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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-07 14:45:09 -0800 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-07 14:45:09 -0800 |
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diff --git a/43721-0.txt b/43721-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00fb70c --- /dev/null +++ b/43721-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9946 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43721 *** + +BLACKWOOD'S + +Edinburgh + +MAGAZINE. + +VOL. LXVI. + +JULY--DECEMBER, 1849. + + +[Illustration] + +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, EDINBURGH; + +AND + +37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. + + * * * * * + +1849. + +BLACKWOOD'S + +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + +NO. CCCCV. JULY, 1849. VOL. LXVI. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + DIES BOREALES. NO. II. CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS, 1 + + THE ISLAND OF SARDINIA, 33 + + THE CAXTONS.--PART XIV. 48 + + THE GAME LAWS IN SCOTLAND, 63 + + DOMINIQUE, 77 + + PESTALOZZIANA, 93 + + THE CROWNING OF THE COLUMN, AND CRUSHING OF THE + PEDESTAL, 108 + + POSTSCRIPT, 131 + +EDINBURGH: + +WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; +AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. + +_To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed._ + +SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. + +PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. + +BLACKWOOD'S +EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. + +NO. CCCCV. JULY, 1849. VOL. LXVI. + + + + +Dies Boreales. + +NO. II. + +CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS. + + +ENCAMPMENT AT CLADICH. TIME--_Eleven_, A.M. + +SCENE--_The Portal of the Pavilion._ + +NORTH--BULLER--SEWARD. + + * * * * * + +BULLER. + +I know there is nothing you dislike so much as personal observations---- + +NORTH. + +On myself to myself--not at all on others. + +BULLER. + +Yet I cannot help telling you to your face, sir, that you are one of +the finest-looking old men---- + +NORTH. + +Elderly gentlemen, if you please, sir. + +BULLER. + +In Britain, in Europe, in the World. I am perfectly serious, sir. You +are. + +NORTH. + +You needed not to say you were perfectly serious: for I suffer no man +to be ironical on Me, Mr Buller. I am. + +BULLER. + +Such a change since we came to Cladich! Seward was equally shocked, +with myself, at your looks on board the Steamer. So lean--so bent--so +sallow--so haggard--in a word--so aged! + +NORTH. + +Were you shocked, Seward? + +SEWARD. + +Buller has such a blunt way with him that he often makes me blush. I +was not shocked, my dear sir, but I was affected. + +BULLER. + +Turning to me, he said in a whisper, "What a wreck!" + +NORTH. + +I saw little alteration on you, Mr Seward; but as to Buller, it was +with the utmost difficulty I could be brought, by his reiterated +asseverations, into a sort of quasi-belief in his personal identity; +and even now, it is far from amounting to anything like a settled +conviction. Why, his face is twice the breadth it used to be--and +so red! It used to be narrow and pale. Then what a bushy head--now, +cocker it as he will, bald. In figure was he not slim? Now, stout's the +word. Stout--stout--yes, Buller, you have grown stout, and will grow +stouter--your doom is to be fat--I prophesy paunch---- + +BULLER. + +Spare me--spare me, sir. Seward should not have interrupted me--'twas +but the first impression--and soon wore off--those Edinboro' people +have much to answer for--unmercifully wearing you out at their +ceaseless _soirées_--but since you came to Cladich, sir, CHRISTOPHER'S +HIMSELF AGAIN--pardon my familiarity--nor can I now, after the minutest +inspection, and severest scrutiny, detect one single additional wrinkle +on face or forehead--nay, not a wrinkle at all--not one--so fresh of +colour, too, sir, that the irradiation is at times ruddy--and without +losing an atom of expression, the countenance absolutely--plump. Yes, +sir, plump's the word--plump, plump, plump. + +NORTH. + +Now you speak sensibly, and like yourself, my dear Buller. I wear well. + +BULLER. + +Your enemies circulated a report-- + +NORTH. + +I did not think I had an enemy in the world. + +BULLER. + +Your friends, sir, had heard a rumour--that you had mounted a wig. + +NORTH. + +And was there, among them all, one so weak-minded as to believe it? But +to be sure, there are no bounds to the credulity of mankind. + +BULLER. + +That you had lost your hair--and that, like Sampson-- + +NORTH. + +And by what Delilah had my locks been shorn? + +SEWARD. + +It all originated, I verily believe, sir, in the moved imagination of +the Pensive Public: + + "Res est soliciti plena timoris Amor." + +NORTH. + +Buller, I see little, if any--no change whatever--on you, since the +days of Deeside--nor on you, Seward. Yes, I do. Not now, when by +yourselves; but when your boys are in Tent, ah! then I do indeed--a +pleasant, a happy, a blessed change! Bright boys they are--delightful +lads--noble youths--and so are my Two--emphasis on _my_-- + +SEWARD AND BULLER. + +Yes, all emphasis, and may the Four be friends for life. + +NORTH. + +In presence of us old folks, composed and respectful--in manly modesty +attentive to every word we say--at times no doubt wearisome enough! +Yet each ready, at a look or pause, to join in when we are at our +gravest--and the solemn may be getting dull--enlivening the sleepy flow +of our conversation as with rivulets issuing from pure sources in the +hills of the morning-- + +SEWARD. + +Ay--ay; heaven bless them all! + +NORTH. + +Why, there is more than sense--more than talent--there is _genius_ +among them--in their eyes and on their tongues--though they have +no suspicion of it--and that is the charm. Then how they rally one +another! Witty fellows all Four. And the right sort of raillery. +Gentlemen by birth and breeding, to whom in their wildest sallies +vulgarity is impossible--to whom, on the giddy brink--the perilous +edge--still adheres a native Decorum superior to that of all the +Schools. + +SEWARD. + +They have their faults, sir-- + +NORTH. + +So have we. And 'tis well for us. Without faults we should be +unloveable. + +SEWARD. + +In affection I spake. + +NORTH. + +I know you did. There is no such hateful sight on earth as a perfect +character. He is one mass of corruption--for he is a hypocrite--_intus +et in cute_--by the necessity of nature. The moment a perfect character +enters a room--I leave it. + +SEWARD. + +What if you happened to live in the neighbourhood of the nuisance? + +NORTH. + +Emigrate. Or remain here--encamped for life--with imperfect +characters--till the order should issue--Strike Tent. + +BULLER. + +My Boy has a temper of his own. + +NORTH. + +Original--or acquired? + +BULLER. + +Naturally sweet-blooded--assuredly by the mother's side--but in her +goodness she did all she could to spoil him. Some excuse--We have but +Marmy. + +NORTH. + +And his father, naturally not quite so sweet-blooded, does all he can +to preserve him? Between the two, a pretty Pickle he is. Has thine a +temper of his own, too, Seward? + +SEWARD. + +Hot. + +NORTH. + +Hereditary. + +SEWARD. + +No--North. A milder, meeker, Christian Lady than his mother is not in +England. + +NORTH. + +I confess I was at the moment not thinking of his mother. But somewhat +too much of this. I hereby authorise the Boys of this Empire to have +what tempers they choose--with one sole exception--THE SULKY. + +BULLER. + +The Edict is promulged. + +NORTH. + +Once, and once only, during one of the longest and best-spent lives on +record, was I in the mood proscribed--and it endured most part of a +whole day. The Anniversary of that day I observe, in severest solitude, +with a salutary horror. And it is my Birthday. Ask me not, my friends, +to reveal the Cause. Aloof from confession before man--we must keep +to ourselves--as John Foster says--a corner of our own souls. A black +corner it is--and enter it with or without a light--you see, here and +there, something dismal--hideous--shapeless--nameless--each lying in +its own place on the floor. There lies the CAUSE. It was the morning +of my Ninth Year. As I kept sitting high upstairs by myself--one +familiar face after another kept ever and anon looking in upon me--all +with one expression! And one familiar voice after another--all with +one tone--kept muttering at me--"_He's still in the Sulks!_" How I +hated them with an intenser hatred--and chief them I before had loved +best--at each opening and each shutting of that door! How I hated +myself, as my blubbered face felt hotter and hotter--and I knew how +ugly I must be, with my fixed fiery eyes. It was painful to sit on +such a chair for hours in one posture, and to have so chained a child +would have been great cruelty--but I was resolved to die, rather than +change it; and had I been told by any one under an angel to get up and +go to play, I would have spat in his face. It was a lonesome attic, +and I had the fear of ghosts. But not then--my superstitious fancy +was quelled by my troubled heart. Had I not deserved to be allowed to +go? Did they not all know that all my happiness in this life depended +on my being allowed to go? Could any one of them give a reason for +not allowing me to go? What right had they to say that if I did go, I +should never be able to find my way, by myself, back? What right had +they to say that Roundy was a blackguard, and that he would lead me to +the gallows? Never before, in all the world, had a good boy been used +so on his birthday. They pretend to be sorry when I am sick--and when I +say my prayers, they say theirs too; but I am sicker now--and they are +not sorry, but angry--there's no use in prayers--and I won't read one +verse in the Bible this night, should my aunt go down on her knees. And +in the midst of such unworded soliloquies did the young blasphemer fall +asleep. + +BULLER. + +Young Christopher North! Incredible. + +NORTH. + +I know not how long I slept; but on awaking, I saw an angel with a most +beautiful face and most beautiful hair--a little young angel--about the +same size as myself--sitting on a stool by my feet. "Are you quite well +now, Christopher? Let us go to the meadows and gather flowers." Shame, +sorrow, remorse, contrition, came to me with those innocent words--we +wept together, and I was comforted. "I have been sinful"--"but you are +forgiven." Down all the stairs hand in hand we glided; and there was +no longer anger in any eyes--the whole house was happy. All voices +were kinder--if that were possible--than they had been when I rose +in the morning--a Boy in his Ninth Year. Parental hands smoothed my +hair--parental lips kissed it--and parental greetings, only a little +more cheerful than prayers, restored me to the Love I had never lost, +and which I felt now had animated that brief and just displeasure. I +had never heard then of Elysian fields; but I had often heard, and +often had dreamt happy, happy dreams of fields of light in heaven. And +such looked the fields to be, where fairest Mary Gordon and I gathered +flowers, and spoke to the birds, and to one another, all day long--and +again, when the day was gone, and the evening going, on till moon-time, +below and among the soft-burning stars. + +BULLER. + +And never has _Christopher been in the Sulks_ since that day. + +NORTH. + +Under heaven I owe it all to that child's eyes. Still I sternly keep +the Anniversary--for, beyond doubt, I was that day possessed with a +Devil--and an angel it was, though human, that drove him out. + +SEWARD. + +Your first Love? + +NORTH. + +In a week she was in heaven. My friends--in childhood--our whole future +life would sometimes seem to be at the mercy of such small events +as these. Small call them not--for they are great for good or for +evil--because of the unfathomable mysteries that lie shrouded in the +growth, on earth, of an immortal soul. + +SEWARD. + +May I dare to ask you, sir--it is indeed a delicate--a more than +delicate question--if the Anniversary--has been brought round with the +revolving year since we encamped? + +NORTH. + +It has. + +SEWARD. + +Ah! Buller! we know now the reason of his absence that day from the +Pavilion and Deeside--of his utter seclusion--he was doing penance in +the Swiss Giantess--a severe sojourn. + +NORTH. + +A Good Temper, friends--not a good Conscience--is the Blessing of Life. + +BULLER. + +Shocked to hear you say so, sir. Unsay it, my dear sir--unsay +it--pernicious doctrine. It may get abroad. + +NORTH. + +THE SULKS!--the CELESTIALS. The Sulks are hell, sirs--the Celestials, +by the very name, heaven. I take temper in its all-embracing sense +of Physical, Mental, and Moral Atmosphere. Pure and serene--then we +respire God's gifts, and are happier than we desire! Is not that +divine? Foul and disturbed--then we are stifled by God's gifts--and are +wickeder than we fear! Is not that devilish? A good Conscience and a +bad Temper! Talk not to me, Young Men, of pernicious doctrine--it is +a soul-saving doctrine--"millions of spiritual creatures walk unseen" +teaching it--men's Thoughts, communing with heaven, have been teaching +it--surely not all in vain--since Cain slew Abel. + +SEWARD. + +The Sage! + +BULLER. + +Socrates. + +NORTH. + +Morose! Think for five minutes on what that word means--and on what +that word contains--and you see the Man must be an Atheist. Sitting in +the House of God _morosely_! Bright, bold, beautiful boys of ours, ye +are not morose--heaven's air has free access through your open souls--a +clear conscience carries the Friends in their pastimes up the Mountains. + +SEWARD. + +And their fathers before them. + +NORTH. + +And their great-grandfather--I mean their spiritual +great-grandfather--myself--Christopher North. They are gathering +up--even as we gathered up--images that will never die. Evanescent! +Clouds--lights--shadows--glooms--the falling sound--the running +murmur--and the swinging roar--as cataract, stream, and forest all +alike seem wheeling by--these are not evanescent--for they will all +keep coming and going--before their Imagination--all life-long at the +bidding of the Will--or obedient to a Wish! Or by benign Law, whose +might is a mystery, coming back from the far profound--remembered +apparitions! + +SEWARD. + +Dear sir. + +NORTH. + +Even my Image will sometimes reappear--and the Tents of Cladich--the +Camp on Lochawe-side. + +BULLER. + +My dear sir--it will not be evanescent---- + +NORTH. + +And withal such Devils! But I have given them _carte blanche_. + +SEWARD. + +Nor will they abuse it. + +NORTH. + +I wonder when they sleep. Each has his own dormitory--the cluster +forming the left wing of the Camp--but Deeside is not seldom broad +awake till midnight; and though I am always up and out by six at the +latest, never once have I caught a man of them napping, but either +there they are each more blooming than the other, getting ready their +gear for a start;--or, on sweeping the Loch with my glass, I see their +heads, like wild-ducks--swimming--round Rabbit Island--as some wretch +has baptised Inishail--or away to Inistrynish--or, for anything I know, +to Port-Sonachan--swimming for a Medal given by the Club! Or there +goes _Gutta-Percha_ by the Pass of Brandir, or shooting away into the +woods near Kilchurn. Twice have they been on the top of Cruachan--once +for a clear hour, and once for a dark day--the very next morning, +Marmaduke said, they would have "some more mountain," and the Four +Cloud-compellers swept the whole range of Ben-Bhuridh and Bein-Lurachan +as far as the head of Glensrea. Though they said nothing about it, I +heard of their having been over the hills behind us, t'other night, at +Cairndow, at a wedding. Why, only think, sirs, yesterday they were off +by daylight to try their luck in Loch Dochart, and again I heard their +merriment soon after we had retired. They must have footed it above +forty miles. That Cornwall Clipper will be their death. And off again +this morning--all on foot--to the Black Mount. + +BULLER. + +For what? + +NORTH. + +By permission of the Marquis, to shoot an Eagle. She is said to be +again on egg--and to cliff-climbers her eyrie is within rifle-range. +But let us forget the Boys--as they have forgot us. + +SEWARD. + +The Loch is calmer to-day, sir, than we have yet seen it; but the +calm is of a different character from yesterday's--that was serene, +this is solemn--I had almost said austere. Yesterday there were few +clouds; and such was the prevailing power of all those lovely woods on +the islands, and along the mainland shores--that the whole reflexion +seemed sylvan. When gazing on such a sight, does not our feeling of the +unrealities--the shadows--attach to the realities--the substances? So +that the living trees--earth-rooted, and growing upwards--become almost +as visionary as their inverted semblances in that commingling clime? +Or is it that the life of the trees gives life to the images, and +imagination believes that the whole, in its beauty, must belong, by the +same law, to the same world? + +NORTH. + +Let us understand, without seeking to destroy, our delusions--for has +not this life of ours been wisely called the dream of a shadow! + +SEWARD. + +To-day there are many clouds, and aloft they are beautiful; nor is the +light of the sun not most gracious; but the repose of all that downward +world affects me--I know not why--with sadness--it is beginning to look +almost gloomy--and I seem to see the hush not of sleep, but of death. +There is not the unboundaried expanse of yesterday--the loch looks +narrower--and Cruachan closer to us, with all his heights. + +BULLER. + +I felt a drop of rain on the back of my hand. + +SEWARD. + +It must have been, then, from your nose. There will be no rain this +week. But a breath of air there is somewhere--for the mirror is dimmed, +and the vision gone. + +NORTH. + +The drop was not from his nose, Seward, for here are three--and clear, +pure drops too--on my Milton. I should not be at all surprised if we +were to have a little rain. + +SEWARD. + +Odd enough. I cannot conjecture where it comes from. It must be dew. + +BULLER. + +Who ever heard of dew dropping in large fat globules at meridian on a +summer's day? It is getting very close and sultry. The interior must +be, as Wordsworth says, "Like a Lion's den." Did you whisper, sir? + +NORTH. + +No. But something did. Look at the quicksilver, Buller. + +BULLER. + +Thermometer 85. Barometer I can say nothing about--but that it is very +low indeed. A long way below Stormy. + +NORTH. + +What colour would you call that Glare about the Crown of Cruachan? +Yellow? + +SEWARD. + +You may just as well call it yellow as not. I never saw such a colour +before--and don't care though I never see such again--for it is horrid. +That _is_ a--Glare. + +NORTH. + +Cowper says grandly, + + "A terrible sagacity informs + The Poet's heart: he looks to distant storms; + He hears the thunder ere the tempest lowers." + +He is speaking of tempests in the moral world. You know the passage--it +is a fine one--so indeed is the whole Epistle--Table-Talk. I am a bit +of a Poet myself in smelling thunder. Early this morning I set it down +for mid-day--and it is mid-day now. + +BULLER. + +Liker Evening. + +NORTH. + +Dimmish and darkish, certainly--but unlike Evening. I pray you look at +the Sun. + +BULLER. + +What about him? + +NORTH. + +Though unclouded--he seems shrouded in his own solemn light--expecting +thunder. + +BULLER. + +There is not much motion among the clouds. + +NORTH. + +Not yet. Merely what in Scotland we call a carry--yet that great +central mass is double the size it was ten minutes ago--the City +Churches are crowding round the Cathedral--and the whole assemblage +lies under the shadow of the Citadel--with battlements and colonnades +at once Fort and Temple. + +BULLER. + +Still some blue sky. Not very much. But some. + +NORTH. + +Cruachan! you are changing colour. + +BULLER. + +Grim--very. + +NORTH. + +The Loch's like ink. I could dip my pen in it. + +SEWARD. + +We are about to have thunder. + +NORTH. + +Weather-wise wizard--we are. That mutter was thunder. In five seconds +you will hear some more. One--two--three--four--there; that was a +growl. I call that good growling--sulky, sullen, savage growling, that +makes the heart of Silence quake. + +SEWARD. + +And mine. + +NORTH. + +What? Dying away! Some incomprehensible cause is turning the thunderous +masses round towards Appin. + +SEWARD. + +And I wish them a safe journey. + +NORTH. + +All right. They are coming this way--all at once--the whole +Thunderstorm. Flash--roar. + + "Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France; + For ere thou canst report I will be there, + The thunder of my cannon shall be heard." + +Who but Willy could have said _that_? + +SEWARD. + +Who said what? + +NORTH. + +How ghastly all the trees! + +SEWARD. + +I see no trees--nor anything else. + +NORTH. + +How can you, with that Flying Dutchman over your eyes? + +BULLER. + +I gave him my handkerchief--for at this moment I know his head is like +to rend. I wish I had kept it to myself; but no use--the lightning is +seen through lids and hands, and would be through stone walls. + +NORTH. + +Each flash has, of course, a thunder-clap of its own--if we knew +where to look for it; but, to our senses, all connexion between cause +and effect is lost--such incessant flashings--and such multitudinous +outbreaks--and such a continuous roll of outrageous echoes! + +BULLER. + +Coruscation--explosion--are but feeble words. + +NORTH. + +The Cathedral's on Fire. + +BULLER. + +I don't mind so much those wide flarings among the piled clouds, as +these gleams----oh! + +NORTH. + +Where art thou, Cruachan! Ay--methinks I see thee--methinks I do +not--thy Three Peaks may not pierce the masses that now oppress +thee--but behind the broken midway clouds, those black purple breadths +of solid earth are thine--thine those unmistakeable Cliffs--thine the +assured beauty of that fearless Forest--and may the lightning scathe +not one single tree! + +BULLER. + +Nor man. + +NORTH. + +This is your true total Eclipse of the Sun. Day, not night, is the time +for thunder and lightning. Night can be dark of itself--nay, cannot +help it; but when Day grows black, then is the blackness of darkness +in the Bright One terrible;--and terror--Burke said well--is at the +heart of the sublime. The Light, such as it is, sets off the power of +the lightning--it pales to that flashing--and is forgotten in Fire. It +smells of hell. + +SEWARD. + +It is constitutional in the Sewards. North, I am sick. + +NORTH. + +Give way to gasping--and lie down--nothing can be done for you. The +danger is not-- + +SEWARD. + +I am not afraid--I am faint. + +NORTH. + +You must speak louder, if you expect to be heard by ears of clay. Peals +is not the word. "Peals on peals redoubled" is worse. There never +was--and never will be a word in any language--for _all that_. + +BULLER. + +Unreasonable to expect it. Try twenty--in twenty languages. + +NORTH. + +Buller, you may count ten individual deluges--besides the descent of +three at hand--conspicuous in the general Rain, which without them +would be Rain sufficient for a Flood. Now the Camp has it--and let us +enter the Pavilion. I don't think there is much wind here--yet far +down the black Loch is silently whitening with waves like breakers; +for here the Rain alone rules, and its rushing deadens the retiring +thunder. The ebbing thunder! Still louder than any sea on any +shore--but a diminishing loudness, though really vast, seems quelled; +and, losing its power over the present, imagination follows it not into +the distant region where it may be raging as bad as ever. Buller? + +BULLER. + +What? + +NORTH. + +How's Seward? + +SEWARD. + +Much better. It was very, very kind of you, my dear sir, to carry me +in your arms, and place me in your own Swing-chair. The change of +atmosphere has revived me--but the Boys! + +NORTH. + +The Boys--why, they went to the Black Mount to shoot an eagle, and +see a thunder-storm, and long before this they have had their heart's +desire. There are caves, Seward, in Buachail-Mor; and one recess I +know--not a cave--but grander far than any cave--near the Fall of +Eas-a-Bhrogich--far down below the bottom of the Fall, which in its +long descent whitens the sable cliffs. Thither leads a winding access +no storm can shake. In that recess you sit rock-surrounded--but with +elbow-room for five hundred men--and all the light you have--and you +would not wish for more--comes down upon you from a cupola far nearer +heaven than that hung by Michael Angelo. + +SEWARD. + +The Boys are safe. + +NORTH. + +Or the lone House of Dalness has received them--hospitable now as +of yore--or the Huntsman's hut--or the Shepherd's shieling--that +word I love, and shall use it now--though shieling it is not, but a +comfortable cottage--and the dwellers there fear not the thunder and +the lightning--for they know they are in His hands--and talk cheerfully +in the storm. + +SEWARD. + +Over and gone. How breathable the atmosphere! + +NORTH. + +In the Forests of the Marquis and of Monzie, the horns of the +Red-deer are again in motion. In my mind's eye--Harry--I see one--an +enormous fellow--bigger than the big stag of Benmore himself--and +not to be so easily brought to perform, by particular desire, the +part of Moriens--giving himself a shake of his whole huge bulk, and +a _caive_ of his whole wide antlery--and then leading down from the +Corrie, with Platonic affection, a herd of Hinds to the greensward +islanded among brackens and heather--a spot equally adapted for feed, +play, rumination, and sleep. And the Roes are glinting through the +glades--and the Fleece are nibbling on the mountains' glittering +breast--and the Cattle are grazing, and galloping, and lowing on the +hills--and the furred folk, who are always dry, come out from crevices +for a mouthful of the fresh air; and the whole four-footed creation are +jocund--are happy! + +BULLER. + +What a picture! + +NORTH. + +And the Fowls of the Air--think ye not the Eagle, storm-driven not +unalarmed along that league-long face of cliff, is now glad at heart, +pruning the wing that shall carry him again, like a meteor, into the +subsided skies? + +BULLER. + +What it is to have an imagination! Worth all my Estate. + +NORTH. + +Let us exchange. + +BULLER. + +Not possible. Strictly entailed. + +NORTH. + +Dock. + +BULLER. + +Mno. + +NORTH. + +And the little wren flits out from the back door of her nest--too happy +she to sing--and in a minute is back again, with a worm in her mouth, +to her half-score gaping babies--the sole family in all the dell. And +the seamews, sore against their will driven seawards, are returning +by ones and twos, and thirties, and thousands, up Loch-Etive, and, +dallying with what wind is still alive above the green transparency, +drop down in successive parties of pleasure on the silver sands of +Ardmatty, or lured onwards into the still leas of Glenliver, or the +profounder quietude of the low mounds of Dalness. + +SEWARD. + +My fancy is contented to feed on what is before my eyes. + +BULLER. + +Doff, then, the Flying Dutchman. + +NORTH. + +And thousands of Rills, on the first day of their apparent existence, +are all happy too, and make me happy to look on them leaping and +dancing down the rocks--and the River Etive rejoicing in his strength, +from far Kingshouse all along to the end of his journey, is happiest +of them all; for the storm that has swollen has not discoloured him, +and with a pomp of clouds on his breast, he is flowing in his expanded +beauty into his own desired Loch. + +SEWARD. + +Gaze with me, my dear sir, on what lies before our eyes. + +NORTH. + +The Rainbow! + +BULLER. + +Four miles wide, and half a mile broad. + +NORTH. + +Thy own Rainbow, Cruachan--from end to end. + +SEWARD. + +Is it fading--or is it brightening?--no, it is not fading--and to +brighten is impossible. It is the beautiful at perfection--it is +dissolving--it is gone. + +BULLER. + +I asked you, sir, have the Poets well handled Thunder? + +NORTH. + +I was waiting for the Rainbow. Many eyes besides ours are now regarding +it--many hearts gladdened--but have you not often felt, Seward, as if +such Apparitions came at a silent call in our souls--that we might +behold them--and that the hour--or the moment--was given to us alone! +So have I felt when walking alone among the great solitudes of Nature. + +SEWARD. + +Lochawe is the name now for a dozen little lovely lakes! For, lo! as +the vapours are rising, they disclose, here a bay that does not seem to +be a bay, but complete in its own encircled stillness,--there a bare +grass island--yes, it is Inishail--with a shore of mists,--and there, +with its Pines and Castle, Freoch, as if it were Loch Freoch, and not +itself an Isle. Beautiful bewilderment! but of our own creating!--for +thus Fancy is fain to dally with what we love--and would seek to +estrange the familiar--as if Lochawe in its own simple grandeur were +not all-sufficient for our gaze. + +BULLER. + +Let me try my hand. No--no--no--I can see and feel, have an eye and a +heart for Scenery, as it is called, but am no hand at a description. +My dear, sweet, soft-breasted, fair-fronted, bright-headed, delightful +Cruachan--thy very name, how liquid with open vowels--not a consonant +among them all--no Man-Mountain Thou--Thou art the LADY OF THE LAKE. +I am in love with Thee--Thou must not think of retiring from the +earth--Thou must not take the veil--off with it--off with it from +those glorious shoulders--and come, in all Thy loveliness, to my +long--my longing arms! + +SEWARD. + +Is that the singing of larks? + +NORTH. + +No larks live here. The laverock is a Lowland bird, and loves our +brairded fields and our pastoral braes; but the Highland mountains are +not for him--he knows by instinct that they are haunted--though he +never saw the shadow nor heard the sugh of the eagle's wing. + +SEWARD. + +The singing from the woods seems to reach the sky. They have utterly +forgotten their fear; or think you, sir, that birds know that what +frightened them is gone, and that they sing with intenser joy because +of the fear that kept them mute? + +NORTH. + +The lambs are frisking--and the sheep staring placidly at the Tents. I +hear the hum of bees--returned--and returning from their straw-built +Citadels. In the primal hour of his winged life, that wavering +butterfly goes by in search of the sunshine that meets him; and happy +for this generation of ephemerals that they first took wing on the +afternoon of the day of the Great Storm. + +BULLER. + +How have the Poets, sir, handled thunder and lightning? + +NORTH. + + Sæpe ego, cum flavis messorem induceret arvis + Agricola, et fragili jam stringeret hordea culmo, + Omnia ventorum concurrere prælia vidi, + Quæ gravidam latè segetem ab radicibus imis + Sublimè expulsam eruerent: ita turbine nigro + Ferret hyems culmumque levem, stipulasque volantes. + Sæpe etiam immensum coelo venit agmen aquarum, + Et foedam glomerant tempestatem imbribus atris + Collectæ ex alto nubes: ruit arduus æther, + Et pluviâ ingenti sata læta, boumque labores + Diluit: implentur fossæ, et cava flumina crescunt + Cum sonitu, fervetque fretis spirantibus æquor. + Ipse Pater, mediâ nimborum in nocte, corusca + Fulmina molitur dextrâ: quo maxima motu + Terra tremit: fugêre feræ, et mortalia corda + Per gentes humilis stravit pavor: ille flagranti + Aut Atho, aut Rhodopen, aut alta Ceraunia telo + Dejicit: ingeminant Austri, et densissimus imber: + Nunc nemora ingenti vento, nunc littora plangunt. + +BULLER. + +You recite well, sir, and Latin better than English--not so +sing-songy--and as sonorous: then Virgil, to be sure, is fitter for +recitation than any Laker of you all---- + +NORTH. + +I am not a Laker--I am a Locher. + +BULLER. + +Tweedledum--Tweedledee. + +NORTH. + +That means the Tweed and the Dee? Content. One might have thought, +Buller, that our Scottish Critics would have been puzzled to find a +fault in that strain---- + +BULLER. + +It is faultless; but not a Scotch critic worth a curse but yourself---- + +NORTH. + +I cannot accept a compliment at the expense of all the rest of my +countrymen. I cannot indeed. + +BULLER. + +Yes, you can. + +NORTH. + +There was Lord Kames--a man of great talents--a most ingenious man--and +with an insight---- + +BULLER. + +I never heard of him--was he a Scotch Peer? + +NORTH. + +One of the Fifteen. A strained elevation--says his Lordship--I am sure +of the words, though I have not seen his Elements of Criticism for +fifty years---- + +BULLER. + +You are a creature of a wonderful memory. + +NORTH. + +"A strained elevation is attended with another inconvenience, that +the author is apt to fall suddenly, as well as the reader; because +it is not a little difficult to descend sweetly and easily from such +elevation to the ordinary tone of the subject. The following is a good +illustration of that observation"--and then his Lordship quotes the +passage I recited--stopping with the words, "_densissimus imber_," +which are thus made to conclude the description! + +BULLER. + +Oh! oh! oh! That's murder. + +NORTH. + +In the description of a storm--continues his Lordship--"to figure +Jupiter throwing down huge mountains with his thunderbolts, is +hyperbolically sublime, if I may use the expression: the tone of mind +produced by that image is so distinct from the tone produced by a thick +shower of rain, that the sudden transition _must be very unpleasant_." + +BULLER. + +Suggestive of a great-coat. That's the way to deal with a great Poet. +Clap your hand on the Poet's mouth in its fervour--shut up the words +in mid-volley--and then tell him that he does not know how to descend +sweetly and easily from strained elevation! + +NORTH. + +Nor do I agree with his Lordship that "to figure Jupiter throwing +down huge mountains with his thunderbolts is hyperbolically sublime." +As a part for a whole is a figure of speech, so is a whole for a +part. Virgil says, "dejicit;" but he did not mean to say that Jupiter +"tumbled down" Athos or Rhodope or the Acroceraunian range. He +knew--for he saw them--that there they were in all their altitude +after the storm--little if at all the worse. But Jupiter had +struck--smitten--splintered--rent--trees and rocks--midway or on the +summits--and the sight was terrific--and "dejicit" brings it before our +imagination which not for a moment pictures the whole mountain tumbling +down. But great Poets know the power of words, and on great occasions +how to use them--in this case--one--and small critics will not suffer +their own senses to instruct them in Poetry--and hence the Elements +of Criticism are not the Elements of Nature, and assist us not in +comprehending the grandeur of reported storms. + +BULLER. + +Lay it into them, sir. + +NORTH. + +Good Dr Hugh Blair again, who in his day had a high character for taste +and judgment, agreed with Henry Home that "the transition is made too +hastily--I am afraid--from the preceding sublime images, to a thick +shower and the blowing of the south wind, and shows how difficult it +frequently is to descend with grace, without seeming to fall." Nay, +even Mr Alison himself--one of the finest spirits that ever breathed +on earth, says--"I acknowledge, indeed, that the 'pluviâ ingenti sata +læta, boumque labores diluit' is defensible from the connexion of the +imagery with the subject of the poem; but the 'implentur fossæ' is both +an unnecessary and a degrading circumstance when compared with the +magnificent effects that are described in the rest of the passage." In +his quotation, too, the final grand line is inadvertently omitted-- + + "Nunc nemora ingenti vento, nunc litora plangunt." + +BULLER. + +I never read Hugh Blair--but I have read--often, and always with +increased delight--Mr Alison's exquisite Essays on the Nature and +Principles of Taste, and Lord Jeffrey's admirable exposition of the +Theory--in statement so clear, and in illustration so rich--worth all +the Æsthetics of the Germans--Schiller excepted--in one Volume of Mist. + +NORTH. + +Mr Alison had an original as well as a fine mind; and here he seems to +have been momentarily beguiled into mistake by unconscious deference +to the judgment of men--in his province far inferior to himself--whom +in his modesty he admired. Mark. Virgil's main purpose is to describe +the dangers--the losses to which the agriculturist is at all seasons +exposed from wind and weather. And he sets them before us in plain +and perspicuous language, not rising above the proper level of the +didactic. Yet being a Poet he puts poetry into his description from +the first and throughout. To say that the line "Et pluviâ" &c. is +"_defensible_ from the connexion of the imagery with the subject of +the Poem" is not enough. It is _necessitated_. Strike it out and you +abolish the subject. And just so with "implentur fossæ." The "fossæ" +we know in that country were numerous and wide, and, when swollen, +dangerous--and the "cava flumina" well follow instantly--for the +"fossæ" were their feeders--and we hear as well as see the rivers +rushing to the sea--and we hear too, as well as see, the sea itself. +_There the description ends._ Virgil has done his work. But his +imagination is moved, and there arises a new strain altogether. He is +done with the agriculturists. And now he deals with man at large--with +the whole human race. He is now a Boanerges--a son of thunder--and he +begins with Jove. The sublimity comes in a moment. "Ipse Pater, mediâ +nimborum in nocte"--and is sustained to the close--the last line being +great as the first--and all between accordant, and all true to nature. +Without rain and wind, what would be a thunder-storm? The "densissimus +imber" obeys the laws--and so do the ingeminanting Austri--and the +shaken woods and the stricken shores. + +BULLER. + +Well done, Virgil--well done, North. + +NORTH. + +I cannot rest, Buller--I can have no peace of mind but in a successful +defence of these Ditches. Why is a Ditch to be despised? Because it +is dug? So is a grave. Is the Ditch--wet or dry--that must be passed +by the Volunteers of the Fighting Division before the Fort can be +stormed, too low a word for a Poet to use? Alas! on such an occasion +well might he say, as he looked after the assault and saw the floating +tartans--_implentur fossæ_--the Ditch is filled! + +BULLER. + +Ay, Mr North, in that case the word Ditch--and the thing--would be +dignified by danger, daring, and death. But here---- + +NORTH. + +The case is the same--with a difference, for there is all the +Danger--all the Daring--all the Death--that the incident or event +admits of--and they are not small. Think for a moment. The Rain +falls over the whole broad heart of the tilled earth--from the +face of the fields it runs into the Ditches--the first unavoidable +receptacles--these pour into the rivers--the rivers into the river +mouths--and then you are in the Sea. + +BULLER. + +Go on, sir, go on. + +NORTH. + +I am amazed--I am indignant, Buller. _Ruit arduus æther._ The steep or +high ether rushes down! as we saw it rush down a few minutes ago. What +happens? + + "Et pluvià ingenti sata læta, boumque labores + Diluit!" + +Alas! for the hopeful--hopeless husbandman now. What a multiplied and +magnified expression have we here for the arable lands. All the glad +seed-time vain--vain all industry of man and oxen--there you have the +true agricultural pathos--washed away--set in a swim--deluged! Well has +the Poet--in one great line--spoke the greatness of a great matter. +Sudden affliction--visible desolation--imagined dearth. + +BULLER. + +Don't stop, sir, you speak to the President of our Agricultural +Society--go on, sir, go on. + +NORTH. + +Now drop in--in its veriest place, and in two words, the _necessitated +Implentur fossæ_. No pretence--no display--no phraseology--the +nakedest, but quite effectual statement of the fact--which the +farmer--I love that word farmer--has witnessed as often as he has ever +seen the Coming--the Ditches that were dry ran full to the brim. The +homely rustic fact, strong and impressive to the husbandman, cannot +be dealt with by poetry otherwise than by setting it down in its bald +simplicity. Seek to raise--to dress--to disguise--and you make it +ridiculous. The Mantuan knew better--he says what must be said--and +goes on-- + +BULLER. + +He goes on--so do you, sir--you both get on. + +NORTH. + +And now again begins Magnification, + + "Et cava flumina crescunt + Cum sonitu." + +The "hollow-bedded rivers" grow, swell, visibly wax mighty and +turbulent. You imagine that you stand on the bank and see the river +that had shrunk into a thread getting broad enough to fill the capacity +of its whole hollow bed. The rushing of arduous ether would not of +itself have proved sufficient. Therefore glory to the Italian Ditches +and glory to the Dumfriesshire Drains, which I have seen, in an hour, +change the white murmuring Esk into a red rolling river, with as +sweeping sway as ever attended the Arno on its way to inundate Florence. + +BULLER. + +Glory to the Ditches of the Vale of Arno--glory to the Drains of +Dumfriesshire. Draw breath, sir. Now go on, sir. + +NORTH. + +"Cum sonitu." Not as Father Thames rises--_silently_--till the flow +lapse over lateral meadow-grounds for a mile on either side. But "cum +sonitu," with a voice--with a roar--a mischievous roar--a roar of--ten +thousand Ditches. + +BULLER. + +And then the "flumina"--"cava" no more--will be as clear as mud. + +NORTH. + +You have hit it. They will be--for the Arno in flood is like liquid +mud--by no means enamouring, perhaps not even sublime--but showing +you that it comes off the fields and along the Ditches--that you see +swillings of the "sata læta boumque labores." + +BULLER. + +Agricultural Produce! + +NORTH. + +For a moment--a single moment--leave out the Ditches, and say merely, +"The rain falls over the fields--the rivers swell roaring." No picture +at all. You must have the fall over the surface--the gathering in the +narrower artificial--the delivery into the wider natural channels--the +fight of spate and surge at river mouth-- + + "Fervetque fretis spirantibus æquor." + +The Ditches are indispensable in nature and in Virgil. + +BULLER. + +Put this glass of water to your lips, sir--not that I would +recommend water to a man in a fit of eloquence--but I know you are +abstinent--infatuated in your abjuration of wine. Go on--half-minute +time. + +NORTH. + +I swear to defend--at the pen's point--against all Comers--this +position--that the line + + "Diluit: implentur fossæ, cava flumina crescunt + Cum sonitu--" + +is, where it stands--and looking before and after--a perfect line; +and that to strike out "implentur fossæ" would be an outrage on +it--just equal, Buller, to my knocking out, without hesitation, your +brains--for your brains do not contribute more to the flow of our +conversation--than do the Ditches to that other Spate. + +BULLER. + +That will do--you may stop. + +NORTH. + +I ask no man's permission--I obey no man's mandate--to stop. Now Virgil +takes wing--now he blazes and soars. Now comes the power and spirit +of the Storm gathered in the Person of the Sire--of him who wields +the thunderbolt into which the Cyclops have forged storms of all +sorts--wind and rain together--"_Tres Imbri torti radios!_" &c. You +remember the magnificent mixture. And there we have VIRGILIUS _versus_ +HOMERUM. + +BULLER. + +You may sit down, sir. + +NORTH. + +I did not know I had stood up. Beg pardon. + +BULLER. + +I am putting Swing to rights for you, Sir. + +NORTH. + +Methinks Jupiter is _twice_ apparent--the first time, as the President +of the Storm, which is agreeable to the dictates of reason and +necessity;--the second--to my fancy--as delighting himself in the +conscious exertion of power. What is he splintering Athos, or Rhodope, +or the Acroceraunians for? The divine use of the Fulmen is to quell +Titans, and to kill that mad fellow who was running up the ladder at +Thebes, Capaneus. Let the Great Gods find _out their enemies now_--find +out and finish them--and enemies they must have not a few among those +prostrate crowds--"per gentes humilis stravit pavor." But shattering +and shivering the mountain tops--which, as I take it, is here the +prominent affair--and, as I said, the true meaning of "dejicit"--is +mere pastime--as if Jupiter Tonans were disporting himself on a holiday. + +BULLER. + +Oh! sir, you have exhausted the subject--if not yourself--and +us;--I beseech you sit down;--see, Swing solicits you--and oh! sir, +you--we--all of us will find in a few minutes' silence a great relief +after all that thunder. + +NORTH. + +You remember Lucretius? + +BULLER. + +No, I don't. To you I am not ashamed to confess that I read him with +some difficulty. With ease, sir, do you? + +NORTH. + +I never knew a man who did but Bobus Smith; and so thoroughly was he +imbued with the spirit of the great Epicurean, that Landor--himself the +best Latinist living--equals him with Lucretius. The famous Thunder +passage is very fine, but I cannot recollect every word; and the man +who, in recitation, haggles and boggles at a great strain of a great +poet deserves death without benefit of clergy. I do remember, however, +that he does not descend from his elevation with such ease and grace as +would have satisfied Henry Home and Hugh Blair--for he has so little +notion of true dignity as to mention rain, as Virgil afterwards did, in +immediate connexion with thunder. + + "Quo de concussu sequitur _gravis imber_ et uber, + Omnis utei videatur in imbrem vortier æther, + Atque ita præcipitans ad diluviem revocare." + +BULLER. + +What think you of the thunder in Thomson's Seasons? + +NORTH. + +What all the world thinks--that it is our very best British Thunder. +He gives the Gathering, the General engagement, and the Retreat. In +the Gathering there are touches and strokes that make all mankind +shudder--the foreboding--the ominous! And the terror, when it comes, +aggrandises the premonitory symptoms. "Follows the loosened aggravated +roar" is a line of power to bring the voice of thunder upon your soul +on the most peaceable day. He, too--prevailing poet--feels the grandeur +of the Rain. For instant on the words "convulsing heaven and earth," +ensue, + + "Down comes a deluge of sonorous hail, + Or prone-descending rain." + +Thomson had been in the heart of thunder-storms many a time before +he left Scotland; and what always impresses me is the want of +method--the confusion, I might almost say--in his description. +Nothing contradictory in the proceedings of the storm; they all go on +obediently to what we know of Nature's laws. But the effects of their +agency on man and nature are given--not according to any scheme--but +as they happen to come before the Poet's imagination, as they happened +in reality. The pine is struck first--then the cattle and the sheep +below--and then the castled cliff--and then the + + "Gloomy woods + Start at the flash, and from their deep recess + Wide-flaming out, their trembling inmates shake." + +No regular ascending--or descending scale here; but wherever +the lightning chooses to go, there it goes--the blind agent of +indiscriminating destruction. + +BULLER. + +Capricious Zig-zag. + +NORTH. + +Jemmy was overmuch given to mouthing in the _Seasons_; and in this +description--matchless though it be--he sometimes out-mouths the +big-mouthed thunder at his own bombast. Perhaps that is inevitable--you +must, in confabulating with that Meteor, either imitate him, to keep +him and yourself in countenance, or be, if not mute as a mouse, as +thin-piped as a fly. In youth I used to go sounding to myself among the +mountains the concluding lines of the Retreat. + + "Amid Carnarvon's mountains rages loud + The repercussive roar; with mighty crush, + Into the flashing deep, from the rude rocks + Of Penmanmaur heap'd hideous to the sky, + Tumble the smitten cliffs, and Snowdon's peak, + Dissolving, instant yields his wintry load: + Far seen, the heights of heathy Cheviot blaze, + And Thule bellows through her utmost isles." + +Are they good--or are they bad? I fear--not good. But I am dubious. The +previous picture has been of one locality--a wide one--but within the +visible horizon--enlarged somewhat by the imagination, which, as the +schoolmen said, inflows into every act of the senses--and powerfully, +no doubt, into the senses engaged in witnessing a thunder-storm. Many +of the effects so faithfully, and some of them so tenderly painted, +interest us by their picturesque particularity. + + "Here the soft flocks, with that same harmless look + They wore alive, and ruminating still + In fancy's eye; and there the frowning bull, + And ox half-raised." + +We are here in a confined world--close to us and near; and our +sympathies with its inhabitants--human or brute--comprehend the +very attitudes or postures in which the lightning found and left +them; but the final verses waft us away from all that terror and +pity--the geographical takes place of the pathetic--a visionary +panorama of material objects supersedes the heart-throbbing region of +the spiritual--for a mournful song instinct with the humanities, an +ambitious bravura displaying the power and pride of the musician, now +thinking not at all of us, and following the thunder only as affording +him an opportunity for the display of his own art. + +BULLER. + +Are they good--or are they bad? I am dubious. + +NORTH. + +Thunder-storms travel fast and far--but here they seem simultaneous; +Thule is more vociferous than the whole of Wales together--yet perhaps +the sound itself of the verses is the loudest of all--and we cease to +hear the thunder in the din that describes it. + +BULLER. + +Severe--but just. + +NORTH. + +Ha! Thou comest in such a questionable shape-- + +ENTRANT. + +That I will speak to thee. How do you do, my dear sir? God bless you, +how do you do? + +NORTH. + +Art thou a spirit of health or goblin damned? + +ENTRANT. + +A spirit of health. + +NORTH. + +It is--it is the voice of TALBOYS. Don't move an inch. Stand still for +ten seconds--on the very same site, that I may have one steady look at +you, to make assurance doubly sure--and then let us meet each other +half-way in a Cornish hug. + +TALBOYS. + +Are we going to wrestle already, Mr North? + +NORTH. + +Stand still ten seconds more. He _is_ He--You _are_ You--gentlemen--H. +G. Talboys--Seward, my crutch--Buller, your arm-- + +TALBOYS. + +Wonderful feat of agility! Feet up to the ceiling-- + +NORTH. + +Don't say ceiling-- + +TALBOYS. + +Why not? ceiling--coelum. Feet up to heaven. + +NORTH. + +An involuntary feat--the fault of Swing--sole fault--but I always +forget it when agitated-- + +BULLER. + +Some time or other, sir, you will fly backwards and fracture your skull. + +NORTH. + +There, we have recovered our equilibrium--now we are in grips, don't +fear a fall--I hope you are not displeased with your reception. + +TALBOYS. + +I wrote last night, sir, to say I was coming--but there being no +speedier conveyance--I put the letter in my pocket, and there it is-- + +NORTH. + +(_On reading_ "_Dies Boreales._--No. 1.") + + A friend returned! spring bursting forth again! + The song of other years! which, when we roam, + Brings up all sweet and common things of home, + And sinks into the thirsty heart like rain! + Such the strong influence of the thrilling strain + By human love made sad and musical, + Yet full of high philosophy withal, + Poured from thy wizard harp o'er land and main! + A thousand hearts will waken at its call, + And breathe the prayer they breathed in earlier youth,-- + May o'er thy brow no envious shadow fall! + Blaze in thine eye the eloquence of truth! + Thy righteous wrath the soul of guilt appal, + As lion's streaming hair or dragon's fiery tooth! + +TALBOYS. + +I blush to think I have given you the wrong paper. + +NORTH. + +It is the right one. But may I ask what you have on your head? + +TALBOYS. + +A hat. At least it was so an hour ago. + +NORTH. + +It never will be a hat again. + +TALBOYS. + +A patent hat--a waterproof hat--it was swimming, when I purchased it +yesterday, in a pail--warranted against Lammas floods-- + +NORTH. + +And in an hour it has come to this! Why, it has no more shape than a +coal-heaver's. + +TALBOYS. + +Oh! then it can be little the worse. For that is its natural artificial +shape. It is constructed on that principle--and the patentee prides +himself on its affording equal protection to head, shoulders, and +back--helmet at once and shield. + +NORTH. + +But you must immediately put on dry clothes-- + +TALBOYS. + +The clothes I have on are as dry as if they had been taking +horse-exercise all morning before a laundry-fire. I am waterproof all +over--and I had need to be so--for between Inverary and Cladich there +was much moisture in the atmosphere. + +NORTH. + +Do--do--go and put on dry clothes. Why the spot you stand on is +absolutely swimming-- + +TALBOYS. + +My Sporting-jacket, sir, is a new invention--an invention of my own--to +the sight silk--to the feel feathers--and of feathers is the texture--- +but that is a secret, don't blab it--and to rain I am impervious as a +plover. + +NORTH. + +Do--do--go and put on dry clothes. + +TALBOYS. + +Intended to have been here last night--left Glasgow yesterday +morning--and had a most delightful forenoon of it in the Steamer to +Tarbert. Loch Lomond fairly outshone herself--never before had I +felt the full force of the words--"Fortunate Isles." The Bens were +magnificent. At Tarbert--just as I was disembarking--who should be +embarking but our friends Outram, M'Culloch, Macnee---- + +NORTH. + +And why are they not here? + +TALBOYS. + +And I was induced--I could not resist them--to take a trip on to +Inverarnan. We returned to Tarbert and had a glorious afternoon +till two this morning--thought I might lie down for an hour or +two--but, after undressing, it occurred to me that it was advisable +to redress--and be off instanter--so, wheeling round the head of Loch +Long--never beheld the bay so lovely--I glided up the gentle slope of +Glencroe and sat down on "Rest and be thankful"--to hold a minute's +colloquy with a hawk--or some sort of eagle or another, who seemed to +think nobody at that hour had a right to be there but himself--covered +him to a nicety with my rod--and had it been a gun, he was a dead +bird. Down the other--that is, this side of the glen, which, so far +from being precipitous, is known to be a descent but by the pretty +little cataracts playing at leap-frog--from your description I knew +that must be Loch Fine--and that St Catherine's. Shall I drop down +and signalise the Inverary Steamer? I have not time--so through the +woods of Ardkinglass--surely the most beautiful in this world--to +Cairndow. Looked at my watch--had forgot to wind her up--set her by +the sun--and on nearing the inn door an unaccountable impulse landed +me in the parlour to the right. Breakfast on the table for somebody +up stairs--whom nobody--so the girl said--could awaken--ate it--and +the ten miles were but one to that celebrated Circuit Town. Saluted +Dun-nu-quech for your sake--and the Castle for the Duke's--and could +have lingered all June among those gorgeous groves. + +NORTH. + +Do--do--go and put on dry clothes. + +TALBOYS. + +Hitherto it had been cool--shady--breezy--the very day for such a +saunter--when all at once it was an oven. I had occasion to note that +fine line of the Poet's--"Where not a lime-leaf moves," as I passed +under a tree of that species, with an umbrage some hundred feet in +circumference, and a presentiment of what was coming whispered "Stop +here"--but the Fates tempted me on--and if I am rather wet, sir, there +is some excuse for it--for there was thunder and lightning, and a great +tempest. + +NORTH. + +Not to-day? Here all has been hush. + +TALBOYS. + +It came at once from all points of the compass--and they all met--all +the storms--every mother's son of them--at a central point--where I +happened to be. Of course, no house. Look for a house on an emergency, +and if once in a million times you see one--the door is locked, and the +people gone to Australia. + +NORTH. + +I insist on you putting on dry clothes. Don't try my temper. + +TALBOYS. + +By-and-by I began to have my suspicions that I had been distracted +from the road--and was in the Channel of the Airey. But on looking +down I saw the Airey in his own channel--almost as drumly as the +mire-burn--vulgarly called road--I was plashing up. Altogether the +scene was most animating--and in a moment of intense exhilaration--not +to weather-fend, but in defiance--I unfurled my Umbrella. + +NORTH. + +What, a Plover with a Parapluie? + +TALBOYS. + +I use it, sir, but as a Parasol. Never but on this one occasion had it +affronted rain. + +NORTH. + +The same we sat under, that dog-day, at Dunoon? + +TALBOYS. + +The same. Whew! Up into the sky like the incarnation of a whirlwind! No +turning outside in--too strong-ribbed for inversion--before the wind he +flew--like a creature of the element--and gracefully accomplished the +descent on an eminence about a mile off. + +NORTH. + +Near Orain-imali-chauan-mala-chuilish? + +TALBOYS. + +I eyed him where he lay--not without anger. It had manifestly been a +wilful act--he had torn himself from my grasp--and now he kept looking +at me--at safe distance as he thought--like a wild animal suddenly +undomesticated--and escaped into his native liberty. If he had sailed +before the wind--why might not I? No need to _stalk_ him--so I went at +him right in front--but such another flounder! Then, sir, I first knew +fatigue. + +NORTH. + + "So eagerly THE FIEND + O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, + With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way, + And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." + +TALBOYS. + +Finally I reached him--closed on him--when Eolus, or Eurus, or Notus, +or Favonius--for all the heathen wind-gods were abroad--inflated +him, and away he flew--rustling like a dragon-fly--and zig-zagging +all fiery-green in the gloom--sat down--as composedly as you would +yourself, sir--on a knoll, in another region--engirdled with young +birch-groves--as beautiful a resting-place, I must acknowledge as, +after a lyrical flight, could have been selected for repose by Mr +Wordsworth. + +NORTH. + +I know it--Arash-alaba-chalin-ora-begota-la-chona-hurie. Archy will go +for it in the evening--all safe. But do go and put on dry clothes. What +now, Billy? + +BILLY BALMER. + +Here are Mr Talboys' trunk, sir. + +NORTH. + +Who brought it? + +BILLY. + +Nea, Maister--I dan't kna'--I s'pose Carrier. I ken't reet weell--ance +at Windermere-watter. + +NORTH. + +Swiss Giantess--Billy. + +BILLY. + +Ay--ay--sir. + +NORTH. + +You will find the Swiss Giantess as complete a dormitory as man can +desire, Talboys. I reserve it for myself, in event of rheumatism. +Though lined with velvet, it is always cool--ventilated on a new +principle--of which I took merely a hint from the Punka. My cot hangs +in what used to be the Exhibition-room--and her Retreat is now a +commodious Dressing-room. Billy, show Mr Talboys to the Swiss Giantess. + +BILLY. + +Ay--ay, sir. This way, Mr Talboy--this way, sir. + +TALBOYS. + +What is your dinner-hour, Mr North? + +NORTH. + +Sharp seven--seven sharp. + +TALBOYS. + +And now 'tis but half-past two. Four hours for work. The Cladich--or +whatever you call him--is rumbling disorderly in the wood; and +I noted, as I crossed the bridge, that he was proud as a piper +of being in Spate--but he looks more rational down in yonder +meadows--and----HEAVEN HAVE MERCY ON ME! THERE'S LOCH AWE!! + +NORTH. + +I thought it queer that you never looked at it. + +TALBOYS. + +Looked at it? How could I look at it? I don't believe it was there. +If it was--from the hill-top I had eyes but for the Camp--the Tents +and the Trees--and "Thee the spirit of them all!" Let me have another +eye-full--another soul-full of the Loch. But 'twill never do to be +losing time in this way. Where's my creel--where's my creel? + +NORTH. + +On your shoulders-- + +TALBOYS. + +And my Book? Lost--lost--lost! Not in any one of all my pockets. I +shall go mad. + +NORTH. + +Not far to go. Why your Book's in your hand. + +TALBOYS. + +At eight? + +NORTH. + +Seven. Archy, follow him--In that state of excitement he will be +walking with his spectacles on over some precipice. Keep your eye on +him, Archy-- + +ARCHY. + +I can pretend to be carrying the landing-net, sir. + +NORTH. + +There's a specimen of a Scottish Lawyer, gentlemen. What do you think +of him? + +BULLER. + +That he is without exception the most agreeable fellow, at first sight, +I ever met in my life. + +NORTH. + +And so you would continue to think him, were you to see him twice +a-week for twenty years. But he is far more than that--though, as the +world goes, that is much: his mind is steel to the back-bone--his +heart is sound as his lungs--his talents great--in literature, had he +liked it, he might have excelled; but he has wisely chosen a better +Profession--and his character now stands high as a Lawyer and a Judge. +Yonder he goes! As fresh as a kitten after a score and three quarter +miles at the least. + +BULLER. + +Seward--let's after him. Billy--the minnows. + +BILLY. + +Here's the Can, sirs. + +_Scene closes._ + + * * * * * + + +SCENE II. + +_Interior of Deeside._--TIME--_Seven_ P.M. + +NORTH--TALBOYS--BULLER--SEWARD. + +NORTH. + +Seward, face Buller. Talboys, face North. Fall too, gentlemen; to-day +we dispense with regular service. Each man has his own distinct dinner +before him, or in the immediate vicinity--soup, fish, flesh, fowl--and +with all necessary accompaniments and sequences. How do you like the +arrangement of the table, Talboys? + +TALBOYS. + +The principle shows a profound knowledge of human nature, sir. In +theory, self-love and social are the same--but in practice, self-love +looks to your own plate--social to your neighbours. By this felicitous +multiplication of dinners--this One in Four--this Four in One--the +harmony of the moral system is preserved--and all works together for +the general good. Looked at artistically, we have here what the Germans +and others say is essential to the beautiful and the sublime--Unity. + +NORTH. + +I believe the Four Dinners--if weighed separately--would be found not +to differ by a pound. This man's fish might prove in the scale a few +ounces heavier than that man's--but in such case, his fowl would be +found just so many ounces lighter. And so on. The Puddings are cast in +the same mould--and things equal to the same thing, are equal to one +another. + +TALBOYS. + +The weight of each repast? + +NORTH. + +Calculated at twenty-five pounds. + +TALBOYS. + +Grand total, one hundred. The golden mean. + +NORTH. + +From these general views, to descend to particulars. Soup (turtle) two +pounds--Hotch, ditto--Fish (Trout) two pounds--Flesh, (Jigot--black +face five-year-old,) six pounds--Fowl (Howtowdie boiled) five +pounds--Duck, (wild) three pounds--Tart (gooseberry) one pound--Pud +(Variorum Edition) two pounds. + +BULLER. + +That is but twenty-three, sir! I have taken down the gentleman's words. + +NORTH. + +Polite--and grateful. But you have omitted sauces and creams, breads +and cheeses. Did you ever know me incorrect in my figures, in any +affirmation or denial, private or public? + +BULLER. + +Never. Beg pardon. + +NORTH. + +Now that the soups and fishes seem disposed of, I boldly ask you, one +and all, gentlemen, if you ever beheld Four more tempting Jigots? + +TALBOYS. + +I am still at my Fish. No fish so sweet as of one's own catching--so +I have the advantage of you all. This one here--the one I am eating +at this blessed moment--I killed in what the man with the Landing-net +called the Birk Pool. I know him by his peculiar physiognomy--an odd +cast in his eye--which has not left him on the gridiron. That Trout of +my killing on your plate, Mr Seward, made the fatal plunge at the tail +of the stream so overhung with Alders that you can take it successfully +only by the tail--and I know him by his colour, almost as silvery as +a whitling. Yours, Mr Buller, was the third I killed--just where the +river--for a river he is to-day, whatever he may be to-morrow--goes +whirling into the Loch--and I can swear to him from his leopard spots. +Illustrious sir, of him whom you have now disposed of--the finest of +the Four--I remember saying inwardly, as with difficulty I encreeled +him--for his shoulders were like a hog's--this for the King. + +NORTH. + +Your perfect Pounder, Talboys, is the beau-ideal of a Scottish Trout. +How he cuts up! If much heavier--you are frustrated in your attempts +to eat him thoroughly--have to search--probably in vain--for what +in a perfect Pounder lies patent to the day--he is to back-bone +comeatable--from gill to fork, Seward, you are an artist. Good creel? + +SEWARD. + +I gave Mr Talboys the first of the water, and followed him--a mere +caprice--with the Archimedean Minnow. I had a run--but just as the +monster opened his jaws to absorb--he suddenly eschewed the scentless +phenomenon, and with a sullen plunge, sunk into the deep. + +BULLER. + +I tried the natural minnow after Seward--but I wished Archimedes at +Syracuse--for the Screw had spread a panic--and in a panic the scaly +people lose all power of discrimination, and fear to touch a minnow, +lest it turn up a bit of tin or some other precious metal. + +NORTH. + +I have often been lost in conjecturing how you always manage to fill +your creel, Talboys; for the truth is--and it must be spoken--you are +no angler. + +TALBOYS. + +I can afford to smile! I was no angler, sir, ten years ago--now +I am. But how did I become one? By attending you, sir--for seven +seasons--along the Tweed and the Yarrow, the Clyde and the Daer, the +Tay and the Tummel, the Don and the Dee--and treasuring up lessons from +the Great Master of the Art. + +NORTH. + +You surprise me! Why, you never put a single question to me about +the art--always declined taking rod in hand--seemed reading some +book or other, held close to your eyes--or lying on banks a-dose +or poetising--or facetious with the Old Man--or with the Old Man +serious--and sometimes more than serious, as, sauntering along our +winding way, we conversed of man, of nature, and of human life. + +TALBOYS. + +I never lost a single word you said, sir, during those days, breathing +in every sense "vernal delight and joy," yet all the while I was taking +lessons in the art. The flexure of your shoulder--the sweep of your +arm--the twist of your wrist--your Delivery, and your Recover--that +union of grace and power--the utmost delicacy, with the most perfect +precision--All these qualities of a heaven-born Angler, by which you +might be known from all other men on the banks of the Whittadder on a +Fast-day---- + +NORTH. + +I never angled on a Fast-day. + +TALBOYS. + +A _lapsus linguæ_--From a hundred anglers on the Daer, on the Queen's +Birthday---- + +NORTH. + +My dear Friend, you ex---- + +TALBOYS. + +All those qualities of a heaven-born Angler I learned first to +admire--then to understand--and then to imitate. For three years I +practised on the carpet--for three I essayed on a pond--for three I +strove by the running waters--and still the Image of Christopher North +was before me--till emboldened by conscious acquisition and constant +success, I came forth and took my place among the Anglers of my country. + +BULLER. + +To-day I saw you fast in a tree. + +TALBOYS. + +You mean my Fly. + +BULLER. + +First your Fly, and then, I think, yourself. + +TALBOYS. + +I have seen _Il Maestro_ himself in Timber, and in brushwood too. From +him I learned to disentangle knots, intricate and perplexed far beyond +the Gordian--"with frizzled hair implicit"--round twig, branch, or +bole. Not more than half-a-dozen times of the forty that I may have +been fast aloft--I speak mainly of my noviciate--have I had to effect +liberation by sacrifice. + +SEWARD. + +Pardon me, Mr Talboys, for hinting that you smacked off your tail-fly +to-day--I knew it by the sound. + +TALBOYS. + +The sound! No trusting to an uncertain sound, Mr Seward. Oh! I did so +once--but intentionally--the hook had lost the barb--not a fish would +it hold--so I whipped it off, and on with a Professor. + +BULLER. + +You lost one good fish in rather an awkward manner, Mr Talboys. + +TALBOYS. + +I did--that metal minnow of yours came with a splash within an inch of +his nose--and no wonder he broke me--nay, I believe it was the minnow +that broke me--and yet you can speak of _my_ losing a good fish in +rather an awkward manner! + +NORTH. + +It is melancholy to think that I have taught young Scotland to excel +myself in all the Arts that adorn and dignify life. Till I rose, +Scotland was a barbarous country-- + +TALBOYS. + +Do say, my dear sir, semi-civilised. + +NORTH. + +Now it heads the Nations--and I may set. + +TALBOYS. + +And why should that be a melancholy thought, sir? + +NORTH. + +Oh, Talboys--National Ingratitude! They are fast forgetting the man +who made them what they are--in a few fleeting centuries the name of +Christopher North will be in oblivion! Would you believe it possible, +gentlemen, that even now, there are Scotsmen who never heard of the Fly +that bears the name of me, its Inventor--Killing Kit! + +BULLER. + +In Cornwall it is a household word. + +SEWARD. + +And in all the Devons. + +BULLER. + +Men in Scotland who never heard the name of North! + +NORTH. + +Christopher North--who is he? Who do you mean by the Man of the +Crutch?--The Knight of the Knout? Better never to have been born than +thus to be virtually dead. + +SEWARD. + +Sir, be comforted--you are under a delusion--Britain is ringing with +your name. + +NORTH. + +Not that I care for noisy fame--but I do dearly love the still. + +TALBOYS. + +And you have it, sir--enjoy it and be thankful. + +NORTH. + +But it may be too still. + +TALBOYS. + +My dear sir, what would you have? + +NORTH. + +I taught you, Talboys, to play Chess--and now you trumpet Staunton. + +TALBOYS. + +Chess--where's the board? Let us have a game. + +NORTH. + +Drafts--and you quote Anderson and the Shepherd Laddie. + +TALBOYS. + +Mr North, why so querulous? + +NORTH. + +Where was the Art of Criticism? Where Prose? Young Scotland owes +all her Composition to me--buries me in the earth--and then claims +inspiration from heaven. "How sharper than a Serpent's tooth it is to +have a thankless Child!" Peter--Peterkin--Pym--Stretch--where are your +lazinesses--clear decks. + + "Away with Melancholy-- + Nor doleful changes ring + On Life and human Folly, + But merrily, merrily sing--fal la!" + +BULLER. + +What a sweet pipe! A single snatch of an old song from you, sir-- + +NORTH. + +Why are you glowering at me, Talboys? + +TALBOYS. + +It has come into my head, I know not how, to ask you a question. + +NORTH. + +Let it be an easy one--for I am languid. + +TALBOYS. + +Pray, sir, what is the precise signification of the word "Classical?" + +NORTH. + +My dear Talboys, you seem to think that I have the power of answering, +off-hand, any and every question a first-rate fellow chooses to ask me. +Classical--classical! Why, I should say, in the first place--One and +one other Mighty People--Those, the Kings of Thought--These, the Kings +of the Earth. + +TALBOYS. + +The Greeks--and Romans. + +NORTH. + +In the second place-- + +TALBOYS. + +Attend--do attend, gentlemen. And I hope I am not too much presuming on +our not ancient friendship--for I feel that a few hours on Lochawe-side +give the privilege of years--in suggesting that you will have the +goodness to use the metal nut-crackers; they are more euphonious than +ivory with walnuts. + +NORTH. + +In the second place--let me consider--Mr Talboys--I should say--in the +second place--yes, I have it--a Character of Art expressing itself by +words: a mode--a mode of Poetry and Eloquence--FITNESS AND BEAUTY. + +TALBOYS. + +Thank you, sir. Fitness and Beauty. Anything more? + +NORTH. + +Much more. We think of the Greeks and Romans, sir, as those in whom the +Human Mind reached Superhuman Power. + +TALBOYS. + +Superhuman? + +NORTH. + +We think so--comparing ourselves with them, we cannot help it. In the +Hellenic Wit, we suppose Genius and Taste met at their height--the +Inspiration Omnipotent--the Instinct unerring! The creations of Greek +Poetry!--~Poiêsis~--a Making! There the soul seems to be free from +its chains--happily self-lawed. "The Earth we pace" is there peopled +with divine Forms. Sculpture was the human Form glorified--deified. +And as in Marble, so in Song. Something common--terrestrial--adheres +to _our_ being, and weighs _us_ down. They--the Hellenes--appear to us +to have _really_ walked--as we walk in our visions of exaltation--as +if the Graces and the Muses held sway over daily and hourly existence, +and not alone over work of Art and solemn occasion. No moral stain or +imperfection can hinder them from appearing to us as the Light of human +kind. Singular, that in Greece we reconcile ourselves to Heathenism. + +TALBOYS. + +It may be that we are all Heathens at heart. + +NORTH. + +The enthusiast adores Greece--not knowing that Greece monarchies over +him, only because it is a miraculous mirror that resplendently and more +beautifully reflects--himself-- + + "Divisque videbit + Permixtos Heroas, et IPSE, videbitur illis." + +SEWARD. + +Very fine. + +NORTH. + +O life of old, and long, long ago! In the meek, solemn, soul-stilling +hush of Academic Bowers! + +SEWARD. + +The Isis! + +NORTH. + +My youth returns. Come, spirits of the world that has been! Throw +open the valvules of these your shrines, in which you stand around +me, niched side by side, in visible presence, in this cathedral-like +Library! I read Historian, Poet, Orator, Voyager--a life that slid +silently away in shades, or that bounded like a bark over the billows. +I lift up the curtain of all ages--I stand under all skies--on the +Capitol--on the Acropolis. Like that magician whose spirit, with a +magical word, could leave his own bosom to inhabit another, I take upon +myself every mode of existence. I read Thucydides, and I would be a +Historian--Demosthenes, and I would be an Orator--Homer, and I dread to +believe myself called to be, in some shape or other, a servant of the +Muse. Heroes and Hermits of Thought--Seers of the Invisible--Prophets +of the Ineffable--Hierophants of profitable mysteries--Oracles of the +Nations--Luminaries of that spiritual Heaven! I bid ye, hail! + +BULLER. + +The fit is on him--he has not the slightest idea that he is in Deeside. + +NORTH. + +Ay--from the beginning a part of the race have separated themselves +from the dusty, and the dust-devoured, turmoil of Action to +Contemplation. Have thought--known--worshipped! And such knowledge +Books keep. Books now crumbling like Towers and Pyramids--now +outlasting them! Books that, from age to age, and all the sections of +mankind helping, build up the pile of Knowledge--a trophied Citadel. +He who can read Books as they should be read, peruses the operation of +the Creator in his conscious, and in his unconscious Works, which yet +we call upon to join, as if conscious, in our worship. Yet why--oh! why +all this pains to attain that, through the labour of ages, which in +the dewy, sunny prime of morn, one thrill of transport gives to me and +to the Lark alike, summoning, lifting both heavenwards? Ah! perchance +because the dewy, sunny prime does not last through the day! Because +light poured into the eyes, and sweet breath inhaled, are not the whole +of man's life here below--and because there is an Hereafter! + +SEWARD. + +I know where he is, Buller. He called it well a Cathedral-like Library. + +NORTH. + +The breath of departed years floats here for my respiration. The pure +air of heaven flows round about, but enters not. The sunbeams glide +in, bedimmed as if in some haunt half-separated from Life, yet on our +side of Death. Recess, hardly accessible--profound--of which I, the +sole inmate, held under an uncomprehended restraint, breathe, move, and +follow my own way and wise, apart from human mortals! Ye! tall, thick +Volumes, that are each a treasure-house of austere or blazing thoughts, +which of you shall I touch with sensitive fingers, of which violate the +calmly austere repose? I dread what I desire. You may disturb--you may +destroy me! Knowledge _pulsates_ in me, as I receive it, communing with +myself on my unquiet or tearful pillow--or as it visits me, brought on +the streaming moonlight, or from the fields afire with noon-splendour, +or looking at me from human eyes, and stirring round and around me +in the tumult of men--Your knowledge comes in a holy stillness and +chillness, as if spelt off tombstones. + +SEWARD. + +Magdalen College Library, I do believe. Mr North--Mr +North--awake--awake--here we are all in Deeside. + +NORTH. + +Ay--ay--you say well, Seward. "Look at the studies of the Great +Scholar, and see from how many quarters of the mind impulses may mingle +to compose the motives that bear him on with indefatigable strength in +his laborious career." + +SEWARD. + +These were not my very words, sir-- + +NORTH. + +Ay, Seward, you say well. From how many indeed! First among the prime, +that peculiar aptitude and faculty, which may be called--a Taste and +Genius for--Words. + +BULLER. + +I rather failed there in the Schools. + +NORTH. + +Yet you were in the First Class. There is implied in it, Seward, +a readiness of logical discrimination in the Understanding, which +apprehends the propriety of Words. + +BULLER. + +I got up my Logic passably and a little more. + +NORTH. + +For, Seward, the Thoughts, the Notions themselves--must be +distinctly dissevered in the mind, which shall exactly apply to each +Thought--Notion--its appropriate sign, its own Word. + +BULLER. + +You might as well have said "Buller"--for I beat Seward in my Logic. + +NORTH. + +But even to this task, Seward, of rightly distinguishing the meaning of +Words, more than a mere precision of thinking--more than a clearness +and strictness of the intellectual action is requisite. + +BULLER. + +And in Classics we were equal. + +NORTH. + +You will be convinced of this, Buller, if you recollect what Words +express. The mind itself. For all its affections and sensibilities, +Talboys, furnish a whole host of meanings, which must have names +in Language. For mankind do not rest from enriching and refining +their languages, until they have made them capable of giving the +representation of their whole Spirit. + +TALBOYS. + +The pupil of language, therefore, sir--pardon my presumption--before he +can recognise the appropriation of the Sign, must recognise the Thing +signified? + +NORTH. + +And if the Thing signified, Talboys, by the Word, be some profound, +solemn, and moral affection--or if it be some wild, fanciful +impression--or if it be some delicate shade or tinge of a tender +sensibility--can anything be more evident than that the Scholar must +have experienced in himself the solemn, or the wild, or the tenderly +delicate feeling before he is in the condition of affixing the right +and true sense to the Word that expresses it? + +TALBOYS. + +I should think so, sir. + +SEWARD. + +The Words of Man paint the spirit of Man. The Words of a People +depicture the Spirit of a People. + +NORTH. + +Well said, Seward. And, therefore, the Understanding that is to possess +the Words of a language, in the Spirit in which they were or are +spoken and written, must, by self-experience and sympathy, be able to +converse, and have conversed, with the Spirit of the People, now and of +old. + +BULLER. + +And yet what coarse fellows hold up their dunderheads as Scholars, +forsooth, in these our days! + +NORTH. + +Hence it is an impossibility that a low and hard moral nature should +furnish a high and fine Scholar. The intellectual endowments must +be supported and made available by the concurrence of the sensitive +nature--of the moral and the imaginative sensibilities. + +BULLER. + +What moral and imaginative sensibilities have they--the blear-eyed--the +purblind--the pompous and the pedantic! But we have some true +scholars--for example---- + +NORTH. + +No names, Buller. Yes, Seward, the knowledge of Words is the Gate of +Scholarship. Therefore I lay down upon the threshold of the Scholar's +Studies this first condition of his high and worthy success, that he +will not pluck the loftiest palm by means of acute, quick, clear, +penetrating, sagacious, intellectual faculties alone--let him not hope +it: that he requires to the highest renown also a capacious, profound, +and tender soul. + +SEWARD. + +Ay, sir, and I say so in all humility, this at the gateway, and upon +the threshold. How much more when he _reads_. + +NORTH. + +Ay, Seward, you laid the emphasis well there--_reads_. + +SEWARD. + +When the written Volumes of Mind from different and distant ages of +the world, from its different and distant climates, are successively +unrolled before his insatiable sight and his insatiable soul! + +BULLER. + +Take all things in moderation. + +NORTH. + +No--not the sacred hunger and thirst of the soul. + +BULLER. + +Greed--give--give. + +NORTH. + +From what unknown recesses, from what unlocked fountains in the +depth of his own being, shall he bring into the light of day the +thoughts by means of which he shall understand Homer, Pindar, +Æschylus, Demosthenes, Plato, Aristotle--DISCOURSING! Shall understand +them, as the younger did the elder--the contemporaries did the +contemporaries--as each sublime spirit understood--himself? + +BULLER. + +Did each sublime spirit always understand himself? + +TALBOYS. + +Urge that, Mr Buller. + +NORTH. + +So--and so only--to read, is to be a Scholar. + +BULLER. + +Then I am none. + +NORTH. + +I did not say you were. + +BULLER. + +Thank you. What do you think of that, Mr Talboys? Address Seward, sir. + +NORTH. + +I address you all three. Is the student smitten with the sacred love of +Song? Is he sensible to the profound allurement of philosophic truth? +Does he yearn to acquaint himself with the fates and fortunes of his +kind? All these several desires are so many several inducements of +learned study. + +BULLER. + +I understand that. + +TALBOYS. + +Ditto. + +NORTH. + +And another inducement to such study is--an ear sensible to the Beauty +of the Music of Words--and the metaphysical faculty of unravelling the +causal process which the human mind followed in imparting to a Word, +originally the sign of one Thought only, the power to signify a cognate +second Thought, which shall displace the first possessor and exponent, +usurp the throne, and rule for ever over an extended empire in the +minds, or the hearts, or the souls of men. + +BULLER. + +Let him have his swing, Mr Talboys. + +TALBOYS. + +He has it in that chair. + +NORTH. + +A Taste and a Genius for Words! An ear for the beautiful music of +Words! A happy justness in the perception of their strict proprieties! +A fine skill in apprehending the secret relations of Thought with +Thought--relations along which the mind moves with creative power, to +find out for its own use, and for the use of all minds to come, some +hitherto uncreated expression of an idea--an image--a sentiment--a +passion! These dispositions, and these faculties of the Scholar in +another Mind falling in with other faculties of genius, produce a +student of a different name--THE POET. + +BULLER. + +Oh! my dear dear sir, of Poetry we surely had enough--I don't say more +than enough--a few days ago, sir. + +NORTH. + +Who is the Poet? + +BULLER. + +I beseech you let the Poet alone for this evening. + +NORTH. + +Well--I will. I remember the time, Seward, when there was a great +clamour for a Standard of Taste. A definite measure of the indefinite! + +TALBOYS. + +Which is impossible. + +NORTH. + +And there is a great clamour for a Standard of Morals. A definite +measure of the indefinite! + +TALBOYS. + +Which is impossible. + +NORTH. + +Why, gentlemen, the Faculty of Beauty _lives_; and in finite beings, +which we are, Life changes incessantly. The Faculty of Moral Perception +_lives_--and thereby it too changes for better and for worse. This +is the Divine Law--at once encouraging and fearful--that Obedience +brightens the moral eyesight--Sin darkens. Let all men know this, +and keep it in mind always--that a single narrowest, simplest Duty, +steadily practised day after day, does more to support, and may do more +to enlighten the soul of the Doer, than a course of Moral Philosophy +taught by a tongue which a soul compounded of Bacon, Spenser, +Shakspeare, Homer, Demosthenes, and Burke--to say nothing of Socrates, +and Plato, and Aristotle, should inspire. + +BULLER. + +You put it strongly, sir. + +TALBOYS. + +Undeniable doctrine. + +NORTH. + +Gentlemen, you will often find this question--"Is there a Standard of +Taste?" inextricably confused with the question "Is there a true and a +false Taste?" He who denies the one seems to deny the other. In like +manner, "Is there a Right and Wrong?" And "is there accessible to us +an infallible measure of Right and Wrong" are two questions entirely +distinct, but often confused--for Logic fled the earth with Astræa. + +TALBOYS. + +She did. + +NORTH. + +Talboys, you understand well enough the sense and culture of the +Beautiful? + +TALBOYS. + +Something of it perhaps I do. + +NORTH. + +To feel--to love--to be swallowed up in the spirit and works of the +Beautiful--in verse and in the visible Universe! That is a life--an +enthusiasm--a worship. You find those who would if they could, and who +pretend they can, attain the same end at less cost. They have taken +lessons, and they will have their formalities go valid against the +intuitions of the dedicated soul. + +TALBOYS. + +But the lessons perish--the dedicated soul is a Power in all +emergencies and extremities. + +NORTH. + +There are Pharisees of Beauty--and Pharisees of Morality. + +SEWARD. + +At this day spiritual Christians lament that nine-tenths of Christians +Judaise. + +NORTH. + +Nor without good reason. The Gospel is the Standard of Christian +Morality. That is unquestionable. It is an authority without appeal, +and under which undoubtedly all matters, uncertain before, will +fall. But pray mark this--it is not a _positive standard_, in the +ordinary meaning of that word--it is not one of which our common human +understanding has only to require and to obtain the indications--which +it has only to apply and observe. + +SEWARD. + +I see your meaning, sir. The Gospel refers all moral intelligence to +the Light of Love within our hearts. Therefore, the very reading of the +canons, of every prescriptive line in it, must be by this light. + +NORTH. + +That is my meaning--but not my whole meaning, dear Seward. For take it, +as it unequivocally declares itself to be, a Revelation--not simply of +instruction, committed now and for ever to men in written human words, +and so left--but accompanied with a perpetual agency to enable Will and +Understanding to receive it; and then it will follow, I believe, that +it is at every moment intelligible and applicable in its full sense, +only by a direct and present inspiration--is it too much to say--anew +revealing itself? "They shall be taught of God." + +SEWARD. + +So far, then, from the Christian Morality being one of which the +Standard is applicable by every Understanding, with like result +in given cases, it is one that is different to every Christian in +proportion to his obedience? + +NORTH. + +Even so. I suppose that none have ever reached the full understanding +of it. It is an evergrowing illumination--a light more and more unto +the perfect day--which day I suppose cannot be of the same life, in +which we see as through a glass darkly. + +TALBOYS. + +May I offer an illustration? The land shall descend to the eldest +son--you shall love your neighbour as yourself. In the two codes these +are foundation-stones. But see how they differ! There is the land--here +is the eldest son--the right is clear and fast--and the case done with. +But--do to thy neighbour! Do what? and to whom? + +NORTH. + +All human actions, all human affections, all human thoughts are +then contained in the one Law--as the _subject_ of which it defines +the disposal. All mankind, but distributed into communities, and +individuals all differently related to me are contained in it, as the +parties in respect of whom it defines the disposal! + +SEWARD. + +And what is the Form? Do as thou wouldst it be done to thee! + +NORTH. + +Ay--my dear friend--The form resolves into a feeling. Love thy +neighbour. That is all. Is a measure given? As thyself. + +SEWARD. + +And is there no limitation? + +NORTH. + +By the whole apposition, thy love to thyself and thy neighbour are both +to be put together in subordination to, and limitation and regulation +by--thy Love to God. Love Him utterly--infinitely--with all thy mind, +all thy heart, all thy strength. This is the entire book or canon--THE +STANDARD. How wholly indefinite and formless, to the Understanding! How +full of light and form to the believing and loving Heart! + +SEWARD. + +The Moon is up--how calm the night after all that tempest--and how +steady the Stars! Images of enduring peace in the heart of nature--and +of man. They, too, are a Revelation. + +NORTH. + +They, too, are the legible Book of God. Try to conceive how different +the World must be to its rational inhabitant--with or without a Maker! +Think of it as a soulless--will-less World. In one sense, it abounds +as much with good to enjoy. But there is no good-giver. The banquet +spread, but the Lord of the Mansion away. The feast--and neither grace +nor welcome. The heaped enjoyment, without the gratitude. + +SEWARD. + +Yet there have been Philosophers who so misbelieved! + +NORTH. + +Alas! there have been--and alas! there are. And what low souls must +be theirs! The tone and temper of our feelings are determined by the +objects with which we habitually converse. If we see beautiful scenes, +they impart serenity--if sublime scenes, they elevate us. Will no +serenity, no elevation come from contemplating Him, of whose Thought +the Beautiful and the Sublime are but shadows! + +SEWARD. + +No sincere or elevating influence be lost out of a World out of which +He is lost? + +NORTH. + +_Now_ we look upon Planets and Suns, and see Intelligence ruling +them--on Seasons that succeed each other, we apprehend Design--on +plant and animal fitted to its place in the world, and furnished with +its due means of existence, and repeated for ever in its kind--and we +admire Wisdom. Oh! Atheist or Sceptic--what a difference to Us if the +marvellous Laws are here without a Lawgiver--If Design be here without +a Designer--all the Order that wisdom could mean and effect, and not +the Wisdom--if Chance, or Necessity, or Fate reigns here, and not +Mind--if this Universe is matter of Astonishment merely, and not of +adoration! + +SEWARD. + +We are made better, nobler, sir, by the society of the good and the +noble. Perhaps of ourselves unable to think high thoughts, and without +the bold warmth that dares generously, we catch by degrees something +of the mounting spirit, and of the ardour proper to the stronger souls +with whom we live familiarly, and become sharers and imitators of +virtues to which we could not have given birth. The devoted courage +of a leader turns his followers into heroes--the patient death of one +martyr inflames in a thousand slumbering bosoms a zeal answerable to +his own. And shall Perfect Goodness contemplated move no goodness in +us? Shall His Holiness and Purity raise in us no desire to be holy and +pure?--His infinite Love towards His creatures kindle no spark of love +in us towards our fellow-creatures! + +NORTH. + +God bless you, my dear Seward--but you speak well. Our +fellow-creatures! The name, the binding title, dissolves in air, if +He be not our common Creator. Take away that bond of relationship +among men, and according to circumstances they confront one another +as friends or foes--but Brothers no longer--if not children of one +celestial Father. + +TALBOYS. + +And if they no longer have immortal souls! + +NORTH. + +Oh! my friends--if this winged and swift life be all our life, what +a mournful taste have we had of possible happiness? We have, as it +were, from some dark and cold edge of a bright world, just looked in +and been plucked away again! Have we come to experience pleasure by +fits and glimpses; but intertwined with pain, burdensome labour, with +weariness, and with indifference? Have we come to try the solace and +joy of a warm, fearless, and confiding affection, to be then chilled +or blighted by bitterness, by separation, by change of heart, or by +the dread sunderer of loves--Death? Have we found the gladness and the +strength of knowledge, when some rays of truth have flashed in upon our +souls, in the midst of error and uncertainty, or amidst continuous, +necessitated, uninstructive avocations of the Understanding--and is +that all? Have we felt in fortunate hour the charm of the Beautiful, +that invests, as with a mantle, this visible Creation, or have we +found ourselves lifted above the earth by sudden apprehension of +sublimity? Have we had the consciousness of such feelings, which have +seemed to us as if they might themselves make up a life--almost an +angel's life--and were they "instant come and instant gone?" Have +we known the consolation of DOING RIGHT, in the midst of much that +we have done wrong? and was that also a corruscation of a transient +sunshine? Have we lifted up our thoughts to see Him who is Love, and +Light, and Truth, and Bliss, to be in the next instant plunged into the +darkness of annihilation? Have all these things been but flowers that +we have pulled by the side of a hard and tedious way, and that, after +gladdening us for a brief season with hue and odour, wither in our +hands, and are like ourselves--nothing? + +BULLER. + +I love you, sir, better and better every day. + +NORTH. + +We step the earth--we look abroad over it, and it seems immense--so +does the sea. What ages had men lived--and knew but a small portion. +They circumnavigate it now with a speed under which its vast bulk +shrinks. But let the astronomer lift up his glass and he learns to +believe in a total mass of matter, compared with which this great globe +itself becomes an imponderable grain of dust. And so to each of us +walking along the road of life, a year, a day, or an hour shall seem +long. As we grow older, the time shortens; but when we lift up our eyes +to look beyond this earth, our seventy years, and the few thousands of +years which have rolled over the human race, vanish into a point; for +then we are measuring Time against Eternity. + +TALBOYS. + +And if we can find ground for believing that this quickly-measured span +of Life is but the beginning--the dim daybreak of a Life immeasurable, +never attaining to its night--what _weight_ shall we any longer allow +to the cares, fears, toils, troubles, afflictions--which here have +sometimes bowed down our strength to the ground--a burden more than we +could bear? + +NORTH. + +They then all acquire a new character. That they are then felt as +transitory must do something towards lightening their load. But more is +disclosed in them; for they then appear as having an unsuspected worth +and use. If this life be but the beginning of another, then it may be +believed that the accidents and passages thereof have some bearing upon +the conditions of that other, and we learn to look on this as a state +of Probation. Let us out, and look at the sky. + + + + +THE ISLAND OF SARDINIA.[1] + + +The opinion of Nelson with regard to the importance of Sardinia,--that +it is "worth a hundred Maltas," is well known; and that he strongly +recommended its purchase to our government, thinking it might be +obtained for £500,000. We can scarcely believe that Nelson failed +to make an impression on the government, and conjecture rather that +it was with the King of Sardinia the precious inheritance of a +Naboth's vineyard. We do not remember to have met with a Sardinian +tourist. Travellers as we are, with our ready "Hand-Books" for the +remote corners of the earth, we seem, by a general consent, to have +cut Sardinia from the map of observable countries. "Nos numerus +sumus"--we plead guilty to this ignorance and neglect, and should have +remained unconcerned about Sardinia still, had we not, in the work of +Mr Tyndale, dipped into a few extracts from Lord Nelson's letters. +Extending our reading, we find in these three volumes so much research, +learning, historical speculation, and interesting matter, interspersed +with amusing narrative, that we think a notice in Maga of this valuable +and agreeable work may be not unacceptable. + +The very circumstance that Sardinia is little known, renders it an +agreeable speculation. The _ignotum_ makes the charm. Our pleasure +is in the fabulous, the dubious, the unexplained. In the ecstacy of +ignorance the reader stands by the side of Mr Layard, watching the +exhumation of the unknown gods or demons of Nineveh. "Ignorance is +bliss,"--for the subject-matter of ignorance is fact--fact isolated--or +the broken links in time's long chain. The mind longs to fabricate, +and connect. Were it possible that other sibylline books should be +offered for sale, it would be preferable that Mr Murray should act +the part of Tarquin than publish them as "Hand-Books." In truth, +curiosity, that happy ingredient in the clay of the human mind, if so +material an expression be allowed, is fed by ignorance, but dies under +a surfeit of knowledge. Now, to apply this to our subject--Sardinia. +The island is full of monuments, as mysterious to us as the Pyramids. +There is sufficient obscurity to make a "sublime." It is happy for +the reader, who has not lost his natural propensity to wonder, that +there is so little known respecting them, and yet such grounds +for conjecture; for he may be sure that, if any documents existed +anywhere, Mr Tyndale would have discovered them, for he is the most +indefatigable of authors in exploring in all the mines of literature. +But he has to treat of things that were before literature was. The +traveller who should first discover a Stonehenge--one who, walking on +a hitherto untrodden plain, should come suddenly upon two such great +sedate sitting images in stone as look over Egyptian sands--is he not +greatly to be envied? We, who peer about our cities and villages, +raking out decayed stone and mortar for broken pieces of antique art +or memorial, as we facetiously term the remnants of a few hundred +years, and of whose "whereabouts," from the beginning, we can receive +some tolerable assurance, have but a slight glimpse of the delight +experienced by the first finder of a monument of the Pelasgi, or +even Cyclopean walls. But to make conjecture upon monuments beyond +centuries--to count by thousands of years, and make out of them a +dream that shall, like an Arabian magician, take the dreamer back to +the Flood--is a happiness enjoyed by few. We never envied traveller +more than we once did that lady who came suddenly upon the Etrurian +monument, in which there was just aperture enough to see for a moment +only a sitting figure, with its look and drapery of more than thousands +of years; who just saw it for a few seconds, preserved only in the +stillness of antiquity, and falling to dust at her very breathing. Not +so ancient the monument, but of like character the discovery of him +who, digging within the walls of his own house at Portici, came upon +marble steps that led him down and down, till he found before him, +in the obscure, a white marble equestrian statue the size of life. +If one could be _made_ a poet, these two incidents were enough. The +interior of Sardinia has been hitherto a kind of "terra incognita." +Mr Tyndale must therefore have ascended and descended its craggy or +wooded mountains, and threaded its ravines, and crossed its fertile +or desolate plains, with no common feeling of expectation; and though +the frequent "Noraghe" and "Sepolture de is Gigantes," and their +accompanying strange conical stones, were not of a character to fill +him with that amazement produced by the above-mentioned incidents, +they were sufficiently mysterious, and the attempt to reach them in +some instances sufficiently adventurous--to keep alive the mind, and +stir the imagination to the working out visions, and conjuring up the +seeming-probable existences of the past, or wilder dreams, in such +variety as reason deduced or fancy willed. On one occasion he descended +an aperture, in a domed chamber of a Noraghe, groped his way through +a subterranean passage, and came upon some finely-pulverised matter, +"about fifteen inches deep, which at first appeared to be earth, but +on scraping into it were several human bones, some broken and others +mouldering away on being touched." But here the reader unacquainted +with Sardinia, as it may be presumed very many are, may ask something +about these Noraghe, with their domed chambers, and the Sepolture. +There may be a preliminary inquiry into the origin of the inhabitants. +Various are the statements of different authors: without following +chronological order, we may readily concur in their conclusions, that +the island was peopled by Phoenician, Libyan, Tyrrhenian, Greek, +Trojan, and other colonies--unless the disquisitions of some historians +of our day would compel us to reject the Trojans, in the doubt as +to the existence of Troy itself. But many of these may have been +only partial, temporary immigrations, which found a people in prior +possession. The argument is strongly in favour of the supposition that +the Sarde nation are of Phoenician origin, and that its antiquities are +Phoenician, or of a still earlier epoch. In descending to more historic +times, we find the Carthaginians exercising influence there as early +as 700 B.C., and that the island suffered severely from the alternate +sway of the rival powers of Rome and Carthage. And here we are disposed +to rest, utterly disinclined to follow the labyrinth of cruelties +which the history of every people, nation, and language under the sun +presents. + +If, at least for the present moment, a disgust of history is a +disqualification for the notice of such a work as this before us, the +reader must be referred to the book itself at once; but there are in +it so many subjects of interest, both as to customs, manners, and +some characters that shine out from the dark pages of history here +and there, that we venture on, not careful of the thread, but with a +purpose of taking it up, wherever there may be a promise of amusement. +There is little pleasure in recording how many hundreds of thousands +were put to the sword by Carthaginians, Romans, and, subsequently, +Vandals and Goths; nor the various tyrannies arising out of contests +for the possession of the island, which have been continually inflicted +upon the people by the European powers of Christian times. Mankind +never did, and it may be supposed never will, let each other alone. We +are willing to believe that peace and security, for any continuance, +is not for man on earth, and that his nature requires this universal +stirring activity of aggression and defence, for the development of +his powers--and that out of this evil comes good. Where would be +virtue without suffering? Yet we are not always in the humour to sit +out the tragedy of human life. There are moments when the present and +real troubles of our own times press too heavily on the spirits, and +we shrink from the scrutiny of past results, through a dread of a +similar future, and gladly seek relief from bitter truths in lighter +speculations. In such a humour we confess a dislike to biography, in +which kind of reading the future does cast its dark shadow before, +and we are constantly haunted by the ghost of the last pages, amid +the earnest pursuits and perhaps gaieties of the first. But what that +last page of biography is, we find nearly every page of history to be, +only far sadder, and far more cruel. The man's tale may tell us that +at least he died in his bed; but history draws up the curtain at every +act, presenting to the unquiet sight, scenes of wholesale tortures, +poisonings, slaughters, and fields of unburied and mutilated carcases. + +It is time to say something of these monuments of great antiquity, the +Noraghe, and what they are, before speculating upon who built them. We +extract the following account, unable to make it more concise:-- + + "All are built on natural or artificial mounds, whether in + valleys, plains, or on mountains, and some are partially enclosed + at a slight distance, by a low wall of a similar construction to + the building. Their essential architectural feature is a truncated + cone or tower, averaging from thirty to sixty feet in height, and + from one hundred to three hundred in circumference at the base. + The majority have no basement, but the rest are raised on one + extending either in corresponding or in irregular shape, and of + which the perimeter varies from three hundred to six hundred and + fifty-three feet, the largest yet measured. The inward inclination + of the exterior wall of the principal tower, which almost always + is the centre of the building, is so well executed as to present, + in its elevation, a perfect and continuously symmetrical line; but + sometimes a small portion of the external face of the outer-works + of the basements, which are not regular, is straight and + perpendicular: such instances are, however, very rare. There is + every reason to believe, though without positive proof--for none + of the Noraghe are quite perfect--that the cone was originally + truncated, and formed thereby a platform on its summit. The + material of which they are built being always the natural stone + of the locality, we accordingly find them of granite, limestone, + basalt, trachyte porphyry, lava, and tufa; the blocks varying in + shape and size from three to nine cubic feet, while those forming + the architraves of the passages are sometimes twelve feet long, + five feet wide, and the same in depth. The surfaces present that + slight irregularity which proves the blocks to have been rudely + worked by the hammer, but with sufficient exactness to form + regular horizontal layers. With few exceptions, the stones are not + polygonal, but, when so, are without that regularity of form which + would indicate the use of the rule; nor is their construction + of the Cyclopean and Pelasgic styles; neither have they any + sculpture, ornamental work, or cement. The external entrance, + invariably between the E.S.E. and S. by W., but generally to the + east of south, seldom exceeds five feet high and two feet wide, + and is often so small as to necessitate crawling on all fours. The + architrave, as previously mentioned, is very large; but having + once passed it, a passage varying from three to six feet high, + and two to four wide, leads to the principal domed chamber, the + entrance to which is sometimes by another low aperture as small + as the first. The interior of the cone consists of one, two, or + three domed chambers, placed one above the other, and diminishing + in size in proportion to the external inclination; the lowest + averaging from fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, and from twenty + to twenty-five in height. The base of each is always circular, + but, when otherwise, elliptical; the edges of the stones, where + the tiers overlay each other, are worked off, so that the exterior + assumes a semi-ovoidal form, or that of which the section would + be a parabola, the apex being crowned with a large flat stone, + resting on the last circular layer, which is reduced to a small + diameter." "In the interior of the lowest chamber, and on a + level with the floor, are frequently from two to four cells or + niches, formed in the thickness of the masonry without external + communication, varying from three to six feet long, two to four + wide, and two to five high, and only accessible by very small + entrances. The access to the second and third chambers, as well as + to the platform on the top of those Noraghe which have only one + chamber, is by a spiral corridor made in the building, either as a + simple ramp, with a gradual ascent, or with rough irregular steps + made in the stones. The corridor varies from three to six feet in + height, and from two to four in width, and the outer side either + inclines according to the external wall of the cone, and the inner + side according to the domed chamber, or resembles in the section + a segment of a circle. The entrance to this spiral corridor is + generally in the horizontal passage which leads from the external + entrance to the first-floor chamber of the cone; though sometimes + it is by a small aperture in the chamber, about six or eight feet + from the base, and very difficult of entry. The upper chambers are + entered by a small passage at right angles to this corridor; and + opposite to this passage, is often a small aperture in the outer + wall, having apparently no regular position, though frequently + over the external entrance to the ground floor; while, in some + instances, there are several apertures so made that only the sky, + or most distant objects in the horizon, are visible." + +Such is the description of these singular structures--when and by whom +built? Their number must have been very great indeed; for although +there have ever been decay and abstraction of the materials for +common purposes going on, there are now upwards of three thousand in +existence; yet, not one has been built during the last 2500 years. Not +only is the inquiry, by whom, and when were they erected, but for what +purpose? On all these points, various opinions have been given. Mr +Tyndale, who has well weighed all that has been written on the subject, +is of opinion that they were built by the very early Canaanites, +when, expelled from their country, they migrated to Sardinia. There +are visible indications of other migrations of the Canaanites, but +nowhere are exactly, or even nearly similar buildings found. We know, +upon the authority of Procopius, that in Mauritania were two columns, +on which were inscribed in Phoenician characters, "We are those who +fled from the face of Joshua, the robber, the son of Nane." There is +certainly a kind of similarity between these buildings and the round +towers of Ireland--a subject examined by our author; but there is also +a striking dissimilarity in dimensions, they not being more than from +eight to fifteen feet in diameter. But there is a tumulus on the banks +of the Boyne, between Drogheda and Slane, which in its passages, domed +chambers, and general dimensions, may find some affinity with the Sarde +Noraghe. It certainly is curious that an opinion has been formed, not +without show of reason for the conjecture, that these people, whether +as Canaanites, Phoenicians, or Carthaginians, reached Ireland; and it +is well known that the single specimen of the Carthaginian language, +in a passage in Plautus, is very intelligible Irish. It has been +observed that when Cato, in the Roman senate, uttered those celebrated +and significant words, "Delenda est Carthago," he was unconsciously +fulfilling a decree against that denounced people. We should be +unwilling to trace the denunciation further. There are, however, few +things more astonishing in history, than that so powerful a people +as the Carthaginians were--the great rivals of the masters of the +world, should have been apparently so utterly swept from the face of +the world, and nothing left, even of their language, but those few +unintelligible (unless they be Irish) words in Plautus. + +The "Sepolture de is Gigantes" should also be here noticed. + + "They may be described as a series of large stones placed together + without any cement, enclosing a foss or vacuum, from fifteen to + thirty-six feet long, from three to six wide, the same in depth, + with immense flat stones resting on them as a covering; but though + the latter are not always found, it is evident, by a comparison + with the more perfect sepulture, that they once existed, and + have been destroyed or removed. The foss runs invariably from + north-west to south-east; and at the latter point is a large + upright headstone, averaging from ten to fifteen feet high, + varying in its form from the square, elliptical, and conical, to + that of three quarters of an egg, and having in many instances an + aperture about eighteen inches square at its base. On either side + of this still commences a series of separate stones, irregular in + size and shape, but forming an arc, the chord of which varies from + twenty to forty feet, so that the whole figure somewhat resembles + the bow and shank of a spear." + +Their number must have been very great. They are called sepulchres +of giants by the Sardes, who believe that giants were buried within +them. There is no doubt that these Sepolture and Noraghe were works +of one and the same people. Mr Tyndale thinks, if the one kind of +structure were tombs, so were the other: we should draw a different +conclusion from their general contiguity to each other. It should be +mentioned, that in the Noraghe have been found several earthenware +figures, which are described in La Marmora's work as Phoenician idols. +There is another very remarkable object of antiquity--"a row of six +conical stones near the Sepoltura, standing in a straight line, a few +paces apart from each other, with the exception of one, which has +been upset, and lies on the ground, but in the sketch is represented +as standing. They are about four feet eight inches high, of two kinds, +and have been designated male and female, from three of them having +two globular projections from the surface of the stone, resembling +the breasts of a woman." He meets elsewhere with five others, there +evidently having been a sixth, but without the above remarkable +significance. We know, from Herodotus, that columns were set up with +female emblems, denoting the conquest over an effeminate people, but +can scarcely attribute to these such a meaning, for they are together +of both kinds. For a curious and learned dissertation upon the subject +of these antiquities, we confidently refer the reader to Mr Tyndale's +book. + +After the mention of these singular monuments, perhaps of three +thousand years ago, it may be scarcely worth while to notice the +antiquities of, comparatively speaking, a modern date, Roman or other. +Nor do we intend to speak of the history of the people under the Romans +or Carthaginians, and but shortly notice that kind of government +under "Giudici," as princes presiding over the several provinces some +centuries before the Pisan, Genoese, and Aragon possession of the +island. The origin of this government is involved in much obscurity; +there are, however, documents of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, +which speak of preceding Giudici, and their acts. It would be idle to +inquire why they were called Giudici: it may suffice, that the "judges" +were the actual rulers. + +"It is supposed," says our author, "that the whole island was +originally comprehended in one Giudicato, of which Cagliari was the +capital; but, in the course of time, the local interests of each grew +sufficiently self-important to cause a subdivision and establishment of +separate Giudicati." The minor ones were in time swallowed up by the +others, and only four remained, of which there is a precise history, +Cagliari, Arborea, Gallura, and Logudoro. + +To us, the government of Giudicati is interesting from its similarity +to the condition of England under the Heptarchy. This similarity is +traced through its detail by Mr Tyndale. The Giudici are mentioned as +early as 598, though there is no account of any direct succession till +about 900. "In both countries the ecclesiastics took a leading part in +the administration of public affairs; and the hierarchy of Sardinia was +as sacred and honoured as that of England, where, by the laws of some +of the provinces of the Heptarchy, the price of the archbishop's head +was even higher than that of the king's. It is unnecessary, though it +would be easy, to give further proofs of similarity in the institutions +of the two countries; but those above are sufficient to show their +analogy, without the appearance of there having been the slightest +connexion or communication with each other, or derived from the same +origin." Perhaps something may be attributed to the long possession of +both countries by the Romans. We have not certainly lost all trace of +them in our own. + +The government of the Giudici was not characterised by feudalism, +before the Pisan, Genoese, and Aragon influence. It did, however, +become established in all its usual forms. Feudalism has, however, been +abolished by the present reigning family; and we trust, notwithstanding +our author's evident doubts and suspicious, that the change will +ultimately, if not immediately, be for the happiness of the Sardes. +It requires a very intimate knowledge of a people, of their habits, +their modes of thinking, their character as a race, as well as their +character from custom, to say that this or that form of government is +best suited to them. + +The constitution-mongering fancy is a very mischievous one, and is +generally that of a very self-conceited mind. There are some among us, +in high places, who have dabbled very unsuccessfully that way; and +there is now enough going on in the state of Europe to read them a +good lesson. Carlo Alberto is no great favourite with Mr Tyndale; yet +we are not sure that he has not done more wisely for Sardinia than if +the barons had set aside their "pride and ignorance," and made such +"spontaneous concessions" as we find elsewhere have not had very happy +terminations. We conclude the following was written prior to events +which throw rather a new light on the nature of constitutional reforms, +as they are called: "In Hungary and Sicily the nobles, with generous +patriotism, voluntarily conceded, not only privileges, but pecuniary +advantages, and the people have reaped the benefit. In Sardinia, the +empty pride and ignorance of the greater part of the feudal barons +always prevented such a spontaneous concession." We beg Mr Tyndale to +reflect upon the peculiar _benefits_ those two happy people are now +reaping. A man cannot tell his own growth of mind and character, how +he comes to be what he is; but he must have little reflection indeed +not to know, that, under other circumstances than those in which he has +been placed, he must have been a very different man, and have required +a very different kind of self, or other government, to regulate his own +happiness. So institutions grow--and so governments. Paper changes are +very pretty pieces for declamation; but for sudden application, and +that to all, whatever their condition in morals and knowledge, they are +but "~sêmata lygra~," and indicate bloodshed. + +To return, however. We will not dismiss the subject of the Giudici +without the mention of two persons whose romantic histories are +intimately connected with Sardinian affairs. The celebrated Enzio, +illegitimate son of the Emperor Frederick II. and the Giudicessa +Eleonora. More than a century elapsed between these two extraordinary +characters; the benefits conferred on Sardinia by the latter may be +said to still live in some of the excellent laws which she established. + +Enzio, not a Sarde by birth, by his marriage with Adelasia, a widow, +Giudicessa of Torres, and Gallura, and a part of Cagliari, came into +possession of those provinces, and soon, by treaty and force of arms, +became powerful over the whole island. The favourite son of Frederick +II., as a matter of course, he obtained the enmity of Gregory IX., +who had, by this marriage, been foiled in his schemes upon Sardinia, +through a marriage he contemplated between Adelasia and one of his +own relatives. Enzio bore an illustrious part in the warfare of those +times, between the Pope and the Emperor; and such was his success, +that, after his celebrated engagement of the fleets near Leghorn, and +the capture of the prelates who had been summoned from the Empire to +the Pope--to prevent whose arrival this armament was undertaken--Pope +Gregory died in his hundredth year, his disease having been greatly +aggravated by this disastrous event. The quarrel was, however, +continued by his successor, Innocent IV., and the fortune of events +turned against the Emperor. Enzio was taken prisoner in an unsuccessful +battle near Modena, by the Bolognese, and was, though handsomely +treated, detained captive twenty years, during which all the members of +his family quitted this life. He consoled the hours of his captivity by +music and poetry, in which he excelled, so as to have obtained eminence +as a poet amongst the poets of Italy. But he enjoyed a still sweeter +solace. When he had been led in triumph as prisoner into Bologna, in +his twenty-fifth year, so early had he distinguished himself as a +warrior, the beauty of his person, and the elegance of his deportment, +awakened in all the tenderest sympathies. An accomplished maiden of +Bologna, Lucia Viadagoli, besides the pity and admiration which all +felt, entertained for him the most ardent passion; an intimacy ensued, +and the passion was as mutual as it was ardent. From this connexion, as +it is said, arose the founder of the family of Bentivoglio, who were, +in after years, the avengers of his sufferings, and lords over the +proud republic. He had likewise obtained the devoted attachment of a +youth, Pietro Asinelli; through this faithful friend, a plan was laid +down for his escape, which was very nearly successful. He was carried +out in a tun, in which some excellent wine for the King Enzio's use +had been brought. His friends Asinelli and Rainerio de' Gonfalioneri +were waiting near, with horses for his escape, when a lock of beautiful +hair, protruding from the barrel, was discovered, either by a soldier, +or, as some say, a maid, or an old mad woman, for accounts vary. Alarm +was given, and the prisoner rescued in his place of confinement. +Gonfalioneri was arrested and executed; his friend Asinelli escaped, +but was banished for life. Enzio died in this captivity in the 47th +year of his age, 15th March 1272, on the anniversary of his father +the Emperor's death, ad the saints' day of his beloved Lucia. He was +buried magnificently at the expense of the republic. It might have been +recorded of him, that he possessed every virtue, had not his conduct to +his wife left a stain on his name. His early and ill-assorted marriage +may offer some excuse for one who showed himself so amiable on all +other occasions. He had won and governed Sardinia, and "conquered a +great part of Italy, at an age when the vast majority of youths, even +under the most favourable circumstances, are but beginning to aspire +to glory and active life; while, equally fitted for the duties of a +peaceful statesman, he was, at the same early age, intrusted with a +highly important charge, and opposed to the most subtle politicians." + +Should any future Hesiod meditate another poem on illustrious women, +Eleonora of Sardinia will have a conspicuous place among the "~Êoiai~." +This Giudicessa was born about the middle of the fourteenth century. +Her father was Mariano IV., Giudice of Arborea. She was married to +Brancaleone Doria, a man altogether inferior to his wife. On the +death of her brother Ugone IV., a man worthy of note, she assumed the +government, styling herself Giudicessa of Arborea, in the name of her +infant son; in this she displayed a talent and vigour superior even to +her father. + + "The first occasion on which her courage and political sagacity + were tried, was on the murder of her brother Ugone, and his + daughter Benedetta, when the insurgents sought to destroy the + whole reigning family, and to form themselves into a republic. + Perceiving the danger which threatened the lives and rights of her + sons, and undismayed by the pusillanimous conduct of her husband, + who fled for succour to the court of Aragon, she promptly took + the command in the state, and placing herself in arms, at the + head of such troops as remained faithful, speedily and entirely + discomfited the rebels. She lost no time in taking possession of + the territories and castles belonging to the Giudici of Arborea, + causing all people to do homage, and swear fealty to the young + prince, her son; and wrote to obtain assistance from the King + of Aragon, in restoring order in her Giudicato. Brancaleone, + encouraged by his wife's intrepidity and success, asked permission + from the King of Aragon to return to Sardinia with the promised + auxiliaries; but the king, alarmed at the high spirit of the + Giudicessa, prevented his departure, and kept him in stricter + confinement, under pretence of conferring greater honours on him. + He was, however, at last allowed to depart, under certain heavy + conditions, one of them being the surrender of Frederic, his son, + as a hostage for the performance of a treaty then commenced. On + his arrival at Cagliari in 1384, with the Aragonese army, he + repeatedly besought his wife to submit to the king, in pursuance + of the treaties. It was in vain. Despising alike the pusillanimous + recommendation of her husband, and the threats of the Aragonese + general, she for two years kept up a courageous and successful + warfare against the latter, till having, by her exertions, + acquired an advantageous position, she commenced a treaty with + her enemy respecting the sovereignty in dispute, and for the + deliverance of her husband, who, during the whole of the time, was + kept in close confinement at Cagliari." + +Finally, these terms of peace, so honourable to her, were signed by Don +Juan I., who succeeded his brother Pedro, who died in 1387. + + "The peace was but ill kept, for Brancaleone, when at liberty, and + once more under the influence of his high-minded wife, regained + his courage, and in 1390, renewing the war more fiercely than + ever, he continued it for many years, without the Kings of Aragon + ever reducing Eleonora to submission, or obtaining possession of + her dominions. She formed alliances with Genoa, and, with the + aid of their fleet, took such vigorous measures that nearly the + whole of Logoduro was in a short time subdued; while Brancaleone, + inspired by her example, reconquered Sassari, the castle of Osilo, + and besieged the royal fortresses of Alghero and Chivia." + +After this, Don Martino, who succeeded his brother Don Juan I. of +Aragon, made peace, which secured the prosperity and honour of Arborea +during the life of Eleonora. But this extraordinary woman not only, +in a remarkable degree, exhibited the talents of a great general, and +the genius of a consummate politician, but, for that age, a wonderful +forethought, sagacity, and humanity, in the fabrication of a code of +laws for her people. As Debora _judged_ Israel, and the people came to +her for judgment, so might it be said of Eleonora. + + "The Carta di Logu, so called from its being the code of laws in + her own dominions, had been commenced by her father, Mariano IV., + but being compiled, finished, and promulgated by Eleonora, to her + is chiefly due the merit of the undertaking, and the worthy title + of enlightened legislatrix. It was first published on 11th April + 1395, and by its provisions, the forms of legal proceedings and + of criminal law are established, the civil and customary laws + defined, those for the protection of agriculture enjoined, the + rights and duties of every subject explained, the punishments for + offences regulated; and, in these last provisions, when compared + with the cruelty of the jurisprudence of that age, we are struck + with the humanity of the Carta de Logu, and its superiority to + the other institutions of that period. The framing of a body of + laws so far in advance of those of other countries, where greater + civilisation existed, must ever be the highest ornament in the + diadem of the Giudicessa. Its merits were so generally felt, that, + though intended only for the use of the dominions subject to her + own sceptre, it was some years after her death adopted throughout + the island, at a parliament held under Don Alfonzo V., in 1421. + This great princess died of the plague in 1403 or 1404, regretted + by all her subjects." + +Of the natural curiosities, the Antro de Nettuno, a stalactitic grotto, +about twelve miles from Alghero, is one of the most interesting. It +was seen by Mr Tyndale under very favourable circumstances, he having +been invited by the civic authorities to visit it in the suite of +the King of Sardinia. The Antro de Nettuno is under the stupendous +cliffs of Capo Caccia, close to the little island of Foradala. "In +parts of the grotto were corridors and galleries some 300 or 400 feet +long, reminding one, if the comparison is allowable, of the Moorish +architecture of the Alhambra. One of them terminates abruptly in a +deep cavern, into which we were prevented descending." "Some of the +columns, in different parts of the grotto, are from seventy to eighty +feet in circumference, and the masses of drapery, drooping in exquisite +elegance, are of equally grand proportions." + +The coast of Alghero is noted for the Pinna marina, of the mussel +tribe, whose bivalved shell frequently exceeds two feet in length. As +the shark is accompanied by its pilot fish, so is this huge mussel by +a diminutive shrimp, supposed to be appointed by nature as a watchman, +but in fact the prey of the Pinna. The Pinna is fastened by its +hinges to the rock, and is itself a prey to a most wily creature, the +Polypus octopodia. This crafty creature may be seen, in fine weather, +approaching its victim with a pebble in its claws, which it adroitly +darts into the aperture of the yawning shells, so that the Pinna can +neither shut itself close, to pinch off the feelers of the polypus, +nor save itself from being devoured. The tunny fishery is of some +importance to the Sardes. Mr Tyndale was present at one of their great +days of operation, the Tonnara. A large inclosure is artificially made, +into which the fish pass, when the "portcullis" is let down, and a +great slaughter commences. + + "Fears now began to be expressed lest the wind, which had + increased, should make it too rough for the Mattanza, but, while + discussing it, a loud cry broke upon us of 'Guarda sotto'--'look + beneath.' The ever watchful Rais, (commander,) whose eye had + never been off its victims, in a moment had perceived by their + movements that they were making for the Foratico, and, obeying + his warning voice, we all were immediately on our knees, + bending over the sides of the barges, to watch the irruption, + and, from the dead silence and our position, it appeared as if + we were all at prayers. In less than two minutes the shoal of + nearly 500 had passed through. The well-known voice shouted out + 'Ammorsella'--'let down the portcullis,'--down it went amid the + general and hearty cheers of all present; and the fatal Foratico, + into which 'Lasciate ogni speranza voi che entrate,' was for ever + closed on them." + +Whatever foundation there may be for conjecture as to the origin of +the races, and extent of Phoenician migrations, we are continually +struck with the resemblance between the Sardes and the native Irish. +There is the same indolence, the same recklessness, superstition, +and Vendetta--that disregard of shedding human blood, and the same +screening of the murderers, who, we are told, though well known, +visit the towns on "festa" days, fearlessly and with impunity. But the +Vendetta of the Sardes is not only more excusable, from a habitual +denial or perversion of justice, but it has its own honourable and +humane laws, not under any circumstances to be infringed, which +place it in conspicuous contrast with the too common barbarities and +cruelties of our unfortunate sister island. + +The Sardinian "fuorusciti" are not the Italian banditti. The term +includes, with the robber, those who escape from the arm of the law, +and the avenger of injuries. These take to the mountains. The common +robbers are few, and their attacks on passengers are for necessary +subsistence, and more commonly for gunpowder with which they may +obtain it. Those who escape from the consequences of crime for +vengeance--Vendetta--are many; but these, as we related, have their +humane code, we might almost say their romantic--for the presence of +a woman is a perfect security. It is their law that no atrocity, no +Vendetta, is allowable when a woman is in the company. A foe travelling +with wife or child is safe. A melancholy instance of a breach of this +law is thus given:-- + + "A brigand was conducting his wife on horseback through the + mountains when he suddenly met his adversary, who, regardless of + the conventional and living flag of truce, attacked and slew him, + together with his pregnant wife. The relations and friends of the + deceased were not the only outraged parties; a general feeling + of indignation and vengeance was kindled throughout the whole + province. Every bandit felt it to be a breach of their laws of + honour; and even the murderer's partisans not only denounced the + act, but 'refused him the kiss of peace.' The mangled corpses were + conveyed home, and the friends of the deceased having sworn, on + the body of the unfortunate Teodora, a perpetual Vendetta against + the family of the assassin, a system of revenge and bloodshed + was framed and carried out to such an extent, that hundreds of + victims, perfectly innocent of even indirect participation in this + single act of dishonour, fell in all parts of Gallura." + +Another characteristic story is told. A party of six females were +sojourning at a church, performing a "Novena." Some banditti, knowing +this, descended from their mountains to visit them, and proposed the +hospitality of the mountains. The women assented, and accompanied +the bandits, who treated them with respect, and they closed their +evenings with songs and dancing. The banditti kept watch the whole +night guarding their fair guests: one of the bandits had been the +rejected lover of one of the party, whose husband and other friends, +hearing of this departure to the mountains, in fear and for vengeance, +collected in force to rescue the women. The bandits, in their descent, +to conduct back their guests, met the other party ascending. The +presence of women prohibited Vendetta; a truce was therefore demanded, +when the bridegroom and the rejected lover met, with feelings of past +injuries, and fears of more recent on one side. Each had his gun +cocked; they felt them, and gazed at each other. Their lives were at +instant peril, when the bride rushed into the arms of her husband, +seized his gun, and discharged it; then, placing herself in front to +protect him, she led him up to the bandit, and demanded from him his +gun. He yielded it, and she discharged it also. The rest of the party +pressed on, an explanation was given of the nature of the visit, and +both parties joined in a feast, and mutual explanations of former +differences were given and received, their Vendetta terminated, and +a general and lasting reconciliation took place. Such quarrels are, +however, sometimes settled otherwise than by Vendetta. The "Paci" are +reconciliations through means of the priest. The parties meet in the +open air near some chapel, and such settlements are perpetual. But +another mode is preferred, by "Ragionatori" or umpires; but appeals may +be made from these to a greater number, whose decision is final. An +interesting anecdote showing their power is thus told:-- + + "It was the case of a young shepherd who had been too ardent + in his advances to a young maiden. On the youth demurring to + the decision as too severe, the Ragionatori, indignant at his + presumption, arose from under the shady wild olive, and saying + to the surprised spectators, 'we have spoken, and done justice,' + saluted them and turned towards their homes. But one of his + nearest relations, who was leaning against the knotted trunk of + an oak, with his bearded chin resting on the back of his hand on + the muzzle of his gun, raised his head, and, with a fierce look, + extended his right hand to the Ragionatori: 'Stop, friends!' he + exclaimed, 'the thing must be finished at this moment.' Then + turning to his nephew, with a determined and resolute countenance, + and placing his right hand upon his chest, he said to him, 'Come, + instantly!--either obey the verdict of the Ragionatori, or----'. + The offender, at this deadly threat, no longer hesitated, but + approached the offended party and sued for pardon. The uncle, + thus satisfied, advanced, and demanded for him the hand of the + maiden; the betrothal took place, and things being thus happily + terminated, they betook themselves to prepare the feast." + +We could wish that we had space to describe an interview our author +had with one of the Fuorusciti, and of his rescue of his guide from +the Vendetta. But we must refer to the book for this, and many other +well-told incidents respecting these strange people; and particularly +a romantic tale of "Il Rosario e La Palla," which, if not in all its +parts to be credited, is no bad invention--"_Se non e vero e ben' +trovato._" + +We would make some inquiry into the habits and manners of the Sardes. +We have before observed their resemblance to the Irish. A description +of the houses, or rather huts or hovels in the country, will remind +the reader of the Irish cabin, where a hole in the roof serves for +chimney, and the pig and the family associate on terms of mutual right. +Like Italians in general, they are under a nervous hydrophobia, and +prefer dirt to cleanliness, and, in common with really savage nations, +lard their hair with an inordinate quantity of grease. Washing is very +superfluous, as if they considered the removal of dirt as the taking +off a natural clothing. Upon one occasion Mr Tyndale, arriving at a +friend's house, and retiring to his room, sent his servant to request +some jugs of water, for ablution after a hot ride. This unusual demand +put the whole habitation into commotion, and brought the host and +several visitors in his rear, into the room, while Mr Tyndale was in +a state of nudity, to ascertain the use of so much water. They had no +idea of this being an indelicate intrusion. Finding that the water was +for a kind of cold bath, they were astonished--"What, wash in cold +water? what is the good of it? do all your countrymen do such things? +are they very dirty in England? we do not wash in that way--why do +you?" Such were the questions, on the spot, which he was required +to answer. But they were reiterated by the ladies below stairs, who +expressed amazement at the eccentricities of the English. + +Hospitality is the common virtue of the Sardes. "In most houses +admitting of an extra room, one is set apart for the guests--the +_hospitale cubiculum_ of the Romans--ready and open to all strangers." +It would be the highest offence to offer the smallest gratuity to the +host, however humble, though a trifle may be given to a servant. "La +mia casa è piccola, ma il cuore é grande," (my house is small, but my +heart is large,) was the apology on one occasion of his Cavallante, +on his arrival in Tempio, where, owing to the presence of the King, +not a bed was to be had, and the Cavallante earnestly entreated the +use of his hospitality, which, indeed, seemed in the proof to bear +no proportion to his means of exercising it. Even the family bed +was emptied of four children and a wife's sister, in spite of all +remonstrance, for his accommodation. + +Where hospitality is a custom stronger than law, inns offer few +comforts and fewer luxuries--the traveller is supposed to bring, not +only his own provisions, but his own furniture. Our traveller arriving +at Ozieri, a town with more than eight thousand inhabitants, "mine +host" was astonished at the unreasonable demand of a bed. Finding how +things were, Mr Tyndale stood in the court-yard, contemplating the +alternative of presenting some of his letters to parties in the town, +when he was attracted to a window on the other side of the court, from +whence this invitation issued: "Sir, it is impossible for you to go to +the Osteria; there is no accommodation fit for you. Apparently you are +a stranger, and if you have no friends here, pray accept what little +we can do for you." He ascended the stairs to thank his hostess, who +sent for her husband, holding a high government appointment in the +town, who received and entertained him as if they had been his intimate +friends. On another occasion, in search of the Perdas Lungas stones, +antiquarian curiosities, he met a stranger, who, though going to Nuovo +in a great hurry, and anxious to return for the Festa, on finding he +was a foreigner, insisted on accompanying him, as he was acquainted +with the way--"one of the many instances," says Mr Tyndale, "of Sarde +civility and kindness." And such hospitable kindness he invariably +received, whether in towns or among the poorest in the mountain +villages, or more lonely places. It has been cynically observed, that +hospitality is the virtue of uncivilised nations. However selfishly +gratifying the exercise of it may have been to that wealthy Scotch +laird, who said that his nearest neighbour, as a gentleman, was the +King of Denmark, among such a people as the Sardes, it surely may be an +indication of natural kindness, and, in some degree, of honesty, for +our civilised roguery is a sore destroyer of open-housed hospitality. + +A royal return for hospitable care is, however, not to be altogether +rejected. When the King of Sardinia visited the island, a shepherd of +the little island of Tavolara, the ancient Hermea, near the port of +Terranova, of simple manners and notions, sent his majesty some sheep +and wild goats, judging that the royal larder might not be over-richly +stored. His majesty properly, in turn, requested to know if he could +grant him anything. The shepherd consulted his family upon all their +real and imaginary wants, and finally decided against luxuries, but +"would not mind if the king gave him a pound of gunpowder." On the +royal messenger, therefore, suggesting that he should ask for something +else, the dilemma was greater than ever; but, after strolling about, +and torturing his imagination for several minutes, he suddenly broke +out--"Oh, tell the King of Terra-firma that I should like to be the +king of Tavolara; and that if any people come to live in the island, +that they must obey me, as the people obey him in Terra-firma." What +compromise his majesty made between the regal crown and the pound of +gunpowder, we are not told. Though we would by no means vouch for this +shepherd's story, which is nevertheless very probable, we can vouch for +one not very dissimilar. + +Not very long since, a small farmer in a little village in +Somersetshire, who prided himself on his cheeses, in a fit of unwonted +generosity--for he was a penurious man--sent to her majesty Queen +Victoria a prime cheese. A person given to practical jokes knowing +this, bought an eighteen-penny gilt chain, and sent it in a letter, +purporting to be from her majesty, appointing him her "well beloved" +mayor of the village, in the document exalted into a corporate town, +but whereof he, the said mayor, formed the sole body and whole +authority. The ignorant poor man swallowed the bait, and called the +village together; gave an ox to be roasted whole, and walked at the +head of the invited procession, wearing his chain of office; and for +several weeks exhibited the insignia of royal favour, the chain and +royal autograph, at church and at markets. It is a doubt if he be yet +undeceived, and lowered from his imaginary brief authority. We know +not what our farmer would say to the use to which the Sardes apply +their cheeses, or what may be expected from a free trade with them in +this article; but we learn that so plentiful was cheese in the Donori +district, in 1842, that some of it was used for manuring the ground, +which practice would amount to throwing it away, for they are not given +to any industrial means of agriculture. So fertile was Sardinia under +the Romans, that, in the last years of the second Punic war, corn was +so abundant that it was sold for the mere price of the freight. Should +the reader be curious to know the result of this cheapness, he may see +it in the present condition of Sardinia compared with its former, a +population diminished from about two millions to about five hundred and +twenty-four thousand, and full three quarters of the land uncultivated. + +The "Attitu," or custom of mourning around the body of the dead, +will bring to mind, to those who have witnessed such a ceremony, the +Irish hovel. The "Conducti" are ever more vehement than the _verè +plorantibus_. The word Attitu is supposed to be derived from the _atat_ +of the Romans, but it was not an original word of their language, +nor may it have been so with the Greeks, from whom they took it. The +Sarde Attitadores are thus described, and the description perfectly +answers to exhibitions we have witnessed in some remote parts of +Ireland. "They wear black stuff gowns, with a species of Capucin hood, +and, maintaining a perfect silence, assume the air of total ignorance +as to there having been a death in the family, till, suddenly and +accidentally seeing the dead body, they simultaneously commence a +weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, accompanied with groans and +ejaculations,--tearing their hair, throwing themselves on the ground, +raising their clenched fists maniacally to heaven, and carrying on +the attitudes and expressions of real anguish." It is curious that +the "ailinon" of the Greeks is traced to the Phoenicians, and, on +the authority of Athenæus, "Linus was a mythological personage, who +gave his name to a song of a mournful character." It is said that the +Phoenician "Lin" signifies complaint. + +It would be well if writers, especially travellers, would exercise a +little more forbearance in speaking of the superstitions of the people +amongst whom they are thrown. It is too prevalent a custom to attribute +every superstition to the priesthood, whereas the mere traveller can +scarcely be able to distinguish what belongs wholly and hereditarily to +the people, and what the priests enjoin. We suspect in most instances +the foundation is in the people, and that the priests could not, +though in many cases it may be admitted they would not, put a stop to +them. They would too often lose their influence in the attempt, and +find themselves compelled to acquiesce in practices and ceremonies of +which they do not approve. Those who treat with contempt and ridicule +the superstitions of other countries do not scrutinise those of their +own. It is true ours are wearing out, and before their expiration +become very innocent: attempts to suppress them by authority would +only tend to perpetuate them. It would be very silly, for instance, +to issue a proclamation against "May day," or to remind the innocents +who crown the Maypole that they are following a pagan and not very +decent worship and ceremony. Superstitions are the natural tares of +the mind, and spring up spontaneously, and among the wheat, too, it +should be observed; and we should remember the warning not to be over +eager to uproot the tares, lest we uproot the wheat also. It is the +object of travel to gratify curiosity, and the nature of travel to +increase the appetite for it. It is, therefore, like wholesome food, +which by giving health promotes a fresh relish; but there arises from +this traveller's habit a less nice distinction as to quality, and at +length a practised voracity is not dismayed by quantity. The inquirer +is on the look-out, and overlooks but little; and in all Roman Catholic +countries there is no lack of infidels, happy to have their tongues +loosened in the presence of questioning Englishmen, and to pour into +their listening ears multitudes of tales, fabricated or true, as it may +chance, with a feeling of hatred for the religion of their country--for +the superstition of unbelief is inventive and persecuting. We are +not for a moment meditating a defence of Romish superstitions, but +we think they are too widespread, and too mixed up with the entire +habit of thought of the general population, to render a sudden removal +possible, or every attempt safe. The reformation will not commence with +the unlearned. In the meanwhile, there is a demand on the traveller's +candour and benevolence for the exercise of forbearance; for we doubt +if a foreign traveller in our own country would not, were he bent +upon the search, pick up, amongst both our rural and town population, +a tolerably large collection of the "Admiranda" of superstition, and +sectarian and other saints, with surprising lives and anecdotes, to +rival the Romish calendar and the "Aurea Leggenda." We offer these +few remarks, because we think our author in his anti-popish zeal, and +abhorrence of "ignorance," is too much inclined to see all the wrong, +and overlook the good in--shall we say the superstitions he meets +with, and to conclude that the clergy encourage, where, and possibly +wisely, they only tolerate. It may not be amiss here to refer to a +fact narrated by our author, that a Capucin convent at Ozieri is at +present indebted for the severity with which its laws are enforced, +to the interference of the bishop, not to establish but to put down +a pretended miracle. A nun had announced that she had received the +"stigmata;" pilgrims flocked, and offerings were made. The bishop +suspected, perhaps more than suspected, fraud, caused a strict inquiry, +and the miraculous Stigmata disappeared. But let us come to an instance +where the clergy encouraged, or, to be candid, assuming the perfect +truth of the narration, originated a superstitious fear. It is one that +had so much reverence of a right kind in it, and so much of _truth_ at +least in the feeling, if not in the fact, as may well pass for a kind +of belief in the minds of those who propagated it. + +When the King of Sardinia visited the island, he caused some +excavations to be made at Terranova. Tombs were broken into, and +the dead despoiled of their rings, buckles, and other ornaments; +upon which, Mr Tyndale says, "a heavy gale of wind and storm, having +done some damage to the town, during the progress of digging up the +graves, the priests assured the people, and the people reiterated the +assurance, that the calamity arose from, and was a punishment for +having disturbed and dug up the tombs of the holy saints and martyrs of +Terranova!" + +Is the mark of admiration one of approbation or the reverse? We cannot +believe it to be one of contempt, and are sure our author would not +wish to see the feeling--to the credit of human nature, a common +one--eradicated. When the Scythians were taunted with flying before +their invaders, they simply replied, "We will stay and fight at the +burial places of our fathers." They considered no possession so well +worth preserving intact. + +When Mr Tyndale was receiving hospitality in a shepherd's hut among +the mountains, a Ronuts arrived with a box of relics. The household +within doors, a mother and daughters, placed themselves on their knees +before it. They embraced the box, and three times affectionately +kissed it, and expressed dismay in their looks that their guest did +not do likewise. He admits they looked upon him as an infidel, but +they did not treat him, on that account, as Franklin's apologue +feigned that Abraham treated his unbelieving aged stranger guest, but +bore with him, as the warning and reproving voice told Abraham to +do. The poor hostess, in her ignorance, knew not even whose relics +she had reverenced, for hers was the common answer, when inquired +of as to this particular--"Senza dubbio la reliquia d'una Santa del +Paese, ben conosciuta da per tutto." But this poor family superstition +did not harden the heart; the shepherd's wife believed at least in +the _sanctity_ of some saint, and that veneration for a life passed +in holiness, by whomsoever, demanded of her goodwill to all, and +kindly hospitality, and such as should overcome even the prejudice +of an ignorant shepherd's wife; and therefore we must quote Mr +Tyndale's confession to this virtue of her faith. "If the ignorance +and superstitious credulity of my present hostess were great, her +hospitality and generosity were no less. She soon recovered from her +momentary horror of my heretical irreverence, and, though not the +bearer of a holy relic, it was with some difficulty I could get away +without having several cheeses put into my saddle-bags; and when my +repeated assurances that I was not partial to them at length induced +her to desist, she wanted to send her husband to bring me home a kid +or a lamb. She would have considered it an insult to have been offered +any payment for her gifts, had they been even accepted; and after +repeated expressions of her wish to supply me from her humble store, we +parted with a shower of mutual benedictions." We have brought to our +remembrance patriarchal times, when kids and lambs were readily set +before wayfaring strangers. There have been, and are, worse people in +the world than those poor ignorant superstitious Sardes. + +Not far from San Martino our traveller halted, to inquire his way +at an "ovile," the shepherd's hut. It may not be unsatisfactory to +describe the dwellings whose inhabitants are thus hospitable. The +hut here spoken of was rude enough--a mass of stones in a circle of +about twelve feet diameter, and eight feet high, with a conical roof +made of sticks and reeds. The whole family had but one bed; a few +ashes were burning in a hole in the ground; a bundle of clothes, some +flat loaves of bread, and three or four pans, made up the inventory +of goods. The shepherd was preparing to kill a lamb for his family, +yet he offered to accompany the stranger, which he did, and went +with him a distance of three miles. "After showing me the spot, and +sharing a light meal, I offered him a trifle for his trouble; but he +indignantly refused it, and, on leaving to return home, gave me an +adieu with a fervent but courteous demeanour, which would have shamed +many a mitred and coroneted head." We are not, however, to conclude +that all the shepherd districts, however they may bear no reproach on +the score of hospitality, are regions of innocence and virtue. We are +told, on the authority of a Padre Angius, that the people of Bonorva +are quarrelsome and vindictive; and a story is told of their envious +character. A certain Don Pietrino Prunas was the owner of much cattle, +and ninety-nine flocks of sheep; he was assassinated on the very day he +had brought the number to a hundred, for no other reason than out of +envy of his happiness. And here Mr Tyndale remarks, in a note, a French +translator's carelessness. "Valery, in mentioning the circumstance, +says that he was murdered 'le jour même où il atteignait sa centième +année.'" The words professed to be translated are, "Padrone di 99 +greggi di pecori, trucidato nel giorno istesso che ei doneva formarsi +la centessima." + +The reader will not expect to find accounts of many treasures of the +fine arts in Sardinia. Convents and churches are, however, not without +statues and pictures. Nor do the clergy or inmates of convents possess +much knowledge on the subject. If a picture is pronounced a Michael +Angelo, without doubt the possessors, with a charming simplicity, would +inquire "who Michael Angelo was." We quote the following as worthy the +notice of the Arundel Society, particularly as it is out of the general +tourings of connoisseurs. + + "The screen of the high altar (the church at Ardara) is covered + with portraits of apostles, saints, and martyrs, apparently a work + of the thirteenth or early part of the fourteenth century; and, + notwithstanding the neglect and damp, the colours and gildings + are still bright and untarnished. Many of them are exquisitely + finished, with all the fineness of an Albert Durer and Holbein, + and will vie with the best specimens of the early masters in the + gallery of Dresden, or the Pinakothek at Munich." + +Valery, the mis-translator just mentioned, is in ecstacy in his notice +of these works. He considers them worthy the perpetuity which the +graver alone can give them, and considers how great their reputation +would be had they found a Lanzi, a d'Agincour, or a Cicognara. + +We have now travelled with our agreeable, well-informed author over +much country--wild, and partially cultivated; have speculated with +him upon all things that attracted attention by the way; and, though +the roads have been somewhat rough, we have kept our tempers pretty +well--no light accomplishment for fellow-travellers; and our disputes +have been rather amusing than serious. We now enter with him the +capital of Sardinia--Cagliari. We shall not follow him, however, +through the modern town, though there can be no better cicerone; nor +look in at the museum, fearful of long detention; not even to examine +the Phoenician curiosities, or discuss the identity in character, with +them, of some seals found in the bogs of Ireland; or to speculate +with Sir George Staunton as to their Chinese origin, and how they +unaccountably found themselves, some in an Irish bog and some in +excavated earth in Sardinia, and from thence into the museum at +Cagliari. We are content to visit some Roman antiquities, and read +inscriptions probably of the age of the Antonines, or of an earlier +period. The monuments are sepulchral: one is of a very interesting +character. It is of some architectural pretensions--in honour of +an exemplary wife, who, like Alcestis, is said to have died for +her husband. The prose tale, were it in existence, might have told, +perhaps, how Pomptilla--for that is her name--attended her husband +in a sickness, caught his fever, and died, while he recovered. The +inscriptions are many. Some have been made out tolerably well: they +are in Latin and Greek. One, in Greek, has so much tenderness, that, +deeming it quite worthy the melancholy cadence of verse, we have been +tempted to substitute our own translation for that of Mr Tyndale in +prose, with which we are not quite satisfied. + + Pomptilla, from thy dew-embalmèd earth, + Which mournful homage of our love receives, + May fairest lilies rise, + Pale flow'rets of a sad funereal birth-- + And roses opening their scarce-blushing leaves, + Of tenderest dyes, + And violets, that from their languid eyes, + Shed perfumed shower-- + And blessèd amaranth that never dies. + O! be thyself a flower, + Th' unsullied snow-drop--being and witness true + Of thy pure self, e'en to perpetual years-- + As erst a flow'ret fair Narcissus grew-- + And Hyacinthus all bedew'd with tears. + + For when, now in the tremulous hour of death, + Her spouse Philippus near to Lethe drew + His unresisting lips and fainting breath, + A woman's duteous vow she vow'd-- + And gently put aside his drooping head, + And her firm presence to the waters bow'd, + And drank the fatal stream instead. + + Such perfect union did stern Death divide, + Th' unwilling husband and the willing wife-- + Willing to die, while he, now loathing life, + Through the dear love of his devoted bride-- + Still lives, and weeps, and prays that he may die-- + That his releasèd spirit to hers may fly, + And mingled evermore with hers abide. + +In taking leave of our author, we confidently recommend the three +volumes on Sardinia to the general reader--we say general reader, +for, whatever be his taste or pursuit, he will find amusement and +information. The work is a _full_ work. If the reader be an antiquary, +he will be gratified with deep research and historic lore; if an +economist, he will have tabular detail and close statistics; an +agriculturist, and would he emigrate from his own persecuted lands, +he will learn the nature of soils, their capabilities, and how fair +a field is offered for that importable and exportable commodity, his +industry, so much wanted in Sardinia, and so little encouraged at home; +if a sportsman, besides the use of the gun, which he knows already, he +will be initiated into the mystery of tunny fishing, and, would he turn +it to his profit, have license to dispose of his game. Nay, even the +wide-awake shopkeeper may learn how to set up his "store" in Sassari or +Cagliari, and what stock he had best take out. If he be a ne'er-do-well +just returned from California, and surprised into the possession of a +sackful of gold, Mr Tyndale will conduct him to the Barathra into which +he may throw it, whether they be sea-fisheries or land-marshes; or into +whose pockets he may deposit the wealth, whose burthen he is of course +wearied in bearing, for the excitement of generosity in becoming a +benefactor, or for the amusement of corrupting. + +The work is indeed a "guide book," as well as much more, for it +tells every one what he may do profitably or unprofitably in +Sardinia--whether as traveller and private speculator, minding his own +concerns; or as an enthusiastic disperser of ignorance, and renovator +of the customs, manners, religion, and political condition of a people +as unlike his own race and kindred as possible. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] _The Island of Sardinia._ By JOHN WARRE TYNDALE. 3 vols., post 8vo. + + + + +THE CAXTONS.--PART XIV. + +CHAPTER LXXX. + + +There would have been nothing in what had chanced to justify the +suspicions that tortured me, but for my impressions as to the character +of Vivian. + +Reader, hast thou not, in the easy, careless sociability of youth, +formed acquaintance with some one, in whose more engaging or brilliant +qualities thou hast--not lost that dislike to defects or vices which +is natural to an age when, even while we err, we adore what is good, +and glow with enthusiasm for the ennobling sentiment and the virtuous +deed--no, happily, not lost dislike to what is bad, nor thy quick sense +of it,--but conceived a keen interest in the struggle between the bad +that revolted, and the good that attracted thee, in thy companion? +Then, perhaps, thou hast lost sight of him for a time--suddenly thou +hearest that he has done something out of the way of ordinary good or +commonplace evil: And, in either--the good or the evil--thy mind runs +rapidly back over its old reminiscences, and of either thou sayest, +"How natural!--only So-and-so could have done this thing!" + +Thus I felt respecting Vivian. The most remarkable qualities in his +character were his keen power of calculation, and his unhesitating +audacity--qualities that lead to fame or to infamy, according to the +cultivation of the moral sense and the direction of the passions. Had +I recognised those qualities in some agency apparently of good--and it +seemed yet doubtful if Vivian were the agent--I should have cried, "It +is he! and the better angel has triumphed!" With the same (alas! with +a yet more impulsive) quickness, when the agency was of evil, and the +agent equally dubious, I felt that the qualities revealed the man, and +that the demon had prevailed. + +Mile after mile, stage after stage, were passed, on the dreary, +interminable, high north road. I narrated to my companion, more +intelligibly than I had yet done, my causes for apprehension. The +Captain at first listened eagerly, then checked me on the sudden. +"There may be nothing in all this!" he cried. "Sir, we must be men +here--have our heads cool, our reason clear: stop!" And, leaning back +in the chaise, Roland refused further conversation, and, as the night +advanced, seemed to sleep. I took pity on his fatigue, and devoured +my heart in silence. At each stage we heard of the party of which we +were in pursuit. At the first stage or two we were less than an hour +behind; gradually, as we advanced, we lost ground, despite the most +lavish liberality to the postboys. I supposed, at length, that the +mere circumstance of changing, at each relay, the chaise as well as +the horses, was the cause of our comparative slowness; and, on saying +this to Roland, as we were changing horses, somewhere about midnight, +he at once called up the master of the inn, and gave him his own price +for permission to retain the chaise till the journey's end. This was +so unlike Roland's ordinary thrift, whether dealing with my money or +his own--so unjustified by the fortune of either--that I could not help +muttering something in apology. + +"Can you guess why I was a miser?" said Roland, calmly. + +"A miser!--anything but that! Only prudent--military men often are so." + +"I was a miser," repeated the Captain, with emphasis. "I began the +habit first when my son was but a child. I thought him high-spirited, +and with a taste for extravagance. 'Well,' said I to myself, 'I will +save for him; boys will be boys.' Then, afterwards, when he was no +more a child, (at least he began to have the vices of a man!) I said +to myself, 'Patience, he may reform still; if not, I will save money +that I may have power over his self-interest, since I have none over +his heart. I will bribe him into honour!' And then--and then--God +saw that I was very proud, and I was punished. Tell them to drive +faster--faster--why, this is a snail's pace!" + +All that night, all the next day, till towards the evening, we pursued +our journey, without pause, or other food than a crust of bread and a +glass of wine. But we now picked up the ground we had lost, and gained +upon the carriage. The night had closed in when we arrived at the stage +at which the route to Lord N----'s branched from the direct north road. +And here, making our usual inquiry, my worst suspicions were confirmed. +The carriage we pursued had changed horses an hour before, but had +not taken the way to Lord N----'s;--continuing the direct road into +Scotland. The people of the inn had not seen the lady in the carriage, +for it was already dark, but the man-servant, (whose livery they +described) had ordered the horses. + +The last hope that, in spite of appearances, no treachery had been +designed, here vanished. The Captain, at first, seemed more dismayed +than myself, but he recovered more quickly. "We will continue the +journey on horseback," he said; and hurried to the stables. All +objections vanished at the sight of his gold. In five minutes we were +in the saddle, with a postilion, also mounted, to accompany us. We did +the next stage in little more than two-thirds of the time which we +should have occupied in our former mode of travel--indeed, I found it +hard to keep pace with Roland. We remounted; we were only twenty-five +minutes behind the carriage. We felt confident that we should overtake +it before it could reach the next town--the moon was up--we could see +far before us--we rode at full speed. Milestone after milestone glided +by, the carriage was not visible. We arrived at the post-town, or +rather village; it contained but one posting-house. We were long in +knocking up the ostlers--no carriage had arrived just before us; no +carriage had passed the place since noon. + +What mystery was this? + +"Back, back, boy!" said Roland, with a soldier's quick wit, and +spurring his jaded horse from the yard. "They will have taken a +cross-road or by-lane. We shall track them by the hoofs of the horses +or the print of the wheels." + +Our postilion grumbled, and pointed to the panting sides of our +horses. For answer, Roland opened his hand--full of gold. Away we went +back through the dull sleeping village, back into the broad moonlit +thoroughfare. We came to a cross-road to the right, but the track we +pursued still led us straight on. We had measured back nearly half the +way to the post-town at which we had last changed, when, lo! there +emerged from a by-lane two postilions and their horses. + +At that sight our companion, shouting loud, pushed on before us and +hailed his fellows. A few words gave us the information we sought. A +wheel had come off the carriage just by the turn of the road, and the +young lady and her servants had taken refuge in a small inn not many +yards down the lane. The man-servant had dismissed the postboys after +they had baited their horses, saying they were to come again in the +morning, and bring a blacksmith to repair the wheel. + +"How came the wheel off?" asked Roland sternly. + +"Why, sir, the linchpin was all rotted away, I suppose, and came out." + +"Did the servant get off the dickey after you set out, and before the +accident happened?" + +"Why, yes. He said the wheels were catching fire, that they had not the +patent axles, and he had forgot to have them oiled." + +"And he looked at the wheels, and shortly afterwards the linchpin came +out?--Eh?" + +"Anon, sir!" said the postboy, staring; "why, and indeed so it was!" + +"Come on, Pisistratus, we are in time; but pray God--pray God--that--" +the Captain dashed his spur into the horse's sides, and the rest of his +words was lost to me. + +A few yards back from the causeway, a broad patch of green before it, +stood the inn--a sullen, old-fashioned building of cold gray stone, +looking livid in the moonlight, with black firs at one side, throwing +over half of it a dismal shadow. So solitary! not a house, not a hut +near it. If they who kept the inn were such that villany might reckon +on their connivance, and innocence despair of their aid--there was no +neighbourhood to alarm--no refuge at hand. The spot was well chosen. + +The doors of the inn were closed; there was a light in the room below; +but the outside shutters were drawn over the windows on the first +floor. My uncle paused a moment, and said to the postilion-- + +"Do you know the back way to the premises?" + +"No, sir; I doesn't often come by this way, and they be new folks that +have taken the house--and I hear it don't prosper overmuch." + +"Knock at the door--we will stand a little aside while you do so. +If any one ask what you want--merely say you would speak to the +servant--that you have found a purse;--here, hold up mine." + +Roland and I had dismounted, and my uncle drew me close to the wall by +the door. Observing that my impatience ill submitted to what seemed to +me idle preliminaries, + +"Hist!" whispered he; "if there be anything to conceal within, they +will not answer the door till some one has reconnoitred: were they +to see us, they would refuse to open. But seeing only the postboy, +whom they will suppose at first to be one of those who brought the +carriage--they will have no suspicion. Be ready to rush in the moment +the door is unbarred." + +My uncle's veteran experience did not deceive him. There was a long +silence before any reply was made to the postboy's summons; the light +passed to and fro rapidly across the window, as if persons were moving +within. Roland made sign to the postboy to knock again; he did so +twice--thrice--and at last, from an attic-window in the roof, a head +obtruded, and a voice cried, "Who are you?--what do you want?" + +"I'm the postboy at the Red Lion; I want to see the servant with the +brown carriage; I have found this purse!" + +"Oh, that's all--wait a bit." + +The head disappeared; we crept along under the projecting eaves of +the house; we heard the bar lifted from the door; the door itself +cautiously opened; one spring and I stood within, and set my back to +the door to admit Roland. + +"Ho, help!--thieves!--help!" cried a loud voice, and I felt a hand +gripe at my throat. I struck at random in the dark, and with effect, +for my blow was followed by a groan and a curse. + +Roland, meanwhile, had detected a ray through the chinks of a door in +the hall, and, guided by it, found his way into the room at the window +of which we had seen the light pass and go, while without. As he threw +the door open, I bounded after him; and saw in a kind of parlour, +two females--the one a stranger, no doubt the hostess, the other the +treacherous Abigail. Their faces evinced their terror. + +"Woman," I said, seizing the last, "where is Miss Trevanion?" Instead +of replying, the woman set up a loud shriek. Another light now gleamed +from the staircase, which immediately faced the door, and I heard a +voice that I recognised as Peacock's, cry out, "Who's there?--what's +the matter?" + +I made a rush at the stairs. A burly form (that of the landlord, who +had recovered from my blow) obstructed my way for a moment, to measure +its length on the floor at the next. I was at the top of the stairs, +Peacock recognised me, recoiled, and extinguished the light. Oaths, +cries, and shrieks, now resounded through the dark. Amidst them all, +I suddenly heard a voice exclaim, "Here, here!--help!" It was the +voice of Fanny. I made my way to the right, whence the voice came, +and received a violent blow. Fortunately, it fell on the arm which I +extended, as men do who feel their way through the dark. It was not the +right arm, and I seized and closed on my assailant. Roland now came up, +a candle in his hand; and at that sight my antagonist, who was no other +than Peacock, slipped from me, and made a rush at the stairs. But the +Captain caught him with his grasp of iron. Fearing nothing for Roland +in a contest with any single foe, and all my thoughts bent on the +rescue of her whose voice again broke on my ear, I had already (before +the light of the candle which Roland held went out in the struggle +between himself and Peacock) caught sight of a door at the end of the +passage, and thrown myself against it: it was locked, but it shook and +groaned to my pressure. + +"Hold back, whoever you are!" cried a voice from the room within, far +different from that wail of distress which had guided my steps. "Hold +back, at the peril of your life!" + +The voice, the threat, redoubled my strength; the door flew from its +fastenings. I stood in the room. I saw Fanny at my feet, clasping my +hands; then, raising herself, she hung on my shoulder and murmured, +"Saved!" Opposite to me, his face deformed by passion, his eyes +literally blazing with savage fire, his nostrils distended, his lips +apart, stood the man I have called Francis Vivian. + +"Fanny--Miss Trevanion--what outrage--what villany is this? You have +not met this man at your free choice,--oh speak!" Vivian sprang forward. + +"Question no one but me. Unhand that lady,--she is my betrothed--shall +be my wife." + +"No, no, no,--don't believe him," cried Fanny; "I have been betrayed by +my own servants--brought here, I know not how! I heard my father was +ill; I was on my way to him: that man met me here, and dared to"-- + +"Miss Trevanion--yes, I dared to say I loved you." + +"Protect me from him!--you will protect me from him!" + +"No, madam!" said a voice behind me, in a deep tone, "it is I who claim +the right to protect you from that man; it is I who now draw around +you the arm of one sacred, even to him; it is I who, from this spot, +launch upon his head--a father's curse. Violator of the hearth! Baffled +ravisher!--go thy way to the doom which thou hast chosen for thyself. +God will be merciful to me yet, and give me a grave before thy course +find its close in the hulks--or at the gallows!" + +A sickness came over me--a terror froze my veins--I reeled back, and +leant for support against the wall. Roland had passed his arm round +Fanny, and she, frail and trembling, clung to his broad heart, looking +fearfully up to his face. And never in that face, ploughed by deep +emotions, and dark with unutterable sorrows, had I seen an expression +so grand in its wrath, so sublime in its despair. Following the +direction of his eye, stern and fixed as the look of one who prophesies +a destiny, and denounces a doom, I shivered as I gazed upon the son. +His whole frame seemed collapsed and shrinking, as if already withered +by the curse: a ghastly whiteness overspread the cheek, usually glowing +with the dark bloom of Oriental youth; the knees knocked together; and, +at last, with a faint exclamation of pain, like the cry of one who +receives a death-blow, he bowed his face over his clasped hands, and so +remained--still, but cowering. + +Instinctively I advanced and placed myself between the father and the +son, murmuring, "Spare him; see, his own heart crushes him down." +Then stealing towards the son, I whispered, "Go, go; the crime was +not committed, the curse can be recalled." But my words touched a +wrong chord in that dark and rebellious nature. The young man withdrew +his hands hastily from his face, and reared his front in passionate +defiance. + +Waving me aside, he cried, "Away! I acknowledge no authority over my +actions and my fate; I allow no mediator between this lady and myself. +Sir," he continued, gazing gloomily on his father--"sir, you forget our +compact. Our ties were severed, your power over me annulled; I resigned +the name you bear; to you I was, and am still, as the dead. I deny your +right to step between me and the object dearer to me than life. + +"Oh!" (and here he stretched forth his hands towards Fanny)--"oh! Miss +Trevanion, do not refuse me one prayer, however you condemn me. Let me +see you alone but for one moment; let me but prove to you that, guilty +as I may have been, it was not from the base motives you will hear +imputed to me--that it was not the heiress I sought to decoy, it was +the woman I sought to win; oh! hear me"-- + +"No, no," murmured Fanny, clinging closer to Roland, "do not leave +me. If, as it seems, he is your son, I forgive him; but let him go--I +shudder at his very voice!" + +"Would you have me, indeed, annihilate the very memory of the bond +between us?" said Roland, in a hollow voice; "would you have me see in +you only the vile thief, the lawless felon,--deliver you up to justice, +or strike you to my feet. Let the memory still save you, and begone!" + +Again I caught hold of the guilty son, and again he broke from my grasp. + +"It is," he said, folding his arms deliberately on his breast, "it is +for me to command in this house: all who are within it must submit to +my orders. You, sir, who hold reputation, name, and honour at so high +a price, how can you fail to see that you would rob them from the lady +whom you would protect from the insult of my affection? How would the +world receive the tale of your rescue of Miss Trevanion? how believe +that--Oh pardon me, madam,--Miss Trevanion--Fanny--pardon me--I am mad; +only hear me--alone--alone--and then if you too say 'Begone,' I submit +without a murmur; I allow no arbiter but you." + +But Fanny still clung closer, and closer still, to Roland. At that +moment I heard voices and the trampling of feet below, and supposing +that the accomplices in this villany were mustering courage, perhaps, +to mount to the assistance of their employer, I lost all the compassion +that had hitherto softened my horror of the young man's crime, and all +the awe with which that confession had been attended. I therefore, this +time, seized the false Vivian with a gripe that he could no longer +shake off, and said sternly-- + +"Beware how you aggravate your offence. If strife ensues, it will not +be between father and son, and--" + +Fanny sprang forward. "Do not provoke this bad, dangerous man. I fear +him not. Sir, I _will_ hear you, and alone." + +"Never!" cried I and Roland simultaneously. + +Vivian turned his look fiercely to me, and with a sullen bitterness to +his father, and then, as if resigning his former prayer, he said--"Well +then, be it so; even in the presence of those who judge me so severely, +I will speak at least." He paused, and, throwing into his voice a +passion that, had the repugnance at his guilt been less, would not have +been without pathos, he continued to address Fanny: "I own that, when I +first saw you, I might have thought of love, as the poor and ambitious +think of the way to wealth and power. Those thoughts vanished, and +nothing remained in my heart but love and madness. I was as a man in a +delirium when I planned this snare. I knew but one object--saw but one +heavenly vision. Oh, mine--mine at least in that vision--are you indeed +lost to me for ever!" + +There was that in this man's tone and manner which, whether arising +from accomplished hypocrisy or actual if perverted feeling, would, I +thought, find its way at once to the heart of a woman who, however +wronged, had once loved him; and, with a cold misgiving, I fixed my +eyes on Miss Trevanion. Her look, as she turned with a visible tremor, +suddenly met mine, and I believe that she discerned my doubt; for +after suffering her eyes to rest on my own, with something of mournful +reproach, her lips curved as with the pride of her mother, and for the +first time in my life I saw anger on her brow. + +"It is well, sir, that you have thus spoken to me in the presence of +others, for in their presence I call upon you to say, by that honour +which the son of this gentleman may for a while forget, but cannot +wholly forfeit,--I call upon you to say, whether by deed, word, or +sign, I, Frances Trevanion, ever gave you cause to believe that I +returned the feeling you say you entertained for me, or encouraged you +to dare this attempt to place me in your power." + +"No!" cried Vivian readily, but with a writhing lip--"no; but where I +loved so deeply, periled all my fortune for one fair and free occasion +to tell you so alone, I would not think that such love could meet only +loathing and disdain. What!--has nature shaped me so unkindly, that +where I love no love can reply? What!--has the accident of birth shut +me out from the right to woo and mate with the highborn? For the last, +at least, that gentleman in justice should tell you, since it has been +his care to instil the haughty lesson into me, that my lineage is one +that befits lofty hopes, and warrants fearless ambition. My hopes, my +ambition--they were you! Oh, Miss Trevanion, it is true that to win +you I would have braved the world's laws, defied every foe, save him +who now rises before me. Yet, believe me, believe me, had I won what I +dared to aspire to, you would not have been disgraced by your choice; +and the name, for which I thank not my father, should not have been +despised by the woman who pardoned my presumption,--nor by the man who +now tramples on my anguish, and curses me in my desolation." + +Not by a word had Roland sought to interrupt his son--nay, by a +feverish excitement, which my heart understood in its secret sympathy, +he had seemed eagerly to court every syllable that could extenuate the +darkness of the offence, or even imply some less sordid motive for the +baseness of the means. But as the son now closed with the words of +unjust reproach, and the accents of fierce despair;--closed a defence +that showed in its false pride, and its perverted eloquence, so utter a +blindness to every principle of that honour which had been the father's +idol, Roland placed his hand before the eyes that he had previously, as +if spellbound, fixed on the hardened offender, and once more drawing +Fanny towards him, said-- + +"His breath pollutes the air that innocence and honesty should breath. +He says 'All in this house are at his command,'--why do we stay?--let +us go." He turned towards the door, and Fanny with him. + +Meanwhile the louder sounds below had been silenced for some moments, +but I heard a step in the hall. Vivian started, and placed himself +before us. + +"No, no, you cannot leave me thus, Miss Trevanion. I resign you--be it +so; I do not even ask for pardon. But to leave this house thus, without +carriage, without attendants, without explanation!--the blame falls on +me--it shall do so. But at least vouchsafe me the right to repair what +I yet can repair of the wrong, to protect all that is left to me--your +name." + +As he spoke, he did not perceive (for he was facing us, and with his +back to the door,) that a new actor had noiselessly entered on the +scene, and, pausing by the threshold, heard his last words. + +"The name of Miss Trevanion, sir--and from what?" asked the new comer, +as he advanced and surveyed Vivian with a look that, but for its quiet, +would have seemed disdain. + +"Lord Castleton!" exclaimed Fanny, lifting up the face she had buried +in her hands. + +Vivian recoiled in dismay, and gnashed his teeth. + +"Sir," said the marquis, "I await your reply; for not even you, in my +presence, shall imply that one reproach can be attached to the name of +that lady." + +"Oh, moderate your tone to me, my Lord Castleton!" cried Vivian: "in +you at least there is one man I am not forbidden to brave and defy. It +was to save that lady from the cold ambition of her parents--it was +to prevent the sacrifice of her youth and beauty, to one whose sole +merits are his wealth and his titles--it was this that impelled me to +the crime I have committed, this that hurried me on to risk all for +one hour, when youth at least could plead its cause to youth; and this +gives me now the power to say that it does rest with me to protect the +name of the lady, whom your very servility to that world which you have +made your idol forbids you to claim from the heartless ambition that +would sacrifice the daughter to the vanity of the parents. Ha! the +future Marchioness of Castleton on her way to Scotland with a penniless +adventurer! Ha! if my lips are sealed, who but I can seal the lips +of those below in my secret? The secret shall be kept, but on this +condition--you shall not triumph where I have failed; I may lose what +I adored, but I do not resign it to another. Ha! have I foiled you, my +Lord Castleton?--ha, ha!" + +"No, sir; and I almost forgive you the villany you have _not_ effected, +for informing me, for the first time, that, had I presumed to +address Miss Trevanion, her parents at least would have pardoned the +presumption. Trouble not yourself as to what your accomplices may say. +They have already confessed their infamy and your own. Out of my path, +sir!" + +Then, with the benign look of a father, and the lofty grace of a +prince, Lord Castleton advanced to Fanny. Looking round with a +shudder, she hastily placed her hand in his, and, by so doing, perhaps +prevented some violence on the part of Vivian, whose heaving breast, +and eye bloodshot, and still un-quailing, showed how little even shame +had subdued his fiercer passions. But he made no offer to detain them, +and his tongue seemed to cleave to his lips. Now, as Fanny moved to the +door, she passed Roland, who stood motionless and with vacant looks, +like an image of stone; and with a beautiful tenderness, for which +(even at this distant date, recalling it) I say, "God requite thee, +Fanny," she laid her other hand on Roland's arm, and said, "Come too; +_your_ arm still!" + +But Roland's limbs trembled, and refused to stir; his head, relaxing, +drooped on his breast, his eyes closed. Even Lord Castleton was so +struck (though unable to guess the true and terrible cause of his +dejection) that he forgot his desire to hasten from the spot, and cried +with all his kindliness of heart, "You are ill--you faint; give him +your arm, Pisistratus." + +"It is nothing," said Roland feebly, as he leant heavily on my arm, +while I turned back my head with all the bitterness of that reproach +which filled my heart, speaking in the eyes that sought _him_ whose +place should have been where mine now was. And, oh!--thank heaven, +thank heaven!--the look was not in vain. In the same moment the son was +at the father's knees. + +"Oh, pardon--pardon! Wretch, lost wretch though I be, I bow my head +to the curse. Let it fall--but on me, and on me only--not on your own +heart too." + +Fanny burst into tears, sobbing out, "Forgive him, as I do." + +Roland did not heed her. + +"He thinks that the heart was not shattered before the curse could +come," he said, in a voice so weak as to be scarcely audible. Then, +raising his eyes to heaven, his lips moved as if he prayed inly. +Pausing, he stretched his hands over his son's head, and averting his +face, said, "I revoke the curse. Pray to thy God for pardon." + +Perhaps not daring to trust himself further, he then made a violent +effort, and hurried from the room. + +We followed silently. When we gained the end of the passage, the door +of the room we had left, closed with a sullen jar. + +As the sound smote on my ear, with it came so terrible a sense of +the solitude upon which that door had closed--so keen and quick +an apprehension of some fearful impulse, suggested by passions so +fierce, to a condition so forlorn--that instinctively I stopped, +and then hurried back to the chamber. The lock of the door having +been previously forced, there was no barrier to oppose my entrance. +I advanced, and beheld a spectacle of such agony, as can only be +conceived by those who have looked on the grief which takes no +fortitude from reason, no consolation from conscience--the grief which +tells us what would be the earth were man abandoned to his passions, +and the CHANCE of the atheist reigned alone in the merciless heavens. +Pride humbled to the dust; ambition shivered into fragments; love (or +the passion mistaken for it) blasted into ashes; life, at the first +onset, bereaved of its holiest ties, forsaken by its truest guide; +shame that writhed for revenge, and remorse that knew not prayer--all, +all blended, yet distinct, were in that awful spectacle of the guilty +son. + +And I had told but twenty years, and my heart had been mellowed in +the tender sunshine of a happy home, and I had loved this boy as a +stranger, and, lo--he was Roland's son! I forgot all else, looking upon +that anguish; and I threw myself on the ground by the form that writhed +there, and, folding my arms round the breast which in vain repelled +me, I whispered, "Comfort--comfort--life is long. You shall redeem the +past, you shall efface the stain, and your father shall bless you yet!" + + +CHAPTER LXXXI. + +I could not stay long with my unhappy cousin, but still I stayed long +enough to make me think it probable that Lord Castleton's carriage +would have left the inn: and when, as I passed the hall, I saw it +standing before the open door, I was seized with fear for Roland; his +emotions might have ended in some physical attack. Nor were those fears +without foundation. I found Fanny kneeling beside the old soldier in +the parlour where we had seen the two women, and bathing his temples, +while Lord Castleton was binding his arm; and the marquis's favourite +valet, who, amongst his other gifts, was something of a surgeon, was +wiping the blade of the penknife that had served instead of a lancet. +Lord Castleton nodded to me, "Don't be uneasy--a little fainting +fit--we have bled him. He is safe now--see, he is recovering." + +Roland's eyes, as they opened, turned to me with an anxious, inquiring +look. I smiled upon him as I kissed his forehead, and could, with a +safe conscience, whisper words which neither father nor Christian could +refuse to receive as comfort. + +In a few minutes more we had left the house. As Lord Castleton's +carriage only held two, the marquis, having assisted Miss Trevanion and +Roland to enter, quietly mounted the seat behind, and made a sign to +me to come by his side, for there was room for both. (His servant had +taken one of the horses that had brought thither Roland and myself, and +already gone on before.) No conversation took place between us then. +Lord Castleton seemed profoundly affected, and I had no words at my +command. + +When we reached the inn at which Lord Castleton had changed horses, +about six miles distant, the marquis insisted on Fanny's taking some +rest for a few hours, for indeed she was thoroughly worn out. + +I attended my uncle to his room, but he only answered my assurances of +his son's repentance with a pressure of the hand, and then, gliding +from me, went into the furthest recess of the room, and there knelt +down. When he rose, he was passive and tractable as a child. He +suffered me to assist him to undress; and when he had lain down on +the bed, he turned his face quietly from the light, and, after a few +heavy sighs, sleep seemed mercifully to steal upon him. I listened to +his breathing till it grew low and regular, and then descended to the +sitting-room in which I had left Lord Castleton, for he had asked me in +a whisper to seek him there. + +I found the marquis seated by the fire, in a thoughtful and dejected +attitude. + +"I am glad you are come," said he, making room for me on the hearth, +"for I assure you I have not felt so mournful for many years; we have +much to explain to each other. Will you begin? they say the sound of +the bell dissipates the thunder-cloud. And there is nothing like the +voice of a frank, honest nature to dispel all the clouds that come upon +us when we think of our own faults and the villany of others. But, I +beg you a thousand pardons--that young man, your relation!--your brave +uncle's son! Is it possible!" + +My explanations to Lord Castleton were necessarily brief and imperfect. +The separation between Roland and his son, my ignorance of its cause, +my belief in the death of the latter, my chance acquaintance with the +supposed Vivian; the interest I took in him; the relief it was to the +fears for his fate with which he inspired me, to think he had returned +to the home I ascribed to him; and the circumstances which had induced +my suspicions, justified by the result--all this was soon hurried over. + +"But, I beg your pardon," said the marquis, interrupting me, "did you, +in your friendship for one so unlike you, even by your own partial +account, never suspect that you had stumbled upon your lost cousin?" + +"Such an idea never could have crossed me." + +And here I must observe, that though the reader, at the first +introduction of Vivian, would divine the secret,--the penetration of +a reader is wholly different from that of the actor in events. That +I had chanced on one of those curious coincidences in the romance of +real life, which a reader looks out for and expects in following the +course of narrative, was a supposition forbidden to me by a variety +of causes. There was not the least family resemblance between Vivian +and any of his relations; and, somehow or other, in Roland's son I +had pictured to myself a form and a character wholly different from +Vivian's. To me it would have seemed impossible that my cousin could +have been so little curious to hear any of our joint family affairs; +been so unheedful, or even weary, if I spoke of Roland--never, by a +word or tone, have betrayed a sympathy with his kindred. And my other +conjecture was so probable!--son of the Colonel Vivian whose name he +bore. And that letter, with the postmark of 'Godalming!' and my belief, +too, in my cousin's death; even now I am not surprised that the idea +never occurred to me. + +I paused from enumerating these excuses for my dulness, angry with +myself, for I noticed that Lord Castleton's fair brow darkened;--and +he exclaimed, "What deceit he must have gone through before he could +become such a master in the art!" + +"That is true, and I cannot deny it," said I. "But his punishment now +is awful; let us hope that repentance may follow the chastisement. +And, though certainly it must have been his own fault that drove him +from his father's home and guidance, yet, so driven, let us make some +allowance for the influence of evil companionship on one so young--for +the suspicions that the knowledge of evil produces, and turns into a +kind of false knowledge of the world. And in this last and worst of all +his actions"-- + +"Ah, how justify that!" + +"Justify it!--good heavens! justify it!--no. I only say this, strange +as it may seem, that I believe his affection for Miss Trevanion was for +herself: so he says, from the depth of an anguish in which the most +insincere of men would cease to feign. But no more of this,--she is +saved, thank Heaven!" + +"And you believe," said Lord Castleton musingly, "that he spoke the +truth, when he thought that I--." The marquis stopped, coloured +slightly, and then went on. "But no; Lady Ellinor and Trevanion, +whatever might have been in their thoughts, would never have so forgot +their dignity as to take him, a youth--almost a stranger--nay, take any +one into their confidence on such a subject." + +"It was but by broken gasps, incoherent, disconnected words, that +Vivian,--I mean my cousin,--gave me any explanation of this. But Lady +N----, at whose house he was staying, appears to have entertained such +a notion, or at least led my cousin to think so." + +"Ah! that is possible," said Lord Castleton, with a look of relief. +"Lady N---- and I were boy and girl together; we correspond; she has +written to me suggesting that----. Ah! I see,--an indiscreet woman. +Hum! this comes of lady correspondents!" + +Lord Castleton had recourse to the Beaudesert mixture; and then, as if +eager to change the subject, began his own explanation. On receiving my +letter, he saw even more cause to suspect a snare than I had done, for +he had that morning received a letter from Trevanion, not mentioning a +word about his illness; and on turning to the newspaper, and seeing a +paragraph headed, "Sudden and alarming illness of Mr Trevanion," the +marquis had suspected some party manoeuvre or unfeeling hoax, since the +mail that had brought the letter would have travelled as quickly as +any messenger who had given the information to the newspaper. He had, +however, immediately sent down to the office of the journal to inquire +on what authority the paragraph had been inserted, while he despatched +another messenger to St James's Square. The reply from the office +was, that the message had been brought by a servant in Mr Trevanion's +livery, but was not admitted as news until it had been ascertained by +inquiries at the minister's house that Lady Ellinor had received the +same intelligence, and actually left town in consequence. + +"I was extremely sorry for poor Lady Ellinor's uneasiness," said Lord +Castleton, "and extremely puzzled, but I still thought there could be +no real ground for alarm when your letter reached me. And when you +there stated your conviction that Mr Gower was mixed up in this fable, +and that it concealed some snare upon Fanny, I saw the thing at a +glance. The road to Lord N----'s, till within the last stage or two, +would be the road to Scotland. And a hardy and unscrupulous adventurer, +with the assistance of Miss Trevanion's servants, might thus entrap +her to Scotland itself, and there work on her fears; or, if he had +hope in her affections, win her consent to a Scotch marriage. You may +be sure, therefore, that I was on the road as soon as possible. But +as your messenger came all the way from the city, and not so quick +perhaps as he might have come; and then as there was the carriage to +see to, and the horses to send for, I found myself more than an hour +and a half behind you. Fortunately, however, I made good ground, and +should probably have overtaken you half-way, but that, on passing +between a ditch and waggon, the carriage was upset, and that somewhat +delayed me. On arriving at the town where the road branched off to +Lord N----'s, I was rejoiced to learn you had taken what I was sure +would prove the right direction, and finally I gained the clue to +that villanous inn by the report of the postboys who had taken Miss +Trevanion's carriage there, and met you on the road. On reaching the +inn, I found two fellows conferring outside the door. They sprang in +as we drove up, but not before my servant Summers--a quick fellow, +you know, who has travelled with me from Norway to Nubia--had quitted +his seat, and got into the house, into which I followed him with a +step, you dog, as active as your own! Egad! I was twenty-one then! Two +fellows had already knocked down poor Summers, and showed plenty of +fight. Do you know," said the marquis, interrupting himself with an air +of seriocomic humiliation--"do you know that I actually--no, you never +will believe it--mind 'tis a secret--actually broke my cane over one +fellow's shoulders?--look!" (and the marquis held up the fragment of +the lamented weapon.) "And I half suspect, but I can't say positively, +that I had even the necessity to demean myself by a blow with the naked +hand--clenched too!--quite Eton again--upon my honour it was. Ha, ha!" + +And the marquis, whose magnificent proportions, in the full vigour of +man's strongest, if not his most combative, age, would have made him a +formidable antagonist, even to a couple of prize-fighters, supposing +he had retained a little of Eton skill in such encounters--laughed +with the glee of a schoolboy, whether at the thought of his prowess, +or his sense of the contrast between so rude a recourse to primitive +warfare, and his own indolent habits, and almost feminine good temper. +Composing himself, however, with the quick recollection how little I +could share his hilarity, he resumed gravely, "It took us some time--I +don't say to defeat our foes, but to bind them, which I thought a +necessary precaution;--one fellow, Trevanion's servant, all the while +stunning me with quotations from Shakspeare. I then gently laid hold +of a gown, the bearer of which had been long trying to scratch me; +but being luckily a small woman, had not succeeded in reaching to +my eyes. But the gown escaped, and fluttered off to the kitchen. I +followed, and there I found Miss Trevanion's Jezebel of a maid. She +was terribly frightened, and affected to be extremely penitent. I own +to you that I don't care what a man says in the way of slander, but +a woman's tongue against another woman--especially if that tongue be +in the mouth of a lady's lady--I think it always worth silencing; I +therefore consented to pardon this woman on condition she would find +her way here before morning. No scandal shall come from her. Thus you +see some minutes elapsed before I joined you; but I minded that the +less, as I heard you and the Captain were already in the room with Miss +Trevanion; and not, alas! dreaming of your connexion with the culprit, +I was wondering what could have delayed you so long,--afraid, I own +it, to find that Miss Trevanion's heart might have been seduced by +that--hem--hem!--handsome--young--hem--hem!--There's no fear of that?" +added Lord Castleton, anxiously, as he bent his bright eyes upon mine. + +I felt myself colour as I answered firmly, "It is just to Miss +Trevanion to add that the unhappy man owned, in her presence and +in mine, that he had never had the slightest encouragement for his +attempt--never one cause to believe that she approved the affection, +which I try to think blinded and maddened himself." + +"I believe you; for I think"--Lord Castleton paused uneasily, again +looked at me, rose, and walked about the room with evident agitation; +then, as if he had come to some resolution, he returned to the hearth +and stood facing me. + +"My dear young friend," said he, with his irresistible kindly +frankness, "this is an occasion that excuses all things between us, +even my impertinence. Your conduct from first to last has been such, +that I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that I had a daughter to +offer you, and that you felt for her as I believe you feel for Miss +Trevanion. These are not mere words; do not look down as if ashamed. +All the marquisates in the world would never give me the pride I should +feel, if I could see in my life one steady self-sacrifice to duty and +honour, equal to that which I have witnessed in you." + +"Oh, my lord! my lord!" + +"Hear me out. That you love Fanny Trevanion, I know; that she may have +innocently, timidly, half unconsciously, returned that affection, I +think probable. But--" + +"I know what you would say; spare me--I know it all." + +"No! it is a thing impossible; and, if Lady Ellinor could consent, +there would be such a life-long regret on her part, such a weight of +obligation on yours, that--no, I repeat, it is impossible! But let us +both think of this poor girl. I know her better than you can--have +known her from a child; know all her virtues--they are charming; all +her faults--they expose her to danger. These parents of hers--with +their genius, and ambition--may do very well to rule England, and +influence the world; but to guide the fate of that child--no!" Lord +Castleton stopped, for he was affected. I felt my old jealousy return, +but it was no longer bitter. + +"I say nothing," continued the marquis, "of this position, in which, +without fault of hers, Miss Trevanion is placed: Lady Ellinor's +knowledge of the world, and woman's wit, will see how all that can be +best put right. Still it is awkward, and demands much consideration. +But, putting this aside altogether, if you do firmly believe that Miss +Trevanion is lost to you, can you bear to think that she is to be +flung as a mere cipher into the account of the worldly greatness of +an aspiring politician--married to some minister, too busy to watch +over her; or some duke, who looks to pay off his mortgages with her +fortune--minister or duke only regarded as a prop to Trevanion's power +against a counter cabal, or as giving his section a preponderance in +the Cabinet? Be assured such is her most likely destiny, or rather the +beginning of a destiny yet more mournful. Now, I tell you this, that he +who marries Fanny Trevanion should have little other object, for the +first few years of marriage, than to correct her failings and develop +her virtues. Believe one who, alas! has too dearly bought his knowledge +of women--hers is a character to be formed. Well, then, if this prize +be lost to you, would it be an irreparable grief to your generous +affection to think that it has fallen to the lot of one who at least +knows his responsibilities, and who will redeem his own life, hitherto +wasted, by the steadfast endeavour to fulfil them? Can you take this +hand still, and press it, even though it be a rival's?" + +"My lord! This from you to me, is an honour that--" + +"You will not take my hand? Then believe me, it is not I that will give +that grief to your heart." + +Touched, penetrated, melted by this generosity in a man of such lofty +claims, to one of my age and fortunes, I pressed that noble hand, +half raising it to my lips--an action of respect that would have +misbecome neither; but he gently withdrew the hand, in the instinct of +his natural modesty. I had then no heart to speak further on such a +subject, but, faltering out that I would go and see my uncle, I took up +the light, and ascended the stairs. I crept noiselessly into Roland's +room, and shading the light, saw that, though he slept, his face was +very troubled. And then I thought, "What are my young griefs to his?" +and--sitting beside the bed, communed with my own heart and was still! + + +CHAPTER LXXXII. + +At sunrise, I went down into the sitting-room, having resolved to write +to my father to join us; for I felt how much Roland needed his comfort +and his counsel, and it was no great distance from the old Tower. I +was surprised to find Lord Castleton still seated by the fire; he had +evidently not gone to bed. + +"That's right," said he; "we must encourage each other to recruit +nature," and he pointed to the breakfast things on the table. + +I had scarcely tasted food for many hours, but I was only aware of my +own hunger by a sensation of faintness. I eat unconsciously, and was +almost ashamed to feel how much the food restored me. + +"I suppose," said I, "that you will soon set off to Lord N----'s?" + +"Nay, did I not tell you, that I have sent Summers express, with a +note to Lady Ellinor, begging her to come here? I did not see, on +reflection, how I could decorously accompany Miss Trevanion alone, +without even a female servant, to a house full of gossiping guests. +And even had your uncle been well enough to go with us, his presence +would but have created an additional cause for wonder; so as soon as +we arrived, and while you went up with the Captain, I wrote my letter +and despatched my man. I expect Lady Ellinor will be here before nine +o'clock. Meanwhile, I have already seen that infamous waiting-woman, +and taken care to prevent any danger from her garrulity. And you will +be pleased to hear that I have hit upon a mode of satisfying the +curiosity of our friend Mrs Grundy--that is, 'The World'--without +injury to any one. We must suppose that that footman of Trevanion's +was out of his mind--it is but a charitable, and your good father +would say, a philosophical supposition. All great knavery is madness! +The world could not get on if truth and goodness were not the natural +tendencies of sane minds. Do you understand?" + +"Not quite." + +"Why, the footman, being out of his mind, invented this mad story of +Trevanion's illness, frightened Lady Ellinor and Miss Trevanion out of +their wits with his own chimera, and hurried them both off, one after +the other. I having heard from Trevanion, and knowing he could not +have been ill when the servant left him, set off, as was natural in +so old a friend of the family, saved her from the freaks of a maniac, +who, getting more and more flighty, was beginning to play the Jack o' +Lantern, and leading her, Heaven knows where! over the country;--and +then wrote to Lady Ellinor to come to her. It is but a hearty laugh at +our expense, and Mrs Grundy is content. If you don't want her to pity, +or backbite, let her laugh. She is a she-Cerberus--she wants to eat +you: well--stop her mouth with a cake." + +"Yes," continued this better sort of Aristippus, so wise under all his +seeming levities; "the cue thus given, everything favours it. If that +rogue of a lackey quoted Shakspeare as much in the servant's hall as +he did while I was binding him neck and heels in the kitchen, that's +enough for all the household to declare he was moon-stricken; and if +we find it necessary to do anything more, why, we must get him to go +into Bedlam for a month or two. The disappearance of the waiting-woman +is natural; either I or Lady Ellinor send her about her business for +her folly in being so gulled by the lunatic. If that's unjust, why, +injustice to servants is common enough--public and private. Neither +minister nor lackey can be forgiven, if he help us into a scrape. One +must vent one's passion on something. Witness my poor cane; though, +indeed, a better illustration would be the cane that Louis XIV. broke +on a footman, because his majesty was out of humour with a prince +whose shoulders were too sacred for royal indignation. + +"So you see," concluded Lord Castleton, lowering his voice, "that your +uncle, amongst all his other causes of sorrow, may think at least that +his name is spared in his son's. And the young man himself may find +reform easier, when freed from that despair of the possibility of +redemption, which Mrs Grundy inflicts upon those who--Courage, then; +life is long!" + +"My very words!" I cried; "and so repeated by you, Lord Castleton, they +seem prophetic." + +"Take my advice, and don't lose sight of your cousin, while his pride +is yet humbled, and his heart perhaps softened. I don't say this only +for his sake. No, it is your poor uncle I think of: noble old fellow. +And now, I think it right to pay Lady Ellinor the respect of repairing, +as well as I can, the havoc three sleepless nights have made on the +exterior of a gentleman who is on the shady side of remorseless forty." + +Lord Castleton here left me, and I wrote to my father, begging him +to meet us at the next stage, (which was the nearest point from the +high road to the Tower,) and I sent off the letter by a messenger on +horseback. That task done, I leant my head upon my hand, and a profound +sadness settled upon me, despite all my efforts to face the future, and +think only of the duties of life--not its sorrows. + + +CHAPTER LXXXIII. + +Before nine o'clock, Lady Ellinor arrived, and went straight into Miss +Trevanion's room. I took refuge in my uncle's. Roland was awake and +calm, but so feeble that he made no effort to rise; and it was his +calm, indeed, that alarmed me the most--it was like the calm of nature +thoroughly exhausted. He obeyed me mechanically, as a patient takes +from your hand the draught, of which he is almost unconscious, when I +pressed him to take food. He smiled on me faintly when I spoke to him; +but made me a sign that seemed to implore silence. Then he turned his +face from me, and buried it in the pillow; and I thought that he slept +again, when, raising himself a little, and feeling for my hand, he said +in a scarcely audible voice,-- + +"Where is he?" + +"Would you see him, sir?" + +"No, no; that would kill me--and then--what would become of him?" + +"He has promised me an interview, and in that interview I feel assured +he will obey your wishes, whatever they are." + +Roland made no answer. + +"Lord Castleton has arranged all, so that his name and madness (thus +let us call it) will never be known." + +"Pride, pride! pride still!"--murmured the old soldier. "The name, the +name--well, that is much; but the living soul!--I wish Austin were +here." + +"I have sent for him, sir." + +Roland pressed my hand, and was again silent. Then he began to mutter, +as I thought, incoherently, about "the Peninsula and obeying orders; +and how some officer woke Lord Wellesley at night, and said that +something or other (I could not catch what--the phrase was technical +and military) was impossible; and how Lord Wellesley asked 'Where's +the order-book?' and looking into the order-book, said, 'Not at all +impossible, for it is in the order-book;' and so Lord Wellesley turned +round and went to sleep again." Then suddenly Roland half rose, and +said in a voice clear and firm, "But Lord Wellesley, though a great +captain, was a fallible man, sir, and the order-book was his own mortal +handiwork.--Get me the Bible!" + +Oh Roland, Roland! and I had feared that thy mind was wandering! + +So I went down and borrowed a Bible in large characters, and placed it +on the bed before him, opening the shutters, and letting in God's day +upon God's word. + +I had just done this, when there was a slight knock at the door. +I opened it, and Lord Castleton stood without. He asked me, in a +whisper, if he might see my uncle. I drew him in gently, and pointed +to the soldier of life "learning what was not impossible" from the +unerring Order-Book. + +Lord Castleton gazed with a changing countenance, and, without +disturbing my uncle, stole back. I followed him, and gently closed the +door. + +"You must save his son," he said in a faltering voice--"you must; and +tell me how to help you. That sight!--no sermon ever touched me more. +Now come down, and receive Lady Ellinor's thanks. We are going. She +wants me to tell my own tale to my old friend, Mrs Grundy: so I go with +them. Come." + +On entering the sitting-room, Lady Ellinor came up and fairly embraced +me. I need not repeat her thanks, still less the praises, which fell +cold and hollow on my ear. My gaze rested on Fanny where she stood +apart--her eyes, heavy with fresh tears, bent on the ground. And the +sense of all her charms--the memory of the tender, exquisite kindness +she had shown to the stricken father; the generous pardon she had +extended to the criminal son; the looks she had bent upon me on that +memorable night--looks that had spoken such trust in my presence--the +moment in which she had clung to me for protection, and her breath +been warm upon my cheek,--all these rushed over me; and I felt that +the struggle of months was undone--that I had never loved her as I +loved her then--when I saw her but to lose her evermore! And then there +came for the first, and, I now rejoice to think, for the only time, a +bitter, ungrateful accusation against the cruelty of fortune and the +disparities of life. What was it that set our two hearts eternally +apart, and made hope impossible? Not nature, but the fortune that gives +a second nature to the world. Ah, could I then think that it is in +that second nature that the soul is ordained to seek its trials, and +that the elements of human virtue find their harmonious place! What I +answered I know not. Neither know I how long I stood there listening to +sounds which seemed to have no meaning, till there came other sounds +which indeed woke my sense, and made my blood run cold to hear,--the +tramp of the horses, the grating of the wheels, the voice at the door +that said "All was ready." + +Then Fanny lifted her eyes, and they met mine; and then involuntarily +and hastily she moved a few steps towards me, and I clasped my right +hand to my heart, as if to still its beating, and remained still. Lord +Castleton had watched us both. I felt that watch was upon us, though +I had till then shunned his looks: now, as I turned my eyes from +Fanny's, that look came full upon me--soft, compassionate, benignant. +Suddenly, and with an unutterable expression of nobleness, the marquis +turned to Lady Ellinor, and said--"Pardon me for telling you an old +story. A friend of mine--a man of my own years--had the temerity to +hope that he might one day or other win the affections of a lady young +enough to be his daughter, and whom circumstances and his own heart +led him to prefer from all her sex. My friend had many rivals; and you +will not wonder--for you have seen the lady. Among them was a young +gentleman, who for months had been an inmate of the same house--(Hush, +Lady Ellinor! you will hear me out; the interest of my story is to +come)--who respected the sanctity of the house he had entered, and left +it when he felt he loved--for he was poor, and the lady rich. Some +time after, this gentleman saved the lady from a great danger, and was +then on the eve of leaving England--(Hush! again--hush!) My friend was +present when these two young persons met, before the probable absence +of many years, and so was the mother of the lady to whose hand he +still hoped one day to aspire. He saw that his young rival wished to +say, 'Farewell!' and without a witness: that farewell was all that his +honour and his reason could suffer him to say. My friend saw that the +lady felt the natural gratitude for a great service, and the natural +pity for a generous and unfortunate affection; for so, Lady Ellinor, +he only interpreted the sob that reached his ear! What think you my +friend did? Your high mind at once conjectures. He said to himself--'If +I am ever to be blest with the heart which, in spite of disparity of +years, I yet hope to win, let me show how entire is the trust that I +place in its integrity and innocence: let the romance of first youth be +closed--the farewell of pure hearts be spoken--unembittered by the idle +jealousies of one mean suspicion.' With that thought, which _you_, Lady +Ellinor, will never stoop to blame, he placed his hand on that of the +noble mother, drew her gently towards the door, and, calmly confident +of the result, left these two young natures to the unwitnessed impulse +of maiden honour and manly duty." + +All this was said and done with a grace and earnestness that thrilled +the listeners: word and action suited each to each with so inimitable +a harmony, that the spell was not broken till the voice ceased and the +door closed. + +That mournful bliss for which I had so pined was vouchsafed: I was +alone with her to whom, indeed, honour and reason forbade me to say +more than the last farewell. + +It was some time before we recovered--before we _felt_ that we were +alone. + +O ye moments! that I can now recall with so little sadness in the +mellow and sweet remembrance, rest ever holy and undisclosed in the +solemn recesses of the heart. Yes!--whatever confession of weakness +was interchanged, we were not unworthy of the trust that permitted the +mournful consolation of the parting. No trite love-tale--with vows +not to be fulfilled, and hopes that the future must belie--mocked the +realities of the life that lay before us. Yet on the confines of the +dream, we saw the day rising cold upon the world: and if--children +as we wellnigh were--we shrunk somewhat from the light, we did not +blaspheme the sun, and cry "There is darkness in the dawn!" + +All that we attempted was to comfort and strengthen each other for that +which must be: not seeking to conceal the grief we felt, but promising, +with simple faith, to struggle against the grief. If vow were pledged +between us--_that_ was the vow--each for the other's sake would strive +to enjoy the blessings Heaven left us still. Well may I say that we +were children! I know not, in the broken words that passed between us, +in the sorrowful hearts which those words revealed--I know not if there +were that which they who own, in human passion, but the storm and the +whirlwind, would call the love of maturer years--the love that gives +fire to the song, and tragedy to the stage; but I know that there was +neither a word nor a thought which made the sorrow of the children a +rebellion to the heavenly Father. + +And again the door unclosed, and Fanny walked with a firm step to her +mother's side, and, pausing there, extended her hand to me, and said, +as I bent over it, "Heaven WILL be with you!" + +A word from Lady Ellinor; a frank smile from him--the rival; one last, +last glance from the soft eyes of Fanny, and then Solitude rushed +upon me--rushed, as something visible, palpable, overpowering. I felt +it in the glare of the sunbeam--I heard it in the breath of the air: +like a ghost it rose there--where _she_ had filled the space with her +presence but a moment before? A something seemed gone from the universe +for ever; a change like that of death passed through my being; and +when I woke to feel that my being lived again, I knew that it was my +youth and its poet-land that were no more, and that I had passed with +an unconscious step, which never could retrace its way, into the hard +world of laborious man! + + + + +THE GAME LAWS IN SCOTLAND. + + +Those who have been accustomed to watch the tactics of the Manchester +party cannot have overlooked or forgotten the significant coincidence, +in point of time, between Mr Bright's attack on the Game Laws, and +the last grand assault upon the barrier which formerly protected +British agriculture. That wily lover of peace among all orders of +men saw how much it would assist the ultimate designs of his party +to excite distrust and enmity between the two great divisions of the +protectionist garrison--the owners and the cultivators of land; and the +anti-game-law demonstration was planned for that purpose. The manoeuvre +was rendered useless by the sudden and unconditional surrender of +the fortress by that leader, whose system of defence has ever been, +as Capefigue says--"céder incessamment." It is impossible, however, +to disguise the true source of the sudden sympathy for the farmers' +grievances, which in 1845 and 1846 yearned in the compassionate bowels +of the agrarian leaders, and led to the lengthened inquiries of Mr +Bright's committee. + +But it seems we are not yet done with the game-law agitation. It is +true the last rampart of protection is levelled to the ground: but the +subjugation of the country interest to the potentates of the factory +is not yet accomplished. The owners of the soil have not yet bowed low +enough to the Baal of free trade; their influence is not altogether +obliterated, nor their privileges sufficiently curtailed; and therefore +Mr Bright and the Anti-Game-Law Association have buckled on their +armour once more, and the tenantry are again invited to join in the +crusade against those who, they are assured, have always been their +inveterate oppressors; and, to cut of as much as possible the remotest +chance of an amicable settlement, it is proclaimed that no concession +will be accepted--no proposal of adjustment listened to--short of the +total and immediate abolition of every statute on the subject of game. + +The truth is, that this branch of the agitation trade is too valuable +to be lost sight of by those who earn their bread or their popularity +in that line of business. Hundreds of honest peasants, rotting in +unwholesome gaols, their wives and children herded in thousands to +the workhouse--hard-working tenants sequestrated by a grasping and +selfish aristocracy--these are all too fertile topics for the platform +philanthropist to be risked by leaving open any door for conciliation; +and therefore the terms demanded are such as it is well known cannot be +accepted. + +Our attention has been attracted to the doings of an association which +has for its professed object the abolition of all game laws, and which +has recently opened a new campaign in Scotland, under the leadership +of the chief magistrate of Edinburgh, and one of the representatives +of the city. Of course the construction of such societies is no +longer a mystery to any one; and that under our notice appears to +be got up on the most approved pattern, and with all the newest +improvements. A staff of active officials directs its movements, and +collects funds--lecturers, pamphleteers, newspaper editors are paid or +propitiated. From the raw material of Mr Bright's blue-books the most +exaggerated statements and calculations of the most zealous witnesses +are carefully picked out, and worked up into a picture, which is held +up to a horrified public as a true representation of the condition +of the rural districts; and the game laws become, in the hands of +such artists, a monster pestilence, enough to have made the hair of +Pharaoh himself to stand on end. It is not to be wondered at if some, +who have not had the opportunity of investigating for themselves the +effects of these laws, have been misled by the bold ingenuity of +the professed fabricators of grievances; but it is a fact which we +shall again have occasion to notice, that they have made but little +impression on the tenant farmers. Of the few members of that class who +have taken an active share in the agitation, we doubt if there is +one who could prove a loss from game on any year's crop to the value +of a five-pound note.[2] The fact is, that while no one will deny the +existence of individual cases of hardship from the operation of the +game laws, you will hear comparatively little about them among those +who are represented as groaning under their intolerable burden. If you +would learn the weight of the grievance, you must go to the burghs +and town-councils; and there--among small grocers and dissenting +clergymen, who would be puzzled to distinguish a pheasant from a +bird-of-paradise--you will be made acquainted with the extent of the +desolation of these "fearful wildfowl:" from them you will learn the +true shape and dimensions of "the game-law incubus," which, as one +orator of the tribe tells us, "is gradually changing the surface of +this once fertile land into a desert." + +But while we are willing to allow for a certain leaven of misled +sincerity among the supporters of this association, it is evident that, +among its most active and influential leaders, the relief of the farmer +or the relaxation of penal laws is not the real object. We shall show +from their own writings and speeches the most convincing proof that +they contemplate far more extensive and fundamental changes than the +mere abolition of the game laws. There is not, indeed, much congruity +or system in the opinions which we shall have to quote; but in one +point it will be seen that they all concur--a vindictive hostility to +the possessors of land, and an eager desire to abridge or destroy the +advantages attached, or supposed to be attached, to that description of +property. Thus the system of entails--the freedom of real property from +legacy and probate duty--the landlord's preferable lien for the rent of +his land, figure in the debates of the abolitionist orators, along with +other topics equally relevant to the game laws, as oppressive burdens +on the industry of the country. The system of the tenure of land, also, +is pronounced to be a crying injustice; and one gentleman modestly +insists on the necessity of a law for compelling the landlord to make +payment to his tenant at the expiry of every lease for any increase in +the value of the farm during his occupation. The author of an "Essay +on the Evils of Game-Laws," which the association rewarded with their +highest premium, and which, therefore, we are fairly entitled to take +as an authorised exposition of their sentiments, thus enlarges on "the +withering and ruinous thraldom" to which the farmers are subjected by a +system of partial legislation. + +"No individual," he complains, "of this trade has ever risen to +importance and dignity in the state. While merchants of every other +class, lawyers, and professional men of every other class, have often +reached the highest honours which the crown has to bestow, no farmer +has ever yet attained even to a seat in the legislature, or to any +civic title of distinction; uncertain as the trade is naturally, and +harassed and weighed down by those sad enactments the game laws, to +be enrolled among the class of farmers is now tantamount to saying, +that you belong to a caste which is for ever excluded from the rewards +of fair and honourable ambition."--(Mr Cheine Shepherd's _Essay_. +Edinburgh, 1847.) + +The association of the game laws with the scorns which "patient merit +of the unworthy takes," is at least ingenious. We confess, with Mr +Cheine Shepherd, that the aspect of the times is wofully discouraging +to any hope that a coronet, "or even the lowest order of knighthood," +will in our days become the usual reward for skill + + "In small-boned lambs, the horse-hoe, or the drill." + +We cannot flatter him with the prospect of becoming a Cincinnatus; or +that we shall live to see the time when muck shall make marquisates as +well as money; and perhaps the best advice, under the circumstances, +we can tender him, is that which the old oracle gave to certain unhappy +_shepherds_ in Virgil's time-- + + "Pascite, ut ante, boves, pueri--submittite tauros." + +Absurd, however, as the complaint of this ambitious Damon appears, it +indicates at least the extent of change which he and his patrons of +the association think they may justly demand. It is not, then, redress +of game-law grievances they aim at, but an indefinite change in the +social and political system of the country. If any one doubts this, +let him read the following extract from the address of Mr Wilson of +Glassmount:-- + +"Much _organic change_ must, however, precede the reforms +for which they were now agitating. _The suffrage must be +extended._--(applause)--and, above all, the voters must be protected +in the exercise of their functions by _the ballot_; for, in a country +where so great a disparity existed between the social condition of the +electoral body, parliamentary election, as now conducted under a system +of open voting, was only a delusion and a mockery."--(_Caledonian +Mercury_, Feb. 12, 1849.) + +From such an authority we cannot expect much amity towards the +aristocracy, who, he says, "it is notorious, are, in point of +political, scientific, and general knowledge, far behind those employed +in commerce and manufactures."[3] He compares the present state of +Britain with "the condition of France anterior to her first revolution, +when the ancient _noblesse_ possessed the same exclusive privileges +which are still enjoyed by the aristocracy of this country--and, among +the rest, _a game law_, which was administered with so much severity, +that it is admitted on all hands to have been the chief cause of that +convulsion which shook Europe to its centre."[4] + +France and its institutions form a subject of constant eulogy to this +gentleman, whose speeches show him to be by far the ablest, and, at +the same time, the most straightforward of the League lecturers. He +admonishes our landed proprietors to visit that country. "In the social +condition of that country they would see the results of the abolition +of those class privileges and distinctions which their order are still +permitted to enjoy in England; and they would there find a widespread +comfort in all the rural districts, which has been produced by the +subdivision of property, and which is nowhere to be found in this +country, where game laws, and laws of entail and primogeniture, are +maintained for the exclusive amusement and aggrandisement," &c.[5] + +We are willing to believe that Mr Wilson of Glassmount has never +himself visited the country whose condition he longs to see resembled +here; and that it is simply from ignorance that he eulogises the +agricultural prosperity of a land where five bushels of wheat is +the average yield of an imperial acre--where, in two generations, +the landed system of the Code Napoleon has produced five and a-half +millions of proprietors, the half of whom have revenues not exceeding +£2 a-year, and whom the greatest statist of France describes as +"_propriétaires républicains et affamés_." Our object, however, is +not to reason with adversaries of this stamp, but simply to show, +from their own words, the nature of the reforms they contemplate, +under cover of a design to ameliorate the game laws. It may be said, +indeed, that such indiscreet avowals of the more zealous members of the +Anti-Game-Law Association cannot be fairly ascribed to its leaders. But +though their language is, of course, more wary, it were easy to select +from their orations even equally strong proofs of that bitter hostility +to the landed interest, which prompts Mr Bright himself to cheer on his +followers with the announcement that the people are ready to throw off +"the burdens imposed on them by _an aristocracy who oppress, grind them +down, and scourge them_;" and "that _the time is now come to leach the +proprietors of the soil the limits of their rights_."[6] + +A reference to the proceedings of the anti-game-law leaders will show +that the specimens we have given are only fair samples of the factious +spirit--the querulous, yet bullying and vindictive tone, in which +they have conducted this controversy. No one can seriously believe +that a hostility, directed not against these laws in particular, but +against the whole social and political system of our country, can be +founded on a wise and deliberate review of the effects of the statutes +in question. Discontent with things in general is a disease which +admits of no remedy, and which any ordinary treatment, by argument or +concession, would only aggravate. + +There are many, however, of more moderate views, who are interested +in knowing to what extent the complaints they have heard are founded +on reason, and are capable of redress. We purpose, for the present, +to limit our remarks principally to the operation of the Scotch law +upon game, both because agitation on this subject has recently been +most active on this side of the Tweed, and because we think the +important differences in the game-laws of England and Scotland have +not been sufficiently attended to, and have given rise to much popular +misapprehension. + +All the abolition orators begin by telling us that game laws are a +remnant of the feudal system--that they originated in the tyranny and +oppression of the middle ages, and are, therefore, wholly unsuited to +our improved state of society. Such an origin, of course, condemns them +at once; for, in the popular mind, feudal law is somehow synonymous +with slavery, rape, robbery, and all that is damnable. The truth is, +however, that the game law of Scotland has no more connexion with the +feudal law than with the code of Lycurgus. Even as regards England, +there is good ground for questioning Blackstone's doctrine that the +right to pursue and kill game is, in all cases, traceable to, and +derived from, the crown. But in Scotland, at all events, there never +existed any such exclusive system of forest laws as that which grew +up under the Norman kings, and which King John was finally compelled +to renounce. The broad and liberal principle out of which the Scotch +game law has grown, is the maxim of the civil law--_quod nullius est +occupanti conceditur_--that any one may lawfully appropriate and +enjoy whatever belongs to no one else--a maxim which must necessarily +form the fountainhead of all property. All wild animals, therefore, +may be seized by any one, and the law will defend his possession of +them. But out of this very principle itself there naturally springs a +most important restriction of the common privilege of pursuing game; +for the possessor of _land_, as well as the possessor of game, must +be protected in the exclusive enjoyment of what (though originally +_res nullius_) he has made his own by occupation or otherwise. It is +evident, then, that the contingent right of the hunter to the animals +he may succeed in seizing, can be exercised to its full extent only in +an unoccupied and uncultivated country; and must give way, wherever +the soil has become the subject of property, to the prior and perfect +right of the landowner. Accordingly, we find that in the Roman law +the affirmation of the common right to hunt wild animals is coupled +with this important restriction, under the very same title--"Qui +alienum fundum ingreditur, venandi aut aucupandi gratiâ, potest a +domino prohiberi ne ingrediatur;" and, notwithstanding the perplexed +and anomalous nature of the tenure of land among the Romans, we find +everywhere traces of a strict law of trespass, from the Twelve Tables +down to Justinian. And in this the civil law was followed by that +of Scotland. Subject to this inevitable restriction, and to a few +regulative enactments of less importance, the privilege continued open +to all, without distinction, up to the year 1621.[7] About this time +the tenor of the statutes shows that game of all kinds had become +exceedingly scarce; and it was probably with a view of preventing its +extirpation, as well as of discouraging trespass, which, from the +increase of the population, had increased in frequency, that, in the +above-mentioned year, an act was introduced which was, without doubt, a +decided violation of the principle on which the system was originally +founded. The act 1621 prohibited every one from hunting or hawking +who had not "a plough of land in heritage;" and subsequent statutes +extended this prohibition to the sale and purchase, and even to the +possession of game, by persons not thus qualified. This, we repeat, +was a direct departure from the leading maxim of the law, as it stood +previously; and we can see no reason whatever for now retaining it on +the statute-book. It is notorious, however, that, practically, these +statutes have now fallen into desuetude, and that the mere want of the +heritable qualification has not, for a long period, been made a ground +for prosecution. In fact, the privilege is open to any one provided +with the landlord's permission, and who has paid the tax demanded by +the Exchequer, though he may not possess a foot of land. When, then, we +find the orators of Edinburgh complaining of the harsh and intolerable +operation of the qualification statutes, it affords the most complete +evidence either of their utter ignorance of the actual state of the +law, or of the weakness of a cause that needs such disingenuous +advocacy. + +The fiscal license, which was first required by the act 24th Geo. III. +c. 43, cannot be justly regarded in the light of an infraction of the +general principle of the Scotch law. Its direct object is not the +limitation of the right of hunting, but the maintenance of the public +revenue; and it will be readily admitted by all reasonable men that, on +the one hand, there cannot be a less objectionable source of taxation +than the privilege in question, and, on the other, that the duty is +not excessive, when we find above 60,000 persons in Great Britain +voluntarily subjecting themselves to it every year. + +The two other principal enactments regarding the pursuit of game in +Scotland, commonly known as the Night and the Day Trespass Acts, 9 +Geo. IV. c. 69, and 2 and 3 Will. IV. c. 68, cannot here be criticised +in detail. Their provisions contain one or two anomalies which we +shall have occasion to notice below, in suggesting some practicable +amendments on the present law. But as to their general spirit, we +venture to affirm that they are most legitimate developments of +the general principle above stated. In every class of injuries to +the rights of others, there are some species of the offence which, +from their frequency, or from their being difficult to detect, must +necessarily be prevented by more stringent prohibitions than those +attached to the genus in general; and in the same way that orchards +for example, timber, salmon fisheries, and many other subjects are +protected by special penalties, so has it been found requisite to +amplify the common law of trespass, in its application to that +particular manner of trespass which is confessedly the most frequent +and annoying. If the penalties are unnecessarily stringent, let them +by all means be modified; but their severity, in comparison with the +punishment of ordinary trespass, is not inconsistent with justice, or +the principles of wise legislation. + +We have adverted, in this hasty sketch, only to the prominent features +and growth of the law of Scotland; but a more detailed comparison with +that of England and other countries of Europe, especially when recent +statutes and decisions are taken into view, will fully justify the +opinion of Hutcheson and other well qualified judges, that it is "the +most liberal and enlightened of all laws as to game." It recognises, +of course, no such thing as _property_ in game more than in any other +animals of a wild nature. The proprietor of a manor has no right to the +pheasant he has fed until he shall have actually brought it to bag, or +at least disabled it from escaping; and the right which he then first +acquires is quite independent of his ownership of the land. + +To many the distinction thus created, by considering all game as wild +animals, appears too theoretical; and no doubt it is a question for +zoologists rather than for lawyers to decide, whether there really be +in animals any such permanent and invariable character as to justify +such a universal distinction. There is the strongest presumption +that all our domesticated animals were at one time _feræ_; and it is +rather a difficult task to show reason for considering some classes as +"_indomitabiles_," when we see the reindeer, of a tribe naturally the +most shy of man, living in the hut of his Lapland master--and when we +recollect that among birds, the duck, turkey, and peacock, with us the +most civilised and familiar of poultry, are elsewhere most indubitable +_feræ_ at this very moment. It has been argued that the commoner kinds +of game, under the system of rearing and feeding now so general, are +scarcely more shy or migratory in their habits than those animals +which the law contrasts with them as _mansuefactæ_, and therefore +regards as property: that even when straying in the fields, we may as +reasonably impute to them the _animus revertendi_--the instinct of +returning to their haunts and coverts, as to pigeons and bees which the +law for this reason retains under its protection, though abroad from +their cots or hives; that the common objection as to the difficulty +of identifying game, is one which applies as strongly to many other +subjects recognised as vested in an owner; and finally, that, being +now in reality valuable articles of commerce, these classes of animals +should cease to be viewed as incapable of becoming property. It is +difficult to gainsay the premises on which this proposal is built: +and if we look to analogy, it cannot be doubted that the invariable +tendency of civilisation is towards the restriction of the category of +_res nullius_, and by art and culture to subject all products of the +earth to the use, and consequently to the possession of man. But, apart +from this speculative view of the subject--it seems to us that, while +common opinion is unprepared for so fundamental a change in the law of +Scotland, the alteration proposed would not in practice improve the +position of any of those classes who are affected by the operation of +the present game laws, nor materially obviate any of the bad effects +usually ascribed to them. + +But it is time now to turn to those alleged evils, and to form some +judgment as to whether they are in reality so weighty and numerous, +that nothing short of the total abolition of the game laws can +effectually check them. The abrogation of a law is no doubt an easy way +of overcoming the difficulty of amending it--in the same way that the +expedient of wearing no breeches will unquestionably save you the cost +of patching them; and as a device for diminishing game-law offences, +the total repeal of all game laws is perhaps as simple and efficacious +a recipe as could well be conceived. But let us first inquire into the +existence of the disease, before we resort to so summary a remedy. + +There are three distinct parties who are said to be injured by the +operation of these laws--_The community_ at large suffer chiefly by +being deprived, it is alleged, of a very large proportion of the +produce of the soil, which, if not consumed by game, would go to +increase the stock of human food--_The poacher_ has to bear the double +injustice of a law which first makes the temptation, and then punishes +the transgression--_The farmer_ finds, in the protection given to game, +a source of constant annoyance, loss, and disappointment. We shall take +these complainants in their order. + +The public, (we are told by the enlightened commercial gentleman who +represents the metropolis of Scotland,) the public have _a right_ to +see that none of the means for maintaining human life are wasted--a +great popular principle popularly and broadly stated. It is possible, +however, that Mr Cowan may not have contemplated all the admirable +results of his principle. He may, perchance, not have seen that it +sweeps away, not only every hare and pheasant, but every animal +whatever that cannot be eaten or turned to profit in the ledger. His +carriage horses eat as much as would maintain six poor paper-makers and +their families; the keep of his children's pony would board and educate +four orphans at the Ragged Schools. But we are not yet done with him; +for he cannot stick his fork into that tempting fowl before him until +he can satisfy us, the public, that the grain it has consumed would +not have been more profitably applied in fattening sheep or cattle. +And what, pray, is that array of plate on the _buffet_ behind him but +so much capital held back from the creation of employment and food +for that starving population, which he assures us (though every one +but himself knows it is nonsense) is increasing at the rate of 1000 +per diem! Political economy of this quality may do very well for the +Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce; but we really hope, for the credit of +the city he represents, that he will not expose himself on any other +stage, nor consider it a necessary part of his duties as a legislator, +to prescribe the precise manner in which corn shall or shall not be +used. + +The supposed amount of destruction by game of cereal and other produce, +has afforded a fine field for the more erudite of the game law +opponents. Mr Gayford's celebrated calculation, that three hares eat +as much as a full-grown sheep, is generally assumed as the infallible +basis of their estimates, and the most astounding results are evolved +from it.[8] Mr Charles Stevenson thinks the destruction cannot be less +than two bushels per acre over the whole kingdom, representing a total +of _two hundred thousand quarters_. "_If it be the case_," says Mr +Chiene Shepherd, with a modest hesitation--"if it be the case, that +throughout this empire the farmers, in general, suffer more loss from +game than they pay in the form of poor's tax (_and I suppose it cannot +be doubted that they do so_--that in most parts they suffer _more than +double_ the amount of their poor-rates,) then it follows, of course, +that there is more destruction from game than would make up the sum +collected from poor-rates from the whole lands of the empire."[9] +Double the amount of poor-rates paid by land may be taken roughly at +some £9,000,000. But there are others who think even this too low +an estimate, and throw into the scale (a million out or in is of no +importance) the county rate, highway rate, and all the other direct +burdens on land put together! Let us carry on the line of calculation +a step further: if game animals _alone_ consume all this, and if we +allow a fair proportion of voracity to the minor, but more numerous +_feræ_--rats, mice, rooks, wood-pigeons, &c.--it is clear as daylight +that it is a mere delusion to think that a single quarter of wheat +can, by any possibility, escape the universal devastation. There is +no lunatic so incurable as your rampant arithmetician; and the only +delusion that could stand a comparison with the above would be the +attempt to reason such men out of their absurdities. + +But the actual waste of grain is not, it seems, the only way in which +the public suffers. The annual cost to the community of prosecutions +under the game acts is an enormous and annually increasing burden. +This is proved, of course, by the same system of statistics run mad as +that of which we have just given some specimens. The game convictions +in the county of Bedford, it is discovered, were, in the year 1843, 36 +per cent of the total _male_ summary convictions; and the lovers of the +marvellous, who listen to such statements, are quietly left to infer, +not only that this is usually the case in Bedfordshire, but that a +similar state of things prevails throughout England and Scotland also. +They are sagacious enough, however, never to refer to general results. +They carefully avoid any mention of the fact, (which, however, any +one may learn for himself, by referring to Mr Phillipps' tables,) that +the average of the game convictions during the five years these tables +include, was, for _all England_, not 36, but a fraction over 6 per cent +of the whole. Now, let us see how the case stands in Scotland. We have +observed that our northern orators always draw their illustrations +from the south of the Tweed; and we have, therefore, looked with some +curiosity into the records of our Scotch county courts, as affording +some test of the real extent of the grievance in this part of the +empire. Unfortunately these records are not preserved in a tabular +form by all the counties; but we have been favoured with returns from +five of the most important on the east coast, which we selected as +being those in which the preservation of game is notoriously carried +to the greatest extent. An abstract of these returns will be found +below,[10] and will suffice to show how false, in regard to Scotland, +is the assertion that game prosecutions are alarmingly numerous; while +every one knows that the expense is borne, not by the public, but by +the private party, except in very rare and aggravated cases. From these +it appears that the whole number of game cases tried, or reported to +the authorities, in these five counties, during the years 1846 and +1847, was one hundred and forty-four, being about 2.5 per cent of the +whole. Fifeshire (which was selected to be shown up before Mr Bright's +committee as an abyss of game-law abuses) had, in 1848, out of eight +hundred and thirty offences, only _three_ under the game acts. As to +the alleged progressive _increase_ of such cases, the subjoined table +of the numbers for the five years preceding 1848[11] proves that, +whether it be true or not as respects isolated districts of England, +that the number of game-law trials is every year becoming a heavier +burden on the public, it certainly is not true in four of the largest +and most _game-keeping_ counties of Scotland. + +We have now to make a remark or two on the plea set up on behalf of +the poacher against the present game laws. What is it that makes a man +become a poacher? "Temptation," says Mr Bright, "and temptation only. +How can you expect that the poor but honest labourer, who, on his way +home from his daily toil, sees hares and pheasants swarming round +his path, should abstain from eking out his scanty meal with one of +those wild animals, which, though on your land, are no more yours than +his? The idea would never have occurred to him if he had not seen the +pheasants; and if there had been no game laws, he would have remained +an upright and useful member of society." Such, we believe, is the +beau-ideal of the poacher, as we find it in abolitionist speeches, and +in popular afterpieces at the theatre. He is, of course, always poor, +but virtuous,-- + + "A friendless man, at whose dejected eye + Th'unfeeling proud one looks, and passes by." + +We shall not quarrel, however, with the fidelity of this fancy sketch; +but we may be allowed to doubt whether any large proportion of those +who incur penalties for game trespass have been led into temptation +by the mere abundance of game in large preserves. Men of plain sense +will think it just as fair to ascribe the frequency of larceny to the +abundance of bandanas which old gentlemen _will_ keep dangling from +their pockets while pursuing their studies at print-shop windows. +The evidence taken by the committee seems rather to show that the +poacher's trade thrives best where there is what is called "a fair +sprinkling" of ill-watched game, than where he has to encounter a staff +of vigilant and well-trained keepers. But what though the case were +otherwise? Suppose the existence of the temptation to be admitted, is +it to be seriously argued that the province of legislation is not to +prohibit offence, but to remove all temptation from the offenders? not +to protect men in the enjoyment of their rights, but to abridge or +annihilate those rights, that they may not be invaded by others? This, +we affirm, is the principle when reduced to simple terms; and startling +enough it is to those who have been accustomed to think that the +proper tendency of laws and civilisation is in precisely the opposite +direction. What although a breach of these laws may sometimes be the +commencement of a course of crime, are there no other temptations which +open the road to the hulks or the penitentiary? If the magistrates of +our towns, who so vehemently denounce the danger of the game laws, +are sincere in their search after the sources of crime, and in their +efforts to repress them, we can help their inquiries--we can show +them at their own doors, and swarming in every street, temptations to +debauchery, which have made a hundred crimes for every one that can be +traced to game laws,--and yet we cannot perceive that the zeal of our +civic reformers has been very strenuously directed to discourage or to +diminish the numbers of these dens of dissipation. We can refer them +to the reports of our gaol chaplains for proof that three out of every +four prisoners are ignorant of the simplest rudiments of education; and +yet a praiseworthy attempt lately made in our metropolis to promote +instruction by means of apprentice schools, was not favoured with the +countenance of our chief magistrate, because he happened to be engaged +in the more philanthropic duty of presiding at a meeting for condemning +the game laws! + +If we are called upon to assign a reason for the frequency of poaching, +we should attribute it neither to the mere superabundance of game +by itself, nor yet to the pressure of poverty, but very much to the +same sort of temptation that encourages the common thief to filch a +watch or a handkerchief--namely, the facility of disposing of his +spoil. Well-stocked covers may present opportunities to the poacher +for turning his craft to account, but it is plain the practice would +be comparatively rare if he did not know that at the bar of the next +alehouse he can barter his sackful of booty either for beer or ready +coin, and no questions asked. Every village of 1000 or 1500 inhabitants +offers a market for his wares, and any surplus in the hands of the +country dealer can be transferred in eighteen hours to the London +poulterer's window. There cannot be a doubt that the consumption of +game has increased enormously since the beginning of this century. It +was formerly unknown at the tables of men of moderate means, except +when haply it came as an occasional remembrance from some country +relation, or grateful M.P. Now-a-days the spouse of any third-rate +attorney or thriving tradesman would consider her housekeeping +disgraced for ever, if she failed to present the expected pheasant +or brace of moorfowl "when the goodman feasts his friends." And even +if we descend to the artisans and operatives of our large towns, it +will be found that hares and rabbits form a wholesome and by no means +unusual variation of their daily fare. We have the evidence of one of +the great Leadenhall game dealers, that in the month of November hares +are sent up to London in such quantities, that they are often enabled +to sell them at 9d., and even at 6d. each. The average weight of a hare +may be taken at about 8 lb.; and if we deduct one-half for the skin, +&c., there will remain 4 lb. of nutritious food, which, even at 2s., +is cheaper than beef or mutton; while the occasional change cannot but +be both agreeable and beneficial to those who have so limited a choice +of food within reach of their means. Some idea may be formed of the +vast quantity of game brought into London, from the statements of Mr +Brooke, who buys £10,000 worth of game during the course of the winter; +and there are ten other great salesmen in Leadenhall market alone. +If we make allowance for the supplies sent directly to the smaller +poulterers, for the consumption in the other great towns throughout +the kingdom, and for the probably still larger quantity that never +comes into market at all, it is impossible to deny that game has now +become an important part of the food of the people, and that, as an +article of commerce, it deserves the attention of the legislature. Any +attempt to check the production and sale of a commodity for which there +is so general a demand, must prove both useless and mischievous. It +is in vain to proscribe it as an expensive luxury, and insist on the +substitution of less costly fare. It may be true, for anything we know, +that the grain or provender consumed by the 164,000 head of game, which +Mr Brooke disposed of in six months, might have produced a greater +weight of bullocks or Leicester wedders, (though this is extremely +unlikely, for the simple reason that grain, grass, and green crops form +only a _part_ of the food of any of the game species); but, whether +true or not, it is useless to prevent the rearing of game by any sort +of sumptuary enactment, direct or indirect. The proper course of +legislation is very plain. While compensation should be made exigible +for all damage from excess of game, and new statutory provision +made for this purpose, if the present law is insufficient--fair +encouragement should at the same time be given for the production, +in a legitimate way, of what is required for the use of the public. +Facilities should be afforded to the honest dealer for conducting +his trade without risk or disguise, and the useless remnant of the +qualification law in Scotland should be abolished. Measures of this +nature, by turning the constant demand for game into proper channels, +will prove the most effectual discouragement to the occupation of the +poacher, and to the reckless and irregular habits of life which it +generally induces. + +A very opposite result, we are persuaded, would follow from the +adoption of Mr Bright's quack recipe for putting an end to the practice +of poaching. By what indirect influence is the abolition of the game +laws expected to produce this effect? If, indeed, along with the game +laws, you sweep away also the law of common trespass--if you proclaim, +in the nineteenth century, a return to the habits of the golden age, +when, as Tibullus tells us-- + + "Nullus erat _custos_, nulla exclusura volentes Janua"; + +and if you authorise the populace at large to traverse every park and +enclosure, at all hours and seasons, and in any numbers and any manner +they please, then we can understand that a few months probably of +rustic riot and license may settle the question by the extermination of +the whole game species. But we have not yet met any game-law reformer +so rabid as to propose putting an end to the penalties on ordinary +trespass; on the contrary, we find most of them, (Sir Harry Verney and +Mr Pusey among the number,)[12] anticipating the necessity of arming +the law with much stronger powers for preventing common trespasses. +And even without such additional powers, will not the trespass law as +it stands be employed by proprietors to prevent interference with their +sports? Is it supposed that the abolition of the game statutes will at +once prevent the owners of great manors from rearing pheasants in their +own covers? It may indeed drive them to do so at a greater expense, +and to enlist additional watchers; but it is not likely that keen game +preservers will not avail themselves of such defences as the common law +may still leave them. Game then, we contend, may be thinned by this +plan, but it will not be exterminated. The consequence will be that +its price will be enhanced; but as the demand will still continue, the +trade of the poachers will remain as thriving as ever. He may have to +work harder and to trudge farther before he can fill his wallet; but +this will be compensated by the additional price; and if the present +quantity of game is diminished by one-half, the consequence will be +that his agents will be able to pay him five shillings a-head for +his pheasants instead of five shillings a-brace. In short, we should +anticipate, as the effects of abolishing the present statutes, that, +while many of the less wealthy owners of land would be deterred by the +expense from protecting game, and while the amusement (such as it is) +would become greatly more exclusive than it is now, such a measure +would not only fail to remove any of the inducements which tempt the +idle peasant to take to the predatory life of a poacher, but would, +in the outset at least, induce many to try it who never thought of it +before. + +We must now pass on to the considerations we have to offer on the +situation of the tenant-farmer as to game; and the first question that +suggests itself as to his case is this,--Whether the injury suffered by +tenants be really so serious and extensive as is represented? + +"There is no denying," says Mr Shepherd, in his _Essay_, (p. 12,) +"the notoriety of the fact that, _in a great majority of instances_, +this excessive power of infringement on the property of the tenant +through these laws has been abused. It has been almost _universally +abused_." Is this true as regards either England or Scotland? or is +it merely one of those vague and reckless affirmations which a man +writing for a purpose, and not for truth, is so apt to hazard, in +disregard or defiance of the facts before him? One thing we do find +to be notorious--that the committee's evidence of game abuses in +Scotland was limited _to one solitary case_, that of the estate of +Wemyss. And although we may very readily conceive that, with more time +and exertion, the agents of the league might have ferreted out other +instances, we may, nevertheless, be allowed to express our astonishment +that, on the slender foundation of this single case, Mr Bright should +have ventured to ask his committee to find the general fact proved, +that the prosperity of agriculture "_in many parts of Scotland_ as well +as England, is greatly impaired by the preservation of game." We learn +at least to estimate the value of the honourable gentleman's judgment, +and the amount of proof which an abolitionist regards as demonstration. +But the truth is, that the case of Scotland was not examined at all; +and the _rejected_ report of Mr Bright and his associates bears on its +face the most satisfactory evidence of their utter ignorance that the +law on this side the Tweed is a perfectly different system from that of +England. + +Will any believe that if our Scotch farmers, "in a great majority +of instances," found their property sacrificed, they would not have +universally joined in demanding the interference of the legislature? +But what is the fact? An examination of the reports on petitions +during the last two sessions shows that there certainly have been +petitions against the game laws, but that for every one emanating +from an agricultural body there have been ten from town-councils. We +have better evidence, however, than mere inference, for the general +distrust with which the farmers have regarded this agitation; for we +find the Leaguers themselves, one and all of them, lamenting that +their disinterested exertions on behalf of the tenantry have been +viewed by that body with the most callous and ungrateful indifference. +It is impossible to read without a smile Mr Bright's Address to the +Tenant-farmers (prefixed to Mr Welford's Summary of the Evidence); +and to mark the patient earnestness with which he entreats them to +believe that they are groaning under manifold oppressions--and insists +on "rousing them to a sense of what is due to themselves." But your +tiller of the soil is ever hard to move. It is surprising that the +obstinate fellow cannot be made to comprehend that he is the victim +of a malady he has never felt--that he will persist in believing that +if game were all he had to complain of, he might snap his fingers at +Doctor Bright and his whole fraternity. The essayist of the Association +can find no better reason to assign for what he calls "the wondrous +and apparently patient silence of the tenantry under so exasperating +an evil,"--than, forsooth, that they are too servile to speak out +their true opinions. Such an explanation, at the expense of the body +whom he pretends to represent, can only insure for him the merited +scorn of all who have opportunities of knowing the general character +of the spirited, educated, and upright men whom he ventures thus to +calumniate. The most obvious way of accounting for their wondrous +silence under oppression is also the true one--namely, that, as a +general fact, the oppression is unknown. When an intelligent farmer +looks round among his neighbours, and finds that for every acre damaged +by game there are thousands untouched by it,--when he knows that there +are not only whole parishes, but almost whole counties, in which he +could not detect in the crops the slightest indication of game,--and +further, that, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred in which a tenant +really suffers injury, he is sure of prompt and ample compensation--it +is not surprising that he looks upon the Association with suspicion, +and refuses to support, by his name or his money, their system of +stupendous exaggeration. If anyone wishes to convince himself of the +actual truth, we venture to suggest to him a simple test. Damage from +game, to be appreciable at all, cannot well be less than a shilling an +acre. Now, let any farmer survey in his mind the district with which +he is best acquainted, and estimate on how much of it the tenants +would give this additional rent, on condition of the game laws being +abolished. An average-sized farm, in our best cultivated counties, may +be taken at two hundred acres--how many of his brother farmers can he +reckon up, who would consent to pay £10 a-year additional on these +terms? A similar test, it may be mentioned, was offered to one of Mr +Bright's witnesses, (Evidence, i. 4938,) who had set down his annual +damages from game at from £180 to £200, and who, after successively +declining to give £200, £100, and £75 a-year additional rent for leave +to extirpate the game, thought, at last, he _might_ give £50 a-year for +that bargain. + +But the question immediately before us is this: what remedy does the +existing law of Scotland give a tenant in cases of real hardship from +the preservation of game? In regard to this question, it is impossible +to overlook the broad distinction between the cases of those who +have expressly undertaken the burden of the game, and those whose +leases contain no such covenant. The quasi-right of property in game +recognised by the English law is, by Lord Althorpe's statute of 1832, +vested in the _occupier_ of land, when there is no express stipulation +to the contrary. The reverse is virtually the case in Scotland--the +landlord retains his right to kill game, unless he shall have agreed +to surrender it to his tenant. In most cases, however, the landlord's +right does not rest merely on the common law, but is expressly reserved +to him in the lease. Now, when a tenant has deliberately become a +party to such an express stipulation, and when the quantity of game +(whether it be small or great) does not exceed, during the currency +of the lease, what it was at his entry, on what conceivable plea of +reason or justice can he ask the interference either of a court of +law or of the legislature? To say, with Mr Bright and his coadjutors, +that he seldom attends much to such minor articles in a lease--that +he does not understand their effect--that in the competition for land +he is glad to secure a farm on any conditions--all this is the most +childish trifling, and unworthy of a moment's serious notice. There is +not a single sentence in any lease that may not be set aside on the +very same grounds; and if agreements of this nature are to be cancelled +on pretences so frivolous, there is an end to all faith and meaning in +contracts between man and man. + +But the tenant's case assumes a very different aspect when, by +artificial means expressly contrived for the purpose, the game has been +increased _subsequent_ to his entry. Then, it is obvious, the burden +is no longer the same which the tenant undertook. It is a state of +things which he could not anticipate from the terms of his contract; +and if the authority of the courts of law were unable to reach such a +case, and to protect the tenant from what is in fact an infringement, +on the part of the landlord, of their mutual agreement, it is difficult +to imagine stronger grounds for insisting that the defect should be +supplied by positive enactment. No such interference, however, is +requisite. Our law courts not only possess the power of enforcing +compensation for such injuries, but in the recent decision, in the +case of Wemyss and Others v. Wilson, the supreme court has asserted +and exercised that power in the most distinct and unqualified manner. +"There is no instance," says Mr Chiene Shepherd, writing before the +date of the above-mentioned judgment, "in which our head court in +Scotland--the Court of Session--has ever given a decision entitling +a tenant to damages from a landlord for destruction of his crops by +game." Now, supposing the fact as here stated, to be strictly correct, +what inference, we ask, can common candour draw from it? Are we to +conclude that the law of Scotland, or the bench that administers it, +are so corrupt as to countenance such an insult to justice? No such +express decision had then been given, simply because no such claim had +ever been tried; and surely this very fact is in itself the strongest +possible presumption against the alleged universal abuse of the power +of preserving game--a presumption that a hardship which, up to 1847, +had never been made the ground of a formal appeal to the law tribunals, +cannot be either very frequent or very severe. The statement, however, +is not strictly correct; for, though no actual decree had been given +on the special amount of damages before 1847, a very distinct, though +incidental, opinion as to the liability of landlords in such cases was +given in a case which occurred fifteen years ago--Drysdale v. Jameson. +The principle of the law could not be more lucidly stated than in the +words of the learned judge (Fullerton) on that occasion. + +"A tenant, in taking a farm, must be considered as taking it under the +burden of supporting the game, and may be presumed to have satisfied +himself of the extent of that burden, as he is understood to do of +any other unfavourable circumstance impairing the productiveness of +the farm. But, on the other hand, it would seem contrary to principle +that the landlord, who is bound to warrant the beneficial possession +to the tenant, should be allowed, by his own act, to aggravate the +burden in any great degree. A tenant, in order to support such a claim, +must prove not only a certain visible damage arising from game, but +a certain visible increase of the game, and _a consequent alteration +of the circumstances contemplated in the contract, imputable to the +landlord_. The true ground of damage seems to be, not that the game is +abundant, but that its abundance has been materially increased since +the date of the lease."[13] + +Surely so clear an opinion, coming from such a quarter, was a pretty +plain indication of the protection which the law would extend to a +tenant in these circumstances; and, accordingly, it has been completely +confirmed on every point by the more recent and comprehensive decision +on Captain Wemyss' case. Any new steps on the part of a landlord for +stimulating the natural supply of game, whether by feeding them, +breeding them artificially, or by a systematic destruction of the +vermin which naturally prey on them, will be held as indicating an +intention on his part to depart from the terms of the contract, and +as therefore opening a valid claim for any damage the tenant may +experience in consequence of the change. And it is not only such +direct and active measures for augmenting the stipulated burden that +will be thus interpreted against the landlord; but even his doing so +negatively--that is, his failing to exercise the power he retains in +his own hands, and to keep down the burden to the same amount at which +the tenant found it on his entry, will be held as equivalent to his +positive act. + +If, then, there ever was any ground for alleging that the state of the +law was indefinite, the objection is now removed. No one can pretend +to doubt that a tenant of land in Scotland has as ample a protection +against injury from game as the law can give him. To prevent the injury +beforehand is beyond the power of any law. All that it can do is to +afford him as prompt and effectual means of redress as it furnishes +against any other species of injury. In short, when its principle is +weighed fairly, and when we take into consideration the relief from the +fiscal qualification which Mr Mackenzie's act of last session conferred +on the farmers, we shall be able to estimate how far it is true that, +"both in parliament and out of parliament, the interests and industry +of tenants are systematically sacrificed to the maintenance of the +odious privileges of more favoured classes." + +We have followed out and exposed, perhaps at greater length than was +necessary, the stock sophisms and more flagrant exaggerations by which +the total abolition of game laws is usually supported. Some points are +yet untouched; but we prefer employing the rest of our paper in briefly +stating a few suggestions for the removal of some of those difficulties +and anomalies in the Scotch law, which we set out with acknowledging. +In judging of any such alterations, it is necessary never to lose +sight of the leading principle on which the whole Scotch system is +founded--namely, the original and common right to seize and appropriate +the animals of chase, qualified and determined by the previous right of +the landowner to the exclusive use of the soil. + +1st. Keeping this in view, our first change would be the abolition of +the land-qualification introduced by the Act 1621; and this for the +double reason that it was originally an unwarrantable departure from +the general principle just mentioned, and that it is inexpedient to +cumber the system with a law which is practically in desuetude. + +2d. The effect of this alteration would be to remove also the useless +and improper restriction on the sale of game. There can be no good +reason for throwing difficulties in the way of the game-dealer's +trade. As a check to poaching, we have abundant proof that the present +restriction is inoperative; or, if it has any effect, it is directly +the reverse of that intended, by throwing the trade very much into the +hands of a low class of retailers. Instead of requiring a qualification +or permission, which is constantly evaded, we would substitute a +game-dealer's license, as in England. + +3d. The fifth section of the Day Trespass Act empowers the person +having the right to kill game on any lands, or any person authorised by +him, to seize game in the possession of a trespasser. This provision +has sometimes given occasion to dangerous conflicts between the +parties, and is, moreover, quite at variance with the principle of the +law above noted. + +4th. The next particular we shall mention is of more importance. The +evidence of Mr Bright's committee has, we think, fully disproved the +charge against the county magistracy of England, of partiality and +excessive severity in game cases. Exceptions no doubt were brought +forward, but their paucity shows the contrary to be the rule. In +Scotland there is still less ground for such an accusation. With +us, such an occurrence as a justice adjudicating in his own case is +unknown; and we find even the most violent of the abolition lecturers +admitting that proceedings before the sessions under the game statutes +are conducted with equity and leniency. But this is not enough. The +parties who have to administer the law should be above all suspicion +of bias or interest, even of the most indirect kind; and we should +greatly prefer that game prosecutions were removed altogether, into the +court of the judge-ordinary. Such an alteration, were a sure, would +be regarded generally by the benches of county magistrates as a most +desirable relief from one of the most invidious and embarrassing duties +they have to execute. But, as the law stands, they have no option--for +offences under the Day Trespass Act are cognisable by them only. If, +then, there be any valid reason against transferring the trial of all +game offences to the sheriff court, (and at present we can see none) +it is at all events most advisable that his jurisdiction should be +extended to day as well as to night trespasses. + +5th. Any revisal of the law should embrace provisions against the +accumulation of penalties; for although these are very rarely insisted +on in Scotland, the power of enforcing them affords a pretext for +declamations against the severity of the game law, which its opponents +know well how to employ. + +Besides these modifications of the statutes, it seems most desirable +that in all leases the disposal of game should be regulated by special +clauses, which should include a reference to arbitration in case of +dispute. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] "The game agitators are individuals who suffer _a little_, and +see their brethren suffering more, and who have _their feelings +annoyed_; and those who are not hurt at all by game, but will strike +at any public wrong."--_Speech of Mr Munro, one of the Council of the +Association._ + +[3] _Lecture on the Game Laws_, by R. Wilson, &c., March 22, 1848. + +[4] Ibid. + +[5] Ibid. + +[6] Address in Mr Welford's _Influences of the Game Laws_. + +[7] The statute of 1600, prohibiting hunting and hawking to those who +had not "the revenues requisit in sik pastimes," is plainly one of a +sumptuary tenor, and not properly a game law. + +[8] It is right to mention, that there is some discrepancy in the +estimates of Mr Bright's authorities on this point, of whom Mr Gayford +is comparatively moderate; for we have others who, (upon, no doubt, +equally sound data,) think two hares is the proper equivalent; and Mr +Back of Norfolk is convinced that _one_ hare is _worse_ than a sheep; +in other words, that one hare will eat up a statute acre. On the other +hand, Mr Berkeley weighed the _full_ stomachs of a large hare, and +an average Southdown sheep, and found them as one to fifty-five. So +that, if the accounts of Mr Gayford and his _confrères_ are right, +we have arrived at a law in physiological science equally new and +surprising--that the digestive powers of animals increase in a compound +inverse ratio to the capacity of the digestive organs! + +[9] _Scotsman_, February 12, 1848. + +[10] + + | | || || | + | | 1846. || 1847. || | + | | || || Per cent. | + | | Total | Game || Total | Game ||(both years.)| + |Counties. | cases. | cases.|| cases. | cases. || | + | +--------+-------++--------+--------++-------------+ + |Aberdeen, | 683 | 2 || 800 | 5 || 0.4 | + |Berwick, | 317 | 10 || 342 | 16 || 3.9 | + |Edinburgh, | 336 | 12 || 475 | 14 || 3.2 | + |Haddington,| 456 | 33 || 572 | 33 || 6.4 | + |Fife, | 862 | 13 || 819 | 6 || 1.1 | + | +--------+-------++--------+--------++-------------+ + | Total, | 2654 | 70 || 3008 | 74 || 2.5 | + +Compare these facts with the preposterous statements which the latest +orator of the league, Mr M. Crichton, has been repeating to listening +zanies at Greenock, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, that "the commitments +arising from game laws amount to ONE-FOURTH of the whole crime of the +country." + +[11] Return of game-law offences during the years 1843-7 + + | | | | | | | + |Counties. | 1843. | 1844. | 1845. | 1846. | 1847. | + | +-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ + |Berwick, | 14 | 8 | 14 | 10 | 16 | + |Edinburgh, | 41 | 48 | 21 | 12 | 14 | + |Haddington, | 35 | 55 | 23 | 33 | 33 | + |Fife, | 30 | 25 | 19 | 13 | 6 | + | +-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ + | Total, | 120 | 136 | 77 | 68 | 69 | + + + +[12] Evidence, Part i. 1414; ii. 7647, 7651. + +[13] Shaw, ii. 147. + + + + +DOMINIQUE. + +A SKETCH FROM LIFE. + + +TWO STUDENTS. + +At the lower extremity of that ancient street long recognised as the +head and centre of the _Pays Latin_ or scholastic quarter of Paris, and +which, for six centuries, has borne the name of the _Rue de la Harpe_, +within a few doors of the bridge of _St Michel_, and in a room upon the +fifth floor, two young men were seated, on a spring morning of the year +182-. Even had the modest apartment been situated elsewhere than in the +focus of the students' district, its appearance would have prevented +the possibility of mistake as to the character of its inmates. Scanty +furniture, considerably battered, caricatures of student life, +partially veiling the dirty damp-stained paper that blistered upon +the walls, which were also adorned by a pair of foils, a cracked +guitar, and a set of castanets; a row of pegs supporting pipes, empty +bottles in one corner, ponderous octavos thickly coated with dust in +another, told a tale confirmed by the exterior of the occupants of the +apartment. One of these, a young man of two-and-twenty, was evidently +at home, for his feet were thrust into slippers, once embroidered, a +Greek cap covered his head, and a tattered dressing-gown of pristine +magnificence enveloped his slender and active figure. His features were +regular and intelligent, and he had the dark fiery eyes, clustering +black hair, and precociously abundant beard of a native of southern +France. His companion, a young Norman, had nothing particularly +noticeable in his countenance, save a broad open brow and a character +of much shrewdness and perspicacity--qualities possessed in a high +degree by a majority of his fellow provincials. His dress was one of +those nondescript eccentric coats and conical broad-leafed hats at all +times particularly affected by French _studiosi_. + +The two young men were seated at either extremity of the low sill of +a tall French window, thrown wide open to admit the pleasant spring +sunshine, into which they puffed, from capacious pipes, wreaths of +thin blue smoke. Their conversation turned upon a crime--or rather a +series of crimes--which occasioned, at that particular moment, much +excitement in Paris, and which will still be remembered by those +persons upon the tablets of whose memory the lapse of a quarter of a +century does not act as a spunge. About three years previously, a young +man named Gilbert Gaudry, of respectable family, liberal education, +and good reputation, had been tried and convicted for the murder of +an uncle, by whose death he largely inherited. The accused man was +in debt, and his embarrassed circumstances prevented his marrying a +woman to whom he was passionately attached; his uncle had recently +refused him pecuniary assistance, upon which occasion Gaudry was heard +to express himself harshly and angrily. Many other circumstances +concurred to throw upon him the odium of the crime; and, altogether, +the evidence, although entirely circumstantial, was so strong against +him, that, in spite of his powerful appeal and solemn denial, the judge +condemned him to death. The sentence had been commuted to the galleys +for life. Three years passed, and the real murderer was discovered--a +discharged servant of the murdered man, who, at the trial, had given +important evidence against Gaudry. The guillotine did its work on the +right offender, and Gaudry's sentence was reversed. But three years +of slavery and opprobrium, of shame, horror, and gnawing sense of +injustice, had wrought terribly upon the misjudged man, inspiring him +with a blind and burning thirst of revenge. Almost his first act, on +finding himself at liberty, was to stab, in broad daylight, and in the +open street, the judge who had condemned him. This time there could be +no question of his guilt, and he would inevitably have been condemned +to death; but, before his trial, he found means of hanging himself in +his cell. This last tragical and shocking incident had occurred but +two days previously, and now furnished the embryo jurists with a theme +for animated discussion. Without vindicating the wretched murderer +and suicide, the young Norman was disposed to find an extenuating +circumstance in the unjust punishment he had endured. But his friend +scouted such leniency, and, taking up high ground, maintained that no +criminal was baser than he who, the victim of judicial error, revenged +himself upon the magistrate who had decided according to the best of +his judgment and conscience, but who, sharing the liability to err of +every human judge, was misled by deceitful appearances or perjured +witnesses. + +"Argue it as you will," cried Dominique Lafon; "be plausible and +eloquent, bring batteries of sophisms to the attack, you cannot breach +my solid position. Excuse and extenuation are alike in vain. I repeat +and maintain, that to make a magistrate personally responsible for his +judgments, be they just or unjust, so long as he has kept within the +line of his duty, and acted according to his conscience, is revenge of +the basest and most criminal description." + +"Bear in mind," replied Henry la Chapelle, "that I attempt not to +justify the unhappy Gaudry. All I assert is, that injustice excites in +the breast of every man, even of the gentlest, hatred against him by +whom the injustice is done. And its frequent repetition, or the long +continuance of the suffering it occasions, will ultimately provoke, +in nine cases out of ten, an outbreak of revengeful fury. The heart +becomes embittered, the judgment blinded, the mild and beautiful +injunctions of Scripture are forgotten or disregarded, in the gust of +passion and vindictive rage. To offer the left cheek when the right +has been buffeted, is, of all divine precepts, the most difficult +to follow. A man ruined, tortured, or disgraced by injustice, looks +to the sentence, not to the intention, of his judge; taxes him with +precipitation, prejudice, or over-severity, and views revenge as +a right rather than a crime. Doubtless there are exceptions--men +whose Christian endurance would abide by them even unto death; but, +believe me, they are few, very few. The virtues of Job are rare; and +rancour, the vile weed, chokes, in our corrupt age, the meek flower, +resignation." + +"A man to whom injustice is really done," said Dominique, "may console +himself with the consciousness of his innocence, which an act of +rancorous revenge would induce many to doubt. The suffering victim +finds sympathy; the fierce avenger excites horror and reprobation." + +"Mere words, my dear fellow," replied la Chapelle. "Fine phrases, and +nothing else. You are a theorist, pleading against human nature. What +logic is this? Undeserved punishment is far more difficult to endure +than merited castigation; and an act of revenge should rather plead +in favour of the innocence of him who commits it. In a criminal, the +consciousness that he merited his punishment would leave less room +for hatred than for shame; it would excite vexation at his ill luck, +rather than enduring anger against his judge. There would be exceptions +and variations, of course, according to the moral idiosyncracy of the +individual. It is impossible to establish a mathematical scale for +the workings of human passions. I repeat that I do not justify such +revenge, but I still maintain that to seek it is natural to man, and +that many men, even with less aggravation than was given to Gaudry, +might not have sufficient resolution and virtue to resist the impulse." + +"You have but a paltry opinion of your fellow-creatures," said +Dominique. "I am glad to think better of them. And I hold him a weak +slave to the corruption of our nature, who has not strength to repress +the impulse to a deed his conscience cannot justify." + +"Admirable in principle," said la Chapelle, smiling, "but difficult +in practice. You yourself, my dear Dominique, who now take so lofty +a tone, and who feel, I am quite sure, exactly as you speak--you +yourself, if I am not greatly mistaken in your character, would be the +last man to sit down quietly under injustice. Your natural ardour and +impetuosity would soon upset your moral code." + +"Never!" vehemently exclaimed Dominique. "La Chapelle, never will I +suffer my passions thus to subdue my reason! What gratification of +revenge can ever compensate the loss of that greatest of blessings, +a pure and tranquil conscience? What peace of mind could I hope for, +after permitting such discord between my principles and my actions? La +Chapelle, you wrong me by the thought." + +"Well, well," replied his friend, "I may be wrong, and at any rate I +reason in the abstract rather than personally to you. I heartily wish +you never may suffer wrong, or be tempted to revenge. But remember, my +friend, safety is not in over-confidence. The severest assaults are for +the strongest towers." + +A knock at the room-door interrupted the conversation. It was the +porter of the lodging-house, bringing a letter that had just arrived +for Dominique. On recognising the handwriting of the address, and the +postmark of Montauban, the young man uttered a cry of pleasure. It was +from home, from his mother. He hastily tore it open. But as he read, +the smile of joy and gratified affection faded from his features, and +was replaced by an expression of astonishment, indignation, grief. +Scarcely finishing the letter, he crumpled it in his hand with a +passionate gesture, and stripping off his dressing-gown began hastily +to dress. With friendly solicitude la Chapelle observed his varying +countenance. + +"No bad news, I hope?" he inquired. + +For sole reply, Dominique threw him the letter. + + +MOTHER AND SON. + +Dominique Lafon was the son of a man noted for his democratic +principles, who, after holding high provincial office under the +Republic and the Consulate, resigned his functions in displeasure, +when Napoleon grasped an emperor's sceptre, and retired to his native +town of Montauban, where he since had lived upon a modest patrimony. +Under Napoleon, Pascal Lafon had been unmolested; but when the Bourbons +returned, his name, prominent during the last years of the eighteenth +century, rendered him the object of a certain _surveillance_ on the +part of the police of the Restoration. On the occasion of more than +one republican conspiracy, real or imaginary, spies had been set upon +him, and endeavours made to prove him implicated. Once he had even been +conducted before a tribunal, and had undergone a short examination. +Nothing, however, had been elicited that in any way compromised him; +and in a few hours he was again at liberty, before his family knew +of his brief arrest. In reality, Lafon, although still an ardent +republican, was entirely guiltless of plotting against the monarchy, +which he deemed too firmly consolidated to be as yet shaken. France, +he felt, had need of repose before again entering the revolutionary +arena. His firm faith still was, that a time would come when she would +dismiss her kings for ever, and when pure democracy would govern the +land. But before that time arrived, his eyes, he believed, would be +closed in death. He was no conspirator, but he did not shun the society +of those who were; and, moreover, he was not sufficiently guarded in +the expression of his republican opinions and Utopian theories. Hence +it came that, like the Whig in Claverhouse's memoranda, he had a triple +red cross against his name in the note-book of the Bourbon police, who, +at the time now referred to, had been put upon the alert by the recent +assassination of the Duke of Berri. Although the circumstances of that +crime, and the evidence upon Louvel's trial, combined to stamp the +atrocious deed as the unaided act of a fanatic, without accomplices or +ulterior designs, the event had provoked much rigid investigation of +the schemes of political malcontents throughout France; and in several +districts and towns, magistrates and heads of police had been replaced, +as lax and lukewarm, by men of sterner character. Amongst other +changes, the Judge of Instruction at Montauban had had a successor +given him. The new magistrate was preceded by a reputation of great +vigilance and severity--a reputation he lost no time in justifying. By +the aid of a couple of keen Parisian police agents of the _Procureur +du Roi_, whom he stimulated to increased activity, he soon got upon +the scent of a republican conspiracy, of which Montauban was said to +be a principal focus. Various reports were abroad as to the manner in +which Monsieur Noell, the new judge, had obtained his information. Some +said, the plotters had been betrayed by the mistress of one of them, +in a fit of jealous fury at a fancied infidelity of her lover; others +declared, that hope of reward had quickened the invention of a police +spy, who, despairing of discovering a conspiracy, had applied himself +to fabricate one. Be that as it might, a number of arrests took place, +and, amongst others, that of Dominique's father. The intelligence of +this event was conveyed to the young student in a few despairing lines +from his mother, whose health, already very precarious, had suddenly +given way under the shock of her husband's imprisonment. She wrote from +a sick-bed, imploring her son to lose no time in returning to Montauban. + +Gloomy were the forebodings of Dominique as the mail rattled him over +the weary leagues of road between Paris and Montauban. Yet, when he +reached home, he half hoped to be greeted by his father's friendly +voice, for, himself convinced of his innocence, he could not believe +the authorities would be long in recognising it. He was disappointed. +The sorrowful mien of the domestic who opened the door told a tale of +misfortune. + +"Oh, Monsieur Dominique!" said the man, an old servant, who had known +the student from his cradle, "the house is not wont to be so sad when +you return." + +"My mother! where is my mother?" cried Dominique. The next instant he +was at her bedside, clasping her poor thin fingers, and gazing in agony +on her emaciated features. A few days of intense alarm and anxiety, +acting on an exquisitely susceptible organisation, had done the work +of months of malady. A slow fever was in her veins, undermining her +existence. Dominique shuddered at sight of her sunken temples, and of +the deep dark furrows below her eyes. It seemed as if the angel of +death had already put his stamp upon that beloved countenance. But he +concealed his mental anguish, and spoke cheeringly to the invalid. +She told him the particulars of his father's arrest. She had already +written to some friends, sent for others, and had done all in her power +to ascertain exactly the offences of which Lafon was accused; but the +persons who had made the inquiries had been put off with generalities, +and none had obtained access to the prisoner, who was in solitary +confinement. + +Dominique Lafon was tenderly attached to both his parents. Upon him, +their only child, their entire affection was concentrated and lavished. +They had made him their companion even from his earliest years, had +tended him with unwearying solicitude through his delicate infancy, +had devoted themselves to his education when he grew older, and had +consented with difficulty and regret to part from him, when his arrival +at man's estate rendered it desirable he should visit the capital for +the conclusion of his studies. Dominique repaid their care with devoted +love. His father's consistency and strength of character inspired +him with respect; he listened to his precepts with veneration and +gratitude; but he idolised his mother, whose feminine graces and tender +care were intertwined with the sweetest reminiscences of childhood's +happy days. He now strove to repay some portion of his debt of filial +love by the most unwearying attendance at the invalid's pillow. His +arrival brought a gleam of joy and hope to the sick woman's brow, +but the ray was transient, and quickly faded. The vital flame had +sunk too low to revive again permanently. She grew weaker and weaker, +and felt that her hour approached. But her spirit, so soon to appear +before her Maker, yet clung to an earthly love. Whilst striving to +fix her thoughts on things heavenly, they still dwelt upon him by +whose side she had made life's checkered pilgrimage. She wrung her +hands in agony at the thought that she must leave the world without +bidding him a last farewell. She asked but a moment to embrace him +who, for five-and-twenty years, had been her guardian and protector, +her tenderest friend and companion. Dominique could not endure the +spectacle of her grief. He left the house to use every endeavour to +obtain for her the indulgence she so ardently desired. + +The first person to whom he applied was the Judge of Instruction, +Monsieur Noell. Provided with a medical certificate of his mother's +dying state, he obtained admission to that magistrate's cabinet. He +found a tall thin man, with harsh strongly marked features, and a +forbidding expression of countenance. The glazed stare of his cold +gray eyes, and the cruel lines about his mouth, chilled Dominique's +hopes, and almost made him despair of success. The youth preferred +his request, however, with passionate earnestness, imploring that his +father might be allowed to leave his prison for a single hour, under +good guard, to visit the bedside of his expiring wife, in presence of +such witnesses as the authorities would think proper to name. The reply +to this prayer was a formal and decided negative. Until the prisoner +Lafon had undergone a second examination, no one could be admitted to +see him under any pretext whatever. That examination was not to take +place for at least a week. Dominique was very sure, from what the +physicians had told him, that his mother could not survive for a third +of that time. + +The frigid manner and unsympathising tone of the magistrate, and +the uncourteous brevity of his refusal, grated so unpleasantly upon +the irritated feelings of the student, that he had difficulty in +restraining a momentary anger. In less imminent circumstances, his +pride would have prevented his persisting in a petition thus unkindly +rejected, but the thought of his dying mother brought patience and +humility to his aid. Warmly, but respectfully, he reiterated his suit. +The magistrate was a widower, but he had children, to whom report said +he was devotedly attached. Harsh and rigid in his official duties, +in his domestic circle he was said to be the tenderest of fathers. +Dominique had heard this, and availed of it in pleading his suit. + +"You have children, sir!" he said; "you can picture to yourself the +grief you would feel were your deathbed unblessed by their presence. +How doubly painful must be the parting agony, when the ear is unsoothed +by the voice of those best beloved, when no cherished hand is there +to prop the sinking head, and close the eyes for ever on this world +and its sufferings! Refuse not my father the consolation of a last +interview with his dying wife! Have compassion on my poor mother's +agony! Suffer her to breathe her last between the two beings who share +all her affection! So may your own deathbed be soothed by the presence +of those you most dearly love!" + +Doubtless Monsieur Noell's ear was well used to such pleadings, and +his heart was hardened by a long course of judicial severity. His +glance lost nothing of its habitual cold indifference, as he replied to +Dominique's passionate entreaties with a decided negative. + +"I must repeat my former answer," he said; "I neither can nor will +grant the indulgence you require. And now I will detain you no longer, +as you may perhaps make use of your time to greater advantage in other +quarters." + +He rose from his chair, and remained standing till Dominique left +the room. The tone of his last words had wellnigh crushed hope in +the young man's bosom. But as long as a possibility remained, the +student pursued it. He betook himself to the _Procureur du Roi_, whose +office constituted him public prosecutor in cases of this kind. That +functionary declared himself incompetent, until the prisoner should +have undergone another examination. Until then, the only appeal from +the judge was to the minister of justice. Dominique instantly drew +up and forwarded a petition; but before it reached Paris, his mother +breathed her last. She met her death, preceded and attended by acute +sufferings, with the resignation of a martyr. But even after the +last sacrament of her religion had been administered, and when she +earnestly strove to fix her mind on eternity, to the exclusion of +things temporal, the thought of her husband, so long and tenderly +beloved, and absent at this supreme hour, intruded itself upon her +pious meditations, brought tears to her eyes, and drew heartrending +sobs from her bosom; her last sigh was for him, her latest breath +uttered his name. This fervent desire, so cruelly thwarted, those tears +of deferred hope and final profound disappointment, were inexpressibly +painful to contemplate. Upon Dominique, whose love for his mother was +so deep and holy, they made a violent impression. Bitter were his +feelings as he sat beside her couch when the spirit had fled, and gazed +upon her clay-cold features, whereon there yet lingered a grieved and +suffering expression. And later, when the earth had received her into +its bosom, that pallid and sorrowful countenance was ever before his +eyes. In his dreams he heard his mother's well-known voice, mournfully +pronouncing the name of her beloved husband, and praying, as she had +done in the last hours of her life, that she might again behold him +before she departed. Nor were these visions dissipated by daylight. +They recurred to his excited imagination, and kindled emotions of +fierce hatred towards the man who had had it in his power to smooth his +mother's passage from life to death, and who had wantonly refused the +alleviation. Nay more; convinced of his father's innocence, Dominique +considered the judge who had thrown him into prison as in some sort +his mother's murderer. He had accelerated her decease, and thrown gall +into the cup it is the lot of every mortal to drain. The physicians +had declared anxiety of mind to be the immediate cause of her death. +Dominique brooded over this declaration, and over the misfortunes that +had so suddenly overtaken him, until he came to consider M. Noell as +much an assassin as if he had struck a dagger into his mother's heart. +"What matter," he thought, "whether the wound be dealt to body or to +soul, so long as it slays?" He had nothing to distract his thoughts +from dwelling upon and magnifying the wrongs that had deprived him +of both parents, one by death, the other by an imprisonment whose +termination he could not foresee. At times his melancholy was broken by +bursts of fury against him he deemed the cause of his misfortunes. + +"Could I but see him die!" he would exclaim, "the cold-blooded +heartless tyrant--die alone, childless, accursed, without a friendly +hand to wipe the death-sweat from his face! Then, methinks, I could +again be happy, when his innocent victim was thus revenged. Alas, my +mother!--my poor, meek, long-suffering mother,--must your death go +unrequited? For what offence was your life taken as atonement? By what +vile distortion of justice did this base inquisitor visit upon your +innocent head a transgression that never was committed?" + +Meanwhile the captivity of the elder Lafon was prolonged. A second +examination relaxed nothing of his jailor's severity, and his son's +applications to see him were all rejected. Dominique wrote to his +father, but he received no answer; and he afterwards learned that his +letter had not been delivered when sent, but had been detained by +Noell, who, finding nothing criminatory in its contents, had subjected +it, with characteristic suspicion, to chemical processes, in hopes +to detect writing with sympathetic ink, and had finally made it +accessory to an attempt to extort a confession from the prisoner. This +information, obtained from an understrapper of the prison by means of a +large bribe, raised Dominique's exasperation to the highest pitch. + +"Gracious Heaven!" he exclaimed, "are such things to be endured in +silence and submission? Has human justice iron scourges for nominal +offences,--honours and rewards for real crimes? On a false accusation +my father pines in a dungeon, whilst my mother's murderer walks +scatheless and exalted amongst his fellows; but if the laws of man are +impotent to avenge her death, who shall blame her son for remembering +her dying agony, and requiting it on those who aggravated her +sufferings?" + +And he walked forth, pondering vengeance. Unconsciously his steps +took the direction of the prison. Long he stood, with folded arms and +lowering brow, gazing at the small grated aperture that gave light +and air to his father's cell, and hoping to see his beloved parent +look out and recognise him. He gazed in vain: twilight came, night +followed, no one appeared at the window. Dominique knew not that it +was high above the prisoner's reach. He returned home, fancying his +father ill, nourishing a thousand bitter thoughts, and heaping up +fresh hatred against the author of so much misery. That night Michel, +the old servant, came twice to his room door, to see what ailed him, +since, instead of retiring to rest, he unceasingly paced the apartment. +Dominique dismissed the faithful fellow to his bed, and resumed +his melancholy walk. But in the morning he was so pale and haggard +that Michel slipped out to ask the family physician to call in _by +accident_. When he returned, Dominique had left the house. In great +alarm--for his young master's gloomy despondency at once suggested fear +of suicide--Michel tracked his steps. His fears proved unfounded. With +some trouble he ascertained that Dominique had quitted the town on the +top of a passing diligence, with a valise for sole baggage, and without +informing any one of the object of his journey. + + +THE DOUBLE DUEL. + +Antony Noell, the judge, had three children, and report lied not when +it said that he was tenderly attached to them. A harsh and unfeeling +man in his official capacity, and in the ordinary affairs of life, +all the softer part of his nature seemed to have resolved itself into +paternal affection. His two sons were students at the university of +Toulouse; his youngest child, a blooming maiden of twelve, still +brightened his home and made his heart joyful, although she soon was +to leave him to finish her education in a convent. The two students +were gay handsome lads, but somewhat dissipated; fonder of the bottle +and the billiard-room than of grave lectures and dry studies. They +were in small favour with their pedagogues, but in high repute with +their fellow collegians; whilst peaceable citizens and demure young +ladies regarded them with mingled aversion, interest, and curiosity, on +account of certain mad pranks, by which, during their first half-year's +residence, they had gained a certain notoriety in the quiet city of +Toulouse. + +It happened one night, as the brothers came both flushed with play and +wine from their accustomed coffeehouse on the Place du Capitole, that +Vincent, the elder of the two, stumbled over the feet of a man who sat +upon one of the benches placed outside the establishment. The passage +through the benches and tables was narrow; and the stranger, having +thrust his legs nearly across it, had little reason to complain of the +trifling offence offered him. Nevertheless he jumped to his feet and +fiercely taxed young Noell with an intentional insult. Noell, full of +good humour and indifferent wine, and taking his interlocutor for a +fellow student, made a jesting reply, and seizing one of the stranger's +arms, whilst his brother Martial grasped the other, dragged him into +the lamp-light to see who he was. But the face they beheld was unknown +to them; and scarcely had they obtained a glimpse at it when its owner +shook them off, applying to them at the same time a most injurious +epithet. The students would have struck him, but he made a pace +backwards, and, seizing a heavy chair which he whirled over his head as +though it had been a feather, he swore he would dash out the brains of +the first who laid a finger on him. + +"I do not fight like a water-carrier," he said, "with fists and +feet; but if you are as ready with your swords as you are with your +insolence, you shall not long await satisfaction." + +And offering a card, which was at once accepted, he received two in +return. The disputants then separated; and as soon as the Noells turned +out of the square, they paused beneath a lamp to examine the card they +had received. Inscribed upon it was the name of Dominique Lafon. + +It was too late, when this quarrel occurred, for further steps to +be taken that night; but early on the following morning Dominique's +second, a young lawyer whom he had known during his studies at Paris, +had an interview with the friends appointed by the Noells to act on +their behalf. The latter anticipated a duel with swords, and were +surprised to find that Dominique, entitled, as the insulted party, +to fix the weapon, selected the more dangerous and less usual one of +pistols. They could not object, however, and the meeting was fixed for +the next day; the arrangement being that both brothers should come upon +the ground, and that, if Dominique was unhurt in the first encounter, +the second duel should immediately succeed it. + +In a secluded field, to the right of the pleasant road from Toulouse +to Albi, and at no great distance from the tumulus on whose summit a +stone pillar commemorates Soult's gallant resistance to Wellington's +conquering forces, the combatants met at the appointed hour, and +saluted each other with cold courtesy. Dominique was pale, but his +hand and eye were steady, and his pulse beat calmly. The two Noells +were cheerful and indifferent, and bore themselves like men to whom +encounters of this kind were no novelty. The elder brother took the +first turn. The seconds asked once more if the affair could not be +peaceably arranged; but, receiving no answer, they made the final +arrangements. Two peeled willow rods were laid upon the ground, six +yards apart. At ten yards from either of these the duellists were +placed, making the entire distance between them six and twenty yards; +and it was at their option, when the seconds gave the word, either to +advance to the barrier before firing, or to fire at once, or from any +intervening point. + +The word was given, and the antagonists stepped out. Vincent Noell took +but two paces, halted and fired. He had missed. Dominique continued +steadily to advance. When he had taken five paces, the seconds looked +at each other, and then at him, as if expecting him to stop. He took no +notice, and moved on. It was a minute of breathless suspense. In the +dead silence, his firm tread upon the grass was distinctly audible. +He paused only when his foot touched the willow wand. Then he slowly +raised his arm, and fired. + +The whirling smoke prevented him for an instant from discerning the +effect of his shot, but the hasty advance of the seconds and of two +surgeons who had accompanied them to the field, left him little doubt +that it had told. It had indeed done so, and with fatal effect. The +unhappy Vincent was bathed in his blood. The surgeons hastened to +apply a first dressing, but their countenances gave little hope of a +favourable result. + +Pale and horror-stricken, not with personal fear, but with grief at +his brother's fate, Martial Noell whispered his second, who proposed +postponing the second duel till another day. Dominique, who, whilst +all his companions had been busy with the wounded man, had remained +leaning against a tree, his discharged pistol in his hand, collected +and unsympathising, stepped forward on hearing this proposition. + +"Another day?" said he with a cruel sneer. "Before another day arrives, +I shall doubtless be in prison for this morning's work. But no matter; +if the gentleman is less ready to fight than he was to insult me, let +him leave the field." + +The scornful tone and insinuation brought a flush of shame and anger to +the brow of the younger Noell. He detested himself for the momentary +weakness he had shown, and a fierce flame of revenge kindled in his +heart. + +"Murderer!" he exclaimed, "my brother's blood calls aloud for +vengeance. May Providence make me its instrument!" + +Dominique replied not. Under the same conditions as before, the +two young men took their stations. But the chances were not equal. +Dominique retained all his coolness; his opponent's whole frame +quivered with passionate emotion. This time, neither was in haste to +fire. Advancing slowly, their eyes fixed on each other, they reached +at the same moment the limits of their walk. Then their pistols were +gradually raised, and, as if by word of command, simultaneously +discharged. This time both balls took effect. The one that struck +Dominique went through his arm, without breaking the bone, and lodged +in his back, inflicting a severe but not a dangerous wound. But Martial +Noell was shot through the head. + +The news of this bloody business soon got wind, and the very same +day it was the talk of all Toulouse. Martial Noell had died upon the +spot; his brother expired within forty-eight hours. The seconds got +out of the way, till they should see how the thing was likely to go. +Dominique's wound prevented his following their example, if he were so +disposed; and when it no longer impeded his movements, he was already +in the hands of justice. Frantic with grief on learning the fate of his +beloved sons, Anthony Noell hurried to Toulouse, and vigorously pushed +a prosecution. He hoped for a very severe sentence, and was bitterly +disappointed when Dominique escaped, in consideration of his wounds and +of his having been the insulted party, with the lenient doom of five +years' imprisonment. + + +FIVE YEARS LATER. + +Five years of absence from home may glide rapidly enough away, when +passed in pursuit of pleasure or profit; dragged out between prison +walls, they appear an eternity, a chasm between the captive and +the world. So thought Dominique as he re-entered Montauban, at the +expiration of his sentence. During the whole time, not a word of +intelligence had reached him from his home, no friendly voice had +greeted his ear, no line of familiar handwriting had gladdened his +tearless eyes. Arrived in his native town, his first inquiry was for +his father. Pascal Lafon was dead. The fate of his wife and son had +preyed upon his health; the prison air had poisoned the springs of life +in the strong, free-hearted man. The physician declared drugs useless +in his case, for that the atmosphere of liberty alone could save him; +and he recommended, if unconditional release were impossible, that +the prisoner should be guarded in his own house. The recommendation +was forwarded to Paris, but the same post took a letter from Anthony +Noell, and a few days brought the physician's dismissal and an order +for the close confinement of Lafon. Examinations followed each other +in rapid succession, but they served only to torment the prisoner, +without procuring his release; and after some months he died, his +innocence unrecognised. The cause of his death, and the circumstances +attending it, were loudly proclaimed by the indignant physician; and +Dominique, on his return to Montauban, had no difficulty in obtaining +all the details, aggravated probably by the unpopularity of the judge. +He heard them with unchanging countenance; none could detect a sign +of emotion on that cheek of marble paleness, or in that cold and +steadfast eye. He then made inquiries concerning Anthony Noell. That +magistrate, he learned, had been promoted, two years previously, and +now resided in his native town of Marseilles. At that moment, however, +he happened to be at an hotel in Montauban. He had never recovered the +loss of his sons, which had aged him twenty years in appearance, and +had greatly augmented the harshness and sour severity of his character. +He seemed to find his sole consolation in the society of his daughter, +now a beautiful girl of seventeen, and in intense application to his +professional duties. A tour of inspection, connected with his judicial +functions, had now brought him to Montauban. During his compulsory +absences from home, which were of annual occurrence and of some +duration, his daughter remained in the care of an old female relation, +her habitual companion, whose chief faults were her absurd vanity, and +her too great indulgence of the caprices of her darling niece. + +Dominique showed singular anxiety to learn every particular concerning +Anthony Noell's household, informing himself of the minutest details, +and especially of the character of his daughter, who was represented to +him as warmhearted and naturally amiable, but frivolous and spoiled by +over-indulgence. On the death of his sons, Noell renounced his project +of sending her from home, and the consequence was, that her education +had been greatly neglected. Madame Verlé, the old aunt already +mentioned, was a well-meaning, but very weak widow, who, childless +herself, had no experience in bringing up young women. In her own youth +she had been a great coquette, and frivolity was still a conspicuous +feature in her character. As M. Noell, since his sons' death, had shown +a sort of aversion for society, the house was dull enough, and Madame +Verlé's chief resource was the circulating library, whence she obtained +a constant supply of novels. Far from prohibiting to her niece the +perusal of this trash, she made her the companion of her unwholesome +studies. The false ideas and highflown romance with which these books +teemed, might have made little impression on a character fortified by +sound principles and a good education, but they sank deep into the +ardent and uncultivated imagination of Florinda Noell, to whose father, +engrossed by his sorrows and by his professional labours, it never once +occurred to check the current of corruption thus permitted to flow into +his daughter's artless mind. He saw her gay, happy, and amused, and he +inquired no further; well pleased to find her support so cheerfully the +want of society to which his morose regrets and gloomy eccentricity +condemned her. + +One of Dominique's first cares, on his return to Montauban, was to +visit his parents' grave. Although his father died in prison, and +his memory had never been cleared from the slur of accusation, his +friends had obtained permission, with some difficulty, to inter his +corpse beside that of his wife. The day was fading into twilight when +Dominique entered the cemetery, and it took him some time to find the +grave he sought. The sexton would have saved him the trouble, but the +idea seemed a profanation; in silence and in solitude he approached +the tomb of his affections and happiness. Long he sat upon the mound, +plunged in reverie, but with dry eyes, for the source of tears appeared +exhausted in his heart. Night came; the white tombstones looked ghastly +pale in the moonlight, and cast long black shadows upon the turf. +Dominique arose, plucked a wild-flower from his mother's grave, and +left the place. He had taken but three steps when he became aware he +was not alone in the churchyard. A tall figure rose suddenly from an +adjacent grave. Although separated but by one lofty tombstone, the two +mourners had been too absorbed and silent in their grief to notice +each other's presence. Now they gazed at one another. The moon, for +a moment obscured, emerged from behind a cloud, and shone upon their +features. The recognition was mutual and instantaneous. Both started +back. Between the graves of their respective victims, Anthony Noell and +Dominique Lafon confronted each other. + +A dusky fire gleamed in the eyes of Dominique, and his features, worn +and emaciated from captivity, were distorted with the grimace of +intense hatred. His heart throbbed as though it would have burst from +his bosom. + +"May your dying hour be desolate!" he shrieked. "May your end be in +misery and despair!" + +The magistrate gazed at his inveterate foe with a fixed stare of +horror, as though a phantom had suddenly risen before him. Then, slowly +raising his hand, till it pointed to the grave of his sons, his eye +still fixed, as if by fascination, upon that of Dominique, a single +word, uttered in a hollow tone, burst from his quivering lips. + +"Murderer!" he exclaimed. + +Dominique laughed. It was a hideous sound, a laugh of unquenchable +hatred and savage exultation. He approached Noell till their faces were +but a few inches apart, and spoke in a voice of suppressed fierceness. + +"My father and my mother," he said, "expired in grief, and shame, and +misery. By your causeless hate and relentless persecution, I was made +an orphan. The debt is but half paid. You have still a child. You still +find happiness on earth. But you yet shall lose all--all! Yet shall you +know despair and utter solitude, and your death shall be desolate, even +as my father's was. Remember! _We shall meet again._" + +And passing swiftly before the magistrate, with a gesture of solemn +menace, Dominique left the cemetery. Noell sank, pale and trembling, +upon his children's grave. His enemy had found him, and security had +fled. Dominique's last words, "We shall meet again!" rang in his ears, +as if uttered by the threatening voice of hostile and irresistible +destiny. Slowly, and in great uneasiness, he returned into the town, +which he left early the next day for Marseilles. To his terrified +fancy, his daughter was safe only when he watched over her. So great +was his alarm, that he would have resigned his lucrative and honourable +office sooner than have remained longer absent from the tender flower +whom the ruthless spoiler threatened to trample and destroy. + + +THE HORSE-RIDERS. + +Months passed away, and spring returned. On a bright morning of +May--in parched Provence the pleasantest season of the year--a motley +cavalcade approached Marseilles by the Nice road. It consisted of two +large waggons, a score of horses, and about the same number of men and +women. The horses were chiefly white, cream-coloured, or piebald, and +some of them bore saddles of peculiar make and fantastical colours, +velvet-covered and decorated with gilding. One was caparisoned with a +tiger-skin, and from his headstall floated streamers of divers-coloured +horsehair. The women wore riding-habits, some of gaudy tints, bodices +of purple or crimson velvet, with long flaunting robes of green or +blue. They were sunburned, boldfaced damsels, with marked features and +of dissipated aspect, and they sat firmly on their saddles, jesting +as they rode along. Their male companions were of corresponding +appearance; lithe vigorous fellows, from fifteen to forty, attired +in various hussar and jockey costumes, with beards and mustaches +fantastically trimmed, limbs well developed, and long curling hair. +Various nations went to the composition of the band. French, Germans, +Italians, and Gipsies made up the equestrian troop of Luigi Bartolo, +which, after passing the winter in southern Italy, had wandered north +on the approach of spring, and now was on its way to give a series of +representations at Marseilles. + +A little behind his comrades, upon a fine gray horse, rode a young +Florentine named Vicenzo, the most skilful rider of the troop. Although +but five-and-twenty years old, he had gone through many vicissitudes +and occupations. Of respectable family, he had studied at Pisa, +had been expelled for misconduct, had then enlisted in an Austrian +regiment, whence his friends had procured his discharge, but only to +cast him off for his dissolute habits. Alternately a professional +gambler, a stage player, and a smuggler on the Italian frontier, he +had now followed, for upwards of a year, the vagabond life of a +horse-rider. Of handsome person and much natural intelligence, he +covered his profligacy and taste for low associations with a certain +varnish of good breeding. This had procured him in the troop the +nickname of the _Marchese_, and had made him a great favourite with +the female portion of the strollers, amongst whom more than one fierce +quarrel had arisen for the good graces of the fascinating Vicenzo. + +The Florentine was accompanied by a stranger, who had fallen in with +the troop at Nice, and had won their hearts by his liberality. He had +given them a magnificent supper at their _albergo_, had made them +presents of wine and trinkets--all apparently out of pure generosity +and love of their society. He it was who had chiefly determined them to +visit Marseilles, instead of proceeding north, as they had originally +intended, by Avignon to Lyons. He marched with the troop, on horseback, +wrapped in a long loose coat, and with a broad hat slouched over his +brow, and bestowed his companionship chiefly on Vicenzo, to whom he +appeared to have taken a great affection. The strollers thought him +a strange eccentric fellow, half cracked, to say the least; but they +cared little whether he were sane or mad, so long as his society proved +profitable, his purse well filled, and ever in his hand. + +The wanderers were within three miles of Marseilles when they came to +one of the _bastides_, or country-houses, so thickly scattered around +that city. It was of unusual elegance, almost concealed amongst a +thick plantation of trees, and having a terrace, in the Italian style, +overlooking the road. Upon this terrace, in the cool shade of an +arbour, two ladies were seated, enjoying the sweet breath of the lovely +spring morning. Books and embroidery were on a table before them, which +they left on the appearance of the horse-riders, and, leaning upon the +stone parapet, looked down on the unusual spectacle. The elder of the +two had nothing remarkable, except the gaudy ribbons that contrasted +with her antiquated physiognomy. The younger, in full flush of youth, +and seen amongst the bright blossoms of the plants that grew in pots +upon the parapet, might have passed for the goddess of spring in her +most sportive mood. Her hair hung in rich clusters over her alabaster +neck; her blue eyes danced in humid lustre; her coral lips, a little +parted, disclosed a range of sparkling pearls. The sole fault to be +found with her beauty was its character, which was sensual rather than +intellectual. One beheld the beautiful and frivolous child of clay, but +the ray of the spirit that elevates and purifies was wanting. It was +the beauty of a Bacchante rather than of a Vestal--Aurora disporting +herself on the flower banks, and awaiting, in frolic mood, the advent +of Cupid. + +The motley cavalcade moved on, the men assuming their smartish seat in +the saddle as they passed under the inspection of the _bella biondina_. +When Vicenzo approached the park wall, his companion leaned towards +him and spoke something in his ear. At the same moment, as if stung +by a gadfly, the spirited gray upon which the Florentine was mounted, +sprang with all four feet from the ground, and commenced a series of +leaps and curvets that would have unseated a less expert rider. They +only served to display to the greatest advantage Vicenzo's excellent +horsemanship and slender graceful figure. Disdaining the gaudy +equipments of his comrades, the young man was tastefully attired in a +dark closely-fitting jacket. Hessian boots and pantaloons exhibited +the Antinöus-like proportions of his comely limbs. He rode like a +centaur, he and his steed seemingly forming but one body. As he +reached, gracefully caracoling, the terrace on whose summit the ladies +were stationed, he looked up with a winning smile, and removing his +cap, bowed to his horse's mane. The old lady bridled and smiled; the +young one blushed as the Florentine's ardent gaze met hers, and in her +confusion she let fall a branch of roses she held in her hand. With +magical suddenness Vicenzo's fiery horse stood still, as if carved of +marble. With one bound the rider was on foot, and had snatched up the +flowers; then placing a hand upon the shoulder of his steed, who at +once started in a canter, he lightly, and without apparent effort, +vaulted into the saddle. With another bow and smile he rode off with +his companion. + +"'Twas well done, Vicenzo," said the latter. + +"What an elegant cavalier!" exclaimed Florinda Noell pensively, +following with her eyes the accomplished equestrian. + +"And so distinguished in his appearance!" chimed in her silly aunt. +"And how he looked up at us! One might fancy him a nobleman in +disguise, bent on adventures, or seeking intelligence of a lost +lady-love." + +Florinda smiled, but the stale platitude, borrowed from the absurd +romances that crammed Madame Verlé's brain, abode in her memory. Whilst +the handsome horse-rider remained in sight, she continued upon the +parapet and gazed after him. On his part, Vicenzo several times looked +back, and more than once he pressed to his lips the fragrant flowers of +which accident had made him the possessor. + +A small theatre, which happened then to be unoccupied, was hired by +the equestrians for their performances, the announcement of which was +soon placarded from one end to the other of Marseilles. At the first +representation, Florinda and her aunt were amongst the audience. They +had no one to cheek their inclinations, for Mr Noell, after passing +many months with his daughter without molestation from Dominique, who +had disappeared from Montauban the day after their meeting in the +churchyard, had forgotten his apprehensions, and had departed on his +annual tour of professional duty. At the circus, the honours of the +night were for Vicenzo. His graceful figure, handsome face, skilful +performance, and distinguished air, were the theme of universal +admiration. Florinda could not detach her gaze from him as he flew +round the circle, standing with easy negligence upon his horse's back; +and she could scarcely restrain a cry of horror and alarm at the +boldness of some of his feats. Vicenzo had early detected her presence +in the theatre; and the expression of his eyes, when he passed before +her box, made her conscious that he had done so. + +Several days elapsed, during which Florinda and her aunt had more +than once again visited the theatre. Vicenzo had become a subject +of constant conversation between the superannuated coquette and her +niece, the old lady indulging the most extravagant conjectures as +to who he could be, for she had made up her mind he was now in an +assumed character. Florinda spoke of him less, but thought of him +more. Nor were her visits to the theatre her only opportunities of +seeing him. Vicenzo, soon after his arrival at Marseilles, had excited +his comrades' wonder and envy by appearing in the elegant costume of +a private gentleman, and by taking frequent rides out of the town, +at first accompanied by Fontaine, the stranger before mentioned, but +afterwards more frequently alone. These rides were taken early in the +morning, or by moonlight, on evenings when there was no performance. +The horse-riders laughed at the airs the _Marchese_ gave himself, +attributed his extravagance to the generosity of Fontaine, and twitted +him with some secret intrigue, which he, however, did not admit, and +they took little pains to penetrate. Had they followed his horse's +hoof-track, they would have found that it led, sometimes by one road, +sometimes by another, to the _bastide_ of Anthony Noell the magistrate. +And after a few days they would have seen Vicenzo, his bridle over his +arm, conversing earnestly, at a small postern-gate of the garden, with +the charming _biondina_, whose bright countenance had greeted, like a +good augury, their first approach to Marseilles. + +At last a night came when this stolen conversation lasted longer +than usual. Vicenzo was pressing, Florinda irresolute. Fontaine had +accompanied his friend, and held his horse in an adjacent lane, whilst +the lovers (for such they now were to be considered) sauntered in a +shrubbery walk within the park. + +"But why this secrecy?" said the young girl, leaning tenderly upon the +arm of the handsome stroller. "Why not at once inform your friends you +accede to their wishes, in renouncing your present derogatory pursuit? +Why not present yourself to my father under your real name and title? +He loves his daughter too tenderly to refuse his consent to a union on +which her happiness depends." + +"Dearest Florinda!" replied Vicenzo, "how could my ardent love abide +the delays this course would entail? How can you so cruelly urge me +thus to postpone my happiness? See you not how many obstacles to our +union the step you advise would raise up? Your father, unwilling to +part with his only daughter, (and such a daughter!) would assuredly +object to our immediate marriage--would make your youth, my roving +disposition, fifty other circumstances, pretexts for putting it off. +And did we succeed in overruling these, there still would be a thousand +tedious formalities to encounter, correspondence between your father +and my family, who are proud as Lucifer of their ancient name and +title, and would be wearisomely punctilious. By my plan, we would +avoid all long-winded negotiations. Before daylight we are across the +frontier; and before that excellent Madame Verlé has adjusted her smart +cap, and buttered her first roll, my adored Florinda is Marchioness of +Monteleane. A letter to papa explains all; then away to Florence, and +in a month back to Marseilles, where you shall duly present me to my +respected father-in-law, and I, as in humility bound, will drop upon my +knees and crave pardon for running off with his treasure. Papa gives +his benediction, and curtain drops, leaving all parties happy." + +How often, with the feeble and irresolute, does a sorry jest pass for a +good argument! As Vicenzo rattled on, his victim looked up in his face, +and smiled at his soft and insidious words. Fascinated by silvery tones +and gaudy scales, the woman, as of old, gave ear to the serpent. + +"'Tis done," said the stroller, with a heartless smile, as he rode off +with Fontaine, half an hour later--"done. A post-chaise at midnight. +She brings her jewels--all the fortune she will ever bring me, I +suppose. No chance of drawing anything from the old gentleman?" + +"Not much," replied Fontaine drily. + +"Well, I must have another thousand from you, besides expenses. And +little enough too. Fifty yellow-boys for abandoning my place in the +troop. I was never in better cue for the ring. They are going to Paris, +and I should have joined Franconi." + +"Oh!" said Fontaine, with a slight sneer, "a man of your abilities will +never lack employment. But we have no time to lose, if you are to be +back at midnight." + +The two men spurred their horses, and galloped back to Marseilles. + +A few minutes before twelve o'clock, a light posting-carriage was drawn +up, by the road-side, about a hundred yards beyond Anthony Noell's +garden. Vicenzo tapped thrice with his knuckles at the postern door, +which opened gently, and a trembling female form emerged from the gloom +of the shrubbery into the broad moonlight without. Through the veil +covering her head and face, a tear might be seen glistening upon her +cheek. She faltered, hesitated; her good genius whispered her to pause. +But an evil spirit was at hand, luring her to destruction. Taking in +one hand a casket, the real object of his base desires, and with the +other arm encircling her waist, the seducer, murmuring soft flatteries +in her ear, hurried Florinda down the slope leading to the road. +Confused and fascinated, the poor weak girl had no power to resist. She +reached the carriage, cast one look back at her father's house, whose +white walls shone amidst the dark masses of foliage; the Florentine +lifted her in, spoke a word to the postilion, and the vehicle dashed +away in the direction of the Italian frontier. + +So long as the carriage was in sight, Fontaine, who had accompanied +Vicenzo, sat motionless upon his saddle, watching its career as it +sped, like a large black insect, along the moonlit road. Then, when +distance hid it from his view, he turned his horse's head and rode +rapidly into Marseilles. + + +FOES AND FRIENDS. + +Upon the second day after Florinda's elopement with her worthless +suitor, the large coffee-room of the Hotel de France, at Montauban, +was deserted, save by two guests. One of these was a man of about +fifty-five, but older in appearance, whose thin gray hair and stooping +figure, as well as the deep, anxious wrinkles and mournful expression +of his countenance, told a tale of cares and troubles, borne with a +rebellious rather than with a resigned spirit. The other occupant of +the apartment, who sat at its opposite extremity, and was concealed, +except upon near approach, by a sort of high projecting counter, was +much younger, for his age could hardly exceed thirty years. A certain +sober reserved expression, (hardly amounting to austerity,) frequently +observable in Roman Catholic priests, and which sat becomingly enough +upon his open intelligent countenance, betrayed his profession as +surely as some slight clerical peculiarities of costume. + +Suddenly a waiter entered the room, and approaching the old man with +an air of great respect, informed him that a gentleman, seemingly just +come off a journey, desired particularly to speak with him. The person +addressed raised his eyes, whose melancholy expression corresponded +with the furrows of his cheek, from the Paris newspaper he was reading, +and, in a voice at once harsh and feeble, desired the stranger should +be shown in. The order was obeyed; and a person entered, wrapped +in a cloak, whose collar was turned up, concealing great part of +his face. His countenance was further obscured by the vizard of a +travelling-cap, from beneath which his long hair hung in disorder. +Splashed and unshaven, he had all the appearance of having travelled +far and fast. The gentleman whom he had asked to see rose from his seat +on his approach, and looked at him keenly, even uneasily, but evidently +without recognition. The waiter left the room. The stranger advanced to +within three paces of him he sought, and stood still and silent, his +features still masked by his cloak collar. + +"Your business with me, sir?" said the old man quickly. "Whom have I +the honour to address?" + +"I am an old acquaintance, Mr Anthony Noell," said the traveller, in +a sharp ironical tone, as he turned down his collar and displayed a +pale countenance, distorted by a malignant smile. "An old debtor come +to discharge the balance due. My errand to-day is to tell you that you +are childless. Your daughter Florinda, your last remaining darling, has +fled to Italy with a nameless vagabond and stroller." + +At the very first word uttered by that voice, Noell had started and +shuddered, as at the sudden pang of exquisite torture. Then his glassy +eyes were horribly distended, his mouth opened, his whole face was +convulsed, and with a yell like that of some savage denizen of the +forest suddenly despoiled of its young, he sprang upon his enemy and +seized him by the throat. + +"Murderer!" he cried. "Help! help!" + +The waiters rushed into the room, and with difficulty freed the +stranger from the vice-like grasp of the old man, to whose feeble hands +frenzy gave strength. When at last they were separated, Noell uttered +one shriek of impotent fury and despair, and fell back senseless in the +servants' arms. The stranger, who himself seemed weak and ailing, and +who had sunk upon a chair, looked curiously into his antagonist's face. + +"He is mad," said he, with horrible composure and complacency; "quite +mad. Take him to his bed." + +The waiters lifted up the insensible body, and carried it away. The +stranger leaned his elbows upon a table, and, covering his face with +his hands, remained for some minutes absorbed in thought. A slight +noise made him look up. The priest stood opposite to him, and uttered +his name. + +"Dominique Lafon," he said, calmly but severely, "what is this +thing you have done? But you need not tell me. I know much, and can +conjecture the rest. Wretched man, know you not the word of God, to +whom is all vengeance, and who repayeth in his own good time?" + +Dominique seemed surprised at hearing his name pronounced by a +stranger. He looked hard at the priest. And presently a name connected +with days of happiness and innocence broke from the lips of the +vindictive and pitiless man. + +"Henry la Chapelle!" + +It was indeed his former fellow-student, whom circumstances and +disposition had induced to abandon the study of the law and enter the +church. They had not met since Dominique departed from Paris to receive +the last sigh of his dying mother. + +Who shall trace the secret springs whence flow the fountains of the +heart? For seven years Dominique Lafon had not wept. His captivity and +many sufferings, his father's death, all had been borne with a bitter +heart, but with dry eyes. But now, at sight of the comrade of his +youth, some hidden chord, long entombed, suddenly vibrated. A sob burst +from his bosom, and was succeeded by a gush of tears. + +Henry la Chapelle looked sadly and kindly at his boyhood's friend. + +"He who trusteth in himself," he said in low and gentle tones, "let +him take heed, lest his feet fall into the snares they despise. Alas! +Dominique, that you so soon forgot our last conversation! Alas! that +you have laid this sin to your soul! But those tears give me hope: they +are the early dew of penitence. Come, my friend, and seek comfort where +alone it may be found. Verily there is joy in heaven over one repentant +sinner, more than over many just men." + +And the good priest drew his friend's arm through his, and led him from +the room. + +Dominique's exclamation was prophetic. When Anthony Noell rose from +the bed of sickness to which grief consigned him, his intellects were +gone. He never recovered them, but passed the rest of his life in +helpless idiocy at his country-house, near Marseilles. There he was +sedulously and tenderly watched by the unhappy Florinda, who, after a +few miserable months passed with her reprobate seducer, was released +from farther ill-usage by the death of Vicenzo, stabbed in Italy in a +gambling brawl. + +Not long after 1830, there died in a Sardinian convent, noted for its +ascetic observances and for the piety of its inmates, a French monk, +who went by the name of brother Ambrose. His death was considered to be +accelerated by the strictness with which he followed the rigid rules of +the order, from some of which his failing health would have justified +deviation, and by the frequency and severity of his self-imposed +penances. His body, feeble when first he entered the convent, was no +match for his courageous spirit. In accordance with his dying request, +his beads and breviary were sent to a vicar named la Chapelle, then +resident at Lyons. When that excellent priest opened the book, he found +the following words inscribed upon a blank page:-- + +"Blessed be the Lord, for in Him have I peace and hope!" + +And Henry la Chapelle kneeled down, and breathed a prayer for the soul +of his departed friend, Dominique Lafon. + + + + +PESTALOZZIANA. + + "Etiam illud adjungo, sæpius ad laudem atque virtutem _naturam + sine doctrinâ_, quam sine naturâ valuisse doctrinam."--CICERO, + _pro. Arch._, 7. + + "Que vous ai-je donc fait, O mes jeunes années! + Pour m'avoir fui si vite, me croyant satisfait?" + + VICTOR HUGO, _Odes_. + + +For the abnormal, and, we must think, somewhat faulty education +of our later boyhood--a few random recollections of which we here +purpose to lay before the reader--our obligations, _quantuloecunquoe +sint_, are certainly due to prejudices which, though they have now +become antiquated and obsolete, were in full force some thirty years +ago, against the existing mode of education in England. Not that +the public--_quâ_ public--were ever very far misled by the noisy +declamations of the Whigs on this their favourite theme: people for +the most part paid very little attention to the inuendoes of the +peripatetic schoolmaster, so carefully primed and sent "abroad" to +disabuse them; while not a few smiled to recognise under that imposing +misnomer a small self-opinionated _clique_--free traders in everything +else, but absolute monopolists here--who sought by its aid to palm +off on society the _jocosa imago_ of their own crotchets, as though +in sympathetic response to a sentiment wholly proceeding from itself. +When much inflammatory "stuff" had been discharged against the walls +of our venerable institutions, not only without setting Isis or Cam +on fire, but plainly with some discomfitures to the belligerents +engaged, from the opposite party, who returned the salute, John +Bull began to open his eyes a little, and, as he opened them, to +doubt whether, after all, the promises and _programmes_ he had been +reading of a spic-and-span new order of everything, particularly of +education, might not turn out a _flam_; and the authors of them, who +certainly showed off to most advantage on _Edinburgh Review_ days, +prove anything but the best qualified persons to make good their own +vaticinations, or to bring in the new golden age they had announced. +Still, the crusade against English public seminaries, though abortive +in its principal design--that of exciting a _general_ defection +from these institutions--was not quite barren of results. It was +so far successful, at least, as completely to unsettle for a time +the minds of not a few over-anxious parents, who, taught to regard +with suspicion the credentials of every schoolmaster "at home," were +beginning to make diligent inquiries for his successor among their +neighbours "abroad." To all who were in this frame of mind, the first +_couleur de rose_ announcements of Pestalozzi's establishment at +Yverdun were news indeed! offering as they did--or at least seeming to +offer--the complete solution of a problem which could scarcely have +been entertained without much painful solicitude and anxiety. "Here, +then," for so ran the accounts of several trustworthy eyewitnesses, +educational amateurs, who had devoted a _whole morning_ to a most +prying and probing dissection of the system within the walls of the +chateau itself, and putting down all the results of their carefully +conducted autopsy, "here was a school composed of boys gathered from +all parts of the habitable globe, where each, by simply carrying +over a little of his mother tongue, might, in a short time, become a +youthful Mezzofante, and take his choice of many in return; a school +which, wisely eschewing the routine service of books, suffered neither +dictionary, gradus, grammar, nor spelling-book to be even seen on +the premises; a school for morals, where, in educating the head, +the right training of the heart was never for a moment neglected; a +school for the progress of the mind, where much discernment, blending +itself with kindness, fostered the first dawnings of the intellect, +and carefully protected the feeble powers of memory from being +overtaxed--where delighted Alma, in the progress of her development, +might securely enjoy many privileges and immunities wholly denied to +her at home--where even philosophy, stooping to conquer, had become +_sportive_ the better to _persuade_; where the poet's vow was actually +realised--the bodily health being as diligently looked after as that +of the mind or the affections; lastly, where they found no fighting +nor bullying, as at home, but agriculture and gymnastics instituted +in their stead." To such encomiums on the school were added, and with +more justice and truth, a commendation on old Pestalozzi himself, the +real liberality of whose sentiments, and the overflowings of whose +paternal love, could not, it was argued, and did not, fail to prove +beneficial to all within the sphere of their influence. The weight of +such supposed advantages turned the scale for not a few just entering +into the pupillary state, and settled their future destination. Our own +training, hitherto auspiciously enough carried on under the birchen +discipline of Westminster, was _suddenly_ stopt; the last silver +prize-penny had crossed our palm; the last quarterly half-crown tax for +birch had been paid into the treasury of the school; we were called on +to say an abrupt good-by to our friends, and to take a formal leave +of Dr P----. That ceremony was not a pleasing one; and had the choice +of a visit to Polyphemus in his cave, or to Dr P---- in his study, +been offered to us, the first would certainly have had the preference; +but as the case admitted neither evasion nor compromise, necessity +gave us courage to bolt into the august presence of the formidable +head-master, after lessons; and finding presently that we had somehow +managed to emerge again safe from the dreaded interview, we invited +several class-fellows to celebrate so remarkable a day at a tuck-shop +in the vicinity of Dean's Yard. There, in unrestricted indulgence, did +the party get through, there was no telling how many "lady's-fingers," +tarts, and cheese-cakes, and drank--there was no counting the corks +of empty ginger-beer bottles. When these delicacies had lost their +relish--~kai hex heron hento~--the time was come for making a +distribution of our personal effects. First went our bag of "taws" +and "alleys," _pro bono publico_, in a general scramble, and then a +Jew's-harp for whoever could twang it; and out or one pocket came a +cricket-ball for A, and out of another a peg-top for B; and then there +was a hockey-stick for M, and a red leathern satchel, with book-strap, +for N, and three books a-piece to two class-chums, who ended with a +toss-up for Virgil. And now, being fairly cleaned out, after reiterated +good-bys and shakes of the hand given and taken at the shop door, we +parted, (many of us never to meet again,) they to enjoy the remainder +of a half-holiday in the hockey-court, while we walked home through the +park, stopping in the midst of its ruminating cows, ourself to ruminate +a little upon the future, and to wonder, unheard, what sort of a place +Switzerland might be, and what sort of a man Pestalozzi! + +These adieus to old Westminster took place on a Saturday; and the +following Monday found us already _en route_ with our excellent father +for the new settlement at Yverdun. The school to which we were then +travelling, and the venerable man who presided over it, have both +been long since defunct--_de mortuis nil nisi bonum_; and gratitude +itself forbids that we should speak either of one or of the other with +harshness or disrespect; of a place where we certainly spent some very +happy, if not the happiest, days of life; of him who--rightly named +the _father_ of the establishment--ever treated us, and all with whom +he had to do, with a uniform gentleness and impartiality. To tell +ill-natured tales out of school--of such a school, and after so long +a period too--would indeed argue ill for _any one's_ charity, and +accordingly _we_ do not intend to try it. But though the feeling of the +_alumnus_ may not permit us to think unfavourably of the _Pensionat_ +Pestalozzi, we shall not, on that account, suppress the mention of some +occasional hardships and inconveniences experienced there, much less +allow a word of reproach to escape our pen. The reader, with no such +sympathies to restrain his curiosity, will no doubt expect, if not a +detailed account, some outline or general ground-plan of the system, +which, alas! we cannot give him; our endeavour to comprehend it as a +digested _whole_--proceeding on certain data, aiming at certain ends, +and pursuing them by certain means--has been entirely unsuccessful; +and therefore, if pressed for more than we can tell, our answer must +be, in the words of Cicero, _Deprecor ne me tanquam philosophum putet +scholam sibi istam, explicaturum_.[14] But though unable to make +out--if, indeed, there were any spirit of unity to be made out--in +Pestalozzi's scheme, there were certain manifest imperfections in +the composition of his plan of education--improprieties to which +the longest familiarity could scarcely reconcile, nor the warmest +partiality blind even the most determined partisan. In the first +place--to state them at once, and have done with the unpleasing office +of finding fault--it always struck us as a capital error, in a school +where books were not allowed, to suffer almost the whole teaching of +the classes to devolve upon some leading member of each; for what, in +fact, could self-taught lads be expected to teach, unless it were to +make a ring or a row--to fish, to whistle, or to skate? Of course, any +graver kind of information, conveyed by an infant prodigy to his gaping +pupils, must have lacked the necessary precision to make it available +to them: first, because he would very seldom be sufficiently possessed +of it himself; and secondly, because a boy's imperfect vocabulary and +inexperience render him at all times a decidedly bad interpreter even +of what he may really know. In place of proving real lights, these +little Jack-o'-Lanterns of ours tended rather to perplex the path of +the inquiring, and to impede their progress; and when an appeal was +made to the master, as was sometimes done, the master--brought up in +the same vague, bookless manner, and knowing nothing more _accurately_, +though he might know _more_ than his puzzle-pated pupils--was very +seldom able to give them a lift out of the quagmire, where they +accordingly would stick, and flounder away till the end of the lesson. +It was amusing to see how a boy, so soon as he got but a glimpse of a +subject before the class, and could give but the ghost of a reason for +what he was eager to prelect upon, became incontinent of the bright +discovery, till all his companions had had the full benefit of it, +with much that was irrelevant besides. The mischiefs which, it would +occur to any one's mind, were likely to result in after life from such +desultory habits of application in boyhood, actually did result to +many of us a few years later at college. It was at once painful and +difficult to indoctrinate indocile minds like ours into the accurate +and severe habits of university discipline. On entering the lists for +honours with other young aspirants, educated in the usual way at home, +we were as a herd of unbroken colts pitted against well-trained racers: +neither had yet run for the prize--in that single particular the cases +were the same; but when degree and race day came, on whose side lay +the odds? On theirs who had been left to try an untutored strength +in scampering over a wild common, at will, for years, or with those +who, by daily exercise in the _manège_ of a public school, had been +trained to bear harness, and were, besides, well acquainted with the +ground? _Another_ unquestionable error in the system was the absence of +emulation, which, from some strange misconception and worse application +of a text in St Paul, was proscribed as an unchristian principle; in +lieu of which, we were to be brought--though we never _were_ brought, +but that was the object aimed at--to love learning for its own sake, +and to prove ourselves anxious of excelling without a motive, or to be +_good for nothing_, as Hood has somewhere phrased it. + + "Nunquam præponens se aliis, ITA facillime + Sine invidia invenias laudem," + +says Terence, and it will be so where envy and conceit have supplanted +emulation: yet are the feelings perfectly distinct; and we think it +behoves all those who contend that every striving for the mastery is +prohibited by the gospel, to show how _communism_ in inferiority, or +_socialism_ in dulness, are likely to improve morals or mend society. +Take from a schoolboy the motive of rewards and punishments, and you +deprive him of that incentive by which your own conduct through life +is regulated, and that by which God has thought fit, in the moral +government of his rational creatures, to promote the practice of good +works, and to discourage and dissuade from evil. Nor did that which +sounds thus ominously in theory succeed in its application better +than it sounded. In fact, nothing more unfortunate could have been +devised for all parties, but especially for such as were by nature +of a studious turn or of quicker parts than the rest; who, finding +the ordinary stimulus to exertion thus removed, and none other to +replace it, no longer cared to do well, (why should they, when they +knew that their feeblest efforts would transcend their slow-paced +comrades' best?) but, gradually abandoning themselves to the _vis +inertiæ_ of sloth, incompetence, and bad example, did no more than +they could help; repressing the spirit of rivalry and emulation, +which had no issue in the school, to show it in some of those feats +of agility or address, which the rigorous enactment of gymnastic +exercises imposed on all alike, and in the performance of which we +certainly _did_ pride ourselves, and eagerly sought to eclipse each +other in exhibiting any natural or acquired superiority we might +possess. The absence of all elementary books of instruction throughout +the school, presented another barrier in the way of improvement still +more formidable than even the _bétise_ of boy pedagogues, the want of +sufficient stimulus to exertion, or the absurd respect paid sometimes +to natural incapacity, and sometimes even to idleness. Those who +had no rules to learn had of course none to apply when they wanted +them; no masters could have adequately supplied this deficiency, and +those of the chateau were certainly not the men to remedy the evil. +As might therefore have been anticipated, the young Pestalozzian's +ideas, whether innate or acquired, and on every subject, became sadly +vague and confused, and his grammar of a piece with his knowledge. +We would have been conspicuous, even amongst other boys, for what +_seemed_ almost a studied impropriety of language; but it _was_, in +fact, nothing more than the unavoidable result of natural indolence and +inattention, uncoerced by proper discipline. The old man's slouching +gait and ungraceful attire afforded but too apt an illustration of the +intellectual _nonchalance_ of his pupils. As to the modern languages, +of which so much has been said by those who knew so little of the +matter, they were in parlance, to be sure--but how spoken? Alas! +besides an open violation of all the concords, and a general disregard +of syntax, they failed where one would have thought them least likely +to fail, in correctness of idiom and accent. The French--this was the +language of the school--abounded in conventional phrases, woven into +its texture from various foreign sources, German, English, or Italian, +and in scores of barbarous words--not to be found in the _Dictionnaire +de l'Academie_, certainly, but quite current in the many-tongued +vernacular of the chateau. Our pronunciation remained unequivocally +John Bullish to the end--not one of us ever caught or thought of +catching the right intonation; and, whether the fault originated +merely in want of ear, or that we could not make the right use of our +noses, it is quite certain that all of us had either no accent or a +wrong one. The German was as bad as the French: it was a Swiss, not a +German, abounding in _patois_ phrases and provincialisms--in short, a +most hybrid affair, to say nothing of its being as much over-guttural +as the last was sub-nasal. With regard to Spanish and Italian, as the +English did not consort with either of these nations, all they ever +acquired of their languages were such oaths and _mauvais mots_ as +parrots pick up from sailors aboard ship, which they repeated with all +the innocence of parrots. Thus, then, the opportunities offered for the +acquisition of modern languages were plainly defective; and when it is +further considered that the dead languages remained untaught--nay, were +literally unknown, except to a small section of the school, for whom +a kind Providence had sent a valued friend and preceptor in Dr M----, +(whose neat Greek characters were stared at as cabalistical by the +other masters of the _Pensionat_,)--and finally, that our very English +became at last defiled and corrupted, by the introduction of a variety +of foreign idioms, it will be seen that for any advantage likely +to accrue from the polyglot character of the institution, the Tower +of Babel would, in fact, have furnished every whit as good a school +for languages as did our turreted chateau. And now, if candour has +compelled this notice of some, it must be admitted, serious blemishes +in the system of old Pestalozzi, where is the academy without them? + + "Whoever hopes a faultless school to see, + Hopes what ne'er was, nor is, nor is to be." + +Meanwhile the Swiss Pension was not without solid advantages, and might +justly lay claim to some regard, if not as a school for learning, at +least as a _moral_ school; its inmates for the most part spoke truth, +respected property, eschewed mischief, were neither puppies, nor +bullies, nor talebearers. There were, of course, exceptions to all +this, but then they were _exceptions_; nor was the number at any time +sufficient to invalidate the general rule, or to corrupt the better +principle. Perhaps a ten hours' daily attendance in class, coarse +spare diet, hardy and somewhat severe training, may be considered by +the reader as offering some explanation of our general propriety of +behaviour. It may be so; but we are by no means willing to admit, that +the really high moral tone of the school depended either upon gymnastic +exercises or short commons, nor yet arose from the want of facilities +for getting into scrapes, for here, as elsewhere, where there is the +will, there is ever a way. We believe it to have originated from +another source--in a word, from the encouragement held out to the study +of natural history, and the eagerness with which that study was taken +up and pursued by the school in consequence. Though Pestalozzi might +not succeed in making his disciples scholars, he certainly succeeded +in making many among them _naturalists_; and of the two--let us ask +it without offence--whether is he the happier lad (to say nothing of +the future man) who can fabricate faultless pentameters and immaculate +iambics to order; or he who, already absorbed in scanning the wonders +of creation, seeks with unflagging diligence and zeal to know more +and more of the visible works of the great _Poet of Nature_? "Sæpius +sane ad laudem atque virtutem naturam sine doctrinâ, quam sine naturâ +valuisse doctrinam;" which words being Cicero's, deny them, sir, if you +please. + +The Pension, during the period of our sojourn at Yverdun, contained +about a hundred and eighty élèves, natives of every European and +of some Oriental states, whose primitive mode of distribution into +classes, according to age and acquirements, during school hours, was +completely changed in playtime, when the boys, finding it easier to +speak their own tongue than to acquire a new one, divided themselves +into separate groups according to their respective nations. The English +would occasionally admit a German or a Prussian to their coterie; +but that was a favour seldom conferred upon any other foreigner: for +the Spaniards, who were certainly the least well-conducted of the +whole community, did not deserve it: among them were to be found the +litigious, the mischief-makers, the quarrellers, and--for, as has been +hinted, we were not all honest--the exceptional thieves. The Italians +we could never make out, nor they us: we had no sympathy with Pole or +Greek; the Swiss we positively did not like, and the French just as +positively did not like us; so how could it be otherwise? The ushers, +for the most part trained up in the school, were an obliging set of +men, with little refinement, less pretension, and wholly without +learning. A distich from Crabbe describes them perfectly-- + + "Men who, 'mid noise and dirt, and play and prate, + Could calmly mend the pen, and wash the slate." + +Punishments were rare; indeed, flogging was absolutely prohibited; and +the setting an imposition would have been equally against the _genius +loci_, had lesson-books existed out of which to hear it afterwards. +A short imprisonment in an unfurnished room--a not very formidable +black-hole--with the loss of a _goutte_, now and then, and at very long +intervals, formed the mild summary of the penal "code Pestalozzi." + +It was Saturday, and a half holiday, when we arrived at Yverdun, and +oh the confusion of tongues which there prevailed! All Bedlam and +Parnassus let loose to rave together, could not have come up to that +diapason of discords with which the high corridors were ringing, +as, passing through the throng, we were conducted to the venerable +head of the establishment in his private apartments beyond. In this +gallery of mixed portraits might be seen long-haired, highborn, and +high-cheek-boned Germans; a scantling of French _gamins_ much better +dressed; some dark-eyed Italians; Greeks in most foreign attire; here +and there a fair ingenuous Russian face; several swart sinister-looking +Spaniards, models only for their own Carravagio; some dirty specimens +of the universal Pole; one or two unmistakeable English, ready to shake +hands with a compatriot; and Swiss from every canton of the Helvetic +confederacy. To this promiscuous multitude we were shortly introduced, +the kind old man himself taking us by the hand, and acting as master +of the ceremonies. When the whole school had crowded round to stare at +the new importation, "Here," said he, "are four English boys come from +their distant home, to be naturalised in this establishment, and made +members of our family. Boys, receive them kindly, and remember they are +henceforth your brothers." A shout from the crowd proclaiming its ready +assent and cordial participation in the adoption, nothing remained but +to shake hands _à l'Anglaise_, and to fraternise without loss of time. +The next day being Sunday, our skulls were craniologically studied by +Herr Schmidt, the head usher; and whatever various bumps or depressions +phrenology might have discovered thereon were all duly registered in a +large book. After this examination was concluded, a week's furlough was +allowed, in order that Herr Schmidt might have an opportunity afforded +him of seeing how far our real character squared with phrenological +observation and measurement, entering this also into the same ledger +as a note. What a contrast were we unavoidably drawing all this time +between Yverdun and Westminster, and how enjoyable was the change to +us! The reader will please to imagine as well as he can, the sensations +of a lately pent up chrysalis, on first finding himself a butterfly, or +the not less agreeable surprise of some newly metamorphosed tadpole, +when, leaving his associates in the mud and green slime, he floats at +liberty on the surface of the pool, endowed with lungs and a voice,--if +he would at all enter into the exultation of our feelings on changing +the penitential air of Millbank for the fresh mountain breezes of the +Pays de Vaud. It seemed as if we had--nay, we had actually entered +upon a new existence, so thoroughly had all the elements of the old +been altered and improved. If we looked back, and compared past and +present experiences, there, at the wrong end of the mental telescope, +stood that small dingy house, in that little mis-yclept Great Smith +Street, with its tiny cocoon of a bedroom, whilom our close and +airless prison; here, at the other end, and in immediate contact with +the eye, a noble chateau, full of roomy rooms, enough and to spare. +Another retrospective peep, and _there_ was Tothill Fields, and its +seedy cricket ground; and _here_, again, a level equally perfect, +but carpeted with fine turf, and extending to the margin of a broad +living lake, instead of terminating in a nauseous duck-pond; while the +cold clammy cloisters adjoining Dean's Yard were not less favourably +replaced by a large open airy play-ground, intersected by two clear +trout-streams--and a sky as unlike that above Bird-Cage Walk as the +interposed atmosphere was different; whilst, in place of the startling, +discordant _Keleusmata_ of bargees, joined to the creaking, stunning +noise of commerce in a great city, few out-of-door sounds to meet our +ear, and these few, with the exception of our own, all quiet, pastoral, +and soothing, such as, later in life, make + + "Silence in the heart + For thought to do her part," + +and which are not without their charm even to him "who whistles as +he goes for _want_ of thought." No wonder, then, if Yverdun seemed +Paradisaical in its landscapes. Nor was this all. If the views +outside were charming, our domestic and social relations within doors +were not less pleasing. At first, the unwelcome vision of the _late_ +head-master would sometimes haunt us, clad in his flowing black D.D. +robes--"tristis severitas in vultu, atque in verbis fides," looking as +if he intended to flog, and his words never belying his looks. That +terrible Olympian arm, raised and ready to strike, was again shadowed +forth to view; while we could almost fancy ourselves once more at +that judicial table, one of twenty boys who were to draw lots for +a "hander." How soothingly, then, came the pleasing consciousness, +breaking our reverie, that a very different person was _now_ our +head-master--a most indulgent old man whom we should meet ere long, +with hands uplifted, indeed, but only for the purpose of clutching us +tight while he inflicted a salute on both cheeks, and pronounced his +affectionate _guten morgen, liebes kind_, as he hastened on to bestow +the like fatherly greeting upon every pupil in turn. + + +THE DORMITORY. + +The sleeping apartments at the chateau occupied three of the four sides +of its inner quadrangle, and consisted of as many long rooms, each +with a double row of windows; whereof one looked into the aforesaid +quadrangle, while the opposite rows commanded, severally, views of the +garden, the open country, and the Grande Place of the town. They were +accommodated with sixty uncurtained stump bedsteads, fifty-nine of +which afforded _gîte_ to a like number of boys; and one, in no respect +superior to the rest, was destined to receive the athletic form of +Herr Gottlieb, son-in-law to Vater Pestalozzi, to whose particular +charge we were consigned during the hours of the night. These bedrooms, +being as lofty as they were long, broad, and over-furnished with +windows, were always ventilated; but the in-draught of air, which was +sufficient to keep them cool during the hottest day in summer, rendered +them cold, and sometimes _very_ cold, in the winter. In that season, +accordingly, especially when the _bise_ blew, and hail and sleet were +pattering against the casements, the compulsory rising to class by +candlelight was an ungenial and unwelcome process; for which, however, +there being no remedy, the next best thing was to take it as coolly, +we were going to say--_that of course_--but, as patiently as might be. +The disagreeable anticipation of the _réveil_ was frequently enough +to scare away sleep from our eyes a full hour before the command to +jump out of bed was actually issued. On such occasions we would lie +awake, and, as the time approached, begin to draw in our own breath, +furtively listening, not without trepidation, to the loud nose of a +distant comrade, lest its fitful stertor should startle another pair +of nostrils, on whose repose that of the whole dormitory depended. +Let Æolus and his crew make what tumult they liked inside or outside +the castle--_they_ disturbed nobody's dreams--_they_ never murdered +sleep. Let them pipe and whistle through every keyhole and crevice of +the vast _enceinte_ of the building--sigh and moan as they would in +their various imprisonments of attic or corridor; howl wildly round +the great tower, or even threaten a forcible entry at the windows, +nobody's ears were scared into unwelcome consciousness by sounds so +familiar to them all. It was the expectation of a blast louder even +than theirs that would keep our eyes open--a blast about to issue +from the bed of Herr Gottlieb, and thundering enough, when it issued, +to startle the very god of winds himself! Often, as the dreaded six +A.M. drew nigh, when the third quarter past five had, ten minutes +since, come with a sough and a rattle against the casements, and still +Gottlieb slept on, we would take courage, and begin to dream with our +eyes open, that his slumbers might be prolonged a little; his face, +turned upwards, looked so calm, the eyes so resolutely closed--every +feature so perfectly at rest. It could not be more than five minutes +to six--might not he who had slept _so long_, for once _over_sleep +himself? NEVER! However placid those slumbers might be, they invariably +forsook our "unwearied one" just as the clock was on the point of +striking six. To judge by the rapid twitchings--they almost seemed +galvanic--first of the muscles round the mouth, then of the nose and +eyes, it appeared as though some ill-omened dream, at that very nick +of time, was sent periodically, on purpose to awaken him; and, if so, +it certainly never returned ~apraktos~. Gottlieb would instantly set +to rubbing his eyes, and as the hour struck, spring up wide awake in +his shirt sleeves--thus destroying every lingering, and, as it always +turned out, ill-founded hope of a longer snooze. Presently we beheld +him jump into his small-clothes, and, when sufficiently attired to be +seen, unlimber his tongue, and pour forth a rattling broadside--_Auf, +kinder! schwind!_--with such precision of delivery, too, that few +sleepers could turn a deaf ear to it. But, lest any one should still +lurk under his warm coverlet out of earshot, at the further end of +the room, another and a shriller summons to the same effect once more +shakes the walls and windows of the dormitory. Then every boy knew +right well that the last moment for repose was past, and that he must +at once turn out shivering from his bed, and dress as fast as possible; +and it was really surprising to witness how rapidly all could huddle on +their clothes under certain conditions of the atmosphere! + +In less than five minutes the whole school was dressed, and Gottlieb, +in his sounding shoes, having urged the dilatory with another +admonitory _schwind, schwind!_ has departed, key and candle in hand, +to arouse the remaining sleepers, by ringing the "Great Tom" of the +chateau. So cold and cheerless was this matutinal summons, that +occasional attempts were made to evade it by simulated headach, or, +without being quite so specific, on the plea of general indisposition, +though it was well known beforehand what the result would be. Herr +Gottlieb, in such a case, would presently appear at the bedside of the +delinquent patient, with very little compassion in his countenance, +and, in a business tone, proceed to inquire from him, Why not +up?--and on receiving for reply, in a melancholy voice, that the +would-be invalid was _sehr krank_, would instantly pass the word for +the doctor to be summoned. That doctor--we knew him well, and every +truant knew--was a quondam French army surgeon--a sworn disciple of +the Broussais school, whose heroic remedies at the chateau resolved +themselves into one of two--_i. e._, a starve or a vomit, alternately +administered, according as the idiosyncracy of the patient, or as +this or that symptom turned the scale, now in favour of storming the +stomach, now of starving it into capitulation. Just as the welcome hot +mess of bread and milk was about to be served to the rest, this dapper +little Sangrado would make his appearance, feel the pulse, inspect the +tongue, ask a few questions, and finding, generally, indications of +what he would term _une légère gastrite_, recommend _diète absolue_; +then prescribing a mawkish _tisane_, composed of any garden herbs at +hand, and pocketing lancets and stethoscope, would leave the patient to +recover _sans calomel_--a mode of treatment to which, he would tell us, +we should certainly have been subjected in our own country. Meanwhile, +the superiority of _his_ plan of treatment was unquestionable. On the +very next morning, when he called to visit his _cher petit malade_, +an empty bed said quite plainly, "Very well, I thank you, sir, and in +class." But these feignings were comparatively of rare occurrence; +in general, all rose, dressed, and descended together, just as the +alarum-bell had ceased to sound; and in less than two minutes more all +were assembled in their respective class-rooms. The rats and mice, +which had had the run of these during the night, would be still in +occupation when we entered; and such was the audacity of these vermin +that none cared _alone_ to be the first to plant a candle on his desk. +But, by entering _en masse_, we easily routed the _Rodentia_, whose +forces were driven to seek shelter behind the wainscot, where they +would scuffle, and gnaw, and scratch, before they finally withdrew, +and left us with blue fingers and chattering teeth to study to make +the best of it. Uncomfortable enough was the effort for the first ten +minutes of the session; but by degrees the hopes of a possible warming +of hands upon the surface of the Dutch stoves after class, if they +should have been lighted in time, and at any rate the certainty of a +hot breakfast, were entertained, and brought their consolation; besides +which, the being up in time to welcome in the dawn of the dullest day, +while health and liberty are ours, is a pleasure in itself. There was +no exception to it here; for when the darkness, becoming every moment +less and less dark, had at length given way, and melted into a gray +gloaming, we would rejoice, even before it appeared, at the approach +of a new day. That approach was soon further heralded by the fitful +notes of small day-birds chirping under the leaves, and anon by their +sudden dashings against the windows, in the direction of the lights +not yet extinguished in the class-rooms. Presently the pigs were heard +rejoicing and contending over their fresh wash; then the old horse and +the shaggy little donkey in the stable adjoining the styes, knowing +by this stir that their feed was coming, snorted and brayed at the +pleasant prospect. The cocks had by this time roused their sleepy +sultanas, who came creeping from under the barn-door to meet their +lords on the dunghill. Our peacock, to satisfy himself that he had not +taken cold during the night, would scream to the utmost pitch of a +most discordant voice; then the prescient goats would bleat from the +cabins, and plaintively remind us that, till their door is unpadlocked, +they can get no prog; then the punctual magpie, and his friend the +jay, having hopped all down the corridor, would be heard screaming +for broken victuals at the school-room door, till our dismissal bell, +finding so many other tongues loosened, at length wags its own, and +then for the next hour and a half all are free to follow their own +devices. Breakfast shortly follows; but, alas! another cold ceremony +must be undergone first. A preliminary visit to pump court, and a +thorough ablution of face and hands, is indispensable to those who +would become successful candidates for that long-anticipated meal. +This bleaching process, at an icy temperature, was never agreeable; +but when the pipes happened to be frozen--a contingency by no means +unfrequent--and the snow in the yard must be substituted for the +water which was not in the pump, it proved a difficult and sometimes +a painful business; especially as there was always some uncertainty +afterwards, whether the chilblained paws would pass muster before the +inspector-general commissioned to examine them--who, utterly reckless +as to how the boys might "be off for soap," and incredulous of what +they would fain attribute to the adust complexion of their skin, would +require to have that assertion tested by a further experiment at the +"pump head." + + +THE REFECTORY. + + "Forbear to scoff at woes you cannot feel, + Nor mock the misery of a stinted meal."--CRABBE. + +The dietary tables at the chateau, conspicuous alike for the paucity +and simplicity of the articles registered therein, are easily recalled +to mind. The fare they exhibited was certainly _coarse_--though, by a +euphemism, it might have been termed merely _plain_--and spare withal. +The breakfast would consist of milk and water--the first aqueous enough +without dilution, being the produce of certain ill-favoured, and, +as we afterwards tasted their flesh, we may add ill-flavoured kine, +whose impoverished lacteals could furnish out of their sorry fodder +no better supplies. It was London sky-blue, in short, but not of the +Alderney dairy, which was made to serve our turn at Yverdun. This milk, +at seven in summer, and at half-past seven in winter, was transferred +boiling, and as yet unadulterated, into earthenware mixers, which had +been previously half-filled with hot water from a neighbouring kettle. +In this half-and-half state it was baled out for the assembled school +into a series of pewter platters, ranged along the sides of three +bare deal boards, some thirty feet long by two wide, and mounted on +tressels, which served us for tables. The ministering damsels were +two great German Fraus, rejoicing severally in the pleasing names of +Gretchen and Bessie. When Frau Gretchen, standing behind each boy, +had dropt her allowance of milk over his right shoulder--during which +process there was generally a mighty clatter for full measure and +fair play--the other Frau was slicing off her slices of bread from a +brown loaf a yard long, which she carried under her arm, and slashed +clean through with wonderful precision and address. It was now for all +those who had saved pocket-money for _menus-plaisirs_ to produce their +_cornets_ of cinnamon or sugar, sprinkle a little into the milk, and +then fall to sipping and munching with increased zest and satisfaction. +So dry and chaffy was our _pain de ménage_ that none ventured to soak +it entire, or at once, but would cut it into _frustrums_, and retain +liquid enough to wash down the boluses separately. In a few minutes +every plate was completely cleaned out and polished; and the cats, +that generally entered the room as we left it, seldom found a drop +with which they might moisten their tongues, or remove from cheeks +and whiskers the red stains of murdered mice on which they had been +breaking their fast in the great tower. So much for the earliest +meal of the day, which was to carry us through five hours, if not of +laborious mental study, at least of the incarceration of our bodies in +class, which was equally irksome to them as if our minds had been hard +at work. These five hours terminated, slates were once more insalivated +and put by clean, and the hungry garrison began to look forward to the +pleasures of the noon-day repast. The same bell that had been calling +so often to class would now give premonitory notice of dinner, but +in a greatly changed tone. In place of the shrill snappish key in +which it had all the morning jerked out each short unwelcome summons +from lesson to lesson, as if fearful of ringing one note beyond the +prescribed minute, it now would take time, vibrate far and wide in +its cage, give full scope to its tongue, and appear, from the loud +increasing swell of its prolonged _oyez_, to announce the message +of good cheer like a herald conscious and proud of his commission. +Ding-dong!--come along! Dinner's dishing!--ding-dong! _Da capo_ and +_encore_! Then, starting up from every school-room form throughout +the chateau, the noisy boys rushed pell-mell, opened all the doors, +and, like emergent bees in quest of honey, began coursing up and down +right busily between the _salle-à-manger_ and the kitchen--snuffing +the various aromas as they escaped from the latter into the passage, +and inferring from the amount of exhaled fragrance the actual progress +of the preparations for eating. Occasionally some "sly Tom" would peep +into the kitchen, while the Fraus were too busy to notice him, and +watch the great cauldron that had been milked dry of its stores in the +morning, now discharging its aqueous contents of a much-attenuated +_bouillon_--the surface covered with lumps of swimming bread, thickened +throughout with a hydrate of potatoes, and coloured with coarse insipid +carrots, which certainly gave it a savoury appearance. It was not good +broth--far from it, for it was both _sub_-greasy and _super_-salted; +but then it was hot, it was thick, and there was an abundant supply. +It used to gush, as we have said, from the great stop-cock of the +cauldron, steaming and sputtering, into eight enormous tureens. The +shreds of beef, together with whatever other solids remained behind +after the fluid had been drawn off, were next fished up from the abyss +with long ladles, and plumped into the decanted liquor. The young +_gastronome_ who might have beheld these proceedings would wait till +the lid was taken off the _sauerkraut_; and then, the odour becoming +overpoweringly appetising, he would run, as by irresistible instinct, +into the dining-room, where most of the boys were already assembled, +each with a ration of brown bread in his hand, and ready for the +Fraus, who were speedily about to enter. The dinner was noisy and +_ungenteel_ in the extreme--how could it be otherwise? _ventre affamé +n'a point d'oreilles._ Hardly was the German grace concluded, and +the covers removed, when that bone of contention, the marrow bone, +was caught up by some big boy near the top of the table, and became +the signal for a general row. All in his neighbourhood would call out +second, third, fourth, fifth, &c., for said bone; and thus it would +travel from plate to plate, yielding its contents freely to the two or +three first applicants, but wholly inadequate--unless it could have +resolved itself altogether into marrow--to meet all the demands made +upon its stores. Then arose angry words of contention, which waxed hot +as the marrow waxed cold, every candidate being equally vociferous in +maintaining the priority of his particular claim. Earnest appeals in +German, French, Spanish, English, &c., were bandied from one to the +other in consequence, as to who had really said _après toi_ first! At +last the "dry bone" was found undeserving of further contention; and, +ceasing to drop any more fatness upon any boy's bread, the competition +for it was dropt too. When now we had half-filled our stomachs with a +soup which few physicians would have withheld from their fever patients +on the score of its strength, we threw in a sufficiency of bread and +_sauerkraut_ to absorb it; and, after the post-prandial German grace +had been pronounced, the boys left the table, generally with a saved +crust in their pockets, to repair to the garden and filch--if it was +filching--an alliaceous dessert from the beds, which they washed in +the clear stream, and added, without fear of indigestion, to the +meal just concluded within the chateau. Most of us throve upon this +Spartan diet; but some delicate boys, unendowed with the ostrich power +of assimilation usual at that period--for boys, like ostriches, can +digest almost anything--became deranged in their chylopoietics, and +continued to feel its ill effects in mesenteric and other chronic +ailments for years afterwards. An hour was given for stomachs to +do their work, before we reassembled to ours in the class-room. At +half-past four precisely, a _gouté_, was served out, which consisted +of a whacking slice of bread, and either a repetition of the morning's +milk and water, or _café au lait_, (without sugar "_bien entendu_,") or +twenty-five walnuts, or a couple of ounces of strong-tasted _gruyère_, +or a plateful of _schnitz_ (cuttings of dried apples, pears, and +plums). We might choose any one of these several dainties we liked, +but not more. Some dangerous characters--not to be imitated--would +occasionally, while young Frau Schmidt stood doling out the supplies +from her cupboard among the assembled throng, make the disingenuous +attempt to obtain cheese with one hand and _schnitz_ with the other. +But the artifice, we are happy to say, seldom succeeded; for that +vigilant lady, quick-eyed and active, and who, of all things, hated +to be imposed upon, would turn round upon the false claimant, and bid +him hold up both his hands at once--which he, ambidexter as he was, +durst not do, and thus he was exposed to the laughter and jeers of +the rest. At nine, the bell sounded a feeble call to a _soi-disant_ +supper; but few of us cared for a basin of _tisane_ under the name of +lentil soup--or a pappy potato, salted in the boiling--and soon after +we all repaired to our bedrooms--made a noise for a short time, then +undressed, and were speedily asleep under our _duvets_, and as sound, +if not as musical, as tops. + +Our common fare, as the reader has now seen, was sorry enough; but we +had our Carnival and gala days as well as our Lent. Vater Pestalozzi's +birthday, in summer, and the first day of the new year, were the most +conspicuous. On each of these occasions we enjoyed a whole week's +holiday; and as these were also the periods for slaughtering the pigs, +we fed (twice a-year for a whole week!) upon black puddings and pork _à +discretion_, qualified with a sauce of beetroot and vinegar, and washed +down with a fluid really like small-beer. + + +CLASSES. + +The school-rooms, which lay immediately under the dormitories on the +ground-floor, consisted of a number of detached chambers, each of which +issued upon a corridor. They were airy--there was plenty of air at +Yverdun--and lofty as became so venerable a building; but they were +unswept, unscrubbed, peeled of their paint, and, owing to the little +light that could find its way through two very small windows punched +out of the fortress walls, presented, save at mid-day, or as the +declining sun illumined momentarily the dark recess, as comfortless +a set of interiors as you could well see. It required, indeed, all +the elasticity of youth to bear many hours' daily incarceration in +such black-holes, without participating in the pervading gloom. Such +dismal domiciles were only fit resorts for the myoptic bat, who would +occasionally visit them from the old tower; for the twilight horde of +cockroaches, which swarmed along the floor, or the eight-eyed spiders +who colonised the ceiling. The tender sight, too, of a patient just +recovering from ophthalmia would here have required no factitious or +deeper shade--but merits like these only rendered them as ungenial as +possible to the physiology and feelings of their youthful occupants. If +these apartments looked gloomy in their dilapidations and want of sun, +the sombre effect was much heightened by the absence of the ordinary +tables and chairs, and whatever else is necessary to give a room a +habitable appearance. Had an appraiser been commissioned to make out +a complete list of the furniture and the fixtures together, a mere +glance had sufficed for the inventory. In vain would his practised eye +have wandered in quest of themes for golden sentences, printed in such +uncial characters that all who run may read; in vain for the high-hung +well-backed chart, or for any pleasing pictorial souvenirs of Æsop or +the Ark--neither these nor the long "coloured Stream of Time," nor +formal but useful views in perspective, adorned our sorry walls. No +old mahogany case clicked in a corner, beating time for the class, and +the hour up-striking loud that it should not be defrauded of its dues. +No glazed globe, gliding round on easy axis, spun under its brassy +equator to the antipodes on its sides being touched. No bright zodiac +was there to exhibit its cabalistic figures in pleasing arabesques. +In place of these and other well-known objects, here stood a line +of dirty, much-inked desks, with an equally dirty row of attendant +forms subjacent alongside. There was a scantling--it seldom exceeded +a leash--of rickety rush-bottom chairs distributed at long intervals +along the walls; a coal-black slate, pegged high on its wooden horse; +a keyless cupboard, containing the various implements of learning, a +dirty duster, a pewter plate with cretaceous deposits, a slop-basin +and a ragged sponge;--and then, unless he had included the cobwebs of +the ceiling, (not usually reckoned up in the furniture of a room,) no +other movables remained. One conspicuous fixture, however, there was, +a gigantic Dutch stove. This lumbering parallelogram, faggot-fed from +the corridor behind, projected several feet into the room, and shone +bright in the glaze of earthenware emblazonments. Around it we would +sometimes congregate in the intervals of class: in winter to toast our +hands and hind quarters, as we pressed against the heated tiles, with +more or less vigour according to the fervency of the central fire; and +in summer either to tell stories, or to con over the pictorial History +of the Bible, which adorned its frontispiece and sides. We cannot say +that every square exactly squared with even our schoolboy notions of +propriety in its mode of teaching religious subjects; there was a Dutch +quaintness in the illustrations, which would sometimes force a smile +from its simplicity, at others shock, from its apparent want of decorum +and reverence. Preeminent of course among the gems from Genesis, Adam +and Eve, safe in innocency and "_naked_ truth," here walked unscathed +amidst a menagerie of wild beasts--_there_, dressed in the costume of +their fall, they quitted Eden, and left it in possession of tigers, +bears, and crocodiles. Hard by on a smaller tile, that brawny "knave +of clubs," Cain, battered down his brother at the altar; then followed +a long picture-gallery of the acts of the patriarchs, and another +equally long of the acts of the apostles. But, queer as many of these +misconceptions might seem, they were nothing to the strange attempts +made at dramatising the _parables_ of the New Testament--_e. g._ a +stout man, staggering under the weight of an enormous beam which grows +out of one eye, employs his fingers, assisted by the other, to pick +out a black speck from the cornea of his neighbour. Here, an unclean +spirit, as black as any sweep, issues from the mouth of his victim, +with wings and a tail! Here again, the good Samaritan, turbaned like a +Turk, is bent over the waylaid traveller, and pours wine and oil into +his wounds from the mouths of two Florence flasks; there, the grain of +mustard-seed, become a tree, sheltering already a large aviary in its +boughs; the woman, dancing a hornpipe with the Dutch broom, has swept +her house, and lo! the piece of silver that was lost in her hand; a +servant, who is digging a hole in order to hide his lord's talent under +a tree, is overlooked by a magpie and two crows, who are attentive +witnesses of the deposit:--and many others too numerous to mention. So +much for the empty school-room, but what's a hive without bees, or a +school-room without boys? The reader who has peeped into it untenanted, +shall now, if he pleases, be introduced, _dum fervet opus_ full and +alive. Should he not be able to trace out very clearly the system at +work, he will at least be no worse off than the bee-fancier, who hears +indeed the buzzing, and sees a flux and reflux current of his winged +confectioners entering in and passing out, but cannot investigate +the detail of their labours any farther. In the Yverdun, as in the +hymenopterus apiary, we swarmed, we buzzed, dispersed, reassembled at +the sound of the bell, flocked in and flocked out, all the day long; +exhibited much restlessness and activity, evincing that something was +going on, but _what_, it would have been hard to determine. Here the +comparison must drop. Bees buzz to some purpose; they know what they +are about; they help one another; they work orderly and to one end,-- + + "How skilfully they build the cell, + How neat they spread the wax, + And labour hard to store it well + With the sweet food," &c. &c. + +In none of these particulars did we resemble the "busy bee." This +being admitted, our object in offering a few words upon the course +of study pursued at the chateau is not with any idea of enlightening +the reader as to anything really acquired during the long ten hours' +session of each day; but rather to show how ten hours' imprisonment may +be inflicted upon the body for the supposed advantage of the mind, and +yet be consumed in "profitless labour, and diligence which maketh not +rich;" to prove, by an exhibition of their opposites, that method and +discipline are indispensable in tuition, and (if he will accept our +"pathemata" for his "mathemata" and guides in the bringing up of his +sons) to convince him that education, like scripture, admits not of +private interpretation. Those who refuse to adopt the Catholic views +of the age, and the general sense of the society in which they live, +must blame themselves if they find the experiment of foreign schools a +failure, and that they have sent their children "farther to fare worse." + +And now to proceed to the geography class, which was the first after +breakfast, and began at half-past eight. As the summons-bell sounded, +the boys came rushing and tumbling in, and ere a minute had elapsed +were swarming over, and settling upon, the high reading-desks: the +master, already at his work, was chalking out the business of the hour; +and as this took some little time to accomplish, the youngsters, not +to sit unemployed, would be assiduously engaged in impressing sundry +animal forms--among which the donkey was a favourite--cut out in +cloth, and well powdered, upon one another's backs. When Herr G---- +had finished his chalkings, and was gone to the corner of the room +for his show-perch, a skeleton map of Europe might be seen, by those +who chose to look that way, covering the slate: this, however, was +what the majority of the assembly never dreamt of, or only dreamt +they were doing. The class generally--though ready when called upon +to give the efficient support of their tongues--kept their eyes to +gape elsewhere, and, like Solomon's fool, had them where they had +no business to be. The map, too often repeated to attract from its +novelty, had no claim to respect on other grounds. It was one of a +class accurately designated by that careful geographer, old Homer, as +"~maps ou Kata Kosmon~." Coarse and clumsy, however, as it necessarily +would be, it might still have proved of service had the boys been +the draughtsmen. As it was, the following mechanically Herr G----'s +wand to join in the general chorus of the last census of a city, the +perpendicular altitude of a mountain, or the length and breadth of a +lake, could obviously convey no useful instruction to any one. But, +useful or otherwise, such was our _regime_,--to set one of from fifty +to sixty lads, day after day, week after week, repeating facts and +figures notorious to every little reader of penny guides to science, +till all had the last statistical returns at their tongue's tip; and +knew, when all was done, as much of what geography really meant as +on the day of their first matriculation. Small wonder, then, if some +should later have foresworn this study, and been revolted at the +bare sight of a map! All our recollections of _map_, unlike those of +_personal_ travel, are sufficiently distasteful. Often have we yawned +wearily over them at Yverdun, when our eyes were demanded to follow the +titubations of Herr G----'s magic wand, which, in its uncertain route, +would skip from Europe to Africa and back again--_qui modo Thebas +modo me ponit Athenis_; and our dislike to them since has increased +amazingly. Does the reader care to be told the reason of this? Let +him--in order to obtain the pragmatic sanction of some stiff-necked +examiner--have to "get up" all the anastomosing routes of St Paul's +several journeyings; have to follow those rebellious Israelites in all +their wanderings through the desert; to draw the line round them when +in Palestine; going from Dan to Beersheba, and "meting out the valley +of Succoth;" or, finally, have to cover a large sheet of foolscap with +a progressive survey of the spread of Christianity during the three +first centuries--and he will easily enter into our feelings. To return +to the class-room: The geographical lesson, though of daily infliction, +was accurately circumscribed in its duration. Old Time kept a sharp +look-out over his blooming daughters, and never suffered one hour to +tread upon the heels or trench upon the province of a sister hour. +Sixty minutes to all, and not an extra minute to any, was the old +gentleman's impartial rule; and he took care to see it was strictly +adhered to. As the clock struck ten, geography was shoved aside by the +muse of mathematics. A sea of dirty water had washed out in a twinkling +all traces of the continent of Europe, and the palimpsest slate +presented a clean face for whatever figures might next be traced upon +it. + +The hour for Euclidising was arrived, and anon the black parallelogram +was intersected with numerous triangles of the Isosceles and Scalene +pattern; but, notwithstanding this promising _début_, we did not make +much quicker progress here than in the previous lesson. How should +we, who had not only the difficulties inseparable from the subject to +cope with, but a much more formidable difficulty--viz. the obstruction +which we opposed to each other's advance, by the plan, so unwisely +adopted, of making all the class do the same thing, that they might +keep pace together. It is a polite piece of folly enough for a whole +party to be kept waiting dinner by a lounging guest, who chooses to +ride in the park when he ought to be at his toilet; but we were the +victims of a much greater absurdity, who lost what might have proved +an hour of profitable work, out of tenderness to some incorrigibly +idle or Boeotian boy, who could not get over the Pons Asinorum, (every +proposition was a _pons_ to some _asinus_ or other,) and so made those +who were over stand still, or come back to help him across. Neither +was this, though a very considerable drawback, our only hindrance--the +guides were not always safe. Sometimes he who acted in that capacity +would shout "Eureka" too soon; and having undertaken to lead the van, +lead it astray till just about, as he supposed, to come down upon +the proof itself, and to come down with a Q. E. D.: the master would +stop him short, and bid him--as Coleridge told the ingenious author +of _Guesses at Truth_--"to guess again." But suppose the "guess" +fortunate, or that a boy had even succeeded, by his own industry or +reflection, in mastering a proposition, did it follow that he would +be a clear expositor of what he knew? It was far otherwise. Our young +Archimedes--unacquainted with the terms of the science, and being +also (as we have hinted) lamentably defective in his knowledge of the +power of words--would mix up such a "farrago" of irrelevancies and +repetitions with the proof, as, in fact, to render it to the majority +no proof at all. Euclid should be taught in his own words,--just enough +and none to spare: the employment of less must engender obscurity; and +of more, a want of neatness and perspicacity. The best geometrician +amongst us would have cut but a bad figure by the side of a lad of very +average ability brought up to know Euclid by book. + +Another twitch of the bell announced that the hour for playing at +triangles had expired. In five minutes the slate was covered with +bars of minims and crotchets, and the music lesson begun. This, in +the general tone of its delivery, bore a striking resemblance to the +geographical one of two hours before; the only difference being that +"ut, re, me" had succeeded to names of certain cities, and "fa, so, la" +to the number of their inhabitants. It would be as vain an attempt to +describe all the noise we made as to show its rationale or motive. It +was loud enough to have cowed a lion, stopped a donkey in mid-bray--to +have excited the envy of the vocal Lablache, or to have sent any _prima +donna_ into hysterics. When this third hour had been bellowed away, and +the bell had rung unheard the advent of a fourth--_presto_--in came +Mons. D----, to relieve the meek man who had acted as coryphæus to the +music class; and after a little tugging, had soon produced from his +pocket that without which you never catch a Frenchman--a _thème_. The +theme being announced, we proceeded (not quite _tant bien que mal_) +to scribble it down at his dictation, and to amend its orthography +afterwards from a corrected copy on the slate. Once more the +indefatigable bell obtruded its tinkle, to proclaim that Herr Roth was +coming with a Fable of Gellert, or a chapter from Vater Pestalozzi's +serious novel, _Gumal und Lina_, to read, and expound, and catechise +upon. This last lesson before dinner was always accompanied by frequent +yawns and other unrepressed symptoms of fatigue; and at its conclusion +we all rose with a shout, and rushed into the corridors. + +On resuming work in the afternoon, there was even less attention and +method observed than before. The classes were then broken up, and +private lessons were given in accomplishments, or in some of the useful +arts. Drawing dogs and cows, with a master to look after the trees and +the hedges; whistling and spitting through a flute; playing on the +patience of a violin; turning at a lathe; or fencing with a powerful +_maître d'armes_;--such were the general occupations. It was then, +however, that we English withdrew to our Greek and Latin; and, under +a kind master, Dr M----, acquired (with the exception of a love for +natural history, and a very unambitious turn of mind) all that really +could deserve the name of education. + +We have now described the sedentary life at the chateau. In the next +paper the reader shall be carried to the gymnasium; the drill ground +behind the lake; to our small menageries of kids, guinea pigs, and +rabbits; be present at our annual ball and skating bouts in winter, and +at our bathings, fishings, frog-spearings, and rambles over the Jura in +summer. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[14] CICERO, _De Fin._, ii. 1. + + + + +THE CROWNING OF THE COLUMN, AND CRUSHING OF THE PEDESTAL. + + +It was said in the debate on the Navigation Laws, in the best speech +made on the Liberal side, by one of the ablest of the Liberal party, +that the repeal of the Navigation Laws was the _crowning of the column +of free trade_. There is no doubt it was so; but it was something more. +It was not only the carrying out of a principle, but the overthrow of a +system; it was not merely the crowning of the column, but the _crushing +of the pedestal_. + +And what was the system which was thus completely overthrown, for the +time at least, by this great triumph of Liberal doctrines? It was the +system under which England had become free, and great, and powerful; +under which, in her alone of all modern states, liberty had been found +to coexist with law, and progress with order; under which wealth had +increased without producing divisions, and power grown up without +inducing corruption; the system which had withstood the shocks of two +centuries, and created an empire unsurpassed since the beginning of +the world in extent and magnificence. It was a system which had been +followed out with persevering energy by the greatest men, and the most +commanding intellects, which modern Europe had ever produced; which was +begun by the republican patriotism of Cromwell, and consummated by the +conservative wisdom of Pitt; which had been embraced alike by Somers +and Bolingbroke, by Walpole and Chatham, by Fox and Castlereagh; which, +during two centuries, had produced an unbroken growth of national +strength, a ceaseless extension of national power, and at length reared +up a dominion which embraced the earth in its grasp, and exceeded +anything ever achieved by the legions of Cæsar, or the phalanx of +Alexander. No vicissitudes of time, no shock of adverse fortune, had +been able permanently to arrest its progress. It had risen superior +alike to the ambition of Louis XIV. and the genius of Napoleon; the +rude severance of the North American colonies had thrown only a passing +shade over its fortunes; the power of Hindostan had been subdued by +its force, the sceptre of the ocean won by its prowess. It had planted +its colonies in every quarter of the globe, and at once peopled with +its descendants a new hemisphere, and, for the first time since the +creation, rolled back to the old the tide of civilisation. Perish when +it may, the _old English system_ has achieved mighty things; it has +indelibly affixed its impress on the tablets of history. The children +of its creation, the Anglo-Saxon race, will fill alike the solitudes of +the Far West, and the isles of the East; they will be found equally on +the shores of the Missouri, and on the savannahs of Australia; and the +period can already be anticipated, even by the least imaginative, when +their descendants will people half the globe. + +It was not only the column of free trade which has been crowned in +this memorable year. Another column, more firm in its structure, +more lasting in its duration, more conspicuous amidst the wonders of +creation, has, in the same season, been crowned by British hands. +While the sacrilegious efforts of those whom it had sheltered were +tearing down the temple of protection in the West, the last stone +was put to the august structure which it had reared in the East. The +victory of Goojerat on the Indus was contemporary with the repeal of +the Navigation Laws on the Thames. The completion of the conquest of +India occurred exactly at the moment when the system which had created +that empire was repudiated. Protection placed the sceptre of India +in our hands, when free trade was surrendering the trident of the +ocean in the heart of our power. With truth did Lord Gough say, in +his noble proclamation to the army of the Punjaub, on the termination +of hostilities, that "what Alexander had attempted they had done." +Supported by the energy of England, guided by the principles of +protection, restrained by the dictates of justice, backed by the navy +which the Navigation Laws had created, the British arms had achieved +the most wonderful triumph recorded in the annals of mankind. They +had subjugated a hundred and forty millions of men in the Continent +of Hindostan, at the distance of ten thousand miles from the parent +state; they had made themselves felt alike, and at the same moment, at +Nankin, the ancient capital of the Celestial Empire, and at Cabool, the +cradle of Mahommedan power. Conquering all who resisted, blessing all +who submitted, securing the allegiance of the subjects by the justice +and experienced advantages of their government, they had realised the +boasted maxim of Roman administration-- + + "Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos," + +and steadily advanced through a hundred years of effort and glory, not +unmixed with disaster, from the banks of the Hoogley to the shores of +the Indus--from the black hole of Calcutta to the throne of Aurengzebe. + +"Nulla magna civitas," said Hannibal, "diu quiescere potest--si foris +hostem non habet, _domi invenit_: ut praevalida corpora ab externis +causis tuta videntur, suis ipsis viribus conficiuntur."[15] When the +Carthaginian hero made this mournful reflection on the infatuated +spirit which had seized his own countrymen, and threatened to destroy +their once powerful dominion, he little thought what a marvellous +confirmation of it a future empire of far greater extent and celebrity +was to afford. That the system of free trade--that is, the universal +preference of foreigners, for the sake of the smallest reduction +of price, to your own subjects--must, if persisted in, lead to the +dismemberment and overthrow of the British empire, cannot admit of a +moment's doubt, and will be amply proved to every unbiassed reader +in the sequel of this paper. Yet the moment chosen for carrying this +principle into effect was precisely that, when the good effects of the +opposite system had been most decisively demonstrated, and an empire +unprecedented in magnitude and magnificence had reached its acme under +its shadow. It would be impossible to explain so strange an anomaly, +if we did not recollect how wayward and irreconcilable are the changes +of the human mind: that action and reaction is the law not less of the +moral than of the material world; that nations become tired of hearing +a policy called wise, not less than an individual called the just; +and that if a magnanimous and truly national course of government has +been pursued by one party long in possession of power, this is quite +sufficient to make its opponents embrace the opposite set of tenets, +and exert all their influence to carry them into effect when they +succeed to the direction of affairs, without the slightest regard to +the ruin they may bring on the national fortunes. + +The secret of the long duration and unexampled success of the British +national policy is to be found in the protection which it afforded to +_all_ the national interests. But for this, it must long since have +been overthrown, and with it the empire which was growing up under its +shadow. No institutions or frames of government can long exist which +are not held together by that firmest of bonds, _experienced benefits_. +What made the Roman power steadily advance during seven centuries, and +endure in all a thousand years? The protection which the arms of the +legions afforded to the industry of mankind, the international wars +which they prevented, the general peace they secured, the magnanimous +policy which admitted the conquered states to the privileges of Roman +citizens, and caused the Imperial government to be felt through the +wide circuit of its power, only by the vast market it opened to the +industry of its multifarious subjects, and the munificence with which +local undertakings were everywhere aided by the Imperial treasury. Free +trade in grain at length ruined it: the harvests of Libya and Egypt +came to supersede those of Greece and Italy,--and thence its fall. To +the same cause which occasioned the rise of Rome, is to be ascribed +the similar unbroken progress of the Russian territorial dominion, +and that of the British colonial empire in modern times. What, on the +other hand, caused the conquests of Timour and Charlemagne, Alexander +the Great and Napoleon, to be so speedily obliterated, and their vast +empires to fall to pieces the moment the powerful hand which had +created them was laid in the dust? The _want of protection_ to general +interests, the absence of the strong bond of experienced benefits; the +oppressive nature of the conquering government; the sacrifice of the +general interests to the selfish ambition or rapacious passions of a +section of the community, whether civil or military, which had got +possession of power. It is the selfishness of the ruling power which +invariably terminates its existence: men will bear anything but an +interference with their patrimonial interests. The burning of 50,000 +Protestants by the Duke of Alva was quietly borne by the Flemish +provinces: but the imposition of a small _direct_ tax at once caused +a flame to burst forth, which carried the independence of the United +Provinces. Attend sedulously to the interests of men, give ear to +their complaints, anticipate their wishes, and you may calculate with +tolerable certainty on acquiring in the long run the mastery of their +passions. Thwart their interests, disregard their complaints, make game +of their sufferings, and you may already read the handwriting on the +wall which announces your doom. + +That the old policy of England, foreign, colonial, and domestic, was +thoroughly protective, and attended, on the whole, with a due care +of the interests of its subjects in every part of the world, may be +inferred with absolute certainty from the constant growth, unexampled +success, and long existence of her empire. But the matter is not left +to inference: decisive proof of it is to be found in the enactments +of our statute-book, the treaties we concluded, or the wars we waged +with foreign powers. Protection to native industry, at home or in the +colonies, security to vested interests, a sacred regard to the rights +and interests of our subjects, in whatever part of the world, were the +principles invariably acted upon. Long and bloody wars were undertaken +to secure their predominance, when threatened by foreign powers. This +protective system of necessity implied some restrictions upon the +industry, or restraints upon the liberty of action in the colonial +dependencies, as well as the mother country--but what then? They were +not complained of on either side, because they were accompanied with +corresponding and greater benefits, as the consideration paid by the +mother country, and received by her distant offspring. Reciprocity in +those days was not entirely one-sided; there was a _quid pro quo_ on +both sides. The American colonies were subjected to the Navigation +Laws, and, in consequence, paid somewhat higher for their freights +than if they had been permitted to export and import their produce +in the cheaper vessels of foreign powers; but this burden was never +complained of, because it was felt to be the price paid for the immense +advantages of the monopoly of the English market, and the protection of +the English navy. The colonies of France and Spain desired nothing so +much, during the late war, as to be conquered by the armies of England, +because it at once opened the closed markets for their produce, and +restored the lost protection of a powerful navy. The English felt that +their colonial empire was in some respects a burden, and entailed +heavy expenses both in peace and war; but they were not complained +of, because the manufacturing industry of England found a vast and +increasing market for its produce in the growth of its offspring in +every part of the world, and its commercial navy grew with unexampled +rapidity from the exclusive enjoyment of their trade. + +Such was the amount of protection afforded in our statute-book to +commercial industry, that we might imagine, if there was nothing else +in it, that the empire had been governed exclusively by a manufacturing +aristocracy. Such was the care with which the interests of the +colonies were attended to, that it seemed as if they must have had +representatives who possessed a majority in the legislature. To one +who looked to the welfare of land, and the protection of its produce, +the chapel of St Stephens seemed to have been entirely composed of +the representatives of squires. The shipping interest was sedulously +fostered, as appeared in the unexampled growth and vast amount of our +mercantile tonnage. The interests of labour, the welfare of the poor, +were not overlooked, as was demonstrated in the most decisive way by +the numerous enactments for the relief of the indigent and unfortunate, +and the immense burden which the legislature voluntarily imposed on +itself and the nation for the relief of the destitute. Thus _all_ +interests were attended to; and that worst of tyrannies, the tyranny +of one class over another class, was effectually prevented. It is in +this sedulous attention to _all_ the interests of the empire that its +long duration and unparalleled extension is to be ascribed. Had any +one class or interest been predominant, and commenced the system of +pursuing its separate objects and advantages, to the subversion or +injury of the other classes in the state, such a storm of discontent +must have arisen as would speedily have proved fatal to the unanimity, +and with it to the growth and prosperity of the empire. + +Two causes mainly contributed to produce this system of catholic +protection by the British government to native industry; and to their +united operation, the greatness of England is chiefly to be ascribed. +The first of these was the peculiar constitution which time had worked +out for the House of Commons, and the manner in which all the interests +of the state had come silently, and without being observed, to be +indirectly but most effectually represented in parliament. That body, +anterior to the Reform Bill, possessed one invaluable quality--its +franchise was multiform and various. In many burghs the landed interest +in their neighbourhood was predominant; in most counties it returned +members in the interests of agriculture. In other towns, mercantile or +commercial wealth acquired by purchase an introduction, or won it from +the influence of some great family. Colonial opulence found a ready +inlet in the close boroughs: Old Sarum or Gatton nominally represented +a house or a green mound--really, the one might furnish a seat to a +representative of Hindostan, the other of the splendid West Indian +settlements. The members who thus got in by purchase had one invaluable +quality, like the officers who get their commissions in the army in the +same way--they were independent. They were not liable to be overruled +or coerced by a numerous, ignorant, and conceited constituency. Hence +they looked only to the interests of the class to which they belonged, +amidst which their fortunes had been made, and with the prosperity of +which their individual success was entirely wound up. With what energy +these various interests were attended to, with what perseverance the +system of protecting them was followed up, is sufficiently evident +from the simultaneous growth and unbroken prosperity of all the great +branches of industry during the long period of a hundred and fifty +years. Talent, alike on the Whig and the Tory side, found a ready +entrance by means of the nomination burghs. It is well known that all +the great men of the House of Commons, since the Revolution, obtained +entrance to parliament in the first instance through these narrow +inlets. Rank looked anxiously for talent, because it added to its +influence. Genius did not disdain the entrance, because it was not +obstructed by numbers, or galled by conceit. No human wisdom could have +devised such a system; it rose gradually, and without being observed, +from the influence of a vast body of great and prosperous interests, +feeling the necessity of obtaining a voice in the legislature, and +enjoying the means of doing so by the variety of election privileges +which time had established in the House of Commons. The reality of this +representation of interests is matter of history. The landed interest, +the West India interest, the commercial interest, the shipping +interest, the East Indian interest, could all command their respective +phalanxes in parliament, who would not permit any violation of the +rights, or infringement on the welfare, of their constituents to take +place. The combined effect of the whole was the great and glorious +British empire, teeming with energy, overflowing with patriotism, +spreading out into every quarter of the globe, and yet held together in +all its parts by the firm bond of experienced benefits and protected +industry. + +The second cause was, that no speculative or theoretical opinions +had then been broached, or become popular, which proclaimed that the +real interest of any one class was to be found in the spoliation +or depression of any other class. No gigantic system of _beggar my +neighbour_ had then come to be considered as a shorthand mode of +gaining wealth. The nation had not then embraced the doctrine, that +to buy cheap and sell dear constituted the sum total of political +science. On the contrary, protection to industry in all its branches +was considered as the great principle of policy, the undisputed +dictate of wisdom, the obvious rule of justice. It was acknowledged +alike by speculative writers and practical statesmen. The interests +of the producers were the main object of legislative fostering and +philosophic thought--and for this plain reason, that they constitute +the great body of society, and their interests chiefly were thought of. +Realised wealth was then, in comparison to what it now is, in a state +of infancy; the class of traders and shopkeepers, who grow up with +the expenditure of accumulated opulence, was limited in numbers and +inconsiderable in influence. It would have been as impossible _then_ +to get up a party in the House of Commons, or a cry in the country, in +favour of the consumers or against the producers, as it would be now to +do the same among the corn producers in the basin of the Mississippi, +or among the cotton growers of New Orleans. + +It is in the profound wisdom of Hannibal's saying--that great states, +impregnable to the shock of external violence, are consumed and wasted +away by their own internal strength--that the real cause of the +subsequent and extraordinary change, first in the opinions of men, +and then in the measures of government, is to be found. Such was the +wealth produced by the energy of the Anglo-Saxon race, sheltered and +invigorated by the protection-policy of government in every quarter +of the globe, that in the end it gave birth to a new class, which +rapidly grew in numbers and influence, and was at length able to bid +defiance to all the other interests in the state put together. This +was the _moneyed interest_--the class of men whose fortunes were made, +whose position was secure, and who saw, in a general cheapening of +the price of commodities and reduction of prices, the means of making +their wealth go much farther than it otherwise would. This class had +its origin from the long-continued prosperity and accumulated savings +of the whole producing classes in the state; like a huge lake, it +was fed by all the streams and rills which descended into it from +the high grounds by which it was surrounded; and the rise of its +waters indicated, as a register thermometer, the amount of additions +which it was receiving from the swelling of the feeders by which it +was formed. But when men once get out of the class of producers, and +into that of moneyed consumers, they rapidly perceive an _immediate_ +benefit to themselves in the reduction of the price of articles of +consumption, because it adds proportionally to the value of their +money. If prices can be forced down fifty per cent by legislative +measures, every thousand pounds in effect becomes fifteen hundred. +It thus not unfrequently and naturally happened, that the son who +enjoyed the fortune made by protection came to join the ranks of the +free traders, because it promised a great addition to the value of +his inheritance. The transition from Sir Robert Peel the father, and +staunch supporter of protection, who _made the fortune_, to Sir Robert +Peel the son, who _inherited it_, and introduced free-trade principles, +was natural and easy. Each acted in conformity with the interests of +his respective position in society. It is impossible to suppose in such +men a selfish or sordid regard to their own interests, and we solemnly +disclaim the intention of imputing such. But every one knows how the +ablest and most elevated minds are insensibly moulded by the influence +of the atmosphere with which they are surrounded; and, at all events, +they were a type of the corresponding change going on in successive +generations of others of a less elevated class of minds, in whom the +influence of interested motives was direct and immediate. + +Adam Smith's work, now styled the _principia_ of economical science by +the free-traders, first gave token of the important and decisive change +then going forward in society. It was an ominous and characteristic +title: _The Nature and Cause of the_ WEALTH _of Nations_. It was not +said of their wisdom, virtue, or happiness. The direction of such a +mind as Adam Smith's to the exclusive consideration of the riches of +nations, indicated the advent of a period when the fruits of industry +in this vast empire, sheltered by protection, had become so great that +they had formed a powerful class in society, which was beginning to +look to its separate interests, and saw them in the beating down the +price of articles--that is, diminishing the remuneration of other men's +industry. It showed that the _Plutocracy_ was becoming powerful. The +constant arguments that able work contained, in favour of competition +and against monopoly,--its impassioned pleadings in favour of freedom +of commerce, and the removal of all restrictions on importation, were +so many indications that a new era was opening in society; that the +interests of _realised wealth_ were beginning to come into collision +with those of _creating industry_, and that the time was not far +distant when a fierce legislative contest might be anticipated between +them. It is well known that Adam Smith advocated the Navigation Laws, +upon the ground that national independence was of more importance than +national wealth. But there can be no doubt that this was a deviation +from his principles, and that, if they were established in other +particulars, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to succeed in +maintaining an exception in favour of the shipping interests, because +that was retaining a burden on the colonies, when the corresponding +benefit had been voted away. + +Although, however, the doctrines of Adam Smith, from their novelty, +simplicity, and alliance with democratic liberty, spread rapidly in +the rising generation--ever ready to repudiate the doctrines and +throw off the restraints of their fathers--yet, so strongly were the +producing interests intrenched in the legislature, that a very long +period would probably have elapsed before they came to be practically +applied in the measures of government, had it not been that, at the +very period when, from the triumph of protection-principles during the +war, and the vast wealth they had realised in the state, the moneyed +interest had become most powerful, a great revolution in the state gave +that interest the command of the House of Commons. By the Reform Bill +_two-thirds of the seats_ in that house were given to boroughs, and +_two-thirds of the voters_ in boroughs, in the new constituency, were +shopkeepers or those in their interest. Thus a decisive majority in the +house, which, from having the command of the public purse, practically +became possessed of supreme power, was vested in those who made their +living by buying and selling--with whom cheap prices was all in all. +The producing classes were virtually, and to all practical purposes, +cast out of the scale. The landed interest, on all questions vital to +its welfare, would evidently soon be in a minority. Schedules A and B +at one blow disfranchised the whole colonial empire of Great Britain, +because it closed the avenue by which colonial wealth had hitherto +found an entrance to the House of Commons. Seats could no longer be +bought: the virtual representation of unrepresented places was at an +end. The greatest fortunes made in the colonies could now get into the +house only through some populous place; and the majority of voters +in most populous places were in favour of the consumers and against +the producers, because the consumers bought _their goods_, and they +bought those of the producers. Thus no colonial member could get in +but by forswearing his principles and abandoning the interests of his +order. The shipping interest was more strongly intrenched, because +many shipping towns had direct representatives in parliament, and it +accordingly was the last to be overthrown. But when the colonies were +disfranchised, and protection was withdrawn from their industry to +cheapen prices at home, it became next to impossible to keep up the +shipping interest--not only because the injustice of doing so, and so +enhancing freights, when protection to colonial produce was withdrawn, +was evident, but because it was well understood, by certain unequivocal +symptoms, that such a course of policy would at once lead to colonial +revolt, and the dismemberment of the empire. + +The authors of the Reform Bill were well aware that under it two-thirds +of the seats in the House of Commons were for boroughs: but they +clung to the idea that a large proportion of these seats would fall +under the influence of the landed proprietors in their vicinity, and +thus be brought round to the support of the agricultural interest. +It was on that belief that Earl Grey said in private, amidst all his +public democratic declamations, that the Reform Bill was "the most +_aristocratic_ measure which had ever passed the House of Commons." But +in this anticipation, which was doubtless formed in good faith by many +of the ablest supporters of that revolution, they showed themselves +entirely ignorant of the effect of the great monetary change of 1819, +which at that very period was undermining the influence of the owners +of landed estates as much as it was augmenting the power of the holders +of bonds over their properties. As that bill changed the prices of +agricultural produce, at least to the extent of forty _per cent_, it of +course crippled the means and weakened the influence of the landowners +as much as it added to the powers of the moneyed interest which held +securities over their estates. This soon became a matter of paramount +importance. After a few severe struggles, the landowners in most places +saw that they were over-matched, and that their burdened estates and +declining rent-rolls were not equal to an encounter with the ready +money of the capitalists, which that very change had so much enhanced +in value and augmented in power. One by one the rural boroughs slipped +out of the hands of the landed, and fell under the influence of the +moneyed interest. At the same time one great colonial interest, that of +the West Indies, was so entirely prostrated by the ruinous measure of +the emancipation of the negroes, that its influence in parliament was +practically rendered extinct. Thus two of the great producing interests +in the state--those of corn and sugar--were materially weakened or +nullified, at the very time when the power of their opponents, the +moneyed aristocracy, was most augmented. + +Experience, however, proved, on one important and decisive occasion, +that even after the Reform Bill had become the law of the land, it +was still possible, by a coalition of _all_ the producing interests, +to defeat the utmost efforts of the moneyed party, even when aided by +the whole influence of government. On occasion of the memorable Whig +budget of 1841, such a coalition took place, and the efforts of the +free-traders were overthrown. A change of ministry was the consequence; +but it soon appeared that nothing was gained by an alteration of +rulers, when the elements in which political power resided, under the +new constitution, remained unchanged. + +Sir Robert Peel, and the leaders of the party which now succeeded to +power, appear to have been guided by those views in the free-trade +measures which they subsequently introduced. They regarded, and with +justice, the Reform Bill as, in the language of the _Times_, "a +great fact"--the settlement of the constitution upon a new basis--on +foundations _non tangenda non movenda_, if we would shun the peril +of repeated shocks to our institutions, and ultimately of a bloody +revolution. Looking on the matter in this light, the next object was +to scan the composition of the House of Commons, and see in what party +and interest in the state a preponderance of power was now vested. +They were not slow in discerning the fatal truth, that the Reform Bill +had given a decided majority to the representatives of boroughs, and +that a clear majority in these boroughs was, from the embarrassments +which monetary change had produced on the landed proprietors, and +the preponderance of votes which that bill had given to shopkeepers, +vested in the moneyed or consuming interest. Such a state of things +might be regretted, but still it existed; and it was the business of +practical statesmen to deal with things as they were, not to indulge +in vain regrets on what they once were or might have been. It seemed +impossible to carry on the government on any other footing than that +of concession to the wishes and attention to the interests of the +moneyed and mercantile classes, in whose hands supreme power, under the +new constitution, was now practically vested. Whether any such views, +supposing them well founded, could justify a statesman and a party, who +had received office on a solemn appeal to the country, under the most +solemn engagement to support the principles of protection, to repudiate +those principles, and introduce the measures they were pledged to +oppose, is a question on which, it is not difficult to see, but one +opinion will be formed by future times. + +Still, even when free-trade measures were resolved on by Sir R. Peel's +government, it was a very doubtful matter, in the first instance, +how to secure their entire success. The great coalition of the chief +producing interests, which had proved fatal to the Whig administration +by the election of 1841, might again be reorganised, and overthrow +any government which attempted to renew the same projects. Ministers +had been placed in office on the principles of protection--they were +the watches, planted to descry the first approaches of the enemy, and +repel his attacks. But the old Roman maxim, "_Divide et impera_," was +then put in practice with fatal effect on the producing interests, and, +in the end, on the general fortunes of the empire. The assault was in +the first instance directed against the agricultural interest: the cry +of "Cheap bread," ever all-powerful with the multitude, was raised to +drown that of "Protection to native industry." The whole weight of +government, which at once abandoned all its principles, was directed +to support the free-trade assault, and beat down the protectionist +opposition. The whole population in the towns--that is, the inhabitants +of the places which, under the Reform Bill, returned two-thirds of the +House of Commons--was roused almost to madness by the prospect of a +great reduction in the price of provisions. The master-manufacturers +almost unanimously supported the same views, in the hope that the wages +of labour and the cost of production would be in a similar way reduced, +and that thus the foreign market for their produce would be extended. +The West India interest, the colonial interest, the shipping interest, +stood aloof, or gave only a lukewarm support to the protectionists, +conceiving that it was merely an agricultural question, and that the +time was far distant when there was any chance of their interests being +brought into jeopardy. "_Cetera quis nescit?_" The corn-laws were +repealed, agricultural protection was swept away, and England, where +wheat cannot be raised at a profit when prices are below 50s., or, at +the lowest, 45s. a quarter, was exposed to the direct competition of +states possessing the means of raising it to an indefinite extent, +where it can be produced and imported at a profit for in all 32s. + +What subsequent events have abundantly verified, was at the time +foreseen and foretold by the protectionists,--that when agricultural +protection at home was withdrawn, it could not be maintained in the +colonies, and that cheap prices must be rendered universal, as they +had been established in the great article of human subsistence. This +necessity was soon experienced. The West Indies were the first to be +assailed. Undeterred by the evident ruin which a free competition with +the slave-growing states could not fail to bring on British planters +forced to work with free labourers--undismayed by the frightful +injustice of first establishing slavery by law in the English colonies, +and giving the utmost encouragement to negro importation, then forcibly +emancipating the slaves on a compensation not on an average a fourth +part of their value, and then sweeping away all fiscal protection, and +exposing the English planters, who could not with their free labourers +raise sugar below £10 a ton, to competition with slave states who +could raise it for £4 a ton--that great work of fiscal iniquity and +free-trade spoliation was perpetrated. The English landed interest +resisted the unjust measure; but it could hardly be expected that +they were to be very enthusiastic in the cause. They had not forgotten +their desertion in the hour of need by the West India planters, and the +deferred punishment, as they conceived, dealt out to them in return, +was not altogether displeasing. The shipping interest did little or +nothing when either contest was going on; nay, they in general, and +with fatal effect, supported free-trade principles thus far: they +were delighted that the tempest had not as yet reached their doors, +and flattered themselves none would be insane enough to attack the +wooden walls of Old England, and hand us over, bereft of our ocean +bulwarks, to the malice and jealousy of our enemies. They little knew +the extent and infatuation of political fanaticism. They were only +reserved, like Ulysses in the cave of Polyphemus, for the melancholy +privilege of being last devoured. Each session of Parliament, since +free trade was introduced, has been marked by the sacrifice of a fresh +interest. The year 1846 witnessed the repeal of the corn laws; the +year 1847 the equalisation, by a rapidly sliding scale, of the duties +on English free-grown and foreign slave-raised sugar; and 1849 was +immortalised by the destruction of the Navigation Laws. The British +shipowner, who pays £10 for wages on ships, is exposed to the direct +competition of the foreign shipowner, who navigates his vessel for £6. +"Perish the colonies," said Robespierre, "rather than one principle +be abandoned." Fanaticism is the same in all ages and countries. The +triumph of free trade is complete. A ruinous and suicidal principle has +been carried out, in defiance alike of bitter experience and national +safety. Each interest in the state has, since the great conservative +party was broken up by Sir R. Peel's free-trade measures, looked on +with indifference when its neighbour was destroyed; and to them may be +applied with truth what the ancient annalist said of the enemies of +Rome, "_Dum singuli pugnant, universi vincuntur._"[16] + +We say advisedly, each interest has looked on with indifference +when its neighbour was _destroyed_. That this strong phrase is not +misapplied to the effect of these measures in the West Indies, is too +well known to require any illustration. Ruin, widespread and universal, +has, we know by sad experience, overtaken, and is rapidly destroying +these once splendid colonies. While we write these lines, a decisive +proof[17] has been judicially afforded of the frightful depreciation +of property which has there taken place, from the acts of successive +administrations acting on liberal principles, and yielding to popular +outcries: the fall has amounted to _ninety-three per cent_. Beyond all +doubt, since the new system began to be applied to the West Indies, +property to the amount of _a hundred and twenty millions_ has perished +under its strokes. The French Convention never did anything more +complete. Free-trade fanaticism may well glory in its triumphs; it is +doubtful if they have any parallel in the annals of mankind. + +We do not propose to resume the debate on the Navigation Laws, of +which the public have heard so much in this session of parliament. We +are aware that their doom is sealed; and we accept the extinction of +shipping protection as _un fait accompli_, from which we must set out +in all future discussions on the national prospects and fortunes. But, +in order to show how enormously perilous is the change thus made, and +what strength of argument and arrays of facts free-trade fanaticism +has had the merit of triumphing over, we cannot resist the temptation +of transcribing into our pages the admirable letter of Mr Young, the +able and unflinching advocate of the shipping interest, to the Marquis +of Lansdowne, after the late interesting debate on the subject in the +House of Lords. We do so not merely from sincere respect for that +gentleman's patriotic spirit and services, but because we do not know +any document which, in so short a space, contains so interesting a +statement of that leading fact on which the whole question hinges--viz. +the progressive and rapid decline of British, and growth of foreign +tonnage, with those countries with whom we have concluded reciprocity +treaties: affording thus a foretaste of what we may expect now that we +have established a reciprocity treaty, by the repeal of the Navigation +Laws, with the whole world: + + "My Lord,--In the debate last night on the Navigation Laws, your + Lordship said,-- + + 'The noble and learned Lord opposite has spoken contemptuously + of statistics. Let me remind that noble and learned Lord that if + any statement founded on statistics remains unshaken, it is the + statement that under reciprocity treaties now existing, by which + this country enjoys no protection, she, nevertheless, monopolises + the greater part of the commerce of the north of Europe.' + + As an impartial statist, as well as a statesman, your Lordship + will perhaps permit me to invite your attention to the following + abstract from Parliamentary returns, respectfully trusting that, + if the facts it discloses should be found irreconcilable with the + opinions you have expressed, a sense of justice will induce your + Lordship to correct the error:-- + + The reciprocity treaty with the United States was concluded in + 1815. + + The British inward entries from that country were-- + + Tons. + In 1816 45,140 + In 1824, reciprocity having been + eight years in operation 44,994 + -------- + British tonnage having in } + that period decreased } 146 + + The inward entries of American tonnage were-- + + Tons. + In 1816 91,914 + In 1824 153,475 + -------- + American tonnage having in } + that period increased } 61,561 + + During that period no reciprocity existed with the Baltic Powers; + and + + Tons. + In 1815 the British entries from + Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, + and Norway were 78,533 + In 1824 129,895 + -------- + British tonnage having increased 51,362 + + In 1815 those Baltic entries were 319,181 + In 1824 350,624 + -------- + Baltic tonnage having increased 31,443 + + Thus, from the peace in 1815 to 1824, when the "Reciprocity of + Duties Act" passed, in the trade of the only country in the + world with which great Britain was in reciprocity, her tonnage + declined 146 tons, and that of the foreign nation advanced 61,561 + tons; while in the trade with the Baltic powers, with which no + reciprocity existed, British tonnage advanced on its competitors + in the proportion of 51,362 to 31,443 tons. + + From 1824 the reciprocity principle was applied to the Baltic + powers; and-- + + Tons. + In 1824, the British entries being 129,895 + In 1846 they had declined to 88,894 + -------- + Having diminished during } + the period } 41,001 + + While the Baltic tonnage, which + in 1824 was 350,624 + Had advanced in 1846 to 571,161 + -------- + Showing an increase of no } + less than } 220,537 + + And during this same period, the proportion of tonnage of + the United States continued, under the operation of the same + principle, steadily to advance, the British entries thence being-- + + Tons. + In 1846 205,123 + And the American 435,399 + -------- + Showing an excess of American } + over British of } 230,276 + + I have (I hope not unfairly) introduced into this statement + American tonnage, because it shows that while, in the period + antecedent to general reciprocity, the adoption of the principle + in the trade with that nation produced an actual decline of + British navigation, while in the trade with the Baltic powers, + which was free from that scourge, British navigation outstripped + its competitor, it exhibits in a remarkable manner the reverse + result, from the moment the principle was applied to the Baltic + trade; while, above all, it completely negatives the statement + of the greater part of the commerce of the north of Europe being + monopolised by British ships, showing that in that commerce, in + 1846, of an aggregate of 660,055 tons, British shipping had only + 88,894 tons, while no less than 571,161 tons were monopolised by + Baltic ships!" + +It is evident, from this summary, that the decline of British and +growth of foreign shipping will be so rapid, under the system of Free +Trade in Shipping, that the time is not far distant when the foreign +tonnage employed in conducting our trade will be superior in amount to +the British. In all probability, in six or seven years that desirable +consummation will be effected; and we shall enjoy the satisfaction of +having purchased freights a farthing a pound cheaper, by the surrender +of our national safety. It need hardly be said that, from the moment +that the foreign tonnage employed in conducting our trade exceeds the +British, our independence as a nation is gone; because we have reared +up, in favour of states who may any day become our enemies, a nursery +of seamen superior to that which we possess ourselves. And every year, +which increases the one and diminishes the other, brings us nearer +the period when our ability to contend on our own element with other +powers is to be at end, and England is to undergo the fate of Athens +after the catastrophe of Aigos Potamos--that of being blockaded in our +own harbours by the fleets of our enemies, and obliged to surrender at +discretion on any terms they might think fit to impose. + +But in truth, the operations of the free-traders will, to all +appearance, terminate our independence, and compel us to sink into the +ignoble neutrality which characterised the policy of Venice for the +last two centuries of its independent existence, before the foreign +seamen we have hatched in our bosom have time to be arrayed in a +Leipsic of the deep against us. So rapid, _so fearfully rapid_, has +been the increase in the importation of foreign grain since the repeal +of the corn laws took place, and so large a portion of our national +sustenance has already come to be derived from foreign countries, that +it is evident, on the first rupture with the countries furnishing +them, we should at once be starved into submission. The free-traders +always told us, that a considerable importation of foreign grain would +only take place when prices rose high; that it was a resource against +seasons of scarcity only; and that, when prices in England were low, +it would cease or become trifling. Attend to the facts. Free trade +in grain has been in operation just three years. We pass over the +great importation of the year 1847, when, under the influence of the +panic, and high prices arising from the Irish famine, no less than +12,000,000 quarters of grain were imported in fifteen months, at a cost +of £31,000,000, nearly the whole of which was paid in specie. Beyond +all doubt, it was the great drain thus made to act upon our metallic +resources--at the very time when the free-traders had, with consummate +wisdom, established a _sliding paper circulation_, under which the +bank-notes were to be _withdrawn_ from the public in proportion as +the sovereigns were exported--which was the main cause of the dreadful +commercial catastrophe which ensued, and from the effects of which, +after two years of unexampled suffering, the nation has scarcely yet +begun to recover. But what we wish to draw the public attention to +is this. The greatest importation of foreign grain ever known, into +the British islands, before the corn laws were repealed, was in the +year 1839, when, in consequence of three bad harvests in succession, +4,000,000 quarters in round numbers were imported. The average +importation had been steadily diminishing before that time, since the +commencement of the century: in the five years ending with 1835, it was +only 381,000 quarters. But since the duties have become nominal, since +the 1st February in this year, the importation has become so prodigious +that it is going on at the rate of FIFTEEN MILLIONS of quarters a-year, +or a full fourth of the national consumption, which is somewhat under +sixty millions. This is in the face of prices fallen to 44s. 9d. for +the quarter of wheat, and 18s. the quarter of oats! We recommend the +Table below, taken from the columns of that able free-trade journal, +the _Times_--showing the amount of importation for the month ending +April 5, 1849, when wheat was at 45s. a-quarter--to the consideration +of those well-informed persons who expect that low prices will check, +and at last stop importation. It shows decisively that even a very +great reduction of prices has not that tendency in the slightest +degree. The importation of grain and flour is going on steadily, under +the present low prices, at the rate of about 15,000,000 quarters +a-year.[18] + +The reasons of this continued and increasing importation, +notwithstanding the lowness of prices, is evident, and was fully +explained by the protectionists before the repeal of the corn laws took +place, though the free-traders, with their usual disregard of facts +when subversive of a favourite theory, obstinately refused to credit +it. It is this. The price of wheat and other kinds of grain, in the +grain-growing countries, especially Poland and America, is entirely +regulated by its price in the British islands. They can raise grain +in such quantities, and at such low rates, that everything depends on +the price which it will fetch in the great market for that species of +produce--the British empire. In Poland, the best wheat can be raised +for 16s. a-quarter, and landed at any harbour in England at 25s. The +Americans, out of the 250,000,000 quarters of bread stuffs which they +raise annually, and which, if not exported, is in great part not +worth above 10s. a-quarter, can afford, with a handsome profit to +the exporting merchant, to send grain to England, however small its +price may be in the British islands. However low it may be, it is much +higher than with them--and therefore it is _always_ worth their while +to export it to the British market. If the price here is 40s., it will +there be 28s. or 30s.; if 30s. here, it will not be more than 15s. +or 20s. there. Thus the profit to be made by importation retains its +proportion, whatever prices are in this country, and the motives to it +are the same whatever the price is. It is as great when wheat is low +as when it is high, except to the fortunate shippers, before the rise +in the British islands was known on the banks of the Vistula or the +shores of the Mississippi. Now that the duty on wheat is reduced to 1s. +a-quarter, we may look for an annual importation of from 15,000,000 to +20,000,000 quarters--that is, from a fourth to a third of the annual +subsistence, constantly, alike in seasons of plenty and of scarcity. + +That the importation is steadily going on, appears by the following +returns for the port of London alone, down to May, taken from the +_Morning Post_ of May 7:-- + + Entered for home consumption during the month ending-- + + Wheat. Flour. + qrs. cwt. +February 5, 442,389 478,815 +March 5, 405,685 355,462 +April 5, 559,602 356,308 +May 5, 383,395 243,154 + --------- --------- + Making a total } 1,791,071 1,433,739 +in four months, } + + --equal, if we take 3-1/2 cwt. of flour to the qr. of wheat, to + 2,200,700 qrs. of the latter. The importations of the first four + months of the year are, therefore, nearly as great as they were + during the whole of the preceding twelve months, the quantities + duty paid in 1848 being, of wheat, 2,477,366 qrs., and of flour, + 1,731,974 cwt. + +The reason why young states, especially if they possess land eminently +fitted for agricultural production, such as Poland and America, can +thus permanently undersell older and longer established empires in the +production of food, is simple, permanent, and of universal application, +but nevertheless it is not generally understood or appreciated. It is +commonly said that the cause is to be found in the superior weight of +debts, public and private, in the old state. There can be no doubt +that this cause has a considerable influence in producing the effect, +but it is by no means the only or the principal one. The main cause is +to be found in the superior _riches_ of the old state, when compared +with the young one, which makes money of less value, because it is +more plentiful. The wants and necessities of an extended commerce, +the accumulated savings of centuries of industry, at once require an +extended circulation, and produce the wealth necessary to purchase it. +The precious metals, and wealth of every sort, flow into the rich old +state from the poor young one, for the same reason that corn, and wine, +and oil, follow the same direction in obedience to the same impulse. +That it is the superior riches, and not the debts or taxes, of England +which render prices so high, comparatively speaking, in these islands, +is decisively proved by the immense difference between the value of +money, and the cost of living at the same time, in different parts of +the same empire, subject to the same public and private burdens,--in +London, for example, compared with Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Lerwick. +Every one knows that £1500 a-year will not go farther in the English +metropolis than £1000 in the Scotch, or £750 in the ancient city of +Aberdeen, or £500 in the capital of the Orkney islands. Whence this +great difference in the same country, and at the same time? Simply, +because money is over plentiful in London, less so in Edinburgh, and +much less so in Aberdeen or Lerwick. The same cause explains the +different cost of agricultural production in England, Poland, the +Ukraine, and America. It is the comparative poverty, the _scarcity of +money_, in the latter countries which is the cause of the difference. +Machinery, and the division of labour, almost omnipotent in reducing +the cost of the production of manufactured articles, are comparatively +impotent in affecting the cost of articles of rude or agricultural +produce. England, under a real system of free trade, would undersell +all the world in its manufactures, but be undersold by all the world +in its agricultural productions. If the national debt was swept away, +and the whole taxes of Great Britain removed, the cost of agricultural +production would not be materially different from what it now is. We +shall be able to raise grain as cheap as the serfs of Poland, or the +peasants of the Ukraine, when we become as poor as they are, but _not +till then_. Under the free-trade system, however, the period may arrive +sooner than is generally suspected, and the importation of foreign +grain be checked by the universal pauperism and grinding misery of the +country. + +Assuming it, then, as certain that, under the free-trade system, the +importation of grain is to be constantly from a third to a fourth of +the annual consumption, the two points to be considered are, How is +the national _independence to be maintained_, or _incessant commercial +crises averted_, under the new system? These are questions on which +it will become every inhabitant of the British islands to ponder; for +on them, not only the independence of his country, but the private +fortune of himself and his children, is entirely dependent. If so +large a portion as a third or a fourth of the annual subsistence +is imported almost entirely from three countries, Russia, Prussia, +and America, how are we to withstand the hostility of these states? +Prussia, in the long run, is under the influence of Russia, and follows +its system of policy. The nations on whom we depend for so large a +part of our food are thus practically reduced to two, viz., Russia and +America--what is to hinder them from coalescing to effect our ruin, +as they practically did in 1800 and 1811, against the independence of +England? Not a shot would require to be fired, not a loan contracted. +The simple threat of closing their harbours would at once drive us to +submission. Importing a third of our food from these two states, to +what famine-price would the closing of their harbours speedily raise +its cost! The failure of £15,000,000 worth of potatoes in 1847--scarce +a _twentieth_ part of the annual agricultural produce of these islands, +which is about £300,000,000,--raised the price of wheat, in 1848, from +60s. to 110s.--what would the sudden stoppage of a _third_ do? Why, +it would raise wheat to 150s. or 200s. a-quarter--in other words, to +famine-prices--and inevitably induce general rebellion, and compel +national submission. After the lapse of fifteen centuries, we should +again realise, after similar Eastern triumphs, the mournful picture of +the famine in Rome, in the lines of the poet Claudian,[19] from the +stoppage of the wonted supplies of grain from the two granaries of +the empire, Egypt and Libya, by the effect of the Gildonic war. But +the knowledge of so terrible a catastrophe impending over the nation +would probably prevent the collision. England would capitulate while +yet it had some food left, on the first summons from its imperious +grain-producing masters. + +But supposing such a decisive catastrophe were not to arise, at least +for a considerable period, how are _commercial crises_ to be prevented +from continually recurring under the new policy? How is the commercial +interest to be preserved from ruin--from the operation of the system +which itself has established? This is a point of paramount interest, +as it directly affects every fortune in the kingdom, the commercial +in the first instance, but also the realised and landed in the last; +but, nevertheless, it seems impossible to rouse the nation to a sense +of its overwhelming importance and terrible consequences. Experience +has now decisively proved that the corn-growing states, upon whom we +most depend for our subsistence, will not take our manufactures to any +extent, though they will gladly take our sovereigns or bullion to any +imaginable amount. The reason is, they are poor states, who are neither +rich enough to buy, nor civilised enough to have acquired a taste for +our manufactured articles, but who have an insatiable thirst for our +metallic riches, the last farthing of which they will drain away, in +exchange for their rude produce. The dreadful monetary crises of 1839 +and 1848, it is well known, were owing to the drain upon our metallic +resources, produced by the great grain importations of those years, in +the latter of which above £30,000,000 of gold, probably a half of the +metallic circulation, was at once sent headlong out of the country. +Now, if an importation of grain to a similar amount is to become +_permanent_, and an export of the precious metals to a corresponding +degree to go on year after year, how, in the name of wonder, is a +perpetual repetition of similar disasters to be prevented? + +We could conceive, indeed, a system of paper currency which might in +a great degree, if not altogether, prevent these terrible disasters. +If the nation possessed a circulation of bank-notes capable of being +_extended_ in proportion as the metallic circulation was withdrawn by +the exchanges of the commerce in grain, as was the law during the war, +the industry of the country might be vivified and sustained during +the absence of the precious metals, and their want be very little, if +at all, experienced. But it is well known that not only is there no +provision made by law, or the policy of government, for an _extension_ +of the paper circulation when the metallic currency is withdrawn, but +the very reverse is done. There is a provision, and a most stringent +and effectual one, made for the _contraction_ of the currency at the +very moment when its expansion is most required, and when the national +industry is threatened with starvation in consequence of the vast and +ceaseless abstraction of the precious metals which free trade in grain +necessarily establishes. When free trade is sending gold headlong +out of the country, to buy food, Sir Robert Peel's law sends the +bank-notes, public and private, back into the banker's coffers, and +leaves the industry of the country without _either_ of its necessary +supports! Beyond all question, it is the double operation of free trade +in sending the sovereigns in enormous quantities out of the country, +and of the monetary laws, in contracting the circulation of paper in a +similar degree, and at the same time, which has done all the mischief, +and produced that widespread ruin which has now overtaken nearly all +the interests--but most of all the _commercial_ interests--in the +state. That ruin is easily explained, when it is recollected what +government has done by legislative enactment, on free-trade principles, +during the last five years. + +1. They first, by the Acts of 1844 and 1845, restricted the paper +circulation of the whole empire, including Ireland, to £32,000,000 in +round numbers. For every note issued, either by the Bank of England or +private banks, above that sum, they required these establishments to +have sovereigns in their coffers. + +2. Having thus restricted the currency, by which the industry of the +country was to be paid and supplied, to an amount barely sufficient for +its _ordinary_ wants, they next proceeded to encourage to the greatest +degree railway speculation, and pass bills through parliament requiring +an _extraordinary_ expenditure, in the next four years, of £333,000,000 +sterling. + +3. Having thus contracted the currency of the nation, and doubled its +work, they next proceeded to introduce, in 1846 and the two following +years, the free-trade system, under the operation of which our specie +was sent out of the country in enormous quantities, in exchange +for food, and by the operation of the law the paper proportionally +contracted.[20] + +4. When this extraordinary system of augmenting the work of the people, +at the time the currency which was to sustain it was withdrawn, had +produced its natural and unavoidable effects, and landed the nation, in +October 1847, in such a state of embarrassment as rendered a suspension +of the law unavoidable, and induced a commercial crisis of unexampled +severity and duration, the authors of the monetary measures still +clung to them as the sheet-anchor of the state, and still upheld them, +although it is as certain as any proposition in Euclid, that, combined +with a free trade in grain, they _must_ produce a constant succession +of similar catastrophes, until the nation, like a patient exhausted by +repeated shocks of apoplexy, perishes under their effects. + +It may be doubted whether the annals of the world can produce another +example of insane and suicidal policy on so great a scale as has been +exhibited by the government of England of late years, in its West +India measures, and the _simultaneous_ establishment of free trade and +fettered currency, and a railway mania, in the heart of the empire. + +The effect of these measures upon the internal state of the empire +has been beyond all measure dreadful, and has far exceeded the worst +predictions of the protectionists upon their inevitable effect. Proofs +on this subject crowd in on every side, and all entirely corroborative +of the prophecies of the protectionists, and subversive of all the +prognostics of the free-traders. It was confidently asserted by them +that their system would immensely increase our foreign trade, because +it would enrich the foreign agriculturists from whom we purchased +grain, and who would take our manufactures in exchange; and what +has been the result, after free-trade principles have been in full +operation for three years? Why, they have stood thus:-- + + Exports, + Imports, Declared Value. + Market Value. British and + Irish produce. + + 1845, £84,054,272 £60,111,081 + 1846, 89,281,433 57,786,875 + 1847, 117,047,229 58,971,166 + 1848, 92,660,699 53,099,011[21] + +Thus, while there has been an enormous increase going on during +the last three years in our imports, there has been nothing but a +diminution at the same time taking place in our exports. The foreigners +who sent us, in such prodigious quantities, their rude produce, would +not take our manufactures in return. They would only take our gold. +Hence our metallic treasures were hourly disappearing in exchange for +the provisions which showered in upon us; and this was the precise +time which the free-traders took to establish the monetary system +which compelled the contraction of the paper circulation _in direct +proportion to that very disappearance_. It is no wonder that our +commercial interests were thrown into unparalleled embarrassments from +such an absurd and monstrous system of legislation. + +Observe, if the arguments and expectations of the free-traders had +been well founded, the immense importation of provisions which took +place in 1847 and 1848, in consequence of the failure of the potato +crop in Ireland and the west of Scotland, should immediately have +produced a vast rise in our exports. Was this the case? Quite the +reverse; it was attended with a decline in them. The value of corn, +meal, and flour imported in the following years stood thus:-- + + 1845, £3,594,299 + 1846, 8,870,202 + 1847, 29,694,112 + 1848, 12,457,857[22] + +Now, in the year 1847, though we imported nearly thirty millions' worth +of grain, our exports were £1,200,000 _less_ than in 1845, when we only +received three millions and a half of subsistence from foreign states. +Can there be a more decisive proof that the greatest possible addition +to our importation of grain is not likely to be attended with any +increase to our export of manufactures? + +But if the great importation of grain which free-trade induces into +the British empire is not attended with any increase of our exports, +in the name of heaven, what good does it do? Feed the people cheap. +But what do they gain by that, if their wages, and the profits of +their employers, fall in the same or a greater proportion? That effect +has already taken place, and to a most distressing extent. Wages of +skilled operatives, such as colliers, iron-moulders, cotton-spinners, +calico-printers, and the like, are now not more than _half_ of what +they were when the corn-laws were in operation. They are now receiving +2s. 6d. a-day where, before the change, they received 5s. Wheat has +been forced down from 56s. to 44s.: that is somewhat above a fifth, but +wages have fallen a half. The last state of those men is worse than the +first. The unjust change for which they clamoured has proved ruinous to +themselves. + +The way in which this disastrous effect has taken place is this: +In the first place, the _balance_ of trade has turned so ruinously +against us, from the effect of the free-trade measures, that the credit +of the commercial classes has, under the operation of our monetary +laws, been most seriously confused. It appears, from the accurate +and laborious researches of Mr Newdegate, that the balance of trade +against Great Britain, during the last three years of free trade, has +been no less than £54,000,000 sterling.[23] Now, woful experience has +taught the English people that the turning of the balance of trade +is a most formidable thing against a commercial nation, and that the +practical experience of mankind, which has always regarded it as one +of the greatest of calamities, is more to be regarded than the theory +of Adam Smith, that it was a matter of no sort of consequence. When +coupled with a sliding currency scale, which contracts the circulation +of bank-notes in proportion as the specie is withdrawn, it is one +of the most terrible calamities which can befall a commercial and +manufacturing state. It is under this evil that the nation is now +labouring: and it will continue to do so, till folly of conduct and +error of opinion have been expiated or eradicated by suffering. + +In the next place, the purchase of so very large a portion as a fourth +of the annual subsistence--not from our own cultivators, who consume +at an average five or six pounds a-head of our manufactures, but +from foreign growers, who consume little or nothing--has had a most +serious effect upon the home trade. The introduction of 12,000,000 or +13,000,000 quarters of grain a-year into our markets, from countries +whose importation of our manufactures is almost equal to nothing, is +a most dreadfully depressing circumstance to our manufacturers. It is +destroying one set of customers, and that the very best we have--the +home growers--without rearing up another to supply their place. It is +exchanging the purchases by substantial yeomen, our own countrymen and +neighbours, of our fabrics, for the abstraction by aliens and enemies +of our money. It is the same thing as converting a customer into a +pauper, dependent on our support. It was distinctly foretold by the +protectionists, during the whole time the debate on the repeal of +the corn laws was going forward, that this effect would take place: +that the peasants of the Ukraine and the Vistula did not consume a +hundredth part as much, per head, as those of East Lothian or Essex; +and that to substitute the one for the other was to be penny wise and +pound foolish. These predictions, however, were wholly disregarded; +the thing was done; and now it is found that the result has been _much +worse_ than was anticipated--for not only has it gratuitously and +unnecessarily crippled the means of a large part of the home consumers +of our manufactures, but it has universally shaken and contracted +credit, especially in the commercial districts, by the drain it has +induced upon the precious metals. These evils, from the earliest times, +have been felt by mercantile nations; but they were the result, in +previous cases, of adverse circumstances or necessity. It was reserved +for this age to introduce them voluntarily, and regard them as the last +result of political wisdom. + +In the third place, the reduction of prices, and diminution in the +remuneration of industry, which has taken place from the introduction +of free trade, and the general admission of foreign produce and +manufactures, raised in countries where production is cheap, because +money is scarce and taxes light, to compete with one where production +is dear, because money is plentiful and taxes heavy, cannot of course +fail to be attended--and that from the very outset--with the most +disastrous effects upon the general interests of the empire, and +especially such of them as are engaged in trade and manufactures. +Suppose that, anterior to the monetary and free-trade changes intended +to force down prices, the annual value of the industry of the country +stood thus, which we believe to be very near the truth:-- + + Lands and minerals, £300,000,000 + Manufactures and commerce + of all sorts, 200,000,000 + ------------ + Deduct taxes and + local burdens, £80,000,000 + Interest of mortgages, 50,000,000 + ----------- + 130,000,000 + ------------ + Clear to national industry, £370,000,000 + +But if prices are forced down a half, which, at the very least, may be +anticipated, and in fact has already taken place, from the _combined_ +effect of free trade and a restricted currency, estimating each at a +fourth only, the account will stand thus,-- + + Land and minerals, £150,000,000 + Manufactures, 100,000,000 + ------------ + Total, £250,000,000 + + Deduct taxes and + rates, £80,000,000 + Interest of mortgages, 50,000,000 + ----------- + 130,000,000 + ------------ + Clear to national industry, £120,000,000 + +Thus, by the operation of these changes, in money and commerce, which +lower prices _a half_, the whole national income is reduced from +£370,000,000 to £120,000,000, or _less than a third_. Such is the +inevitable effect of a great reduction of prices, in a community of +which the major and more important part is still engaged in the work of +production; and such the illustration of the truth of the Marquis of +Granby's observation, that, under such a reduction, the whole producing +classes must lose more than they can by possibility gain, because their +loss is upon their _whole_ income, their gain only upon that portion of +their means--seldom more than a half--which is spent on the purchase of +articles, the cost of which is affected by the fall of prices. + +The most decisive proof of the universality and general sense of this +reduction of income and general distress, is to be found in the efforts +which Mr Cobden and the free-trade party are now making to effect a +great reduction in the public expenditure. During the discussion on +corn-law repeal, they told us that the change they advocated could make +no sort of difference on the income of the producing and agricultural +classes, and that it would produce an addition to the income of the +trading classes of £100,000,000 a-year. Of course, the national and +public resources were to be greatly benefited by the change; and it +was under this belief adopted. Now, however, that the change has taken +place, and its result has been found to be a universal embarrassment +to all classes and interests, but especially to the commercial, they +turn round and tell us that this effect is inevitable from the change +of prices--that the halcyon days of high rents and profits are at +an end, and that all that remains is for all classes to accommodate +themselves the best way they can to the inevitable change. They propose +to begin with Queen Victoria and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, from +whom they propose to cut off £11,000,000 a-year of income. But they +consider this perfectly safe, because, as the aspect of things, both +abroad and in our colonial empire, is so singularly pacific, and peace +and goodwill are so soon to prevail among men, they think it will be +soon possible to disband our troops, sell our ships of war, and trust +the stilling the passions and settling the disputes of nations and +races to the great principles of justice and equity, which invariably +regulate the proceedings of all popular and democratic communities. We +say nothing of the probability of such a millennium soon arriving, or +of the prognostics of its approach, which passing and recent events in +India, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sicily, and Ireland, +have afforded, or are affording. We refer to them only as giving the +most decisive proof that the free-traders have now themselves become +sensible that their measures have produced a general impoverishment of +all classes, from the head of the state downwards, and that a great +reduction of expenditure is unavoidable, if a general public and +private bankruptcy would be averted. + +In truth, the proofs of this general impoverishment are now so numerous +and decisive, that they have brought conviction home to the minds of +the most obdurate, and, with the exception of the free-trade leaders or +agitators--whose fanaticism is, of course, fixed and incurable--have +produced a general distrust of the new principles. A few facts +will place them in the most striking light. The greatest number of +emigrants who had previously sailed from the British shores was in +1839, when they reached 129,000. But in the year 1847, the sacred year +of free trade and a fettered currency, they rose at once to 258,270. +In 1848 they were 248,000. The number this year is understood to be +still greater, and composed almost entirely, not of paupers--who, +of course, cannot get away--but of the better sort of mechanics, +tradesmen, and small farmers, who, under the new system, find their +means of subsistence dried up. The poor-rate in England has now risen +to £7,000,000 annually--as much in nominal amount as it was in 1834, +when the new poor-law was introduced by the Whig government, and, if +the change in the value of money is taken into account, half as much +more. A _seventh_ of the British empire are now supported in the two +islands by the parish rates, and yet the demands on private charity are +hourly increasing. Crime is universally and rapidly on the increase: +in Ireland, where the commitments never before exceeded 21,000, they +rose in 1848 to 39,000. In England, in the same year, they were 30,000; +in Scotland, 4908; all a great increase over previous years. It is not +surprising crime was so prolific in a country where, in the preceding +year, at least 250,000 persons _died of famine_, in spite of the noble +grant of £10,000,000 from the British treasury for their support. We +extract from the _Standard of Freedom_ the following summary of some +of the social results which have followed the adoption of liberal +principles:-- + + "STATE OF ENGLAND.--One man in every ten, according to Sir J. + Graham, a short time ago was in receipt of parish relief in this + country; but now, it appears, from a return up to June last, it + is not 10 per cent, but 11 per cent of the population who receive + parochial relief; for the persons so relieved amount to 1,700,000 + out of 15,000,000. £7,000,000 was raised annually for the relief + of the poor in England, and £500,000 in Scotland; and, taking + the amount collected for and raised in Ireland at £1,860,957, it + makes a total of £9,460,957, as the sum levied annually in the + British empire for the relief of the poor, or three times the cost + of the civil government, independently of the cost of the army + and navy. Besides the regular standing force, there is the casual + poor, a kind of disposable force, moving about and exhausting + every parish they go through. In 1815, there were 1,791 vagrants + in one part of the metropolis, and, in 1828, in the same district + in London, they had increased to 16,086. In 1832, the number was + 35,600, which had increased, in 1847, to 41,743. Moreover, there + is a certain district south of the Thames, in which, for the six + months ending September 1846, the number was 18,533, and which had + increased, during the same six months in 1847, to 44,937. And, in + the county of York, in one of the first unions in the West Riding, + in 1836, one vagrant was relieved, and, in 1847, 1,161. This + affords a pretty strong, dark, and gloomy picture of the state of + destitution prevailing in this country."--_Standard of Freedom._ + +General as the distress is which, under the combined operations of free +trade and a fettered currency, has been brought upon the country, there +is one circumstance of peculiar importance which has not hitherto, from +the efforts of the free-traders to conceal it, met with the attention +it deserves. This is the far greater amount of ruin and misery they +have brought upon the commercial classes, who supported, than the +agriculturists, who opposed them. The landed interest is only beginning +to experience, in the present low prices, the depressing effects of +free trade. The Irish famine has hitherto concealed or postponed them. +London is suffering, but not so much as the provincial towns, from +its being the great place where the realised wealth of the country is +spent. But the whole commercial classes in the manufacturing towns +have felt them for nearly two years in the utmost intensity. It is +well known that, during that short period, _one-half_ of the wealth +realised, and in course of realisation, in Manchester, Liverpool, +Birmingham, and Glasgow, has perished. There is no man practically +acquainted with these cities who will dispute that fact. The poor-rates +of Glasgow, which, five years ago, did not exceed £30,000 a-year for +the parliamentary city, have now reached £200,000; viz. + + Glasgow parish, £90,000 + Barony, 70,000 + Gorbals, 40,000 + -------- + £200,000 + +The sales by shopkeepers in these towns have not, during three years, +been a third of their average amount. All the witnesses examined before +the Lords' committee on the public distress, describe this panic of +autumn 1847 as infinitely exceeding in duration and severity anything +previously experienced; and the state of matters, and the intensity of +the shock given to public credit, may be judged of by the following +entries as to the state of the Bank of England in June 1845 and October +1847, when the law was suspended:-- + +JUNE 1845. + + | | ISSUE DEPARTMENT. | BANKING DEPARTMENT. | + | Date. | Notes | Gold and | Notes in | Gold and | + | | Issued. | Silver | Reserve. | Silver | + | | | Bullion. | | Coin. | + +--------+ | | | | + | June 7 | £29,732,000 | £15,732,000 | £9,382,000 | £779,000 | + | -- 14 | 29,917,000 | 15,917,000 | 9,854,000 | 696,000 | + | -- 21 | 30,051,000 | 16,051,000 | 9,837,000 | 587,000 | + | -- 28 | 30,047,000 | 16,047,000 | 9,717,000 | 554,000 | + +OCTOBER 1847. + + | | ISSUE DEPARTMENT. | BANKING DEPARTMENT. | + | | | | | | + | Date. | Notes | Gold and | Notes in | Gold and | + | | Issued. | Silver | Reserve. | Silver | + | | | Bullion. | | Coin. | + +--------+ | | | | + | Oct. 2 | £22,121,000 | £8,121,000 | £3,409,000 | £443,000 | + | -- 9 | 21,961,000 | 7,961,000 | 3,321,000 | 447,000 | + | -- 16 | 21,989,000 | 7,989,000 | 2,630,000 | 441,000 | + | -- 23 | 21,865,000 | 7,865,000 | 1,547,000 | 447,000 | + | -- 30 | 22,009,000 | 8,009,000 | 1,176,000 | 429,000 | + + _Commercial Crisis_, 2d edition, 132-133. + +Thus, such was the severity of the panic, and the contraction of the +currency, consequent on the monetary laws and the operation of free +trade in grain, that the nation was all but rendered bankrupt, and +half its traders unquestionably were so, when there were still eight +millions of sovereigns in the issue department of the bank which could +not be touched, while the reserve of notes in the banking department +had sunk from nearly £10,000,000, in 1845, to £1,100,000! + +So portentous a state of things, fraught as it necessarily was with +utter ruin to a great part of the best interests in the empire, was +certainly not contemplated by the commercial classes, when they +embarked in the crusade of free trade against the productive interests. +It might have been long of coming on, and certainly would never have +set in with half the severity which actually occurred, had it not been +that, not content with the project of forcing down prices by means of +the unrestricted admission of foreign produce, they at the same time +sought to augment their own fortunes by restricting the currency. It +was the _double project_, beyond all question, which proved their ruin. +They began and flattered themselves they would play out successfully +the game of "_beggar my neighbour_," but by pushing their measures +too far, it turned into one of "_beggar ourselves_." It was the +double strain of free trade and a fettered currency which brought +such embarrassment on the commercial classes, as it was the double +strain of the Spanish and Russian wars which proved the destruction +of Napoleon. It would appear to be a general law of nature, that +great measures of injustice cannot be carried into execution, either +by communities or single men, without vindicating the justice of the +Divine administration, by bringing down upon themselves the very ruin +which they have designed for others. + +The free-traders say that there is no general reaction against their +principles, and that the formation of a government on protectionist +principles is at present impossible. We shall not inquire, and have not +the means of knowing, whether or not this statement is well founded. +We are willing to accept the statement as true, and we perceive a +great social revolution, accompanied with infinite present suffering, +but most important ultimate results, growing from their obstinate +adherence to their principles in defiance of the lessons of experience. +_The free-traders are with their own hands destroying the commercial +classes, which had acquired an undue preponderance in the state._ They +must work out their own punishment before they abjure their principles. +Every day a free-trading merchant or shopkeeper is swept into the +_Gazette_, and his family cast down to the humblest ranks in society. +They go down like the Fifth Monarchy men when expelled from the House +of Commons by the bayonets of Cromwell, or the Girondists when led +to the scaffold by the Jacobins, chanting hymns in honour of their +principles when perishing from their effects:-- + + "They are true to the last of their blood and their breath, + And, like reapers, descend to the harvest of death." + +But this constancy of individuals when suffering under the measures +they themselves have introduced, however curious and respectable as +a specimen of the unvarying effect of fanaticism, whether religious +or social, on the human mind, cannot permanently arrest the march +of events; it cannot stop the effect of their own measures, any more +than the courage of the Highlanders in 1745 could prevent the final +extinction of the Jacobite cause. Let them adhere to free trade and a +fettered currency as they like, the advocates of the new measures are +daily and hourly losing their influence. Money constitutes the sinews +of war not less in social than in national contests. No cause can be +long victorious which is linked to that worst of allies, INSOLVENCY. +In two years the mercantile classes have destroyed one-half of their +own wealth; in two years more, one-half of what remains will be gone. +Crippled, discredited, ruined, beat down by foreign competition, +exhausted by the failure of domestic supplies, the once powerful +mercantile body of England will be prostrate in the dust. All other +classes, of course, will be suffering from their fall, but none in +the same degree as themselves. It is not improbable that the land +may regain its appropriate influence in the state, by the ruin which +their own insane measures have brought upon its oppressors. No one +will regret the lamentable consequences of such a change, already far +advanced in its progress, more than ourselves, who, have uniformly +foretold its advent, and strenuously resisted the commercial and +monetary changes which, amidst shouts of triumph from the whole Liberal +party, were silently but certainly inducing these results. + +Confounded at such a series of events, so widely different from +what they anticipated and had predicted from their measures, the +free-traders have no resource but to lay them all on two external +causes, for which they are not, as they conceive, responsible: these +causes are, the French and German revolutions, and the potato famine in +Ireland. + +That the revolutions on the continent of Europe have materially +affected the market for the produce of British industry, in the +countries where they have occurred, is indeed certain; but are the +Liberals entitled to shake themselves free from the consequences +of these convulsions? Have we not, for the last thirty years, been +labouring incessantly to encourage and extend revolution in all the +adjoining states? Did we not insidiously and basely support the +revolutions in South America, and call a new world into existence to +redress the balance of the old? Was not the result of that monstrous +and iniquitous interference in support of the rebels in an allied +state, to induce the dreadful monetary catastrophe of December 1825, +the severest, till that of 1847, ever experienced in modern Europe? +Did we not, not merely instantly recognise the French revolutions of +1830 and 1848, but lend our powerful aid and countenance to extend the +laudable example to the adjoining states? Did we not join with France +to prevent the King of the Netherlands from regaining the command +of Flanders in 1832, and blockade the Scheldt while Marshal Gerard +bombarded Antwerp? Did we not conclude the Quadruple Alliance to effect +the revolutionising of Spain and Portugal, and bathe both countries +for four years with blood, to establish revolutionary queens on both +the thrones in the Peninsula? Have we not intercepted the armament +of the King of Naples against Sicily, by Admiral Parker's fleet, and +aided the insurgents in that island with arms from the Tower? Did we +not interfere to arrest the victorious columns of Radetsky at Turin, +but never move a step to check Charles Albert on the Mincio? Did we +not side with revolutionary Prussia against the Danes, and aid in +launching Pio Nono into that frantic career which has spread such ruin +through the Italian peninsula? Have we not all but lost the confidence +of our old ally, Austria, from our notorious intrigues to encourage +the furious divisions which have torn that noble empire? Nay, have we +not been so enamoured of revolution, that we could not avoid showing +a partiality for it in our own dominions--rewarding and encouraging +O'Connell, and allowing monster meetings, till by the neglect of +Irish industry we landed them in famine, and by the fanning of Irish +passions brought them up to rebellion;--and establishing a constitution +in Canada which gave a decided majority in parliament to an alien +and rebel race, and, as a necessary consequence, giving the colonial +administration to the very party whom, ten years ago, the loyalists +put down with true British spirit at the point of the bayonet? All +this we have done, and have long been doing, with impunity; and now +that the consequences of such multifarious sins have fallen upon us, +in the suffering which revolution has at last brought upon the British +empire, the Liberals turn round and seek to avoid the responsibility of +the disasters produced by their internal policy, by throwing it on the +external events which they themselves have induced. + +Then as to the Irish famine of 1846, it is rather too much, after the +lapse of _three_ years, to go on ascribing the general distress of the +empire to a partial failure of a particular crop, which, after all, +did not exceed the loss of a twentieth part of the annual agricultural +produce of the British Islands. But if the free-traders' principles +had been well founded, this failure in Ireland should have been the +greatest possible blessing to their party in the state, because it +_immediately_ effected that transference of the purchase of a part of +the national food from home to foreign cultivators, which is the very +thing they hold out as such an advantage, and likely in an especial +manner to enlarge the foreign market for our manufactures. It induced +the importation of £30,000,000 worth of foreign grain in three months: +that, on the principles of the free-traders, should have put all our +manufacturers in activity, and placed the nation in the third heaven. +Disguise it as you will, the Irish potato-rot was but an anticipation, +somewhat more sudden than they expected, of the _free-trade rot_, which +was held out as a certain panacea for all the national evils. And now, +when free trade and a restricted currency have not proved quite so +great a blessing as they anticipated, the free-traders turn round and +lay it all on the substitution of foreign importation for domestic +production in Ireland, when that very substitution is the thing they +have, by abolishing the corn laws, laboured to effect over the whole +empire. + +Then as to the state of Ireland, which has at length reached the +present unparalleled crisis of difficulty and suffering, the conduct +of the Liberals has been, if possible, still more inconsistent and +self-condemnatory. For half a century past, they have been incessantly +declaiming on the mild, inoffensive, and industrious character of +the Irish race; upon their inherent loyalty to the throne; and upon +the enormous iniquity of British rule, which had brought the whole +misfortunes under which they were labouring on that virtuous people. +Nothing but equal privileges, Catholic emancipation, parliamentary +reform, burgh reform, and influence at Dublin Castle, we were told, +were required to set everything right, and render Ireland as peaceable +and prosperous as any part of the British dominions. The conduct of +James I. and Cromwell, in planting Saxon and Protestant colonies in +Ulster, was in an essential manner held up to detestation, as one of +the chief causes of the social and religious divisions which had over +since distracted the country. Well, the Liberals have given all these +things to the Irish. For twenty years, the island has been governed +entirely on these principles. They have got Catholic emancipation, +a reduction of the Protestant church, national education, corporate +reform, parliamentary reform, monster meetings, ceaseless agitation, +and, in fact, all the objects for which, in common with the Liberal +party in Great Britain, they have so long contended. And what has +been the result? Is it that pauperism has disappeared, industry +flourished, divisions died away, prosperity become general? So far +from it, divisions never have been so bitter, dissension never so +general, misery so grinding, suffering so universal, since the British +standards, under Henry II., seven centuries ago, first approached +their shores. A rebellion has broken out; anarchy and agitation, by +turning the people aside from industry, have terminated in famine; +and even the stream of English charity seems dried up, from the +immensity of the suffering to be relieved, and the ingratitude with +which it has heretofore been received. And what do the Liberals now +do? Why, they put it all down to the score of the incurable indolence +and heedlessness of the Celtic race, which nothing can eradicate, and +cordially support Sir R. Peel's proposal to plant English colonies +in Connaught, _exactly similar to Cromwell's in Ulster_, so long the +object of Liberal hatred and declamation! They tell us now that the +native Irish are irreclaimable helots, hewers of wood and drawers of +water, and incapable of improvement till directed by Saxon heads and +supported by the produce of Saxon hands. They forget that it is these +very helots whom they represented as such immaculate and valuable +subjects, the victims of Saxon injustice and Ulster misrule. They +forget that English capitalists and farmers would long since have +migrated to Ireland, and induced corn cultivation in its western and +southern provinces, were it not that Liberal agitation kept the people +in a state of menacing violence, and Liberal legislation took away +all prospect of remunerating prices for their grain produce. And thus +much for the Crowning of the Column of Free Trade, and Crushing of the +Pedestal of the Nation. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[15] "No great state can long remain quiet; if it has not an enemy +abroad, it finds one at home, as powerful bodies resist all external +attacks, but are destroyed by their internal strength."--LIVY. + +[16] "While each separately fights, all are conquered."--TACITUS. + +[17] + + Column Headings-- + A - Slavery Value. + B - After Abolition. + C - After Abolition of Apprenticeship. + D - Since passing Sugar Bill of 1846. + + A | B | C | D | Name of the + | | | | Estate. + ---------+---------+---------+---------+ + £ | £ | £ | £ | + 120,000 | 60,000 | 45,000 | 5,000 | Windsor Forest. + 65,000 | 32,000 | 26,000 | 5,000 | La Grange. + 55,000 | 27,500 | 23,000 | 3,500 | Belle Plaine. + 80,000 | 30,000 | 20,000 | 6,000 | Rabacca. + 70,000 | 25,000 | 17,000 | 3,000 | Sir W. South. + 45,000 | 20,000 | 15,000 | 5,000 | Richmond Hill. + ---------+---------+---------+---------+ + 435,000 | 194,500 | 146,000 | 27,500 | + + Slavery value, £435,000 + Estimated present value, 27,500 + -------- + Depreciation, £407,500 + Or equal to 93-1/2 per cent on original value. + + --IN RE CRUIKSHANKS, IN CHANCERY, _Times_, June 6th, 1849. + + + +[18] + + | QUANTITIES imported into the United Kingdom in the | + | month ending April 5, 1849:-- | + | | + | | | The | | + | | | produce | | + | | | of, and | | + | Species of | Imported | imported | | + | Corn, Grain, | from foreign | from, | Total. | + | Meal, and | countries. | British | | + | Flour. | | possessions| | + | | | out of | | + | | | Europe. | | + +-----------------+----------------+------------+-----------------+ + | | Qrs. Bush.| Qrs. Bls. | Qrs. Bush. | + | Wheat | 535,015 2 | | 535,015 2 | + | Barley | 150,177 5 | | 150,177 5 | + | Oats | 146,149 6 | 1 6 | 146,151 4 | + | Rye | 20,768 4 | | 20,768 4 | + | Peas | 12,313 6 | | 12,313 6 | + | Beans | 60,294 5 | | 60,294 5 | + | | | | | + | Maize or } | 184,772 4 | | 184,772 4 | + | Indian corn } | | | | + | Buck-wheat | 12 3 | | 12 3 | + | Bere or bigg | 800 0 | | 800 0 | + | +----------------+------------+-----------------+ + | Total of corn } | 1,110,304 3 | 1 6 | 1,110,306 1 | + | and grain } | | | | + | +----------------+------------+-----------------+ + | | | | | + | | Cwt. qrs. lb.| Cwt. q. lb.| Cwt. qrs. lb.| + | Wheat meal } | 307,617 0 7 | 753 3 11 | 308,370 3 18 | + | or flour } | | | | + | Barley meal | | | | + | Oat meal | 24 2 0 | | 24 2 0 | + | Rye meal | 1,571 1 9 | | 1,571 1 9 | + | Pea meal | 10 0 0 | | 10 0 0 | + | Indian meal | 10,707 1 10 | | 10,707 1 10 | + | Buck-wheat meal | 80 0 0 | | 80 0 0 | + | +----------------+------------+-----------------+ + | Total of meal } | 320,010 0 26 | 753 3 11 | 320,764 0 9 | + | and flour } | | | | + + | QUANTITIES charged with duty for Home Consumption in the | + | United Kingdom in the month ended April 5, 1849:-- | + | | + | | | The | | + | | | produce | | + | | | of, and | | + | Species of | Imported | imported | | + | Corn, Grain, | from foreign | from, | Total. | + | Meal, and | countries. | British | | + | Flour. | | possessions| | + | | | out of | | + | | | Europe. | | + +-----------------+----------------+------------+-----------------+ + | | Qrs. Bush.| Qrs. Bls. | Qrs. Bush.| + | Wheat | 559,602 2 | | 559,602 2 | + | Barley | 170,343 5 | | 170,343 5 | + | Oats | 149,784 5 | | 149,786 3 | + | Rye | 22,432 1 | 1 6 | 22,432 1 | + | Peas | 17,782 0 | | 17,782 0 | + | Beans | 59,546 5 | | 59,546 5 | + | | | | | + | Maize or } | 183,604 6 | | 183,604 6 | + | Indian corn } | | | | + | Buck-wheat | 12 3 | | 12 3 | + | Bere or bigg | 800 0 | | 800 0 | + | +----------------+------------+-----------------+ + | Total of corn } | 1,163,908 3 | 1 6 | 1,163,910 1 | + | and grain } | | | | + | +----------------+------------+-----------------+ + | | | | | + | | Cwt. qrs. lb.| Cwt. q. lb.| Cwt. qrs. lb.| + | Wheat meal } | 353,799 1 3 | 2509 0 1 | 356,308 1 4 | + | or flour } | | | | + | Barley meal | | | | + | Oat meal | 26 2 8 | | 26 2 8 | + | Rye meal | 825 3 6 | | 825 3 6 | + | Pea meal | 10 0 0 | | 10 0 0 | + | Indian meal | 10,671 1 7 | | 10,671 1 7 | + | Buck-wheat meal | 80 0 0 | | 80 0 0 | + | +----------------+------------+-----------------+ + | Total of meal } | 365,412 3 24 | 2509 0 1 | 367,921 3 25 | + | and flour } | | | | + + --_London Gazette_, 20th April, 1849. + + + +[19] + + "Advenio supplex, non ut proculcet Araxen + Consul ovans, nostræve premant pharetrata secures + Susa, nec ut rubris Aquilas figamus arenis. + Hæc nobis, hæc ante dabas. Nunc pabula tantum + Roma precor. Miserere tuæ pater optime gentis, + _Extremam defenda famam_--Satiavimus iram, + Si quâ fuit. Lugenda Getis et flenda Suëvis + Hausimus: ipsa meos exhorret Parthia casus. + + * * * * * + + Armato quondam populo, Patrumque vigebam + Consiliis. Domui terras, urbesque revinxi + Legibus: ad solem victrix utrumque cucurri, + + * * * * * + + Nunc inhonorus egens perfert miserabile pacis + Supplicium, nulloque palam circumdatus hoste, + Obsessi discrimen habet--per singula letum + Impendit momenta mihi, dubitandaque pauci + Prescribant alimenta Dies." + + --CLAUDIAN, _De Bello_. _Gildonico_, 35--100. + + + +[20] In 1845, the Bank of England notes out with the public were about +£23,000,000. Since the free trade began they have seldom been above +£18,000,000, and at times as low as £16,800,000, and that at the very +time when all the railways were going on. + +[21] Newdegate's _Letter to Mr Labouchere_, p. 12-13. + +[22] Newdegate's _Letter to Mr Labouchere_, p. 17. + +[23] + + | | | | Balance of | Balance of Trade | + | | | Total | Freight | against Britain. | + | | Total | Exports. | carried by | | + | | Imports. | Home and | British |Exports and | Deducting | + | | | Colonial. | Ships. | Imports. | Freights. | + +----+------------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+ + |1845| £84,054,272| £70,236,726| £12,979,089| £13,817,446| £838,357| + |1846| 89,281,433| 66,283,270| 13,581,165| 22,998,163| 9,416,998| + |1847| 117,047,229| 70,329,671| 18,817,742| 46,717,558| 27,899,816| + |1848| 92,660,699| 61,557,191| 14,699,491| 31,103,508| 16,404,017| + | +------------+------------+------------+------------+-----------+ + | |£383,043,633|£268,406,878| £60,077,487|£114,636,675|£54,559,188| + + --NEWDEGATE, 12-13. + + + + + + +POSTSCRIPT. + + +The discussion on the Canadian question, in the House of Lords, has +had one good effect. It has elicited from Lord Lyndhurst a most +powerful and able speech, in the best style of that great judge and +distinguished statesman's oratory; and it has caused Lord Campbell to +make an exhibition of spleen, ill-humour, and bad taste, which his +warmest friends must have beheld with regret, and which was alone +wanting to show the cogent effect which Lord Lyndhurst's speech had +made on the house. Of the nature of Lord Campbell's attack on that able +and venerable judge, second to none who ever sat in Westminster Hall +for judicial power and forensic eloquence, some idea may be formed from +the observations in reply of Lord Stanley:-- + + "I must say for myself, and I think I may say for the rest of the + house, and not with the exception of noble lords on the opposite + side of it, that they listened to that able, lucid, and powerful + speech (Lord Lyndhurst's) with a feeling of anything but pain--a + feeling of admiration at the power of language, the undiminished + clearness of intellect--(cheers)--the conciseness and force with + which my noble and learned friend grappled with the arguments + before him, and which, while on the one hand they showed that age + had in no degree impaired the vigour of that power, on the other + added to the regret at the announcement he made of his intention + so seldom to occupy the attention of the house. (Hear, hear.) + But I should have thought that if there were one feeling it was + impossible for any man to entertain after hearing that speech, it + would be a feeling in any way akin to that which led the noble and + learned lord to have introduced his answer to that speech by any + unworthy taunts. (Loud cheers.) His noble and learned friend's + high position and great experience, his high character and eminent + ability, might have secured him in the honoured decline of his + course from any such unworthy taunts--(great cheering)--as the + noble and learned lord has not thought it beneath him on such an + occasion to address to such a man. (Renewed cheering.) If the + noble and learned lord listened with pain to the able statement of + my noble and learned friend, sure am I that there is no friend of + the noble and learned lord who must not have listened with deeper + pain to what fell from him on this occasion."--_Times_, 20th June + 1849. + +And of the feeling of the country, on this uncalled-for and unprovoked +attack, an estimate may be formed from the following passage of the +_Times_ on the subject:--"This debate has also recalled to the scene +of his former triumphs the undiminished energy and vigorous eloquence +of Lord Lyndhurst. That it supplied Lord Campbell with the opportunity +of making a series of remarks in the worst possible taste on that aged +and distinguished peer is, we suspect, a matter on which neither the +learned lord nor any of his colleagues will be disposed to look back +with satisfaction."--_Times_, 22d June 1849. + +What Lord Campbell says of Lord Lyndhurst is, that he was once a +Liberal and he has now become a Conservative: that the time was when he +would have supported such a bill as that which the Canadian parliament +tendered to Lord Elgin, and that now he opposes it. There is no doubt +of the fact: experience has taught him the errors of his early ways; +he has not stood all day gazing at the east because the sun rose there +in the morning--he has looked around him, and seen the consequences of +those delusive visions in which, in common with most men of an ardent +temperament, he early indulged. In doing so, he has made the same +change as Pitt and Chatham, as Burke and Mackintosh, as Windham and +Brougham, as Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey. There are men of a +different stamp--men whom no experience can teach, and no facts wean +from error--who retain in advanced life the prejudices and passions +of their youth, and signalise declining years by increased personal +ambition and augmented party spleen. Whatever Lord Lyndhurst may be, he +is not one of them. He has not won his retiring allowance by a week's +service in the Court of Chancery. He can look back on a life actively +spent in the public service, and enjoy in his declining years the +pleasing reflection, that the honours and fortune he has won are but +the just meed of a nation's gratitude, for important public services +long and admirably performed. + +The Canadian question, itself, on which ministers so narrowly escaped +shipwreck in the House of Peers (by a majority of THREE) appears to us +to lie within a very small compass. Cordially disapproving as we do +of the bill for indemnifying the rebels which the Canadian ministry +introduced and the Canadian parliament passed, we yet cannot see that +any blame attaches to Lord Elgin personally for giving the consent of +government to the bill. Be the bill good or bad, just or unjust, it +had passed the legislature by a large majority, and Lord Elgin would +not have been justified in withholding his consent, any more than +Queen Victoria would have been in refusing to pass the Navigation Laws +Bill. The passing of disagreeable and often unjust laws, by an adverse +majority, is a great evil, no doubt; but it is an evil inherent in +popular and responsible government, for which the Canadian loyalists +equally with the Canadian rebels contended. Let our noble brethren in +Canada reflect on this. The Conservatives of England have for long seen +a series of measures pass the legislature, which they deem destructive +to the best interests of their country; but they never talked of +separating from their Liberal fellow-citizens on that account, or +blamed the Queen because she affixed the royal assent to their bills. +They are content to let time develop the consequences of these acts; +and meanwhile they direct all their efforts to enlighten their +countrymen on the subject, and, if possible, regain a preponderance in +the legislature for their own party. The Canadian loyalists, second to +none in the British empire in courage, energy, and public spirit, will +doubtless see, when the heat of the contest is over, that it is by such +conduct that they will best discharge their duty to their country. + +_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._ + + + + + Transcriber's Notes: + + + Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant + preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. + + Simple typographical and spelling errors were corrected. + + Italics markup is denoted by _underscores_. + + Bold markup is denoted by =equals=. + + Greek text has been transliterated and is denoted by ~tildes~. + + Provided anchor for unanchored footnote on p. 33. + + In the table to the footnote to p. 119 the 1 6 for oats or rye + should likely be in the same row. + + On p. 122 either the total of £9,460,957 should be £9,360,957 or + one of the summands is incorrect. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. +66, No 405, July 1849, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43721 *** |