occupation, the angler did not observe the young persons on the +sward under the tree, and he halted there, close upon them. + +"Curse that perch!" said he aloud. + +"Take care, sir," cried Leonard; for the man, in stepping back, nearly +trod upon Helen. + +The angler turned. "What's the matter? Hist! you have frightened my +perch. Keep still, can't you?" + +Helen drew herself out of the way, and Leonard remained motionless. He +remembered Jackeymo, and felt a sympathy for the angler. + +"It is the most extraordinary perch, that!" muttered the stranger, +soliloquizing. "It has the devil's own luck. It must have been born +with a silver spoon in its mouth, that damned perch! I shall never +catch it--never! Ha!--no--only a weed. I give it up." With this, he +indignantly jerked his rod from the water, and began to disjoint it. +While leisurely engaged in this occupation, he turned to Leonard. + +"Humph! are you intimately acquainted with this stream, sir?" + +"No," answered Leonard. "I never saw it before." + +_Angler_, (solemnly.)--"Then, young man, take my advice, and do not +give way to its fascinations. Sir, I am a martyr to this stream; it +has been the Dalilah of my existence." + +_Leonard_, (interested, the last sentence seemed to him +poetical.)--"The Dalilah! sir, the Dalilah!" + +_Angler._--"The Dalilah. Young man, listen, and be warned by example. +When I was about your age, I first came to this stream to fish. Sir, +on that fatal day, about 3 P.M., I hooked up a fish--such a big one, +it must have weighed a pound and a half. Sir, it was that length;" and +the angler put finger to wrist. "And just when I had got it nearly +ashore, by the very place where you are sitting, on that shelving +bank, young man, the line broke, and the perch twisted himself among +those roots, and--caco daemon that he was--ran off, hook and all. Well, +that fish haunted me; never before had I seen such a fish. Minnows I +had caught in the Thames and elsewhere, also gudgeons, and +occasionally a dace. But a fish like that--a PERCH--all his fins up +like the sails of a man-of-war--a monster perch--a whale of a +perch!--No, never till then had I known what leviathans lie hid within +the deeps. I could not sleep till I had returned; and again, sir,--I +caught that perch. And this time I pulled him fairly out of the water. +He escaped; and how did he escape? Sir, he left his eye behind him on +the hook. Years, long years, have passed since then; but never shall I +forget the agony of that moment." + +_Leonard._--"To the perch, sir?" + +_Angler._--"Perch! agony to him! He enjoyed it:--agony to me. I gazed +on that eye, and the eye looked as sly and as wicked as if it was +laughing in my face. Well, sir, I had heard that there is no better +bait for a perch than a perch's eye. I adjusted that eye on the hook, +and dropped in the line gently. The water was unusually clear; in two +minutes I saw that perch return. He approached the hook; he recognized +his eye--frisked his tail--made a plunge--and, as I live, carried off +the eye, safe and sound; and I saw him digesting it by the side of +that water-lily. The mocking fiend! Seven times since that day, in the +course of a varied and eventful life, have I caught that perch, and +seven times has that perch escaped." + +_Leonard_, (astonished.)--"It can't be the same perch; perches are +very tender fish--a hook inside of it, and an eye hooked out of it--no +perch could withstand such havoc in its constitution." + +_Angler_, (with an appearance of awe.)--"It does seem supernatural. +But it _is_ that perch; for harkye, sir, there is ONLY ONE perch in +the whole brook! All the years I have fished here, I have never caught +another perch here; and this solitary inmate of the watery element I +know by sight better than I know my own lost father. For each time +that I have raised it out of the water, its profile has been turned to +me, and I have seen, with a shudder, that it has had only--One Eye! It +is a most mysterious and a most diabolical phenomenon that perch! It +has been the ruin of my prospects in life. I was offered a situation +in Jamaica; I could not go, with that perch left here in triumph. I +might afterwards have had an appointment in India, but I could not put +the ocean between myself and that perch: thus have I fritted away my +existence in the fatal metropolis of my native land. And once a-week, +from February to December, I come hither--Good Heavens! if I should +catch the perch at last, the occupation of my existence will be gone." + +Leonard gazed curiously at the angler, as the last thus mournfully +concluded. The ornate turn of his periods did not suit with his +costume. He looked woefully threadbare and shabby--a genteel sort of +shabbiness too--shabbiness in black. There was humor in the corners of +his lip; and his hands, though they did not seem very clean--indeed +his occupation was not friendly to such niceties--were those of a man +who had not known manual labor. His face was pale and puffed, but the +tip of his nose was red. He did not seem as if the watery element was +as familiar to himself as to his Dalilah--the perch. + +"Such is life!" recommenced the angler in a moralizing tone, as he +slid his rod into its canvas case. "If a man knew what it was to fish +all one's life in a stream that has only one perch!--to catch that one +perch nine times in all, and nine times to see it fall back into the +water, plump;--if man knew what it was--why, then"--Here the angler +looked over his shoulder full at Leonard--"why, then, young sir, he +would know what human life is to vain ambition. Good evening." + +Away he went, treading over the daisies and king cups. Helen's eyes +followed him wistfully. + +"What a strange person!" said Leonard, laughing. + +"I think he is a very wise one," murmured Helen; and she came close up +to Leonard, and took his hand in both hers, as if she felt already +that he was in need of the Comforter--the line broke, and the perch +lost! + + +CHAPTER IX. + +At noon the next day, London stole upon them, through a gloomy, thick, +oppressive atmosphere. For where is it that we can say London _bursts_ +on the sight? It stole on them through one of its fairest and most +gracious avenues of approach--by the stately gardens of +Kensington--along the side of Hyde Park, and so on towards Cumberland +Gate. + +Leonard was not the least struck. And yet, with a little money, and a +very little taste, it would be easy to render this entrance to London +as grand and imposing as that to Paris from the _Champs Elysees_. As +they came near the Edgeware Road, Helen took her new brother by the +hand and guided him. For she knew all that neighborhood, and she was +acquainted with a lodging near that occupied by her father (to _that_ +lodging itself she could not have gone for the world), where they +might be housed cheaply. + +But just then the sky, so dull and overcast since morning, seemed one +mass of black cloud. There suddenly came on a violent storm of rain. +The boy and girl took refuge in a covered mews, in a street running +out of the Edgeware Road. The shelter soon became crowded; the two +young pilgrims crept close to the wall, apart from the rest; +Leonard's arm round Helen's waist, sheltering her from the rain that +the strong wind contending with it beat in through the passage. +Presently a young gentleman, of better mien and dress than the other +refugees, entered, not hastily, but rather with a slow and proud step, +as if, though he deigned to take shelter, he scorned to run to it. He +glanced somewhat haughtily at the assembled group--passed on through +the midst of it--came near Leonard--took off his hat, and shook the +rain from its brim. His head thus uncovered, left all his features +exposed; and the village youth recognized, at the first glance, his +old victorious assailant on the green at Hazeldean. + +Yet Randal Leslie was altered. His dark cheek was as thin as in +boyhood, and even yet more wasted by intense study and night vigils; +but the expression of his face was at once more refined and manly, and +there was a steady concentrated light in his large eye, like that of +one who has been in the habit of bringing all his thoughts to one +point. He looked older than he was. He was dressed simply in black, a +color which became him; and altogether his aspect and figure were not +showy indeed, but distinguished. He looked, to the common eye, a +gentleman; and to the more observant, a scholar. + +Helter-skelter!--pell-mell! the group in the passage--now pressed each +on each--now scattered on all sides--making way--rushing down the +mews--against the walls--as a fiery horse darted under shelter; the +rider, a young man, with a very handsome face, and dressed with that +peculiar care which we commonly call dandyism, cried out, good +humoredly,--"Don't be afraid; the horse shan't hurt any of you--a +thousand pardons--so ho! so ho!" He patted the horse, and it stood as +still as a statue, filling up the centre of the passage. The groups +resettled--Randal approached the rider. + +"Frank Hazeldean!" + +"Ah--is it indeed Randal Leslie!" + +Frank was off his horse in a moment, and the bridle was consigned to +the care of a slim 'prentice-boy holding a bundle. + +"My dear fellow, how glad I am to see you. How lucky it was that I +should turn in here. Not like me either, for I don't much care for a +ducking. Staying in town, Randal?" + +"Yes, at your uncle's, Mr. Egerton. I have left Oxford." + +"For good?" + +"For good." + +"But you have not taken your degree, I think? We Etonians all +considered you booked for a double first. Oh! we have been so proud of +you--you carried off all the prizes." + +"Not all; but some, certainly. Mr. Egerton offered me my choice--to +stay for my degree, or to enter at once into the Foreign Office. I +preferred the ends to the means. For, after all, what good are +academical honors but as the entrance to life? To enter now is to save +a step in a long way, Frank." + +"Ah! you were always ambitious, and you will make a great figure, I am +sure." + +"Perhaps so--if I work for it. Knowledge is power." + +Leonard started. + +"And you," resumed Randal, looking with some curious attention at his +old schoolfellow. "You never came to Oxford. I did hear you were going +into the army." + +"I am in the Guards," said Frank, trying hard not to look too +conceited as he made that acknowledgment. "The Governor pished a +little, and would rather I had come to live with him in the old hall, +and take to farming. Time enough for that--eh? By Jove, Randall, how +pleasant a thing is life in London? Do you go to Almack's to-night?" + +"No; Wednesday is a holiday in the House! There is a great +parliamentary dinner at Mr. Egerton's. He is in the Cabinet now, you +know; but you don't see much of your uncle, I think." + +"Our sets are different," said the young gentleman, in a tone of voice +worthy of Brummell. "All those parliamentary fellows are devilish +dull. The rain's over. I don't know whether the Governor would like me +to call at Grosvenor Square; but, pray come and see me; here's my card +to remind you; you must dine at our mess. Such nice fellows. What day +will you fix?" + +"I will call and let you know. Don't you find it rather expensive in +the Guards? I remember that you thought the Governor, as you call him, +used to chafe a little when you wrote for more pocket-money; and the +only time I ever remember to have seen you with tears in your eyes, +was when Mr. Hazeldean, in sending you L5, reminded you that his +estates were not entailed--were at his own disposal, and they should +never go to an extravagant spendthrift. It was not a pleasant threat, +that, Frank." + +"Oh!" cried the young man, coloring deeply, "It was not the threat +that pained me, it was that my father could think so meanly of me as +to fancy that--well--well, but those were schoolboy days. And my +father was always more generous than I deserved. We must see a good +deal of each other, Randal. How good-natured you were at Eton, making +my longs and shorts for me; I shall never forget it. Do call soon." + +Frank swung himself into his saddle, and rewarded the slim youth with +half-a-crown; a largess four times more ample than his father would +have deemed sufficient. A jerk of the reins and a touch of the +heel--off bounded the fiery horse and the gay young rider. Randal +mused; and as the rain had now ceased, the passengers under shelter +dispersed and went their way. Only Randal, Leonard, and Helen remained +behind. Then, as Randal, still musing, lifted his eyes, they fell full +upon Leonard's face. He started, passed his hand quickly over his +brow--looked again, hard and piercingly; and the change in his pale +cheek to a shade still paler--a quick compression and nervous gnawing +of his lip--showed that he too had recognized an old foe. Then his +glance ran over Leonard's dress, which was somewhat dust-stained, but +far above the class amongst which the peasant was born. Randal raised +his brows in surprise, and with a smile slightly supercilious--the +smile stung Leonard; and with a slow step Randal left the passage, and +took his way towards Grosvenor Square. The Entrance of Ambition was +clear to _him_. + +Then the little girl once more took Leonard by the hand, and led him +through rows of humble, obscure, dreary streets. It seemed almost like +an allegory personified, as the sad, silent child led on the penniless +and low-born adventurer of genius by the squalid shops, and through +the winding lanes, which grew meaner and meaner, till both their forms +vanished from the view. + + +CHAPTER X. + +"But do come; change your dress, return and dine with me; you will +have just time, Harley. You will meet the most eminent men of our +party; surely they are worth your study, philosopher that you affect +to be." + +Thus said Audley Egerton to Lord L'Estrange, with whom he had been +riding (after the toils of his office.) The two gentlemen were in +Audley's library. Mr. Egerton, as usual, buttoned up, seated in his +chair, in the erect posture of a man who scorns "inglorious ease." +Harley, as usual, thrown at length on a sofa, his long hair in +careless curls, his neckcloth loose, his habiliments flowing--_simplex +munditiis_, indeed--his grace all his own; seemingly negligent, never +slovenly; at ease every where and with every one, even with Mr. Audley +Egerton, who chilled or awed the ease out of most people. + +"Nay, my dear Audley, forgive me. But your eminent men are all men of +one idea, and that not a diverting one--politics! politics! politics! +The storm in the saucer." + +"But what is your life, Harley?--the saucer without the storm?" + +"Do you know, that's very well said, Audley? I did not think you had +so much liveliness of repartee. Life--life! it is insipid, it is +shallow. No launching Argosies in the saucer. Audley, I have the +oddest fancy--" + +"_That_ of course," said Audley drily; "you never have any other. What +is the new one?" + +_Harley_, (with great gravity.)--"Do you believe in Mesmerism?" + +_Audley._--"Certainly not." + +_Harley._--"If it were in the power of an animal magnetizer to get me +out of my own skin into somebody else's! _That's_ my fancy! I am so +tired of myself--so tired! I have run through all my ideas--know every +one of them by heart; when some pretentious imposter of an idea perks +itself up and says, 'Look at me, I'm a new acquaintance'--I just give +it a nod, and say, 'Not at all, you have only got a new coat on; you +are the same old wretch that has bored me these last twenty years; get +away.' But if one could be in a new skin! if I could be for half an +hour your tall porter, or one of your eminent matter-of-fact men, I +should then really travel into a new world.[9] Every man's brain must +be a world in itself, eh? If I could but make a parochial settlement +even in yours, Audley--run over all your thoughts and sensations. Upon +my life, I'll go and talk to that French mesmerizer about it." + +_Audley_, (who does not seem to like the notion of having his thoughts +and sensations rummaged even by his friend, and even in +fancy.)--"Pooh, pooh, pooh! Do talk like a man of sense." + +_Harley._--"Man of sense! Where shall I find a model! I don't know a +man of sense!--never met such a creature. Don't believe it ever +existed. At one time I thought Socrates must have been a man of +sense;--a delusion; he would stand gazing into the air, and talking to +his Genius from sunrise to sunset. Is that like a man of sense? Poor +Audley, how puzzled he looks! Well, I'll try and talk sense to oblige +you. And first, (here Harley raised himself on his elbow)--first, is +it true, as I have heard vaguely, that you are paying court to the +sister of that infamous Italian traitor?" + +"Madame di Negra? No; I am not paying _court_ to her," answered Audley +with a cold smile. "But she is very handsome; she is very clever; she +is useful to me--I need not say how or why; that belongs to my +_metier_ as politician. But, I think, if you will take my advice, or +get your friend to take it, I could obtain from her brother, through +my influence with her, some liberal concessions to your exile. She is +very anxious to know where he is." + +"You have not told her?" + +"No; I promised you I would keep that secret." + +"Be sure you do; it is only for some mischief, some snare, that she +could desire such information. Concessions! pooh! This is no question +of concessions, but of rights." + +"I think you should leave your friend to judge of that." + +"Well, I will write to him. Meanwhile, beware of this woman. I have +heard much of her abroad, and she has the character of her brother for +duplicity and--" + +"Beauty," interrupted Audley, turning the conversation with practised +adroitness. "I am told that the Count is one of the handsomest men in +Europe, much handsomer than his sister still, though nearly twice her +age. Tut--tut--Harley! fear not for me. I am proof against all +feminine attractions. This heart is dead." + +"Nay, nay; it is not for you to speak thus--leave that to me. But even +_I_ will not say it. The heart never dies. And you; what have you +lost?--a wife; true: an excellent noble-hearted woman. But was it love +that you felt for her? Enviable man, have you ever loved?" + +"Perhaps not, Harley," said Audley, with a sombre aspect, and in +dejected accents; "very few men ever have loved, at least as you mean +by the word. But there are other passions than love that kill the +heart, and reduce us to mechanism." + +While Egerton spoke, Harley turned aside, and his breast heaved. There +was a short silence. Audley was the first to break it. + +"Speaking of my lost wife, I am sorry that you do not approve what I +have done for her young kinsman, Randal Leslie." + +_Harley_, (recovering himself with an effort.)--"Is it true kindness +to bid him exchange manly independence for the protection of an +official patron?" + +_Audley._--"I did not bid him. I gave him his choice. At his age I +should have chosen as he has done." + +_Harley._--"I trust not; I think better of you. But answer me one +question frankly, and then I will ask another. Do you mean to make +this young man your heir?" + +_Audley_, (with a slight embarrassment.)--"Heir, pooh! I am young +still. I may live as long as he--time enough to think of that." + +_Harley._--"Then now to my second question. Have you told this youth +plainly that he may look to you for influence, but not for wealth?" + +_Audley_, (firmly.)--"I think I have; but I shall repeat it more +emphatically." + +_Harley._--"Then I am satisfied as to your conduct, but not as to his. +For he has too acute an intellect not to know what it is to forfeit +independence; and, depend upon it, he has made his calculations, and +would throw you into the bargain in any balance that he could strike +in his favor. You go by your experience in judging men--I by my +instincts. Nature warns us as it does the inferior animals--only we +are too conceited, we bipeds, to heed her. My instincts of soldier and +gentleman recoil from the old young man. He has the soul of the +Jesuit. I see it in his eye--I hear it in the tread of his foot; +_volto sciolto_, he has not; _i pensieri stretti_ he has. Hist! I hear +now his step in the hall. I should know it from a thousand. That's his +very touch on the handle of the door." + +Randal Leslie entered. Harley--who, despite his disregard for forms +and his dislike to Randal, was too high-bred not to be polite to his +junior in age or inferior in rank--rose and bowed. But his bright +piercing eyes did not soften as they caught and bore down the deeper +and more latent fire in Randal's. Harley then did not resume his seat, +but moved to the mantel-piece, and leant against it. + +_Randal._--"I have fulfilled your commissions, Mr. Egerton. I went +first to Maida Hill, and saw Mr. Burley. I gave him the check, but he +said it was too much, and he should return half to the banker; he will +write the article as you suggested. I then--" + +_Audley._--"Enough, Randal. We will not fatigue Lord L'Estrange with +these little details of a life that displeases him--the life +political." + +_Harley._--"But _these_ details do not displease me--they reconcile me +to my own life. Go on, pray, Mr. Leslie." + +Randal had too much tact to need the cautioning glance of Mr. Egerton. +He did not continue, but said, with a soft voice, "Do you think, Lord +L'Estrange, that the contemplation of the mode of life pursued by +others _can_ reconcile a man to his own, if he had before thought it +needed a reconciler?" + +Harley looked pleased, for the question was ironical; and, if there +was a thing in the world he abhorred, it was flattery. + +"Recollect your Lucretius, Mr. Leslie, _Suave mare_, &c., 'pleasant +from the cliff to see the mariners tossed on the ocean.' Faith, I +think that sight reconciles one to the cliff--though, before, one +might have been teased by the splash from the spray, and deafened by +the scream of the sea-gulls. But I leave you, Audley. Strange that I +have heard no more of my soldier. Remember I have your promise when I +come to claim it. Good-bye, Mr. Leslie, I hope that Mr. Burley's +article will be worth the--check." + +Lord L'Estrange mounted his horse, which was still at the door, and +rode through the Park. But he was no longer now unknown by sight. Bows +and nods saluted him on every side. + +"Alas, I am found out, then," said he to himself. "That terrible +Duchess of Knaresborough, too--I must fly my country." He pushed his +horse into a canter, and was soon out of the Park. As he dismounted at +his father's sequestered house, you would have hardly supposed him the +same whimsical, fantastic, but deep and subtle humorist that delighted +in perplexing the material Audley. For his expressive face was +unutterably serious. But the moment he came into the presence of his +parents, the countenance was again lighted and cheerful. It brightened +the whole room like sunshine. + + +CHAPTER XI. + +"Mr. Leslie," said Egerton, when Harley had left the library, "you did +not act with your usual discretion in touching upon matters connected +with politics in the presence of a third party." + +"I feel that already, sir. My excuse is, that I held Lord L'Estrange +to be your most intimate friend." + +"A public man, Mr. Leslie, would ill serve his country if he were not +especially reserved towards his private friends,--when they do not +belong to his party." + +"But, pardon me my ignorance: Lord Lansmere is so well known to be one +of your supporters that I fancied his son must share his sentiments, +and be in your confidence." + +Egerton's brows slightly contracted, and gave a stern expression to a +countenance always firm and decided. He however answered in a mild +tone. + +"At the entrance into political life, Mr. Leslie, there is nothing in +which a young man of your talents should be more on his guard than +thinking for himself. He will nearly always think wrong. And I believe +that is one reason why young men of talent disappoint their friends, +and--remain so long out of office." + +A haughty flush passed over Randal's brow, and faded away quickly. He +bowed in silence. + +Egerton resumed, as if in explanation, and even in kindly apology-- + +"Look at Lord L'Estrange himself. What young man could come into life +with brighter auspices? Rank, wealth, high animal spirits, (a great +advantage those same spirits, Mr. Leslie,) courage, self-possession, +scholarship as brilliant perhaps as your own; and now see how his life +is wasted! Why! He always thought fit to think for himself. He could +never be broken into harness, and never will be. The state coach, Mr. +Leslie, requires that all the horses should pull together." + +"With submission, sir," answered Randal, "I should think that there +were other reasons why Lord L'Estrange, whatever be his talents--and +indeed of these you must be an adequate judge--would never do any +thing in public life." + +"Ay, and what?" said Egerton, quickly. + +"First," said Randal, shrewdly, "private life has done too much for +him. What could public life give to one who needs nothing? Born at the +top of the social ladder, why should he put himself voluntarily at the +last step, for the sake of climbing up again! And secondly, Lord +L'Estrange seems to me a man in whose organization _sentiment_ usurps +too large a share for practical existence." + +"You have a keen eye," said Audley, with some admiration; "keen for +one so young. Poor Harley!" + +Mr. Egerton's last words were said to himself. He resumed quickly-- + +"There is something on my mind, my young friend. Let us be frank with +each other. I placed before you fairly the advantages and +disadvantages of the choice I gave you. To take your degree with such +honors as no doubt you would have won, to obtain your fellowship, to +go to the bar, with those credentials in favor of your talents--this +was one career. To come at once into public life, to profit by my +experience, avail yourself of my interest, to take the chances of or +fall with a party--this was another. You chose the last. But, in so +doing, there was a consideration which might weigh with you; and on +which, in stating your reasons for your option, you were silent." + +"What's that, sir?" + +"You might have counted on my fortune should the chances of party fail +you;--speak--and without shame if so; it would be natural in a young +man, who comes from the elder branch of the house whose heiress was my +wife." + +"You wound me, Mr. Egerton," said Randal, turning away. + +Mr. Egerton's cold glance followed Randal's movement; the face was hid +from the glance--it rested on the figure, which is often as +self-betraying as the countenance itself. Randal baffled Mr. Egerton's +penetration--the young man's emotion might be honest pride, and pained +and generous feeling; or it might be something else. Egerton continued +slowly. + +"Once for all then, distinctly and emphatically, I say--never count +upon that; count upon all else that I can do for you, and forgive me, +when I advise harshly or censure coldly; ascribe this to my interest +in your career. Moreover, before decision becomes irrevocable, I wish +you to know practically all that is disagreeable or even humiliating +in the first subordinate steps of him who, without wealth or station, +would rise in public life. I will not consider your choice settled, +till the end of a year at least--your name will be kept on the college +books till then; if, on experience, you should prefer to return to +Oxford, and pursue the slower but surer path to independence and +distinction, you can. And now give me your hand, Mr. Leslie, in sign +that you forgive my bluntness;--it is time to dress." + +Randal, with his face still averted, extended his hand. Mr. Egerton +held it a moment, then dropping it, left the room. Randal turned as +the door closed. And there was in his dark face a power of sinister +passion, that justified all Harley's warnings. His lips moved, but not +audibly; then, as if struck by a sudden thought, he followed Egerton +into the Hall. + +"Sir," said he, "I forgot to say that on returning from Maida Hill, I +took shelter from the rain under a covered passage, and there I met +unexpectedly with your nephew, Frank Hazeldean." + +"Ah!" said Egerton indifferently, "a fine young man; in the Guards. It +is a pity that my brother has such antiquated political notions; he +should put his son into parliament, and under my guidance; I could +push him. Well, and what said Frank?" + +"He invited me to call on him. I remember that you once rather +cautioned me against too intimate an acquaintance with those who have +not got their fortune to make." + +"Because they are idle, and idleness is contagious. Right--better not +be intimate with a young Guardsman." + +"Then you would not have me call on him, sir? We were rather friends +at Eton; and if I wholly reject his overtures, might he not think that +you--" + +"I!" interrupted Egerton. "Ah, true; my brother might think I bore him +a grudge; absurd. Call then, and ask the young man here. Yet still, I +do not advise intimacy." + +Egerton turned into his dressing-room. "Sir," said his valet, who was +in waiting, "Mr. Levy is here--he says, by appointment; and Mr. +Grinders is also just come from the country." + +"Tell Mr. Grinders to come in first," said Egerton, seating himself. +"You need not wait; I can dress without you. Tell Mr. Levy I will see +him in five minutes." + +Mr. Grinders was steward to Audley Egerton. + +Mr. Levy was a handsome man, who wore a camelia in his +button-hole--drove, in his cabriolet, a high stepping horse that had +cost L200: was well known to young men of fashion, and considered by +their fathers a very dangerous acquaintance. + + +CHAPTER XII. + +As the company assembled in the drawing-rooms, Mr. Egerton introduced +Randal Leslie to his eminent friends in a way that greatly contrasted +the distant and admonitory manner which he had exhibited to him in +private. The presentation was made with that cordiality, and that +gracious respect by which those who are in station command notice for +those who have their station yet to win. + +"My dear Lord, let me introduce to you a kinsman of my late wife's (in +a whisper)--the heir to the elder branch of her family. Stranmore, +this is Mr. Leslie, of whom I spoke to you. You, who were so +distinguished at Oxford, will not like him the worse for the prizes he +gained there. Duke, let me present to you, Mr. Leslie. The duchess is +angry with me for deserting her balls; I shall hope to make my peace, +by providing myself with a younger and livelier substitute. Ah, Mr. +Howard, here is a young gentleman just fresh from Oxford, who will +tell us all about the new sect springing up there. He has not wasted +his time on billiards and horses." + +Leslie was received with all that charming courtesy which is the _To +Kalon_ of an aristocracy. + +After dinner, conversation settled on politics. Randal listened with +attention and in silence, till Egerton drew him gently out; just +enough, and no more--just enough to make his intelligence evident, +without subjecting him to the charge of laying down the law. Egerton +knew how to draw out young men--a difficult art. It was one reason why +he was so peculiarly popular with the more rising members of his +party. + +The party broke up early. + +"We are in time for Almack's," said Egerton, glancing at the clock, +"and I have a voucher for you; come." + +Randal followed his patron into the carriage. By the way, Egerton thus +addressed him-- + +"I shall introduce you to the principal leaders of society; know them +and study them; I do not advise you to attempt to do more--that is, to +attempt to become the fashion. It is a very expensive ambition; some +men it helps, most men it ruins. On the whole, you have better cards +in your hands. Dance or not, as it pleases you--don't flirt. If you +flirt, people will inquire into your fortune--an inquiry that will do +you little good; and flirting entangles a young man into marrying. +That would never do. Here we are." + +In two minutes more they were in the great ball-room, and Randal's +eyes were dazzled with the lights, the diamonds, the blaze of beauty. +Audley presented him in quick succession to some dozen ladies, and +then disappeared amidst the crowd. Randal was not at a loss; he was +without shyness; or if he had that disabling infirmity, he concealed +it. He answered the languid questions put to him, with a certain +spirit that kept up talk, and left a favorable impression of his +agreeable qualities. But the lady with whom he got on the best, was +one who had no daughters out, a handsome and witty woman of the +world--Lady Frederick Coniers. + +"It is your first ball at Almack's, then, Mr. Leslie?" + +"My first." + +"And you have not secured a partner? Shall I find you one? What do you +think of that pretty girl in pink?" + +"I see her--but I cannot _think_ of her." + +"You are rather, perhaps, like a diplomatist in a new court, and your +first object is to know who is who." + +"I confess that on beginning to study the history of my own day, I +should like to distinguish the portraits that illustrate the memoir." + +"Give me your arm, then, and we will come into the next room. We shall +see the different _notabilites_ enter one by one, and observe without +being observed. This is the least I can do for a friend of Mr. +Egerton's." + +"Mr. Egerton, then," said Randal,--(as they threaded their way through +the space without the rope that protected the dancers)--"Mr. Egerton +has had the good fortune to win your esteem, even for his friends, +however obscure?" + +"Why, to say truth, I think no one whom Mr. Egerton calls his friend +need long remain obscure, if he has the ambition to be otherwise. For +Mr. Egerton holds it a maxim never to forget a friend, nor a service." + +"Ah, indeed!" said Randal, surprised. + +"And, therefore," continued Lady Frederick, "as he passes through +life, friends gather round him. He will rise even higher yet. +Gratitude, Mr. Leslie, is a very good policy." + +"Hem," muttered Mr. Leslie. + +They had now gained the room where tea and bread and butter were the +homely refreshments to the _habitues_ of what at that day was the most +exclusive assembly in London. They ensconced themselves in a corner by +a window, and Lady Frederick performed her task of cicerone with +lively ease, accompanying each notice of the various persons who +passed panoramically before them with sketch and anecdote, sometimes +good-natured, generally satirical, always graphic and amusing. + +By-and-by Frank Hazeldean, having on his arm a young lady of haughty +air, and with high though delicate features, came to the tea-table. + +"The last new Guardsman," said Lady Frederick; "very handsome, and not +yet quite spoiled. But he has got into a dangerous set." + +_Randal._--"The young lady with him is handsome enough to be +dangerous." + +_Lady Frederick_, (laughing.)--"No danger for him there,--as yet at +least. Lady Mary (the duke of Knaresborough's daughter) is only in her +second. The first year, nothing under an earl; the second, nothing +under a baron. It will be full four years before she comes down to a +commoner. Mr. Hazeldean's danger is of another kind. He lives much +with men who are not exactly _mauvais ton_, but certainly not of the +best taste. Yet he is very young; he may extricate himself--leaving +half his fortune behind him. What, he nods to you! You know him?" + +"Very well; he is nephew to Mr. Egerton." + +"Indeed! I did not know that. Hazeldean is a new name in London. I +heard his father was a plain country gentleman, of good fortune, but +not that he was related to Mr. Egerton." + +"Half-brother." + +"Will Mr. Egerton pay the young gentleman's debts? He has no sons +himself." + +_Randal._--"Mr. Egerton's fortune comes from his wife, from my +family--from a Leslie, not from a Hazeldean." + +Lady Frederick turned sharply, looked at Randal's countenance with +more attention than she had yet vouchsafed to it, and tried to talk of +the Leslies. Randal was very short there. + +An hour afterwards, Randal, who had not danced, was still in the +refreshment room, but Lady Frederick had long quitted him. He was +talking with some old Etonians who had recognized him, when there +entered a lady of very remarkable appearance, and a murmur passed +through the room as she appeared. + +She might be three or four and twenty. She was dressed in black +velvet, which contrasted with the alabaster whiteness of her throat +and the clear paleness of her complexion, while it set off the +diamonds with which she was profusely covered. Her hair was of the +deepest jet, and worn simply braided. Her eyes, too, were dark and +brilliant, her features regular and striking; but their expression, +when in repose, was not prepossessing to such as love modesty and +softness in the looks of woman. But when she spoke and smiled, there +was so much spirit and vivacity in the countenance, so much +fascination in the smile, that all which might before have marred the +effect of her beauty, strangely and suddenly disappeared. + +"Who is that very handsome woman?" asked Randal. + +"An Italian--a Marchesa something," said one of the Etonians. + +"Di Negra," suggested another, who had been abroad; "she is a widow; +her husband was of the great Genoese family of Negra--a younger branch +of it." + +Several men now gathered thickly around the fair Italian. A few ladies +of the highest rank spoke to her, but with a more distant courtesy +than ladies of high rank usually show to foreigners of such quality as +Madame di Negra. Ladies of a rank less elevated seemed rather shy of +her;--that might be from jealousy. As Randall gazed at the Marchesa +with more admiration than any woman, perhaps, had before excited in +him, he heard a voice near him say-- + +"Oh, Madame di Negra is resolved to settle amongst us, and marry an +Englishman." + +"If she can find one sufficiently courageous," returned a female +voice. + +"Well, she is trying hard for Egerton, and he has courage enough for +any thing." + +The female voice replied with a laugh, "Mr. Egerton knows the world +too well, and has resisted too many temptations, to be--" + +"Hush!--there he is." + +Egerton came into the room with his usual firm step and erect mien. +Randal observed that a quick glance was exchanged between him and the +Marchesa; but the Minister passed her by with a bow. + +Still Randal watched, and, ten minutes afterwards, Egerton and the +Marchesa were seated apart in the very same convenient nook that +Randal and Lady Frederick had occupied an hour or so before. + +"Is this the reason why Mr. Egerton so insultingly warns me against +counting on his fortune?" muttered Randal. "Does he mean to marry +again?" + +Unjust suspicion!--for, at that moment these were the words that +Audley Egerton was dropping forth from his lips of bronze-- + +"Nay, dear Madam, do not ascribe to my frank admiration more gallantry +that it merits. Your conversation charms me, your beauty delights me; +your society is as a holiday that I look forward to in the fatigues of +my life. But I have done with love, and I shall never marry again." + +"You almost pique me into trying to win, in order to reject you," said +the Italian, with a flash from her bright eyes. + +"I defy even you," answered Audley, with his cold hard smile. "But to +return to the point: You have more influence at least over this subtle +Ambassador; and the secret we speak of I rely on you to obtain me. Ah, +Madam, let us rest friends. You see I have conquered the unjust +prejudice against you; you are received and _feted_ every where, as +becomes your birth and your attractions. Rely on me ever, as I on you. +But I shall excite too much envy if I stay here longer, and am vain +enough to think that I may injure you if I provoke the gossip of the +ill-natured. As the avowed friend, I can serve you--as the supposed +lover, No--" Audley rose, as he said this, and, standing by the chair, +added carelessly, "Apropos, the sum you do me the honor to borrow will +be paid to your bankers to-morrow." + +"A thousand thanks!--my brother will hasten to repay you." + +Audley bowed. "Your brother, I hope, will repay me in person, not +before. When does he come?" + +"Oh, he has again postponed his visit _to_ London; he is so much +needed in Vienna. But while we are talking of him, allow me to ask if +Lord L'Estrange is indeed still so bitter against that poor brother of +mine?" + +"Still the same!" + +"It is shameful," cried the Italian with warmth; "what has my brother +ever done to him, that he should intrigue against the Count in his own +court?" + +"Intrigue! I think you wrong Lord L'Estrange; he but represented what +he believed to be the truth, in defence of a ruined exile." + +"And you will not tell me where that exile is, or if his daughter +still lives?" + +"My dear Marchesa, I have called you friend, therefore, I will not aid +L'Estrange to injure you or yours. But I call L'Estrange a friend +also; and I cannot violate the trust that--" Audley stopped short, and +bit his lip. "You understand me," he resumed, with a genial smile, and +took his leave. + +The Italian's brows met as her eye followed him; then, as she too +rose, that eye encountered Randal's. Each surveyed the other--each +felt a certain strange fascination--a sympathy--not of affection, but +of intellect. + +"That young man has the eye of an Italian," said the Marchesa to +herself; and as she passed by him into the ball-room, she turned and +smiled. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[8] Continued from page 557, vol. iii. + +[9] If, at the date in which Lord L'Estrange held this conversation +with Mr. Egerton, Alfred de Musset had written his comedies, we should +suspect that his lordship had plagiarized from one of them the +whimsical idea that he here vents upon Audley. In repeating it, the +author at least cannot escape from the charge of obligation to a +writer whose humor, at least, is sufficiently opulent to justify the +loan. + + + + +From the London Examiner. + +IMAGINARY CONVERSATION AT WARSAW. + +NICHOLAS AND NESSELRODE. + +BY WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR. + + +_Nicholas._--God fights for us visibly. You look grave, Nesselrode! is +it not so? Speak, and plainly. + +_Nesselrode._--Sire, in my humble opinion, God never fights at all. + +_Nicholas._--Surely he fought for Israel, when he was invoked by +prayer. + +_Nesselrode._--Sire, I am no theologian; and I fancy I must be a bad +geographer, since I never knew of a nation which was not Israel when +it had a mind to shed blood and to pray. To fight is an exertion, is +violence; the Deity in His omnipotence needs none. He has devils and +men always in readiness for fighting; and they are the instruments of +their own punishment for their past misdeeds. + +_Nicholas._--The chariots of God are numbered by thousands in the +volumes of the Psalmist. + +_Nesselrode._--No psalmist, or engineer, or commissary, or +arithmetician, could enumerate the beasts that are harnessed to them, +or the fiends that urge them on. + +_Nicholas._--Nesselrode! you grow more and more serious. + +_Nesselrode._--Age, sire, even without wisdom, makes men serious +whether they are inclined or not. I could hardly have been so long +conversant in the affairs of mankind (all which in all quarters your +majesty superintends and directs) without much cause for seriousness. + +_Nicholas._--I feel the consciousness of Supreme Power, but I also +feel the necessity of subordinate help. + +_Nesselrode._--Your majesty is the first monarch, since the earlier +Caesars of Imperial Rome, who could control, directly or indirectly, +every country in our hemisphere, and thereby in both. + +_Nicholas._--There are some who do not see this. + +_Nesselrode._--There were some, and they indeed the most acute and +politic of mankind, who could not see the power of the Macedonian king +until he showed his full height upon the towers of Cheronoea. There +are some at this moment in England who disregard the admonitions of +the most wary and experienced general of modern times, and listen in +preference to babblers holding forth on economy and peace from +slippery sacks of cotton and wool. + +_Nicholas._--Hush! hush! these are our men; what should we do without +them? A single one of them in the parliament or town-hall is worth to +me a regiment of cuirassiers. These are the true bullets with conical +heads which carry far and sure. Hush! hush! + +_Nesselrode._--They do not hear us: they do not hear Wellington: they +would not hear Nelson were he living. + +_Nicholas._--No other man that ever lived, having the same power in +his hands, would have endured with the same equanimity as Wellington, +the indignities he suffered in Portugal; superseded in the hour of +victory by two generals, one upon another, like marsh frogs; people of +no experience, no ability. He might have become king of Portugal by +compromise, and have added Gallicia and Biscay. + +_Nesselrode._--The English, out of parliament, are delicate and +fastidious. He would have thought it dishonorable to profit by the +indignation of his army in the field, and of his countrymen at home. +Certainty that Bonaparte would attempt to violate any engagement with +him might never enter into the computation; for Bonaparte could less +easily drive him again out of Portugal than he could drive the usurper +out of Spain. We ourselves should have assisted him actively; so would +the Americans; for every naval power would be prompt at diminishing +the preponderance of the English. Practicability was here with +Wellington; but, endowed with it a keener and a longer foresight than +any of his contemporaries, he held in prospective the glory that +awaited him, and felt conscious that to be the greatest man in England +is somewhat more than to be the greatest in Portugal. He is +universally called _the_ duke; to the extinction or absorption of that +dignity over all the surface of the earth: in Portugal he could only +be called king of Portugal. + +_Nicholas._--Faith! that is little: it was not overmuch even before +the last accession. I admire his judgment and moderation. The English +are abstinent: they rein in their horses where the French make them +fret and curvett. It displeases me to think it possible that a subject +should ever become a sovran. We were angry with the Duke of Sudermania +for raising a Frenchman to that dignity in Sweden, although we were +willing that Gustavus, for offences and affronts to our family, should +be chastized, and even expelled. Here was a bad precedent. Fortunately +the boldest soldiers dismount from their chargers at some distance +from the throne. What withholds them? + +_Nesselrode._--Spells are made of words. The word _service_ among the +military has great latent negative power. All modern nations, even the +free, employ it. + +_Nicholas._--An excellent word indeed! It shows the superiority of +modern languages over ancient; Christian ideas over pagan; living +similitudes of God over bronze and marble. What an escape had England +from her folly, perversity, and injustice! Her admirals had the same +wrongs to avenge: her fleets would have anchored in Ferrol and Coruna; +thousands of volunteers from every part of both islands would have +assembled round the same standard; and both Indies would have bowed +before the conqueror. Who knows but that Spain herself might have +turned to the same quarter, from the idiocy of Ferdinand, the +immorality of Joseph, and the perfidy of Napoleon? + +_Nesselrode._--England seems to invite and incite, not only her +colonies, but her commanders, to insurrection. Nelson was treated even +more ignominiously than Wellington. A man equal in abilities and in +energy to either met with every affront from the East India Company. +After two such victories in succession as the Duke himself declared +before the Lords that he had never known or read of, he was removed +from the command of his army, and a general by whose rashness it was +decimated was raised to the peerage. If Wellington could with safety +have seized the supreme power in Portugal, Napier could with greater +have accomplished it in India. The distance from home was farther; the +army more confident; the allies more numerous, more unanimous. One +avenger of _their_ wrongs would have found a million avengers of +_his_. Affghanistan, Cabul, and Scinde, would have united their +acclamations on the Ganges: songs of triumph, succeeded by songs of +peace, would have been chanted at Delhi, and have re-echoed at +Samarcand. + +_Nicholas._--I am desirous that Persia and India should pour their +treasures into my dominions. The English are so credulous as to +believe that I intend, or could accomplish, the conquest of Hindostan. +I want only the commerce; and I hope to share it with the Americans; +not I indeed, but my successors. The possession of California has +opened the Pacific and the Indian seas to the Americans, who must, +within the life-time of some now born, predominate in both. Supposing +that emigrants to the amount of only a quarter of a million settle in +the United States every year, within a century from the present day, +their population must exceed three hundred millions. It will not +extend from pole to pole, only because there will be room enough +without it. + +_Nesselrode._--Religious wars, the most sanguinary of any, are stifled +in the fields of agriculture; creeds are thrown overboard by commerce. + +_Nicholas._--Theological questions come at last to be decided by the +broadsword; and the best artillery brings forward the best arguments. +Montecuculi and Wallenstein were irrefragable doctors. Saint Peter was +commanded to put up his sword; but the ear was cut off first. + +_Nesselrode._--The blessed saint's escape from capital punishment, +after this violence, is among the greatest of miracles. Perhaps there +may be a perplexity in the text. Had he committed so great a crime +against a person so highly protected as one in the high-priest's +household, he never would have lived long enough to be crucified at +Rome, but would have carried his cross up to Calvary three days after +the offence. The laws of no country would tolerate it. + +_Nicholas._--How did he ever get to Rome at all? He must have been +conveyed by an angel, or have slipt on a sudden into a railroad train, +purposely and for the nonce provided. There is a controversy at the +present hour about his delegated authority, and it appears to be next +to certain that he never was in the capital of the west. It is my +interest to find it decided in the negative. Successors to the +emperors of the east, who sanctioned and appointed the earliest popes, +as the bishops of Rome are denominated, I may again at my own good +time claim the privilege and prerogative. The cardinals and their +subordinates are extending their claws in all directions: we must +throw these crabs upon their backs again. + +_Nesselrode._--Some among the Italians, and chiefly among the Romans, +are venturing to express an opinion that there would be less of false +religion, and more of true, if no priest of any description were left +upon earth. + +_Nicholas._--Horrible! unless are exempted those of the venerable +Greek church. All others worship graven images: we stick to pictures. + +_Nesselrode._--One scholar mentioned, not without an air of derision, +that a picture had descended from heaven recently on the coast of +Italy. + +_Nicholas._--Framed? varnisht? under glass? on panel? on canvas? What +like? + +_Nesselrode._--The Virgin Mary, whatever made of. + +_Nicholas._--She must be ours then. She missed her road: she never +would have taken her place among stocks and stones and blind +worshipers. Easterly winds must have blown her toward a pestilential +city, where at every street-corner is very significantly inscribed its +true name at full length, _Immondezzaio_. But I hope I am guilty of no +profaneness or infidelity when I express a doubt if every picture of +the Blessed Virgin is sentient; most are; perhaps not every one. If +they want her in England, as they seem to do, let them have her ... +unless it is the one that rolls the eyes: in that case I must claim +her: she is too precious by half for papist or tractarian. I must +order immediately these matters. No reasonable doubt can be +entertained that I am the visible head of Christ's church. Theologians +may be consulted in regard to St. Peter, and may discover a manuscript +at Novgorod, stating his martyrdom there, and proving his will and +signature. + +_Nesselrode._--Theologians may find perhaps in the _Revelations_ some +Beast foreshadowing your Majesty. + +_Nicholas._--How? sir! how? + +_Nesselrode._--Emperors and kings, we are taught, are designated as +great beasts in the Holy Scriptures ... (_Aside_) ... and elsewhere. + + +SECOND CONVERSATION. + +_Nicholas._--We have disposed of our brother, his Prussian Majesty, +who appeared to be imprest by the apprehension that a portion of his +dominions was in jeopardy. + +_Nesselrode._--Possibly the scales of Europe are yet to be adjusted. + +_Nicholas._--When the winds blow high they must waver. Against the +danger of contingencies, and in readiness to place my finger on the +edge of one or other, it is my intention to spend in future a good +part of my time at Warsaw, that city being so nearly central in my +dominions. Good Nesselrode! there should have been a poet near you to +celebrate the arching of your eyebrows. They suddenly dropt down again +under the horizontal line of your Emperor's. Nobody ever stared in my +presence; but I really do think you were upon the verge of it when I +inadvertently said _dominions_ instead of _dependencies_. Well, well: +dependencies are dominions; and of all dominions they require the +least trouble. + +_Nesselrode._--Your Majesty has found no difficulty with any, +excepting the Circassians. + +_Nicholas._--The Circassians are the Normans of Asia; equally brave, +more generous, more chivalrous. I am no admirer of military trinkets; +but I have been surprised at the beauty of their chain-armor, the +temper of their swords, the richness of hilt, and the gracefulness of +baldric. + +_Nesselrode._--It is a pity they are not Christians and subjects of +your Majesty. + +_Nicholas._--If they would become my subjects, I would let them, as I +have let other Mahometans, become Christians at their leisure. We must +brigade them before baptism. + +_Nesselrode._--It is singular that this necessity never struck those +religious men who are holding peace conferences in various parts of +Europe. + +_Nicholas._--One of them, I remember, tried to persuade the people of +England that if the bankers of London would negotiate no loan with me +I could carry on no war. + +_Nesselrode._--Wonderful! how ignorant are monied men of money +matters. Your Majesty was graciously pleased to listen to my advice +when hostilities seemed inevitable. I was desirous of raising the +largest loan possible, that none should be forthcoming to the urgency +of others. At that very moment your Majesty had in your coffers more +than sufficient for the additional expenditure of three campaigns. +Well may your Majesty smile at this computation, and at the blindness +that suggested it. For never will your Majesty send an army into any +part of Europe which shall not maintain itself there by its own +prowess. Your cavalry will seize all the provisions that are not +stored up within the fortresses; and in every army those are to be +found who for a few thousand roubles are ready to blow up their +ammunition-wagons. We know by name almost every discontented man in +Europe. + +_Nicholas._--To obtain this information, my yearly expenses do not +exceed the revenues of half a dozen English bishops. Every +_table-d'hote_ on the continent, you tell me, has one daily guest sent +by me. Ladies in the higher circles have taken my presents and +compliments, part in diamonds and part in smiles. An emperor's smiles +are as valuable to them as theirs are to a cornet of dragoons. Spare +nothing in the boudoir and you spare much in the field. + +_Nesselrode._--Such appears to have been the invariable policy of the +Empress Catharine, now with God. + +_Nicholas._--My father of glorious memory was less observant of it. He +had prejudices and dislikes; he expected to find every body a +gentleman, even kings and ministers. If they were so, how could he +have hoped to sway them? and how to turn them from the strait road +into his? + +_Nesselrode._--Your Majesty is far above the influence of antipathies; +but I have often heard your Majesty express your hatred, and sometimes +your contempt, of Bonaparte. + +_Nicholas._--I hated him for his insolence, and I despised him alike +for his cowardice and falsehood. Shame is the surest criterion of +humanity. When one is wanting, the other is. The beasts never indicate +shame in a state of nature; in society some of them acquire it; +Bonaparte not. He neither blushed at repudiating a modest woman, nor +at supplanting her by an immodest one. Holding a pistol to the +father's ear, he ordered him to dismount from his carriage; to deliver +up his ring, his watch, his chain, his seal, his knee-buckle; +stripping off galloon from trouser, and presently trouser too: caught, +pinioned, sentenced, he fell on both knees in the mud, and implored +this poor creature's intercession to save him from the hangman. He +neither blushed at the robbery of a crown nor at the fabrication of +twenty. He was equally ungrateful in public life and in private. He +banished Barras, who promoted and protected him: he calumniated the +French admiral, whose fleet for his own safety he detained on the +shores of Egypt, and the English admiral who defeated him in Syria +with a tenth of his force. Baffled as he often was, and at last +fatally, and admirably as in many circumstances he knew how to be a +general, never in any did he know how to be a gentleman. He was fond +of displaying the picklock keys whereby he found entrance into our +cabinets, and of twitching the ears of his accomplices. + +_Nesselrode._--Certainly he was less as an emperor than as a soldier. + +_Nicholas._--Great generals may commit grievous and disastrous +mistakes, but never utterly ruinous. Charles V., Gustavus Adolphus, +Peter the Great, Frederic of Prussia, Prince Eugene, Marlborough, +William, Wellington, kept their winnings, and never hazarded the last +crown-piece. Bonaparte, when he had swept the tables, cried _double or +quits_. + +_Nesselrode._--The wheel of Fortune is apt to make men giddier, the +higher it rises and the quicklier it turns: sometimes it drops them on +a barren rock, and sometimes on a treadmill. The nephew is more +prudent than the uncle. + +_Nicholas._--You were extremely wise, my dear Nesselrode, in +suggesting our idea to the French President, and in persuading him to +acknowledge in the face of the world that he had been justly +imprisoned by Louis Philippe for attempting to subvert the existing +powers. Frenchmen are taught by this declaration what they may expect +for a similar crime against his own pretensions. We will show our +impartiality by an equal countenance and favor toward all parties. In +different directions all are working out the design of God, and +producing unity of empire "on earth as it is in heaven." Until this +consummation there can never be universal or indeed any lasting peace. + +_Nesselrode._--This, lying far remote, I await your Majesty's commands +for what is now before us. Your Majesty was graciously pleased to +express your satisfaction at the manner in which I executed them in +regard to the President of the French Republic. + +_Nicholas._--Republic indeed! I have ordered it to be a crime in +France to utter this odious name. President forsooth! we have directed +him hitherto; let him now keep his way. Our object was to stifle the +spirit of freedom: we tossed the handkerchief to him, and he found the +chloroform. Every thing is going on in Europe exactly as I desire; we +must throw nothing in the way to shake the machine off the rail. It is +running at full speed where no whistle can stop it. Every prince is +exasperating his subjects, and exhausting his treasury in order to +keep them under due control. What nation on the continent, mine +excepted, can maintain for two years longer its present war +establishment? And without this engine of coercion what prince can be +the master of his people? England is tranquil at home; can she +continue so when a foreigner would place a tiara over her crown, +telling her who shall teach and what shall be taught. Principally, +that where masses are not said for departed souls, better it would be +that there were no souls at all, since they certainly must be damned. +The school which doubts it is denounced as godless. + +_Nesselrode._--England, sire, is indeed tranquil at home; but that +home is a narrow one, and extends not across the Irish channel. Every +colony is dissatisfied and disturbed. No faith has been kept with any +of them by the secretary now in office. At the Cape of Good Hope, +innumerable nations, warlike and well-armed, have risen up +simultaneously against her; and, to say nothing of the massacres in +Ceylon, your Majesty well knows what atrocities her Commissioner has +long exercised in the Seven Isles. England looks on and applauds, +taking a hearty draught of Lethe at every sound of the scourge. + +_Nicholas._--Nesselrode! You seem indignant. I see only the cheerful +sparks of a fire at which our dinner is to be dressed; we shall soon +sit down to it; Greece must not call me away until I rise from the +dessert; I will then take my coffee at Constantinople. The crescent +ere long will become the full harvest-moon. Our reapers have already +the sickles in their hands. + +_Nesselrode._--England may grumble. + +_Nicholas._--So she will. She is as ready now to grumble as she +formerly was to fight. She grumbles too early; she fights too late. +Extraordinary men are the English. They raise the hustings higher than +the throne; and, to make amends, being resolved to build a new palace, +they push it under an old bridge. The Cardinal, in his way to the +Abbey, may in part disrobe at it. Noble vestry-room! where many +habiliments are changed. Capacious dovecote! where carrier-pigeons and +fantails and croppers, intermingled with the more ordinary, bill and +coo, ruffle and smoothen their feathers, and bend their versicolor +necks to the same corn. + + + + +From Bentley's Miscellany for July. + +LONDON, PARIS, AND NEW-YORK. + + +Standing in the City Hall, New-York, and drawing from that point a +circle whose radius shall be three miles, we embrace a population of +three-quarters of a million. We say this at the outset, by way of +securing respect for our theme. + +New-York is a mere Jonah's gourd or Jack the Giant-killer's beanstalk +compared with London. London was London when St. Paul was a prisoner +in Rome, ten years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Sixteen +hundred years afterwards, when New-York was but just named, London +lost some seventy thousand inhabitants by the plague, and more than +thirteen thousand houses by the Great Fire, and hardly missed them. + +Before this period, however, the little Dutch town of Niew Amsterdam, +called by the aborigines Manahatta, or Manhattan, had commenced a +dozing existence, under the government of Walter the Doubter and Peter +the Headstrong, celebrated by that great chronicler, Diedrich +Knickerbocker. Some consider this a mythic period, and class the +legends of Wilhelmus Van Kieft's wisdom, and Peter Stuyvesant's valor, +with the stories of Romulus and Remus, and the Horatii and Curiatii. +But to cast any doubt upon a historian like Knickerbocker--the Grote +of colonial history--at once minute and philosophical, just and +enthusiastic--is surely unwise. His picture of the portly burghers of +Niew Amsterdam, their habits and manners, pursuits, politics, and +laws, is verified by the impress left on their descendants. All the +foreign floods that have swept over the city have not been able to +wash out the footsteps of the original settlers; and Walter the +Doubter and Peter the Headstrong still figure, it is said, in the +Assembly of the City Fathers, though the voluminous nether +habiliments, which characterized them of old, have dwindled to the +modern pantaloon. + +Casting our eyes backward for a moment, let us imagine the condition +of things before English innovation had interfered with the quiet +current of Dutch ideas in the metropolis of the West. "The modern +spectator," says our historian, "who wanders through the streets of +this populous city, can scarcely form an idea of their appearance in +the primitive days of the Doubter. The grass grew quietly in the +highways; bleating sheep and frolicksome calves sported about that +verdant ridge where now the Broadway loungers take their morning +stroll. The cunning fox and ravenous wolf skulked in the woods where +now are to be seen the dens of the righteous fraternity of +money-brokers. The houses of the higher class were generally +constructed of wood, excepting the gable end, which was of small black +and yellow Dutch bricks, and always faced the street. The house was +always furnished with abundance of large doors, and small windows on +every floor; the date of its erection was curiously designated by iron +figures on the front, and on the top of the roof was perched a fierce +weathercock, to let the family know which way the wind blew. The front +door was never opened, except on marriages, funerals, New Year's days, +the festival of St. Nicholas, or some such great occasion * * *. A +passion for cleanliness was the leading principle in domestic economy. +The whole house was constantly in a state of inundation, under the +discipline of mops and brooms, and scrubbing-brushes; and the good +housewives of that day were a kind of amphibious animal, delighting +exceedingly to be dabbling in water; insomuch, that many of them grew +to have webbed fingers like a duck. In those happy days a +well-regulated family always rose with the dawn, dined at eleven, and +went to bed at sundown. Fashionable parties were confined to the +higher class, or _noblesse_; that is to say, such as kept their own +cows or drove their own wagons. The company commonly assembled at +three o'clock, and went away about six; unless it was winter-time, +when the fashionable hours were a little earlier, that the ladies +might get home before dark. At these tea-parties the utmost propriety +and dignity of deportment prevailed. No flirting or coquetting; no +gambling of old ladies, nor chattering and romping of young ones; no +self-satisfied strutting of wealthy gentlemen with their brains in +their pockets," &c. + +Speaking further of the ladies, Mr. Knickerbocker says: "Their hair, +untortured by the abominations of art, was scrupulously pomatumed back +from their foreheads with a candle, and covered with a little cap of +quilted calico. Their petticoats of linsey-woolsey, were striped with +a variety of gorgeous dyes, and all of their own manufacture. These +were the honest days, in which every woman stayed at home, read the +Bible, and wore pockets, and that too of a goodly size, fashioned with +patch-work of many curious devices, and ostentatiously worn on the +outside. Every good housewife made the clothes of her husband and +family," &c. + +Such and so homely was the germ of the present goodly town that sits, +like a queen, throned between two mighty streams, with a magnificent +bay at her feet. Marks of her Dutch origin were numerous a few years +since, and are still to be found, though sparely. Of the national +customs enumerated and described by the veracious Diedrich, we find at +the present day but few. The last of the gable-fronted houses, with +curious steps in the brickwork on the sides of the peak, disappeared +some years since. Calves never frisk in Broadway now, though they +sometimes pass through it tied in carts, in defiance of humanity and +decency. The year of building is no longer written in iron on the +fronts of the houses, for + + "Panting Time toils after us in vain," + +and chronology is out of date. Large doors have now large windows to +keep them company, and weather-cocks are rendered unnecessary by the +arrival of vessels from some part of the earth with every wind that +blows. The front door is now opened to every body but the master of +the house, who goes out of it in the morning not to see it again till +evening. The practice of daily inundation is now nearly limited to the +street, since Kidderminster, Brussels, and Wilton, conspire to cover +every inch of floor; but the annual house-cleaning is still in full +vogue, and no amount of slop, discomfort, destruction, and +self-sacrifice, is considered too great in the accomplishment of this +civic festival. As to rising with the dawn, the citizen of to-day +considers breakfast-time daybreak; and the dinner-hour is as various +as the fluctuations of business and pleasure. "Fashionable society" +has, at present, no very decided limits, as few of the inhabitants +keep a cow, and many of the highest pretenders to _bon ton_ do not +drive their own wagons--getting home before dark! New-York ladies make +a point of getting home before light; and if they assemble at three +o'clock it is for a _dejeuner_, or a _matinee dansante_. As for Mr. +Knickerbocker's further characterization of the genteel manners of the +olden time, it would be unhandsome in us to pursue our +counter-picture; but this we will say, in mere justice, and all joking +aside, that there are no gambling ladies in New-York, either young or +old. + +Thinking of New-York in her early life, we were about to say that from +1614 to 1674 she was a mere shuttlecock between the Dutch and English; +but the recollection that neither of the contending parties ever +tossed her towards the other, spoiled our figure, and we find her more +like the unfortunate baby whom it took all Solomon's wisdom to save +from utter destruction between rival mothers. The Dutch certainly had +the prior claim; but that circumstance, though something in a case of +maternity, seems far from conclusive in the matter of adoption. The +little Dutch city had accumulated a thousand inhabitants, and wrenched +from the home government leave to govern itself, by the aid of a +schout, burgomasters, and schepens, when King Charles II., of pious +memory, coolly gave a grant of the entire province to his brother +James, Duke of York, who forthwith proved his right (that of the +strongest), and put an English governor in place of Peter Stuyvesant, +called by Knickerbocker, "a tough, valiant, sturdy, weather-beaten, +mettlesome, obstinate, leathern-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited +old governor," who nearly burst with rage when obliged to sign the +capitulation, and who finished by dying of sheer mortification on +hearing that the combined English and French fleets had beaten the +Dutch under De Ruyter. Nine years after, the tables were turned, and +Dutch rule once more brought in sour-krout and oly-koeks; but, in +1674, New-York became English by treaty, and so remained until +November, 1783. + +Since that epoch, although growth and prosperity have been the general +rule, yet the island city has had her ups and downs, by means of fire, +pestilence, war, embargo, mobs, &c., quite enough to stimulate the +energy of her sons and ripen the wisdom of her councils. In 1825, the +completion of the Erie Canal, which united the Atlantic with the great +lakes, gave a prodigious impulse to trade. In 1832 came the cholera, +threatening utter desolation; and in 1835 a fire, which consumed +property worth twenty millions of dollars. Yet, in 1842, the Great +Aqueduct was finished, at a cost of thirteen million dollars. Thus +much premised, let us look at New-York of to-day. + + "She has no time + To looken backe, her eyne be fixed before." + +In describing American towns, if we would make our picture a likeness, +we must + + "Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of the minute." + +The New-York of 1851 resembles her of fifty years ago scarcely more +than the West End of London resembles Birmingham or Bristol. In 1800, +one might easily believe the old story, that the streets were +originally laid out by the cows, as they went out to pasture and +returned at evening. Streets running in all sorts of curves crossed +each other at all conceivable angles, making a maze without a plan, +through which strangers needed to drop beans, like the children in the +fairy-tale, to avoid being wholly lost. Fortunately, the city is not +very wide, so that Broadway, which always ran lengthwise through the +centre, has served as a tolerable clue from the beginning. Great +sacrifices have been made for the sake of regularity, and there is now +a tolerable degree of it, even in the old, or south part of the city, +cross streets running from Broadway to either river with an approach +to parallelism. In the early time, the town presented no bad +resemblance in shape to the phenomenon called a "mackerel sky," +Broadway representing the spine, and the streets running to either +river the ribs, while northward and southward was a tapering off; on +the south, where the Battery juts into the bay, and on the north, +where the uppermost houses gradually narrowed till Broadway came to an +end, with few buildings on either side of it. But in these later days, +when Knickerbocker limits no longer confine the heterogeneous +thousands that have pushed the old race from their stools, sixteen +great avenues, each a hundred feet wide, run parallel with Broadway +and the rivers, cut at right angles by wide streets, lined with costly +dwellings, churches, schools, and other edifices. As is usual in great +commercial towns, the lowest portion of the population haunt the +neighborhood of the wharfs; and, in New-York, the eastern side of the +city in particular attracts this class. But, perhaps, no city of the +size has fewer streets of squalid poverty, although the encouragement +given to immigration is such that there must necessarily be great +numbers of wretched immigrants who have neither the will nor the power +to live by honest industry. It is in truth for this class of persons +that hospitals and penitentiaries are here built, foreigners supplying +at least nine-tenths of the inmates of those institutions in New-York. + +As to clean and healthy streets, the upper and newer part of the city +has, of course, the advantage. It is laid out with special attention +to drainage, for which the ridged shape of the ground affords great +facility; the island on which New-York is built being highest in the +middle, and sloping off, east and west, towards the Hudson and East +Rivers. + +Manhattan island is about fourteen miles long, with an average breadth +of one mile and a half, the greatest width being two and a half miles. +At the southerly point of the island, where the Hudson unites with the +strait called the East River, lies one of the finest harbors in the +world, affording anchorage for ships of the largest size, and +surrounded by cultivated land and elegant residences. Several +fortified islands diversify this bay, and numerous forts occupy the +points and headlands on either side. The general appearance of the bay +is that of great beauty, of the milder sort. The shores are rather +low, but finely wooded, and the approach to the city from the ocean +very striking. The battery, a promenade covered with fine old trees, +offers a rural front, but the forests of masts stretching far up +either river attract the stranger's attention much more forcibly. The +_coup d'oeil_ is here magnificent. Brooklyn, on Long Island, a large +city, whose white columned streets gleam along the heights, giving a +palatial grandeur to the view, is just opposite New-York, on the +south-east, and divided from it by so narrow a strait that it appears +more truly to be a part of it than the Surrey side of the Thames to +belong to London, although the rush of commerce forbids bridges. On +the west side, the banks of the Hudson are lined with towns, an +outcrop of the central metropolis. + +Entering the city from any quarter, we are sure to find ourselves in +Broadway, long the pride of the inhabitants, though its glories are +rather traditional than actual, as compared with the greatest +thoroughfares of commerce in older cities. It extends, eighty feet in +width, two miles and a half in a straight line, northward from the +Battery; and then, making a slight deflection at Union Park, runs on, +_ad infinitum_, though it is at present but sparely built after +another mile or so. Nearly all the best shops in the retail trade are +in this street, some of them comparable to the richest of London and +Paris, and the whole affording means for every device of elegant +decoration and boundless expenditure. Residences here are +comparatively few, especially in the lower part, the din of business +and the ceaseless thunder of omnibuses having driven far away every +family that has the liberty of choice. Many churches still exist in +Broadway, which, on Sunday, is as quiet as any other street. Other +architectural decorations there are few. The City Hall, a costly +building of white marble, too long and low to make a dignified +appearance, but standing in a well-wooded park, of some eleven or +twelve acres in extent, has a certain beauty, especially when seen +gleaming through the spray of a fountain, which sends up a tall jet at +some distance in front of the building. Farther on is a hospital, of +rather ancient date for this western world--built in 1775, and now +surrounded by venerable trees, and clothed in the richest ivy. After +this, scarcely a break in the line of dazzling shops, until we reach +the vicinity of Union Square, a pretty oval park, with a noble +fountain in the midst, and lofty and handsome houses all round, +situated on perhaps the highest ground on this part of the island. +Half a mile beyond is Madison Square, a green expanse, about which +wealthy citizens are now building elegant residences of brown +freestone, with some attempt at architectural display. Near this, +still northward, is the lower or distributing reservoir of the Croton +Aqueduct, standing on high ground, and looking something like a +fortress--no great ornament, perhaps, but an object of much interest. + +Fifth Avenue, on the west of Broadway, stretching north from +Washington Square--an inclosure of about ten acres, well planted with +elms and maples--it is the Belgravia of New-York--in the estimation of +those who inhabit it; a paradise of marble, upholstery and cabinet +work, at least; not much dignified, as yet, by works of high art, +though the region boasts a few specimens, ancient and modern; but in +luxury and extravagance emulating the repudiated aristocracy of the +old world. This is, and is to be, a street of palaces and churches +throughout its whole extent, always provided that the changeful +current of Fashion do not set in some other direction too soon, +carrying with it all the _millionaires_ that are yet to arise within +the century. In that event, the costly mansions of Fifth Avenue will +inevitably become hotels and boarding-houses,--a reverse which so many +grandly intended houses of elder New-York have already experienced. + +The distinction of East and West is marked in New-York as in London, +though for different reasons. In London, the prevalence of westerly +winds drives the surge waves of coal-smoke eastward, blackening every +thing; in New-York the western part of the town is cleaner, because +newer and built on a better plan. Broadway is the dividing line; and +it is a violent strain upon one's standing in fashionable life to live +eastward of it, below Union Square, even in the most expensive style. +But the eastward world has its own great thoroughfare, wider than +Broadway, though not as long, running nearly parallel with the main +artery of the grander world. The Bowery--so called when it was the +high road leading through the public farms or _Boweries_--is a sort of +exaggerated Bishopsgate-street and Shoreditch united; more trades and +callings, more articles offered for sale in the open air, more noise, +more people, and at least as much natural, undisguised, vulgar life. A +railway for horse-carriages passes through it, and hundreds of +omnibuses and stage coaches, not to speak of carts and country wagons +without number. A "rowdy" theatre or two, a hay-market, great +clothing-shops, and livery-stables, a riding-school, an anatomical +museum--such are its ornaments. Not a church countenances its entire +length, nor any other public building aiming at elegance or dignity. +The goods displayed in the windows are of a secondary quality, at +best; and the people who throng the pavements are people who want +second-rate articles. Yet the Bowery is worth walking through by a +stranger, little as it is known or valued by the native citizen, whose +lot has been cast in choicer neighborhood. The common pulse of +humanity beats audibly and visibly there, wrapped in no cloak of +convention or pseudo-refinement. The fundamental business of life is +carried on there as being confessedly the main business; not, as in +Broadway, as if it were a thing to be huddled into a corner to make +way for the carved-work and gilding, the drapery and color of the +great panorama. There is another reason why the Bowery has a claim on +our attention. Strange as it may seem, it is from the people who haunt +the Bowery that the United States take their character abroad. +Foreigners insist upon considering the "Bowery b'hoys,"--a class at +once an enigma and a terror to the greater portion of their +fellow-citizens,--as distinctive specimens of Americanism, much to the +horror of their more fastidious countrymen. This we think a great +mistake, though truly there are worse people in the world than the +"Bowery b'hoys," who are noted for a sort of _bonhomie_, in the midst +of all their coarseness. + +As to parks and public promenades, New-York is lamentably +deficient--the whole space thus appropriated being hardly more than +eighty acres, for the refreshment of a population which will soon +cease to be counted by hundreds of thousands. "Eight million dollars +worth of land," say the city fathers, "is as much as we can afford!" +The penurious estimate which has resulted in this miserable deficiency +has been long and ably combated by patriotic and clear-headed +citizens, but their influence has as yet proved wholly unavailing. +Public meetings have been now and then held, with a view of exciting a +general interest in this important matter, but they invariably end in +fruitless resolutions. The island still affords good sites for public +gardens, but there is scarce a gleam of hope that any of them will be +reserved. The few breathing spaces that now exist, are thronged, and +by the very people who most need them--children and laboring people. +The vicinity of the fountains is full of loiterers, quietly watching +the play of the bright water, and growing, we may hope, milder and +better by the gentle influence. At certain hours of the day whole +troops of merry children, with their attendants, make the walks alive +and resounding. The hoop, the ball, the velocipede, the skipping-rope, +rejoice the grass and sunshine, and the eyes of the thoughtful +spectator, who sees health in every bounding motion, and hears joy in +every tiny shout. It is strange that the citizens do not, one and all, +cry aloud for the easy and happy open-air extension of their too often +crowded homes. London is the world's example in this thing. + +A park suited to riding and driving is especially needed because of +the wretched pavement which still disgraces the greater portion of +New-York. The first thing that strikes an American returning from +Europe is the inferiority of the pavements of the Atlantic cities; and +New-York, in particular, is, in this respect, hardly a whit before the +far-famed corduroy roads of the wild West. In 1846 a great improvement +was begun, called, after the inventor, the Russ pavement, and thus far +seeming to meet all the difficulties of the case, including the severe +frosts and sudden changes of the climate. The plan is, however, so +expensive that it will probably be long before it is fully adopted. It +requires square blocks of stone, about ten inches in depth, laid +diagonally with the wheel-track, and resting on a substructure of +concrete, which again rests upon a foundation of granite chips, the +whole forming a consolidated mass, eighteen inches thick, so arranged +as to be lifted in sections to afford access to the gas and water +pipes. This has been largely tried in Broadway, and has stood the test +for six years. + +Foreigners are apt to complain, not only, as they justly may, of the +bad pavements of New-York, but, somewhat unreasonably, of the +obstructions in the street, caused by incessant building, laying +pipes, &c. They say, "Will the city never be finished?" Not very soon, +we think. It is difficult to do in fifty years the work of five +hundred, without a good deal of bustle and inconvenience. Rapid growth +in population and wealth necessitates continual improvement in +accommodation. We may, indeed, be allowed to fret a little, when the +street is for weeks or months encumbered by the building materials of +a merchant, who sees fit to pull down a very good house in order to +erect one that shall cost a quarter of a million, merely because his +neighbor has contrived to outshine him in that particular. But when +sewers and gas, and Croton water, are in question, we must not +grumble. These great public blessings are spreading into every +quarter, carrying health and decency with them. The great sewers are +arched canals of hard brick, from three to nine feet in diameter, and +laid in mortar in the most durable manner. Above them are the +gas-pipes, an immense net-work; and nearly on a level with these last +are the huge veins and arteries, by means of which the Croton supplies +life and health to the inhabitants, once half-poisoned by water which +shared every salt that enters into the subsoil of a great city. +Analysis shows the Croton water to be of great purity--holding in +solution the salts of lime and magnesia in proportions hardly +appreciable, only about two and eight-tenths of a grain to the gallon. +The river springs from granitic hills, and flows through a clear +upland region, free from marsh, and covered with grazing farms. + +When the Aqueduct was undertaken, New-York numbered but two hundred +and eighty thousand inhabitants, so that the supply provided was a +magnificent gift to the future. The work was completed within five +years, years of great commercial difficulty; and what is more +remarkable, the whole cost came _within_ the estimate of the chief +engineer. The abundance of water may be guessed from the fact that two +of the city fountains throw away more water than would suffice for the +consumption of a large city. The solidity of the structure is such +that none but slight repair can be needed for centuries to come.[10] + +This great work was opened, with appropriate ceremonies, and a +splendid civic festival, on the 14th of October, 1842. The British +consul, in accepting the invitation of the Common Council, to assist +at this festival, justly remarked, "Tyrants have left monuments which +call for admiration, but no similar work of a free people, for +magnitude and utility, equals this great enterprise." Public feeling +was very warm on this occasion. Of the procession of the trades, &c., +which was three hours passing a given point, an enthusiastic citizen +declared in print, that he "watched and scrutinized it closely, and +could discover neither a drunkard nor a fool from first to last." It +might be a difficult matter to decide on the moral and intellectual +condition of the individuals composing such a procession, but we may +concede that drunkards and fools are not the persons most likely to +join in rejoicing for the introduction of pure water without stint or +measure. + +The great Aqueduct is forty-one miles in length, commencing with a dam +across the Croton river, six miles above its mouth. This raises the +water one hundred and sixty-six feet above tide level, forming a lake +or reservoir of four hundred acres in extent, containing five hundred +million gallons, above the level that would allow the Aqueduct to +discharge thirty-five million gallons per day. From the Croton Dam to +Harlem River, something less than thirty-three miles, the Aqueduct is +an uninterrupted conduit of hydraulic masonry, of stone and brick; the +greatest interior width, seven feet five inches; the greatest height, +eight feet five inches; the floor an inverted arch. The commissioners +and chief engineers passed through its whole length on foot, as soon +as it was completed; and, when the water was admitted, traversed it +again in a boat built for the purpose. It crosses the Harlem River by +a bridge of stone, fourteen hundred and fifty feet long, and one +hundred and fourteen feet above high-water mark. At the Receiving +Reservoir forty miles from the Dam, the masonry gives place to iron +pipes, through which the water is conveyed two miles further, to the +distributing reservoir, from which point it runs, by means of several +hundred miles of pipes, to every corner of the city. On the line of +the Aqueduct are one hundred and fourteen culverts, and sixteen +tunnels, and ventilators occur at the distance of one mile apart +throughout the route. The Receiving Reservoir covers thirty-five +acres, and contains one hundred and fifty million imperial gallons. +The Distributing Reservoir has walls forty-nine feet in height, and +contains twenty million gallons. The supply to each citizen is at +present almost unlimited, and afforded at a very moderate annual +rate. The managers complain to the Common Council of the enormous +waste during the summer, when "sixty imperial gallons each twenty-four +hours to every inhabitant," are delivered. But even at this enormous +rate the quantity is ample, and it can be increased at will by new +reservoirs. No decent house is now constructed without a bath, an +advantage to the health and comfort of the city, hardly to be +over-rated. Fountains adorn almost all the public places of any +importance, and although in few instances as yet dignified by +sculpture, these tastes and glimpses of Nature are in themselves +invaluable, offering to the people at large a continual reminder of +beauty, tranquillity, and innocent pleasure in the open air. There +remains yet to be added those public vats for the use of poor women in +washing, that may be found in so many European towns. + +The facilities afforded by this abundance of water for the +extinguishment of fires, are such as can hardly be over-rated. We have +no space for details on this point, nor does it need. It will easily +appear that, with an unlimited supply of water, and plenty of +fire-plugs, a few moments suffice to bring into action whatever is +needed in case of conflagration--a glorious contrast to the tardy +succor of former days, when water was laboriously pumped from the +rivers on either side the city, and conveyed by means of hose to the +scene of danger. The perfection of the London Fire Brigade is yet to +be accomplished for New-York; but promptness, or rather zeal of +service, distinguishes the corps of firemen, who make their business a +passion, and the perfection of their instruments their pride and +glory. They receive no remuneration except exemption from military and +jury duty. + +After these few words on the supply of pure and life-preserving water, +we may turn, by no very violent transition, to the facilities extended +by New-York to her children in the matter of education,--a point on +which she is naturally and justly somewhat vainglorious. The number of +public, and absolutely free schools, is one hundred and ninety-nine; +embracing fifteen schools for the instruction of colored children. +More than one hundred thousand scholars attend in the course of the +year; though the average for each day is something less than forty +thousand. All is gratuitous at these schools--instruction, books, +stationery, washing-apparatus, fuel, &c. Besides these, there are +fifteen evening schools, for those who cannot avail themselves of the +other public schools, and whose only leisure time is after the close +of the labors of the day. The ages of the scholars in these schools +vary from twelve to forty-five years. + +This magnificent offer of instruction by the city to her children is +confined to no class, country, sect, nor fortune. Every child, without +exception, is received, taught, and furnished with all the requisites +for a good school education. Not content with this, a free academy for +the classics, modern languages, natural sciences, and drawing, was +established in 1848, with fourteen professors, and proper appliances, +including a handsome and commodious building. This academy receives +male pupils from the common schools, after due examination; and +retains them for a four years' course, or longer, if desirable. It is +contemplated to establish a free high school for females, on a +corresponding plan. + +It is not to be supposed that the benefit of the public school system +is shared only by the necessitous. The children of respectable +citizens, of the plainer sort, make up a large part of the attendance. +It is computed that only about twenty thousand children of both sexes +are found in private schools. There are many free schools of private +charity, some of which receive by law a certain share of public money, +as the school of the House of Refuge, various orphan asylums, &c., +including, in all, about three thousand five hundred children. The +Roman Catholics have some free schools of their own, but most Roman +Catholic children are educated at the public schools. The prodigious +amount of immigration (on the day on which we write, we happen to know +that the number of steerage passengers arrived in the city is +seventeen hundred and seventy-nine, and, on another, within a week, +three thousand)--makes this provision for education doubly important; +since a large portion of the hordes thus emptied on these hospitable +shores are entirely unable to pay any thing for the instruction of +their children. + +This fact gives added lustre to the no less munificent provision by +the city for the gratuitous care of the sick and indigent--a care +almost monopolized by foreigners, because comparatively few Americans +are in a condition to need it. All accidental cases are provided for +at the New-York Hospital; the attendant physicians and surgeons of +which, selected from the most eminent of the profession, give their +services without pecuniary remuneration. A branch of this institution +is the Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane. The New-York Dispensary +provides some thirty thousand patients annually with advice, +medicines, and vaccination, gratis. The Almshouse Department maintains +five establishments, which, together, support about seven thousand +persons, and afford weekly aid to some three thousand others. The +Nursery Branch of this department maintains and instructs more than a +thousand children of paupers and convicts. The Institution for the +care of deaf mutes has about two hundred and fifty pupils, of whom one +hundred and sixty are supported at the expense of the State. The +Asylum for the Blind, originally established by a few members of the +Society of Friends, has about one hundred and fifty pupils. Besides +these, private charity has opened refuges for almost every form of +human misery and destitution, so that it may safely be said that no +one of any age, sex, nation, or character _need_ suffer, in New York, +for lack of Christian kindness in its ordinary manifestations. Among +these beneficent offers of relief and aid, we may mention one in +particular, whose worth is not as fully appreciated by the public as +that of some others, though none is more needed. The Prison +Association takes care of the interests of accused persons, whose +poverty and ignorance make them the easy prey of the designing and +heartless; attends to them while in prison, and after their release, +holds out the helping hand, and provides relief, occupation, and +countenance for all those who are willing to reform. A house with +matrons is provided for discharged female convicts, who are instructed +and initiated into various modes of employment until they have had +time to prove themselves fit to be recommended to places. The success +of this most benign and difficult charity has been very encouraging. + +It would be vain to attempt, in this desultory sketch, any account of +the means of morals and religion in New-York. In these respects she +differs but little from English commercial towns. The number of places +of worship is something under three hundred, and each form of +religious benevolence has its appropriate society, as elsewhere. +Sabbath Schools are very popular, and attended by the children of the +first citizens. An immense number of persons are associated as Sons +and Daughters of Temperance, who present a strong front against that +vice which turns the wise man into a fool. But as there is nothing +distinctive in these and similar associations, we pass them by. A +puritan tone of manners prevails; that is to say, with the mass of the +well-to-do citizens, puritan manners are the beau-ideal of propriety +and safety. Yet New-York is fast assuming a cosmopolitan tone which +will make it difficult, before very long, to speak of any particular +style of manners as prevailing. Representatives of every nation, and +tongue, and kindred, and people, meeting on a footing of perfect +equality of political advantages, must in time produce a social state, +differing in some important particulars from any that the world has +yet seen. The population of New-York will, at the past rate of +increase, be in ten years greater than that of Paris, and in thirty +equal to that of London. How can one speculate on a social state +formed under such circumstances? The present aspect of what claims to +be New-York society is certainly rather anomalous. + +An exceptional American--John Quincy Adams--in some patriotic speech, +mentioned, among other occasions of thankfulness to Heaven, that +excellent gift, "a heritable habitation;" but there is nothing which +the prosperous citizen of New-York so much despises. If he read +Ruskin, he thinks the man benighted when he utters such sentiments as +these: "There must be a strange dissolution of natural affection; a +strange unthankfulness for all that homes have given and parents +taught; a strange consciousness that we have been unfaithful to our +father's honor, or that our lives are not such as would make our +dwellings sacred to our children, when each man would fain build to +himself, and build for the little revolution of his own life only * * +* *. Our God is a household god, as well as a heavenly one. He has an +altar in every man's dwelling; let men look to it when they rend it +lightly, and pour out its ashes!" + +If ever there were any substantial tenements of stone and brick on +which might well be written the motto "Passing away!" it is those of +the great commercial metropolis of the western world. The material +substance is enduring enough to last many generations; their soul is a +thing of the moment. After it has inhabited its proud apartments, and +looked out of its beautiful windows for a few years, it departs, to +return no more for ever, and its deserted home becomes at once the +receptacle of a soul of lower grade, and its destiny is to pass down, +and down, and down, in the scale, as time wears on, and "improvement" +sanctifies new regions. One might suppose the pleasure and pride of +building would be quite killed by the idea that as soon as one's head +is laid in the dust, all the achievements of taste, all the devices of +ingenious affection, all the personality, in short, of one's dwelling +would be turned out to the gaze and comment of the curious world now +so carefully shut out; exposed, depreciated, contemned, and sold to +the highest bidder, under circumstances of inevitable degradation. But +the ruling spirit of the New World progress seems to reconcile even +the reflective to these things. They shrug their shoulders, and say it +cannot be helped! Truly, these seem the days "when every man's aim is +to be in some more elevated sphere than his natural one, and every +man's past life is his habitual scorn; when men build in the hope of +leaving the places they have built, and live in the hope of forgetting +the years they have lived; when the comfort, the peace, and the +religion of home have ceased to be felt." In these particulars, +however, the severity of the New World is in a state of transition. +Under circumstances so novel, it is not to be wondered at that no +leisure has yet been found for the complete harmonization of the +social theory in all its parts. + +Whether the universal and incessant subdivision of estates will ever +be found to allow the addition of the charm of poetic associations to +the possession of wealth is a question not yet determined. When all +passes under the hammer, what becomes of heir-looms, and whatever +else in which family life and interest are bound up? And why should +splendor prepare for perpetuity when that which supports it is to be +shared among half a dozen or a dozen descendants? Will a rich man be +likely to collect works of art under the consciousness that, when +"cutting up" time comes, not one of his children will probably be rich +enough to retain possession of these treasures that bring no tangible +income? Truly, republicans ought to be philosophers, caring only for +things of highest moment, and capable of saying to all others--"Get ye +behind me!" + +But the denizens of New-York Belgravia are not philosophers, at least +not philosophers of this stamp. Content with the good things of +to-day, they leave the morrow to take care of itself; and many of them +live in a style which, even to those who have seen European splendor, +seems no less than superb. Their dwellings are unsurpassed in +convenience of arrangement and luxury of appliance; their +entertainments are of regal magnificence, so far as regal magnificence +is purchasable; and for dress and equipage they pour out money like +water. In cultivation and accomplishments, they are of course very +unequal; for, in a country where the great field of competition has a +thousand gates, all opened wide to all comers, and moneyed magnates +come from every class in society, and bring with them, to the new +sphere, just what of a strictly personal kind they possessed in the +old. He that was refined is refined still, and he that was sordid is +sordid still. If the gentleman enjoys the power of indulging his +tastes, and choosing his pursuits, so does the vulgarian; and, +unhappily, no Belgravia, English or American, has yet been found +capable of inspiring its inmates with dignified tastes or elevated +aims. There is no permanent nucleus of elegant society in New-York; no +reservoir of indisputable social grace, from which succeeding sets and +advancing circles can draw rules and imbibe tastes. There is not, even +at any one time, an acknowledged first circle, to whose standard +others are willing to refer. This being so, the most incongruous +manners often encounter in the social arena; and it is only in very +limited association that any appreciable degree of congeniality is +expected. Wealth always fraternizes with wealth to a certain extent. +The maxim announced here on a certain public occasion, that "the +possession of wealth is always to be received as evidence of the +possession of merit of some kind," is conscientiously acted upon; but +beyond this, social affinity is very limited as yet. Conversation has +no recognized place among accomplishments, and of course only a +doubtful one among pleasures. Coteries are unknown, and the continual +shifting of circles precludes the pleasure of long-ripened +intellectual intercourse. Many there are who regret this state of +things in a society in which there is in reality so great a share of +general good feeling; but they are found not among the rich, who +possess some of the means of remedying the evil, but among those who, +removed from the temptations which riches, suddenly acquired, array +against intellectual pleasures, lack, on the other hand, the means of +uniting with those pleasures, the _agremens_ which are at the command +of easy fortune. In Paris, intellect and cultivation can draw together +those who value them, even though the place of meeting be a shabby +house in the suburbs; in New-York it is not yet so, nor could it be +expected. No social _pose_ has yet been attained; and each is too much +absorbed in making good his general claims to consideration, to have +leisure for the calmer enjoyments that might be snatched during the +contest. Ostentation is, as yet, too prominent in the entertainments +of the rich; and the not rich, with republican pride, will rather +renounce the pleasures and advantages of society than receive company +in an inexpensive way. Even public amusements are not fashionable. +Large numbers, it is true, attend them, but not of the fashionable +classes. The Opera, alone, has a sort of popularity with these, but it +is as an elegant lounger, and a chance of distinction from the vulgar. +A low-priced opera, like those of the Continent, with music as the +main object, and magnificent costume put out of the question by +twilight houses, is yet to be tried in New-York. In the opinion of +some, this is one day to be the touchstone of American musical taste. +A passion for popular music the Americans certainly have. The Negro +Melodists, numerous as they are, draw throngs every night; and their +music, whether gay or sad, has all the charm that could be desired for +the popular heart. But the people of any pretensions enjoy this kind +of music, as it were by stealth, not considering that the pleasure it +gives is in fact a test of its excellence. Many of the negro airs are +worthy of symphonies and accompaniments by Beethoven or Schubert, but +until they have been endorsed by science the New-Yorker would rather +not be caught enjoying them. + +If we should venture to suggest what it is that New-York society most +lacks, we should say Courage--courage to enjoy and make the most of +individual tastes and feelings. The spirit of imitation robs social +life of all that is picturesque and poetical. Living for the eyes of +our neighbors is stupefying and belittling. It gives an air of +hollowness and tinsel to our homes, stealing even from the heartiness +of affection, and sapping the disinterestedness of friendship. It +tends to the general impoverishment of home-life, the privacy of which +is the soil of originality and the nursery of accomplishments. It is +hardly consistent with the pursuit of literature or art for its own +sake, since a desire to do what others do, and avoid what others +contemn, excludes private and independent choice, except where the +natural bias is irresistibly strong. There is, in truth, very little +relish for home accomplishments in New-York. Music is too much a thing +of exhibition, and drawing is scarcely practised at all. Two or three +of the modern languages are taught at every fashionable school; but +the use of these is seldom kept up in after life, even by reading. No +people are so poorly furnished with foreign tongues as the Americans, +and New-York forms no exception to the general remark. + +We shall not venture to touch that most sensitive of all topics, +native art, on which no opinion can be expressed with safety, Suffice +it to say, that New-York has a National Academy of Design; the nucleus +of a free gallery; an Art-Union, largely patronized; an Artists' +Association, with a gallery of its own; and various exhibitions of +European pictures. Lessing's Martyrdom of Huss has been for some time +exhibiting in a collection of paintings of the Duesseldorf school. +Statuary is as yet comparatively rare; for, although American art has +sprung at once to high excellence in this direction, the sculptors +generally reside abroad, for the sake of superior advantages for +execution. The present year sees the _debut_ of a young sculptor of +New-York, named Palmer, who has just finished a work of great promise, +for this spring's exhibition of the National Academy, an exhibition +most cheering to the friends of American art, from its marked +superiority in many respects to any that have gone before it. A +Home-Book of Beauty is in progress, for which a young English artist, +son of the celebrated Martin, is making the portraits. This promises +to be very popular, since the reputation of American female beauty is +world-wide. + +These slight notices of New-York as she is, are intended rather to +give foreign visitors a hint what _not_ to expect, than to serve as +any thing deserving the name of a description of one of the commercial +centres of the world. It is quite possible to come to New-York with +such letters of introduction as shall open to the stranger society as +intelligent and well-bred as any in Europe; but as this is composed of +people who never run after notabilities as such, it is often unknown +and unsuspected by the visitor from abroad, who, consequently, returns +home with such broad views as we have been attempting, quite satisfied +that there is nothing more worth seeking. It is noticeable that the +most favorable accounts of American manners have been given by the +best-bred and highest-born foreign travellers; while disparagement and +abuse have been the retaliation of those who have, to their surprise, +found the Americans quite capable of distinguishing between snobs and +gentlemen. The intelligent traveller must know how to take New-York +for what she is, and he will not undervalue her for not being what she +is not. She is a magnificent city--a city of unexampled growth and +energy; of the noblest public works, of unbounded charity, of a most +intelligent providence in the instruction of her children, of fearless +liberality in the reception and treatment of foreigners, and of a +growing interest in all the arts which adorn and harmonize society. +Those who visit her prepared to find these traits will not be +disappointed; those who will accept nothing in an American city of +yesterday but the tranquil and delicate tone of an assured +civilization, should not come westward. Yet in real, essential +civilization, that city cannot be far behindhand, in which the duties +of a street police are almost nominal, and where every ill that can +afflict humanity is cared for gratuitously, and in the most humane +spirit. Justly proud of these proofs of her preparation for the +outward gloss of manners which is all in all to the superficial +observer, New-York can well afford to invite the scrutiny of the +intelligent citizen of the world. + +As we began our little sketch with some Knickerbocker reminiscences, +so we feel bound, before we close, to say a word or two of the traces +that still remain of the honored origin of much of the wealth and +respectability of New-York. Whatever we may allow for our English +superstructure, we cannot forget that the Dutch foundation was most +excellent. "The Batavians," says Tacitus, "are distinguished among the +neighboring nations for their valor;" and in the seventeenth century +the countrymen of Van Tromp and De Ruyter had not degenerated from +their Batavian ancestors; and in the gentler qualities of peace, +industry, perseverance, energy, honesty, and enterprise, the +States-General were surpassed by no European community. For their +notions of law, we may consult Grotius; for their taste for art, the +exquisite works which constitute a school of their own. The Dutch +masters of New-York were people of high tone and character, and to +this day there lingers a flavor of nobility and dignity about the very +names of Van Rensselaer, Van Cortlandt, Van Zandt, Brinkerhoff, +Stuyvesant, Rutgers, Schermerhorn, &c., represented by families who +still retain much of their ancient wealth, and a great deal of their +ancient aristocratic feeling. Many jokes have been founded upon the +unwillingness of these lords of the soil to be disturbed; one of the +best of which is Washington Irving's story of Wolfert Webber, who +thought he must inevitably die in the almshouse, because the +Corporation ruined his cabbage-garden by running a street through it. +But they make excellent citizens, and their aversion to change has +been but a much needed balance to the wild go-ahead restlessness of +the full-blooded Yankee, who sees nothing but the future. The Dutch +have customs, and, of course, manners; while the tendency of modern +New-York life is adverse to both. The citizen of to-day cannot help +looking on the Dutch spirit as "slow," but he has an instinctive +respect for it, notwithstanding. + +One single Dutch custom still maintains its ground triumphantly, in +spite of the hurry of business, the selfishness of the commercial +spirit, and the efforts of a few paltry fashionists, who would fain +put down every thing in which a suspicion of heartiness can be +detected. It is the custom of making New Year visits on the first day +of January, when every lady is at home, and every gentleman goes the +rounds of his entire acquaintance; flying in and flying out, it is +true, but still with an expression of good-will and friendly feeling +that is invaluable in a community where daily life is so much under +the control of that cabalistic word--business. Ladies are in high +party-trim, and refreshments of various kinds are offered; but the +main point and recognized meaning of the whole is the interchange of +friendly greetings. + +No one, not to the manor born, can estimate the glow of feeling that +characterizes these flying visits. "As iron sharpeneth iron, so doth +the countenance of a man his friend." The mere looking into each +other's faces is good for human creatures; and when the sincere even +though transient light of kindly feeling beams from the eyes that thus +encounter, something is done against egotism, haughty disregard and +blank oblivion. Many a coolness dies on New Year's Day, under a +battery of smiles; many a hard thought is shamed away by the good +wishes of the season. Old friends, who are inevitably separated most +of the time, thus meet at least once a year, for the enthusiasm of the +hour is potent enough to make the valetudinarian forsake his easy +chair, and the cripple his crutches. Visiting hours are extended so as +to include all the hours from ten in the morning until ten at night, +and, in order to make the most of these, the gentlemen take carriages +and scour the streets at the true American pace, so as to lose as +little time as possible on the way. If a storm occur, it is considered +quite a public misfortune, since it lessens, though it never +altogether prevents the fulfilment of the annual ceremony. It is true +that both ladies and gentlemen are death-weary when bed-time comes, +but that for once a year is no great evil. It is true that some young +men will take more whisky-punch, or champagne, than is becoming; but +for one who does this, there are many who decline "all that can +intoxicate," except smiles and kind words. In some houses the blinds +are closed, the gas lighted, and a band of music in attendance; and +each batch of visitors inveigled into polkas, or kedowas, for which +the lady of the house has taken care to provide partners. But this is +considered a degeneracy, and voted _mauvais ton_ by those who +understand the thing. To "throw a perfume o'er the violet," bespeaks +the French _coiffeur_ or the _parvenu_; the simplicity of the ancient +Dutch custom of New Year visits is its dignity and glory. Long may it +live unspotted by vulgar fashion! Well were it for the island city if +she had kept a loving hold on many another quaint festivity of her +ancestors on the other side of the water. Her prosperity would be none +the worse of a respectful reference to the good things of the past. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] Among the causes of decay in the Roman aqueducts, was the strong +concretion formed on the bottom and sides by matter deposited by the +water. No such deposit is made by the water of the Croton. + + + + +From Fraser's Magazine. + +A JUNGLE RECOLLECTION. + +BY CAPTAIN HARDBARGAIN. + + +The hot season of 1849 was peculiarly oppressive, and the irksome +garrison duty at Cherootabad, in the south of India, had for many +months been unusually severe. The colonel of my regiment, the +brigadier, and the general, having successively acceded to my +application for three weeks' leave, and that welcome fact having been +duly notified in orders, it was not long before I found myself on the +Coimbatore road, snugly packed guns and all, in a country +bullock-cart, lying at full length on a matress, with a thick layer of +straw spread under it. + +All my preparations had been made beforehand; relays of bullocks were +posted for me at convenient intervals, and I arrived at Goodaloor, a +distance of a hundred and ten miles, in rather more than forty-eight +hours. + +Goodaloor is a quiet little village, about eleven miles from +Coimbatore;--but don't suppose I was going to spend my precious three +weeks there. + +After breakfasting at the traveller's bungalow, we started off again. +The bungalow is on the right hand side of the road; and when we had +proceeded about two hundred yards, the bullock-cart turned into the +fields to the left, and got along how it could across country, towards +some low rocky hills, which ran parallel, and at about three miles +distance from the Coimbatore road. + +After about two miles of this work, sometimes over fallow ground, +sometimes through fields of growing grain, (taking awful liberties +with the loose hedges of cut brambles, which, however, we had the +conscience to build up again as we passed them,) sometimes over broken +stony ground, and once or twice lumbering heavily through a rocky +watercourse, we at last found ourselves on the grassy margin of a +pretty little stream. Fifty yards beyond it, under the shade of a fine +mango-tree, my little tent was already pitched; in five minutes I lay +stretched on my bed, listening with ravished ears to the glorious +accounts of my old Shikaree, who had just come in, hot and tired, from +the jungle. He had much to tell,--how since he had been out, three +days, he had tracked the tiger every morning up and down a certain +nullah; how the brindled monster had been seen by different shepherds; +and what was still more satisfactory, how he had but yesterday killed +a cow near the spot where the hut had been built. It was now +midday;--how to spend the long hours till sunset? + +After making the tired man draw innumerable sketch-maps in the sand, +with reiterated descriptions of the hut, &c., I allowed the poor +wretch to go to his dinner; and in anticipation of a weary night's +watch, I squeezed my eyes together and tried to sleep. + +The sun begins to acquire his evening slant, and I joyfully leave my +bed to prepare for my nocturnal expedition. The cook is boiling fowl +and potatoes; they are ready; and now he pours his clear strong coffee +into the three soda-water bottles by his side; everything is ready, in +the little basket, not forgetting a bottle of good beer. Now then +commences the pleasing task of carefully loading our battery. + +Come, big "Sam Nock," king of two-ouncers, what is to be the fate of +these two great plumbs that you are now to swallow? Am I to cut them +out of the tiger's ribs to-morrow?--or are they idly to be fired away +into the trunk of a tree, or drawn again? + +All loaded, and pony saddled, let us start: the two white cows and +their calves; the matress and blanket rolled up and carried on a +Cooly's head: Shikaree, horsekeeper, and a village man with the three +guns, while I myself bring up the rear. Over a few ploughed fields, +and past that large banian-tree, the jungle begins. + +What is this black thing? and what are those people doing? That +hideous black image is the jungle god, and to him the villagers look +for protection for their flocks. + +How they stare at the man dressed in his mud-colored clothes, who has +come so far, and sacrifices sleep and comfort, to sit and watch at +night for the evil genius of their jungles. Children are held up to +look at him--at the English jungle-wallah, who drinks brandy as they +drink milk, and who is on his way to the deepest fastnesses of the +wooded waste, to watch for the tiger alone--a man who laughs at gods +and devils--a devil himself. The Shikaree, who had been earnestly +engaged in conversation with the oldest looking man of the group, now +ran up and informed me that the Gooroo had given him to understand +that the Sahib would certainly kill the tiger this night, and that it +was expected that he would subscribe fifteen rupees to the god, in the +event of the prediction proving true. Come, we have no time for +talking. Hurry on, cows and guns, hurry on! through the silent jungle, +along the narrow path. How much farther yet. Not more than a quarter +of a mile; we are close to it. And now the people who know the +whereabouts stop and look smilingly on one another, and then at the +Sahib, whose practised eye has but just discovered the well-built +ambush. + +In a small clump of low jungle, on the sloping bank of a broad, sandy +watercourse, the casual passer-by would not have perceived a snug and +tolerably strong little hut,--the white ends of the small branches +that were laid over it, and the mixture of foliage, alone revealing +the fact to the observant eye of a practised woodman. No praise could +be too strong to bestow on the faithful Shikaree; had I chosen the +spot myself, after a week's survey of the country, it could not have +been more happily selected. The watercourse wound its way through the +thickest and most _tigerish_ section of the jungle, and had its origin +at the very foot of the hills, where tigers were continually seen by +the woodcutters and shepherds. There was little or no water within +many miles, except the few gallons in a basin of rock, which I could +almost reach from my little bower; and, to crown all, there were the +broad, deep _puggs_ of a tiger, up and down the nullah, in the dry +sand, near the water's edge, of all ages, from the week, perhaps, up +to the unmistakable fresh puggs of last night. + +Let us get off the pony, and have a look at the hut. Pulling a few dry +branches on one side, the small hurdle-door at the back is exposed to +view, hardly big enough to admit a large dog; down on your knees and +crawl in. Five feet long, four feet wide, and four feet high in the +centre, is the extent of the little palace; a platform, a foot from +the ground, occupies the whole extent to within a foot of the front +end facing the bed of the watercourse. On this platform the matress is +laid, and some big coats and the blankets make a very comfortable +pillow. Remove that little screen of leaves, and you look through a +window, ten inches square, that commands a view fifty paces up and +down the sandy nullah. Sitting on the end of the bed-place, just +behind the window, with your feet on the ground, nothing can be more +comfortable; and when tired, you only have to draw up your legs, and +curl yourself on the matress to enjoy a short nap, if your prudence +cannot conquer sleep. Into this hut which I have endeavored to +describe, did I now crawl; the matress was arranged, the handsome and +carefully loaded battery was next handed in, and each gun placed ready +for action; the cold fowl and bottle of Bass were in the mean while +disposed of, and the soda-water bottles of cold coffee were stowed +away in cunning corners. + +The sun is resting on the hill-tops, and will soon disappear behind +them; the peafowl and jungle-cock are noisily challenging amongst +themselves, and the latest party of woodcutters have just passed by, +showing, by their brisk pace and loud talking, that they consider it +high time for prudent men to quit the jungle. + +To the deeply-rooted stump of a young tree on the opposite bank, one +of the white cows has been made fast by a double cord passed twice +round her horns. Nothing remains to be done; the little door is +fastened behind me, the prickly acacia boughs are piled up against it +on the outside, and my people are anxious to be off. The old Shikaree +makes his appearance in the nullah, and wishing me success through the +window, asks if "all is right?" "Every thing; get home as fast as you +can: if you should hear three shots in succession before dark, come +back for me,--otherwise, bring the pony at six to-morrow morning,--and +a cup of hot coffee, tell the cook." + +They are gone; I still hear them every now and then, as they shout to +one another, and as the pony is scrambling through some loose stones +in the bed of a [missing words/letters] through which the road lies. + +The poor cow, too, listens with dismay to the retreating footsteps of +the party, and has already made some furious plunges to free herself +and rejoin the rest of the kine, who have been driven off, nothing +loth, towards home. Watch her: how intently she stares along the path +by which the people have deserted her. Were it not for the occasional +stamp of her fore leg, or the impatient side-toss of the head, to keep +off the swarming flies, she might be carved out of marble. And now a +fearful and anxious gaze up the bed of the nullah, and into the thick +fringe of Mimoso, one ear pricked and the other back alternately, show +that _instinct_ has already whispered the warning of impending danger. +Another plunge to get loose, and a searching gaze up the path; see her +sides heave. Now comes what we want--that deep low! it echoes again +among the hills: another, and another. Poor wretch! you are hastening +your doom; far or near the tiger hears you--under rock or thicket, +where he has lain since morning sheltered from the scorching sun, his +ears flutter as if they were tickled every time he hears that music: +his huge green eyes, heretofore half-closed, are now wide open, and, +alas! poor cow, gaze truly enough in thy direction; but he has not +stirred yet, and nobody can say in which direction giant death will +yet stalk forth. + +Which ever of my readers who has never had to wait in solitude, in a +strange room of a strange house, has not indulged in that idle +speculative curiosity peculiar to such a situation, gazing on the +pictures, and counting perhaps tables and chairs with an absurd +earnestness of purpose,--will not understand how I spent the first +half hour of my solitude; how I idly counted the stakes that formed +the framework of the hut, or watched with interest the artful tactics +of another Shikaree, in the shape of a slippery-looking green lizard, +who was cautiously "stalking" the insects among the rafters. + +The cow, tired with struggling and plunging, appears to have become +tolerably resigned to her situation, and has lain down, her ears, +however, in continual motion, and the jaw sometimes suddenly arrested, +while in the act of chewing the cud, to listen, as some slight noise +in the thicket attracts her attention. Gracious! what is that down the +nullah to the left? A peacock only. How my heart beat at first! what a +splendid train the fellow has. Here he comes, evidently for the water; +and now his seraglio,--one, two, four, five, buff-breasted, +modest-looking little quakeresses. What a contrast to his splendid +blue and gold! All to the water--dive in your bills and toss back your +heads with blinking eyes, as you quaff the delicious fluid; little do +you dream that there is a gun within five paces, although you are +quite safe. But stop! here are antics. The old boy is happy, and up +goes his tail, to the admiration of his hens, and the extreme +wonderment of the cow, who with open eyes is staring with all her +might at the glories of the expanded fan; and now slowly goes he round +and round, like a solemn Jack o' the Green, his spindle shanks looking +disreputably thin in the waning light. + +They quit the water-side, and disappear; and I can hear their heavy +wings as they one after another mount a tall tree for the night. + +The moon is up--all nature still; the cow, again on her legs, is +restless, and evidently frightened. Oh! reader, even if you have the +soul of a Shikaree, I despair of being able to convey in words a tithe +of the sensations of that solitary vigil: a night like that is to be +enjoyed but seldom--a red-letter day in one's existence. + +Where is the man who has never experienced the poetic influence of a +moonlit scene! Fancy, then, such a one as here described; a crescent +of low hills--craggy, steep, and thickly wooded--around you on three +sides, and above them, again, at twenty miles' distance, the clear +blue outline of the Neilgherry Hills; in your front the silver-sand +bed of the dry watercourse divides the thick and sombre jungle with a +stream of light, till you lose it in the deep shadows at the foot of +the hills,--all quiet, all still, all bathed in the light of the moon, +yourself the only man for miles to come; a solitary watcher, your only +companion the poor cow, who, full of fears and suspicions at every +leaf-fall, reminds you that a terrible struggle is about to take place +within a few feet of your bed, and that there will be noise and +confusion, when you must be cool and collected. Your little kennel +would not be strong enough to resist a determined charge, and you are +alone, if three good guns are not true friends. + +Let me, good reader, give way to the pleasures of memory,--let me +fancy myself back again, seated in my dear little hut, full of hope +and expectation, now drinking the ice-cold coffee from one of the +soda-water bottles, re-corking it, and placing it slowly and +noiselessly in its corner. Hark to the single ring of a silver bell, +and its echo among the hills! a spotted deer--why does she call? has +she seen any thing? Again, and again, and answered from a long +distance! 'Tis very odd, that when one should be most wakeful, there +should be always an inclination to sleep. A raw nip of aqua-vitae, and +a little of the same rubbed round the eyes, nostrils and behind the +ears, make us wakeful again. + +Oh! that I could express sounds on paper as music is written in notes. +No, reader, you must do as I have done--you must be placed in a +similar situation, to hear and enjoy the terrible roar of a hungry +tiger--not from afar off and listened for, but close at hand and +unexpected. It was like an electric shock;--a moment ago, I was dozing +off, and the cow, long since lain down, appeared asleep; that one roar +had not died away among the hills when she had scrambled on her legs, +and stood with elevated head, stiffened limbs, tail raised, and breath +suspended, staring full of terror in the direction of the sound. As +for the biped, with less noise and even more alacrity, he had grasped +his "Sam Nock," whose polished barrels just rested on the lower ledge +of the little peephole; perhaps his eyes were as round as saucers, and +heart beating fast and strong. + +Now for the struggle;--pray heaven that I am cool and calm, and do not +fire in a hurry, for one shot will either lose or secure my +well-earned prize. + +There he is again! evidently in that rugged, stony watercourse which +runs parallel, and about two hundred yards behind the hut. But what is +that? Yes, lightning: two flashes in quick succession, and a cold +stream of air is rustling through the half-withered leaves of my +ambush. Taking a look to the rear through an accidental opening among +the leaves, it was plain that a storm, or, as it would be called at +sea, a squall, was brewing. An arch of black cloud was approaching +from the westward, and the rain descending, gave it the appearance of +a huge black comb, the teeth reaching to the earth. The moon, half +obscured, showed a white mist as far as the rain had reached. Then was +heard in the puffs of air the hissing of the distant but approaching +down-pour: more lightning--then some large heavy drops plashed on the +roof, and it was raining cats and dogs. + +How the scene was changed! Half-an-hour ago, solemn, and still, and +wild, as nature rested, unpolluted, undefaced, unmarked by +man--sleeping in the light of the moon, all was tranquillity; the +civilized man lost his idiosyncrasy in its contemplation--forgot +nation, pursuits, creed,--he felt that he was Nature's child, and +adored the God of Nature. + +But the beautiful was now exchanged for the sublime, when that scene +appeared lit up suddenly and awfully by lightning, which now +momentarily exchanged a sheet of intensely dazzling blue light, with a +darkness horrible to endure--a light which showed the many streams of +water, which now appeared like ribbons over the smooth slabs of rock +that lay on the slope of the hills, and gave a microscopic accuracy of +outline to every object,--exchanged as suddenly for a darkness which +for the moment might be supposed the darkness of extinction--of utter +annihilation,--while the crash of thunder overhead rolled over the +echoes of the hills, "I am the Lord thy God." + +The hut, made in a hurry, was not thatched (as it might have been), +and the half-dried foliage which covered it collected drops only to +pour down continuous streams from the stem of every twig. + +So much for sitting up for tigers! will most of my readers exclaim, +and laugh at the monomaniac who would subject himself to such misery; +but the thorough-bred Shikaree is game and stanch to the backbone, and +will not be stopped by a night's wetting. For myself, I can only say +in extenuation, that I was born on the 12th of August. + +A heavy and continuous down-pour soon showed its effects, and although +I had lots of big coats, and was not altogether unprepared for such an +emergency, an hour had not elapsed before I was obliged to confess +myself tolerably wet through. The matress just collected the water and +made a good hip-bath, for there was no other seat. The nullah, +heretofore as I have described, was now a turbid stream of red water, +which falling over a slab of rock into the small basin before +mentioned, kept up an unceasing din. Tired and disgusted, I rolled a +doubled blanket, although saturated with water, tight round me, and +was soon warm and asleep. About two o'clock in the morning the clouds +broke and the rain ceased; the boiling stream ran down to half its +size, and a concert of thousands of frogs, bass, tenor, and treble, +kept up a monotonous croaking enough to wake the dead. + +The moon appeared again, and I attacked both cold coffee and brandy, +and made myself as comfortable as possible under existing +circumstances--to wit, wringing the water out of my jacket and cap, +and putting them on again warm and comparatively dry. The cow even +shook herself, and appeared glad of the change of weather, and I had +no doubt that she would go back with me to the tent in the morning to +gladden the eyes of her young calf and all good Hindoos. The nullah +had run dry again, and even the infernal frogs, as if despairing of +more rain, had ceased their din: damp and sleepy, with arms folded and +eyes sometimes open, but often shut, I kept an indifferent watch, when +the cow struggling on her legs and a choking groan brought me to my +senses! There they were! No dream! A huge tiger holding her just +behind the ears, shaking her like a fighting dog! By the doubtful +light of a watery moon did I calmly and noiselessly run out the muzzle +of my single J. Lang rifle. + +I saw him, without quitting his grip of the cow's neck, leap over her +back more than once--she sank to the earth, and he lifted her up +again: at the first opportunity I pulled trigger--snick! The rifle was +withdrawn, and big Sam Nock felt grateful to the touch. Left +barrel--snick! Right barrel--snick, bang! + +Whether hanging fire is an excuse or not, the tiger relinquished his +hold, and in one bound was out of sight. The cow staggered for two or +three seconds, fell with a heavy groan, and ceased to move. Tiger +gone!--cow dead!--was it a dream? Killed the cow within five paces and +gone away scathless. + +For a long time I felt benumbed; I had missed many near shots, even +many at tigers, and some like this at night, but never before under +such favorable circumstances. Why, I almost dreaded the morning, when +my Shikaree and people would come and find the cow killed, and I +should have in fairness to account for the rest. The first streak of +daylight did shortly appear, and every familiar sound of awaking +nature succeeded each other, from the receding hooting of the huge +horned owl, to the noisy crowing of the jungle cock and the call of +the peafowl. The sun got up, and soon I heard, first doubtfully and +then distinctively, the approach of my people. A sudden start, and +stop, when they came in full view of the slaughtered cow; and then, a +look up and down the nullah, as if they had not seen all. The reader +must spare me the recollection of a scene that vexes me even at this +distance of time, as if it had occurred but yesterday. The next +half-hour was spent sitting on the carcass of the cow, staring at the +enormous and deeply indented prints of the tiger's feet, and looking +with sorrow and vexation and some compunction at the poor little calf +which had been driven back to its mother, neither to see her alive nor +her death avenged. + +It was quite evident that the tiger had not been hit, for there was +neither hair nor blood to be seen, and one or two small branches in +the jungle beyond the cow showed, either by being cut down or barked, +that the ball had passed over the mark. So on the pony and back to the +tent to sleep or sulk out the next twelve hours. + +Somehow or other that pony, generally so clever and pleasant, was +inclined to kick his toes against every stone, and be perverse all the +way home; at any rate I fancied so, and am ashamed to say that I gave +him the spur, or jerked the curb rein on the slightest pretence. My +people, like all Indians, read the case thoroughly, and trudged along +without hazarding a remark on any subject. We passed under the +identical banian-tree and by the disgusting little black image +described in the commencement of the story, and never did I feel more +indignant against all idolatry, or more inclined to smash a Hindoo +god. We also had to pass a small jungle village, and, as if on +purpose, it appeared that every man, woman, and child were posted to +have a good look. Several of them who knew some of my party, asked a +hurried question, and I could hear, though I would not look, that the +answer was given--"Had a shot, but missed." "Yes," said I to myself, +"quite true--why should I be angry?" "Here goes the man that missed an +animal as big as a bullock at ten paces,--more power to his elbow!" + +The tent gained, I was soon lying on my back on the bed kicking out my +heels, calling for breakfast, and appearing to be very hungry, or very +sleepy, or very any thing but what I was--mortified and disgusted. +Breakfast over, my good old Shikaree was sent for, and the whole +affair gone over again. The rain, the unexpected time of night, and +above all, the two first shots _snicking_, and the third hanging fire +being considered, we two being judge and jury, it was decided that not +the slightest blame attached to the defendant, who was too well known +as a very fine shot to regard a mistake of this kind; and, moreover, +that as it was certain that the tiger was not hurt, but only +frightened, there was strong reason for hoping that he would return at +nightfall to the carcass. Men were therefore sent out to watch that +the place should not in any way be disturbed, or the dead cow touched +or moved, and I resigned myself to a pleasant sleep. I awoke about +three in the afternoon; the guns had, thanks to a good Shikaree, been +washed, dried, and slightly oiled, and were all laid on the table, +looking as if a month of rain would not make them miss fire. A bath, +clean clothes, guns loaded, pony saddled--and once more off to try my +luck. + +The pony was active and cheerful, and even the beastly image under the +banian-tree did not look so grim. On our arrival at the ground, the +half-wild fellows who had watched all day, dropped down from their +trees, and reported that nothing had happened during the day, and that +the place had been undisturbed. A few vultures appeared about midday +and settled on the carcass, but had been driven off; further they had +nothing to say. + +They were referred to the tent for payment for their day's work, and, +in due course, took their departure with my people. + +Once more left alone!--this time quite alone, for my poor companion of +last night lay stiff and stark in the position I saw her fall, when +the tiger relinquished his hold. + +Alarmed by the already slightly smelling carrion, or finding water +elsewhere, left by the down-pour of last night, no peaceful or other +living thing paid me a visit, if I except some few crows, who with +heavy wings swept past, or perched on neighboring trees, cawing, and +winking their eyes, and peering cautiously and inquisitively at the +dead cow. Only one among the crew hovered and lighted on the dead +beast's head; but although he made several picks at the lips and eyes, +opening and shutting his wings the while on his strong, sleek, +wiry-looking body, and cawing lustily, nobody heeded him; so, +appearing to be alarmed at being solus in the scene, he took his +departure. + +Night succeeded day, and the moon, in unclouded beauty, made the dark +jungle a fairy scene. There was but one drawback; the cow lay dead, +the tiger had been fired at, and experience whispered, 'the +opportunity has gone by.' + +By-and-by a jackal passed, like a shadow among the bushes, so +small-looking, so much the color of all around, that it remained a +doubt; more of these passed to and fro, and then a bolder ventured on +the plain sand, and up to the rump of the dead beast, took two or +three hard tugging bites, and was gone. As the night grew later, they +became less fearful, and half-a-dozen of them together were tugging +and tearing, till breaking the entrails, the gas escaped in a loud +rumbling, which dispersed my friends among the bushes in a moment; but +they were almost immediately back, and the confidence with which they +went to work, convinced me that my hope was hopeless. + +It must have been eleven o'clock when my ears caught the echo among +the rocks, and then the distant roar--nearer--nearer--nearer; and--oh, +joy!--answered. Tiger and tigress!--above all hope!--coming to +recompense me for hundreds of night-watchings--to balance a long +account of weary nights in the silent jungle, in platforms on trees, +in huts of leaf and bramble, and in damp pits on the water's edge--all +bootless;--coming--coming--nearer, and nearer. + +Music nor words, dear reader, can stand me in any stead to convey the +sound to you; the first note like the trumpet of a peacock, and the +rest the deepest toned thunder. Stones and gravel rattled just behind +the hut on the path by which we came and went, and a heavy stey passed +and descended the slope into the nullah. I heard the sand crunching +under his weight before I dared look. A little peep. Oh, heavens! +looming in the moonlight, there he stood, long, sleek as satin, and +lashing his tail--he stood stationary, smelling the slaughtered cow. +No longer the cautious, creeping tiger, I felt how awful a brute he +was to offend. I remembered how he had worried a strong cow in half a +minute, and that with his weight alone my poor rickety little citadel +would fall to pieces. As if the excitement of the moment was +insufficient, the monster, gazing down the dry watercourse, caught +sight of his companion, who, advancing up the bed of the nullah, stood +irresolutely about twenty yards off. A terrific growl from him, +answered not loud but deeply, and I was the strange and unsuspected +witness to a catawauling which defies description--a monstrous +burlesque on those concerts of tigers in miniature which are +occasionally got up, on a cold, clear night, in some of the squares in +London, when all the cats for half a mile around get by some queer +accident into one area. + +Whether it is an axiom among tigers that possession is nine points of +the law, or the other monster was the weaker vessel, I know not, but I +soon perceived that as _my_ friend made more noise, the other became +more subdued, and finally left the field, and retired growling among +the bushes. The bully, who was evidently the male, after smelling at +the head, came round the carcass, making a sort of complacent +purring--"humming a kind of animal song," and to it he went tooth and +nail. As he stood with his two fore feet on the haunch, while he +tugged and tore out a beef-steak, I once more grasped old "Sam Nock," +and ran the muzzle out of the little port. The white linen band marked +a line behind his shoulders, and rather low, but, from the continued +motion of his body, it was some moments before eye and finger agreed +to pull trigger--bang! A shower of sand rattled on the dry leaves, and +a roar of rage and pain satisfied me, even before the white smoke +which hung in the still air had cleared away, to show the huge monster +writhing and plunging where he had fallen. Either directed by the +fire, or by some slight noise made in the agitation of the moment, he +saw me, and with a hideous yell, scrambled up: the roaring thunder of +his voice filled the valley, and the echoes among the hills answered +it, with the hootings of tribes of monkeys, who, scared out of sleep, +sought the highest branches, at the sound of the well-known voice of +the tyrant of the jungle. I immediately perceived, to my great joy, +that his hind-quarters were paralyzed and useless, and that all danger +was out of the question. He sank down again on his elbows, and as he +rested his now powerless limbs, I saw the blood welling out of a wound +in the loins, as it shone in the moonlight, and trickled off his +sleek-painted hide, like globules of quicksilver. As I looked into his +countenance, I saw all the devil alive there. The will remained--the +power only had gone. It was a sight never to be forgotten. With head +raised to the full stretch of his neck, he glared at me with an +expression of such malignity, that it almost made one quail. I thought +of the native superstition of singing off the whiskers of the +newly-killed tiger to lay his spirit, and no longer wondered at it. +With ears back, and mouth bleeding, he growled and roared in fitful +uncertainty, as if he were trying, but unable, to measure the extent +of the force that had laid him low. + +Motionless myself, provocation ceased, and without further attempt to +get on his legs, he continued to gaze on me; when I slowly lowered my +head to the sight, and again pulled trigger. This time, true to the +mark, the ball entered just above the breast-bone, and the smoke +cleared off with his death groan. There he lay, foot to foot with his +victim of last night, motionless--dead. My first impulse was to tear +down the door behind, and get a thorough view of his proportions; but +remembering that his companion, the tigress, had only vanished a short +time ago close to the scene of action, I thought it as well to remain +where I was; so, enlarging the windows with my hands, I took a long +look, and then jovially attacked the coffee and brandy bottles, +without reference to noise, and fell back on the mattress to sleep, or +to think the night's work over. "At last, I have got him: his skin +will be pegged out to-morrow, drying before the tent door." When my +people came in the morning, they found me seated on the dead tiger. +Coolies were sent for to carry the beast, and I gave the pony his +reins all the way back to the tent. + +After breakfast, the sound of tomtoms and barbarous music greeted our +ears; for the Gooroo and half the little village had turned out, and +were bringing in the tiger like an Irish funeral. I had a chair +brought out, and under the shade of a fine tree superintended the +skinning of the tiger; and as I had had no sleep for the last two +nights, I determined to make holiday. Dined at half-past six, and had +a bottle of _Frederick Giesler_, and the fumes of his glorious +champagne inspired me: "The first rainy day, I will put last night's +adventure on paper, and send it home to my old friend Regina." + + + + +From Bentley's Miscellany. + +A VISIT TO THE "MAID OF ATHENS." + +BY MRS. BUXTON WHALLEY. + + +"_Buon giorno, signora! Vi e veramente una bella citta! Ma, dov' e la +Fenice?_" Such was the morning salutation of the Venetian captain in +command of the Austrian Loyd steamer which had conveyed us up the Gulf +of Corinth, as he pointed derisively to a collection of huts about a +stone's throw from the shore, and wondered what could induce any one, +voluntarily, to abandon his "sea Cybele" for such as these! So few +were they in number, and so small in size, that they had hitherto +eluded our notice; nevertheless, they constituted, insignificant as +they appeared, the town of Lutraki. The captain's interruption, +awakening us from a dream of "Gods and god-like men," was as +disagreeable as all such interruptions must be, alike indicating +ignorance, and that want of sympathy, which is its natural result. But +to the English traveller, who now scarcely dares to hope to find a +spot left on Europe where he may look on Nature, unseared by +cockneyfied sights and sounds, it ought not to form a very serious +subject for complaint. To such an one, sick of Italian cities, where +his countrymen assemble but to parade their _ennui_ and their vices, +as of German steamboats, on the decks of which they listlessly throng, +dividing their glances pretty equally between castles and cutlets--a +rock and a _ragout_--how invigorating is the first sight of Greece, in +all its primitive and majestically tranquil simplicity! And what a +strangely felicitous epithet does that seem of "voiceless" bestowed by +Byron on those shores where nothing is heard, save occasionally the +plaintive cry of a sea-gull, and the very gentlest murmur from the +waves. There, may be observed in perfection the truth of +Chateaubriand's remark, that, "_le paysage n'est cree que par le +soleil; c' est la lumiere qui fait le paysage_." + +However, our present purpose is to narrate a short episode in modern +Athenian life, rather than to dwell on scenes with which genius even +can but imperfectly familiarize the world, either by pen or pencil. + +Near the solitary palm-tree, which grows in the middle of the highway +affecting to communicate[11] between Athens and the Piraeus, a +polygonal structure has been built, which is entered through a dark, +narrow passage leading from the road in front to a yard at its rear. A +ladder fixed against the wall forms the usual mode of ingress to a +very small room, which on a certain carnival night, not long ago, was +crowded by hats, cloaks, and Greeks, both male and female; the former +busily occupied in smoking, the latter in concocting some +indescribable liquid intended as a light refreshment to wearied +dancers. For the Maid of Athens--the quondam Mariana Macri--the actual +Mrs. Black, was about to give a ball. From the before-mentioned small +entrance-room the guests passed into the principal saloon, exactly +coinciding in its strange shape with the exterior of the house. At the +upper end an open door revealed a bed, on which shortly afterwards the +orchestra, consisting of two fiddlers, took up their position, with +knees protruding into the ball-room. + +Every thing was of the rudest, the most unadorned, and Robinson +Crusoe-like, description. At the first glance it became evident that +the "geraniums and Grecian balms," which an enthusiastic traveller +once endeavored to magnify into "waving aromatic plants," had long ago +withered from the hostess's possession, never to be replaced. But she, +the fairest flower of all, with her two sisters, still retain no +inconsiderable remnants of beauty; which is the more remarkable in a +country where good looks vanish, and age arrives, so speedily. Indeed, +good looks at all are rare among the continental Greek women; the +celebrated beauties being usually islanders, and chiefly Hydriotes. +Mrs. Black was attired in her coquettish native costume, consisting of +a red fez, profusely ornamented with gold embroidery, placed on one +side of the head; a long flowing silk petticoat, and a close-fitting, +dark velvet jacket. A similar dress was worn by her sister, Madame +Pittakis, the wife of the celebrated antiquary, and _guardian of the +Acropolis_; in virtue of which magnificent title he receives two +drachmae (about 1_s._ 7_d._) per head for admission to the Parthenon. +The third Grace, being a widow, was dressed entirely in black. The +company comprised a motley assemblage in Frank, and the varying +provincial Greek costumes, diversified here and there by personages in +King Otho's uniform. But the dancers of the _beau sexe_ were extremely +few, and, to say the least of them, very indifferent performers. +However, what they needed in skill and energy, was amply made up by +the vivacity of their graceful and vainglorious lords; who, despite +the clouds of dust from the dirty floor, and equally dirty shoes, +continued an almost ceaseless round of their national dance, the +Romaika, only pausing at intervals to recruit their strength with +glasses of burning rakee, the beverage most in demand. Those bowls of +Samian wine which figure so charmingly in poetry, form, alas! but +sorry items in prosaic matter-of-fact repasts; and one feels, indeed, +disposed to dash them any where _but_ down one's throat. Of the +dancers, one of the most active was Mrs. Black's son, a handsome +youth, apparently about eighteen years of age; together with her +husband, who, from being a Norfolk farmer, is now elevated to the +somewhat anomalous position of English Professor at the Athenian +University. The fair Mariana herself is quiet and retiring; and +seemingly little anxious to profit by the factitious interest with +which Byron's transient admiration continues to invest her; for, in +reply that night to a blundering Englishman's point blank queries +concerning the poet, she answered, "_Non mi ricordo piu di lui_." + +Soon after midnight the guests departed, at the imminent hazard of +breaking their necks, either down Mrs. Black's ladder, or in the +numerous holes that intervened between her residence and their +respective abodes. But we could not help thinking, that, uncouth as +had been the entertainment, it was more in accordance with the social +position of a people whose Ministers are not always competent to read +or write, and whose legislators occasionally enforce their political +arguments by flinging their shoes in the faces of the opposition, than +the exotic civilization of the gaudy little court, presided over by +that loveliest of royal ladies, Queen Amalia. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] At the period of which I write, this road, although the principal +approach to the capital, was impassable, and passengers pursued, +instead, a devious and uncertain track through corn-fields, ditches, +and the rocky bed of the Cyphissus. + + + + +From the French of Eugene de Mirecourt, + +THE HISTORY OF A ROSE + + +The gallery parallel to the course of the Seine, and which joins the +Palace of the Tuileries to the Louvre, was designed by Philibert de +l'Orme, and finished towards the end of 1663. On the 15th of January, +1664, Louis the Fourteenth descended into the vast greenhouses, where +his gardener, Le Notre, had collected from all parts of the world the +rarest and most beautiful plants and flowers. + +The air was soft and balmy as that of spring-time in the south. At the +right of the great monarch stood Colbert, silently revolving gigantic +projects of state; at the left was Lauzun, that ambitious courtier, +who, not possessing sufficient tact to discern royal hatred under the +mask of court favor, was afterwards destined to expiate, at Pignerol, +the crime of being more amiable and handsomer than the king. + +"Messieurs," said Louis, showing to his companions a long and +richly-laden avenue of orange trees, "are not these a noble present +from our ancient enemy, Philip the Fourth, now our father-in-law? He +has rifled his own gardens to deck the Tuileries; and the Infanta, we +hope, when walking beneath these trees, will cease to regret the shade +of the Escurial." + +"Sire," said Colbert gravely, "the Queen mourns a much greater +loss--that of your majesty's affections." + +"_Parbleu!_" exclaimed Lauzun, gayly; "in order to lose any thing, one +must first have possessed it. Now, if I don't mistake,--" + +"Silence! M. le Duc. M. de Colbert, my marriage was the work of +Mazarin--quite sufficient to guarantee that the _heart_ was not +consulted." + +The minister bowed, without replying. + +"As to you, M. de Lauzun," continued the king, "beware, henceforward, +how you forget that Maria Theresa is Queen of France, and that the +nature of our feelings towards her is not to be made a subject of +discussion." + +"Sire, forgive my--" + +"Enough!" interrupted Louis, approaching a man, who, unmindful of the +king's presence, had taken off his coat, in order the more easily to +prune a tall flowering shrub. + +This was the celebrated gardener, Le Notre. Absorbed in some +unpleasant train of thought, he had not heeded the approach of +visitors, and continued to mutter and grumble to himself, while +diligently using the pruning-knife. + +"What! out of humor?" asked Louis. + +Without resuming his coat, the gardener cried eagerly--"Sire, justice! +This morning, the Queen Dowager's maids of honor came hither, and, in +spite of my remonstrances, did an infinity of mischief. See this +American magnolia, the only one your Majesty possesses. Well, Sire, +they cut off its finest blossoms: neither oranges nor roses could +escape them. Happily I succeeded in hiding from them my favorite +child--my beautiful rose-tree, which I have nursed with so much care, +and which will live for fifty years, provided care be taken not to +allow it to produce more than one rose in the season." Then pointing +to the plant of which he spoke, Le Notre continued: "'Tis the +hundred-leaved rose, Sire! Hitherto I have saved it from pillage; but +I protest, if such conduct can be renewed. + +"Come, come!" interposed the monarch, "we must not be too hard on +young girls. They are like butterflies, and love flowers." + +"_Morbleu!_ Sire, butterflies don't break boughs, and eat oranges!" + +Louis deigned to smile at this repartee. "Tell us," he said, "who were +the culprits?" + +"All the ladies, Sire! Yet, no. I am wrong. There was one young +creature, as fresh and lovely as this very rose, who did not imitate +her companions. The poor child even tried to comfort me, while the +others were tearing my flowers: they called her Louise." + +"It was Mademoiselle de la Valliere," said Lauzun, "the young person +whom your Majesty remarked yesterday in attendance on Madame +Henriette." + +"She shall have her reward," said Louis. "Let Mademoiselle de la +Valliere be the only maid of honor invited to the ball to be given +here to-night." + +"A ball! Ah, my poor flowers!" cried Le Notre, clasping his hands in +despair. + +Colbert ventured to remind his Majesty that he had promised to give an +audience that evening to two architects, Claude Perrault and Liberal +Bruant; of whom, the first was to bring designs for the Observatory; +the second, a plan for the Hotel des Invalides. + +"Receive these gentlemen yourself," replied the king; "while we are +dancing, M. de Colbert will labor for our glory; posterity will never +be the wiser! Only, in order to decorate these bare walls, have the +goodness to send to the manufactory of the Gobelins, which you have +just established, for some of the beautiful tapestry you praise so +highly." + +Accordingly, to the utter despair of Le Notre, the ball took place in +the greenhouses, metamorphosed, as if by magic, into a vast gallery, +illumined by a thousand lustres, sparkling amid flowers and precious +stones. Each fragrant orange-tree bore wax-lights amid its branches, +and many lovely faces gleamed amongst the flowery thickets; while +bright eyes watched the footsteps of the mighty master of the revel. +The cutting north-east wind blew outside; poor wretches shivered on +the pavement; but what did that matter while the court danced and +laughed amid trees and flowers, and breathed the soft sweet summer +air? + +Maria Theresa did not mingle in the scene. Timid and retiring, the +young Queen fled from the noisy gayety of the court, and usually +remained with her aunt, the Queen Mother. On this occasion, therefore, +the ball was presided over by Madame Henriette, and by Olympia +Mancini, Countess of Soissons. The gentle La Valliere kept, modestly, +in the background, until espied by the King, beneath the magnolia, +which her companions had so recklessly despoiled of its flowers, and +which had cost them exclusion from the _fete_. + +The next moment the hand of Louise trembled in that of her sovereign; +for Louis the Fourteenth had chosen the maid of honor for his partner +in the dance. At the close of the evening, Le Notre, who had received +private orders, brought forward his favorite rose-tree, transplanted +into a richly-gilded vase. The poor man looked like a criminal +approaching the place of execution. He laid the flower on a raised +step near the throne; and on the front of its vase every one read the +words which had formerly set Olympus in a flame--"To the most +beautiful!" + +Many rival belles grew pale when they heard the Duc de Lauzun ordered +by Louis to convey the precious rose-tree into the apartment of +Mademoiselle de la Valliere. But Le Notre rejoiced, for the fair one +gave him leave to come each day and attend to the welfare of his +beloved flower. + +The rose-tree soon became to the favorite a mysterious talisman by +which she estimated the constancy of Louis the Fourteenth. She watched +with anxiety all its changes of vegetation, trembling at the fall of a +leaf, and weeping whenever a new bud failed to replace a withered +blossom. Louise had yielded her erring heart to the dreams of love, +not to the visions of ambition. "Tender, and ashamed of being so," as +Madame de Sevigne has described her, the young girl mourned for her +fault at the foot of the altar. Remorse punished her for her +happiness; and more than once has the priest, who read first mass at +the chapel of Versailles, turned at the sound of stifled sobs +proceeding from the royal recess, and seen there a closely-veiled +kneeling figure. + +The fallen angel still remembered heaven. + +Thus passed ten years. At their end, the rose-tree might be seen +placed on a magnificent stand in the Palace of St. Germain; but +despite of Le Notre's constant care, the flower bent sadly on its +blighted stem. Near it the Duchess de la Valliere (for so she had just +been created) was weeping bitterly. Her most intimate friend, +Francoise Athenais de Montemar, Comtesse de Montespan, entered, and +exclaimed, "What, weeping, Louise! Has not the King just given you the +_tabouret_ as a fresh proof of his love?" + +Without replying, La Valliere pointed to her rose. + +"What an absurd superstition!" cried Madame de Montespan, seating +herself near her friend. "'Tis really childish to fancy that the +affections of a Monarch should follow the destiny of a flower. Come, +child," she continued, playfully slapping the fair mourner's hands +with her fan, "you know you are always adorable, and why should you +not be always adored!" + +"Because another has had the art to supplant me." + +Athenais bit her lip. Louise had at length discovered that her +pretended friend was seeking to undermine her. On the previous +evening the King had conversed for a long time with Madame de +Montespan in the Queen's apartments. He had greatly enjoyed her clever +mimicry of certain court personages; and when La Valliere had ventured +to reproach him tenderly, he had replied-- + +"Louise, you are silly; your rose-tree speaks untruly when it +calumniates me." + +None but Athenais, to whom alone it had been confided, could have +betrayed the secret. And now, at the entrance of her rival, la +Valliere hastened to dry up her tears, but not so speedily as to +prevent the other from perceiving them. Her feigned caresses, and +ill-disguised tone of triumph, provoked Louise to let her see that she +discerned her treachery. But Athenais pretended not to feel the shaft. + +"Supplant you, dear Louise!" she said in a tone of surprise; "it would +be difficult to do that, I should think, when the King is wholly +devoted to you!" + +Rising with a careless air, she approached the rose-tree, drew from +her glove an almost invisible phial, and, with a rapid gesture, poured +on its footstalk the corrosive liquid which the tiny flask contained. + +This was the third time that Madame de Montespan had practised this +unworthy manoeuvre, unknown to the sorrowful favorite, who, as her +insidious rival well knew, would believe the infidelity of the King, +only on the testimony of his precious gift. + +Next morning, Le Notre found the rose-tree quite dead. The poor old +man loved it as if it had been his child, and his eyes were filled +with tears as he carried it to its mistress. + +Then Louise felt, indeed, that no hope remained. Pale and trembling, +she took a pair of scissors, cut off the withered blossom, and placed +it under a crystal vase. Afterwards she prayed to Heaven for strength +to fulfil the resolution she had made. + +The age of Louis the Fourteenth passed away, with its glory and with +its crimes. France had now reached that disastrous epoch, when famine +and pestilence mowed down the peaceful inhabitants, and Marlborough +and Prince Eugene cut the royal army to pieces on the frontiers. + +One day, the death-bell tolled from a convent tower in the Rue St. +Jacques, and two long files of female Carmelites bore, to her last +dwelling, one of the sisters of their strict and silent order. When +the last offices were finished, and all the nuns had retired to their +cells, an old man came and knelt beside the quiet grave. His trembling +hand raised a crystal vase which had been placed on the stone; he took +from beneath it a withered rose, which he pressed to his lips, and +murmured, in a voice broken by sobs:-- + +"Poor heart! Poor flower!" + +The old man was Le Notre; and the Carmelite nun, buried that morning, +was _Sister Louise de la Misericorde_, formerly Duchesse de la +Valliere. + + + + +From the London Times. + +THE STORY OF STUART OF DUNLEATH.[12] + + +The story is truthful, plaintive, and full of beauty. At a very early +age Eleanor Raymond loses her father, who has held a high appointment +in India, and news of his death is brought while she is still a child +to her mother's house in England. The bearer of the sad intelligence +is David Stuart, of Dunleath, the penniless representative of a ruined +Scottish house. David had been secretary to Sir John Raymond, whose +eyes he had closed, and he comes to the widow recommended to her +sisterly love, and the appointed guardian of her youthful daughter. +Lady Raymond, it must be added, had been previously married, and is +the mother of a burly sailor, promoted by Sir John's interest, and at +sea at the time of his stepfather's death. We need not stay to dwell +upon the feeble helplessness, physical and mental, of her Ladyship, or +to contrast it with the overbearing disposition of her son, whose +strong attachment to his mother is the redeeming feature of his +character. The young ex-secretary and present guardian proceeds to the +fulfilment of his duty, as it seems, with a conscientious mind. His +ward is an heiress, and will be surrounded with trials of many kinds. +She is fair to behold, ingenuous, trustful, is neglected by her +surviving parent,--less from want of affection than from lack of +interest--who, then, so suited for monitor and instructor both, as the +highly-disciplined and well-informed Stuart himself? David has been a +great traveller, has read much, and observed more. His intellect is +commanding, and he is noble in form. He notes the quickness of his +ward, is captivated by her girlish enthusiasm and untiring zeal. He +will engage no masters when he can teach so accurately himself. She +requires no instructors but the master from whom she learns so +willingly and so well. Perilous devotion of a teacher (it may be of +twenty) with so fond a pupil, though her years number but ten! What +man of twenty-eight ever thought himself old in the presence of a +maiden of eighteen? What girl of eighteen ever deemed herself too +young to be wooed and won by a man of twenty-eight? For eight years +guardian and ward live under one roof, partaking of the same +influences, the same pleasures, the same daily occupations, and +divided from all around them by the superiority of their own minds and +the congeniality of their pursuits. Pity the poor country girl in +constant presence of that cultivated intellect, fine understanding, +and beaming countenance, never weary of smiling on her life. What +wonder that as the flower expands in beauty it gradually unfolds to +blissful consciousness? Eleanor secretly loves her guardian, and +glories in the passion. He is poor, but she is rich beyond her wishes, +did her wishes comprehend aught else but the desire to make him +happy. Dunleath has passed from David Stuart's family. Eleanor has +listened a thousand times to her guardian's fond regrets for his lost +inheritance, and to the descriptions of that once happy home, the +memory of which Stuart carries about with him to darken his best and +brightest hours. What privilege to restore the coveted possession to +its natural owner, and to enrich herself by parting with the gift! +What happiness for the wife of David Stuart to bring back the smile to +his cheek, and to purchase a joy for him for ever! Sweet dreamer! She +dreams on, until reality begins. Her education ends. She goes at the +instance of her mother and half-brother to London. She takes up her +abode with a friend of her guardian's, the Lady Margaret Fordyce, and +enters upon London life. Lady Margaret is a widow, young, benevolent, +and beautiful. The fame of Eleanor's wealth is soon known to +fortune-hunters, and suitors crowd about her. One, Sir Stephen +Penrhyn, a coarse, sensual, and brutal personage, captivated by her +beauty, and sufficiently wealthy himself, proposes in proper form. +Godfrey, the half-brother, explains to David Stuart that Eleanor's +family approve the match, and require his formal consent to the union. +Stuart sends for Eleanor. He points out to her the advantages of the +marriage and the wishes of her friends. The child trembles. She cannot +marry, she hurriedly says, a man whom she does not love, and moreover +she has seen another whom she prefers. Stuart has only one question to +ask. "Is that other rich?" "He has no more," replies Eleanor, "than my +father bequeathed to you." Stuart's heart beats guiltily as she speaks +of her father's bounty, and, with a meaning which the girl fails to +interpret, he anxiously bids her mention the favored man's name. The +effort is too intense--her heart is nigh to bursting--she faints, and +her mother enters her apartment to find her senseless in the arms of +her tutor. The last object Eleanor beholds from her window that night, +is David Stuart, looking up, with folded arms, to her room. + +She rises the next morning to find that Stuart has suddenly quitted +the house, having left a sealed letter for her perusal. She reads it. +The whole brilliant fabric of her girlhood tumbles down to earth long +before she reaches its close. David Stuart loves her not. He is +ignorant of her strong affection. He has dissipated her whole vast +fortune. With the hope of realizing a sum sufficient to win back +Dunleath, he has been tempted to speculations which have beggared his +confiding ward. He recommends marriage with Sir Stephen Penrhyn, and +takes leave of her for ever, for he has resolved upon self-murder. He +asks her to approach the adjacent river on some day of peace and +sunshine hereafter--the river which they have so often visited +together in sunshine before--to breathe out forgiveness for him there, +if she will, and then to forget him. A search is made near the spot +indicated. A torn handkerchief hangs on one of the leafless branches; +the river is dragged, but the body is not found. Eleanor knows David +Stuart is dead, and the knowledge gives color and shape to her +remaining days. + +Ruin has overtaken the family of Eleanor Raymond, but Sir Stephen +Penrhyn is still content with his bargain. He proposed for the person, +not for the fortune of Eleanor, and he will take her, beggared as she +is. Eleanor's mother needs a home. To give her a sanctuary, Eleanor +consents to become Lady Penrhyn. What blessing can attend the union? +She gives birth to twins, one a sickly boy, the other ruddy, strong, +and full of health. They grow up to become the mother's last and best +consolation, and then she loses both by a violent death at one and the +same moment. Sir Stephen has a remedy for parental sorrow, which but +increases the great woe of Eleanor. What need to refer to it? Eleanor +passes the lodge gate on her estate one day to be made aware of her +husband's gross infidelity, and to behold living evidences of his +guilt. Is her cup of sorrow full? Not yet. She utters no complaint, +but bears her yoke of suffering meekly and resignedly, waiting +patiently and beseechingly, rather than with murmurs, for the hour of +dismissal. Light, however, is to gleam upon the checkered path before +the journey closes. Another eight years may have elapsed since David +Stuart took his last leave of Eleanor, and a stranger presents himself +with unexpected news. Sir Stephen is from home, and a traveller has +arrived at his house, with a letter from a distant country. Wondrous +disclosure! Stuart lives! Mercifully saved on the night on which he +attempted suicide, he proceeded to America, where by dint of years of +steady exertion and co-operation with the authors of his former great +calamity he contrived to re-establish the affairs of the bankrupt +house with which he had connected himself, and to recover the whole of +Eleanor's sacrificed patrimony. The bearer of the letter, Mr. Stuart's +confidential agent, is authorized to restore her fortune, and to +communicate all particulars respecting his past history. Oh, to see +the man who had lately seen him living and safe in far off America! +She hurries to meet him, and grasps the hand of--David Stuart. When +Sir Stephen comes home, at Mr. Stuart's earnest request and against +the wish of Eleanor, the guardian is introduced as Mr. Lindsay. +"Nothing," he says, "is to be gained by self-betrayal," the more +especially as he intends shortly to return to his adopted home. But +before Stuart can make up his mind to departure, he is made aware, +first of a circumstance which it is much to be wondered has never +occurred to him before, viz.: the former perfect uncalculating +devotion of his ward; and then of the more poignant fact that misery, +suffering, insult, and cruelty had attended her whole married life. +Intolerable injury reaches its height! Sir Stephen brings his bastards +into his house, and commands his wife to show them respect. Wild with +sorrow and indignation, she is advised by Stuart of Dunleath to leave +her home, to go to London, to seek a lawyer of eminence, and to sue +for a divorce. That obtained, _then_ will come, after much delay, that +"happier future," of which the counsellor dares not trust himself to +speak. The resolve is taken, the journey is made. But time brings +reflection, and reflection, reason. It is not her husband's sin that +took her from his roof, but the visionary sin of her own love; it was +"the desire to swear at the altar of God to be true to David Stuart +till death, that prompted her to plan her breaking of her first vow." +She will not undo that vow to indulge her own undying love. Still +urged by David Stuart to the act, she resists the great temptation, +and retires meekly into solitude, to pay the full penalty of her +submission to the call of virtue. To return to the pollution of her +husband's house is not to be thought of. To partake of sin with David +Stuart is a suggestion not more to be tolerated in her pure and +agitated soul. + +One other drop, and the cup is full indeed. We have spoken of Lady +Margaret Fordyce, but we have thought it unnecessary to mingle the +history of that admirable person with the main current of our +narrative. Lady Margaret, as we have said, is an old friend of Mr. +David Stuart. She has taken a sisterly interest in the career of +Eleanor, but has never ascertained from her the secret of her early +and pure affection for her guardian. Inheriting a goodly fortune, the +first care of Lady Margaret is to purchase the estate of Dunleath. She +is not long mistress of it before the recovered property is in the +hands of the man who, in his youth, became a criminal in order to +possess it. David Stuart marries Lady Margaret Fordyce. Eleanor +receives the intelligence while she is languishing abroad under the +care of her foster-brother and his wife. The news goes silently to her +heart as a lancet might travel thither, giving no external indication +of the mortal wound inflicted. But the blood flows unseen within, and +life stops, as it needs must, from the cruel laceration. Eleanor +dies--still without a murmur. She had borne daily outrage from her +husband, and confined the knowledge of her wrongs to her own bosom. +She owed her sufferings to the first great fault of her guardian, yet +she would never listen to one unkind word against his memory when she +deemed him lost, and her love for him suffered no tarnish at any time +for his offence. Shall she complain now that he is happy, and is +master of Dunleath? She dies indeed broken-hearted, but good, gentle, +uncomplaining, and forgiving, to the last. + +The characters that move in the various scenes that make up this +melancholy play are sketched out with a skilful and well disciplined +hand, and are creditable to the authoress's creative powers. Great +knowledge of human nature is indicated throughout the work. There is +nothing overdrawn; the plot is natural, and the style fluent and +poetical. + +A word or two are necessary before we close, with reference to one +remarkable phenomenon in connection with a leading personage in the +drama. By a singular coincidence, not only Mrs. Norton, but every +person in the book, is in perfect ignorance of a fact that is present +to our mind almost from the first page to the last. David Stuart, of +Dunleath, we grieve to say, is not only a very selfish gentleman, but +a most accomplished rascal, yet not a human creature, but the reader +and ourselves, has the least idea of it. Just look at him! Appointed +the guardian of a helpless girl, he makes away with her fortune in a +fruitless endeavor to enrich himself. He hears from the maiden's own +lips that her heart is irrevocably bestowed upon a man whom she +adores, yet he coolly recommends her to form an alliance with a brute +for whom she cares nothing at all, in order that she may recover the +wealth of which he, the adviser, has deliberately robbed her. +Returning to England, and taking up his residence with the husband of +his ward, he places the poor girl in a cruelly false position, and all +but blasts her reputation, by compelling her to keep a secret, the +communicating which could at the worst only occasion him a very +trifling inconvenience. Quitting the husband's house, and learning +quite soon enough for the lady's happiness that he had been the object +of Eleanor's early choice, he advises an action for divorce, promising +his hand in the event of a triumphant verdict. Finding the wife more +honest than himself, he smothers his affection and looks elsewhere for +crumbs of comfort. He finds them at the table of Lady Margaret +Fordyce, whom he condescendingly weds, because, we are compelled to +suppose, she has Dunleath to throw into the bargain. That Stuart is +unnaturally described we will not say; but that Mrs. Norton should be +so profoundly ignorant of his faults--should take such pains to hold +him up as a high-minded gentleman--that Lady Margaret should imagine +him a paragon of perfection and positively adore him--that her +brother, the Duke of Lanark, should be "fond of him,"--and that an +incalculable amount of respect and love should be thrown away by all +parties concerned upon so worthless an object is, we must confess, +somewhat disgusting in an age when even the highest merit fails too +often of securing its deserts. One good action alone saves David +Stuart from utter detestation. He recovered and restored the fortune +of Eleanor Raymond--but many a transported forger has been capable of +heroism as lofty, with incitements to honesty about as pure. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] _Stuart of Dunleath_: by Mrs. Norton. New-York, Harpers, 1851. + + + + +_Authors and Books._ + + +The student of classic mythology, who loves with Hammer Purgstall and +Kreutzer to dive into the oriental depths of ancient myths, will +welcome the recent appearance of a work by LUDWIG MERCKLIN, entitled +_Die Talos-Sage, und das Sardonische Lachen_. The story of Talus, and +the Sardonic Laughter--a contribution to the history of Grecian legend +and art--St. Petersburg and Leipsic, 1851. In this work we learn that +the Cretan Talus was beyond doubt the Phoenician sun-god, and that +he was identical with the Athenian of the same name. The Cretan Talus, +according to the mythological account, was a brazen image, which +Vulcan gave to Minos, or Jupiter to Europa. He defended the island by +heating himself in the fire and embracing his enemies. More literal +commentators have attempted to prove that Talus was a brazen statue or +beacon, like the Colossus of Rhodes, placed by the Phoenicians on +the Cretan promontory. The Athenian Talus, inventor of the compass and +saw, was slain by his uncle Daedalus, who was envious of his talent. +The gods changed him to a partridge. After identifying the twain, +Mercklin attempts to prove that the elements of this myth are to be +sought in the ancient dogmas of lustration, and that they may be still +further referred to the worship of Apollo. In connection with this +Talus legend, he closely scrutinizes the account of the so called +Sardonic laughter, and its relation to the same religious rites. "In +conclusion, he discusses those ancient works of art which illustrate +this subject, namely, the medals of Phaistos and the celebrated vase +of Ruvo, of which he gives a new, and on the whole certainly correct +account." In connection with this work we may notice another which +appeared in April, entitled _Bellerophon_, by HERMAN ALEX. FISCHER. +From the subject we infer that this Fischer is identical with +_Vischer_ who published three years ago one of the best _AEsthetics_ on +philosophies of art, ever written even in Germany. We are told in a +short notice, that the author attempts, by a study of the myth of +Bellerophon and those works of art relating to it, including the +etymological signification of the name, to establish the identity of +Bellerophon with the sun-god. [Greek: Phontes] is by him derived or +varied from [Greek: Thantes] and [Greek: Bellero], explained as +identical with [Greek: Helios], [Greek: ele], [Greek: selas], and +[Greek: selene]. + + * * * * * + +Some anonymous scribbler in Berlin has recently put forth a treatise +on free trade, entitled _Tempus omnia revelat_: of which a reviewer, +in conjecturing the cause of its publication, remarks, that "as it +treats generally of every thing else besides free trade, it is +probable that the Free Trade Union have not deemed it worth while to +hear him through." + + * * * * * + +Among the more recent curiosities of German medical literature, we +find that JOS. HEINRICH BEISEN of Quedlinburg, has written a work on +homoepathy as applicable to the diseases of swine. J. HOPPE of +Magdeburg, has set forth another, entitled _Linen and cotton Garments +considered in a medical light_, which is highly recommended by a +competent judge. C. GEROLD, of Vienna, publishes for the Count (and +physician--we know not which is the more honorable title)--VON +FEUCHTERSLEBEN, a singular book, entitled _Zur Diaetetik der Seele, +Valere aude!_ which is not, however, as one might infer from the +title, a theory of the method whereby the health of the soul itself +may be preserved; but the art of regulating our physical well being by +a correct management and strengthening of our mental powers. Count +Feuchtersleben had already attained a reputation as a writer, and the +work referred to, though in many particulars superficial, is not +without merit. Last and least, Dr. GIDEON BRECHER, hospital physician +at Pressnitz, publishes through Asher & Co., in Berlin, an octavo on +_Transcendental Magic, and the supernatural methods of curing Disease, +as given in the Talmud_, in which he enters largely into Theo-Daemon +and Angelology; as well as dreams, visions, biblical seraphims, cosmic +and magic influences of the soul, with a scattering fire of amulets, +spells and charms. We congratulate the medical faculty on this +important addition to the literature of the healing art. + + * * * * * + +No department of ancient art is more interesting, or indeed more +necessary to the student, than that relating to theatres and other +aids to the practical illustration of dramatic art. No characteristic +of modern continental life, is so striking to the traveller as the +earnestness with which the opera is discussed by all classes, and its +powerful influence upon social life in nearly every relation. But even +the earnest attention which is directed at the present day in Naples +or Vienna to some new incarnation of the all governing spirit of +amusement, is nothing when compared with the same as it existed among +the ancients, to whom it was literally _life_. '_Panem et +circenses_'--bread and the public games--with these the Roman citizen +of the later empire, like the modern lazzarone, with his maccaroni and +San Carlino, could dream away life and be happy. Mindful of the +importance of this branch of ancient art in its manifold relations, +FRIED. WIESELER has recently set forth a book,[13] declared by +competent authority to be the best in the world on this subject. He +has chosen judiciously from the immense mass of material extant; and +according to the prescribed limits conveyed all the information +possible. "The first part of the work embraces a series of well +executed plans and outlines of ancient theatres, of different +countries and ages, with every requisite detail, followed by +engravings and descriptions of every particular pertaining to the +representation of plays. This is succeeded by an admirable collection +of masks, scenes, figures and costumes, illustrative not only of the +ancient drama, but also of its subdivisions of comedy, tragedy, the +satyr-drama and the Italian phylace, with singing and music. The +illustrations are admirably accurate--more particularly the colored +plates of the Cyrenaean wall paintings, and the mosaics of the Vatican, +by which the rare and costly work of MILLI is rendered unnecessary." +More than one eminent German authority speaks in terms of high praise, +of the accuracy and unwearied erudition which characterize the +accompanying test. + + * * * * * + +The second and third parts of the _Holzschnitte Deruehmter Meister_, or +woodcuts of celebrated masters, have made their appearance, +containing, 1st. smaller woodcuts by Hans Holbein the younger (A. D., +1498-1554), being selections from the Dance of Death, and the +Peasants' and Children's Alphabets; 2d. a large engraving after +Michael Wohlzemuth (1434-1519), being the Glorification of Christ, and +a Madonna and child of Hans Buerkmayer's; also, from the Dutch school, +after Dirk de Bray (ob. 1680), a portrait of the artist's father, and +the celebrated engraving of Rembrandt's, known as the philosopher with +the hour-glass. For the information of artists we mention that these +copies are executed with exquisite accuracy, and that the work, though +gotten up in every particular in the most elegant manner, is afforded +at a very moderate price. + + * * * * * + +Recent German poetry offers little for remark. TELLKAMPF has published +a poem in hexameters in the style of Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea, +founded upon an incident in the battle of Leipsic, called _Irmengard_. +It has passed into a second edition. EMIL LEONHARD, a poet not +unknown, has written a poem upon Buerger, whose wild life had already +furnished Mueller subject for a romance and Mosenthal for a drama, and +which is too unpleasant to be made attractive even by the poetic +talent of Leonhard. We note, however an interesting work, entitled +_Prussia's Mirror of Honor_, a collection of Prussian national songs, +from the earliest period to the year 1840. They have much allusion to +old Fritz, and are interesting as an indication of the popular +feeling, which is always expressed in such songs, toward that national +hero. + + * * * * * + +An interesting contribution to contemporary history is I. VENEDY'S +_Schleswig-Holstein in 1850_. A diary. + + * * * * * + +HERMAN FRITSCHE, of Leipsig, has recently published a work by one +SOHNLAND SCHUBAUER, entitled _Consecrated souvenirs of the virtues of +our earliest ancestors: Collected with the aid of a Philologist_. This +book we are told contains (though we should never have inferred it +from the title), a collection and explanation of old German proper +names, both masculine and feminine. The author in his preface gives it +as his opinion that since the introduction of Christianity "a dreadful +thousand-year-long night has brooded over Germany, and that the best +method of dissipating this darkness, would be to revive the old German +proper names!" "The poet discovers the sanctity of these primitive +German names in the holy star-night, and he will, the higher these +rise to the ideal, find in them a full accord with holy nature." His +principal sources are the verbal assertions of Dr. ALEX. VOLLMER: for +example in page 1st, where he questions whether "ANNO" signifies a +year, and decides that it is originally German, from _an_, _un_ and +_unst_; to which add a G, whence results _Gunst_, meaning good +fortune, success, or favor!--a bit of ingenuity which reminds us of +several scraps of Horne Tooke's comic philology, as well as the +glove-maker's motto, _Kunst macht Gunst_--skill makes (or wins) +success. Dr. Vollmer is an amiable and hard-working scholar of immense +erudition, and possessed of a boundless enthusiasm on the subject of +early German and Gothic dialects. We regret that his learning should +be lent to the support of such singular vagaries. + + * * * * * + +CARL GUTZKOW, who seemed by his first literary failure, the _Walley_, +in 1835, to have sunk irretrievably, but has since risen to a +brilliant eminence by the publication of _Uriel Akasta_, the _Zopf und +Schwert_, and other writings, has recently put forth another, noticed +as the _Ritter von Geiste_. G. REIMER at Berlin, has published the +first volume of a second edition of BOeCKH'S inestimable work, _Die +Staatshaushaltung der Athener_--the political economy of the +Athenians. Prof. ANT. GUBITZ, the celebrated wood engraver, publisher +of an annual comic almanac, and in fact the father of all the popular +German illustrated almanacs of the present day, has written and +published three dramas, entitled _The Emperor Henry and his Sons_, +_Sophonisba_, and _Johann der Ziegler_. + + * * * * * + +_Macchiavelli und der Gang der Europaeischen Politik_ (Macchiavelli, +and the Course of European Policy), by THEODORE MUNDT, is the last +discussion of the political system of the "Regent of the Devil." The +doctrines of _The Prince_ Herr Mundt supposes have influenced the late +reactionary events in Germany, and he thinks that work will again be +the favorite text-book of despots. His exposition of the character and +doctrines of Machiavelli, and his influence on European policy, is an +interesting historical study. + +The German press is no less prolific of novels than that of England +and America. We observe the last month _Stories and Pictures from the +Bohemian Forest_, by JOSEPH RANK, a romance of provincial life, not +without interest; _The Children of God_, by MAX RING, a story of the +court of Augustus the Strong, and of the origin of the sect of the +Herrnhutters. Its sketches of character are called sprightly and +successful. _The Castle of Ronceaux_, from an old manuscript, is an +episode from the history of the Huguenot war. A piquant title is that +of Madame IDA VON DURINGSFELD'S book, _A Pension_ (boarding-house) +_upon the Lake of Geneva, two Romances in one house_, which recalls +the stories of the Countess Hahn-Hahn before she ceased writing +pleasant tales for us, and began histories of religious experience. +But with less talent, the present author has more knowledge of men. +The book is _sent la Politique_ a little too much. But German ladies +who write books love to say a word in them about every thing. + +_A Pilgrim and his Companions_ is still another romance, by LORENZO +DIEFFENBACH, not of a religions tone, as the title suggests, but +purely political. It is a story of the German "March-Days," the days +of Revolution. The author is bold and large in thought, but the want +of sharp outline in his characters indicates the poor or unpractised +artist. _The Oath_ is the appropriately melodramatic title of a +romance of the Venetian Inquisition, by DAVID. It is well written, +simple and natural. Remarkable qualities with so passionate a theme. + + * * * * * + +LUDWIG BAUER has published through G. Jonghaus of Darmstadt, a work +which reminds us of the _Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda_, being the +_Urkundenbuch des Klosters Arnsburg in d. Wetterau_, containing as yet +unprinted documents of the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries, relating to the history of the monastery. We are +happy to observe that notwithstanding the check given to general +literature by the recent political troubles in Germany, this +department of mediaeval antiquity is rapidly advancing. When we +remember the immense amount of material as yet unavailable which is +still requisite to form an accurate history of the middle ages, with +_reliable_ accounts of its varied literature and customs, or when we +reflect on the spoil and devastation which every day brings to the +ancient hoard, we should feel grateful to those untiring antiquaries, +who thus rescue a few literary gems from the flood of time. + + * * * * * + +The _Manuscripts of Peter Schlemil_, naturally awakens attention, but +proves to be an extravaganza of LOUIS BECHSTEIN, humorous and +intelligent withal. But the humor is not intelligible, and the +intelligence is not humorous, says a sharp reviewer. + + * * * * * + +PROF. O. L. B. WOLFF, well known to every amateur German scholar in +this country and England, as the publisher of the celebrated +_Poetischer und Prosaischer Hausschatz_, or Poetic and Prosaic Home +Treasury, has edited and published by Otto Wigand of Leipsic, that +singular romance of _Caspar von Grimmelshausen_, first printed in +1669, which is, as a picture of German social life during the period +of the thirty years' war, extremely interesting. We need, however, +hardly caution our lady readers against its perusal. Its title is as +follows: _Der abenteuerliche Simplicius Simplicissimus_. The +adventurous Simplicius Simplicissimus. That is the true, copious, and +very remarkable biography of an odd, wonderful and singular man, +STERNFELS VON FUCHSHEIM, how he passed his youth in Spessart, of his +varied and remarkable destinies in the thirty years' war, and of the +numerous sufferings, sorrows and dangers which he experienced, with +his ultimate good fortune. + + * * * * * + +A German critic, who of course belongs to the conservative party, +writing under date of June 16, says of Miss HELEN WEBER, the inventor +of the hybrid costume which _Punch_ satirizes as an _American_ +absurdity, that "except in a certain disregard of public decencies +there is nothing by which to distinguish her from the mass of vulgar +women of the middling classes; she is about thirty-five years of age, +and appears to be willing to do or say any thing that may be required +for the attraction of observation; from her writings, throw out what +is stolen or compiled, and there is nothing left to evince even a +mediocrity of talent." This is less favorable than an account we +published in an early number of the _International_ (vol. i. 463), but +it may be quite as just. + + * * * * * + +When Professor ZAHN sojourned in Naples, he took an active part in the +excavations of Pompeii--studies which eventually led to the +publication of his meritorious work on this subject. At the same time +he faithfully reported the progress of these operations to old Goethe. +The poet's replies to these communications on the ancient paintings of +Pompeii, its theatres, and other buildings, were replete with those +sparks of genius he exhibited on every occasion. This rather +voluminous correspondence, long laid up at Naples, has been lately +discovered, and will be published by Professor Zahn. + + * * * * * + +_Geschichte der Deutschen Stadte und des Deutschen Burgerthums_ +(History of the Cities of Germany, and of German Citizenship), by F. +W. BARTHOLD, is the first of a series of painstaking and exhausting +books of German historical materiel, in course of publication by +Weizel, of Leipsic. The style of treatment resembles that adopted in +_The Pictorial History of England_, which will make the work easy of +reference. + + * * * * * + +DR. CORNILL publishes a dissertation upon Louis Feuerbach and his +position toward the religion and philosophy of the present time. The +author finds in every thing the famous professor does a farther +religious development. But it is very doubtful if Feurbach has +advanced at all since his memorable essay in the Halle _Book of the +Year_, upon the relation of philosophy to theology. Since then he has +only varied this theme, and his last work, upon the transcendental +thesis _Man is what he eats_, in which the worthy Professor with +Teutonic energy seeks to seduce the immorality of the age from the +potato disease, the German critics declare to be totally devoid of +that bold and thoughtful spirit which formerly fought so well for the +emancipation of the understanding from its long scholastic thraldom. + + * * * * * + +A most mystical and metaphysical treatise is that of ERNST, _A new +Book of the Planets, or Mikro and Makrokosmos_. It sings with +Klopstock of the souls of the stars. It speculates with Jacob Boehme, +with Retif de la Bretonne, with the Rabbins, and other mighty mystics, +upon the origin of thought. The essential difference in speculative +science between ether and thought, the unity of matter and spirit, the +eternity and evanescence of matter, the thoughts, feelings, and +sensations of God, and the final explication of the trinity. All this +and more. In fine, says a German critic, it is a very jocose book, +strongly to be commended for the consolation of political prisoners. + + * * * * * + +WALDMEISTER'S _Bridal-Tour_, a story of the Rhine, Wine, and Travel, +is the pleasant and appropriate title of the last book of OTTO +ROQUETTE. It is the story of a spring tour along the Rhine. The fire +of its wine, the golden gleam of its vineyards, the faint, penetrant +delicacy of the grape-blossom, the luring look of the Love-Lei, the +mystery of ruins, the distant baying of the wild huntsman's +pack,--they all breathe, and bloom, and sound through the little book. +It is a genuine song of spring. The poet is young,--he feels, dreams, +and sings--what needs poet more? + + * * * * * + +A German version of Copway the Indian's work is announced under the +title of _Kah-ge-ga-gah-bouh, Hauptling d'Ojibway Nation: Die Ojibway +Eroberung_: Translated from the English, by N. ADLER, and published at +Frankfort-on-the-Main. This we presume is an after-shot from the Peace +Convention. + + * * * * * + +Among the new books announced in Germany we see _The Institutions of +the United States, and their Lessons of American Experience to +Europe_. It appears to be anonymous. One or two other German works on +this country we shall notice particularly in our next number. + + * * * * * + +Russian literature is gradually made accessible to the general student +by German and French translations, and we shall soon begin to learn +more of the mysterious despotism that towers like a fateful cloud +along the eastern horizon of Europe, in its influence upon social and +artistic life. The publisher Brockhaus of Leipsic has recently issued +a collection in three volumes of the Russian novelists. Yet, whether +from the want of tact in the selection or from the absence of +characteristic qualities in the tales themselves, the authors are +weakest in their delineation of popular life and manners, in this +resembling fine society in Russia, which ignores _Russianism_, and +believes in Parisian manners, language, and life, every thing but +Parisian politics. Among the authors whose works are quoted we note +ALEXANDER PUSHKIN, the pride of Russian literature, born in 1799, and +died in a duel in 1837. HELENA HAHN, born in 1815, who, married at +sixteen to a soldier, travelled through a large part of Russia, and +died in 1832. Her novels were first published after her death, but +seem to be not of the highest merit. ALEXANDER HERZEN, born in 1812, +has zealously studied Hegel, and written a series of humorous tales, +the best of which is called _Taras Bulwa_. Since 1847 he has been a +wanderer, pursued as a democrat, and now proposes to visit the United +States. + + * * * * * + +The Emperor of Austria has appointed AARON WOLFGANG MESSELEY, a Jew, +Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Prague. M. Messeley had +long filled the chair of the Hebrew Language and Literature in the +same University. The numbers of Jews now attached as professors to the +different universities and educational establishments in the Austrian +states is seventeen; of whom fifteen were named by the late Emperor, +and two by the present. + + * * * * * + +ALEXANDER DUMAS, who, as a simple story writer is perhaps deserving of +the highest place in the temple of letters--whose _Three Guardsmen_, +with its several continuations, making some twenty volumes, is the +most entertaining, and in certain characteristics the best sustained +novel written in our days,--announces in Paris a new tale, _Un Drame +de '93_, and he occupies the _feuilleton_ of the _Presse_ every week +with another, _Ange Pitou_, of which the scene and time are also +France during the first revolution. + + * * * * * + +MADAME CHARLES REYBAUD, authoress of _The Cadet de Calobrieres_, has +just published another story, _Faustine_, wherein provincial life in +France is daguerreotyped. + + * * * * * + +Among the announcements in Paris we notice one of the tenth volume of +THIERS'S _Histoire du Consulat_. The eleventh volume is also said to +be nearly ready. + + * * * * * + +M. MIGNET has nearly completed his _Life and Times of Mary, Queen of +Scots_, the third work on the subject produced in France within a year +and a half. Mignet, however, is the most eminent person who has ever +essayed this service, and he has had some peculiar and important +advantages. He has made use of the collection of letters published by +Prince Labanoff; of researches made in the State Paper Office of +England by Mr. Tytler, and of other unpublished documents which he has +himself collected, in order to form more correct opinions with regard +to some of the darkest and most controverted events in the queen's +life. These documents, chiefly from the archives of Spain, (to which +M. Mignet was enabled to obtain access only at the express request of +the French Government,) are of much importance, for they bring to +light the negotiations carried on with Philip II. for the deliverance +of Mary from her imprisonment--a part of her history to which previous +biographers have paid little attention. + + * * * * * + +In the political literature of France a new pamphlet by CORMENIN is +remarkable. It is entitled _Revision_, and its substance is this: +Having recounted the history of the Republican Charter, elaborated +during many months by men especially delegated to the work, and by a +suffrage really universal, debated long and earnestly in the +committee, amended by the eighteen delegates of the assembly, reviewed +by the commission, deliberated by the chamber, discussed by the +press,--M. Cormenin establishes that this constitution, so elaborately +matured, if it has nothing which promises eternal duration, yet +satisfies all the conditions essential to present permanence, and will +well lead the nation to that moment, when, personal passion being +somewhat allayed, it may be wisely and conscientiously reviewed. This +is the pith of the pamphlet. It appeals to no passions, and justifies +no excess, and is a notable and intelligent effort at the resolution +of the question. + + * * * * * + +M. DE MARCELLUS, an old French ambassador, has published two volumes +entitled _Literary Episodes in the East_. His oriental travel dates +back as far as 1818, but the beautiful vision has pursued him ever +since, and he knew no better way to lay it than by painting it, and +making it real. The volume opens with a confession that all travel and +all scenery have only reminded him most strongly of his eastern +experiences, and that now, chilled with age, and hoping nothing of the +future, he has especial pleasure in recurring to the past. It is a +series of colloquial, familiar sketches and anecdotes, and will +doubtless be a pleasant companion for the eastern tour. M. de +Marcellus will follow this work with _A Collection of Popular Songs in +Greece_. + + * * * * * + +VICTOR HUGO, who has always been opposed to the punishment of death, +and whose _Last Days of Condemned_, one of his most powerful fictions, +had a large influence every where against the death penalty, was +lately before the Court of Assizes in Paris as an advocate in behalf +of his son, who was on trial for publishing an article calculated to +bring into disrespect the administrators of the law. The veteran poet +was allowed to deliver an elaborate and characteristic harangue in +defence of the article. He tasked himself for his most brilliant +antithetical rhetoric, denouncing the scaffold, and the legislation of +death. The son, however, was convicted, and sentenced to a fine of +five hundred francs and imprisonment for six months. + +Victor Hugo has published a volume containing twelve speeches +delivered on various occasions while he has been a _representant du +peuple_. They are on the Bonaparte family, the punishment of death, +universal suffrage, the liberty of the press, the affairs of Rome, +&c., and are all written with the author's customary fine rhetoric; +indeed in thought and style they are among his best performances. + + * * * * * + +MADAME BOCARME, who probably was a party to the late murder of her +brother, for which her husband the Count de Bocarme is to be executed, +was an intimate friend of Balzac. The great novelist dedicated one of +his works to her, and another of them was written in the Chateau de +Bitremont. Balzac, while on a visit to the chateau, was taken to see a +farmer, and, as usual, interested himself so much in the cattle, that +after an hour's conversation he was amused to find that, the farmer +had taken him, H. de Balzac, the brilliant Parisian, for a cattle +dealer! The forthcoming memoirs of Balzac will perhaps contain +something about this woman, who seems to have won for herself the +execration of all France. + + * * * * * + +The Paris correspondent of the _Literary Gazette_ affirms that, on the +whole, the French press has gained by the regulation requiring +signatures to original articles. The abler class of contributors have +profited greatly, as they have obtained a position in popular esteem, +and consequently a claim on their employers, which years of anonymous +drudgery would not have secured. Nor have readers, it is remarked, any +cause to complain; for "men, remembering that 'those who live to +please must please to live,' take far greater pains with the articles +to which they have to attach their names, than to those which are +unsigned." + + * * * * * + +M. ARAGO, the great astronomer, who is passing the summer at the +mineral springs of Vichy, is nearly blind, and probably will entirely +lose his sight. His brother, who is likewise a man of extraordinary +abilities, has been blind many years. + + * * * * * + +GEORGE SAND dedicates her last performance to DUMAS, "because," she +says, "I wish to protest against the tendency that may be attributed +to me of regarding the absence of action as a systematic reaction +against the school of which you are the chief. Far from me such a +blasphemy against movement and life! I am too fond of your works; I +read them and listen to them with too much attention and emotion; I am +too much an artist in feeling to wish the slightest lessening of your +triumphs. Many believe that artists are necessarily jealous of each +other. I pity those who believe it, pity them for having so little of +the artist as not to understand that the idea of assassinating our +rivals would be that of our own suicide." + + * * * * * + +_A Critical History of the Philosophical School of Alexandria_ is the +title of a work of serious philosophical claims, by M. VACHEROT. He +had already published two volumes analyzing and developing the +doctrines of the Alexandrian philosophy. In the present volume he has +traced its influence upon the subsequent schools, passing in review +Plotinus and his successors. The scope of the work invites and permits +a discussion of the profoundest problems that now agitate the world of +thought, and M. Vacherot has the credit of acquitting himself +adequately and admirably of his task. + + * * * * * + +ROUSSEAU, on his death, left several papers to his friend Moulton, and +the heirs of that person, in 1794, caused them to be deposited in the +public library of Neufchatel, in Switzerland. There they have remained +unknown until a few weeks since, when M. Bovet, of that town, examined +them, and found that they embraced an essay entitled _Avant-propos et +Preface a mes Confessions_, which has just been printed. Of course it +will appear with all future editions of the Confessions. + + * * * * * + +BALZAC, besides his _Memoirs_, which are soon to appear in Paris, it +is now stated left two other works, one a romance called _Les +Paysans_, finished only a short time before his death, the other a +collection of confidential letters to a lady, in which, it is said, he +took pleasure in laying bare the secrets of his heart, and his real +opinion of men and things. + + * * * * * + +M. NISARD was a few weeks ago received into the _Academie Francaise_. +He succeeds the late M. Feletz, and has written a history of French +literature, a book of _etudes_ on the Latin poets, and superintended a +translation of all the Latin writers. + + * * * * * + +M. GAUTIER, formerly a deputy from the Gironde, a peer of France, +Minister of Finance, and sub-governor of the Bank of France, has +published a volume _On the Causes which disturb Order in France, and +the means of Reestablishing it_. + + * * * * * + +GUIZOT is about to publish the _Histoire des Origines du Gouvernement +Representatif_. This is a new work, being the revised issue of his +lectures from 1820 to 1822, which have never yet been printed, except +in the imperfect _comptes rendus_ of the _Journal des Cours Public_. + + * * * * * + +_Le Drame de '93_, by ALEXANDRE DUMAS, turns out to be a narrative of +the Revolution, in his rapid dramatic style. + + * * * * * + +M. PIERRE DUFOUR is publishing a work of great value entitled the +_History of Prostitution among all Nations and at all Times_. + + * * * * * + +A cheap edition of the chief writings on affairs, by EMILIE DE +GIRARDIN, is published in eleven volumes. + + * * * * * + +_Mademoiselle de Belle Isle_, written by Dumas for Mademoiselle +Mars--a sprightly, dissolute comedy, full of the life which animates +the _Memoires_ of the time, and complicated in its construction with +the skill of a Lope de Vega--was translated in New-York a year or two +ago by Mrs. Fanny Kemble Butler, and brought out at the Astor Place +Opera House. Our theatre-going people, however, declined a piece so +broadly licentious, and it was soon withdrawn. We see that another +version of it has been made in London, and that it has been played +there very successfully. + + * * * * * + +The London editors lack something of the honesty of the Americans: +they never give credit for an article, but if making up an entire +number of a periodical from American sources, would permit their +readers to suppose it all original. _Sharpe's Magazine_ is +particularly addicted to this infirmity, and the July issue of it +contains our excellent friend the Rev. F. W. Shelton's paper on +_Boswell, the Biographer_, which appeared originally in _The +Knickerbocker_. + + * * * * * + +The REV. CHARLES KINGSLEY, Jr., rector of Eversley, best known to +American readers as the author of the Chartist novel of _Alton Locke_, +and _Yeast, a Problem_, has been an industrious writer. He is now +about fifty years of age, and besides the above works and a vast +number of papers in _Fraser's Magazine_, he has published _The +Christian Socialist(!)_, _Politics for the People_, _Village Sermons_, +and _The Saint's Tragedy_--in point of art the best of his +performances. We see by the English papers that he preached a sermon +lately in Fitzroy Square, London, on the "Gospel Message to the Poor." +It was so full of "socialistic" thoughts, and so severe on the richer +classes, that the rector of the church, when he had finished, arose in +his pew, and protested vehemently against its doctrines. The +congregation dispersed in great disorder. + +We doubt whether any living Englishman is capable of surpassing Sir +Bulwer Lytton's version of the Ballads of Schiller, but Mr. EDGAR +ALFRED BOWRING, a son of the well-known Dr. Bowring who has published +translations from so many languages, has just published a volume +entitled _The Poems of Schiller complete, including all his early +Suppressed Pieces, attempted in English_. The word "complete" +expresses its difference from the many Schillers in English that have +previously appeared. An _Anthology_ edited by Schiller in 1782, when +he had just commenced his career, contains several poems which the +critics recognize as his. This remained unknown, however, except as a +literary curiosity, till a few months ago; and several of the poems +had been omitted in all the collections of Schiller's works. But the +republication of the _Anthology_ has brought to light the suppressed +poems (in number twenty-eight, comprising nearly twelve hundred +verses), and those are translated for the first time by Mr. Bowring, +whose versions are much commended. + + * * * * * + +Among the new books of English verse, some of the most noticeable are +_The Fair Island, in Six Cantos_, by EDMUND PEEL: in the Spenserian +measure, with passages of fair description; _Ballad Romances_, by R. +H. HORNE, author of "Orion," &c.--a book containing genuine poetry; +_The Reign of Avarice_, an allegorical satire, in four cantos; +_Philosophy in the Fens_, in the style of Peter Pindar; and _Marican_, +a Chilian tale, by HENRY INGLIS. + + * * * * * + +WARREN, the author of "Ten Thousand a Year," has just published a new +novel under the title of _The Lily and the Bee, a Romance of the +Crystal Palace_. The name savors of the huckster, and we shall look +for a more melancholy failure than his last previous performance. + + * * * * * + +MR. LEVI WOODBURY'S _Miscellaneous Writings, Addresses, and Judicial +Opinions_, will be published in four octavo volumes, by Little & +Brown, of Boston. + + * * * * * + +The _North American Review_ for the July quarter is in many respects +characteristic. Six months after every Review published in Great +Britain had had its paper on Southey, and when the subject is quite +worn out, the _North American_ furnishes us with a leading article +upon it, in which there is neither an original thought nor a new +combination of thoughts that are old. Colton's _Public Economy_ gives +a title to an article, in which the book is treated superciliously, +and some ideas by Henry C. Carey are presented as the original +speculations of the reviewer. It is deserving of remark that the _Past +and Present_, and more recent works of Mr. Carey, which among thinking +men throughout the world have commanded more attention than any other +writings in political philosophy during the last five years, have +never been even referred to in this periodical, which arrogates to +itself the leadership of American literature. The eighth article of +the number is on the Unity of the Human Race, and considering the +place it occupies in the _North American Review_, for July, 1851, it +is contemptible. It is based on five publications made in England +previous to 1847, and ignores all the research and discussion since +that time, notwithstanding the facts that the subject never was so +amply, so profoundly, or so luminously discussed as during the last +year--that the very writers referred to in the article have for the +chief part published their most important treatises upon it since +1847--that within six months its literature has received large +accessions in France, Germany, and Italy,--and that in _our own +country_, of whose intellectual advancement this Review is bound to +give some sort of an index, the four years since Latham's "Present +State and Recent Progress of Ethnological Philosophy" appeared, have +furnished important works by Albert Gallatin, Mr. Hale of the +Exploring Expedition, the Rev. Dr. Bachman, the Rev. Dr. Smyth, and +several others, all of which should have been considered in any new, +especially in any American _resume_ of the discussion. Johnston's +_Notes on North America_ is treated with a spleen excited by the +author's refusal to recognize the greatness assumed for certain +persons connected with Harvard College, and Mr. Bowen is weak enough +to say, or to permit a contributor to say, "we _understand_(!) Mr. +Johnston has a high reputation," &c. Pish! And what does the reader +suppose is the theme--the fresh, before unheard-of theme--of another +paper? what new star, in the heaven of mind, demanded most the +exploration and illustration of the _North American Review_, for this +July quarter, in 1851? The best guesser of riddles would not in fifty +years hit upon Mr. Gilfillan's book of rigmarole entitled _The Bards +of the Bible_, but this performance, which had been criticised in +every other quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily, in the English +language, that would descend to it, crowds out the subjects of "great +pith and moment" upon which a periodical of such claims should have +spoken with wise authority. + +Our own country is full of suggestive topics for thoughtful, earnest, +and learned men, and it is fit that the closet should send out its +instruction to calm the turbulence awakened by tempests from the +rostrum--that affairs should be subjected to the criticism of +experience, and that what is new in discovery, in opinion, or in +suggestion, should have quick and popular recognition and justice. We +need--we must have--for this purpose a powerful and really national +_Review_, to reflect and guide the life and aspirations of the +country. + + * * * * * + +We mentioned some time ago that Mr. WILLIAM W. STORY, a son of the +late Justice Story, was preparing for the press a life of his father, +and we now understand that the work will soon be ready, in two large +octavo volumes, to be published by Little & Brown. It will come too +late. Such a memoir would have been very well received any time within +a year after Judge Story's death: now the public mind is settled in an +unalterable conviction that Judge Story was an over-rated man, and a +consideration of the processes by which his fame was acquired is +likely for a long time to sink it below its just level. We but echo +the opinion of more than one eminent person connected with the very +school in which he was a teacher, as well as the common judgment of +the leading men of the profession in all the states, when we say that +Judge Story was not a great lawyer; two or three of his books were +good, but the rest were made for cash profits, and sold by means of +ingenious advertising. Now they will answer for the country courts, +and the inferior courts of the cities, where no opposing lawyer has +enough wit and knowledge to oppose Story against Story, but they are +no longer weighty authorities, and every term they are found to be of +declining influence. As a man of letters, Judge Story's rank will be +still lower. He has left nothing to carry his name into another age. +Yet he was a man of much professional learning, of taste, sagacity, an +extraordinary command of his resources, and a most amiable and +pleasing character, and his memoirs and correspondence, if fitly +presented, will constitute an attractive and valuable contribution to +the history of American society. + + * * * * * + +For several years it has been known to many students of our early +history, that Mr. LYMAN C. DRAPER was devoting his time and estate, +and faculties admirably trained for such pursuits, to the collection +of whatever materials still exist for the illustration of the lives of +the Western Pioneers. He has carefully explored all the valley of the +Mississippi, under the most favorable auspices--by his intelligence +and enthusiasm and large acquaintance with the most conspicuous +people, commended to every family which was the repository of special +traditions or of written documents--and he has succeeded in amassing a +collection of MS. letters, narratives, and other papers, and of +printed books, pamphlets, magazines, and journals, more extensive than +is possessed by many of the state historical societies, while in +character it is altogether and necessarily unique. He proposes soon to +publish his first work, _The Life and Times of General George Rogers +Clarke_, (whose papers have been long in his possession, and whose +surviving Indian fighters and other associates he has personally +visited), in two octavo volumes, to be followed by shorter historical +memoirs of Colonel Daniel Boone, General Simon Kenton, General John +Sevier of East Tennessee, General James Robertson, Captain Samuel +Brady, Colonel William Crawford, the Wetzells, &c., &c. The field of +his researches, it will be seen, embraces the entire sweep of the +Mississippi, every streamlet flowing into which has been crimsoned +with the blood of sanguinary conflicts, every sentinel mountain +looking down to whose waves has been a witness of more terrible and +strange vicissitudes and adventures than have been invented by all the +romancers. + + * * * * * + +The _Dublin University Magazine_ is not very kind in the matter of the +American poem of _Frontenac_, but suggests that as the author's name +is STREET, he cannot object to being "walked into." + + * * * * * + +MRS. SOUTHWORTH'S story of _Retribution_ is being republished in +_Reynolds's Miscellany_, edited by G. W. M. Reynolds, the novelist. +Those who are acquainted with the productions of Reynolds will perhaps +recognize the fitness of the association. + + * * * * * + +MRS. MOWATT, who has just returned from a professional residence in +England, we understand will soon give the public a collection of her +miscellaneous writings, prefaced by Mary Howitt. The authoress of _The +Fortune Hunter_, under various signatures, has been a very voluminous +as well as a very clever writer. She will in a few weeks appear at the +Broadway Theatre. + + * * * * * + +MISS BEECHER has published (through Phillips & Sampson of Boston), her +_True Remedy for the Wrongs of Women_, and the book is much below her +reputation. From a person of her character and unquestionable +abilities, we looked for a rebuke of those females who have unsexed +themselves, such a rebuke as should have brought to life all the +latent shame in their natures, and for ever prevented any renewals of +the melancholy displays they have made of an unfeminine passion for +notoriety. The "wrongs of woman," in the state of New-York at least, +are purely ideal; here woman has all the privileges and protections +compatible with her destined offices in a civilized society. She +undoubtedly has a share of the sufferings to which human nature is +subject, but has literally nothing to complain of at the hands of man +in the social organization. The individual wrongs of which she is the +victim, are for the most part penalties of individual indiscretions, +and the remedy for them is to be found in the education of woman for +her proper sphere and duties, such education as shall develope her +capacities for the relations of domestic life, most of all, for +maternity. Miss Beecher treats parties with respect who are entitled +to no respect, acknowledges evils which do not exist, and proposes for +the elevation of female character plans of very questionable +influence. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[13] WIESELER, FRIEDRICH. Theatergebaeude und Denkmaler des +Buhnenwesens, beiden Gricchen und Roemern. Goettingen, 1851. Vandenhoeik +und Ruprecht. + + + + +_The Fine Arts._ + + +All Europe abounds in memorials of illustrious men, and in the present +time there is more than ever before a disposition manifested to +consecrate art to the honor of the benefactors of mankind, or to those +who have been most eminent for great qualities. From Munich, we learn +by the latest journals, that two colossal statues--those of Gustavus +Adolphus and of the Swedish poet Tegner--have just been cast at the +royal foundry of that capital, with complete success. Both were +modelled by Schwanthaler, and are destined for public places in the +city of Stockholm. In France, the inhabitants of Andelys have been +inaugurating a statue of Nicolas Poussin, with great ceremonial. On +the same day a statue to Poisson, an eminent mathematician, was +inaugurated with pomp, at his native place, Pithiviers, near Orleans. +A little before, one was erected to Froissart, the quaint old +chronicler of knightly deeds, at Valenciennes, where he was born. +Jeanne Hachette is about to have one at Beauvais; Gresset, the author +of '_Vert Vert_', at Amiens; and the village of Rollot, in Picardy, +has just caused to be placed in its public square a bust of the +translator into French of the _Thousand and One Nights_, Antony +Galland. He was sent by Colbert to the East on account of his great +knowledge of the Hebrew and other oriental languages, and on his +return published the Arabian Nights, and a treatise on the origin of +coffee. + +There is, in fact, scarcely a Frenchman of real eminence in poetry, +literature, war, science, statesmanship, or the arts, who is not +honored with a statue, either in his birthplace, or in the town made +his own by adoption. Most of the statues are erected at the expense of +the respective localities; the good people thinking it a duty to +render every respect to their illustrious dead. And when they happen +to be too poor to incur much cost, they erect a fountain, or some +other useful work, which bears the great man's name. In the small and +poor village of Chatenay, near Paris, where Voltaire was born, you +see, for example, a small plaster bust of him, in an iron cage, and on +the parish pump the words "a Voltaire." And, as the _Literary Gazette_ +has it, very justly, "the man who should scoff at this simple tribute +to genius would be an ass,--it is all that poor peasants can afford to +pay." The names of distinguished men are also frequently given by the +French to streets and squares. In Paris alone, Moliere, Racine, +Corneille, Voltaire, Boileau, Montaigne, and I know not how many +others, together with men of science by the hundred, have streets +named after them: so have Chateaubriand and Beranger; so have even the +English Lord Byron and the Italian Rossini. The ships in the navy, +too, receive also the names of distinguished men, foreign as well as +native--there is a man-of-war named after Newton, and several public +works have the name of our own Franklin. But in the United States, +although we have sometimes named after soldiers and statesmen, we have +scarce any monuments, and no statues at all, except a few of men +distinguished in affairs. In Union Square, opposite the house in which +he lived, there should be a statue of the great Chancellor Kent; in +Richmond, one of Marshall, next to Washington, the greatest of +Virginians; in Northampton, one to Jonathan Edwards; in New Haven, one +to Timothy Dwight; before the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, one +to Franklin, one to Rittenhouse, and one to Alex. Wilson; at +Cambridge, one to Allston; in Boston, one to Bowditch; and in +New-York, memorials of some sort to Audubon, Gallatin, Hamilton, &c. + +In the new park which is to be reserved in the upper part of the city, +we have an opportunity to commemorate the patriotism and misfortunes +of the first magistrate chosen by the people of New-York, the first +under whom municipal elections were held here, and the first martyr to +Liberty in the New World--Governor Leisler. LEISLER PARK sounds well, +and it has additional fitness from the fact, that the unfortunate +governor was once proprietor of a part of the grounds to be so +appropriated. If it shall not be called Leisler Park, there is another +illustrious New-Yorker, whose name appears to have been forgotten by +those who have given names to public places here,--Governor Colden, +who wrote the _History of the Five Nations_. + + * * * * * + +When the Emperor of Russia was at Rome, four or five years ago, he +engaged Barberi, the worker in mosaic, to undertake certain large +works, and with the instruction of six Russian students with a view to +the establishment of a great school of mosaic art in St. Petersburgh. +Since that time Barberi and his pupils have been occupied with works +for the imperial residence, the last of which, just completed, +consists of an octagonal mosaic pavement, from the ancient design of +the round hall in the Vatican Museum, with twenty-eight figures, a +colossal head of Medusa in the centre, and a variety of ornaments, all +inclosed in a brilliant wreath of fruits, flowers, and foliage. The +series already executed consist of four scenic masques, each of which +is valued at L5200 sterling. With these finished works Cavaliere +Barberi is about to forward to St. Petersburgh a number of vitreous +mosaic tablets of every shade and style of drawing and decoration, as +models for younger students. + + * * * * * + +TENERANI, the most eminent of contemporary Italian sculptors, has +finished a statue of Bolivar. The figure is standing, full draped, and +holding a laurel crown in the left hand. The pediment is ornamented +with three bas-reliefs, the three provinces, Peru, Bolivia, and +Colombia. Two statues, Justice and Liberality, symbols of the hero's +virtues, stand at the side of the monument, which will be erected in +the cathedral of Caraccas. It is a fine instance of the beauty and +delicate grace of Tenerani's treatment. The expressive head of "The +Liberator," with the high, arched brow, the large, soft, and sagacious +eyes, the sharply chiselled but agreeable features, beaming with +intellectual radiance, are happily conceived and exquisitely executed. + +In the same kind we note an equestrian statue of Bernadotte by +TOGELBERG, a Swede resident in Rome. The horseman's mantle has fallen +aside, the staff of a commander is in his hand, and the able marshal, +"king that shall be," looks graciously down from his horse. In his +face there is the imperial force of military genius, with the genial +grace of sensibility. The horse is finely done. + + * * * * * + +STEINHAUSER'S statue of Hahnemann, the father of homoeopathy, +destined for Leipsic, is almost finished. The same artist has in hand +the Goethe monument, designed by Bettina von Arnim. The sketch serves +as the illuminated title-page to the second volume of the +correspondence with a child. She describes it as follows: "Goethe sits +upon a throne, within a semi-niche, his head reaches over the niche, +which is not closed above, but is cut away, and seems, half seen, like +the moon rising over the rim of a mountain. The mantle, tied round the +neck, falls back over the shoulders, and is brought forward again +under the arms into the lap. The left hand rests upon the lyre, +supported upon the left knee. The right hand, which holds my flowers, +is sunk negligently in the same way, and, forgetting fame, he holds +the laurel wreath, and looks toward heaven. The young Psyche stands +before him, as then I stood, raises herself upon tip-toe to touch the +strings of the lyre, which he permits, lost in inspiration." + +The artist has appreciated this conception. He has represented Goethe +not as an old man, but as a man of ideal expression, holding indeed +the well-won laurel, but with the harp in hand, as if inspiration were +exhaustless. + + * * * * * + +HERR KISS'S group in bronze of an Amazon encountering a lion has been +purchased by the Prince of Prussia as a present for the Queen of +England. A copy of the same work in zinc has been purchased by a +gentleman from the United States for L2500. It is said that Kiss has +received a commission for two other copies for persons in the United +States. + + * * * * * + +The English critics complain that they have not any longer a great +portrait painter. This branch of art is declining, and the walls of +the Academy this year bear testimony to the fact. From the death of +Lawrence to the present time, now more than twenty years, it has been +gradually subsiding into the mere record of literal fact--ignoring +those great principles which made it once a means of historical +record. In America we have occasion for no such regrets. Elliot is +equal to any man in the world for a masculine and noble head, and +Hicks and several others would in any country or in any time command +the applause due to great masters. + + * * * * * + +For three years Mr. PYNE, the landscape painter, has been taking a +series of views in the lake counties of England. The pictures comprise +all the important objects in a tour through the country they +illustrate, treated under a variety of aspects, which renders the +collection valuable in an artistic point of view. A feeling for +atmospheric distance is one of Mr. Pyne's most important attributes, +and in representing wide reaching views of mountains and lakes he has +had full scope for his talent. The pictures are to be copied in a +series of colored lithographs, and published in a volume. + + * * * * * + +Among the pictures in the Royal Academy this season are several by +British army officers on foreign duty. By the Hon. Lieutenant Colonel +Percy there are, _A Study of Niagara from the under Horse-Shoe Fall, +The River St. Lawrence and Mouth of the Saguenay_, and a view on the +same river _Near the Chaudiere Bridge, Quebec_. + + * * * * * + +RAUCH, the sculptor, whose statue of Frederic the Great has just been +erected in Berlin, has been the object of an artistic ovation. The +Academy of Sciences gave a banquet in his honor, the king, royal +family, and ministers assisted, and Meyerbeer composed a _Cantata_ for +the occasion. + + * * * * * + +Mr. HEALY'S picture of Mr. Webster replying to Colonel Hayne is +completed, in Paris, and will be brought to New-York in the present +month (of August). It is twenty-eight feet long. The painter has +published proposals for engravings of it, at twenty dollars per copy. + + * * * * * + +An original painting by Raphael, _The Boar Hunt_, was destroyed in a +recent fire at Downhill House, the family seat of Sir Hervey Bruce, in +England. + + * * * * * + +The French and English journals mention several important improvements +of the daguerreotype, some of which are of the same character as Mr. +Hill's. Mr. Brady, of this city, has gone to London, to establish a +branch of his house in that city. + + + + +_Historical Review of the Month._ + + +THE UNITED STATES. + +On the 4th of July the corner stone of the Capitol extension at +Washington was laid, before the President of the United States, the +Cabinet, army and navy officers, and a very large assemblage of +citizens. Mr. Webster delivered on the occasion an address, in which +he pointed out with his customary eloquent clearness the extraordinary +advances of the country since General Washington, fifty-eight years +before, had performed there a similar duty, and for the advantage of +condensation and exactness he presented many important facts in the +form of a comparative table, as follows: + + 1793. 1851. +Number of States 15 31 +Representatives and Senators in + Congress 135 295 +Population of the U. States, 1850 3,929,328 23,267,498 + Do. Boston, do. 18,038 136,871 + Do. Baltimore, do. 13,503 169,054 + Do. Philadelphia, do. 42,520 409,045 + Do. New-York (city), do. 33,121 515,507 + Do. Washington, do. ---- 40,075 +Amount of receipts into Treasury, do. $5,720,624 $43,774,848 +Am't of expenditures of U.S., do. 7,529,575 39,355,268 +Amount of imports, do. 31,000,000 178,138,318 + Do. Exports, do. 26,109,000 151,898,720 + Do. Tonnage, do. 525,764 3,535,454 +Area of the United States, do. 805,461 3,314,365 +Rank and file of the army 5,110 10,000 +Militia (enrolled), ---- 2,006,456 +Navy of the United States (vessels), None 76 + Do. Armament (ordinance), -- 2,012 +Number of treaties and conventions + with foreign powers 9 90 +Number of lighthouses and light-boats 7 372 +Expenditures for do. $12,061 529,265 +Area of the first capitol building in + square feet ---- 14,641 +Do. present capitol (including extension) ---- 4-1/3 acres +Lines of railroads in miles ---- 8,500 + Do. Telegraphs ---- 15,000 +Number of post-offices 209 21,551 +Number of miles of post route 5,642 178,671 +Amount of revenue from post-offices $104,747 $5,552,971 +Amount of expenditures in the + Post-Office Department 72,040 5,212,953 +Number of miles of mail transportation ---- 46,541,423 +Miles of railroad ---- 8,500 +Public libraries 35 694 +Number of volumes in do. 75,000 2,201,632 +School libraries ---- 10,000 +Number of volumes in do. ---- $2,000,000 + +The recent anniversary--being three quarters of a century from the +Declaration of Independence--was celebrated with unusual enthusiasm in +nearly all parts of the United States. One small party of +secessionists in a southern state chose the occasion for some farcical +expressions of treason, and members of another party, equally insane +or wicked, in the north, chose to violate the sacredness of the time +by avowing a disregard of the Constitution; but on the whole the +displays of feeling were such as to gratify a patriotic and hopeful +spirit. The new constitution of Maryland went into effect on that day, +and in obedience to one of its provisions all the persons confined in +its several prisons for debt were then released. + +The correspondence between the British Minister and the Secretary of +State respecting the long-pending difficulties in Central America is +not yet concluded. It appears that Great Britain is ready to +relinquish her peculiar relations with the so-called Mosquito Kingdom, +and surrender her control over San Juan; but she refuses to make that +surrender to Nicaragua, which claims an unconditional right in the +case, and refuses to submit to any restrictions. There are other +territorial difficulties between Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the other +states, which seem difficult of adjustment. On these subjects Sir +Henry Bulwer has addressed to the American Government a communication +urging its interference to produce an amicable settlement. Mr. Webster +has left Washington for a temporary residence in the country, and it +is probable that this correspondence will not be concluded until his +return, and the return of the British Minister from a contemplated +visit to London. + +It is supposed that an extensive fraud has been committed against the +United States Government in the settlement of Mexican claims. The +person accused, a Dr. Gardner, received a large sum from the Mexican +Commission, but as is now stated, by fraudulent evidence. He is absent +in Europe, but the grand jury of Washington has found a bill against +him, and his brother and another party implicated in the transaction +have been held to bail for perjury. + +The Tehuantepec Surveying Expedition has returned to New Orleans. +Surveys, which show the practicability of the railroad route, are +complete. A few parties have been left on the ground to survey a line +for the construction of a carriage road. The Coatzacoatlcos River is +reported navigable, for twenty-five miles above its mouth, for ships +drawing eleven feet of water. The climate is believed to be healthy. +The Mexican government having evinced some unfriendliness to the +Tehuantepec project, the interference of the United States has been +solicited, but declined. The balance of the fourth installment of the +Mexican Indemnity, under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, was paid at +the U.S. Treasury on the 28th of June--amounting to $1,815,400. The +whole amount of the installment is $3,360,000. The Court Martial +convened at Washington on the 23d June, for the trial of General +Talcott, chief of the ordnance department, has closed its labors by +the conviction of the accused of all the charges preferred against +him, and his dismissal from the service. The charges were: a violation +of the 132d article of the regulations for the government of the +Ordnance Department; wilful disobedience of orders and instructions +from the Secretary of War in relation to a contract for supplies; and +conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, among other things, in +making a declaration which was positively and wilfully false, and +intended to deceive the Secretary of War. + +Preparations for the next presidential canvass are being commenced in +many of the States. General Scott has received the nomination of two +state conventions--that of Ohio, and that of Pennsylvania--besides +having been nominated at public meetings in Delaware, Indiana, and +other places. Mr. Woodbury has been nominated in New Hampshire, and +meetings of various degrees of importance have expressed preferences +for other candidates in various parts of the country. The crops of +all sorts are represented as being in a very prosperous condition +throughout all sections: of wheat and potatoes more abundant than ever +before, and of cotton and rice very much better than the drought in +the early part of the season promised. The Extra Session of the +New-York legislature adjourned on the 11th of July, after passing +several important bills. That for the enlargement of the Erie Canal is +a measure of great moment to the industry and commerce of the state. +It provides for the complete enlargement of the Erie Canal within four +years, thus securing the immense business which would else seek other +avenues to the seaboard, and endowing the state with a large revenue +independent of taxes. Chief Justice Bronson, whose political relations +give to his opinions in this case a peculiar value, has published an +elaborate vindication of the bill's constitutionality. The legislature +of New Hampshire adjourned on the 5th of July. The legislature of +Connecticut has also adjourned, having elected no Senator in the place +of Mr. Baldwin. Resolutions approving of the Compromise Measures, +_including the Fugitive Slave Law_, passed the House by a vote of 113 +to 35, but in the Senate they were indefinitely postponed. The +Virginia Reform Convention struck out the section of the Constitution +prohibiting the legislature from passing a law to allow the +emancipation of slaves, and inserted a provision that an emancipated +slave remaining in the state over twelve months shall be sold. The +legislature is allowed to impose restrictions on the owners of slaves +who are disposed to emancipate, but the section giving the legislature +power to remove free negroes from the state is stricken out. The +murderers of the Cosden family, in Kent Co., Maryland, are sentenced +to be hung on the first Friday of the present month. + +From California we have intelligence to the 15th of June. San +Francisco and Stockton seem to have almost entirely recovered from the +effects of the late conflagrations; the burnt districts were being +restored with a rapidity surpassing all previous examples of +Californian energy, and business, far from being prostrated, had +resumed its former activity. The accounts from the mines continued to +be encouraging, the yield of gold not having been diminished by the +unusual dryness of the winter. The Indian Commissioners have met with +great success in their work of pacification, although there were +rumors of skirmishes in the northern part of the state. A man named +Jennings was lately seized at San Francisco while attempting to escape +with a bag of stolen money, and was, after being arrested and tried by +a self-constituted Vigilance Committee, condemned, brought out into +the plaza, and publicly hung in the presence of a large crowd. A crime +so monstrous may well startle the world. If the persons composing the +Vigilance Committee have respectable positions in society, this fact +but increases the infamy of the transaction, and gives it a more fatal +influence. Every member of the committee, consenting to its action, +should be deemed guilty of murder, and punished as a murderer, though +the magistracy of California should have to invoke for its support in +enforcing the laws the whole force of the nation. There is no safety, +nor true liberty, where there is not obedience; and it had been better +that all the thieves in California in half a century escaped +punishment than that one should be punished in this manner. + +In the Mormon territory of Utah ground was broken for the Great Salt +Lake and Mountain Railway on the 1st of May. When this enterprise is +completed, preparations will be more vigorously prosecuted for the +erection of the Temple. The condition of affairs in the new +settlements is represented as encouraging. + +The tide of emigration continues to flow into Texas from European +ports. Milam District, on the Upper Brazos, seems at present to be the +favorite point for the colonists. The new town of Kent has lately been +erected at Kimball's Bend, and under the auspices of Captain Sir +Edward Belcher, R.N., made up of hardy English and Scotch settlers. +With the payment of its debt insured by the ten millions received from +the United States, Texas must become one of the most flourishing +states of the Union. + + +MEXICO. + +Recent advices from Mexico lead to apprehensions that the unquiet and +unsettled state of affairs may result in open attempts at a revolution +in the government, and an effort by the partisans of General Santa +Anna to recall him from exile, and place him at the head of the +administration. It is understood that the President has abandoned the +liberal party and allied himself with the clergy. A vigorous newspaper +war is waged against the priests. The Mexican congress is engaged in +devising ways and means to raise the necessary revenue to carry on the +government. The proposition to impose an additional tax of eight per +cent on all foreign merchandise imported into the Republic, has been +adopted by the Chamber of Deputies. + + +BRITISH AMERICA. + +The subject of the clergy reserves, which for a quarter of a century +has almost been constantly debated in Upper Canada, has lately been +agitated with unprecedented earnestness and bitterness. The popular +and English party advocate the appropriation of the funds thus +accruing to purposes of general education. The Board of Trade of +Toronto has passed a vote of censure upon the Council, for having +memorialized the government to impose differential duties against +American manufactures. The census returns for 1850 give the population +of Canada at nearly 800,000. The proceeds of clergy reserve sales, +during the year, were $220,428. In the Legislative Assembly, a series +of resolutions has been moved for the repeal of the union between +Upper and Lower Canada. Efforts are being made to construct a railroad +from Halifax to Hamilton, where it is to join the Great Western road, +constituting a continuous line from Halifax to Detroit. + + +WEST INDIES. + +We have dates of Port-au-Prince to the 30th of June. The coronation of +the Emperor Soulouque will take place very soon. Should no bishop +arrive from Rome, the Emperor may create a native bishop. At the +coronation, a general amnesty is expected for all political exiles, +whose return to Hayti will be beneficial, for among them are men of +wealth and intelligence. The affairs of the country have assumed a +more pacific aspect. Immediately after the recent proclamation of the +Emperor to the Dominicans, several agents were sent to different +points on the frontier, to induce the enemy to enter on amicable +relations. With a single exception, these missions were successful, +and a number of Dominicans were expected in Port-au-Prince, for +purposes of trade. The universal desire of the Haytian people, as well +as of the government, is said to be that the dispute may be honorably +settled. The Emperor, however, has not relinquished the idea of +effecting a reannexation of the territory of Dominica to Hayti. The +excessive issues of Treasury bonds and paper currency are proving +prejudicial to the true interests of the country. The number of +negroes brought to Cuba from the coast of Africa, during the past +fourteen months, is 14,500. Very heavy rains have fallen in the +interior and in the neighborhood of Manzanilla. + + +SOUTH AMERICA. + +In the number of the _Christian Review_ for the July quarter is a very +comprehensive, intelligible, and apparently perfectly correct survey +of the condition of the South American states, to which we refer +readers who would possess more minute information on the subject than +can be embraced in this summary. + +The condition of PERU appears favorable for the maintenance of peace +and order. The laws relating to elections, municipal governments, and +other topics connected with the internal affairs of the country, have +been considered by Congress, in accordance with the recommendation of +the President. The election of Gen. Vivanca, the unsuccessful +candidate for the Presidency, as representative in Congress, has been +pronounced invalid, on account of his not holding the rights of +citizenship. The change of ministry was received with satisfaction in +all the departments, except Arequipa, which continued in a state of +disturbance. The Governor's proclamation, requiring that all arms +should be surrendered to the government, was the occasion of a fresh +outbreak. Arequipa was thrown into a state of siege: the streets were +filled with barricades: trenches were constructed at all the avenues +to the city: and every obstacle opposed to the entrance of the troops +which were encamped in the vicinity. Gen. Vivanca, whose party have +caused these disturbances, is in prison at Lima; but whether he is +personally implicated is uncertain. + +The Government of BOLIVIA has issued the plan of a new Constitution, +proposing among other measures, the preservation of the Roman Catholic +religion as the religion of the state, the maintenance of amicable +relations with American and European states, the liberty of the press, +the independence of the judicial authority, the freedom of opinion on +political subjects, and the protection of foreigners in the exercise +of commercial pursuits. A National Convention has been convoked for +the 16th of July. The number of deputies was to be 53. + +An insurrection has taken place in New-Grenada--the two southern +provinces, Pasto and Tuquerres, having united in an attempt to +overthrow the government, with the aid and encouragement of Ecuador. +The President at once dispatched a military force to the scene of the +revolt, but at the last advices it had not succeeded in its object, +though two or three engagements had taken place. The government has +issued proposals for a loan of $400,000 in specie, and unless this is +effected soon, recourse must be had to forced contributions to defray +the expenses of the war. Congress has abolished slavery, requiring +only certain payments to the masters. No disturbance had arisen from +the measure. + + +GREAT BRITAIN. + +In the British Parliament important reforms in the Chancery system are +still under discussion, and Lord Brougham is as ardent a reformer as +he was thirty years ago. The census of Great Britain, taken on the +31st of March last, is a remarkable document. It shows that the small +cluster of the British isles contains a larger population than the +whole of this republic, exclusive of its slaves. The metropolis +numbers upwards of two millions and a quarter, and added to its +denizens during the last ten years about as many souls as New-York now +reckons within its limits. But a more extraordinary and altogether +different result appears in Ireland. It seems that the population of +Ireland is at this moment very little more than six millions and a +half. It is absolutely less than it was in 1821, and more than two +millions short of the number that would have been reached in the +natural order of things, but for the extraordinary occurrences of the +last ten years. So startling a fact will of course become the subject +of the closest inquiries. + +The Anti-Papal Bill finally passed the House of Commons, by a large +majority, on the 4th of July. It had previously been amended on the +motion of Sir F. Thesiger, and in spite of the opposition of the +ministers, so as to be much more than the Government had designed. +These amendments make provisions of the bill extend to all Papal bulls +and rescripts, impose a penalty of one hundred pounds upon any who +obtain or publish them, and make it the right of any individual to sue +for the recovery of the fine. The law is stringent, and in America +would be both impolitic and unnecessary. But there is no doubt that +the Lords will adopt the bill, and that it will become the law of the +land. The state of the Church and its abuses have been presented in +the Commons by Mr. Horsman, Sir B. Hall, and Lord Blandford, who +brought up various facts, and contended that a bishop need not have +better pay than a prime minister, that the funds of the establishment +were enough to support an efficient clergy and leave something for +national schools, and that the Church does not supply the spiritual +wants of the people. Such discussions must finally result in the +overthrow of the establishment. Some excitement is caused by an appeal +addressed to the Italians by the authorities at Rome asking for aid to +Roman Catholic missions in London, in which "this great work is most +earnestly recommended to the charity of Italian believers, and to the +zeal of the bishops of Italy." Archbishop Minucci, of Florence, has +also called on the people of his diocese for aid in constructing an +Italian church in London, where "the spiritual wants of the faithful" +may be cared for, and announcing _an indulgence of one hundred days_ +for those who shall contribute for this object. + +An attempt has been made to prevent the adulteration of coffee with +chicory. It was thought possible to do this by means of a government +inspection, but the motion failed. The Exhibition is still prosperous. +The gross receipts already amount to a million and a half of dollars. + +The number of troops in Ireland has, in consequence of the quiet and +improved condition of that country, been reduced from about 26,000 to +the present strength of 18,000 men. The decrees of the Thurles synod, +condemning the Queen's colleges, as institutions "dangerous to faith +and morals," have been sanctioned by the Pope, without any change or +qualifications. Some slight alterations have been made in the statutes +of the synod, respecting matters of ecclesiastical discipline in the +various dioceses; but those which refer to the colleges have been +approved without any modification. The _Cork Constitution_ says, +"There is a great diminution in the number of emigrants proceeding to +America. Only four or five vessels are now at the quays preparing to +leave. It is with difficulty the requisite number of emigrants can be +made up, many preferring to go by Liverpool." + +Nearly a hundred Hungarian refugees had arrived at Southampton, from +Constantinople. Lord John Russell has intimated that the Government +will defray the expense of their passage to New-York, and of their +subsistence during the time they may remain in Southampton, waiting +arrangements for this purpose. Amongst the refugees is the +distinguished Hungarian Lieut. General Loisar Messaros. + +Preparations for another _Peace Congress_ have been made on a large +scale. In one important particular the London Congress will be +distinguished above all others; and that is, in the greater breadth of +representative character which it will acquire; for associated bodies +who have never hitherto manifested a direct interest in the peace +question are preparing to send delegates on this occasion. + +The official returns of the _shipwrecks of the United Kingdom_ during +the past year, show that the average is nearly two a day; and the +amount, thus far, four vessels only propelled by steam, and six +hundred and sixty-eight sailing vessels of every description. The +difference in the number of steam and sailing vessels afloat is far +from the proportion of disasters. Navigation by steam is thus +demonstrated to be much the safest. + +The 4th of July was celebrated in London with appropriate honors by +the American residents and others. Mr. George Peabody issued cards of +invitation to meet the United States Minister and Mrs. Lawrence at a +fete which he was to give in the evening, and about seven or eight +hundred persons were present, including the American families in +London, and a large proportion of the nobility and public persons in +England, by whom the idea was received with the greatest satisfaction. +The Duke of Wellington, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Lord +Mayor, the Duke of Valencia, the Count and Countess Pulzki, Lord +Glenelg, Viscount Canning, Miss Burdett Coutts, the American Ministers +to London, St. Petersburg, and Brussels, and a great number of other +eminent persons attended, besides Catharine Hayes, Lablache, Gardoni, +and Cruvelli, who sang during the evening, and were received with more +than usual applause. The affair was one of the grandest of the season. + + +FRANCE. + +In France the chief events of importance are connected with the +project for the revision of the Constitution. After a long struggle +the subject was given to a committee, at the head of which was De +Tocqueville. His report, as presented to the committee on the 4th of +July, had not at the last dates received when this sheet goes to +press, come before the public in an authentic form; but it is +understood that it treats of three principal points. In the first +place, M. de Tocqueville enters boldly into the question between the +republicans and monarchists. He examines with skill the pretensions of +the republic to Divine right put forward in the Commission itself by +General Cavaignac, and sustained by him with impassioned energy and an +accent of conviction which astonished the members. M. de Tocqueville +denies this pretended Divine right, and maintains that of the nation +to choose the form of government that may best suit it--a right which +is absolute, superior, and indisputable. Secondly, he is said to +oppose, by anticipation, any species of amendment which would have the +effect of confining the next Constituent Assembly within any limits, +or force on it the obligation of revising the constitution for the +sole end of ameliorating and consolidating them, and to maintain that +the Constituent Assembly should be invested with a general and +unlimited mission, in order that it may act in the plenitude of a +really constituent power; and thirdly, he is described as expressing +hopes that the Assembly will adopt the proposition accepted by the +majority of the commission; that a constituent assembly will be +chosen; that the constitution will be revised or remodelled; and in +such case that all will consider it their duty to conform to it; that +if the proposition of revision be not admitted, the constitution of +1848 shall remain as the supreme and sovereign law for all; that the +only alternative will be to maintain, until the term of a new period +of three years, the provisional form of the actual government--it +being of course understood, that, in such case, each person will feel +it his duty to conform to the constitution, and to abstain from every +act which would be tantamount to its violation. It is added that M. de +Tocqueville developes this proposition in such a manner as to oppose +_all unconstitutional candidateships_; that is, of the actual +President, the Prince de Joinville, and Ledru Rollin. The friends of +Louis Napoleon have favored the revision, in the hope that by it they +might prolong his term. Several speeches lately made by the president +have given a more favorable impression than that which he made at +Dijon. One at Poitiers, on the occasion of the opening of a railroad, +has given satisfaction to moderate men of all parties, who believe it +honest. + +A bill to interdict clubs has been again adopted without any attempt +at alteration. General Aupick is announced as the new ambassador to +Spain. Count Colonna Walewski, an illegitimate son of the Emperor +Napoleon, has reached the highest round of the diplomatic ladder by +being sent as ambassador to the Court of St. James. The _Pays_ +announces that the question of Abd-el-Kader's captivity is on the +point of receiving a satisfactory solution. The committee charged to +examine the bill for the ratification of the treaties of La Plata is +disposed to propose simply the ratification of those treaties. At +Charente, recently, thirty-two adult Roman Catholics of both sexes, in +the presence of a numerous congregation, in the Protestant church, +publicly abjured the Roman Catholic and embraced the Protestant faith. + +A measure introduced by M. de St. Beuve in the National Assembly for a +commercial reform, by modifying the present restrictive tariff, so as +to accomplish a gradual approach to free trade, had been rejected by a +majority of 428 to 199. M. Thiers on this occasion made a great speech +against free trade, which is much criticised by the English press. The +London _Times_ calls Thiers the evil genius of France. + +The most recent commercial letters received from various parts of +France represent affairs as somewhat recovering from the gloomy +appearance they wore some days since. The manufacturers have received +numerous orders for the great fair of Beaucaire, which will be held in +July. The Bank of France has announced a dividend of fifty-five francs +per share for the first half year of 1851. + + +ITALY. + +On the evening of the 7th of May, the Count Piero Guicciardini, the +descendant of the great historian, had met in a private house in +Florence six persons whose names are given in a decree, and before the +party broke up, Count Guicciardini read and expounded a chapter of the +Gospel of St. John. At ten o'clock the house was entered by eight +gendarmes; a perquisition began, in the style now customary in +Tuscany; the depositions of the party assembled were taken down; and +as it was fully proved by such depositions that a chapter of the Bible +had been read by Count Guicciardini, the whole of the seven offenders +were straightway led to the police delegation of Santa Maria Novella, +where their arrest was signed by the delegate, and a little after +midnight they were lodged in the Bargello, or public prison. For ten +days Count Guicciardini and his companions were kept in confinement +and subjected to repeated examinations, and finally the sentence of +forced residence in different parts of the Tuscan Maremme was passed +on each of the accused. This illustration of the liberality of the +Roman Catholic Church--though in perfect keeping with its perpetual +policy--has produced a profound sensation. It might have escaped +without much observation but for the eminence of the parties, and the +claims made lately in England, that the Roman Catholic authorities +were as tolerant as they asked that others should be to them, in all +matters of personal rights. + +The French military commandant in Rome has been exercising his +authority with great, but probably requisite severity. Two Roman +soldiers have been tried by French court martial, and executed for +riotous conduct, and seven others have been doomed to the same fate. +The Pope also has been threatened with expulsion from the Quirinal +Palace, which the above-mentioned authority thought at one time would +be essential as a military post. So far, the weak-minded holder of St. +Peter's keys has not suffered the mortification of a second forced +retreat, although, between his military guardians of France and +Austria and his own discontented subjects, his position is scarcely an +enviable one. The three young Englishmen arrested at Leghorn yet +remain imprisoned; but their real names do not appear. + + +GERMANY. + +The military authorities of Austria give as much offence in Germany as +the French in Rome. At Hamburg, several citizens have been killed in a +fray with the Austrian soldiers, begun by the insolence of the latter. +In Hesse Cassel, the Government has been compelled to grant immunities +to the Roman Catholic clergy, scarcely compatible with the +institutions of a Protestant country, under the compulsion of Austrian +bayonets. + +The Goettingen Professors have decided that the Government of Electoral +Hesse was not required by the Constitution to procure the assent of +the Chambers to the levy of taxes last year; this is the point on +which the revolutionary manifestations turned. We have not the +Constitution at hand, and cannot apprehend the grounds of this +decision, but it is singular that all the magistrates and people of +the country, who ought to have known something of their constitution, +should have unanimously held a different opinion. The Prussian +government have withdrawn the summons for the assembling of the +provincial diets, no doubt on account of the universal condemnation +excited by it. A decided schism has of late manifested itself in the +commercial policy advocated by North and South Germany. Whilst the +attempt to procure higher protective duties in the Zollverein has +continually been defeated by the liberal principals supported by +Prussia. South Germany, on the other hand, has come forward openly +with the intention to assert an independent line of action. + + +SPAIN. + +Accounts from Madrid of the 2d July, state that M. Jose Sanchez Ocana, +director general of the public treasury, has been appointed under +secretary of state of the finance department, in the place of M. +Bordia, director general of the customs. M. Rudulfo, inspector of the +finances at Madrid, succeeded M. Ocana in the direction of the public +treasury. France, by her diplomatic agents at Madrid, strives to +influence the Spanish government in regard to a more active repression +of the slave trade in its colonies. Mr. Schoelcher adverted to the +passage of the recent speech of the Emperor of Brazil, touching the +abolition of the traffic, as meant simply to please England--"like all +other speeches from thrones, in which the design is to give a sort of +satisfaction to the foreign powers with whom friendly relations are +desirable." The amendment was rejected by 339 nays to 230 ayes. + + +RUSSIA. + +Letters from Posen allude to an ukase which had appeared, compelling +all individuals throughout Russia and Poland to sell to the +government, within a specified period, whatever uncoined silver they +might have in their possession. An indemnity in paper money was +authorized to be given on behalf of the treasury. A body of Belgian +weavers and dyers has been engaged to go to St. Petersburg to set up +their trade. In Circassia the Russian army has met with a serious +defeat; in a battle where it had 25,000 men engaged, it lost 5,000. + + +AUSTRIA AND TURKEY. + +The Emperor has appointed Count Rechburg Internuncio at the court of +Constantinople. Accounts from Comorn state that violent shocks of an +earthquake were felt there on the 1st. The shocks were accompanied by +violent claps of thunder. The clocks in all the church towers struck; +scarcely a single house remained uninjured; numerous chimneys fell in, +and the furniture and utensils in the rooms were overthrown and +broken. Many accidents had occurred, but providentially, not any of a +fatal nature are yet known. + + + + +_Scientific Discoveries and Proceedings of Learned Societies._ + + +The BRITISH ASSOCIATION met this year on the second of July, at +Ipswich. Among those present we notice the names of Prince Albert, the +Prince of Canino, the Duke of Argyle, the Earl of Rosse, the Earl of +Enniskillen, the Earl of Sheffield, Lord Monteagle, Lord +Londesborough, Lord Stradbroke, Lord Rendlesham, Lord Abercorn, Lord +Alfred Paget, Lord Wrottesley, the Bishop of Oxford, Sir Charles +Lemon, Sir Roderick Murchison, Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Henry de la +Beche, Sir Edward Cust, Sir William Jardine, Sir William Middleton, +Sir W. J. Hooker, Sir J. T. Boileau, Professors Airy, Asa Gray, +Harvey, Sedgwick, Henslow, Owen, Sylvester, Forbes, Bell, Anstead, +Phillips, and Faraday, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Dr. Hooker, and many eminent +scientific men. + + * * * * * + +At a recent meeting of the ASIATIC SOCIETY in London, a report of the +Oriental Translation Committee mentioned the printing of the second +volume of the _Travels of Evliva Effendi_, of the fifth volume of +_Haji Khalfae Lexicon_, and of the _Makamat_ of Hariri. The Committee +had received from Col. Rawlinson the offer of a translation of the +valuable and rare geographical work of Yakut, which it accepted, and +is about to proceed with the printing of the third and concluding +volume of M. Garcin de Tassy's _Histoire de la Litterature Hindoui et +Hindoustani_, including a Memoir on Hindustani Songs, with numerous +translations. The Report concluded with noticing the presentation of +William the Fourth's gold medal to Prof. H. H. Wilson, in +acknowledgment of his services to Oriental literature generally, and +especially in testimony of the merits of his translation of the +_Vishnu Purana_. + +The annual Report of the Council gave some notice of the progress of +Babylonian and Assyrian decipherment as carried out by Colonel +Rawlinson, and now in the course of communication to the world by the +Society. The Babylonian version of the great Behistun inscription was +exhibited on the table; and, in allusion to it, the Report contained a +concise _resume_ of what had been done from the information of Colonel +Rawlinson himself, who is of opinion that the inscriptions read extend +over a period of 1,000 years--from B.C. 2000 to 1000; that he has +ascertained the religion of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians to +have been strictly Astral or Sabaean; and as he finds among the gods +the names of Belus, Ninus and Semiramis, he thinks that the dynasties +given by the Greeks were, in fact, lists of mythological names. The +geography of Western Asia as it was 4,000 years ago appears to be +clearly made out. Col. Rawlinson finds a king of Cadytis, or +Jerusalem, named Kanun, a tributary of the king who built the palace +of Khursabad, warring with a Pharaoh of Egypt, and defeating his +armies on the south frontier of Palestine. The Meshec and Tubal of +Scripture were dwelling in North Syria, the Hittites held the centre +of the province, and the commercial cities of Tyre and Sidon and Gaza +and Acre flourished on the coasts. And so well does Colonel Rawlinson +find the geography made out, that he is of opinion he can identify +every province and city named in the inscriptions. + + * * * * * + +The last Bulletin of the GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY of Paris, opens with an +appeal to the governments of Europe and America, for the adoption of a +Common First Meridian. The author, M. Sedillor, is a high authority in +geographical science, and would trace an imaginary line in the midst +of the Ocean; designate it by some "systematic term," acceptable to +all, and bring, thus, Europe and the new world into a community of +views and interests apart from all national prejudices or pretension. +The appeal followed by a letter of M. Jomard on the same subject, and +another from the traveller Antony D'Abbadie, who prefers Mont Blanc, +or Jerusalem--"against which the Christians of America can have no +objection." Among the contents of the Bulletin, is a notice of Lieut. +Com. MacArthur's report, eighteenth December, 1850, to Professor +Bache, which has been translated entire for the _Hydrographical +Annals_, a periodical work. Mr. Squier's Observations on the Route of +the Proposed Canal across the Isthmus of Nicaragua, are also +translated. There is a paper of some compass, on the various projects +and undertakings for a communication between the Oceans and a like one +on the services rendered to geography by the French and British +missionaries. Those of the German and American, who have not been less +zealous, will be duly credited and recorded, when materials can be +obtained for the purpose. + + * * * * * + +At the meeting for the 22nd May, of the ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE, +in London, a very interesting Greek MS. was exhibited. It is owned by +a Mr. Arden, who purchased it of an Arab near Thebes. It is nearly +four yards long, divided into pages or columns containing twenty-eight +lines, the length of which exceeds six inches, and the breadth two +inches; the whole is written in a large and clear hand, with great +accuracy, since few corrections or interpolations are visible. +Although it is difficult to assign to it the actual age, still there +seems to be every reason to conjecture that it is of the commencement +of the present era--or indeed, which is by no means improbable, that +it was written a century or two before the birth of Christ. The +delicacy of the texture of the papyrus will afford a strong +presumption in favor of the latter period; for it is well known to +Egyptologists that a coarseness and inferiority of papyrus indicate a +more recent date. The first portion of the MS. is much broken, and +presents many gaps and fragments; the end of it bears the title of an +Apology, or Defence of Lycophron. The second, or larger portion of the +MS., is much more perfect, as it contains only here and there an +hiatus, which will probably be easily restored; at its termination we +are informed that it is a Defence of the accusation of Euxenippus +against Polyeuctus. The author of these orations will, in all +likelihood, prove to be the great Athenian orator Hyperides, whose +works have been long lost. Indeed, this appears to be almost certain, +since some of the Greek lexicographers mention a speech of Hyperides +'for Lycophron,' and another 'against Polyeuctus concerning the +accusation.' But who Lycophron was, and what was the nature of the +defence for him, remain to be more amply detailed. The subject of +this second oration, however, appears to be known,--for Polyeuctus, +the Athenian orator, was accused, with Demosthenes, of receiving a +bribe from Harpalus. Moreover, the fragments of a papyrus MS. procured +a few years ago at Egyptian Thebes by Dr. Harris, lately ably edited +by Mr. Babington, at Cambridge, and proved to be parts of the oration +of Hyperides against Demosthenes, are so exceedingly similar, both in +handwriting and the papyrus, to the present MS. belonging to Mr. +Arden, that it is not improbable but that they may have been copied by +the same Greek scribe and may originally have formed one entire MS. +roll of the orations of Hyperides. A careful examination and +comparison of these interesting MSS. will, after a time, decide these +questions. + + * * * * * + +At a late sitting of the _Paris Academy of Medicine_, M. ORFILA, the +celebrated toxicologist, read a paper on _Nicotine_--the poison used +in the Bocarme murder. It is the essential principle of tobacco. +Virginia tobacco yields the largest proportion of _nicotine_; from +twenty pounds, were extracted four hundred _grammes_ of the poison; a +gramme is equal to 15.444 grains troy. The Maryland leaf affords about +a third of that quantity. Nicotine is nearly as powerful and rapid as +prussic acid with the animal economy. Five or six drops applied to the +tongue of a dog, killed in ten minutes. The progress which medical +jurisconsults have made recently, is so great, that poisoning by +morphine, strychnine, prussic acid, and other vegetable substances, +hitherto regarded as inaccessible to our means of investigation, may +now be detected and recognized in the most incontestable manner. M. +Ortila, in closing his notice, says: "After these results of judicial +medical investigation, the public need be under no apprehension. No +doubt intelligent and clever criminals, with a view to thwart the +surgeons, will sometimes have recourse to very active poisons little +known by the mass, and difficult of detection, but science is on the +alert, and soon overcomes all difficulty; penetrating into the utmost +depths of our organs, it brings out the proof of the crime, and +furnishes one of the greatest pieces of evidence against the guilty." + + * * * * * + +In the LONDON ROYAL INSTITUTION, May 23, M. Ebelman, of the Sevres +works, near Paris, being present with various specimens of the +minerals which he has produced artificially,--Mr. Faraday stated the +process and results generally. The process consists in employing a +solvent, which shall first dissolve the mineral or its constituents; +and shall further, either on its removal or on a diminution of its +dissolving powers, permit the mineral to aggregate in a crystaline +condition. Such solvents are boracic acid, borax, phosphate of soda, +phosphoric acid, &c.:--the one chiefly employed by M. Ebelman is +boracic acid. By putting together certain proportions of alumina and +magnesia, with a little oxide of crome or other coloring matter, and +fused boracic acid into a fit vessel, and inclosing that in another, +so that the whole could be exposed to the high heat of a porcelain or +other furnace, the materials became dissolved in the boracic acid; and +then as the heat was continued the boracic acid evaporated, and the +fixed materials were found combined and crystallized, and presenting +new specimens of spinel. In this way crystals having the same form, +hardness, color, specific gravity, composition, and effect on light as +the true ruby, the cymophane, and other mineral bodies were prepared, +and were in fact identical with them. Chromates were made, the emerald +and corundum crystalized, the peridot formed, and many combinations as +yet unknown to mineralogists produced. + + * * * * * + +At a meeting of the BERLIN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, held on May 31 last, +the venerable Alexander von Humboldt made an interesting communication +upon some observations of singular _movements of fixed stars_. It +seems that at Trieste, January 17, 1851, between 7 and 8 o'clock P.M., +before the rising of the moon, when the star Sirius was not far from +the horizon, it was seen to perform a remarkable series of eccentric +movements. It rose and sank, moved left and right, and sometimes +seemed to move in a curved line. The observers were Mr. Keune, a +student in the upper class of the gymnasium, and Mr. Thugutt, a +saddler, both certified to be reliable persons. The family of the +latter also beheld the phenomena, Mr. Keune, with his head leaned +immovably against a wall, saw Sirius rise in a right line above the +roof of a neighboring house, and immediately again sink out of sight +behind it, and then again appear. Its motions were so considerable +that for some time the beholders thought it was a lantern suspended by +a kite. It also varied in brilliancy, growing alternately brighter and +fainter, and now and then being for moments quite invisible, though +the sky was perfectly clear. As far as it is known, this phenomenon +has been remarked but twice before, once in 1799 from the Peak of +Teneriffe by Von Humboldt himself, and again nearly fifty years later, +by a well-informed and careful observer, Prince Adalbert, of Prussia. + + * * * * * + +"In the great Exhibition," the _Athenaeum_ says, "Daguerreotypes are +largely displayed by the French,--as might have been expected, that +country being proud of the discovery: but the examples exhibited by +the Americans surpass in general beauty of effect any which we have +examined from other countries. This has been attributed to difference +in the character of the solar light as modified by atmospheric +conditions; we are not, however, disposed to believe that to be the +case. We have certain indications that an increased intensity of light +is not of any advantage, but rather the contrary, for the production +of daguerreotypes; the luminous rays appearing to act as balancing +powers against the chemical rays. Now, this being the case, we know of +no physical cause by which the superiority can be explained,--and we +are quite disposed to be sufficiently honest to admit that the mode of +manipulation has more to do with the result than any atmospheric +influences. However this may be, the character of the daguerreotypes +executed in America is very remarkable. There are a fulness of tone +and an artistic modulation of light and shadow which in England we do +not obtain. The striking contrasts of white and black are shown +decidedly enough in the British examples exhibited in the +gallery,--but here there are coldness and hardness of outline. Within +the shadow of the eagle and the striped banner we find no lights too +white and no shadows too dark: they dissolve, as in Nature, one into +the other in the most harmonious and truthful manner,--and the result +is, more perfect pictures. The Hyalotypes or glass pictures are of a +remarkable character. They are but a modification of the processes of +Mr. Talbot and of M. Evrard as applied to glass; but the idea of +copying Nature on this material,--and, having obtained a fixed picture +of the shadowed image, of magnifying it by means of the magic lantern, +and thus producing a truthful representation of the original,--is +certainly due to the artist of Philadelphia. Many beautiful views of +the Smithsonian Institute, of the Custom-house at Philadelphia, and of +churches in several cities in the United States, show the minuteness +of the detail which can be obtained by the use of the albuminized +glass. Amongst the professed improvements Mr. Beard exhibits some +enamelled daguerreotypes, in which the permanence of the picture is +secured by a lacquer." + + * * * * * + +In the ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, in London, the President, +regretting the undignified controversies respecting the rise and +course of the Nile which had taken place, unhesitatingly expressed his +conviction that no European traveller, from Bruce downwards, had yet +seen the source of the true White Nile. Concerning this, we may still +exclaim "_Ignotum, plus notus, Nile, per ortum._" + + * * * * * + +Experiments with chloroform as a propelling power, in the place of +steam, are now making in the port of L'Orient; and there is reason to +hope, from the success which has already attended them, that they will +result in causing a considerable saving to be effected in cost and in +space. + + * * * * * + +THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE will hold its annual meeting this +year at Dijon. The Congress will commence on the 14th of September. + + + + +_Recent Deaths._ + + +GENERAL M. ARBUCKLE, U.S.A., died on the 11th of June, at Fort Smith. +He was about 75 years of age, and had been nearly fifty years in the +army, and twenty on the Arkansas frontier. At the time of his death, +he was commander of the 7th Military Department of the United States +Army, and had held that station for several years, and was peculiarly +calculated for the office, being thoroughly acquainted with the +Indians, and Indian character, he always had their confidence, and by +that means, kept up and maintained friendly relations with them on +behalf of the United States. The St. Louis _Republican_ remarks that, +"as a man, Gen. ARBUCKLE was honest and humane, loved and respected by +every person with whom he had intercourse. No one pursued a more +straight-forward course in all transactions. He was strictly +economical in expenditures for the Government. His whole mind was +engrossed with the present expedition of the 5th Infantry to the +Brazos, and on the frontier of Texas, and he gave orders and +directions for conducting, it as long as he was able to converse." + + * * * * * + +The CHEVALIER PARISOT DE GUYMONT, who belonged to the family of +Lavalette, the illustrious Grand Master of the Order of Malta, of +which the chevalier was one of the few surviving knights, has just +died in the convent of St. Jean de Catane, in Sicily, to which the +directing chapter of that celebrated order had retired. He +distinguished himself in the expedition which the last grand master +sent against Algiers towards the end of the eighteenth century; and +General Bonaparte, when he took possession of Malta, demanded to see +M. de Guymont, and received him with marked distinction. He was in the +seventy-seventh year of his age. + + * * * * * + +SIR J. GRAHAM DALZELL, BART., died on the seventeenth of June in +Edinburgh, aged seventy-seven years. He was president of the Society +for promoting Useful Arts in Scotland, vice-president of the African +institute of Paris, and author of several works on science and +history, and of various articles in the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica. + + * * * * * + +The widow of THOMAS SHERIDAN, died in London on the ninth of June. She +was the author of _Carwell_, a very striking story illustrating the +inequalities of punishment in the laws against forgery. In a later +novel, _Aims and Ends_, the same feminine and truthful spirit showed +itself in lighter scenes of social life, observing keenly, and +satirizing kindly. Mrs. Sheridan wrote always with ease, +unaffectedness, and good-breeding, her books every where giving +evidence of the place she might have taken in society if she had not +rather desired to refrain from mingling with it, and keep herself +comparatively unknown. After her husband's early death she had devoted +herself in retirement to the education of her orphan children; when +she re-appeared in society it seemed to be solely for the sake of her +daughters, on whose marriages she again withdrew from it; and to none +of her writings did she ever attach her name. Into the private sphere +where her virtues freely displayed themselves, and her patient yet +energetic life was spent, it is not permitted us to enter; but we +could not pass without this brief record what we know to have been a +life as much marked by earnestness, energy, and self-sacrifice, as by +those qualities of wit and genius which are for ever associated with +the name of Sheridan. Three daughters survive her, and one son--Lady +Dufferin, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lady Seymour, and Mr. Brinsley +Sheridan, the member of Parliament for Shaftesbury. + + * * * * * + +From Stockholm we hear of the death of Mr. ANDRE CARLSSON, Bishop of +Calmar, and author of numerous and important works on philology, +theology and jurisprudence. He occupied at one time the chair of Greek +language and literature at the University of Lund, and was, say the +Swedish papers, in his place in the Diet, a champion of religious +liberty and parliamentary reform. He has died at the great age of 94. + + * * * * * + +Poland has lost a writer of distinction, chiefly on geographical +subjects, in the person of Count STANISLAUS PLATER. He had long been +eminent both in society and in literature. + + * * * * * + +GENERAL JAMES MILLER died in Temple, New-Hampshire, on the 7th of +July, of paralysis, aged 76 years. He was born in Peterboro, N. H., +and bred to the profession of the law. In 1810 he entered the Army, +and served with distinction throughout the last war with Great +Britain. He rose rapidly from the rank of captain to that of major +general. He was present at Tippecanoe, under Gen. Harrison, but was +prevented by sickness from taking part in the battle. He rendered +eminent services in the battles of Chippeway, Bridgewater, and Lundy's +Lane, making himself conspicuous by his courageous and intrepid +conduct. It was at the last named battle that he is said to have +uttered the renowned declaration, "I'll try, sir," when asked if he +could storm an important and nearly impregnable position of the enemy. +Gen. Miller was subsequently made Governor of the Territory of +Arkansas. Afterwards he was collector of the port of Salem, which post +he resigned in 1840. He is the "old soldier collector" referred to in +the introduction to Hawthorne's _Scarlet Letter_. + + * * * * * + +The celebrated Polish General UMINSKI died at Wiesbaden on the 16th of +June. He was one of the most prominent actors in the last Polish +Revolution, but for several years had lived in great retirement at +Wiesbaden. He was born in the year 1780, in the Grand Duchy of Posen. +As early as 1794 he commenced his military career, as a volunteer +under Kosciusko. When the Poles were summoned to new efforts for +freedom by Dombrowski, in 1806, Uminski was among the first to take up +arms. He formed a Polish Guard of Honor for Napoleon, fought at +Dantzick, received a wound at Dirschau, where he was taken prisoner +and sentenced to death by a Prussian Court Martial. His sentence was +not executed, however, as Napoleon threatened reprisals. In the war +against Austria he commanded Dombrowski's advanced guard, was made +Colonel, and formed the 10th. hussar-regiment, which signalized itself +at Masaisk, in 1812, and at whose head he was the first to enter +Moscow. In the retreat, he saved the life of Poniatowski. At the +battle of Leipsic, where he acted as Brigadier General, he was again +wounded and taken prisoner. After the dissolution of the national army +of Poland, he entered into the Polish-Russian service but soon +obtained his discharge, and lived in retirement in Posen, though +without intermitting his efforts for the freedom of Poland. In the +year 1821 he helped to found a patriotic union, was arrested after +accession of Nicholas I, and in the year 1826 sentenced to six years' +imprisonment in the fortress of Glogau. Escaping from this in 1831, he +went to Warsaw, and took part as a common soldier in the battle of +Wawre. The next day he was made General of Division. On the 25th of +February he beat Diebitsch at Grodno, and distinguished himself in +several other battles. Outlawed and hung in effigy at Kosen, he found +an asylum in France. The remainder of his subsequent life he passed in +Wiesbaden. Uminski was also known as a writer on military affairs. +Those who knew him in the latter years of his exile, are loud in their +praises of the sweetness, benevolence, and dignity of his character. +He will be remembered for his devotion to Polish liberty, and the +people, who in future times shall struggle for the same boon, will +gain new encouragement from his glorious example. + + * * * * * + +VISCOUNT MELVILLE died on the tenth of June. He was in his eightieth +year, having been born in 1771. In 1809, he (then the Right Honorable +Robert Dundas), was President of the Board of Trade under the Perceval +administration. He succeeded his father in 1811, and, in 1812, when +Lord Liverpool assumed the reins, he became first Lord of the +Admiralty, which office he held during that long administration which +ceased in April, 1827, by the death of the Premier. Mr. Canning having +been called to power, Lord Melville retired with the majority of his +former colleagues, which caused some surprise at the time, as he was +favorable to the claims of the Catholics, which was understood to +constitute the bond of the new administration. The Canning +administration had a brief career, and that of Lord Goderich, the +present Earl of Ripon, which attempted to carry on affairs after the +death of Canning, was still more brief. On the Duke of Wellington +becoming Prime Minister, early in 1822, Lord Melville resumed his +former office, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and continued until +the breaking up of the Tory Administration, and the advent of the +Reform Ministry of Earl Grey, in November, 1830. He then ended his +official career, but for several years attended occasionally in the +House of Lords, but he chiefly resided at the family seat. + + * * * * * + +Mr. DYCE SOMBRE died in London, July 1. His history is very generally +known. He was understood to be the son of a German adventurer in +India, of the name of Summer, who espoused the late Begum Oomroo. All +manner of wild and scandalous stories are afloat as to the life of +this woman and the death of her husband. After her death, Mr. Dyce +Sombre came to Europe, and first made himself remarkable, in Italy, by +the extraordinary black marble monument which he caused to be executed +and sent to India in memory of his benefactress. His arrival in +England, with a reputation of almost fabulous wealth, attracted much +notice. He became one of the feted lions of the season, and ultimately +married, in 1840, Mary Anne, daughter of the Earl St. Vincent. A +separation soon took place, and the legal proceedings consequent on +this ill-starred marriage, followed by those adopted for the purpose +of establishing Mr. Dyce Sombre's lunacy--were long matters of public +talk and universal notoriety. His attempt to enter public life was +seconded by the "worthy and enlightened" electors of Sudbury, who sent +him to Parliament, from whence he was speedily ejected on +petition--the borough being soon afterwards disfranchised. For the +last few years Mr. Sombre has resided on the Continent, to escape the +effects of the decision of the Court of Chancery in his case--a +decision against which he had come over to petition when he was seized +with his fatal illness. In consequence of his death in a state of +lunacy, his money in the funds, railway shares, and other property, of +the annual value of L11,000, will become divisible between Captain +Troup and General Soldoli, the husbands of his two sisters, who are +next of kin. An additional sum, producing L4,000 a year, will also +fall to their families on the death of Mrs. Dyce Sombre. + + * * * * * + +BISHOP MEDANO, of Buenos Ayres, died in the second week of April. He +was 83 years old. + + * * * * * + +The EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, one of the most notable of the members of the +House of Lords, died at his country residence in Dorsetshire, on the +2d of June, aged eighty-four years. Though neither an orator nor a +statesman, he was one of the most remarkable personages of the age in +which he lived. His position as a public servant was quite peculiar; +and his character, though it could not be called eccentric, had little +in common with the world around him. CROPLY ASHLEY COOPER, was the +second son of the fourth Lord Shaftesbury. That Lord Shaftesbury who +became Chancellor in the reign of Charles II. was the first peer in +the Cooper family, and under the title of Lord Ashley was a member of +the Cabinet well known by the name of "the Cabal" To him we are +indebted for the Habeas Corpus Act, at least for being its chief +promoter; and he is likewise entitled to the gratitude of posterity +for having introduced a measure to render the Judges independent of +the crown. The third Earl--grandson of the first--was the celebrated +author of the _Characteristics_. The fourth was his son; the fifth and +sixth Earls were his grandsons; the former of these dying without male +issue in 1811, the earldom devolved on the deceased, who was born in +London on the 21st of December, 1768. From Winchester, where he was +contemporaneous with Sidney Smith, and Archbishop Howley, he in due +course went to Christchurch, where he passed his time as most young +men of rank do at college, and graduated with quite as much credit as +was then usually attained by the son of an Earl; after which he made +those excursions on the continent of Europe that our ancestors were +accustomed to call "the grand tour;" and all these operations he +brought to a close before he had completed his twenty-second year. His +next step was to get into Parliament, and a seat in the House of +Commons was obtained for him in the usual way by family influence, +Dorchester having had the advantage of calling him its member from the +thirtieth of January, 1790, for a period exceeding twenty-one years. +This was pretty good experience in the more active branch of the +Legislature, though the body that elected him was of that small and +quiet order of constituencies that do not greatly overburden their +members with the labors of representation. Mr. Cropley Ashley Cooper +had, therefore, had a long apprenticeship to political life, when, by +the death of his elder brother, on the fourteenth of May, 1811, he +succeeded to the peerage as sixth Earl of Shaftesbury. + +The Earl was nearly forty years of age when, upon the death of Fox, +the Tories recovered their long possession of office, and among their +good deeds may be reckoned their appointment of Lord Shaftesbury, then +Mr. Cooper, to the office of Clerk of the Ordnance. To the duties of +his department he applied himself with marvellous zeal, and it was +always his own opinion that he there first acquired those habits of +industry and method which rendered him one of the most efficient +members of the Upper House. When, on the death of his elder brother, +he reached the dignity of the peerage, he thought it necessary to +resign the clerkship of the Ordnance, though his private fortune was +scarcely sufficient for a man encumbered with an earldom and a large +family. He took his seat as a peer in June, 1811, and it was not until +November, 1814, that he became permanently the Chairman of Committees; +the duties of which place were well done for nearly forty years by +"old" Lord Shaftesbury, who was never old when business pressed. +Strong common sense, knowledge of the statute law, and above all, +uncompromising impartiality, made him an autocrat in his department. +When once he heard a case, and deliberately pronounced judgment, +submission almost invariably followed. A man of the largest experience +as a Parliamentary agent has been heard to say that he remembered only +one case in which the House reversed a decision of Lord Shaftesbury; +and on that occasion it became necessary to prevail on the Duke of +Wellington to speak in order to overcome the "old Earl." It would not +be easy to cite many instances of men who have taken as active part in +the business of a deliberative assembly after the age of 75; but the +labors of Lord Shaftesbury were continued beyond that of fourscore. To +all outward seeming he was nearly as efficient at one period of his +life as at another. By the time he had reached the age of +fifty,--which was about half-way through the fifteen years that Lord +Liverpool's Ministry held the government,--Lord Shaftesbury's +knowledge of his duties as chairman to the Lords was complete, and +then he appeared to settle down in life with the air, the habits, the +modes of thought and action, natural to old age. Although there are +few men now alive whose experience would enable them to contrast his +performance of official duties with the manner in which they were +discharged by his predecessor, yet, even in the absence of any thing +like _data_, there seems to be a general impression that the House of +Lords never could have had a more efficient chairman. He was certainly +a man of undignified presence, of indistinct and hurried speech, of +hasty and brusque manner, the last person whom a superficial observer +would think of placing in the chair of the greatest senate that the +world has ever seen; yet it cannot be said that their lordships were +ever wrong in their repeated elections of Lord Shaftesbury; for in the +formal business of committees he rarely allowed them to make a +mistake, while he was prompt as well as safe in devising the most +convenient mode of carrying any principle into practical effect. He +was no theorist; there was nothing of the speculative philosopher in +the constitution of his mind; and he therefore readily gained credit +for being what he really was, an excellent man of business. It is well +known that the Lords, sitting in committee, are less prone to run riot +than the other House; still it required no small ability to keep them +always in the right path, as was the happy practice of Lord +Shaftesbury. In dealing with minute distinctions and mere verbal +emendations, a deliberative assembly occasionally loses its way, and +members sometimes ask, "What is it we are about?" This was a question +which Lord Shaftesbury usually answered with great promptitude and +perspicuity, rarely failing to put the questions before their +Lordships in an unmistakable form. Another valuable quality of Lord +Shaftesbury as a chairman consisted in his impatience of prosy, +unprofitable talk, of which, doubtless, there is comparatively little +in the Upper House; but even that little he labored to make less by +occasionally reviving attention to the exact points at issue, and +sometimes, by an excusable manoeuvre, shutting out opportunity for +useless discussion. When he sat on the woolsack as speaker, in the +absence of the Lord Chancellor, he deported himself after the manner +of Chancellors; but when he got into his proper element at the table +of the house, nothing could be more rapid than his evolutions; no +hesitation, no dubiety, nor would he allow any one else to pause or +doubt. Often has he been heard to say, in no very gentle tones, "Give +me in that clause _now_;"--"That's enough;"--"It will do very well as +it is;"--"If you have anything further to propose, move at +once;"--"Get through the bill now, and bring up that on the third +reading." He always made their Lordships feel that, come what might, +it was their duty to "get through the bill;" and so expeditious was +the old Earl, that he would get out of the chair, bring up his report, +and move the House into another committee in the short time that +sufficed for the Chancellor to transfer himself from the woolsack to +the Treasury bench and back again. + + * * * * * + +Mr. THOMAS WRIGHT HILL, eminent in England for some of the most +important improvements that have been made in the means of education +during this century, died on the 9th of June, at the age of +eighty-eight. Hazelwood School, near Birmingham, established by Mr. +Hill, was the most successful, as it was the first large experiment as +to the practicability of governing boys by other principles than that +of terror, of extending the range of scholastic acquirements beyond a +superficial knowledge of the learned languages, and of making the +acquisition of sound knowledge not only a duty but a delight. The +views of Mr. Hill were set forth in _Plans for the Government and +Liberal Instruction of Boys in large numbers, drawn from Experience_, +first published in 1823; and a very elaborate paper in the _Edinburgh +Review_ of Jan. 1825, brought the system into general notice. + + * * * * * + +The _London Builder_ contains a brief notice of MELCHIOR BOISSEREE, +brother to Sulpize Boisseree, whose death is much regretted throughout +Germany. It was so far back as the year 1804, that three young men, +citizens of Cologne, conceived the idea of collecting and +resuscitating the mediaeval art-relics of the Rhine-lands. But what +was, probably, but contemplated as a provincial undertaking, soon +attracted the eyes of Europe, and became a great fact of modern +art-history. When, about 1808, Sulpize Boisseree determined to devote +himself entirely to the work on the Cologne Cathedral, Melchior and +his brother Bertram continued the research and collection of ancient +paintings. But already in 1810, the old pictures had outgrown the +scanty spaces appropriable to them at Cologne. They were transferred +first to Heidelberg, and in 1819 the three brothers migrated with them +to Stuttgardt, where the king afforded room to this unique gathering +of mediaeval art. It was Melchior who chiefly attended to the +restoration of the pictures, and enriched the collection during his +travels in the Netherlands, in 1812 and 1813. Having found some of the +pictures of Hemling and Memling, it was he who first attracted notice +to these excellent, hitherto hardly known artists. In 1827 the +collection was sold to Ludwig of Bavaria, and as the Pinakotheka +(where they were to be placed) was not ready, the pictures were +conveyed to Schleissheim. In this retirement, Melchior Boisseree +devoted his whole attention to the art of glass painting, which at +that time was nigh considered as lost. If now such great things are +accomplished at Munich in this department of Art, it was Melchior +(conjointly with his brother Bertram) who paved the way by this +collection of old specimens, seen with astonishment by travellers from +the whole of Europe. When Bertram had died (about 1830), Melchior +joined his brother Sulpize at Bonn, where Melchior, in the prosecution +of his favored Art-studies, concluded his life in serene quiet and +contentment. + + * * * * * + +In the death of CHRISTIAN TIECK, German sculpture has lost one of its +most illustrious ornaments, a man of rare intelligence, of long +experience, and of profound artistic cultivation. He was born in +Berlin, on the 14th of August, 1776, and early destined for a +sculptor. The poetic genius and rare qualities of his brother Lewis +Tieck, the poet, his elder by three years, and the graceful artistic +and literary accomplishments of a sister, afterward the Baroness +Knooring, inspired the young sculptor with the warmest interest in the +then young and hopeful German literature and art. This taste he never +lost. Perhaps no artist, so distinguished as an artist, was ever so +devoted to various study, to the last moment of his life. + +In 1797, he went to Paris as Royal Pensioner, and although a sculptor, +entered David's studio, and in the year 1800 took the prize for +sculpture. In 1801 he returned to Berlin, and his distinguished talent +was acknowledged. Goethe immediately summoned him to Weimar, and +employed him in the adorning of the Ducal palace, and in the moulding +of a series of busts. Of this latter an idealized head of Goethe and +of the philologist Frederic August Wolf, are the best. The young Tieck +continued in the closest correspondence with his brother, who was then +pursuing his poetical studies at Jena and Dresden, and they went with +Rumohr to Italy, in the year 1805, and there by his beautiful busts, +won the friendship of William Von Humboldt, a man of the most delicate +and accurate artistic taste, as well as of the noblest character and +intellectual ability. Madame de Stael invited Tieck to execute +sculptures at Coppet, for the Neckar family, and in 1809 the Prince +Royal of Bavaria, Louis, selected Tieck to mould the busts for the +projected Walhalla. He did them, and in 1812 passed into Switzerland. +He lived in Zurich, where Rauch was then engaged upon his noble work, +the reclining statue of Queen Louisa, now at Charlottenburg, and a +warm friendship was formed between the sculptors. In 1819 he returned +to Berlin, was elected into the Senate of the Academy, and appointed +Professor by the Grand Duke of Weimar. He then quietly devoted himself +to his art, and Berlin is beautiful with Tieck's sculptures. Named, in +1830 director of the Gallery of Sculpture, he did not relax his +artistic activity, and after a long illness he died gently in the +spring of his year, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. + +His elder brother Lewis, the most deservedly famous of the living +illustrations of German literature, the only worthy translator of +Shakspeare, the most genial friend, the most single-hearted of poets, +whom the King honors and who loved Novalis--now seventy-eight years +old, awaits in continued and patiently endured illness the gentle +guiding of death to his best friend and brother. + + + + +_Ladies' Summer Fashions._ + +[Illustration] + + +The strong and superb stuffs of winter are quite superseded by ball +dresses, at the various watering places. The _elegantes_ seek +_toilettes_ which, without being rich, are remarkable for lightness +and tasteful patterns. We commend a white mousseline dress, with three +flounces, simply hemmed; a long sash of ribbon of colored taffeta; +natural flowers in the hair and on the front of the dress; a dress of +colored taffeta, white or straw ground, or blue or pink ground; these +stuffs are striped, or running and small patterns, or great branches +with detached bouquets. Bareges are also much worn, with white ground +sprinkled with little rose-buds; silk barege, with wreaths of flowers, +are newer. The shape of the bodies of evening dresses has not +undergone much change. _Berthes_ are still worn, forming a point in +front, only varying in the disposition of the ornaments, interspersed +with small ribbons or lace and mousseline. Natural flowers will be +worn for headdresses and bouquets. Walking dresses are much in vogue +of bareges and mousseline, the body skirted, open in front, and lower +down than in winter. We must mention a new dress, named _Albanaise_, +made of barege. It is of several shades, but the most _recherche_ are +_gris poussiere_, or dust gray. Five dull silk stripes begin from the +bottom of the dress; then an intervening space and four other stripes; +another space and, to finish, three more stripes ending right in the +belt, always diminishing in size. We have also seen a jaconet dress, +embroidered _a l'Anglaise_ as an apron to the waist; the body +embroidered at the edge flat, as well as in the skirts and sleeves; +and three knots of blue taffeta fastened the bodice. For the country, +dresses of Chinese nankeen and Persian jaconet are worn; and to +protect from the sun, a kind of hood, of similar stuff. There are a +great many black lace _schales_, embroidered muslins, printed barege, +square or long, with cashmere patterns. + +The scarf _mantelet_ is also much in fashion, and the article which +permits of the most frequent change; a point scarcely perceptible in +the middle of the back makes it still more graceful. It is made in all +shades, but the most _comme-il-faut_ are black; it is more suitable, +and sets off the freshness of the dress. It is trimmed with lace, +fringe, or net, covered with small velvet dots. We have seen some +quite covered with common embroidery; others embroidered with +arabesques intermingled with braid and silk, and black jet. + +For the seaside there are also worn many _mantelets_, which remind us +of the winter by their shape; but the materials are somewhat lighter, +chiefly of thin summer cloth, or felt of gray shades. + +The _Promenade Dress_, on the preceding page, is of a rich plain +chocolate-colored silk, made perfectly simple. Pardessus of a +damson-colored brocaded silk, the lower part of which, as well as the +large sleeves, being decorated with a magnificent double fringe, the +under and deepest being of black, and the upper composed of long silk +tassels, put at equal distances. Leghorn bonnet, trimmed with pink +silk, cut the width of a broad ribbon, and pinked at the edge; the +interior having a fulling of the pink silk encircling the face, with +brides to match. + +Coarse straw _chapeaux_, though principally intended for the country, +are employed, though not much, for morning _neglige_, in town, and +will be very much in request for the watering-places; they are of the +_capote_ form, in open-work, and lined with taffeta, of one of the +colors of the ribbon that trims them. The ribbon is always plaided, +and the most fashionable has a great variety of colors; the knots are +large, and formed of several _coques_, divided in the middle by a +torsade of ribbons; some are decorated with ribbons only, but small +flowers and foliage may be employed to trim the interior of the brim. +Fancy _chapeaux_ are composed of bands of _paille dentelle_, +alternating with rose-colored taffeta _biais_, &c. Rice straw is also +employed a good deal for fancy _chapeaux_ that are formed of more than +one material. + +The following figures are copied from Parisian fashion plates for +1811. The shortness of the frocks should certainly satisfy the most +extreme innovators of the present time. + +[Illustration: LADIES' FASHIONS IN PARIS FORTY YEARS AGO.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The International Monthly, Volume 4, +No. 1, August, 1851, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY *** + +***** This file should be named 36124.txt or 36124.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/2/36124/ + +Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by Cornell University Digital Collections.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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