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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Account of an expedition to the
-interior of New Holland, by Mary Fox
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Account of an expedition to the interior of New Holland
-
-Author: Mary Fox
-
-Release Date: December 4, 2022 [eBook #69476]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading
-             Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
-             images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ACCOUNT OF AN EXPEDITION TO
-THE INTERIOR OF NEW HOLLAND ***
-
-
-
-
-
-                                ACCOUNT
-                                   OF
-                             AN EXPEDITION
-                           TO THE INTERIOR OF
-                              NEW HOLLAND.
-
-
-                               EDITED BY
-                             LADY MARY FOX.
-
-
-                                LONDON:
-                RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
-                =Publisher in Ordinary to His Majesty.=
-                                 1837.
-
-
-
-
-                               CONTENTS.
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I.
-
- Wonderful Discovery.—The Adventurers.—Marshy Lake.—The
-   Canoe.—Troublesome Navigation.—Chain of Lakes.—Party of
-   Natives.—Reception of the Travellers.—Singular People.—Early
-   Emigrants.—The Settlement.—Exploring Party.—Encounter with
-   Natives.—Native Allies.—Attack of Savages.—Defeat of the
-   Assailants.—Savage Life.—Treaty of Peace.—Education of
-   Savages.—Election of Senators.                                 Page 1
-
-
-                               CHAPTER II.
-
- Increase of the Settlement.—Separation of the
-   States.—Ecclesiastical Communities.—Concord among
-   Sects.—Houses and Towns.—Penal Colonies.—Southlanders’
-   Hospitality.—Mode of receiving Company.—Feasts.—Animal
-   Food.—Tame Animals.—Surprise at English Customs.—Carnivorous
-   Propensity.—Lighting the Streets.—City of Bath.                    25
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III.
-
- Duels.—Judicial Combats.—Existing Code of Honour.—Appeal to
-   Arms.—Discussion on Duelling.—Mount Peril.—Noxious
-   Vapours.—The Cavern.                                               41
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IV.
-
- Superstitious Notions.—Abolition of Duelling.—Interference of
-   Providence.—Challenge to the Ordeal.—The Trial.—Conviction of
-   the Offender.—Uncertainty of the Ordeal.—Ineffectual
-   Prohibition.—Check against Slander.—Exclusion from
-   Society.—Absurd Alternative.—Personal Courage.—Imputation of
-   Cowardice.—Public Opinion.—War between
-   Nations.—Challenges.—Fear of Disgrace.                             53
-
-
-                               CHAPTER V.
-
- Female Honour.—Agreement among Women.—Penalty of Exclusion.—Law
-   of Honour.—False Dignity.—New Penalty.—Compact against
-   Duelling.—Ruffians and Calumniators.—Association against
-   Duelling.—Court of Honour.—Abolition of Duelling.                  70
-
-
-                               CHAPTER VI.
-
- Rough Notes.—Public Entertainments.—Dancing.—Grotesque
-   Dance.—Throwing the Spear.—Female
-   Dress.—Decorations.—Ear-rings.—Wedding-rings.—Anomalous
-   Costume.                                                           83
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VII.
-
- Forms of Government.—Senatorial Regulations.—Speakers.—Peculiar
-   Debate.—Fundamental Laws.—Unwise Legislators.—Timely
-   Improvements.—Legislative Problem.—Legislative
-   Expedient.—Error in Government.—Division of Laws.—Repeal of
-   Fundamental Laws.—Guard against Precipitancy.—Laws of
-   Treason.—Mature Deliberation.—National Will.                       95
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VIII.
-
- Mode of Election of Senators—of Representatives.—Personal Votes
-   and Property-Votes.—Voting by Ballot.—Eligibility of
-   Candidates.—Aboriginal Blood.—Mixed Blood.—Government
-   Rent.—Public Expenditure.—Unwise Economy.—Choice of
-   Statesmen.—Explanations.                                          112
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IX.
-
- Prediction Office.—Prophecies.—Useful Register.—Political
-   Bustlers.—Disposal of Land.—Rents.—Laws of Tenancy.—Government
-   Loans.                                                            130
-
-
-                               CHAPTER X.
-
- An Arrest.—Criminal Jurisprudence.—Jurymen.—Qualification of
-   Jurors.—Syndics.—Royal Privilege.—Proceedings in
-   Court.—Witnesses.—The Verdict.—Unanimity in Juries.—Decision
-   of the Judge.—Prevarication.—Oaths.—False
-   Witnesses.—Inconsistency in requiring Oaths.—Public
-   Opinion.—Marriage.—Succession to the Crown.                       140
-
-
-                               CHAPTER XI.
-
- Punishment awarded to Criminals.—Capital Punishments.—Plea of
-   Insanity.—Penitentiaries.—Houses of Correction.—Improvement in
-   Laws.—Periodical Publications.—Editors of Newspapers.—State of
-   Literature.                                                       164
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XII.
-
- Schools.—Reform of the Calendar.—Art of Teaching.—General
-   Education.—Religion and Politics.—Inconsistency of the
-   Jesuits.—Unbelievers.—Direction of Electors.—Political
-   Churches.—Violation of the Laws.—Infidelity.—Obedience to
-   Law.—Enforced Religion.—Persecution.—Hypothetical
-   Case.—Treatment of Insanity.—Professed Inspiration.—Impostors
-   and Lunatics.—Changes in Europe.—Founders of the Colony.          176
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIII.
-
- Preachers.—Divine Service.—Divisions of the Bible.—Funeral
-   Service.—Burial in Cities.—Absurd
-   Interments.—Monuments.—Private Mausoleums.—Harmless
-   Absurdities.—Church Endowments.—State of the Clergy.—Religious
-   Communities.—Admission Fees to Institutions.—Ecclesiastical
-   Societies.                                                        213
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIV.
-
- Letter of Paul Wilkins.                                             229
-
-
-
-
-                        ACCOUNT OF AN EXPEDITION
-
-                                 TO THE
-
-                        INTERIOR OF NEW HOLLAND.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I.
-
-  Wonderful Discovery.—The Adventurers.—Marshy Lake.—The
-    Canoe.—Troublesome Navigation.—Chain of Lakes.—Party of
-    Natives.—Reception of the Travellers.—Singular People.—Early
-    Emigrants.—The Settlement.—Exploring Party.—Encounter with
-    Natives.—Native Allies.—Attack of Savages.—Defeat of the
-    Assailants.—Savage Life.—Treaty of Peace.—Education of
-    Savages.—Election of Senators.
-
-
-Our readers will, no doubt, be interested by the few particulars we have
-been able to collect of the late wonderful discovery, in the interior of
-New Holland, of a civilized nation of European origin, which had, in so
-remarkable a manner, been kept separate hitherto from the rest of the
-civilized world.
-
-Mr. Hopkins Sibthorpe, who planned and conducted this singularly
-fortunate enterprise, was accompanied, it appears, in the expedition by
-another settler, Mr. William Jones, and Messrs. Thomas and Robert Smith
-(brothers), of the navy; who, together with Wilkins, a sailor, hired as
-their servant, constituted the whole party.
-
-It was in the early part of August 1835 that these adventurous explorers
-took their departure from the settlement at Bathurst: this, as our
-readers are aware, is the last month of the winter of that hemisphere;
-though, from the greater mildness of the climate, it may be considered
-as spring. This season was chosen as the most suitable for an expedition
-in such a country as New Holland; in which, not only the heat of summer
-and autumn is often very oppressive, but also the scarcity of water is
-one of the most formidable impediments: and, on this occasion, a
-plentiful supply of water being essential, not only with a view to their
-personal wants, but also to the accomplishment of the peculiar plan they
-had resolved on trying, it was thought best to take an early advantage
-of the effects of the winter’s rains.
-
-Their plan was no other than to construct a canoe, to enable them to
-proceed in a direction in which farther progress had hitherto been
-precluded by a vast expanse of marshy lake. This, as our readers are
-probably aware, from the published narratives of former expeditions, is,
-in moist seasons, a sort of Mere, or shallow water, encumbered with
-aquatic plants; but in times of great drought is, for a considerable
-extent, dry, or consisting of mud rather than water; constituting a sort
-of swampy plain, so choked up with a rank vegetation of reeds and flags
-as to present an almost insuperable obstacle to the traveller.
-
-In the present expedition, accordingly, it was determined to choose a
-time when there might be a sufficiency of water to enable the
-adventurous explorers to proceed in a canoe; and they accordingly
-carried with them one or two horses (which they proposed afterwards to
-turn loose)—the iron-work, and as much as was thought necessary of the
-frame of a canoe, which they proposed to put together and complete on
-their arrival on the margin of the lake. And as it was impossible to
-carry with them a sufficient store of provisions for the whole of their
-contemplated voyage, they boldly resolved to trust in great measure to
-their guns and fishing tackle, providing only a sufficiency of salt to
-preserve such game and fish as they might procure in their way.
-
-The details of the expedition, curious and highly interesting as they
-are in themselves, we are compelled to omit, lest they should occupy the
-space wanted for a far more valuable and important portion of the
-narrative. It will be sufficient, therefore, to say, omitting
-particulars, that they were enabled to put their design in execution;
-and having constructed a kind of light flat-bottomed boat, of poles
-covered with bark (of the kind the natives use for their canoes), and
-fitted up with a slight awning, to afford shelter from the sun and the
-dews, they embarked on the above-mentioned shallow lake, and proceeded
-in a north-west direction; sometimes rowing, assisted occasionally by a
-sail, and oftener pushing themselves on with poles through the tangled
-aquatic plants which grew on the muddy bottom.
-
-Their progress was at first tediously slow; but they were at no loss for
-provision, as the waters abounded with fish and wildfowl, of which they
-continued to obtain a sufficient supply throughout the voyage. After two
-days of troublesome navigation they found the water become deeper, and
-gained a sight of some elevated land towards the west, which they
-reached on the evening of the third day: they here found the lake not
-terminated, but confined within narrow limits by hills, for the most
-part of a rocky, sterile, and uninviting character: at length it became
-a broad river, flowing in a northerly direction, and serving evidently
-as a drain to the great expanse of lake they had passed. This gave them
-hopes of reaching (which was their great object) some large navigable
-river, which they might follow to the sea: they proceeded, therefore,
-though with considerable delay and difficulty from shoals and rapids,
-till, after more than two days’ navigation, the high ground receded, and
-they found themselves entering on another great expanse of water, so
-extensive that, in pursuing their adventurous course nearly in the same
-direction, they were, for the greater part of one day, out of sight of
-land.
-
-They now arrived at another course of rocky hills, of considerable
-elevation, through which the waters found an exit by a narrow gorge:
-through this they proceeded in a direction northwards for a considerable
-distance, when they found the river again expanding itself at intervals
-into a chain of lakes, smaller but deeper than those they had passed,
-and surrounded by a much more agreeable country, which continued to
-improve as they advanced. They landed in several places, and in one
-instance came in contact with a party of natives, who were of a less
-savage aspect than those in the vicinity of our settlements, and showed
-no signs of hostility, and much less of alarm and astonishment than had
-been expected. From this circumstance, and also from steel knives being
-in the possession of two or three of them, on which they appeared to set
-great value, it was conjectured that they must, in their wanderings,
-have, at some time or other, approached our settlements: their language,
-however, was perfectly unintelligible to Mr. Jones, though he had a
-considerable acquaintance with that of the natives near Sydney.
-
-Some days after, as they continued their progress, they fell in with
-another party of natives, who excited still more wonder and speculation
-in our travellers, from their having among them ornaments evidently
-fashioned from the tusks of boars; these (as it was understood from the
-signs they made, in answer to the questions put to them by the same
-means) they described themselves as having hunted with their dogs, and
-speared. But all doubt was removed the next day, by the travellers
-actually obtaining a sight of a wild hog in the woods, and afterwards of
-a herd of wild cattle, which they distinctly saw with their glasses:
-these animals being well known not to be indigenous in New Holland,
-afforded strong indications of the vicinity of some European settlement;
-though, as they felt certain of being far distant from the coast, they
-were utterly lost in conjecture.
-
-After proceeding in the manner above described, through a long chain of
-lakes connected by the river which they were continuing to navigate,
-through a country continually improving in beauty and fertility, and
-presenting a strong contrast to the dreary rocks and marshes they had
-left behind, they were at length surprised and gratified, on entering a
-lake somewhat more extensive than the last, to see several
-fishing-boats, the men in which they ascertained by their glasses to be
-decently clothed, and white men. They ventured to approach and to hail
-them; and, to their unspeakable surprise and delight, they received an
-answer in English: the English was, indeed, not precisely similar to
-their own, but not differing so much from it as many of our provincial
-dialects; and in a short time the two parties were tolerably
-intelligible to each other.
-
-We are compelled to pass over the interesting detail of the meeting,
-which was equally gratifying and surprising to both the parties; of the
-eager curiosity of their mutual inquiries; and of the hospitable
-invitation given, and, as may be supposed, joyfully accepted by the
-travellers. Accompanying their hosts in one of the fishing-boats, they
-found before them, on turning the point of a wooded promontory which had
-intercepted their view, a rich and partially cultivated country,
-interspersed with cheerful-looking villages, having much of an English
-air of comfort; though the whole was in a far ruder condition than much
-of what they saw afterwards, as the point they had reached was the
-extreme skirt of a comparatively recent settlement.
-
-The reception they met with was most friendly and every way refreshing,
-after an anxious and toilsome journey of above a month. They found
-themselves, on the second day after their arrival in the colony, the
-guests of the chief magistrate of a neat town of considerable size,
-where they were surrounded by visitors from all parts, eager to obtain
-and to afford information, and overwhelming them with pressing
-invitations.
-
-We are compelled to pass over the particulars of the several steps by
-which the travellers arrived at the knowledge of the singular country
-and people in the midst of which they found themselves. We have only
-space for a brief summary of the results.
-
-They found themselves, then, in a nation of European, and chiefly,
-though not entirely, of English extraction, which had had no intercourse
-with Europe, or with any other portion of the civilized world, for
-nearly three centuries. Their numbers were estimated at between three
-and four millions; and they were divided into eleven distinct
-communities, existing in a sort of loosely federal union, or rather in a
-friendly relation, sanctioned and maintained by custom more than by any
-formal compact. And they found these several states, though in some
-respects differing in their governments and other institutions, agreeing
-in the manifestation of a high degree of civilization, considering the
-disadvantage they laboured under in their seclusion from the rest of the
-world. “Many points too,” says Mr. Sibthorpe, in his journal, “in which
-they differ the most widely from the customs and institutions of the
-people from which they sprang, are such as can hardly be reckoned marks
-of barbarism, even by those who regard them with surprise, and even with
-disapprobation; but are rather the result of the singular and, as some
-would consider them, whimsical notions of the extraordinary persons who
-took the lead among the first settlers.”
-
-These were two men of the name of Müller; one a German, settled in
-England, and the other his nephew, the son of an Englishwoman. The
-former appears to have been one of those unions of enthusiastic
-wildness, brilliant genius, and sanguine credulity which periods of
-great excitement—such as the commencement of the Reformation—are often
-found to call forth. He possessed great eloquence, and a power of
-exercising an unbounded influence over minds of a certain description.
-His nephew, with much of the uncle’s eccentricity, united a much clearer
-judgment, and seems gradually to have established a complete ascendancy
-over the mind, first of his uncle, and ultimately of all his followers;
-and to have used his influence in a manner which indicates most enlarged
-public spirit, and a great mixture, at least, of political wisdom.
-
-It appears, that during the various tumults which took place during the
-early periods of the Reformation, several persons in England, and some
-in Germany, (the parties holding communication through the means of
-Müller and his connexions in both countries,) meditated a removal to
-some distant region, in which they should escape finally from strife and
-oppression, and establish a civil and religious community on such
-principles as they were fondly cherishing. After the proposal and
-rejection of various schemes, and after many delays and disappointments,
-the projected departure in search of a new settlement took place, under
-the guidance of their enthusiastic and adventurous leader. Instead of
-proceeding to America, as had been originally proposed, they were
-induced by some glowing descriptions they had heard, but which proved to
-consist chiefly of fable or exaggeration, to seek for the long-famed
-southern continent, the “Terra Australis Incognita.”
-
-The curious and interesting particulars of their voyage, their various
-adventures, disappointments, and reiterated attempts, we are compelled
-to pass over. The result was their being ultimately driven by a storm on
-the coast of New Holland, somewhere, it is supposed, between lat. 10 and
-20 south, and lon. 130 and 140 east, where one out of the four ships was
-wrecked on a coral reef, and two of the others driven ashore with
-considerable damage. They saved, however, not only their lives, but
-nearly all their property, including the live stock with which they had
-provided themselves; and it appears that their first idea was to repair
-their vessels, and proceed along the coast, in an endeavour to find a
-suitable spot for a settlement; the part on which they were cast being
-not only barren and uninviting but excessively marshy. This last
-circumstance compelled them to forego their design; for a fever broke
-out, and affected so many of them that they lost no time in removing to
-a healthier situation, eight or nine miles from the coast. Here the sick
-speedily recovered; and, as the spot seemed highly salubrious, though
-for the most part barren, with only a small proportion of land fit for
-cultivation near the banks of small rivers, they proceeded to build
-log-houses and cultivate the land; designing to make their settlement
-either temporary or permanent, as circumstances might determine.
-
-Their decision was ultimately fixed by means of the intercourse they
-succeeded in establishing with a native tribe. Mutual good-will and
-confidence having been completely established between the settlers and
-the natives (chiefly, as it should seem, through the judicious exertions
-of the younger Müller),—and an increasing knowledge of each other’s
-language having established a free communication between the
-parties,—the settlers were interested by the glowing colours in which
-their new friends described a region in the interior, which they—that
-is, some of the very individuals who spoke of it, and the ancestors of
-the rest,—had formerly inhabited, and from which successive portions of
-their tribe had been from time to time expelled by more powerful hostile
-tribes. They were anxious to induce their European neighbours to settle
-there themselves, and enable them to reinstate themselves in their
-ancient abode. They easily perceived the vast superiority which European
-arts and arms would give to their new allies over enemies who had proved
-too powerful for themselves, and they hoped through their aid to
-re-establish themselves in a country which they had quitted with regret.
-
-Moved by their representations, the settlers despatched two active young
-men, in company with some native guides, to explore this highly-vaunted
-region; they proceeded accordingly, nearly in a direct line from the
-coast, to a range of mountains, about ninety or a hundred miles in the
-interior, which they surmounted, not without difficulty, and then found
-themselves in an elevated plain of a most sterile character, extending
-for more than a hundred miles in the same direction: this they traversed
-with some difficulty, and arrived at another chain of rocky mountains,
-forming a still more formidable barrier, which they would have had great
-difficulty in surmounting but for the local knowledge of their guides.
-
-On passing this, however, they were rewarded by the view of a most
-extensive and delightfully fertile region, watered with numerous streams
-from these mountains, and interspersed with beautiful lakes. The whole
-appearance of the country fully justified the descriptions given; and
-the accounts of these first explorers were so favourable that a second
-expedition was undertaken, with a view to a more complete examination of
-the country, by young Müller himself and four others, who passed a
-considerable time in exploring the district, not without some narrow
-escapes from the hostility of some of the wandering native tribes; and
-the result of their examination was so favourable, that the settlers
-were induced to come to the resolution of finally removing the colony to
-the interior.
-
-This, after due preparation, they accomplished, moving in two separate
-divisions; the first consisting of the greater part of the most active
-of the adult males, both of the Europeans and their native allies, who
-were to prepare habitations, and break up land for tillage, &c. ready to
-receive the rest after an interval of some months. The entire removal
-was completed in the course of the third year from their first arrival
-on the coast. Their numbers appear to have been between three and four
-hundred, in all, of white people, besides a somewhat smaller number of
-natives; the country in which they had first settled admitting of only a
-small and scattered population, of tribes subsisting by the chase.
-
-Very soon after taking possession of their new abode they were attacked,
-in spite of all their endeavours to preserve peace, by the native tribes
-of the interior, moved by their inveterate animosity against their
-ancient enemies: the settlers, however, gained an easy and complete
-victory in every encounter; their fire-arms, though only the
-old-fashioned, clumsy matchlocks of those days, being sufficient to
-strike terror into savages unacquainted with gunpowder; though,
-independent of their guns, their bows would have given them a decided
-superiority. It is well known how skilful and how formidable were the
-English archers of those days; and they could annoy the natives, among
-whom the bow is unknown, at three times the distance to which these
-could throw their spears. The native allies also, having been taught by
-the Europeans to use the bow, which, even in their less skilful hands,
-had an advantage over the spear,—and being also furnished with
-cutlasses, hatchets, and steel heads to their pikes,—now proved greatly
-an overmatch for their former conquerors, who had only wooden swords and
-bone-headed spears.
-
-A peace ensued, which, however, was for several years interrupted from
-time to time by predatory incursions and irregular renewals of
-hostilities. This state of things, with all its inconveniences, appears
-to have had the advantage of cementing the friendship between the
-settlers and their native allies; each party feeling the other’s
-importance for security against a common enemy. The whites, accordingly,
-seem to have been assiduous and successful in civilizing these natives,
-with whom they were thus thrown into close contact.
-
-Ultimately, the colony was delivered from all danger from the hostile
-tribes by an event which threatened disaster. A formidable combination
-was secretly formed among all the tribes for a considerable distance
-round, for the purpose of making a united attack, by surprise, with all
-their forces. It was so far successful that a band, far outnumbering all
-that the settlers could muster, unexpectedly attacking one of their
-villages, obliged the inhabitants to fly in the utmost haste, and spread
-the alarm through the whole colony. This success, however, proved their
-ruin; for, with the genuine improvidence of savages, instead of rapidly
-pushing forward their forces, they eagerly fell to plundering the
-various stores, especially of provisions, which had been abandoned; and,
-as an army of savages is never well provided with a commissariat, gladly
-betook themselves to feasting on what they found.
-
-Among other things, was a large supply of beer; for the settlers had
-brought with them, and successfully practised, the art of brewing, with
-which they had been familiar at home. Wine they had not as yet attained
-to, though they had begun the cultivation of the vine, as well as of
-several other European fruit-trees. The savages indulged in the liquor
-with characteristic excess; and, while they were lost in intoxication,
-set fire, either accidentally or intentionally, to the wooden houses and
-stacks with which they were surrounded. The fire raged fiercely in all
-directions; and most of the men were too much stupified with liquor to
-escape the flames, and were either stifled or burnt; a considerable
-number, however, were rescued by the settlers, who had by this time come
-together, and who at once saved and took prisoners most of the
-survivors, who were too helplessly drunk for either resistance or
-flight.
-
-This event, which at once and for ever broke the power of their enemies,
-has been ever since annually commemorated in the colony; a day of solemn
-thanksgiving being concluded by the lighting of large bonfires in the
-evening, by parties who pass round among themselves a spear, such as the
-natives use, and a cup of beer, of which each tastes, in memory of their
-deliverance. This festival which the Müllers instituted, accompanying
-the celebration with apposite reflections on drunkenness and its
-effects, has probably tended, along with other circumstances, to keep up
-an almost universal habit of sobriety throughout the colony.
-
-This interesting portion of their early history, thus impressed on their
-minds and familiarized to their thoughts from childhood, creates an
-indelible association of the idea of drunkenness, not only with those of
-helplessness and disaster, but also with that of the character of
-brutish and stupid _savages_. Indeed, in several other points also, our
-travellers found the idea of _savage_ life so associated with some
-others in the minds of these people, as to influence considerably their
-conduct and habits of thought. They have a deep-seated and habitual
-contempt for every thing which, according to their notions, savours of
-barbarism; and this shows itself in many points, which to a modern
-European would be likely to appear whimsical. The younger Müller, though
-indefatigable in his kindness towards the native tribes, appears to have
-cherished this feeling in his own people. He laboured strenuously to
-reclaim and civilize the savages, and was equally anxious to guard
-against the reverse process—the approximation of the white men towards
-the habits of the savages: and, as he seems to have been a very able
-though eccentric man, and possessed boundless influence over the
-colonists, who were under his government for above half a century, he
-succeeded in effectually stamping his own character on the nation, and
-perpetuating his institutions.
-
-The hostile tribes, after the above event, surrendered at discretion;
-and they consented (those of them who had a considerable proportion of
-able-bodied men remaining alive) to remove beyond a certain specified
-boundary, far beyond the then limits of the colony; but several tribes,
-which now consisted almost entirely of women and children, and were
-consequently hardly capable of providing for themselves, were, at their
-own entreaty, received as subjects, and incorporated, along with the
-previously-allied natives, into the body of the settlers.
-
-The European and aboriginal races became in time completely blended
-together; for it appears to have been one of the principles most
-earnestly maintained and inculcated by their extraordinary leader, to
-allow of no hereditary degradation; no subjection of one race of men to
-another on the ground of colour or caste, but to make all subjects of
-the state necessarily admissible to the rights of citizenship. Yet, on
-the other hand, he was well aware of the actual inferiority of the
-aborigines as individuals and as a race, and was fully alive to the evil
-of placing inferior men on a level with those morally and intellectually
-superior. The maxim, accordingly, which he continually dwelt on, and
-laboured to embody in practice, was, that it is not the colour of the
-skin, but the heart and head, that makes a man savage or civilized.
-Education, accordingly, was the means adopted for reclaiming and for
-preserving men from barbarism: and examinations, to ascertain how far
-each had profited by the education bestowed, were made the test for
-admissibility into the highest public stations.
-
-This principle has been in great measure adhered to in the several
-states into which the settlement was afterwards divided, though
-differing from each other in many respects in their forms of government.
-And yet, as Müller used himself to observe, one man may be much superior
-in fitness for certain public offices to another, who may be far beyond
-him in proficiency in a prescribed course of studies, and in everything
-that can be ascertained in any regular examination; but then, he used to
-add, when you come to a greater number, one hundred men well taught will
-always be superior to a hundred untaught, and fitter to govern the
-community. In all the states, accordingly, their senates are always
-required to consist of men who have given proof of their proficiency in
-a prescribed course of study; but these are left free to choose, and
-sometimes do choose, for the discharge of important offices, men who are
-inferior in this respect, but qualified by natural sagacity and
-practical habits of business.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER II.
-
-  Increase of the Settlement.—Separation of the States.—Ecclesiastical
-    Communities.—Concord among Sects.—Houses and Towns.—Penal
-    Colonies.—Southlanders’ Hospitality.—Mode of receiving
-    Company.—Feasts.—Animal Food.—Tame Animals.—Surprise at English
-    Customs.—Carnivorous Propensity.—Lighting the Streets.—City of Bath.
-
-
-The settlement, on being thus (about five or six years from its
-commencement) freed from all external molestation, increased in
-prosperity, and extended itself rapidly in several directions inland.
-Towards the sea they had no temptation to advance; being separated from
-it by an extensive district of great sterility, and of difficult
-passage. Inward, the abundance of fertile land, and the numerous lakes
-with which our travellers had been struck, and which afforded easy
-intercourse even between settlements at a considerable distance, invited
-them to overspread the country as fast as their rapidly-increasing
-population required. Their numbers seem to have advanced at about the
-same rate as those of some of the North-American settlements.
-
-The division into separate states was not, as the travellers found to
-their surprise, the result of discord, but had been planned and
-commenced by their founder himself. He had, it seems, foreseen, or
-fancied that he foresaw, an ultimate necessity for such a separation;
-and he judged it best that it should begin even in his own lifetime,
-before there was any advantage in it, except that of setting an example
-and establishing a precedent for amicable separation. He founded,
-accordingly, within forty years from their first settling, a second
-perfectly independent community, on the opposite side of the lake, near
-which the first had been located. The original settlement still forms
-one of the states, and retains the name of Müllersfield, which it
-received from the founders: the new one, from its singular beauty of
-situation, he called Eutopia (fine place), probably with something of a
-covert allusion also to the well-known fabulous Utopia (no place). The
-most perfect friendliness and freedom of intercourse continued between
-the two states; and, without owning any common authority, they consulted
-together, like any two individual neighbours who are on friendly terms,
-respecting any matters in which they had a common concern: and the
-principles of the procedure having been clearly laid down, and
-practically established, the example was afterwards repeatedly followed
-as the colonization extended itself; and fresh swarms, as it were,
-issued forth, till the number of the separate states amounted to eleven.
-
-A similar principle has been acted on with respect to ecclesiastical
-communities. The number of separate churches amounts to no less than
-seventeen; though some of these consist chiefly of converted native
-tribes, together with the missionaries residing among them. These
-churches are, of course, not coextensive with the several states, but on
-the footing of the early churches founded by the apostles, who
-instituted several distinct ones,—for instance, in the single province
-of Macedonia; viz. those of Philippi, Thessalonica, Berœa, &c. They are
-all, and have ever been, with a few temporary exceptions, in concord and
-communion with each other, but under distinct governments, and differing
-in some non-essential customs and institutions. They seem to have made
-good a favourite maxim of Müller’s on that subject;—that men are always
-most likely to live in friendly agreement in essentials, when they are
-not so closely connected as to be obliged to agree in matters
-intrinsically indifferent. “Two men,” he used to observe, “who may be
-very friendly as neighbours, might quarrel, if they were obliged to live
-together, as to the hour at which they should dine,—the keeping of the
-windows open or shut, &c.;—in which one party would necessarily be
-compelled to give way to the other: whereas they may be very good
-friends while each follows his own taste in such matters.”
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-We shall subjoin such scattered extracts as our space will admit, of
-those portions of our travellers’ Journal which illustrate the more
-strange and singular particulars of the habits of this interesting
-people.
-
-Nearly all their houses—in the towns, all, without exception—are
-flat-roofed, like those in the East; whether from a fancy of imitating
-the custom they read of in Scripture, or for the convenience of having
-an airy unconfined place to walk or sit on. In the towns, there is, as
-in those of the East, a thoroughfare for foot-passengers along the tops
-of the houses; and, in the larger towns, the streets are crossed
-occasionally by light bridges.
-
-The houses in the towns, and all but the meaner sort of cottages in the
-newly-settled part of the country, are without any chimneys opening to
-the air: the smoke from the fireplaces of one or two, or more, adjoining
-houses, passes into a sort of chamber (swept from time to time), from
-which it is forced out by machinery into a flue branching off into
-pipes, which carry it back to the bottom of each fire; so that it burns
-its own smoke. When the visitors were describing to some Eutopians the
-European towns, these people remarked that London, for instance, though
-so much improved since the times of which they had historical records
-from their ancestors, must still have a very smoky atmosphere; and that,
-to walk along the streets, shut in by houses on both sides, must be very
-unpleasant, for want of open prospect and free circulation of air.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-It was with much difficulty that these people were brought to understand
-the nature of the colony from which their visitors came; not that they
-were in general dull of apprehension, but they could scarcely satisfy
-themselves that they had rightly understood the accounts given them. To
-people a new settlement with convicted criminals,—to form a new nation
-of the scum and refuse of mankind,—appeared to them so preposterous,
-that for some time they could not help supposing they must have
-misunderstood their informants. “To bring together a number of
-villains,” they said, “to a country where good character is not the
-rule, but the exception, allowing them free intercourse with each other
-must be the most effectual mode of hardening and confirming them in
-wickedness, and entailing the same character on successive generations:”
-and though it was explained to them that one great object of the plan
-was to reform the criminals, the accounts which truth constrained their
-visitors to give of the actual state of morals in the colony did not
-seem to satisfy them. They had wondered at first, they said, that such a
-scheme should have been originally thought of, and now they wondered
-still more that it should be persevered in.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-The travellers were entertained with the kindest and most liberal
-hospitality, according to the notions of the Southlanders (such is the
-general name by which the inhabitants of all the states distinguish
-themselves from their European ancestors and other Europeans); but their
-hospitality differs considerably from ours. When residing as guests with
-any family, they partook of the family meals; but when invited to a
-party, as they frequently were, to meet the principal gentry of the
-neighbourhood,—who were anxious both to show attention to the strangers
-and to gratify their own curiosity,—it was found that there is no such
-thing in this country as what we call a dinner-party; that is, the
-company did not sit down together to a regular meal, but partook of
-refreshments something more of the character of an English luncheon,
-which was provided in all the superior houses in a separate room. The
-guests dropped into this eating-room irregularly, and seating themselves
-in small promiscuous parties at small tables set out there, were served
-by the attendants with the various dishes provided. They stayed as long
-as they pleased; conversed occasionally with their neighbours, as we do
-at an irregular luncheon, and returned to the “company-room” (as it is
-called), without ceremony, whenever they chose. No refreshments were
-brought into this last, except such as correspond to what we have at
-evening parties,—such as cakes, lemonade, wine and water, ices (in those
-districts which are near the mountains), dried or fresh fruits, &c.:
-this they consider as what they call the most “honourable”—what we
-should call “stylish”—mode of receiving company.
-
-When our habits were described to them, they expressed their wonder that
-a civilized people should _make feasts as the savages do_. “The
-half-reclaimed native tribes,” they said, “invite their friends whom
-they wish to honour to a solemn feast, at which, having provided a large
-quantity of their best provisions and liquor, and exerted what skill
-they have in cookery, the guests all seat themselves, with sundry
-formalities, round the food that is dressed, and regale themselves
-altogether; but with the Southlanders such an arrangement as this is
-only adopted as a convenience, when there is a large number of persons
-to be fed in the least troublesome way.” They accordingly promised,
-laughingly, to take their visitors to something like an English
-dinner-party; and the party to which they invited them (it was during
-the season of hay harvest) consisted of about two dozen mowers, with
-several of their wives and children, seated round a long table, with the
-master at the head of it, and supping on an ample supply of substantial
-food, served up in five or six huge dishes.
-
-The cookery among the higher classes is for the most part plain and
-simple, and the few who have refined much upon the luxuries of the table
-are exposed to something of the same sort of contemptuous ridicule that
-the being called a dandy incurs among us. But a circumstance which early
-attracted the attention of the visitors was, that they found the animal
-food to consist (besides eggs, cheese, and various preparations of milk)
-entirely of fish and game. The pork, which they often met with, they
-found to be always the flesh of the wild swine: these were derived from
-those brought over by the first settlers, who turned them all loose into
-the woods; and the chase of the wild-boar is eagerly pursued by many of
-the gentry. Wild cattle are also met with in some parts, descended from
-such as had accidentally strayed; and the flesh of these is eaten, as
-well as that of the kangaroo, emu, and other indigenous animals: but the
-visitors one day, in the course of conversation in the eating-room,
-expressed their surprise at having never seen any mutton served up,
-though sheep were not uncommon. The Southlanders had never heard the
-word mutton; but, when it was explained to them that it meant the flesh
-of the sheep, they replied, “That they kept their sheep very carefully
-for their wool, and that there were no wild sheep in the country: but
-when it was explained to them that we kept both sheep and oxen chiefly
-for the purpose of feeding on their flesh, they were both astonished and
-disgusted that we should have retained such a _barbarian_ custom (for
-they regard themselves as many degrees more civilized than their
-European ancestors) as that of killing and eating domestic animals.”
-
-It was urged (and they freely admitted it) that the loss of life is no
-greater to a tame than to a wild animal: “That is true,” they said, “as
-far as the _animal_ is concerned; but it makes a great difference to
-_our_ feelings. A tame animal is a sort of friend, a member of the
-family: it seems a sort of treacherous breach of hospitality to kill in
-cold blood a creature which you have reared and fed from its birth, and
-then devour its flesh.” They expressed still more surprise (for they are
-keen sportsmen) at learning that some Europeans were vehement in their
-censures of hunting, fowling, and fishing, as cruel; and yet fed without
-scruple on beef and mutton. “We declare war,” they said, laughing,
-“perhaps an unjust war, against wild animals, and kill them as enemies;
-but you assassinate your friends.”—“We urged,” says the journalist, “the
-necessity of keeping within bounds the numbers of our domestic animals;
-and expressed our apprehension that the Southlanders would in time find
-themselves quite overstocked with sheep, oxen, and fowls.” They replied
-at the moment, merely, “that no such apprehension had ever occurred to
-them.”
-
-But, on returning to what we should call the drawing-room, we soon found
-that much interest was excited by the accounts of what appeared to this
-most singular people our strange custom. We were surrounded by ladies,
-who inquired, with an amusing mixture of good-humoured ridicule, wonder,
-and horror, into all the particulars respecting mutton; and one lady
-surprised us by asking, among other things, what kind of flesh was that
-of horses, dogs, and cats, and by what name we called it. When informed
-that, though we kept these animals, we never thought of eating them, she
-replied, “Why, I had understood that you ate the _flesh of domestic
-animals_, and that you found it _necessary_ to do so, for fear of their
-_overstocking you with their numbers_! How comes it that you are not
-overrun with horses, dogs, and cats?” To say the truth, we were rather
-dumbfounded by this question; having, in fact, assigned as a reason what
-we had been accustomed to hear and repeat without any examination into
-its soundness. We could only allege that, in all these points, we
-conformed to what had always been the practice of our ancestors and
-theirs, and of almost all other nations: in this we were borne out by
-the testimony of those of the company who were well read in antiquities.
-
-Several of these people, indeed, are good scholars, and well acquainted
-with the history (as far as was known three hundred years ago) of other
-nations, besides their own. They adverted to the descriptions of Homer’s
-heroes: one of them would, when about to entertain his friends, have a
-sheep brought into his tent, cut its throat with his own royal hands,
-and then, with a skilful hand,—which the poet never fails to
-celebrate,—cut it up into slices and broil them on skewers over a
-charcoal fire. They remembered, also, the accounts given of some
-East-Indian tribes, who, when their relatives are grown old and infirm,
-kill them, to save them from lingering decay, and hold a pious and
-solemn feast on their flesh. But as these customs had worn away in the
-early progress of civilization, they wondered that a still further
-refinement had not, among us, confined the carnivorous propensity of man
-to wild animals exclusively, and led us, as it had them, to regard with
-disgust the eating of (as they expressed it) one of the family, whose
-eggs, milk, labour, or wool had long ministered to our comforts.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-The description of our cities in their present condition, as contrasted
-with that of the sixteenth century, and of our whole mode of life, was
-exceedingly interesting to these people; but nothing did they admire
-more than our description of the gas-lights. In the midst, however, of
-their enquiries and admiration, one sly-looking old gentleman observed,
-“that if we would honour him with a visit in his city of Bath (capital
-of a state of the same name), he would excite even our admiration by the
-spectacle of an illumination still more splendid.” In our visit there,
-where we were most kindly received, our host walked through the streets
-with us, showing us the principal buildings, and introduced us into the
-Senate-house, where the public business was going on.
-
-On our return to his house, he asked us (this was about seven o’clock in
-the morning) what we thought of the lighting of the streets. We
-answered, that we observed neither any lighting of them, nor need of it,
-as it was a bright sunshine. “And is not this,” said he, “as good a
-light as your gas? We have not,” he added, “gone so far as you in arts;
-but we have the advantage of you in availing ourselves of the gifts of
-nature; for, as you must have observed, we are all alert and about our
-business at day-break; while you, by your own account, allow three or
-four hours of daylight in the spring and summer to be utterly wasted,
-while you are abed; and then go about your business at night, like owls
-and bats, but without their advantage of being able to see in the dark;
-so that you are forced to light yourselves with gas. It was,” said he,
-“a very ingenious contrivance you were telling us of t’other day, by
-which you distil fresh water from the sea; but pray do you, when there
-are plenty of fresh springs, let all the water run to waste, that you
-may have the triumph of distilling from the brine?”
-
-We endeavoured to explain to him the causes of our late hours; but we
-were astounded when he had made us compute the saving in oil, and gas,
-and tallow, which might be effected by a general resolution to _use
-daylight as far as it would go_.
-
-The city at which this conversation took place is named from its
-celebrated warm baths, supplied by springs issuing from a mountain in
-the vicinity; one of the greatest curiosities in the country, both from
-the natural phenomena it exhibits (being evidently an extinct volcano),
-from which it received its name of Mount Peril, and from the
-extraordinary tradition of the superstitious ordeal formerly connected
-with it.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III.
-
-  Duels.—Judicial Combats.—Existing Code of Honour.—Appeal to
-    Arms.—Discussion on Duelling.—Mount Peril.—Noxious Vapours.—The
-    Cavern.
-
-
-The visit of the travellers to Mount Peril, in the state of Bath, was
-preceded, and in some measure probably caused, by a conversation
-casually occurring on the subject of duels; and the notes taken of this,
-it may be as well first to lay before the reader.
-
-Much inquiry and mutual communication appear to have taken place, as was
-to be expected, between the Southlanders and their guests respecting the
-institutions and manners of their respective countries; and among others
-the subject of duelling, as prevailing among the Europeans and
-Americans, happened one day to be introduced in a mixed company. A large
-proportion of the younger persons present expressed their astonishment
-that a people pretending to civilization should fight out their disputes
-“like the savages.” This expression, as appears from several of the
-notices already recorded, was perpetually in their mouths; and some
-added, that the savages in their code of honour had the advantage of the
-Europeans. The New-Hollanders in these parts have, it seems, in respect
-of their duels, similar customs to those that have been observed by our
-settlers.
-
-It has long been known that the aborigines of New South Wales leave all
-quarrels between individuals to be settled by a solemn judicial combat,
-the community interfering no farther than to see fair play. But their
-notions of fair play differ considerably from ours. If it, indeed, does
-not appear clearly which is the party aggrieved, they fight it out, man
-to man; the tribe being present as bystanders, while the combatants
-engage with spears or waddies (wooden swords) till the _satisfaction_ is
-complete. But if one of the parties is adjudged to have the
-preponderance of justice on his side, he is allowed to bring a friend
-with him, as an auxiliary; and in very flagrant cases, even two or more,
-according to the character of the offence to be avenged.
-
-In all cases, the offending party, however clear his guilt may be, is
-allowed to fight for his life; but in some cases, of course, against
-such odds as render it next to impossible he should escape. This, the
-Southlanders observed, was a degree better than the European duels, in
-which the regulations of our code of honour require the parties, however
-palpably one of them may be in the wrong, to meet on equal terms, or
-with an inequality only in favour of the one who may chance to be the
-better shot or swordsman.
-
-Others of the company entered more fully into the discussion of the
-general grounds on which duelling is to be reprobated, being cordially
-joined in their censure by Mr. Jones, who urged the objections, with
-which every one is familiar, against the wickedness of taking away a
-fellow-creature’s life, and exposing one’s own, in revenge for a
-trifling affront—the absurdity of calling it a satisfaction to stand to
-be shot at, and other such topics, which it is unnecessary to enlarge
-on, as they may be read in numerous essays and tales, and heard at every
-tea-table.
-
-The Messrs. Smith, on the other hand (naval men, as has been already
-mentioned) took the other side, and endeavoured to vindicate the
-existing code of honour. They urged that it is needless and nugatory to
-go about to prove that a duel is a bad thing, and that to censure the
-laws of honour on that ground is as unfair as to censure the law of the
-land on the ground that imprisonment and hanging are evils, these being
-the penalties denounced against a violation of the laws.
-
-The requisition to expose one’s life in a duel is, in like manner, the
-penalty denounced against a violation of the rules established in the
-society of gentlemen. The law of honour, they said, does not enjoin men
-to seek a duel as a desirable thing, but, on the contrary, to act in
-such a manner as to preclude all occasion for an appeal to arms; and
-that the penalty which any system of rules holds out against the
-violation of them should be regarded as something to be carefully
-avoided: this, so far from being an objection to the system, is
-essential to its maintenance. As for the unfairness of putting the
-injured and injuring party on a level, _that_ they did not deny; but
-contended that it was an unavoidable evil, as in the case of war between
-two independent states. That every war is an evil,—that in every war one
-party must be in the wrong, and very often both: all this is universally
-admitted, but all this does not answer the practical question, whether,
-on the ground that war is an evil, a state should submit, and proclaim
-itself ready to submit, to any extent of encroachment and aggression
-from foreign nations without resistance. “If you go to war,” it might be
-urged, “with those who have wronged you, you put yourself on equal terms
-with the wrong-doer, and are likely to suffer as much or more than the
-offending party.” “Very true,” it might be answered, “but we cannot help
-that; if we could, we would make all the evil of the war fall on the
-nation that has injured us; but as it is, we must do the best we can to
-deter our neighbours from injuring us: having no common superior to
-appeal to, we have no alternative but to fight for our rights, or to be
-insulted and oppressed with impunity.”
-
-When it was urged in reply, that, though nations have not, individuals
-have, a common authority to appeal to—that of the community to which
-they belong, this was roundly denied; and it was contended that the
-appeal to single combat does not take place in cases when the law of the
-land provides adequate redress, but in those only where it either cannot
-or will not afford any, or any but such as would be a mere mockery to
-the feelings of the sufferer. A man, they urge, does not challenge any
-one for robbing him of his purse, or for firing his barn, but for
-injuries of quite a different description, far more grievous to one
-moving in a certain circle of society, but which the law either refuses
-to take cognizance of at all, or for which it provides such redress as
-would aggravate the evil by rendering the sufferer ridiculous. Now a man
-resigns to the community his natural right of personal self-defence on
-the implied condition that the community shall protect him; and in
-cases, therefore, where it either cannot, or will not, fulfil this
-condition, his original natural right remains unimpaired. Thus, when a
-man is suddenly assaulted by a robber, he is free to defend his person
-and property as well as he can; and on the same principle, when the
-injury is of such a character as the law will not, or cannot, defend him
-from, he is left to guard his own honour with his own hand.
-
-As to the evils resulting from duels, they observed that it is most
-unfair not to take into account—though to calculate would be
-impossible—the immense amount of evils prevented, and which there is
-reason to suppose would take place but for the apprehension of a duel.
-The insolence, the falsehood, the slander, the base and the overbearing
-conduct, which are daily kept in check in many thousands of persons by
-the recollection that there is such a thing as being “called out” for
-such behaviour, is what no one can compute with any approach to
-accuracy; these being preventive and negative effects, and therefore
-incapable of being calculated, and liable to be underrated.
-
-Some idea, however, they added, may be formed of these effects of the
-laws of honour by looking to the conduct of those classes of persons who
-are exempted from them. The ancient Greeks and Romans, for instance, who
-are cried up as exempt from this Gothic barbarism, were accustomed, as
-we see from the specimens of their orators that have come down to us,
-publicly to revile each other in the grossest language. The Mahometans
-also, of all ranks, appear to be, with few exceptions, very much what
-Europeans would characterize by the term “blackguards;” and the same
-description seems very applicable to the people of the Celestial empire,
-from the haughty mandarin downwards.
-
-In Europe, again, said these gentlemen, we see that those among the
-higher classes—viz. ladies and clergymen, (it is to be presumed the
-Messrs. Smith had met with unfavourable specimens of these, and were
-rashly judging from such specimens,)—who are exempt from this law, are
-apt to avail themselves of that exemption by indulging themselves in the
-use of such language, and in such violation of truth and of decorum in
-their attacks on opponents as a layman would be deterred from by the
-apprehension of personal danger; so that, on the whole, it was contended
-that the evil of the lives lost in duels—an extremely small number—may
-be reckoned a cheap price paid by society for the advantages of
-civilized and well-regulated manners. And, after all, it was added, even
-that evil is not to be laid to the charge of the law of honour as a
-necessary accompaniment, since, if all persons adhered constantly to the
-rules of good society, there would never be occasion for a duel; in the
-same manner as there would never be occasion, if all men would comply
-with the law of the land, for any of the penalties of the law to be
-actually inflicted.
-
-An old gentleman named Christopher Adamson, of the State of Bath, who
-was present at this discussion, now came forward to declare his
-conviction that these arguments, though not without plausibility, were
-entirely unsound, and his confidence that he should be able to establish
-this to the satisfaction of the whole party; but he proposed to defer
-giving his reasons till they should have viewed a spot in his
-neighbourhood, curious and interesting on many accounts, and closely and
-historically connected with the subject under discussion.
-
-This was the celebrated Mount Peril (already alluded to), in the
-immediate vicinity of the city of Bath. The invitation was accepted; and
-the travellers shortly after set out on their excursion to visit this
-mountain. It plainly appears to be an extinct volcano. The settlers
-found it regarded with superstitious awe by the natives, who had among
-them a tradition of smoke having been seen at times to issue from it,
-and who regarded it as the habitation of certain malignant deities, of a
-similar character to the Pèlè venerated in the island of Hawaii
-(Owhyhee). The medicinal warm springs flowing from the foot of it gave
-occasion to the fixing of the city of Bath (thence so named) in the
-neighbourhood. It is one of the oldest states, the warm baths having
-early acquired such repute as to be highly attractive.
-
-The circumstance which gave rise to the appellation of Mount Peril was
-the existence of certain caverns and fissures on one of its sides,
-emitting at times noxious vapours, which had more than once proved fatal
-to those who had incautiously ventured too near them. These were reputed
-by the natives to be the abode of evil spirits, destructive to such as
-approached them: and in the etymological sense of the word spirit
-(_spiritus_, blast) this might be said to be literally true; for our
-travellers soon ascertained that the danger arose from a deleterious
-gas, the same that in coalpits is called the choke-damp, found also in
-the celebrated “Grotto del Cane” in Italy, named and long celebrated for
-the cruel experiments practised on dogs for the gratification of
-travellers. This gas, now well known to every smatterer in chemistry as
-the carbonic acid gas, so poisonous when received into the lungs, issues
-forth, it should seem, in irregular blasts from these caverns, so as to
-render them more dangerous of approach at some times than at others; so
-that many persons have passed with impunity spots which have at
-different times affected others with alarming or even fatal suffocation.
-
-The cavern which the travellers inspected the most closely is situated
-at the foot of a perpendicular cliff, about fifty feet in height, from
-the top of which the mouth may be seen very distinctly and with perfect
-safety; the gas being, as is well known, so much heavier than common air
-that there is no danger of its rising even near so high as the top of
-the cliff. The visitors tried the experiment of letting down by a rope,
-with a chain at the lower end of it, a little iron grating brought for
-the purpose, containing (as a humane substitute for a living dog)
-splinters of dry wood set on fire, which being lowered when in a full
-blaze into the cavern’s mouth, were suddenly and completely
-extinguished. This cavern was easily accessible from below, as it opened
-a kind of terrace of nearly level ground, called “the Ordeal Path;” but
-though many persons had passed it with impunity, it was considered too
-hazardous an experiment to be wantonly risked.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER IV.
-
-  Superstitious Notions.—Abolition of Duelling.—Interference of
-    Providence.—Challenge to the Ordeal.—The Trial.—Conviction of
-    the Offender.—Uncertainty of the Ordeal.—Ineffectual
-    Prohibition.—Check against Slander.—Exclusion from Society.—Absurd
-    Alternative.—Personal Courage.—Imputation of Cowardice.—Public
-    Opinion.—War between Nations.—Challenges.—Fear of Disgrace.
-
-
-Mr. Adamson afterwards proceeded to relate the circumstances connected
-with the cavern. Many superstitious notions, it seems, and much tendency
-to give credit to tales of supernatural mystery had been brought from
-Europe by several of the original settlers, trained as they had been in
-the then prevailing credulity, and many of them tinctured with
-fanaticism. It is not to be wondered therefore, that, ignorant as they
-were of physical phenomena, several should have given more or less
-credit to the reports of the natives respecting evil demons dwelling in
-these caverns; the dangerous nature of them having been proved in some
-instances by fatal experience.
-
-The employment of one of them for the purpose of an ordeal originated
-long after. “It ought in the first place to be acknowledged,” said Mr.
-Adamson, “that the barbarian institution of duels did exist among us,
-though now long since exploded.”
-
-They were not of common occurrence; but he added that his father
-distinctly remembered as a boy the final abolition of the practice, in
-the manner about to be related. The duel was regarded—and such is well
-known to have been its original design—as a kind of ordeal, as a solemn
-appeal to Heaven, which it was supposed would not fail to interfere in
-support of the rightful combatant.
-
-And here Mr. Sibthorpe had the candour to interpose a remark, that,
-though _duels_ have long since ceased to be considered in that light,
-the general principle is very far from being exploded among a large
-proportion of our own countrymen, who frequently apply the terms
-“providential,” and even “miraculous,” to the detection of murderers;
-the frustration of schemes of injustice; the escape of pious men from
-dangers of shipwreck or fire, &c. and who speak of pestilential
-diseases, conflagrations, and other fatal accidents, as judgments from
-Heaven on the sufferers; evidently referring to a supposed special
-interference of Providence to allot temporal successes or adversities
-according to the deserts of the parties; and often setting down as
-little better than an atheist any one who questions such a doctrine.
-
-“Now,” said he, “if it be admitted that there is a special and
-extraordinary interference of Providence for the immediate temporal
-punishment of the wicked, and for the securing of success to a righteous
-cause, there seems no reason why this should not be looked for in the
-case of a judicial combat. Our ancestors were at least as wise as we,
-and more consistent, if we deride or reprobate the idea of a special
-interposition of Providence in the case of a single combat, while we
-look for it in all _other_ cases. And you well know,” added he to Mr.
-Jones, “how strongly the doctrine I allude to is set forth in
-newspapers—in magazines—in publications of various descriptions, and,
-not least, in the nursery-books which are first put into the hands of
-children.”
-
-This could not be denied. “Well, such,” continued Mr. Adamson, “had been
-our belief as well as yours. But while the trial by single combat was
-retained under an altered character, the other kinds of ordeal—such as
-the hot ploughshare, &c. to which women, as well as men, had in former
-times been exposed—fell completely into desuetude.”
-
-Among the Southlanders the institution was, by an accidental
-circumstance, reintroduced. It seems that a woman, named Margaret
-Brucker, had been grossly defamed by a neighbour, and being highly
-indignant at the imputations cast on her virtue, and conscious of
-perfect innocence, she appealed to the judgment of Heaven, and
-challenged her accuser to accompany her publicly along the mountain
-side, by what was afterwards called the ‘Ordeal Path,’ to pass by the
-goblin cavern, the one viewed by our travellers. She professed her full
-confidence that her innocence would protect her from the demons residing
-there, and that the false accusation would be visited by a divine
-judgment on her who had devised it. Margaret appears to have been a
-perfectly sincere enthusiast, and to have possessed that fervid
-eloquence which is the result of genuine strong feeling. This, together
-with youth, beauty, and the sympathy excited by her distress of mind,
-operated so strongly on the superstitious feelings of the people that
-they vehemently seconded her proposal; and the woman who had accused her
-dared not refuse the trial.
-
-The parties accordingly set forth, attended by a great concourse of
-eager spectators, who ranged themselves on the edge of the cliff
-overhanging the cavern in breathless expectation of the results. The
-magistrates had only ventured to exert their authority so far as to
-require that ropes should be let down from the top of the cliff, and
-secured by straps to the body of each of the women, so that in case of
-danger they might be safely drawn up.
-
-Margaret, with a firm and undaunted step, walked unhurt close along the
-mouth of the cavern. Her companion, who had been observed to become pale
-and agitated as they approached the scene of trial, sank down insensible
-at the entrance of the cavern. The mingled shouts of wonder, alarm,
-horror, and exultation proceeding from the spectators of this complete
-fulfilment of the prophecy may easily be imagined. The fainting victim
-was drawn up by the rope to the top of the cliff, to all appearance
-dead. By sprinkling her with water, however, she gradually revived; and
-on being restored to her senses and speech, confessed, with much awe and
-contrition, the entire falsity of the stories she had circulated, and
-which she had fabricated through jealousy. She acknowledged, and no
-doubt fully believed, that she had been struck down by the demon of the
-goblin cavern as a just judgment on her calumny. Of course Margaret
-Brucker was venerated as little less than a prophetess, and the ordeal
-rose into high and general repute.
-
-Several, indeed, of the more sagacious entertained at the time the
-opinion which it would then have been most discreditable to avow, but
-which has long since become universal, that the one party escaped unhurt
-because she walked erect across the opening of the cavern, the noxious
-gas being so heavy that its influence does not usually extend much more
-than one or two feet above the surface of the ground; and that the
-other, through the agitation of conscious guilt and superstitious
-terror, either turned giddy, or stumbled over a stone, and falling down,
-was immediately exposed to the full current of the vapour. This is
-agreeable to what is found to take place in the celebrated Grotto del
-Cane, which is entered with impunity by men, but is fatal to a dog
-(whose head is so much nearer to the ground) if the poor beast is
-compelled to remain over one of the fissures from which the gas issues.
-
-The ordeal, however, was a very uncertain one, from the variations
-occurring in the quantity of vapour emitted. Sometimes both parties were
-suffocated, and oftener both escaped unhurt; and in some instances, as
-might have been expected, it happened that a person whose character had
-been cleared by the ordeal, was afterwards, by circumstances
-subsequently brought to light, proved, or violently suspected, to have
-been guilty.
-
-Instances of this kind, in conjunction with the advancement of
-intellectual culture, gradually weakened, in progress of time, the
-belief in the supernatural character of the ordeal. It was, however, for
-a long time, frequently appealed to, both by women and men, from all the
-states; and, in spite of laws which were passed, but which it was found
-impossible fully to enforce, prohibiting any such trial, and denouncing
-as murder the offence of being accessary to any one’s exposure to it in
-case of a fatal result,—the custom still received the sanction of many
-who disavowed all belief of miraculous interference in the case of such
-trials.
-
-“They defended,” said Mr. Adamson, “by nearly the same arguments as I
-have lately heard from you, both duels, such as you apply the name to,
-and these which were always very justly regarded as a kind of duel;
-since there is no essential difference between calling on your adversary
-to stand a pistol-shot or a poisonous blast. It was conducive, they
-contended, to the preservation of good manners, and of a high and
-delicate sense of honour in both sexes, that a man should be restrained
-from ungentlemanly behaviour, and from lightly taxing another with it,
-by the apprehension of personal danger; and that female purity should be
-guarded in like manner. ‘It is,’ they said, ‘a useful additional check
-against lying, for instance, and against rashly charging another with
-being a liar, to reflect on the probable consequence of being called on
-to face the sword or pistol, or the goblin cavern of Mount Peril. And it
-is but fair, that a woman also should recollect that levity of conduct,
-or wanton slander, may occasion her to be required to undergo a similar
-danger.’ There were not wanting many who reprobated this doctrine, and
-urged such arguments on the other side respecting the wickedness and the
-absurdity of the custom as we have lately heard from Mr. Jones. But they
-were urged with as little practical effect as they appear to have had
-among you. At length, several persons of the higher classes, and
-remarkable for correctness of life, refinement of manners, and
-cultivated understanding, formed themselves into an association and
-declared strenuous war against every kind of duel, including, as has
-been said, under that name the ordeal of the cavern, which they
-contended against on entirely new grounds.
-
-“They did not confine themselves to such topics as had been before,
-again and again, urged without effect; but maintained that the practice
-tended to defeat the very end proposed, and to lower (instead of
-raising, as was pretended) the tone of manners in the society. ‘If,’
-they said, ‘there were no such custom, then, any one, whether man or
-woman, who transgressed the rules which public opinion had sanctioned in
-the circle of society in which he or she moved, would at once be
-excluded from that circle. And the apprehension of this exclusion, of
-thus losing caste, and being sent to Coventry, which is the ultimate
-penalty that such a society can inflict for a breach of its rules, would
-be the best preventive of any violation of them,—the best preservative
-of the tone of the society, that it is possible to attain. If, under
-such a system, any one insulted another, he would be regarded as an
-ill-mannered brute, and excluded from good company: a woman who
-displayed levity of conduct would be at once excluded from reputable
-society: any one, man or woman, who should bring rash imputations
-against a neighbour, would be shunned as a slanderer: and so of the
-rest. But under the system of duelling, society offers an _alternative_;
-the only effect of which, as far as it operates, is unmixed evil.
-Instead of saying, absolutely, you must abstain from brutal insolence of
-demeanour, on pain of being excluded from our circle, it says, you must
-_either_ abstain from insolence, _or_ be ready to expose your life;
-instead of requiring a woman to abstain from levity of conduct, and
-defamatory language, on pain of forfeiting the countenance of
-respectable people, it proposes the alternative of _either_ observing
-those rules, _or_ the being prepared to encounter the ordeal; and the
-result is, that those who possess personal intrepidity will often be
-enabled to transgress with impunity those rules of good society, which
-the duelling system professes to enforce. Nay more; the system tends to
-invest with a certain degree of dignity, arising from our admiration of
-personal courage, such conduct as would otherwise excite only
-unmitigated abhorrence and contempt. An insolent man, for instance, if
-by his insolence he braved no danger but that of expulsion from good
-company, would be simply despised: but since he also, under the other
-system, braves the danger of death, he obtains some degree of honour for
-his intrepidity. And though some may be deterred from such conduct by
-the fear of a challenge, others, on the contrary, may be encouraged to
-it, by a desire of displaying valour; especially if they have reason to
-think, from what they know of the other party, that a challenge will
-_not_ ensue, and that they shall enjoy their triumph unmolested.
-
-“‘Moreover, the magnitude of the injuries which one person actually can
-do to another is infinitely enhanced by the system of duels, because
-every affront offered is thus made to carry with it an imputation on
-one’s personal courage, which can only be wiped out by the exposure of
-life. If, for instance, I am a man of uniform and scrupulous veracity,
-and some ill-mannered ruffian gives me the lie, then, supposing duels
-unknown, the attack recoils entirely on the assailant. He is incapable
-of proving his charge—my life refutes it,—and the only result is that
-_he_, not I, is set down as a liar, for having falsely called me a liar.
-But under the other system, I must go out and expose my life, or else I
-am disgraced—disgraced, not as a _liar_ (for _that_ imputation, perhaps,
-is disbelieved after all), but as a _coward_, for not daring to risk my
-life in defence of my honour. And thus a person, who otherwise might
-have been incapable of doing me any serious hurt at all, has it in his
-power to propose to me at his pleasure the alternative of hazard to my
-life and violence to my conscience, or ignominy. A venom is thus added
-to the sting of the most contemptible insect.
-
-“‘So much,’ said they, ‘for the protection thus provided for us against
-injuries the most painful to the feelings! Great part of the disgrace
-attaching to the authors of such injuries is removed; the injuries are
-probably rather increased than diminished in frequency; and in the pain
-they inflict, they are undoubtedly aggravated tenfold.’ With regard to
-the supposed necessity for a person’s thus vindicating his own honour in
-certain cases, on the ground that the parties have no common authority
-to appeal to, this they flatly denied. The public opinion of the society
-they belong to, _is_ that common authority. And that it is so, and is
-competent to decide effectually, is proved, they urged, by the very
-existence of duelling; for the duel itself is enforced by nothing else
-but public opinion. I am obliged, it is said, to challenge a man who has
-affronted me, because there is no authority to appeal to that will
-compel him to redress the injury. But what, then, compels him to
-_accept_ the challenge? Nothing, but the knowledge that if he refused
-it, society would reject him as disgraced. Then, why should not society
-at once pronounce on him this sentence of disgrace for the affront
-itself, unless he makes a satisfactory submission? If he defies public
-opinion, and does not care for disgrace, he need not accept the
-challenge: if he does care for public opinion, then let the disgrace
-attach at once to the offering of the affront, instead of to the refusal
-of the challenge. It is manifest that those who have the power to
-propose the alternative, of either suffering disgrace or fighting, must
-have the power to discard the latter part of the alternative. Let
-society, therefore, but do its duty, and it is plain that it may, by a
-proper exertion of the power which it has, and which it actually
-exercises even now, restrain, and restrain much more effectually,
-without duelling, the very evils which duelling professes to remedy.
-
-“As for the case of war between independent states, this,” observed Mr.
-Adamson, “by the way, is by no means a parallel to that of private
-duels. One nation does not _send a challenge_ to another; because, as
-the parties really have no common authority to refer to, the aggressors
-would of course decline the challenge, and _would_ prefer enjoying
-unmolested the fruits of their injustice. The nation, therefore, which
-considers itself aggrieved has no other remedy than, after complaining
-and demanding redress in vain, to declare war, levy troops, and commence
-hostilities against its opponents without waiting for their consent; and
-this procedure would be parallel to the case of duels only, if these
-were quite of a different character from what they are. If it were
-customary for a man who had received an affront to declare _war_ against
-his neighbour, arm himself, and _proceed to attack_ him without asking
-his consent, this would correspond to a war between two states. But a
-_challenge_ is quite a different thing; it is an invitation which a man
-may either accept or decline, to meet at a time and place settled by
-mutual agreement, where the parties, by common consent, expose
-themselves to a certain specified risk. Generally, the challenge is both
-sent and accepted, not from motives of revenge, but from fear of public
-censure: but universally, the party challenged might refuse it if he
-were willing to brave public censure.
-
-“So far, therefore, is a duel from being a mode of repelling injury,
-which a man is driven to resort to through the want of any common
-authority to appeal to, that, on the contrary, every duel actually rests
-on a tacit appeal to such an authority—viz. to public opinion; since no
-one could compel another to afford him the satisfaction sought except
-through the influence of the fear of disgrace, the other being at
-liberty to refuse the challenge if he dares to set public opinion at
-defiance. Every duel, therefore, whether actually taking place, or
-merely talked of and threatened, is itself a complete disproof of the
-plea on _which_ duels are justified.”
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER V.
-
-  Female Honour.—Agreement among Women.—Penalty of Exclusion.—Law of
-    Honour.—False Dignity.—New Penalty.—Compact against
-    Duelling.—Ruffians and Calumniators.—Association against
-    Duelling.—Court of Honour.—Abolition of Duelling.
-
-
-“That public opinion, if rightly directed, is capable,” continued Mr.
-Adamson, “of completely affecting the desired object without the duel,
-even better than with it, which is what we of the present day are so
-happy as to know by experience, these reformers anticipated partly from
-the enforcement among ladies of the laws of female honour before that
-absurd ordeal had been instituted. Women moving in circles of good
-society had kept up its character, it was observed, at least as well
-before the ordeal came into use, and quite as well as men of a
-corresponding class maintained the laws of masculine honour; and this
-was effected simply by a tacit agreement among women of character not to
-associate with any woman who was known to have violated these rules.
-‘If, therefore,’ said they, ‘ladies will return to this system, and
-gentlemen will adopt a corresponding one, the rules of good society,
-whatever they may be that it thinks fit to impose, will be enforced by
-the simple expedient of denouncing exclusion against the violators of
-them, absolutely, and without offering the alternative of a duel.’
-
-“It was remarked, indeed, by some of you,” said Mr. Adamson, “that in
-Europe the ladies, and also some other classes of persons who are
-exempted from the liability to a duel, are apt to avail themselves of
-this exemption by a less scrupulous adherence to truth and to courtesy
-of language, or by throwing such aspersions on their neighbours as would
-involve in personal danger those not so privileged; and such instances
-of falsehood, insolence, and calumny were attributed by some of you to
-the absence of the salutary check of the duel.
-
-“As to the precise state of the fact, indeed, you appeared not to be
-quite agreed: but admitting the most unfavourable representation to be
-true, you may perceive, even from what comes under your own experience,
-without resorting to ours, that the inference drawn is not correct; for
-it appears by your own account that the English women, of the higher
-classes at least, though all kinds of duel are unknown among them, yet
-keep up the character of their society in respect of female purity. And,
-as this is effected through the direct influence of public opinion,—by
-simply enforcing the penalty of exclusion on any female of blemished
-reputation,—it is evident that if in respect of veracity, integrity, or
-any other point, they fall short of what is required of gentlemen, this
-must arise from the standard of _honour_ being different in the two
-sexes. I collect that among you the character of ‘an honest woman’ does
-not coincide with that of ‘an honest man,’—and that even the word
-‘virtue’ has a somewhat different signification in reference to women
-and to men. It cannot be therefore that public opinion is insufficient
-to enforce the laws of honour without the intervention of duels, since
-modest women do succeed in maintaining the purity of the society in
-which they move; but the laws of honour are themselves not the same
-among ladies and among gentlemen. The fact is, few persons, either men
-or women, will venture to incur infamy; and _that_ is the penalty
-_which_ society may denounce against the violation of its rules, be
-those rules what they may. Let society determine what shall be the point
-of honour for each sex, or class of persons, or for all, and denounce
-the penalty of exclusion against such as violate its rules; and that
-those rules will be generally observed, without the intervention of
-duelling, is proved by the very circumstance that women enforce their
-own law of honour as successfully as men do theirs!
-
-“By acting on these principles,” continued Mr. Adamson, “you would have
-the additional advantage of imposing a restraint on those females, and
-others, who, you complain, are disposed to take advantage of their
-exemption from danger of a challenge by indulging in defamatory or
-insolent language, &c.; for, as I just now observed, conduct of this
-kind is regarded among you with somewhat the less of unmixed disgust and
-contempt, from the very circumstance that among laymen of a certain
-station it may lead to a duel. It is considered as in some degree a mark
-of ‘spirit.’ The courage which braves death, even when disapproved as a
-brutal kind of courage, yet shelters its possessor from the last extreme
-of ignominy. Now, though the degree of false dignity with which insolent
-behaviour is thus invested _ought_ certainly to be at least confined to
-those who actually do run a risk in displaying it,—though women and
-clergymen, for instance, since they run no risk, and consequently
-display no courage by such behaviour as would expose a layman to
-personal danger, should properly be considered base as well as
-unmannerly when they are guilty of it,—yet this distinction is one which
-we cannot expect will be carefully kept in view and uniformly observed.
-A kind of association of ideas is created in people’s minds between what
-is called ‘spirited behaviour,’ ‘strong language,’ &c. and ‘manly
-boldness;’ and this association continues to affect their judgment even
-in cases where no boldness is really displayed, because no danger is
-encountered. Thus, such conduct, in a woman for instance, or in a
-clergyman, as would otherwise incur unmixed contempt, is likely to be,
-if not altogether honoured or approved, at least in some degree
-tolerated.
-
-“But let the system be changed, and the tone of manners in _all_ classes
-would be raised. When duels are unheard of, such offences as are now
-regarded with a mitigated disapprobation on account of the personal
-intrepidity which they are supposed sometimes to imply in the offenders,
-would become the subject of unmixed disgust; the only danger braved
-being that of the disesteem of reputable people. And _this_ kind of
-penalty extending to _all_ classes and both sexes alike, (at least among
-the gentry,) would of course tend to restrain all of them alike within
-the rules of honour and politeness. There may be some reason why, among
-you, a woman should not be called out to _fight_; but there could be
-none, why she should not incur, as well as a gentleman, the penalty,
-when that was the _sole_ penalty for both sexes alike, of _exclusion_
-from good society if she transgressed its rules: a penalty which in fact
-actually _is_ enforced, with unrelenting strictness, for a violation of
-the rules of what is now accounted feminine honour.
-
-“Such nearly,” continued Mr. Adamson, “was the train of argument, as far
-as applicable to the then-existing condition of society among us, which
-was strenuously urged, and assiduously circulated by the association
-against duels which I have alluded to. The novelty of the arguments
-contributed, along with their intrinsic force, and the high character of
-those who urged them, to excite a general and serious attention; and the
-judicious course pursued by the authors of the undertaking secured them
-ultimate success. The members of the association bound themselves, by a
-solemn compact with each other, never to give or accept a challenge to
-any kind of duel, whether by the ordeal, or by single combat; never to
-behave in such a manner as might otherwise have afforded occasion for a
-duel; and not to countenance or receive into their society any one who
-should violate either of the above rules. In cases of personal assault,
-they were at liberty to defend themselves by force on the spot; but not
-to seek any subsequent satisfaction, except by an appeal to the laws,
-and by agreeing to shun the society of the offender as of a ruffian.
-They were to defend themselves against slander by _living it down_—by
-giving the false accuser the lie in their conduct; but they were to seek
-no other redress (unless they thought fit to bring a legal action for
-defamation) than by excluding calumniators from their society.
-
-“And the same in respect of rude and insolent language: into _their_
-society, no daring ruffian, however expert in snuffing a candle with a
-bullet, could, as formerly, _fight_ his way, by inducing those who
-really thought him no fit company for gentlemen, by a tacit appeal to
-their personal fears to admit him as an associate; each inwardly wishing
-all the while that one of the others would undertake the perilous task
-of tying the bell round his neck. Every such person, and every one in
-any way of exceptionable character, was under the ban of hopeless
-exclusion. It was useless to challenge the excluders, since they had
-proclaimed that they would not fight. From personal violence they
-appealed to the law: insolent vituperation was unavailing; since being
-directed against men who had abjured duels, it was understood to imply
-no personal risk, and consequently to give no proof of courage. From
-well-founded accusations, their blameless life and decorous behaviour
-secured them; unfounded charges only proclaimed the authors of them to
-be themselves liars.
-
-“Very early in the history of this association, a question arose among
-its members, on the decision of which, probably, their final success
-turned. It was at first designed that they should continue formally to
-enrol as members as many unexceptionable persons as could be induced to
-join their society. Some of their number, however, objected that this
-would be likely to impede their progress in the reformation they were
-aiming at. A jealousy, they said, would be likely to arise in the minds
-of some persons against the pretensions, real or supposed, of an
-association of which they were not themselves the founders or leaders.
-They would therefore be apt perversely to refuse joining it, as
-disdaining to follow in the wake of others; and would then set about
-justifying their conduct by exciting suspicion and organizing
-opposition, as against a party combining to set up themselves as
-arbiters of good manners,—guides to the rest of the world,—a
-self-constituted tribunal, &c.
-
-“These representations prevailed; and a resolution was adopted, and
-publicly announced, (accompanied with a frank statement of the reasons
-for it,) not to admit formally from thenceforth any more persons as
-members, except such as might have been actually engaged in a duel, and
-were desirous of thus solemnly and publicly proclaiming their
-renunciation of a practice to which they had thus once lent their
-countenance. But all other persons of respectable character, it was
-declared, should be thenceforth regarded as virtually members of the
-association, without any formal admission or engagement, so long as they
-should continue in practice to comply with the fundamental rules of the
-society, by abstaining from duels, and from everything calculated to
-provoke a challenge, and by shunning the company of those who acted
-otherwise. If any should in practice violate these regulations, or
-should openly proclaim his determination not to adhere to them, then,
-and then only, he was to be regarded as excluded from the number of the
-associates.
-
-“In all cases of dispute arising between one gentleman or lady and
-another, the cause was to be referred to the decision, not of any
-self-appointed tribunal, nor of any formally-elected court of honour
-(either of which might have furnished occasion for jealousy), but of a
-committee of the neighbours meeting for the purpose, with the
-stipulation only that they should be persons received in good society
-and adverse to duelling. Of such persons, each of the parties chooses
-(for the custom was adopted, and still exists among us,) one or two of
-his acquaintance,—each of whom again names two or three others as
-assessors,—and the judges thus nominated privately hear and try the
-cause, calling in, in case of much difficulty or disagreement, the
-assistance of others. It is seldom that the parties do not readily
-acquiesce in the decision; and the public in general are, as you may
-suppose, fully prepared to think that this must be at least more likely
-to approach to a right judgment than a pistol-ball or a blast of
-choke-damp.
-
-“In this way it was that the custom of duels gradually, and not very
-slowly, went out of fashion among us. It has been wholly extinct for
-more than a century; for my father, who, as I mentioned just now,
-remembered as a boy the final prevalence of this reform, was born nearly
-one hundred and thirty years ago.
-
-“If the same reform,” he added, “is not effected by the gentry of
-Europe, when they have only to _will_ that it should be so, their claims
-to a high degree of civilization and refinement (to say nothing of
-humanity or morality) can hardly be admitted. For example, as it is, any
-one who offers an affront to another, and on being challenged refuses to
-fight, is excluded from the pale of good society; unless it be a woman—a
-clergyman—a quaker—a person bound over to keep the peace, under the
-penalty of forfeiting a sum of money—(a curious exemption this!)—or
-belonging to some other description of privileged persons. All you have
-to do is to resolve that the _offering_ of the affront shall place any
-person under the same ban as he is now placed under for refusing, after
-being challenged for the affront, to fight. Lay down this rule; and let
-there be _no exemptions_ on the ground of sex, profession, or any other
-plea whatever, and the object is accomplished.”
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VI.
-
-  Rough Notes.—Public Entertainments.—Dancing.—Grotesque
-    Dance.—Throwing the Spear.—Female
-    Dress.—Decorations.—Ear-rings.—Wedding-rings.—Anomalous Costume.
-
-
-The rough notes taken down by the several members of the exploring party
-are, of course, not arranged in the order of the subjects, but are
-merely memoranda written on the spot from time to time according as the
-knowledge was obtained, or the observations made; and in the selections
-here laid before the reader, it has been thought best not to attempt any
-systematic arrangement, but to present them in their original
-miscellaneous form.
-
-While the travellers were at Bath,—which is a city rather distinguished,
-like its namesake in England and in Germany, for gaiety, as being a
-place of resort to strangers on account of the mineral waters,—they were
-invited to several public entertainments of various kinds, and of
-different degrees of solemnity and splendour. One lady with whom, among
-others, they were conversing on the subject of one of these which they
-were about to attend, on being asked, among other inquiries, whether a
-ball possessed as much attraction for young people as, they told her, it
-does in Europe, replied in the affirmative; though, for her own part,
-she said, she liked archery better; but different young people, said
-she, differ, you know, in their tastes in respect of amusements.
-
-When the gay party had been assembled,—which was on a lawn of
-considerable extent, partially shaded with some fine mimosa and
-eucalyptus (gum-tree), under whose shade tents were erected,—the
-travellers witnessed with much interest the several diversions that were
-going on; and, among others, their notice was called by the lady with
-whom they had been conversing the day before to several “games of ball”
-of various kinds that were going on; some played by gentlemen alone,
-some by ladies, and some by both together; and many of them bearing more
-or less resemblance to the English games of cricket, bowls, trap-ball,
-tennis, billiards, &c. as well as to others which are common enough
-among children in England, but quite unknown among adults.
-
-The travellers laughed heartily (as the ladies did also, on receiving an
-explanation) at the mutual mistake they had made about balls: but, on
-making more particular inquiries about dancing, they learned that this
-was an amusement confined to children; scarcely any ever joining in that
-sport except those under thirteen or fourteen years old, and any lively
-and good-humoured friend of the children, who joined their game for
-their amusement. The sport was in fact “playing at being savages,” the
-dances consisting in a ludicrous imitation of those of the aborigines.
-These, it is well known, are much given to dancing, in which they
-display considerable ingenuity as well as agility and good ear; and
-their dances are not merely a recreation, but are also mixed up with
-their most important institutions and transactions, being performed with
-much solemnity at their “corrobories,” or grand meetings, for the
-purpose of deliberating on affairs of state, and performing certain
-superstitious rites of divination.
-
-A group of romping boys and girls, who were at play in one corner of the
-field, were accordingly requested to exhibit to the strangers the
-spectacle of a dance; and some of the most forward and lively of the
-boys entered into the proposal with much glee. Two of the party took on
-themselves, by general consent, the arrangement and direction of the
-whole, and seemed to officiate as masters of the ceremonies, or, as they
-called themselves, “Corrobory chiefs.” They were, it seems, visitors
-from one of the back-settlements, and had had frequent opportunities of
-witnessing the native dances. The sport partook somewhat of the nature
-of a masquerade; some whimsical changes being made in the costume of the
-dancers, in order to give the livelier representation of the strange
-originals. Much merriment took place, and many curious feats of
-grotesque agility were displayed, to the great diversion both of the
-juvenile performers and the bystanders. This sport was followed by the
-throwing of the spear, after the manner of the natives; an art in which
-many of the Southlanders are very expert, especially those who live on
-the margins of the lakes, where the striking of fish is a favourite
-diversion, as the salmon-spearing is in some parts of Scotland. The
-throwing of the spear at a mark, however, and also archery, are games
-not confined, as dancing is, to children.
-
-The Southlanders expressed surprise that adult Europeans, even of the
-higher classes, should retain the amusement of dancing, “like the
-savages;” an amusement which seemed to them, from habit, as childish as
-many of their sports, on the other hand, had appeared to their visitors.
-Both parties were somewhat at a loss to explain to each other the
-grounds of their respective notions as to what was or was not puerile.
-“There is no disputing,” said one of the most intelligent of their
-hosts, “about tastes; but in many points, I believe, ours are to be
-accounted for by that early and deep-seated association in our minds,
-which you have in many instances noticed, between certain practices or
-habits and savage life. You have remarked several times how frequently
-the phrase is in our mouths, that to do so and so is ‘like the savages;’
-and this may perhaps account for the ridiculous appearance which, as you
-perceive, one of your balls, as you call them, would have in our eyes.”
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-The sentiment above alluded to was manifested in several conversations
-(occurring at various places, and noticed from time to time in the
-memorandum-books of the travellers,) on the subject of dress, especially
-female dress; respecting which the ladies showed themselves, as was to
-be expected, inquisitive and communicative. They generally expressed
-their wonder, when the female costume of England was described, that
-people pretending to be so civilized should expose so much _bare flesh_,
-“like the savages.” The habit of dressing, or rather, as they said, of
-undressing, so as to display naked shoulders, bosoms, and arms, struck
-them more as barbarian than as indelicate; they themselves,—though their
-clothing is usually thin, on account of the general warmth of the
-climate,—leave no part of the body uncovered, except the face and hands.
-They inquired whether the European ladies coat themselves with grease,
-mixed up with ochre or other paint, as the savages do, by way of
-protection to the unclothed parts from scorching sun, piercing winds,
-and the bites of mosquitoes; also, whether they practised the tattooing,
-which is an essential part of aboriginal finery.
-
-They inquired also whether English ladies did not suffer in their health
-from the great and sudden _changes_, from covering to exposure, of many
-parts of the body between morning and evening dresses; and also whether
-many of them did not become diseased or deformed by the violence with
-which they appeared to squeeze their waists. Wilkins, the servant, it
-seems, had chanced to bring with him a lady’s almanac, containing plates
-of “female costume,” which excited great interest, wonder, and diversion
-among the Southlanders. Some imagined at first, among other mistakes,
-that the ladies were represented as taking precautions against drowning,
-by fastening, as the Southlanders sometimes do, large bladders to their
-arms.
-
-They expressed hardly less wonder on learning that English ladies are
-accustomed, “like the savages,” to wear feathers, necklaces, and other
-ornaments, and even to make incisions in their flesh for the purpose of
-inserting them. They asked whether, in addition to ear-rings, they wore
-nose-rings, and the ornament so general among the New-Hollanders, called
-humorously by the English sailors the “spritsail-yard;” viz. the
-leg-bone of a bird thrust through the middle cartilage of the nose.
-
-The travellers observed, in reply, that the Southlanders, especially the
-females, seemed to have no scruples on the subject of ornamental dress
-and furniture, as they had much that was both handsome and costly. “That
-is true,” said one of the party; “and though there are many differences
-of opinion on the subject, and some indulge in a degree of attention to
-ornament which is regarded by others as excessive, the total
-condemnation of all regard to decoration is by no means common. The
-church, indeed, of the Kernhuters—of which I learn from you there is a
-considerable and valuable remnant in Europe—have adopted, for nearly two
-centuries, some very strict regulations on this head; among others, they
-make it a point of discipline to use no dyes. Their shoes and boots are
-brown, of the natural colour of the leather; their coats grey, being
-made of a mixture of black wool and white, as it comes from the sheep;
-and their hats of the natural colour of the opossum and kangaroo: but
-these are exceptions. The point _agreed on_ among us, and in which our
-difference from you gave rise to the wonder you heard expressed, is
-this,—that it is barbarian to wear anything _for the sake_ of ornament,
-and which answers no purpose but that of decoration. Of this description
-are feathers, which were worn by our ancestors of both sexes, but which
-I understand from you are now confined to women, and to military men
-when in uniform. So, also, are necklaces, rings, and, above all,
-ear-rings. It strikes us as peculiarly barbarian to bore holes in the
-flesh for the purpose of sticking in ornaments. It may be a prejudice,
-but it is at least an ancient one; for the Greeks, though I believe
-their women wore ear-rings,—and it is to be observed that they regarded
-women as a very inferior order of beings, and rather as toys, or as
-domestic drudges, than as civilized and rational companions,—considered
-ear-rings worn by men as a decisive mark of barbarism. You may find, in
-Xenophon’s Anabasis, one of the captains of companies, who had given
-some cowardly advice, reproached as uttering sentiments unworthy of a
-Greek; on which some one exclaimed ‘He is no Greek! _his ears are
-bored_:’ and this being ascertained by inspection, he was on this
-evidence at once pronounced a barbarian, and as such reduced to the
-ranks.
-
-“You have observed,” continued he, “among us handsome and costly gold
-brooches and buckles, buttons made of jewels, embroidered garments,
-inlaid tables, and other such ornamental articles; but you will see no
-article that is _merely_ an ornament. A gold brooch or button served as
-a fastening, not better indeed, but as well, as an iron or brass one.
-Its _beauty_ is superfluous, but it is not _itself_ superfluous, and
-destitute of all ostensible use. So, also, a silver goblet serves to
-drink out of, and an embroidered gown to cover one, no less than plain
-ones. The robes, caps, and thrones of our higher magistrates are, as you
-have seen, in some instances very highly decorated; but they have an
-ostensible use, as coverings and seats. We have no necklaces, plumes, or
-rings; and have indeed carried so far this distinction, which probably
-to you seems fanciful, that we have even laid aside the ancient usage of
-the wedding ring, and, as you must have observed, mark the distinction
-between the married and single by the dress. By the bye,” he added, “the
-ring, which you speak of as having a use in distinguishing a married
-_woman_, is confined, I perceive, to the _wife_; a married _man_ not
-having, as among us, any distinctive mark.”
-
-Mr. Sibthorpe here remarked, that though any practice to which we are
-not accustomed does usually appear to us fanciful, yet it occurred to
-him—what had never struck him before—that no _mere_ ornament is commonly
-worn by _men_ of the present age in Europe; a few, indeed, wear rings,
-but not the majority; nor is it any requisition of fashion. Stars,
-ribbons, crowns, &c. are worn by men as marks of certain rank or office;
-but the feathers, chains, shoulder-knots, and ruffles, which our
-forefathers wore as a part of fashionable dress, are obsolete. Man is
-now so far conformed to the ancient definition as to be “a biped without
-_feathers_;” women, on the contrary, are so far, according to the
-Southlanders, in the rear of advancing civilization as still to wear
-ornaments, like the savages.
-
-He remarked also another point of coincidence between European women on
-the one side, and European men and the Southlanders of both sexes on the
-other; the latter, he observed, were always dressed _alike on both
-sides_, so that if one imagined one of them split into halves, the two
-would _match_, like a pair of gloves; among European ladies, on the
-contrary, most of the many great variations of fashion agree in making
-some difference between the two sides; there is usually an obliquity in
-the head-gear, or a bow, a feather, or a bunch of flowers, stuck on one
-side, without a corresponding one on the other.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VII.
-
-  Forms of Government.—Senatorial Regulations.—Speakers.—Peculiar
-    Debate.—Fundamental Laws.—Unwise Legislators.—Timely
-    Improvements.—Legislative Problem.—Legislative Expedient.—Error in
-    Government.—Division of Laws.—Repeal of Fundamental Laws.—Guard
-    against Precipitancy.—Laws of Treason.—Mature Deliberation.—National
-    Will.
-
-
-All the states, which, as has been mentioned above, are eleven in
-number, differ more or less from each other in their form of government,
-but are alike in all the most important and fundamental principles
-adopted; several of which are strangely at variance with everything that
-is to be found in the northern hemisphere. Seven out of the eleven
-states are denominated kingdoms: but of these, four only are under an
-hereditary royalty; the other three being, as far as the travellers
-could ascertain, rather of the character of republics than of strictly
-regal governments; but retaining the title of King to denote the chief
-magistrate for the time being, somewhat corresponding to the Athenian
-archon, Roman consul, or American president. There are four other states
-also which are, in name as well as in substance, republics. But these
-differences are greater in appearance than in reality; the kingdoms
-which are the most strictly so called, being by no means under an
-unlimited monarchy.
-
-Many of the particulars respecting the constitutions and laws of the
-several states the travellers were of course, during their short stay,
-unable to collect, except very slightly and imperfectly. From those
-which they did collect, and ascertain with sufficient certainty, we
-shall select such as are likely to be the most interesting, from their
-dissimilarity to European institutions.
-
-It was in the state of Atroloria,—so called from the lake of the same
-name[1] within its territory,—which the travellers first reached, that
-they had the earliest opportunity of witnessing debates in their senate.
-They afterwards, on several occasions, attended the legislative
-assemblies in other places. The circumstance which in the first instance
-most attracted, by its novelty to them, the attention of the visitors,
-was one which they found on inquiry was common to all the states in
-their deliberative assemblies; being a regulation originally established
-by Müller, and afterwards, from its tried advantage and convenience,
-continued universally and uninterruptedly. It was this, that no member
-was allowed to _speak_ and to _vote_ on the same question, but each had
-his choice between the two. The proceedings, accordingly, bore some
-resemblance to those of a court of justice in civil causes; the speakers
-corresponding to the pleaders who address the court,—the voters, to the
-jury, who give the verdict. The difference is, that each member has it
-left to his choice which character he will take. Any member wishing to
-address the house, quits his seat and places himself in front of the
-chair of the moderator,—answering to the speaker or chairman; and when
-he has spoken, seats himself, not in his former place, but, with a view
-to prevent mistake or confusion, on a bench appropriated to the purpose,
-and thence called the speakers’ bench; or he is at liberty to leave the
-assembly if he thinks fit. When the question has been put to the vote
-and decided, and a fresh question is coming on, he resumes his original
-seat. Certain public functionaries, who are not members, have a seat by
-right on the speakers’ bench, and are at liberty to address the house
-(though they have no vote) when there is any reference to the business
-of their own peculiar departments.
-
-Footnote 1:
-
-  The lake was so called by the early settlers; doubtless from the same
-  cause which led to the name of our own colony in Western Australia.
-
-Whether owing to this circumstance, or to any other, the debates were
-observed to be shorter, and the speakers much fewer, than is usual in
-European assemblies. They seldom exceeded two or three on each side.
-
-The travellers observed that the speakers rarely used even the smallest
-degree of action, but usually kept themselves remarkably still while
-speaking. This, it appears, was one of the results of that general and
-deep-rooted association already alluded to. In the course of
-conversation on this subject, the Southlanders, it appeared, considered
-it as something uncivilized to use either vociferation or gesticulation
-in speaking, “as the savages do.” They even accounted the refined
-Athenians and Romans of old as little better than half-reclaimed
-barbarians in this respect, because they would not attend to an orator
-unless he stamped and shouted, and brandished his arms about, as if he
-were speaking to a pack of hounds, instead of to an assembly of rational
-beings.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-The travellers were so fortunate as to witness on one occasion a debate
-of a peculiar kind, which is of rare occurrence, and which served to
-throw light on the whole system of legislature of this singular people.
-It occurred in the kingdom of Nether-London, one of the most ancient and
-populous of all the states. They found a considerable excitement and
-bustle prevailing, though all was orderly and decorous, on account of a
-summons issued (in our phraseology, “a call of the house”) to the
-members of their assembly, called in that state the parliament, to
-deliberate on the question of removing a _fundamental law_. The
-particular law then in question was, they found, like the Salic law of
-the French, one which confined the succession to the throne to males.
-But a further inquiry let them into the knowledge of matter far more
-curious and interesting,—the general principle of “fundamental laws,”
-which materially affects the whole of the system of legislature in the
-country; being, with slight differences of detail, common to all the
-states, regal and republican, and extending also to the several
-ecclesiastical communities.
-
-“The system I am about to describe to you,” said Mr. Adamson, who was
-one of their principal informants on this occasion, “was established by
-the Müllers; the younger of whom, during the whole of his long reign, as
-it may be called, laboured earnestly and successfully to explain its
-advantages, and to perpetuate its adoption. I will put into your hands
-presently a little popular tract on the subject written by him, which,
-like the many others he wrote, is in every one’s hands at this day. He
-sets forth in that the evils resulting, on the one hand, from retaining,
-or, oftener, vainly striving to retain, all laws, usages, and
-institutions unaltered, some of which, even though the result originally
-of consummate wisdom, may become utterly unsuitable to other times and
-altered circumstances; and, on the other hand, from frequent, sudden,
-and violent changes, which are apt to agitate and unsettle men’s minds,
-and to lead to consequences not designed or foreseen,—like the pulling
-out of one stone from a wall, which is apt to loosen some of the others.
-His discussion of this subject bears much resemblance to those I lately
-saw in the little book you lent me the other day, by Lord Bacon,[2] who
-strikes me as a very able writer, and likely to be well worthy of the
-reputation you tell me he enjoys.
-
-Footnote 2:
-
-  A little pocket edition of Bacon’s Essays, one of four or five small
-  volumes which the travellers had brought with them to beguile any
-  occasional tedious half-hour at their halting-places, or in their
-  boat.
-
-“Müller goes on to say that unwise legislators have been in all ages apt
-to bring on themselves, not one only, but both of these classes of
-evils. Unmindful of the proverb, that “a stitch in time saves nine,”
-they often, through dread of change, maintain unaltered things which
-manifestly want altering, at the expense of much loss and inconvenience;
-and when the change does come, from the inconvenience having grown to an
-intolerable height, it is apt to be, in consequence, a violent, hasty,
-and sometimes ruinous change. ‘That dirt made this dust,’ is a homely
-old saying, which he used frequently to apply in speaking of such
-instances, in allusion to those who in wet weather neglect to scrape off
-the mud from the roads; and consequently, besides being for a long time
-continually splashed and bemired, at length, when the mud is all dried
-up by the sun, they are half smothered by the dust it produces. He would
-always, therefore, he said, be, by choice, an _improver_, rather than a
-_reformer_; introducing corrections and additions, from time to time, as
-occasion offered, rather than letting a building become so inconvenient
-or ruinous as to require being pulled down and rebuilt.
-
-“A great reformation he considered as, in all cases, a great evil;
-though frequently by far the least evil that circumstances admit of, and
-though he had himself, accordingly, been always a strenuous supporter of
-the great reformation of religion, notwithstanding the many evils
-resulting, according to him, from its having been so long delayed and so
-obstinately resisted. To avoid both of the opposite evils,—the liability
-to sudden and violent changes, and the adherence to established usage
-when inconvenient or mischievous,—to give the requisite stability to
-governments and other institutions without shutting the door against
-improvement,—this is a problem which both ancient and modern
-legislators, he thought, had not well succeeded in solving. And the
-same, it appears, may be said of those who have appeared in Europe since
-his time. Some, like the ancient Medes and Persians, and like Lycurgus,
-have attempted to prohibit all change; but those who constantly appeal
-to the wisdom of their ancestors, as a sufficient reason for
-perpetuating everything these have established, forget two things;
-first, that they cannot hope for ever to persuade all successive
-generations of men that there was once one generation of such infallible
-wisdom as to be entitled to dictate to all their descendants for
-ever,—so as to make the earth, in fact, the possession, not of the
-living, but of the dead; and, secondly, that, even supposing our
-ancestors gifted with such infallibility, many cases must arise in which
-it may be reasonably doubted whether they themselves would not have
-advocated, if living, changes called for by altered circumstances; even
-as our own forefathers, who denoted the _southern_ quarter from
-_meridies_ (noon), would not have been so foolish as to retain that
-language had they come to live in this hemisphere, where the sun at noon
-is in the north.
-
-“The expedient of having two or more deliberative assemblies, or other
-authorities, in a state, whose concurrent sanction shall be requisite
-for enacting or abrogating laws, has often been resorted to, as a
-safeguard against sudden and violent measures adopted under an
-ebullition of feeling, yet without precluding well-weighed and
-deliberate changes. This expedient he thought a very good one, as far as
-it goes; it is adopted in various forms in each of our states. But it
-appeared to him that experience had proved this provision to be not
-alone sufficient for accomplishing fully the object he had in view,
-which was to give the requisite stability to those more fundamental laws
-which may be considered as part of the constitution of any state, (yet
-not so as to attempt prohibiting a wary and deliberate alteration of
-them,) and at the same time to afford proper facilities for introducing
-changes into matters of detail.
-
-“‘Nature,’ said he, ‘does not give the same degree of strength to the
-footstalks of the leaves of a tree,—destined, as these are, to be shed
-every year,—and to the roots, which are designed to hold the trunk fast
-in the ground. If she did, either the one would be far too strong or the
-other far too weak, or both of these inconveniences might take place at
-once; yet this is the error committed by almost all governments. The
-same machinery is provided to facilitate or to impede _every_ change
-alike, in great or in small matters; the same mode is prescribed for the
-maintaining, or abrogating, or introducing of _every_ law and _every_
-institution alike. Among you, for instance, an act for regulating the
-manufacture of soap, or an act which should introduce a complete change
-into your constitution,—which should take away or restore the liberties
-of half the nation,—must go through exactly the same forms, and be
-passed or rejected by the same authorities under the same regulations:
-in short, you are like a tree whose leaf-stalks and main roots have
-neither more nor less toughness and stoutness the one than the other.’
-
-“Now this is a state of things which he considered as always
-inexpedient, and often dangerous, and which he accordingly proposed to
-remedy. The system which he recommended, and which has been universally
-adopted, is this. All our laws are divided into two classes; the
-ordinary or repealable laws, and the fundamental. The former are
-enacted, altered, or repealed much in the same manner as all laws of all
-other nations: but a fundamental law is one which there exists no
-immediate power to enact, annul, or amend; and it is forbidden by the
-rules of the house to propose any measure that, even incidentally, goes
-to defeat or interfere with the operation of any fundamental law. But it
-is allowed to propose, and to pass, a bill for removing any fundamental
-law from the list, and reducing it to an ordinary law; after which, it
-is open to be dealt with like any other law. So, also, it is allowed to
-pass a bill for placing any already existing ordinary law on the list of
-fundamentals.
-
-“The enactment, therefore, or repeal of a fundamental law, may be
-accomplished at _two_ steps, though not at one; but it is further
-provided that these two steps shall not take place in one session of
-parliament.” [He was describing the details, he said, in the terms, and
-according to the usages, of the kingdom of Nether-London; having
-premised that there is a substantial agreement in principle throughout
-all the states on this subject.] “When it is proposed to remove a law
-from the list of fundamentals, the motion made is, ‘that such and such a
-law shall, _at the close of the present session_, cease to be
-fundamental.’ It remains, therefore, even should the motion be carried,
-and the act receive the royal assent, irrevocable during the existing
-session. When, again, the reverse measure is to be proposed, of
-enrolling on the list of fundamentals some existing law, an act must
-have first passed, authorizing the legislature to take into
-consideration, in the _ensuing_ (or some subsequent session) the
-question of enrolling such and such a law.
-
-“Lastly, another and more important safeguard against precipitancy, is
-that, in the case of a motion for removing any law from the list of the
-fundamentals, or adding one to that list, every member who does not vote
-_for_ the motion is, by a rule of the house, reckoned, whether present
-or absent, as having voted _against_ it. In other words, such a motion
-can be carried only by an _absolute_ majority of the whole house, not by
-a mere comparative majority of members _present_.”
-
-Mr. Sibthorpe having interposed a remark, that there is something in the
-British constitution of the nature of a fundamental law, inasmuch as it
-is treason to propose the abolition of kingly government,—so that the
-maintenance of that government is irrevocable till a bill shall first
-have been passed for altering the laws of treason,—Mr. Adamson admitted
-that this was so far on the same footing with the law he had been
-describing; “but,” added he, “if any one should—which I allow is highly
-improbable—propose such an alteration of the laws of treason, that
-question might legally be put to the vote in as thin a house as is
-competent to transact ordinary business. I think you would do well,
-after introducing our last regulation as to an absolute majority, to
-place some more of your laws on the same footing. Not that there would
-be any occasion for saying anything about treason. With you, as with us,
-it would no doubt be quite sufficient that a member should be at once
-‘called to order’ if he presumed to make any motion contrary to the
-rules of the house.
-
-“You would find, I think,” he continued, “that the adoption of our
-system in regard to fundamental laws would tend to promote among you
-that comparative calmness and moderation which you have remarked in our
-proceedings, and to mitigate the vehemence with which, by your accounts,
-one set of men oppose every change, good or bad, while another seem to
-be hostile to everything that is established. Those who are by temper
-and habit most disposed to the dread of innovation, lest rash schemes
-should be adopted, would have their apprehensions somewhat calmed by
-seeing a provision made at least against any great change being
-introduced with inconsiderate _haste_; and those, again, who are most
-disposed to dread the perpetuation of abuses, might be moderated in
-their impatient eagerness for reform, by seeing a regular path open for
-the examination and remedy of anything, however consecrated by long
-usage, that should appear, on mature deliberation, to be evil.
-
-“That you would be exempt from the possibility of error, or that we are
-so, it would be an absurd presumption to pretend. Our system does not
-profess to make human judgment infallible; it professes only to provide
-that our deliberative assemblies shall decide according to the _best_ of
-their judgment, and shall neither retain nor reject anything, without a
-full opportunity at least being given for the exercise of deliberate
-reflection and mature discussion. To attempt more than this is mere
-folly. One generation of fallible men has neither the right nor the
-power to supersede for ever, by irrevocable laws, the judgment of all
-future generations of their posterity; though the endeavour to do so may
-delay a beneficial change, and convert it, when it does come, into a
-noxious one. The will of a whole nation can no more be permanently and
-effectually stopped in its course than the current of a river. If you
-dam up the regular channel, you cause it first to flood the neighbouring
-country, and then to work itself new and circuitous channels. You may
-think yourself well off if this is the worst. Should your dam be
-ultimately burst, a fierce and destructive deluge of revolutionary
-violence will succeed.”
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-The debate which the visitors witnessed, and which led to the foregoing
-explanations, terminated in the removal of the law in question from the
-list of fundamentals. But as the minority had been considerable, the
-general expectation was, that before the next session,—in which alone
-the final repeal of the law could be proposed,—a dissolution of
-parliament would take place, in order that the sentiments of the people
-on the subject might be fully ascertained.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER VIII.
-
-  Mode of Election of Senators—of Representatives.—Personal Votes
-    and Property-Votes.—Voting by Ballot.—Eligibility of
-    Candidates.—Aboriginal Blood.—Mixed Blood.—Government
-    Rent.—Public Expenditure.—Unwise Economy.—Choice of
-    Statesmen.—Explanations.
-
-
-Mr. Adamson,—properly designated as the worshipful Christopher
-Adamson,—being himself a member of the senate of his own state of Bath,
-obtained for the strangers, as a special favour, permission to witness
-the mode of election of a senator to fill up a vacancy which had just
-occurred.
-
-He explained to them, that, in this particular state, the members of the
-senate, or upper house, are elected by the lower house (or commons); and
-that the appointment is for life, or till resignation. But though in
-these particulars the constitution of this state differs from that of
-several of the others, the _mode_ of election is similar to that by
-which several of the public functionaries are chosen in all the states.
-No personal canvassing, he informed them, is allowed in any case; nor is
-it regular to ask or to promise a vote. But at the time of the election,
-the president or chairman of the assembly solemnly admonishes the voters
-of their obligation to divest themselves, as far as possible, of all
-personal bias, and nominate such persons as they shall in their
-consciences believe to be most fit. Admonitions of this kind stand in
-the place of the oaths which in Europe are usually administered on such
-occasions. The commons-assembly having been duly convened, each member
-was directed to write down on separate slips of paper, and deliver to
-the president, the names of five persons as candidates; or, not _more_
-than five: for he was at liberty to write fewer; or, if he pleased, none
-at all.
-
-The president next proceeded to inspect their names, and select the five
-that had the greatest number of votes. It so happened on this occasion
-that there were _six_ names, of which two had each the same number of
-votes. This, as Mr. Adamson explained, creates no difficulty, and only
-prolongs in a trifling degree the business of the election. All six
-names were put in nomination; and each member was next called on to give
-his vote _against_ one of the six, by giving in a paper inscribed with
-the name of the candidate he wished to have struck off the list. The one
-who had the greatest number of these counter-votes being then removed
-from the list, the remaining five were proposed in like manner, to have
-one name struck off; and the same process was repeated till only one
-remained, who was thereupon declared duly elected. For example: suppose
-the five names that, in the first instance, have most votes, to be A, B,
-C, D, and E, and these being put in nomination, in the counter-voting A
-has the most votes against him; then B, C, D, and E are proposed in like
-manner, and B is struck off by a majority of counter-votes; there remain
-C, D, and E, from which, by the same process, C and D are successively
-struck off: then E is the one elected.
-
-If in any case the number of counter-votes against two of the names are
-equal, and that number exceeds the votes against any other one, then
-_both_ names are struck off, except it should happen that they are the
-_last_ two; in which case, of course, the question is, whether D or E
-shall be elected: and if on this question the numbers are equal, the
-president has the casting vote.
-
-Mr. Adamson was about to answer the inquiries of the visitors as to the
-peculiar advantages proposed by this mode of election, when a blunt,
-humorous-looking commoner, who sat near them, interposed, by telling
-them that, in plain terms, this was the advantage; that each voter
-placed his _own friend_ first, and the _best candidate_ second, and so
-the best was elected in the end. Mr. Adamson replied with a smile, that,
-making due allowance for satire, there was a good deal of truth in the
-statement.
-
-“It is a truth,” said he, “that has been presented to you, dressed with
-vinegar alone, which you may easily suppose might fairly be tempered
-with a due proportion of oil. But I will leave that to your own
-reflections; only reminding you of the well-known instance of the
-Grecian states discussing the respective merits of the several
-commanders after the overthrow of Xerxes. Each state, it was observed,
-placed _their own_ commander first on the list of merit, and allotted
-the second place to Themistocles the Athenian; whence it was reasonably
-inferred that Themistocles was clearly the most distinguished of all.
-Now, suppose he had been candidate for a prize in some assembly in which
-the Athenians were not present; he would not, you observe, have obtained
-a single vote according to the direct mode of voting, while on our plan
-he would have gained a decisive triumph. I have heard also of a
-new-comer in some town consulting each of his neighbours as to the
-choice of a physician, and fixing on the one whom most of them accounted
-the second-best; each placing his own family physician first.”
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-The travellers having inquired into the mode of appointment of the lower
-house, were informed that the members are the representatives each of a
-certain town or district, as in England, America, &c.; and that they are
-elected for seven years at the utmost; one-seventh of the house, by lot,
-going out every year, but being capable, however, of re-election.
-
-There is, besides this, a power lodged in a certain council of state and
-president,—for this state is a republic,—to dissolve the house and
-appoint a general election. In all the states there is a house of
-representatives, constituted substantially on the same principle. In
-their designations, and in some points of detail, there are several
-differences.
-
-In the election of members all citizens have, in most of the states, a
-vote, though not all _equal_ votes. Any citizen, who is unconvicted of
-any crime, of sound mind, and of a certain specified age, (in the state
-of Bath it is thirty-five,) is entitled to be enrolled as a voter, on
-producing a certificate of his having gone through a certain course of
-elementary school-learning, and attained the required proficiency. He is
-then entitled to what is called a _personal vote_; _i. e._ a vote
-without any reference to the amount of his property. In Bath, and some
-of the other states, an individual may have conferred on him the honour
-and privilege of a double or treble personal vote, in consideration of
-peculiar public services or personal qualifications.
-
-Besides this, each individual who may pay a certain _proportion_ of
-taxes,—_i. e._ who may possess a certain amount of taxable property,—is
-entitled, on that ground, to a _property-vote_;[3] if he has a certain
-greater amount specified,—which is more, however, than double the
-first,—he has a second property-vote; and so on, up to a certain limited
-number. In the republic of Bath, six is the utmost number of
-property-votes that one person can hold; but this varies in the several
-states; the distinction of personal and property-votes, and the power of
-holding more than one of the latter, are regulations common to all.
-
-Footnote 3:
-
-  Any property not taxable,—as, for instance, professional income,—the
-  holder may, if he think fit, enroll as equivalent to so much land, and
-  pay taxes accordingly, which entitles him to a corresponding number of
-  votes.
-
-“This part of our system,” Mr. Adamson remarked to them, “is not so much
-unlike that of Great Britain as you had at the first glance conceived:
-for with you, if a man chance to have landed property in several
-_different counties_, he is entitled to a vote in each; and this is
-nearly equivalent to his having several votes in one county, should all
-the property chance to be in that one. The anomaly is with _you_; in
-giving one man more direct influence in the election of the legislature
-than another, who, perhaps, has double his estate, but all within one
-county. I say,” continued he, “_direct_ influence; because, indirectly,
-a rich man among you does, it appears, influence his tenants, tradesmen,
-and other dependents in their votes. With us, the weight which property
-has, and ought to have, is allowed to operate _directly_ and _openly_:
-with you, on the system of single votes, it does not.
-
-“And accordingly you apprehend, I find, a danger in the threatened
-introduction of the ballot; as tending to place the richest and poorest
-on a footing of democratical equality, by taking away the indirect
-influence of the one over the votes of the other. And it is remarkable
-that the tendency of the ballot to produce this effect,—which is
-manifestly the great _danger_ to be apprehended from it,—seems to be
-_asserted_ by its advocates among you, and _denied_ by its opponents.
-With us, on the contrary, there is no such consequence to be
-apprehended; and, accordingly, our voting for representatives is always
-by ballot. On our system, this is not only unobjectionable but highly
-important; for, as the successful candidate is elected by the majority
-of _votes_, while it is possible that his opponent might be supported by
-a much greater number of _voters_, it would be very inexpedient to let
-this be publicly displayed and recorded; as it might tend to array the
-wealthier and poorer classes against each other.
-
-“On the whole,” added he, “our system seems to be the simplest and most
-effectual for preserving that principle which _must_ be maintained in
-every _good_ representative system; viz. that _persons_ and _property_
-should both be represented. The democrat aims at a representation of
-_persons alone_; at putting on a political level those who have the
-largest stake in the country, and those who have little or none. The
-aristocrat (or rather, oligarchist) is for representing _property
-alone_; as if the _taxes_ imposed by the legislature towards the
-expenses of the state were everything, and the _life and liberty_ of
-individuals, which may be affected by the laws passed, were nothing. The
-true wisdom, surely, is to take _both_ into account, and to provide that
-both persons and property shall be duly represented.”
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-In all the states but one, all persons are eligible to a seat in the
-lower house,—that of representatives,—who possess certain property and
-personal qualifications. In that one,—the kingdom of Upper-London, a
-small state, which was separated, above a hundred years since, from that
-of Nether-London,—a sort of hereditary restriction exists, which, at the
-first glance, appeared to the travellers exceedingly whimsical. No one
-is eligible to their commons’ assembly who is not descended, or married
-to one who is, from both blacks and whites.
-
-The origin of the regulation was this:—Before the state was separated,
-the district which constitutes its present territory was occupied by a
-considerable proportion of blacks, viz. the descendants of the allied
-and reclaimed aboriginals formerly described. It was observed by the
-then king of Nether-London, (then called New-London,) that the whites of
-pure blood were beginning to hold aloof, not only from the blacks, but
-from those of mixed breed, and to disdain associating with them on equal
-terms, however personally deserving. To remedy this state of things, and
-prevent a mutual alienation between two sets of fellow-citizens, the
-king,—who seems to have inherited something of the eccentric, original,
-and daring character of the younger Müller, from a daughter of whom he
-was descended,—devised the plan, which, with the concurrence of the
-legislature, he carried into effect, for constituting this district—a
-thriving and, in other respects, promising one—into a distinct state,
-under some peculiar regulations.
-
-A brother of his own was appointed the first king of it,—whose wife is
-said to have been a lady of beauty and accomplishments, though she had a
-slight mixture of aboriginal blood. Inducements were held out to several
-of the most respectable and intelligent persons in various states who
-were of mixed race, to come and settle in the new kingdom. Some of the
-ablest of these,—who, by the bye, are said to have had a considerable
-over-proportion of European blood in their veins,—together with others
-of purely white race, were nominated as the original senate (or upper
-house); and the lower house was, by a fundamental law, to consist
-exclusively, and for ever, of persons of mixed race, or who are married
-to such. And, to this day, no one is eligible who cannot prove his
-descent, or his wife’s, from blacks and whites.
-
-This, however, is easily done at present; for the descent may be ever so
-remote, the mixture ever so unequal. Every one, therefore, is eligible,
-of whom any ancestor has been enrolled as such. There are, accordingly,
-many members of the house who, perhaps, have not above ¹⁄₁₆ or ¹⁄₃₂ of
-aboriginal blood; and, indeed, most of the population are at present not
-very dissimilar from Europeans in feature and complexion, and yet are
-qualified, as far as the above rule is concerned, for a seat in the
-house.
-
-The plan was at first laughed at, as whimsical, by many of the
-Southlanders themselves; but the expediency of it in promoting mutual
-respect and speedy amalgamation between the two races, who were thus
-_both alike excluded_ from an important branch of the legislature, was
-so apparent, and the joke was so good-humouredly joined in by those who
-were the objects of it, that the laughter was soon divested of all
-bitterness. The satirists had suggested, as a symbol for the new state,
-two swans,—an Australian black swan (Cygnus ater) and white
-European,—lovingly entwining their necks: on which the Upper-Londoners
-immediately adopted this as the arms of the kingdom; and so it remains
-to this day, with the motto of “Nimium ne crede colori.” The state,
-though one of the smaller ones, (its population about two hundred and
-fifty thousand,) is prosperous, and its citizens respectable,
-intelligent, and polite.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-In most of the states, there are few or no considerable taxes, except a
-land tax; and in many of them even this is not heavy, from the
-government being in possession of considerable tracts of land, which in
-some instances have become very valuable from having been covered with
-buildings, wharfs, &c. [The word “tax” is used as best conveying to
-English ears the sense intended. They themselves call it
-“government-_rent_;” for they consider the state as alone holding what
-we call the fee-simple of all land, which it assigns to individuals,
-either for terms of years at a stipulated rent, or in perpetuity,
-subject to what we should call a land-tax.]
-
-On the whole, Mr. Sibthorpe is of opinion, that, taking into
-consideration the very small military (and, of course, no naval)
-establishments, and also the comparative wealth of these and the
-European states, the government revenues are proportionably greater in
-the Southland states than in those of Europe,—the revenue that is
-actually _expended in the public service_ each year; for he does not
-take into account, as a part of our revenue, the enormous sum annually
-paid as interest on the national debt. These states having happily been
-exempt from the prodigal expenditure of wars, have no national debt.
-Their public expenditure is, however, what we should be apt to call
-profuse in the payment of public functionaries. All are paid, even the
-representatives; and to most offices is attached, besides what may be
-considered an ample salary in reference to the prevailing style of
-living, a comfortable retiring pension: sinecures however, strictly so
-called,—_i. e._ payments for _no_ services, either present or
-_past_,—are not known. When the more frugal system, in reference to this
-point, that prevails among us, was described to them, and also the
-prevailing clamour for still further reductions on that head, they gave
-it as their opinion that there could not be money worse saved, and that
-is must be a great wonder if we were well governed.
-
-“The natural tendency,” they urged, “of a system of _frugal_ government
-in this sense, is, to obtain a worse commodity. Try the experiment,”
-they said, “of being frugal to your physicians, and reduce their fees to
-half-crowns, and you will have a half-crown’s worth of skill instead of
-a guinea’s worth. You will still have plenty of physicians, but we
-should not like to be under their hands. While a man of talents and
-character, with a liberal education and industry, can realize a handsome
-and secure income in some of your learned professions, you cannot expect
-him, especially if he have a family to provide for, and but little
-private fortune, to give up a lucrative employment, and devote himself
-to the labours of political life, either gratuitously, or with an
-uncertain recompense in view. He will either keep aloof from public
-business, or will bestow on it a hurried, divided, and secondary
-attention. Thus, political business, and ultimately political power, is
-thrown into the hands of one or both of two classes of men:—those of
-_large estates_; and _adventurers_,—men, who, for want of character, or
-of steady application, are not succeeding in any reputable and lucrative
-profession, and therefore see nothing better to do than to take their
-chance in the profession—an ill-paid and precarious one, as it seems to
-be among you—of politics.
-
-“Many persons of both these classes, among you, may, we doubt not, be
-possessed of high qualifications; but it seems evident that with so
-large a total number as you possess of educated and intelligent gentry,
-you practically limit your choice to a very small proportion of them for
-persons to conduct public affairs; and these affairs, therefore, we
-should expect to find conducted, if not ill, yet by no means so well as
-they might be. We should expect to find the department of government—one
-of such paramount importance—not so well filled as many subordinate
-departments; and that there would be among you a larger proportionate
-number of highly qualified legal, military, and naval men, for instance,
-of engineers, artisans, &c. than of statesmen.
-
-“You are to observe,” they added, “that we are only throwing out our
-_conjectures_: we are ready and willing to stand corrected. You must
-know how the matter of fact stands; which may perhaps be at variance
-with our anticipations, through the operation of some causes we are not
-aware of. But we lay before you our notions and expectations, as the
-thought strikes ourselves.”
-
-[There follows here, in the memoranda of the travellers, the
-explanations they gave, in answer to the foregoing remarks, of our
-institutions and usages,—the reasons by which they are vindicated,—and
-the practical working of them. But all this, though of course most
-interesting to the persons to whom it was addressed, would probably not
-be so to our readers, who must of course be familiar with discussions
-relative to our own institutions and customs, and curious rather to
-learn particulars concerning those of a strange nation, however
-unreasonable and whimsical their novelty may cause them to appear. For
-this reason, we have, in several other places as well as here, omitted
-much that we find recorded of the descriptions and discussions laid
-before the Southlanders by their guests; inserting only what was
-necessary to make their descriptions intelligible.]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER IX.
-
-  Prediction Office.—Prophecies.—Useful Register.—Political
-    Bustlers.—Disposal of Land.—Rents.—Laws of Tenantry.—Government
-    Loans.
-
-
-Among the other political curiosities, as they may be called, which came
-to the knowledge of the travellers, was a most whimsical institution,
-existing in several of the states, called a “prediction office;” viz. an
-establishment consisting of two or three inspectors and a few clerks,
-appointed to receive from any one, on payment of a trifling fee, any
-sealed-up _prediction_, to be opened at a time specified by the party
-himself. His name is to be signed to the prediction _within_; and on the
-outer cover is inscribed the date of its delivery, and the time when the
-seal is to be broken. There is no pretence made to supernatural
-prophetic powers; only, to supposed political sagacity.
-
-At stated times, the inspectors break the seal of those papers whose
-term is elapsed, and examine the contents. In a great majority of cases,
-as might be expected, these predictions turn out either false, nugatory,
-or undecided: false, if contradicted by events; nugatory, if containing
-nothing but what had been naturally and generally anticipated by
-all,—like our almanacks, which foretell showers in April, heat in
-summer, and cold in winter; or undecided, when proceeding hypothetically
-on some _condition_ which does not take place,—as when a man foretells
-that _if_ such a measure be adopted, so and so will ensue; if then the
-measure is _not_ adopted, the prediction remains undecided. But here and
-there a case occurs in which a man has foretold truly something not
-generally expected, and the foreseeing of which evinces, accordingly,
-more or less of sagacity. In such a case he is summoned to receive an
-honourable certificate to that effect. And the travellers were assured
-that some of their most eminent men, who afterwards attained to offices
-of dignity and trust, had been first called into notice from obscurity
-by means of this office. The other predictions are kept and registered,
-but not made public, except when the author of any of them is named as a
-candidate for any public office.
-
-Previously to any such appointment, the inspectors are bound to look
-over their register, and produce, as a set-off against a candidate’s
-claims, any unsuccessful prediction he may have sent in. “Oh that he
-were here,” exclaims Mr. Sibthorpe, “‘to write me down an ass!’ Many a
-man there is to whom we have committed important public trusts, who, if
-such an institution had existed among us, would be found to have
-formally recorded, under the influence of self-conceit, his own
-incapacity.” He seems to consider this portion of the effects of the
-plan as hardly less useful than the other,—the establishment of the
-claims of some to superior foresight.
-
-“There is,” he adds, “among our political bustlers usually a great
-squabble when any event takes place on the question, whether any one,
-and who, may claim the honour of having foreseen it; and ill-founded
-claims are often admitted. Moreover, a prediction publicly uttered will
-often have had, or be supposed to have had, a great share in bringing
-about its own fulfilment. He who gives out, for instance, that the
-people will certainly be dissatisfied with such and such a law, is, in
-this, doing his utmost to _make_ them dissatisfied. And this being the
-case in all unfavourable, as well as favourable, predictions, some men
-lose their deserved credit for political sagacity through their fear of
-contributing to produce the evils they apprehend; while others, again,
-do contribute to evil results by their incapacity to keep their
-anticipations locked up in their own bosoms, and by their dread of not
-obtaining deserved credit. For such men, this office,” says he,
-“provides a relief like that which the servant of King Midas found by
-telling his secret to the hole he dug in the ground; only there are here
-no whispering reeds to divulge it.”
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-The mode in which the states that have considerable tracts of uncleared
-land in their territory usually dispose of these from time to time,
-struck the travellers as judicious and simple. When, from increasing
-population, a demand arises for a fresh portion of land requiring to be
-cleared and brought into cultivation, each person who desires to become
-a settler rents from the state (which, as has been before observed, is
-always held to be the sole proprietor in fee-simple of its whole
-territory,) a suitable allotment, at a rent which is always very small,
-and often merely nominal. He obtains a lease of this for a term of
-years,—commonly twenty-one,—either at this nominal rent for the whole
-term, or with a trifling increase for the last seven or fourteen years
-of it. At the end of the term, it is _divided_ between him and the
-state; part being made over to him in perpetuity, (subject to the
-general land-tax, or government-rent, as it is called,) and the other
-part reverting to the state. The proportions vary according as the
-expenses of reclaiming the land are greater or less. If the requisite
-outlay is considerable, the settler retains, perhaps, two-thirds, or
-even three-fourths, of the allotment; if the reverse, his share will be
-half, or one-third. In all cases, the proportions in which it is to be
-divided are a matter of express agreement previously to his first
-entering on the farm. Then, in order to secure a fair division of the
-land in respect of _quality_,—that the more fertile and the poorer land,
-the more and the less improved, may be duly apportioned,—recourse is had
-to the obvious plan of “one to divide and the other to choose.”
-
-Suppose, for instance, the tenant is to be entitled by his contract to
-one-half; then, at the end of his term, he divides his holding into
-any two portions, at his pleasure, and gives notice to the
-state-surveyors, who, after due inspection, assign one of them
-(whichever they please) to him. Besides this, however, it is very
-often made a separate point of special agreement in the first
-instance, that, at the end of his term, he shall have the option of
-obtaining, at an advantageous rate, a lease for a further term of the
-portion assigned to the state. He is to be allowed to hold it at a
-rent below the market price. No _definite sum_, however, is fixed, and
-the land is offered to the highest bidder; but the tenant who shall
-have made such a contract as has been just alluded to, is to have a
-certain _portion of his rent remitted_,—suppose 20, 30, or 40 per
-cent. according to the agreement. He is thus enabled,—supposing all
-parties to agree in their calculations of the land,—to outbid the
-rest. Suppose A. to be the former tenant, and that the bidders for the
-land do not offer quite so much as one hundred pounds rent for it, and
-that he is under agreement to have twenty per cent. remitted; if he
-then thinks the land worth eighty pounds, he may bid one hundred
-pounds, and will be the successful competitor. But should A. not think
-it worth while to pay so much as eighty pounds, while B. is willing to
-pay one hundred pounds, then B. obtains it. Any bidder, to whom the
-land is knocked down, forfeits a certain deposit in the event of his
-not completing the bargain.
-
-This mode of procedure it was found necessary to introduce on account of
-the great and unexpected alterations in the value of land, which, in a
-new settlement especially, may take place by means of new towns, roads,
-and other improvements. A certain _proportion_ of the market price,
-therefore, was fixed on, instead of a certain _definite sum_, as a more
-equitable mode of adjusting the amount of the advantage agreed for.
-
-All rents, whether for lands or houses, and whether from a tenant of the
-state or of an individual, are payable a year _in advance_; in other
-words, are payable, not for the year that is _past_, but for the year
-that is to come.
-
-[The rent, in short, is like the purchase-money of an estate, which is
-to be paid _before_ the title-deeds are delivered and the possession
-transferred.]
-
-In like manner, with them, rent is the _purchase-money_ of the house or
-land _for one year_; and the tenant has no claim upon it till that is
-paid. Rent, accordingly, is not recoverable or claimable as a _debt_;
-nor is there any such thing as distraining. It is, in fact, no debt; but
-at the end of the year, if the rent, or rather purchase-money, for the
-_ensuing_ year have not been paid, the occupier ceases to have any
-interest in the land, and is exactly in the situation of a tenant whose
-lease has expired. If, however, he has _agreed_ to take the house or
-land at a certain annual rent for a term of years, and fails to fulfil
-the engagement, he may be sued for a breach of contract, and, as in the
-case of any other breach of contract, will have to pay damages according
-to the circumstance of the case.
-
-The travellers suggested, on this being first described, that it must be
-an inconvenience to a farmer to pay a sum of money out of his capital
-before he has got anything from his land. But they learned that, to
-prevent this, it is customary to let a farm for a term of years, and to
-fix the rent for the _first_ year (to a new tenant) at a mere nominal
-sum. “At the end of each year, therefore,” said they, “we have our rents
-coming in, just as you have in England; and if (as you say is common in
-England) the same tenant and his family continue to renew from time to
-time, the landlord is just in the same situation in both countries.
-
-“It is only when there is occasion to get rid of a bad tenant, and put
-in a new one, that there need be any difference; and when that is the
-case, your landlord is not, by your account, always better off than
-ours; but, on the contrary, sometimes loses _more_ than _one_ year’s
-rent, and incurs a great deal of trouble and law-expense besides.”
-
-New settlers, becoming government-tenants under the arrangement above
-described, are sometimes in want of sufficient capital for the requisite
-improvements, especially irrigation, which is conducted on a great
-scale. In such cases, the state often advances a loan at moderate
-interest, secured on the land that is to be the tenant’s portion at the
-end of his term.
-
-There are no usury laws in the country; every one lets either his land,
-his money, or any other property, on whatever terms the parties agree
-on.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER X.
-
-  An Arrest.—Criminal Jurisprudence.—Jurymen.—Qualification
-    of Jurors.—Syndics.—Royal Privilege.—Proceedings in
-    Court.—Witnesses.—The Verdict.—Unanimity in Juries.—Decision of the
-    Judge.—Prevarication.—Oaths.—False Witnesses.—Inconsistency in
-    requiring Oaths.—Public Opinion.—Marriage.—Succession to the Crown.
-
-
-While the travellers were in conversation with their new friends, a
-crowd was observed passing through the streets, as if some circumstance
-of interest had just occurred. On inquiry, it turned out, that one of
-the people had been arrested on rather an important charge, and that the
-proper officers were leading him off in custody. The travellers were
-very much struck by the demeanour of the people, which seemed to
-indicate respect for the authorities, and, at the same time, a delicacy
-of feeling towards the individual who was arrested, though not yet
-proved guilty. They became naturally curious to obtain information
-concerning their criminal jurisprudence, their mode of trial and of
-punishment.
-
-Mr. Adamson observed, that though any of the company present would be
-competent to detail to him the particulars of their practice, because it
-was held a general duty for every respectable person to have a knowledge
-of this kind; yet that as one of their judges, Sir Peter, was present in
-the room, it would be, perhaps, more satisfactory that they should seek
-the information from him. Accordingly, on being introduced to him, they
-started the subject by saying they were anxious to know whether the
-Southlanders had retained the trial by jury, as it was practised in
-England. He replied, that the first settlers had retained the usage in
-this respect with which they had been familiar; but that, as the
-settlement advanced, they found it expedient to adopt some modifications
-of it, which they regarded as very important. These modifications
-related, he said, chiefly to the selection of jurors, or, as they were
-termed in the settlement, syndics, and also to the degree in which
-unanimity was requisite for a verdict. “Our judges,” he said, “found
-speedily that all men, even in the same rank of life, were not equally
-to be entrusted with this important function; and also, that requiring
-perfect unanimity was frequently the cause, either that no verdict was
-arrived at, or a wrong one,—sometimes, even against the opinion of the
-majority.
-
-“These inconveniences,” he said, “did not develope themselves for a
-considerable period. On our first settlement, when the minds of the
-people were chiefly occupied in providing for their daily wants, we
-found that the intelligence of each man might be very safely measured by
-the successfulness of his industry; and we allowed our jurymen to be
-selected indiscriminately from amongst those who were able to support
-themselves creditably by their own exertions. But we found,
-subsequently, that successful industry was not always accompanied by
-that intelligence and sagacity which would enable men to decide on the
-merits of conflicting evidence.
-
-“We have instituted, therefore, an examination for the purpose of
-ascertaining fitness. As each man becomes of age, he may, if he thinks
-himself prepared, submit himself to the assembled judges, who question
-him with regard to the laws of evidence; and, if they are satisfied both
-as to his intelligence and moral character, he is marked as a person
-capable of discharging this function.”
-
-The English travellers replied with a smile, that few in England would
-be found, probably, to submit themselves to such an examination; that,
-though they prided themselves as a nation upon the possession of the
-right to trial by jury, yet that each man considered the office as a
-burthen, which he was anxious to roll over upon his neighbour, as
-interfering with the employment of his time; and that this feeling would
-certainly be strengthened if an examination were required.
-
-“We,” said Mr. Benson, “have established an order of syndics; and it is
-considered honourable to be enrolled amongst the number. We have
-conferred certain privileges on the order; for instance, while we give
-to every man who has not been disqualified by crime a right to one vote
-in the selection of parliamentary representatives, we give three votes
-to each syndic; and this in addition to the increased number of votes
-which he may have arising from the manner in which we have graduated
-property. This latter circumstance has, however, nothing to do with the
-matter in question. What I wish you to remark now is, that we regard any
-man of sufficient intelligence to be a syndic, as entitled on that
-account to exercise a greater influence than others in the selection of
-those who are to frame our laws.”
-
-On being asked whether the examination was really strict, Sir Peter
-answered that the strictness of course varied with the dispositions and
-sense of duty possessed by the existing judges; but that rejection was a
-very common occurrence. If this proceeded from moral objection, it was
-exceedingly difficult for the person to gain admission afterwards; this
-could only be effected by very conspicuous and continued good conduct.
-If, however, the rejection arose from a want merely of adequate
-knowledge, the individual was always at liberty to submit himself freely
-for re-examination, when in his own judgment he had acquired it. It was
-not considered creditable for any syndic to give his daughter in
-marriage to any one who was not enrolled with himself in the rank of the
-intelligent. Thus, he said, public opinion has conspired with civil
-privileges to render it important to each man to acquire this rank.
-
-On being asked whether the number of syndics was considerable, he
-replied that it was, and that it was found by the periodical census that
-it was bearing an increasing proportion to the number of citizens
-generally; that they regarded this, in fact, as one of the tests of
-increasing civilization,—more especially because their experience proved
-that the examination became more strict and enlarged, according as the
-general intelligence of the country was increased. Persons would be
-rejected now, who, some years back, would have been, on the same
-acquirements, sure of admission.
-
-“I am describing to you, however,” he said, “the regulations which
-prevail in this particular state. In the other states in union with us,
-many variations may be observed, though all agree in selecting syndics
-by examination. The number of votes, for instance, given to a syndic, as
-such, is different in different states. Again, in some states, the
-number of syndics is not left indefinite, as with us, but is limited.”
-
-Sir Peter went on to observe, that the names of all the syndics were
-regularly arranged on rolls, each of which, in this particular state,
-contained not less than one hundred and twenty names. These rolls, a day
-or two before the commencement of the assizes, were presented to the
-judge, who drew from them a certain number by lot. The persons so drawn
-were then summoned to attend the court; and when any cause was entered
-upon for trial, the plaintiff and defendant were each allowed to assign
-some rule according to which triers should be taken from the roll of
-attendants summoned for that day,—as, for instance, every third or fifth
-or tenth individual, commencing from the top or bottom of the list, till
-the number of twelve was completed. “Thus,” he said, “having taken
-precaution that none but men of intelligence should have their names
-enrolled, we must be careful that all packing of juries shall be out of
-the question. Neither of the interested parties can influence, either
-directly or indirectly, the selection of those who have to try the
-case.”
-
-In those states which have a regal (or _quasi_-regal) form of
-government, the sovereign has, as with us, the privilege of pardoning
-criminals, but with one exception; attempts on the life of the sovereign
-himself cannot receive the royal pardon, except through the means of an
-address to the throne from the whole legislative body.
-
-“It is,” say they, “very indelicate at least, to let the king be placed
-in so invidious a situation as that of having to decide on the fate of
-one who assailed his life.”
-
-“And now,” said Sir Peter, “having given you such preliminary
-information as you could not obtain by merely attending our courts, I
-would propose to you to defer any further enquiries respecting our modes
-of trial. These you can best judge of by actually witnessing them for
-yourselves. Come with me to-morrow: I will take care that you shall have
-a convenient seat. Observe narrowly for yourselves, and, when the
-business of the day is over, put any questions you please to me on any
-point in which you perceive our customs differ from yours, and I will
-explain to you our reasons for such changes.”
-
-The travellers thankfully availed themselves of this offer; and next
-morning, accordingly, they accompanied Sir Peter to the court.
-Immediately on his taking his seat, general silence was proclaimed, when
-the regular officer read from a paper the character of the suit to be
-tried, the names of the parties, and of the witnesses whom each party
-had summoned to give evidence. The witnesses were then called forward,
-and placed under the care of an officer, whom they accompanied out of
-court. Sir Peter whispered to the travellers, that in no case did they
-permit one witness to hear the testimony given by another.
-
-The jury were then selected in the manner already pointed out by Mr.
-Benson on the previous evening. On their taking their seats the trial
-immediately proceeded; but, as the travellers were surprised to observe,
-without any administration of oaths. They remarked also, as each witness
-was called, it was stated whether he was a syndic or not. In case he was
-a syndic, the examination proceeded at once; but when a witness not a
-syndic was called upon, the judge urged on him, in a brief but solemn
-manner, to remember, in giving his testimony, that his thoughts and
-words were known to the Searcher of hearts.
-
-As each witness concluded his evidence, the judge asked the opinion of
-the triers as to whether that witness had shown a wish to prevaricate.
-In one instance it happened that an affirmative answer was returned,
-when the witness was immediately given over to the custody of an
-attending officer.
-
-When the evidence had been all heard, and commented on by counsel, the
-names of the twelve triers were written on slips of paper, and four
-names were drawn by lot. The four triers who answered to these names
-were then separated from the rest, and the judge required them to
-declare their decision within half an hour. They were then allowed to
-retire.
-
-Before the termination of the allotted time they returned into court,
-and declared that they were agreed. In one, however, of the trials which
-subsequently took place, it happened that, at the end of the half-hour,
-they announced that the votes were divided. Four names of the remaining
-triers were then selected by lot, as before; and the judge informed them
-that he would expect their decision in twenty minutes.
-
-At the expiration of the time they came forward, and pronounced a
-decision in favour of the defendant. They were then called upon to state
-whether, in their opinion, any witness had given testimony which he must
-have known to be false. They replied, none. The witness charged with
-prevarication was then called forward, and allowed to plead what he
-thought fit in his own defence. He failed to clear himself; and
-thereupon, having been very solemnly reprimanded by the judge, was
-declared suspended for a twelvemonth from exercising any vote for a
-representative, or holding any civil employment during that time.
-
-The travellers remained in court, on this and some subsequent days, to
-witness other trials, and perceived that the same process was gone
-through, with such variations in the results as might be expected. They
-remarked, for instance, that one witness, who was a syndic, was declared
-guilty of prevarication, and that he was instantly pronounced to be
-degraded from this office for ever; but it did not happen during three
-days that the triers denounced any witness as having been guilty of
-deliberate falsehood.
-
-On joining Sir Peter in the evening of the last day, the travellers
-observed to him that they had been very much pleased with the orderly
-arrangements of the court, and the quiet attention of the spectators.
-“We need scarcely,” they observed, “make any remarks with respect to
-your not requiring unanimity in your juries. The inconvenience of this
-requisition has been fully acknowledged amongst ourselves, though our
-practice has been suffered to remain unchanged. We hope, indeed, that
-our poet goes too far in saying that ‘wretches hang, that jurymen may
-dine!’ Still, a suspicion even that this, or, more probably, the
-converse may be the case, is very injurious to the respect which ought
-to be entertained for legal decisions. And we must admit, also, we have
-heard of one juryman complaining that no verdict was arrived at because
-he was associated with eleven obstinate men who would not agree to his
-opinion. We strongly suspect, therefore, that you are justified in the
-change which you have made. We would wish to know, however, whether it
-does not sometimes happen that the discrepancy of opinion, which we
-perceived to have occurred on one occasion in the first section of your
-jury, may not take place also in the second, and even in the third.
-Amongst us, when a discrepancy of this kind takes place, the only remedy
-we have discovered is to throw as much punishment and ridicule as we can
-upon the whole jury. We lock them up for as long a time as their
-constitutions can endure without actual loss of life; and when our judge
-is leaving the county, we order that the jury shall be placed in a cart,
-and drawn out after the judge to the boundaries of the district. This
-certainly does not remedy the evil arising from want of unanimity in the
-particular case; but it may operate upon the minds of jurors in other
-cases, and induce each of them to yield somewhat of his own opinion, not
-always to the majority or the wisest, but to the most stubborn.”
-
-“If this yielding, however,” said Sir Peter, “proceeded, not from
-conviction, but from fear of punishment and ridicule, it may be doubted
-at least whether your juries are always, in point of fact, unanimous in
-their verdicts. Many of your jurors may have a strong suspicion, at
-least, that the verdict should be in some respects different from that
-which is actually returned. When no verdict has been given in, the
-public are aware that there was a difference of opinion amongst the
-jury; but when they do deliver a verdict, it cannot be concluded, in
-every case, that there was even ultimately an unanimity. We think it
-better that every man should be left free, after having heard the
-opinions of others, and consulted with them, to declare what was his own
-ultimate conviction.”
-
-“But supposing,” the travellers said, “that no decision is come to by
-the jury after the third attempt, have you made any provision to meet
-this difficulty?”
-
-“In that case,” said Sir Peter, “the judge decides, as we think he
-fairly might. Where the contest is about property, we conceive it better
-that a positive decision should be arrived at rather than that the
-matter should be left doubtful. We give then, however, a power of appeal
-to twelve judges, who examine the evidence, and ultimately decide. In a
-criminal trial we give an absolute power of decision to the judge,
-leaving him however at liberty if he pleases to pronounce a verdict
-merely of Not proved; in which case, this verdict is recorded against
-the supposed culprit, as affecting his character in case of any
-subsequent charge against him.”
-
-“We strongly suspect,” said the English travellers, “that you are right
-in this part of your practice; but,” added they with a smile, “you have
-taken us by surprise in one respect; we did not know you had adopted the
-opinion of the Quakers we were describing to you,—that oaths were
-forbidden by the Christian religion.”
-
-“We have adopted their practice,” said Sir Peter, “but not their
-principles. We do not conceive oaths unlawful, but inexpedient.”
-
-The travellers said, “We perceive you have a substitute for oaths, as
-far as witnesses are concerned, because you make the triers pronounce as
-to whether any has been in their opinion guilty of prevarication, while
-his testimony is still fresh in their recollections: and we also
-observed that, when the whole trial is over, the triers are called on to
-decide whether any witness has been in their opinion guilty of perjury.
-We suppose,” they observed, “that you have a punishment when an
-affirmative answer is returned?”
-
-“We make the punishment,” said Mr. Benson, “proportioned to the effect
-which would have been produced by his testimony, supposing it to have
-been believed true. In all cases, of course, he forfeits office and
-civil privileges, as a person unworthy of their exercise; and, in some
-cases, he is fined heavily, or his property is made to pass on to his
-heir, as if he himself were dead. He may be sentenced, again, to
-imprisonment and hard labour, or even to death, should his testimony
-have endangered the life of another.”
-
-“We think,” said the travellers, “that this is certainly capable of
-securing truth fully as much, and even more than can be effected by an
-oath; for many will shun falsehood, through fear of detection, who would
-not scruple to break an oath. But,” they said, “the decision of your
-juries would appear to us more to be relied on if that decision was
-given under the sanction of an oath.”
-
-“We doubt it,” said Mr. Benson, “and we strongly suspect that you do not
-really differ from us in opinion, though you do in practice; because in
-the case of Quakers and others, who are exempted from the legal
-necessity of taking an oath, you are in the habit of relying fully as
-much on their testimony as if they had taken an oath. Now this does not
-happen, I believe, from your thinking more highly of Quakers than of
-others, but from your conviction that oaths do not supply any real
-security. To us, however, it appears that oaths proceed altogether on an
-erroneous principle. It looks as if you thought that God would not
-attend to perjury, unless his attention were specially called to the
-matter. And this is to think as the savages do, who conceive their gods
-are often asleep or on a journey, and that they notice nothing except so
-far as they are solicited.”
-
-“But would not your principle,” said the English travellers, “equally
-militate against prayer of any kind; because God must know our wants,
-whether we supplicate him or not?”
-
-“True,” replied the other; “he knows our wants, but not our humble
-applications to him for aid, unless we make such application. Now it is
-to our prayers, not to our wants, that his gifts are promised. He does
-not say ‘Need, and ye shall have; want, and ye shall find;’ but ‘Ask,
-and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find.’ In the case of false
-witness, it is otherwise. God will punish the perjurer, in another world
-at least, whether he calls upon him to do so or not. Of this every man
-should be reminded whenever he is called upon solemnly to speak truth.
-Your practice,” he added, “of requiring an oath in each case, arose at
-that period when it was supposed that God would always interfere by a
-special judgment. You have given this up as far as trial by single
-combat is concerned; but you have retained what grew out of the same
-persuasions, though, in point of fact, you as little believe your
-principles in this case as in the former. Trial by jury, your great
-boast, is, as practised by you, a remnant of the superstitious ordeal of
-your barbarian ancestors. But the strangest part of all is, that, while
-you require oaths, you proclaim at the same time your belief that every
-man is ready to perjure himself if he has the smallest pecuniary
-interest in doing so. Thus, for instance, you do not admit the
-testimony, even on oath, of any man who may gain or lose a shilling in
-consequence of his testimony. It is not a bare suspicion that he _may_
-bear false witness, and a consequent _abatement_ of confidence in his
-testimony, but a full confidence that he _will_ be ready to perjure
-himself, and a total _exclusion_ of his testimony.
-
-“Again, you appear to us to think that oaths may _wear out_; and you
-therefore renew them from time to time. When a man is appointed to some
-situation, you compel him to take certain oaths. Should he continue to
-hold the same situation, all is well; but if he has so distinguished
-himself as to be noticed by his superiors, and promoted to a higher
-office,—as, for instance, when a clergyman is transferred from a curacy,
-or from an inferior to a better parish,—instantly he seems to fall under
-the suspicion of the law, and a renewal of his oaths is exacted from
-him.
-
-“All this,” he said, “appears to us not only unnecessary, but even
-calculated to weaken the general sense of public duty. To require an
-oath in _any_ case, is to confess an expectation that men, when not
-under this obligation, are likely to tell falsehoods: to require an oath
-on being invested with office, is to state that society does not expect
-men to perform duties from any sense of their importance, or any
-obligation arising out of the trust reposed in the individuals, but from
-a principle of a distinct and different kind. Now, to proclaim such an
-opinion, has, we think, a strong tendency to make it true. We should
-apprehend, at least, that in all cases (and, I may add, on all points)
-when no oaths are required, there would be a less active and
-conscientious discharge of duties, because the only acknowledged and
-legally recognised ground of obligation does not exist; just as the
-oaths of witnesses tend to produce a disregard of veracity in ordinary
-transactions. This would be the natural result. But, we must say, from
-what we have observed of your characters, and from many things you have
-mentioned to us, that you have impressed us with the belief that much
-public spirit exists amongst you in spite of your system. We apprehend,
-in fact, that public opinion amongst you is, in many respects, in
-advance of your legal code. But we should like to know your own opinion.
-Do you conceive, in general, that those who hold such employments as are
-guarded by oaths perform their duties _in consequence_ of the oath, or
-because they conceive that integrity and due attention are right for
-their own sakes?”
-
-The travellers replied they were of opinion that most men acted from the
-latter feeling, and that the oath seldom recurred to the memory of any.
-“In fact,” they said, “most persons amongst us would hold themselves
-affronted if they were told that they were trusted in any particular,
-not on account of their general reputation and their own sense of
-rectitude, but because they had taken an oath.”
-
-“We are anxious,” said Sir Peter, “that law should throw no obstacles in
-the growth of the feelings you describe, and we therefore exact, not
-only no promissory oaths, but no promises to perform duties. Of course
-we allow, and legally enforce, contracts in all cases, when any
-individual consents to do something he was otherwise not bound to, in
-consideration of a promise made to him by another; as, for instance,
-when he lets him land in consequence of a stipulated rent. Promises of
-this kind are committed to writing, and legally enforced. Or, to take a
-more important case—marriage. Here the parties enter upon a new course
-of life, in consequence of an engagement which each makes to the other:
-we enforce, therefore, by law the fulfilment of that engagement.”
-
-The English travellers asked with a smile, “Do you always find _that_
-engagement fulfilled in its spirit? Does your contract secure in all
-cases mutual kindness and good temper?”
-
-“That,” said Sir Peter, “is beyond the reach of civil law. As far as the
-civil rights of either party, or of their children, are concerned, we
-enforce them by a civil contract, undertaken in the presence of civil
-magistrates. Here the power of the law stops. But we recommend, and
-public opinion sanctions our recommendation, that every church should
-add a religious ceremony; not for the purpose of enforcing the civil
-obligation, for that we make a matter of the civil law, but for the
-purpose of impressing the minds of both parties with a due sense of the
-moral obligations they undertake. The forbearance and mutual kindness
-essential for happiness in the marriage state are the fruits, not of
-civil contract, (since they are not of a nature to be enforced by
-coercion,) but of moral principle; and our opinion is, that this should
-be strengthened by whatever religious service each church may consider
-most impressive.
-
-“Thus, again, we have no coronation oath. When our king dies, his heir
-immediately succeeds as a matter of course, and with the full knowledge
-that he is under an obligation to govern according to the prescribed
-constitution. So far our customs are like your own. Amongst you,
-however, after the king has actually entered upon his office, and not
-unfrequently in some considerable time after, you exact of him an oath.
-This seems to us very like constituting two different kinds of regal
-government, namely that of an uncrowned and of a crowned king.”
-
-The English travellers replied, that they regarded the power and duty of
-the king as precisely the same previously and subsequently to his
-coronation oath.
-
-“We know that,” said Sir Peter; “and we therefore conclude that you
-yourselves do not regard the oath as of the least importance.”
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XI.
-
-  Punishment awarded to Criminals.—Capital Punishments.—Plea of
-    Insanity.—Penitentiaries.—Houses of Correction.—Improvement in
-    Laws.—Periodical Publications.—Editors of Newspapers.—State of
-    Literature.
-
-
-The travellers proceeded to ask some further questions, which had been
-suggested to them by what they had observed in the course of the trials
-they had witnessed.
-
-“We perceived,” said they, “that the punishment most frequently awarded
-was that of confinement in a penitentiary; instead, however, of naming
-the period of confinement, it was generally announced that the terms of
-confinement would be determined subsequently. We wish to know the reason
-of this procedure.”
-
-“We do not,” replied Sir Peter, “in most cases regulate the confinement
-by time, but in another way. We require that each man should perform a
-certain quantity of daily labour, as a compensation—though, of course,
-often a very inadequate one—for his maintenance; and whatever he can
-earn above this, is placed in a bank for him. Each man is sentenced to
-earn a sum, regulated according to his trade, state of health, and other
-circumstances. When he has earned this sum, he is set at liberty. We
-think this has a double advantage: it encourages him to labour, because
-he is made aware that his own industry will affect the period of his
-confinement; and this has a tendency to create in him a permanent habit
-of industry. Again, the sum of money he has earned being given to him
-when released, he is not thrown on the world as a pauper, exposed by his
-very destitution to fresh temptation, but has the means of carrying on
-some species of industry.
-
-“We have also as a punishment _secret_ branding (usually on the back),
-performed in the way of tattooing, as your sailors do. Every culprit is
-examined as to whether he had been thus branded; in which case, the
-punishment for any subsequent crime is always the more severe. At the
-same time, as the brand is secret, the individual is not exposed on that
-account to the scoffs of his neighbours, which might make him regardless
-of character and produce a hardness of disposition. These are our most
-ordinary punishments.
-
-“In case of murder, however, and some few other crimes, we resort to
-capital punishments. This is restricted, as I have intimated, to very
-few species of delinquency; but when those are perpetrated, the
-punishment of death is rigidly enforced and speedily inflicted. In any
-punishment prompt execution adds greatly to the terror; but in this more
-particularly, because death, _some time or other_, is a sentence passed
-by nature upon all men.”
-
-[Here occurs, as a marginal note to Mr. Sibthorpe’s memoranda, a
-quotation from Shakspeare’s dialogue of Pistol and Fluellin:—
-
-_Pistol._—Base caitiff! _thou shalt die_.
-
-_Fluellin._—You say fery true, scald knave, _when Cot’s coot pleasure
-is._]
-
-The infliction of all punishments, including capital, is private; that
-is, is in the presence only of certain official persons, appointed to
-witness and certify the due execution of the sentence. The travellers
-could not but acknowledge the brutalising and noxiously hardening
-effects of our public executions.
-
-“To show you the strictness,” observed Sir Peter, “with which our penal
-code is administered, I must mention to you that we do not allow the
-plea of insanity, in any case, as a ground of acquittal, unless that
-insanity is of such a nature as to warrant the opinion that the
-individual did not intend to inflict the injury for which he is tried.
-And in case any degree of insanity appears to have actuated the
-individual, we inquire whether this disposition had ever been previously
-displayed; for in this case we hold the relatives or friends, or persons
-with whom he has lived, as accountable for not having given the
-magistrates due warning of his state of mind, so as that he should be
-put into confinement.”
-
-The travellers pressed in objection the various topics commonly urged
-respecting greater or lesser degrees of moral responsibility, capability
-of discerning good from evil, &c.; all which considerations the
-Southlanders, it appears, are accustomed to regard as entirely
-irrelevant. They maintain that criminal legislation has nothing
-whatsoever to do with moral retribution; the sole object of human laws
-being the prevention of crime, which can take place in all those cases,
-and in those only, where the intention of the agent (no matter how that
-intention originates) is directed towards the action to be prevented.
-
-On the travellers expressing a strong desire to see their penitentiary,
-and examine its system of management; “We have many penitentiaries,”
-said Sir Peter, “and in each of them the system adopted differs in some
-respects from that of others; for we hold it to be a subject of constant
-experiment to ascertain what mode of discipline may be the best fitted
-to secure the ultimate object at which we aim, which is, as I have just
-said, not the infliction of vengeance on the guilty, but the prevention
-of crime. I shall enable you, however, to judge of our system in this
-respect by taking you to visit our penitentiaries, according as you can
-command leisure.
-
-“The systems pursued in some of our houses of correction,” he added,
-“need, and, I trust, will receive alteration; but I hope you will not
-think me unduly partial in considering the very worst of our modes of
-secondary punishment far preferable to yours. Be assured we shall never
-undertake to found a new nation from the sweepings of our jails;
-receiving additional corruption—those of them who are capable of it—by
-unrestricted intercourse with each other during a four months’ voyage,
-and their moral degradation completed by being reduced to a state of
-slavery; that is, by being consigned, as in your colony, to masters for
-whose benefit they are compelled to labour.”
-
-[The manuscript of the travellers did not contain very full information
-on the subject of penitentiaries, as there were many which they were
-still designing to visit. It would appear, however, that in some
-penitentiaries solitary confinement was the practice; in others, the
-culprits worked in companies; but, as in some of the American
-penitentiaries, total silence was enforced. Every man was made to work
-in a mask, in order that he should remain unknown to the rest, and thus
-escape the hardening effects which are the consequences of exposure of
-character.]
-
-“There is one part of our system,” said Sir Peter, “which I should
-mention to you, because it will serve to show you the diligence with
-which we apply ourselves to the continual improvement both of our civil
-and penal code. We hold it as a duty belonging to our judges and chief
-law officers, that they should discuss amongst themselves, from time to
-time, whatever alteration their experience in the administration of our
-laws may suggest to any of them as desirable. Whatever report is sent in
-by their united wisdom to parliament, is received with the utmost
-deference; and should any doubt remain as to the expediency of adopting
-their proposal, we invite some of the judges or law officers to assist
-us in our deliberations, by stating publicly the grounds of their
-recommendation. We allow them to debate freely, as if they were members
-of parliament; but of course we do not give them, as they are not
-members, any vote in the final decision. Indeed,” he observed, “whenever
-we appoint (as we very constantly do) a commission empowered to collect
-information on any particular subject, and draw up a report recommending
-any new laws or practices, we allow the members of that commission to
-attend our parliamentary meetings and explain their own reasons. We
-conceive this can be best done by the same individuals whom we appoint
-to deliberate. We regard them as members of parliament in fact, _pro hac
-vice_, except that we do not give them a power of voting.”
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-Newspapers, magazines, and other periodical publications are abundant
-and cheap in this country.
-
-In the early part of the traveller’s visit, Lieutenant R. Smith, having
-accidentally taken up a newspaper which lay on the table, was much
-interested in its perusal. The leading articles appeared to have been
-written with considerable discretion and good sense. He asked whether he
-might regard that paper as a fair specimen of the degree of talent which
-their newspapers generally presented.
-
-The gentleman of the house replied that, in his estimation, that paper
-was rather the best of the day. Its conductor was a person of very high
-character and great attainments.
-
-“You just saw him,” he said, “riding by with our leading minister. We
-have several papers,—besides magazines and other periodicals,—conducted
-also with various degrees of talent, and of every shade and variety of
-political sentiment.”
-
-“In our country,” said Lieutenant Smith, “conductors are not on such
-familiar terms with our statesmen; indeed they are seldom to be met in
-cultivated society. We think it the lowest department of literature. In
-fact, we scarcely deem the editor of a newspaper a literary man, or even
-a gentleman.”
-
-“I suppose then,” said Mr. Bruce (their host), “that your papers are
-nothing more than a record of events and advertisements; and that they
-exercise no influence upon the general sentiments of the country.”
-
-“Quite the reverse,” said the English travellers. “The newspapers
-produce a very decided influence; so much so that each party in the
-state takes care to hold some of them in pay, as advocates of the
-opinions which that party is anxious to maintain: and the editor of a
-paper not unfrequently prescribes the opinions or conduct which each
-party should adopt, many confining their reading almost exclusively to
-papers on their own side.”
-
-“This is very strange to us,” said Mr. Sibthorpe, “and it appears
-perfectly inconsistent. Your refusal to associate with the conductors as
-gentlemen of reputation, must make them unworthy to be received into
-good society; most emphatically and particularly unworthy, not merely as
-unfitted for the company of gentry, but as undeserving of the respect of
-reputable people. Such, at least, seems to us to be the tendency of a
-ban of exclusion fixed on a class of persons such as these writers. A
-small shopkeeper indeed, or mechanic, though not admitted into the
-social circles of the higher classes, may be a worthy and respectable
-man in his way, and may well be content to associate with those who are
-in every respect his own equals; but not so a man of such education,
-knowledge, and talent as are requisite for the successful conduct of a
-newspaper. A man so qualified will seldom, we should think, be found
-consenting to follow an employment which excludes him from the society
-of gentlemen, unless there be, in some way or other, something of moral
-inferiority about him. Exceptions there may be; but we should fully
-expect this to be at least the general rule. We take care, therefore,
-since newspapers cannot but influence public opinion, to induce men of
-reputation to engage in this department, by showing that we regard it as
-a most honourable employment. To act otherwise, would seem to us like
-proclaiming that we were determined to be rogue-led.”
-
-The English travellers asked if the newspapers had to pay a tax to the
-state. They were informed, that in this particular state no tax was
-exacted, but that in other states of the union the practice was
-different. “We observe,” said they, “a vast number of advertisements of
-all kinds; and, amongst the rest, that a great variety of books were
-announced as in the press.”
-
-“Our press,” said one of the company, “is very active; but you can best
-judge of the state of our literature by examining hereafter our public
-libraries. To some of these we shall have great pleasure in conducting
-you.”
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XII.
-
-  Schools.—Reform of the Calendar.—Art of Teaching.—General
-    Education.—Religion and Politics.—Inconsistency of the
-    Jesuits.—Unbelievers.—Direction of Electors.—Political
-    Churches.—Violation of the Laws.—Infidelity.—Obedience to
-    Law.—Enforced Religion.—Persecution.—Hypothetical Case.—Treatment of
-    Insanity.—Professed Inspiration.—Impostors and Lunatics.—Changes in
-    Europe.—Founders of the Colony.
-
-
-The Southlanders have numerous schools—mostly day-schools—for boys and
-for girls, in all parts of the country. They are of various
-descriptions, suited to persons of different classes of society. There
-are also four universities, besides some other scientific and literary
-institutions partaking of that character.
-
-The most ancient, and, at present, the largest university is in the
-state of Müllersfield. Mr. Sibthorpe’s notes on this subject contain but
-a small portion of the little he had, up to that time, been enabled to
-collect; as it happened that the principal vacation of all the
-universities is in the spring, the time of the travellers’ arrival in
-the country. He was, accordingly, promising himself, in the latter part
-of his sojourn, to obtain a much fuller and more correct acquaintance
-with their academical institutions.
-
-It appears that, as might have been expected, the Southlanders have not
-made the same advancements in the physical sciences as the Europeans,
-though much greater than, under their circumstances of seclusion, could
-have been anticipated. They have detected and rectified the error of the
-Julian calendar. The alteration of their style, which was begun above a
-century and a half ago, was not established at once, like the reform
-first made in Roman Catholic, and subsequently in Protestant countries;
-but was effected _gradually_, by the simple omission of the leap-years,
-till the error was rectified.
-
-Mr. Sibthorpe was particularly struck with the circumstance, that, both
-at the universities and elsewhere, the _art of teaching_ is distinctly
-taught as a separate and most important department; regular lectures on
-it being given, and the pupils exercised in various modes, to train and
-qualify them for the office of giving instruction to others. This people
-are so far from taking for granted—as, till of late years, has been
-commonly done in Europe—that every one is qualified to teach anything he
-knows himself, that, from the highest to the lowest description of
-schoolmaster or tutor, every one is required to have gone through a
-regular course of training for that profession. Nor is the study of this
-art by any means confined to those who design professionally to engage
-in it; but some degree of it is considered as a part of a liberal
-education.
-
-In some of the newly-settled, and, consequently, thinly-peopled
-districts, there are sometimes two (and, in some instances, even three)
-schoolhouses for one master or mistress. In such a case, the master
-attends at them by turns for half a week, or, if at a greater distance,
-a week. Sometimes the schools are kept up during the intervals by an
-assistant; sometimes even this is wanting; and the children remain at
-home half their time preparing lessons, in which they are examined when
-they return to school. It is held that one good master can do more
-service in two or three schools than two or three inferior ones. All
-parents and guardians are required to have the children under their care
-instructed. Any who may be too poor to afford the moderate cost of the
-humblest education are provided with it at the public charge; but it is
-very rare indeed that there is occasion for this, except in the case of
-the half-reclaimed aborigines.
-
-The Southlanders were astonished to hear that, in what is called
-civilized Europe, a large proportion of the population should remain
-totally illiterate, “_like the savages_.” When they were told that some
-persons in England dreaded the education of the labouring classes, as
-unfitting them for their station, and were disposed to apply the remark
-of Mandeville, that “if a horse knew as much as a man, I should be sorry
-to be his rider,” they inquired how this was to be reconciled with the
-_political rights_ which they were told were conceded to these very
-people; and how it could be safe to entrust _power_ to those whom it was
-thought unsafe to instruct how to make a _rational use_ of it.
-
-“If,” said they, “you are to keep men in slavery, like the domestic
-brutes, it may be the safest way to keep them in as brutish a condition
-of mind as you can; but brutes that are _not_ enslaved are much more
-dangerous animals than rational beings. A horse is kept as a slave, and,
-however gently treated, is subjected to restraint, and compelled to
-labour for his _master’s_ service. It would be doubtless unsafe, and,
-what is more, _unjust_, to ride a horse if he _knew as much_ as a
-man,—_i. e._ if he were a rational being, instead of a brute; but Dr.
-Mandeville ought to have remembered that, if a groom _knew no more_ than
-a horse, he would be very unfit to be a _rider_.”
-
-They require, accordingly, that any parent who, from inconvenient
-distance of residence or any other cause, is unable or unwilling to send
-a child to school, shall provide for his instruction at home, and shall
-bring him to the periodical examinations of the school inspectors, who
-are appointed to visit the schools at stated times and examine the
-children. On being asked what would be done in the case of any parent’s
-refusing instruction to his children, they said that no such case had
-occurred in their recollection; but that they conceived, if it should
-occur, it would be considered as a sufficient evidence of mental
-derangement. As for the _right_ of a parent over his children, they
-utterly denied that his children _belong_ to him in the same manner that
-dogs and cats and horses do, which he is at liberty to keep as mere pets
-and playthings, or as drudges, or to sell or drown if he finds himself
-overstocked. They hold that he has no more right to debar his children
-from instruction than to deny them proper food and clothing. To these
-last they have a fair claim—a claim enforced by law in all countries—as
-_animals_; to the other, as _rational_ beings.
-
-Female education also they attend to quite as much as Europeans, without
-confining it so much (among the upper classes) to mere showy
-accomplishments. Some of them laughed at our employment of the word
-“accomplishment,” “which,” said they, “signifies properly a _completion_
-of that which, by your account, is never _begun_.” They cited a maxim
-which, they said, had been laid down by Aristotle,—that a people whose
-institutions pay no regard to women and children, are neglecting the
-_half_ of the _present_ generation, and the _whole_ of the _next_. And
-they observed, that a child whose earliest years,—whose first
-impressions, and habits of thought and sentiments,—have been left to a
-mother who is wanting in cultivated understanding, and sound principles,
-and well-regulated feelings, will be very far from having a fair chance
-of turning out an estimable member of society.
-
-On these subjects the travellers had much conversation with Sir Andrew
-Knox, who holds in the kingdom of Eutopia the office of
-inspector-general of education, nearly answering to that of minister of
-public instruction in some of the European states. In his observations
-on the conduct of the governments of Europe,—such as they had been three
-centuries back, and such as many of them appeared to him to continue in
-some measure still unchanged,—he remarked that nothing could be more
-completely the reverse of a wise and honest legislature than the attempt
-to make _belief_ compulsory, and _knowledge not_ compulsory.
-
-“They enforced,” said he, “the reception of ‘true religion,’—that is,
-what the rulers regarded as such; and left it optional to learn, or to
-remain ignorant of, the difference between one religion and another.
-Even you, it seems, regard it as an intolerable encroachment on liberty
-to compel a person to learn his letters that he may be able to _read_
-the Bible; but you compel him to _believe_ the Bible,—at least to
-profess his belief, or not openly to deny it. His _knowledge_ of the
-book may be anything or nothing, just as he pleases; but he is required
-to acknowledge its divine authority and the correctness of your
-interpretation of it, or else you treat him as a helot or an alien, and
-exclude him from civil rights and power. He is not obliged to know
-whether Jerusalem is in the northern or southern hemisphere, or whether
-Mahomet lived before or after Christ; but he _is_ obliged, under pain of
-punishments or civil disabilities, to think with you as to the Jewish,
-Christian, and Mahometan religions.
-
-“Now this,” he continued, “does seem to us most preposterous. I am not
-adverting now to its opposition to the principles of justice or of the
-Christian religion, but to common sense. An injunction which it is
-completely _in the power_ of the subject to obey, and of the government
-to enforce, this governments do _not_ issue; and one which the subject
-may be _unable_ to obey, and which the government _cannot_ fully
-enforce, _that_ forms an essential part of their enactments; for to
-acquire a certain humble degree of _knowledge_ (when government provides
-the means of instruction) is a command which the subject is clearly
-_able_ to obey. He may, indeed, not think knowledge worth the trouble of
-study, and may be so brutish as to feel it a hardship not to be allowed
-to remain in stupid ignorance; but, unless he is a born idiot, he cannot
-say that it is _out of his power_ to learn anything, or, again, that it
-is _against his conscience_ to attempt it; nor, on the other hand, can
-he evade the requisition by _pretending_ to have learnt what he has not,
-since his proficiency may be ascertained by examination. In the other
-case, _all_ these circumstances are reversed. A man may be really
-_unable_ to adopt the same view of religious truth as his rulers; he may
-feel it a _violence to his conscience_ to profess their belief; and,
-lastly, he can always, if conscience does not stand in his way, make a
-false and hypocritical profession of a faith which he does not really
-hold.
-
-“These governments, therefore, do _not_ interfere where their
-interference would be, at least, both allowable and effectual—_we_ think
-beneficial; and where their interference, as we think, is always
-noxious, but evidently may be both unjust and ineffectual, there they do
-interfere. Such a ruler, if he teaches his subjects hypocrisy, teaches
-them at least to be like himself; for his pretended zeal for God’s
-honour and his people’s welfare must be a mere specious cloak for his
-desire to uphold his own power in the most effectual and least
-troublesome way. As for true religion, if he had the least particle of
-it, or the least conception of its nature, he could not but know that it
-is a thing which cannot be enforced by law.”
-
-[Much more to the same purpose was urged by Sir Andrew Knox, who, like
-most of his countrymen, is tinged, as our readers will have perceived,
-with much of that peculiar habit of thought, derived from the founders
-of the colony, which many will probably be disposed to regard as
-eccentric enthusiasm and extravagance. The travellers laid before him,
-in reply, the arguments commonly employed in Europe (which need not be
-here repeated) for and against the existing principles of legislation,
-and the various modifications of these which have been introduced in the
-several European states.]
-
-On something being said respecting the duty of a Christian ruler to
-maintain and enforce true religion, and respecting the conduct to be
-pursued by a Christian community, Sir Andrew observed that, in former
-times, there appeared to have prevailed among their European ancestors
-much confusion of thought on those subjects, which did not seem to be
-even now cleared up, but to be fostered by indistinctness of language.
-
-“Ours,” said he, “are ‘Christian states,’ in the sense that the
-_individual citizens_ of them are Christians, but not in the sense of
-our _laws enforcing_ the profession of Christianity, or of any
-particular religious persuasion. And although, in the sense first
-specified, our states might be called Christian, the phrase ‘Christian
-community’ conveys to _our_ minds the idea, not of a state, but of a
-_church_; and to blend the two kinds of community into one, so as to
-give spiritual jurisdiction to the civil magistrate, to maintain
-religion by secular coercion, and to give those of a particular creed a
-monopoly of civil privileges and secular offices,—this we consider as
-changing Christianity into Judaism, and making Christ’s kingdom one ‘of
-this world,’ which he expressly forbade.”
-
-“But is it not natural, Sir Andrew,” said Mr. Sibthorpe, “that
-Christians, who have any real veneration for their religion, should wish
-to exclude from all share of political power in a Christian nation those
-who are not Christians, or who have depraved and corrupted the Christian
-faith?”
-
-“Nothing could be more _natural_,” replied he, “than that the Jewish
-people, when convinced, as the mass of them at one time were, of his
-divine mission, should wish to take Jesus and force Him to be their
-king, so that all who should have disowned his authority, or disobeyed
-his commands, would have incurred the penalties of treason. Nothing, I
-say, could be more natural than this; and thence it is that He was so
-earnest in renouncing all such pretensions, and prohibiting all such
-attempts: and experience shows how consonant to the character of the
-‘natural man’ such a course of procedure has been ever since.
-
-“But the question is not what is agreeable to human nature, but to the
-divine will. Our Master declared that his kingdom is not a temporal one;
-and we must not seek to do Him honour by running counter to his
-commands, so as to _make_ it a kingdom of this world, and, as it were,
-‘take Him by force to make Him a king.’ It cannot evince our veneration
-for Him to mix up religion with politics, when He and his Apostles
-neither did so nor permitted their followers to do so, though _they_
-possessed (what no human rulers can with truth pretend to) one ground of
-a claim to the right of enforcing true religion by civil penalties and
-disabilities, viz. the infallible knowledge of what _is_ true religion.
-
-“As for what you were saying of Christ’s kingdom being indeed not of
-this world, but that, according to prophecy, the kingdoms of the earth
-are to become the kingdoms of the Lord, this we conceive must be
-understood of the _people themselves_ becoming Christians; because we
-conceive that, if it were understood as authorising the state, as a
-civil community, to enforce and regulate Christianity by the secular
-sword, then Christ’s kingdom _does_ become a kingdom of this world. To
-set up a plea founded on a subtle verbal distinction where there is no
-real difference, reminds one (if I may be pardoned for using so homely
-an illustration) of the quibbling thief, who contended that he was
-unjustly charged with having carried off a horse; for that, in truth, it
-was the horse that had carried off him.
-
-“The Jesuits of whom you have been telling me, according to the worst
-accounts given of their tricks and subterfuges, evasions and mental
-reservations, would be well deserving of their title,—they would be
-really and fitly ‘companions of Jesus,’—if we could suppose Him and his
-Apostles to have secretly maintained a principle which goes to nullify
-practically (as soon as their followers should have gained sufficient
-strength) all their disavowals of political designs,—all their
-renunciation of temporal power as connected with their religion,—all
-desire to monopolize, as Christians, civil ascendency. They were accused
-of forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar,—of speaking against Cæsar, &c.
-Now, if you suppose that, when Jesus, in answer to such charges, said in
-a loud voice to the Roman governor, ‘My kingdom is not of this world,’
-He had _whispered_ to his disciples, ‘This is only till you have gained
-sufficient numbers and strength; whenever and wherever you can become
-the predominant party, then draw the sword which I lately bid you
-sheathe, and enforce by civil penalties submission to my laws, and
-exclude by law from political privileges all who will not join your
-communion:’—if you suppose that while He publicly issued the injunction,
-‘Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s,’ He added, as it were
-_aside_, to his companions, “Remember, however, that, as Cæsar is an
-idolater, you must hereafter make him embrace Christianity on pain of
-ceasing to be Cæsar; you must oblige him and all other governors and
-public officers, from the highest to the lowest, and all who would lay
-claim to any of the rights of citizens in any state where you can
-acquire political ascendency, to profess my religion; and _then_ you
-must render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s; you must then ‘render
-unto all their due,’ after having first secured that none but those who
-agree with you in religion shall _have_, politically, _any_ due at all;
-you must ‘submit yourselves to every ordinance of man,’ after having
-first provided that every ordinance of man shall have submitted to you;
-you must consider ‘the powers that be’ as ‘ordained of God,’ after
-having monopolized them all for yourselves, carefully excluding
-unbelievers:—if, I say, you suppose this to have been the secret
-meaning, and these the private instructions, of Jesus and his Apostles,
-while their openly avowed teaching was such as we find recorded, well
-surely may the most disingenuous of the _Jesuits_ lay claim to their
-title.”
-
-“Can an unbeliever, then,” said Mr. Sibthorpe,—“can even an atheist, in
-this country, rise to the highest offices?”
-
-“I hope,” said Sir Andrew, “such instances are rare; I know of none: but
-if you speak of the _possibility_, you should remember that in _every_
-country, even where the Inquisition exists, an atheist can, by
-disguising his real opinions, rise to any office, even that of Grand
-Inquisitor, or of Pope; which, indeed, you were lately telling me is
-suspected to be no such very rare occurrence.”
-
-“True,” said Mr. Sibthorpe; “there is no law that can prevent hypocrisy;
-but what I meant is, an open and _avowed_ infidel, or an advocate of
-extravagant corruptions of religion.”
-
-“If you mean to ask,” said Sir Andrew, “whether _I would vote for_ a man
-of that description, and whether a majority of electors would in any
-case be as likely to appoint him as one of opposite character, I answer
-at once in the negative; but if you are asking whether there is any _law
-to prohibit_ my voting for such a man,—any _legal_ incapacity on
-religious grounds,—we have no such law. As far as a man’s religious
-opinions are concerned, his fitness or unfitness for any civil office is
-left to be decided by the judgment of the _electors_. Conviction of any
-_crime_, or ascertained deficiency in the requisite _knowledge_, alone
-disqualify a man by law for public offices.
-
-“But it is important,” added he, “to keep distinct two questions which,
-I observe, the modern Europeans, as well as our ancestors, have often
-confounded,—the question whether a person of such and such a description
-is or is not _fit_, or the most fit, to be appointed to such and such an
-office; and the question, whether the _electors_ to that office shall be
-left to decide that point according to _their_ judgment, instead of the
-legislators deciding it for them, and restricting their choice. How much
-shall be _left to the discretion_ of the electors is one question; what
-is the wisest and _best use_ they can make of their discretion is
-another, quite different, though often confounded with it.
-
-“But, among us, it is in a _religious_, not a _civil_ community—in a
-_church_, not in a _state_—that a man’s religious qualifications or
-disqualifications are taken notice of in the laws of the community as
-determining whether he may or may not be one of its officers or one of
-its members. Our brethren in Europe, you seem to think, would, some of
-them, take for granted, from our acting on these principles, that we
-must be very indifferent about religion (though you, I rejoice to find,
-are ready to bear your testimony to the contrary); but they might as
-well conclude that we are indifferent about political affairs also,
-because we attend places of worship in which no political questions are
-discussed, and are members of Christian churches which do not
-intermeddle with politics. Indeed, I myself, as well as many others, am
-a member of an agricultural association also, in which neither political
-nor religious matters are introduced; and yet I hope many of us are good
-citizens, good Christians, and good farmers too.
-
-“But since your people hold it to be allowable and right, and a
-duty, for a civil legislature in a Christian country to take
-cognizance of matters of religious faith, (which _we_ think should
-be left between each man’s conscience and the Deity,) you ought,
-methinks, to see nothing incongruous neither in a religious
-community taking cognizance of political matters also, and embodying
-in its creed and formularies decisions, not only of points of faith,
-but of points of politics. Thus you would have, not only Trinitarian
-or Arian churches, Calvinistic or Arminian, Episcopalian or
-Presbyterian churches, &c. but also, according to your phraseology,
-Tory churches and Whig churches, commercial-restriction churches and
-free-trade churches, &c. Parents, bringing their child to be
-baptized, would have to engage that he should be brought up in sound
-political as well as sound religious views; and to renounce in his
-name, not only sin, the world, and the devil, but also annual
-parliaments and vote by ballot, or some other political measure; and
-would have to be solemnly admonished, not only to bring him at a
-suitable age to be confirmed by the bishop, but also to have his
-vote duly registered. And a man would not be admissible at the
-eucharist unless he first declared his opinion, not only on the
-question of transubstantiation, but also on the mint regulations,
-paper currency, or any other such points on which the church or sect
-he belonged to should determine what was to be accounted orthodox.
-If you are struck, as you seem to be, with the incongruity and
-absurdity of such regulations and practices as these, you may form
-some conception how incongruous it appears in _our_ eyes to mix up
-together _at all_ the Christian religion and politics. In short,” he
-added, in conclusion, “do but consider whether, among you, religion
-is considered as _a part of politics_, or _politics a part of
-religion_. If neither (which is what _we_ hold), then your conduct
-is palpably inconsistent with your principles. If you hold religion
-to be a part of politics, what becomes of your _Christianity_? But
-if politics is held to be a part of religion, then such
-politico-religious creeds and formularies as I have just now been
-supposing, must be, not only reasonable, but even necessary.”
-
-“I admit,” said Mr. Sibthorpe, “the absurdity of attempting by secular
-penalties to produce conviction of a religious doctrine, and the
-cruelty, as well as absurdity, of compelling outward profession of
-conviction. But how do you proceed in regard to the public
-_promulgators_ of pernicious error? Is not a government bound to protect
-its subjects, not only from theft and violence, but also from having
-their minds, especially those of the young, the weak, and the ignorant,
-corrupted by every one who chooses to go about scattering moral and
-spiritual poison around him?”
-
-“No one,” answered Sir Andrew Knox, “would be allowed among us, under
-the plea of conscience, or any other, to incite men to a violation of
-the laws, to a breach of the peace, or to rebellion against government;
-else, indeed, men might be found preaching up theft and all sorts of
-crimes, like those Anabaptist sects that appeared before we left Europe,
-who inculcated community of goods and of wives, and I know not what
-abominations besides.
-
-“But the practice, or the recommendation, of anything that is immoral,
-and so accounted by _all_ good men of whatever religious persuasion, is
-clearly punishable by the civil magistrate. Nor can any plea of
-conscience be admitted as justifying abusive language against any class
-of religionists,—threats, violence, personal slander, or interruption of
-religious worship.
-
-“But if any man peaceably sets forth his own views respecting religion,
-appealing to men’s reason and conscience and the visible universe, or
-the Scriptures, we do not hold that the civil authorities are justified
-in going about to punish or silence him, or in excluding him from civil
-rights. Any _church_, indeed, to which he may have belonged will disown
-him as a member if he teach anything at variance with their fundamental
-religious principles; but this we do not regard as a _punishment_
-inflicted as for an offence, but rather as a _dissolution of
-partnership_ between two parties who cannot agree as to the matter in
-which they were partners. He is excommunicated by his church only in the
-same manner as his church is excommunicated by him; but no _secular
-penalties_ or privations are incurred by imputed religious error.
-
-“For we consider that, in the first place, as the legislature is not
-infallible, there is no security that its enactments may not be on the
-wrong side; as there have been, indeed, both Trinitarian and Arian,
-Protestant and Popish laws and rulers: and, secondly, we consider that
-Christ and his Apostles, who did possess infallibility, deliberately
-chose to rest their cause on pure persuasion alone.”
-
-“But might it not be urged,” said Mr. Sibthorpe, “that this would go to
-put an end to _all_ legislation on all subjects, since no legislature
-can be infallible, even in political measures?”
-
-“It is true,” replied Sir Andrew, “that statesmen can lay no claim to
-infallible wisdom, even in their own department; and there is,
-accordingly, no country whose laws are, or _need be believed to be_,
-perfect.
-
-“It is the duty of a good citizen to labour to bring about the
-improvement of any laws which he thinks inexpedient; but in the mean
-time (and _here_ lies the important difference) he may, in almost all
-cases, obey the laws _with a safe conscience_, even such as he may not
-approve of; because they require only the _outward acts_ of compliance,
-and not the inward assent and conviction of the mind. You had, for
-instance, formerly a law enjoining all men to put out their fires at the
-toll of the curfew-bell; it is now long since repealed. You had a law
-against selling game, which you have told us is abrogated. These laws
-may have been very inconvenient; but it could not be against a man’s
-conscience to put out his fire or to abstain from buying and selling
-game, though it _would_ have been to require him to declare his _belief_
-in the wisdom of those regulations.
-
-“Hence it is that, imperfect as human legislation must be, laws, since
-they are essential to the existence of civil society, have the sanction
-of reason, and conscience, and Scripture in favour of submission to
-them, except in those cases where submission involves a violation of
-some prior duty; as if, suppose, we had a law enjoining us to hunt down
-the blacks, and kill them like wild beasts. But it is remarkable that
-almost all the cases where it does become a duty to resist the law, are
-those in which _religion_ is concerned,—those, in short, in which the
-civil legislature has gone out of its own province; as when a man is
-required to profess or renounce, to preach or abstain from preaching, a
-certain religion; forbidden to instruct a slave in Christianity, (as,
-you say, was formerly the law at the Cape of Good Hope,) and other such
-injunctions.
-
-“On these grounds,” continued he, “we hold that all interference of the
-secular power to enforce the profession of ‘true religion’ and punish
-‘heretics,’ or to give Christians, or any particular description of
-Christians, political ascendency on religious grounds, are adverse to
-the spirit and injurious to the cause of true religion, contrary to the
-commands of its Author, tending to impair the force of its proper
-evidence, and leading at once to oppression in one party, to hypocrisy
-in the other, and to unchristian rancour in both.
-
-“These principles may be said, in some sort, to form a part of our
-national creed; for there is no one of our churches that does not
-maintain them, and inculcate the strictly voluntary character of true
-Christianity, and the spiritual, and not secular nature, of its Author’s
-kingdom.”
-
-“But what would you do,” said Mr. Sibthorpe, “if some church were to
-arise among you of opposite principles? Would you tolerate a sect whose
-religion forbade them to tolerate others?”
-
-“That,” said the other, “is certainly a shrewd question, and one which,
-I am happy to say, we can none of us answer from experience; as we have
-never had, and I hope never shall have, any such among us. I can,
-therefore, only speak from conjecture as to what conclusions we might
-come to in such a case. Probably, a good deal might depend on the
-_actual temper_ of the persons who should hold in theory persecuting
-principles; for as men are too often worse than their principles, so, as
-you must be well aware, they are sometimes better; and if men of such
-principles were content to let their right and duty of persecution
-remain by some humane subterfuge in abeyance and dormant, we should
-probably let them alone. Much might also depend on their strength of
-numbers, on their power, as well as their disposition to do mischief.
-The cat appears to be much the same kind of animal as the lions and
-tigers we have read of; but, being too small to be formidable, is
-allowed to go loose about the house. I suppose it would be unsafe to
-extend the same _toleration_ to a tiger.
-
-“But on one point I think I can answer you, though still from
-conjecture, pretty confidently: if there _should_ be any sect or class
-of men in one of our states whom we found it impossible to place, with
-due regard to our safety, on the footing of citizens, we should
-undoubtedly _part company_; we should banish them all, or we should
-imprison them all; nay, I think we should even put them all to death at
-once, were there no better alternative, rather than tolerate among us a
-race of helots or Gibeonites,—a degraded and disfranchised caste,
-especially one degraded on account of religious differences. _That_ is
-contrary to all the principles, political and religious, which we have
-imbibed, as it were, with our very mothers’ milk.
-
-“There is, however, one point in which you were remarking, the other
-day, that our practice is more rigid than yours, and in which we might
-perhaps appear at the first glance to be, though in truth we are not,
-acting at variance with these principles. You were remarking that we are
-more prompt and daring than most Europeans in placing under restraint
-those who appear to be in a state of dangerous mental derangement. We
-hold it to be a benefit to the individual, as well as to the community,
-to confine and keep in order one who is palpably incapable of taking due
-care of himself; as, for instance, an habitual drunkard, who, though not
-otherwise mad, when sober cannot command himself so as to refrain from
-drinking, when liquor is within his reach, till he becomes no better
-than mad. Now, although no legal interference takes place to prevent a
-man from setting forth his own views of religion, or any other subject,
-and _appealing to the judgment_ of his hearers, it is otherwise if he
-profess to have received a _divine revelation_ and to be the bearer of
-an immediate message from the Deity. We do not pronounce such
-pretensions a _crime_; for the magistrate has no right to prejudge the
-question as to their _truth_, nor, for the same reason, are they
-considered as decisive evidence of insanity: but they do justify a
-certain degree of suspicion of it, and of such an insanity as may prove
-highly mischievous in various ways; and especially as being, above all
-other kinds of insanity, dreadfully infectious. Madmen of this
-particular class are, among persons of a nervous and excitable
-temperament, almost as dangerous as mad dogs.
-
-“Now, any person professing, as the Apostles did, to have received an
-immediate divine commission to be special messengers of God, sent forth
-by his miraculous interposition with prophetic inspiration, must be
-either _a true apostle_, or an impious _impostor_, or else a man under
-_mental alienation_. That there can be but these three possible
-suppositions is evident; though it may not be evident, in any given
-case, _which_ of the three is the true one. On the first supposition,
-the man is evidently entitled, _as soon as he shall have exhibited his
-credentials_, by displaying such miracles as are the ‘signs of an
-apostle,’ to high veneration, and diligent attention to what he is
-commissioned to declare. On the second supposition, he ought to be
-punished, on the same principle (only more severely) as pretended
-witches, conjurors, and other such cheats who practise on the credulity
-of the superstitious. On the third supposition, the man ought to be
-secluded and taken care of, and subjected to proper treatment for the
-cure of his disorder.
-
-“In all cases, then, of professed inspiration and immediate divine
-commission, our laws enjoin solitary confinement, as perfectly suitable
-on any of the foregoing three suppositions. The person is subjected to
-no indignity or unnecessary pain; he is treated tenderly, and carefully
-provided for; but he is closely secluded from all but medical attendants
-and other official persons. We have a full trust that, if he be indeed a
-divine messenger, he will be miraculously liberated. We find in
-Scripture that this _was_ done repeatedly; as in the case of the first
-imprisonment of the Apostles,—in that of Peter alone, afterwards,—and
-that of Paul and Silas. They were thus enabled both to execute their
-commission, and, by appeal to the miracle, to attest its truth. Nor do
-we consider that, as long as we abstain from all reproach or unnecessary
-violence, we should be doing any wrong even to real prophets, or
-presumptuously tempting the Deity; for it is contrary to all reason, and
-to all Scripture, to suppose that He ever did or can require implicit
-faith to be given to his ambassadors without furnishing them with
-testimonials; with credentials, to satisfy us that they really are sent
-by Him. To call upon a man pretending to inspiration to display a
-sensible miracle (as by a supernatural release from confinement) is no
-affront to God or man; it is only asking a professed ambassador for his
-credentials. But if, again, the man be either an impious impostor, or a
-lunatic, his confinement is, in the one case, a just, though very mild
-punishment, or, in the other, an act of kindness towards himself, as
-well as a removal of a nuisance to the public.
-
-“Instances of the first class, I need hardly tell you, have not
-occurred; and there are not many of us, I believe, who expect that they
-ever will. But whatever may be thought of that last question, we all
-agree that it would imply want of faith, ignorance of Scripture, and
-folly, to doubt that God, if He did send us an inspired messenger, would
-fail to vindicate His own honour, and establish the prophet’s mission,
-by miraculous proof; or to suspect that it could be displeasing to Him
-that we should insist on such proof, and refuse to incur the risk of
-_idolatry_ in paying divine homage to a human device or delusion.
-
-“In respect of the second class—impostors, our law has operated chiefly
-(as might have been expected) in the way of prevention. In a few
-instances, however, such men (having, for the most part, _secretly_
-circulated their pretensions among the credulous) have been induced, by
-the correction thus administered, to confess their fraud, and submit to
-the penalties of the laws enacted against common cheats.
-
-“Of the third class—those under delusion, there have been a good many
-instances; and, in a large proportion of them, quiet seclusion and
-proper medical treatment have effected the restoration of reason: but
-some cases, as in all other kinds of derangement, prove incurable. There
-are also, by your account, in Europe also, such patients in almost every
-lunatic asylum,—imaginary apostles, prophets, and even deities. The only
-difference between us is, that _you_ allow several of such patients to
-go at large and do mischief in the world, because _you_ think it
-necessary to have fully _ascertained_ that a man is deranged before you
-confine him; whereas we think it right to confine him at once, as soon
-as it is made evident that he is _either_ deranged, or an impostor, or
-able (as a divine messenger, and therefore under a miraculous
-dispensation,) to obtain immediate release. In all these cases (and
-there can be no other supposition) we hold it manifestly allowable, and
-consequently right, to confine him.”
-
-It was in the course of this conversation, after the discussion of the
-foregoing and several kindred subjects, that one of the company made a
-remark respecting the views which had been presented to him of the
-history of Europe since their departure from it, as compared with its
-state at that time, and the general history of mankind.
-
-“Our founders,” he said, “appear to have had peculiar advantages, from
-which we have, I trust, derived some fruit, in the particular time and
-circumstances of their change of abode. They left Europe at the exciting
-period of the Reformation, which had shaken the hold that ancient
-opinions, habits, and institutions had long maintained over the human
-mind; when men’s energies were roused, their imaginations kindled, and
-all their feelings highly stimulated.
-
-“It is not to be wondered at, that, at such a period, many of the
-results should have followed which appear in Europe to have actually
-ensued. Some, we know, ran into the wildest extravagancies of
-innovation. Again, the fierce and obstinate opposition of others to
-every change—besides the malevolent passions thus called into
-play—appears to have driven many of the reformers to still greater
-excesses, or to have hardened them into greater pertinacity. And,
-moreover, many, frightened at the prospect of extravagant innovations,
-or weary of perpetual change, seem to have resolutely stopped short
-before they had fairly followed out their own just principles of a
-complete reformation; or even relapsed into the prejudices they had
-renounced, embraced anew the errors which had been exploded, and
-returned to the corrupt systems, which were standing, as it were, with
-their gates open to receive them.
-
-“Our founders, on the other hand, after they had received the salutary
-stimulus, were removed out of the way of most of these evils by their
-retirement hither. Withdrawn from persecution and oppression, and
-furious controversy and religious wars, they were secured in a great
-measure from the fanaticism and the unchristian bitterness of spirit
-which these are so often found to generate. They were kept out of the
-way, again, of all temptation to return to the corrupt systems they had
-renounced, since no example of these remained among them; and were left
-calmly and peaceably to make trials of the application of their
-principles in practice, and to modify at leisure those principles
-according to the dictates of experience.”
-
-[Such is the substance of the conversation that passed on these
-subjects. The language is of course altered, in this and in the other
-conversations recorded, in order to render it more readily intelligible.
-It is, indeed, almost a _translation_ that is given; not, indeed, from a
-foreign tongue, but from a peculiar dialect of English.
-
-The greater part of what was said by the travellers, except what was
-necessary to make the answers intelligible, has been omitted, for the
-reasons already stated.]
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER XIII.
-
-  Preachers.—Divine Service.—Divisions of the Bible.—Funeral
-    Service.—Burial in Cities.—Absurd Interments.—Monuments.—Private
-    Mausoleums.—Harmless Absurdities.—Church Endowments.—State of
-    the Clergy.—Religious Communities.—Admission Fees to
-    Institutions.—Ecclesiastical Societies.
-
-
-It happened in the earlier part of their visit, when the travellers were
-less familiar with the peculiarities of the Southland phraseology, that
-they were inquiring one day whether there was in the neighbourhood where
-they then were any _preacher_ of more than ordinary celebrity, and were
-surprised at being answered that there were no preachers within two
-hundred miles. As they had, before this, attended public worship, they
-perceived at once that there must be some misapprehension. They found
-that “a preacher” denotes—according to its primitive sense—what _we_
-understand by a _missionary_ among the heathen. “Expounding,”
-“lecturing,” “discoursing,” are the terms used by them to denote what we
-call “preaching.”
-
-When the difficulty was surmounted which they felt at first in following
-what was said, from the novelty to them of the dialect, they were very
-well pleased with some discourses they heard, which appeared to them
-sensible, pious, and instructive; but they never heard any one who came
-up to the idea of what we call “a fine preacher,” or “a very nice man,”
-for the reason already mentioned in the notice of their parliamentary
-debates.
-
-The strangers were at first puzzled by another peculiarity which they
-met with in their attendance on divine service. The minister referred,
-not to the chapter and verse of any book of Scripture, but to the page
-and line, or rather to what are _called_ pages and lines; that is,
-certain equal divisions, which are indeed the actual pages and lines of
-their large editions of the Bible, but of course do not correspond with
-those of a different size. These artificial pages and lines, as they may
-be called, are marked by horizontal (P. 25,/─) and vertical (L. 5./│)
-lines, respectively. The origin of the custom, it seems, was, that their
-first edited translation having been _paged_, and subsequent editions
-being, for some time, fac-similes of it in point of size, the custom
-grew up,—indeed there is reason to think it was designedly
-encouraged,—of making the references to pages and lines; and these same
-arbitrary divisions were accordingly retained in subsequent editions.
-Generally, though not always, the chapters and verses are marked in the
-margin, for the convenience of scholars who may wish to consult some of
-the old editions of the Bible in the learned languages, or who may be
-reading, in old editions, some works of the earlier divines containing
-references to those divisions. For their own use, they consider their
-method as preferable to ours, inasmuch as their divisions are exactly
-_equal_; serve perfectly for the _use_ intended,—that of facility of
-_reference_;—and carry on the face of them a plain indication that they
-are designed for no _other_ use, and therefore cannot mislead the reader
-into the notion of their having a connexion with the sense, and being
-the work of the sacred writers, or designed by editors as a suitable
-distribution of the matter.
-
-The funeral service varies in a slight degree in the rituals of the
-several churches; but in one point they all agree,—that in the prayers
-used, and in any discourse delivered on the occasion, no allusion is
-made to the particular individual deceased. The shortness and
-uncertainty of life generally,—a future state, and the requisite
-preparation for it,—with other such general topics, are the only ones
-allowed to be introduced. Any mention of, or allusion to a particular
-individual, in the way of panegyric or otherwise, on such an occasion,
-would be regarded as invidious and highly indecorous.
-
-“When a man,” they said, “has departed this life, to pronounce upon his
-condition in another world, or to pray that that condition may be
-altered, we regard as presumptuous, and especially unsuitable in a
-Christian congregation assembled for a religious purpose.”
-
-Their cemeteries are never contiguous to their places of ordinary
-religious worship, nor within any of their towns or villages; but at
-some little distance, and generally within, or adjoining, some park or
-other public pleasure-ground. They imagined it must be deleterious to
-the health of the Europeans to inhabit towns, the site of which consists
-in great measure of stratum upon stratum of decomposing animal matter,
-continually renewed and continually stirred up.
-
-“We are well aware,” they said, “what gave rise to the practice. It was
-the notion entertained by our ancestors (and, it should seem, by some of
-their European descendants) that demons are scared away by the sound of
-church-bells, by lustrations of holy-water, and the like; and that the
-departed, accordingly, derive from such things some kind of comfort and
-protection. We hold, however, (and we hoped our European brethren had
-long since come to the same conclusion,) that the only injuries of which
-a corpse is in any danger are from the plough or the spade, the
-carrion-crow, the swine, or the wolf;” (so they call the Dingo, the New
-Holland wild dog;) “and that protection from these is to be found in
-stone walls, boards, and mounds of earth, not in any religious
-ceremonies.
-
-“As for spiritual danger, we conceive that the body becomes exempt from
-everything of that kind, precisely at the moment life departs from it;
-and, accordingly, that religious appliances _then_ employed resemble the
-practice of the savages, who clothe the dead body of a friend in the
-best skin robes they can procure, and bury it, surrounded with a store
-of food, and with all the implements of hunting and fishing. If these
-poor heathens were to go a step beyond this in absurdity,—if they were
-to refuse to supply a famished companion while living with needful food,
-clothing, and shelter, and then, as soon as he was dead, and no longer
-sensible of cold and hunger, were to _begin_ to supply his dead body
-with provisions, which it could no longer use,—they would then be
-treating him, as some of our European forefathers treated themselves;
-who seldom or never, during their lives, frequented a house of worship
-to any profitable purpose, while they might have derived benefit from
-their attendance; but reflected with satisfaction on the idea that their
-dead bodies would be brought into the house of worship, and perhaps
-interred there, as soon as the time should have passed when their
-presence there would be of any avail.
-
-“It is partly in order to guard against any relapse into such
-superstitions that we make it a rule never even to bring a dead body
-within the walls of a place of worship.”
-
-There are no monuments in their burial-grounds beyond plain slabs,
-containing the name of the person whose remains are interred, with the
-necessary dates, &c. But in other places they have monuments of the
-nature of cenotaphs, in memory of persons who have been in any manner so
-distinguished as to be allowed this posthumous honour, by the direction,
-or with the permission, of the civil authorities.
-
-Statues are sometimes erected, in places of public resort, to men of
-high eminence: but usually the memorial consists in an inscription
-(sometimes accompanied with decorative sculpture) placed on the _house_
-in which the person in question was born, or lived, or died; or on any
-public building, such as a college, or library, or the like, which was
-in any way connected with his useful labours. In all cases, any monument
-so placed as to meet the public eye, cannot be erected without the
-permission of the proper authorities; whose approval of the inscription,
-decorations, and all the particulars, is essentially requisite.
-
-“If a man chooses,” said they, “to erect within his own private house or
-garden the most extravagant mausoleum in honour of some ancestor, and to
-cover it with inscriptions of the most fulsome and groundless panegyric,
-he is quite at liberty to do so. We do not profess to make laws to
-prevent a man from playing the fool in private; but whatever is obtruded
-on the _public_ eye is fairly placed under public control. And
-monuments,” they added, “when thus duly regulated, constitute a useful
-kind of record of departed worth, and of the several degrees and kinds
-of it; the utility of which record would be greatly impaired if mixed up
-and interlined, as it were, with the aberrations of the private
-partiality, or ostentation, or absurdity of individuals.
-
-“It is the same,” they said, “with titles of honour, and decorations of
-office borne by the living. If a man has a fancy to wear in private a
-dressing-gown decorated like a robe of state,—to have his easy-chair in
-his study made after the fashion of a regal throne,—to make his own
-family in private call him your lordship or your majesty, or to amuse
-himself at his own home with any such folly, the laws would not take
-cognizance of his harmless absurdities; but if he were to do all this in
-public, he would not be allowed thus to go about to break down all
-distinctions of rank, dignity, and office, by assuming what did not
-belong to him. Now, we consider that monumental honours, when displayed
-before the public, are a kind of public posthumous dignities; over
-which, accordingly, the Public has a just right of control.”
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-All the churches are possessed of endowments (greater or less);
-generally, though not exclusively, land, which are held by bodies of
-trustees (variously constituted), recognised as corporations; these
-receive and distribute the revenues, and, in some churches, have the
-nomination to benefices; in others, this is placed in their hands
-conjointly with the overseer (somewhat answering to bishop), or council
-of overseers, of the church.
-
-What is called among us the ‘voluntary system,’—the maintenance of the
-minister by the voluntary contributions of his congregation,—is not only
-unknown, but distinctly prohibited, in all the churches, by a regulation
-which forbids the minister even to accept any kind of gratuity from his
-flock, or to derive any profit from the letting of seats, or any other
-such source.
-
-Dr. Campbell, a clergyman and theological professor at one of their
-seminaries, from whom among others their information on these subjects
-was derived, observed, that he was not sure (as the experiment never had
-been—and he hoped never would be—tried among them) whether any of their
-States would even tolerate a religion whose ministers were to be
-maintained by the congregations as hired servants.
-
-“A pastor,” said he, “appointed by the people,—which is bad enough,—or
-removable by the people,—which is still much worse,—or supported by
-the gifts of the people,—which is far worst of all,—has everything to
-encounter that can tend to make him what he should not be; and that
-can expose him to suspicion of this, even if undeserved; and that can
-lower his character, and lessen his deserved influence, if he is such
-as he ought to be. No plan,” he added, “could possibly be devised more
-calculated for debasing and corrupting both the clergy and people, and
-for perverting religion, and turning it into a source of evil, instead
-of good, to both. The people would be taught to seek for, and their
-pastor (I should rather say, their _servant_) tempted to
-supply,—instead of honest and profitable instruction and seasonable
-admonitions,—flattery to their prejudices,—indulgence to their
-vices,—encouragement to their superstitions,—assistance and counsel in
-political schemes and party machinations,—amusing theatrical
-excitement to itching ears,—and flattering delusions, as opiates to
-the soul, instead of wholesome truth.”
-
-On its being remarked, in reply, that many persons in England contend
-for the benefit of making a minister’s income depend, in some degree at
-least, on his own exertions, and are accustomed to adduce instances of
-the inefficiency of some whose revenues are secure and independent, Dr.
-Campbell replied that it is true such instances do occasionally occur,
-and are much to be deplored.
-
-“But, after all,” added he, “we ought to remember that, bad as it is for
-a minister to be useless, _useless_ is the _best_ thing _such_ a
-minister _can_ be. A clergyman who is capable of being stimulated to
-exertion _only_ by motives of interest, and is careless and apathetic
-when _that_ is wanting, had much better be _left_ careless. When gain
-does rouse such a man to exertion, he will most likely exert himself as
-a demagogue or a mountebank. A man whom neither conscientious motives,
-nor desire for the respect and esteem of good men, can rouse to
-efficiency in doing good, is very likely to become an active doer of
-evil, if he have any dormant energies and talents that can be roused at
-all.”
-
-On inquiring whether the governments, accordingly, insist on paying all
-ministers of religion who are not otherwise provided for, the travellers
-were informed that Government never pays any. Occasionally, indeed,
-grants of state-lands are made to various public institutions, and to
-religious ones among the rest; but this is always by a distinct act of
-each legislature in reference to the circumstances of each case that is
-brought before them. But any persons who can raise among themselves, and
-from their well-wishers, funds towards building and endowing chapels,
-&c. and who prefer forming themselves into a distinct religious
-community, never find any considerable difficulty in obtaining a charter
-of incorporation for such trustees as they appoint. And it has often
-happened that, by accessions of donations or bequests from time to time,
-and also of members, some, both ecclesiastical and also academical
-corporations, have, from small beginnings, grown into considerable
-importance.
-
-“The voluntary system,” said Dr. Campbell, “which we condemn, is not
-voluntary gifts towards a common fund for an endowment _in perpetuity_,
-but voluntary payments from time to time to a particular minister for
-his yearly or weekly maintenance by his people,—by those, I was going to
-say, who are placed under him; but, it should rather be, _under whom he
-is placed_.”
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-It is a custom, it seems, for those admitted on any academical or
-ecclesiastical foundation as partakers of the endowment, to contribute
-themselves towards the fund, by paying a certain admission-fee, as it
-may be called, on entrance. In the greater part of the institutions
-whose endowments are sufficient for their objects this is little more
-than a nominal payment, a sort of ceremonial acknowledgment, trifling in
-amount: but in less amply endowed societies it is something
-considerable; in those whose common funds are still smaller, it is more;
-and in some,—chiefly such as are in their infancy,—a man has to pay, on
-being admitted a fellow, an associate, a pastor, or whatever it may be,
-of one of these colleges, or churches, &c. a sum equal to, or even
-exceeding, what his maintenance derived from the society will probably
-cost, according to the principles of annuity-office calculations. In
-such a case, the advantages sought by the man or woman who is a
-candidate for admission (for there are several female institutions of
-this kind) are the pleasure and honour of being admitted into a society,
-perhaps in high repute for the intelligence, worth, knowledge, and
-agreeableness of its members,—(the same objects that make it in England
-often a matter of earnest competition to be elected into a particular
-club,)—the conveniences, sometimes, of a common library, museum, table,
-&c.; so that a person who may have paid more than he or she will
-actually cost the society, may yet have made a very good bargain in the
-purchase of a comfortable and respectable maintenance; and, lastly, the
-advantage of the purchase of a kind of _annuity_; paying down a certain
-sum, and being secured, as far as a decent subsistence, against all
-chances, by insuring a maintenance during life, or during single-life,
-according to the regulations of each society.
-
-The fellowships, &c. of _colleges_ are, for the most part, held during
-celibacy only; and some of them make little or no provision for any but
-those actually resident. Persons admitted on the foundation of
-_ecclesiastical_ societies, as ministers or other officers, receive a
-stipend for life, unless regularly expelled for misconduct.
-
-                  *       *       *       *       *
-
-There are several further particulars relating to these matters, on
-which, as has been already mentioned, Mr. Sibthorpe hoped to obtain
-fuller information.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIV.
-                        Letter of Paul Wilkins.
-
-
-We shall close these extracts with a letter, which we have had
-permission to publish, from one of the exploring party, Paul Wilkins,
-the sailor formerly mentioned, written after his return to Sidney to his
-parents in England. Our reader will perceive from this letter that a
-part only of the travellers had returned; two of them having determined
-to prolong their stay in the newly-discovered colony, in order to gain a
-fuller acquaintance with its singular customs and institutions.
-
-The letter is printed exactly from the manuscript, because, if any
-alterations had been made,—even though extending only to the style and
-orthography,—or any omissions even of the most trivial matters, the
-reader might have been left in doubt what degree of liberty might have
-been taken with the original. And errors in language or in spelling,
-such as may be expected in the composition of a person of ordinary
-education in humble life, can excite no disgust or contempt; and must
-disarm criticism, when occurring in a familiar letter designed for the
-perusal of his own domestic circle, by one who never thought of aspiring
-to come before the public as an author. Taking into account the station
-and circumstances of the writer, there is nothing, we conceive, that
-will be thought to do discredit to his head or heart.
-
-                                            “_Sydney, Novr. 23rd, 1835._
-
-  “DEAR FATHER & MOTHER
-
-  “This comes with my Love, hoping to find you a live & all well, as it
-  leaves me thank God, which I never expected sometimes to come Back a
-  live from a long and peralous Expidition into the Interier. But am
-  happy to say we suckseded & have been to the most Wonderfull country I
-  ever see in all my Voyages. I sho’d never have done if I was to go to
-  tell you every thing, but as their is a Vessel just going to Sail, and
-  I can send this by a safe Hand I take up my pen to give you some a
-  count of it.
-
-  “I hardly know how to be gin my Head is so full of all the queer
-  things I see. The two Lieut. Smiths who you remember my shewing you
-  one of them last time I was at Home, fine dashing felowes they are as
-  ever trod a plank, they and Mr. Sibthorp of the Colony and Mr. Jones,
-  they ingag’d me as a tendant to exploar in the Interier on a new plan
-  of their own. They said as no great Navigable rivers has been found by
-  coasting Expiditions, the only chance was to try in land, and if they
-  met with any considarable Stream to follow it till it come either to
-  the Sea or a great Lake which some thought there is a great in land
-  Sea in the Interier. So says they cout kick out they wou’d find wether
-  their is one or no. So off we sat & took with us the frame work of a
-  Canoe flat bottomed by reason of the Shallows were we was to Embark.
-  And when we come to the Lake which it is a kind of swamp like, more
-  weeds than Water, we put our canoe to gether & coverd it with Bark of
-  Trees & got in our Stores. Their was no room for much Provisions but
-  we trusted to our Guns & Fishing tackle, all the Party are pretty good
-  shots, & your Humble Servant no bad Hand tho’ I say it at striking
-  Fish or Hook & Line.
-
-  “It was hard work for some days, we were like a dab chick scufling &
-  flutering along among the Flags & Mud, & then we got into clearer
-  water & made Sail at a good rate, & then into a River which we thought
-  this will bring us to the sea, But no we got into more Lakes & swamps,
-  and then river a gain & so on, & then we had to get out and track the
-  Canoe with Ropes to steddy its coarse along the rapids, & once we was
-  forced to carry it overland to a void the Falls. And some times we
-  never thought but what we sho’d be lost an starved in the Wilds, all
-  the country round nothing but Rocks & Sands. But we all kep up a good
-  Heart, no want of Pluck among the Gent men, and I can’t say we wanted
-  for Vittles only going without Bread mostly thanks to the Fish &
-  Wildfowl.
-
-  “I sho’d never have done if I was to tell you All. Well after better
-  than a Month were do you think we come to at last, why to a Colony of
-  White men, that had been hid like in the Wilds best part of three
-  Hundred years & never seen no Christian peple all that time only them
-  selves. Its true I a sure you, & its compewted theirs nearer 4 milian
-  than three totell number of Soles in the Country. How serprised we was
-  to see em & hear em hail us in English, for their of English Dissent
-  mostly only some mixture of Duch & German & Swiss. Its an odd sort of
-  English too they speak, but we got usd to it in a little wile, their
-  lingo isnt worse than broaed Scoch or Yorkshire.
-
-  “Well you may be sure if they wonderd to see us we was wondring how
-  they come their. And it seems they came out in former times when their
-  was great trubles in Europe to make a settlement and live in Piece &
-  Quiet, And their Vessels was driven on the coast, & they got a shore &
-  landed all their stores safe, & then went up & setled in the Interier,
-  being they found the coast unhealthy. Its a fine Country they have got
-  to now, as big I am thinking as Great Briton & Ireland put to gether,
-  for they arnt no ways prest for room, but make a new Setlement were
-  they likes. They treated us very kindly in deed & seamed glad to see
-  us as if we had been brethren like, as they say’d. And very good Towns
-  & good Living their is among them, tho’ they arnt quite so high
-  civilised as English Peple, as stands to Reason being they have livd
-  so long out of the World like.
-
-  “And some queer ways they have among them to be sure, quite different
-  from ours. Theirs not a bit of Bacca to be had for love nor money, nor
-  Grog neither, as for Rum or Whisky or the like they dont know what it
-  means. I usd to tell em how theyd stare if they was to come among us &
-  see writen up every were Dealer in Tea Coffee To Bacco & Snuff, &
-  Dealer in Spirtuos Liquors, for they havent nothing of the kind. But
-  how ever they have good ale that I must say & Wine & Cyder to plenty,
-  & very hospy table peple, but no way given to liquor, I never see a
-  drunken Man all the time, & they say its like the Savages to get
-  drunk. And theirs truth in that I can testyfy, for those Black felows
-  will drink as long as they can stand in the Colony and longer two if
-  they can come at liquor. They say wo’dnt you reckon it a Great Miss
-  fortune if you was to go out of your Mind & have to be put in a mad
-  House, and if a Man gets drunk he goes out of his mind, & ought to be
-  shut up in confinement, & they say if a Man was a reglar drunkard they
-  wou’d shut him up two.
-
-  “They are good farmers I must say & good breeders too. you tell Mr.
-  Evans, & my respects to him hope he is well & all his family, I
-  haven’t for got all the farming I learnt under him tho’ I was but a
-  lad, I wish he cou’d see the fine cows like the Holderness in the low
-  grounds, and a breed like the alderney on the Mountaneous parts, &
-  sheep to both long & short wool, such fleeces as I think he never see.
-  But as for Mutton I can’t speak, for only think they never heard tell
-  of Mutton, for theyd think it a most as big a sin to kill a Sheep or a
-  Bulock & eat it as we shou’d to kill a Christian & eat his flesh like
-  the Cannibles does. Theirs a queer peple for you. But they goes out
-  hunting the Wild Cattle and wild Hog, theyve plenty of them, & they
-  dont object by no means to a bit of wild pork or beef.
-
-  “A nother fancy of theirs is they never will have Joints of meat servd
-  up nor any thing done hole, not a pig or a foul or a fish if its ever
-  so small, but all done in chops or Hash or the like of that. And they
-  said we must be like the savages to feed on hole carcasses & Limbs of
-  Annimals, as Egles & Woolves does. They calls a Dingo a woolf, thats
-  the Newholland wild dog.
-
-  “We went out with them several times, Hunting & shooting. They have
-  guns only not so good as ours, but they shoot with Bows & Arows be
-  sides, & wonderful good shots some of em is. Sometimes when we went
-  out we had only to look on at them shooting, because they woudnt have
-  no firing for fear of scaring away the game. But sometimes we had a
-  grand Battoo & then all had guns & our Gentmen shot as well as the
-  best of them. Mr. Jones made a present of his double baril Gun to one
-  Gentman of the Country & mightyly pleased he was, for their workmen
-  arnt up to a double Baril. And I shewd them a thing or too about the
-  build & rigging of their fishing-boats that they wasnt up to. And very
-  great full & handsome they was I must say, for they gave me as much in
-  their money & other things as comes to better than 50£ besides several
-  curosities as a sort of Keep sake like, I got new rigged from top to
-  toe all in cloaths of their fashion hat & all & a comical hat you’d
-  think if you was to see it.
-
-  “Mr. Jones he said at first all the peple looked like musheroms they
-  have hats as big as a small table, but that is to keep off the sun
-  which it is very glearing in new Holland.
-
-  “Then it was so strange to hear all about Kings & Sennates &
-  Parliments & Piers & Lord mayers, just like being in a new World like.
-  The thing is they have eleven states something like the States of
-  America, only some is kingdoms & some is republicks & what not. I
-  harly knew weather I was a sleep or a wake, it seam’d a kind of dream
-  like.
-
-  “Then I went several times to parties of pleasure something in the
-  Nature of our Wakes they calls them Rebels & I a tended my Masters to
-  wait upon them at some of the Rebels of the Gentry, and high & low
-  their was plenty of mirth at all. But the first time I went with the
-  Gentmen I thought their was to be a Ball or the like of that just as
-  the gentlefolks have in England, & sure anuff their was Gentmen &
-  Lords & Lady’s a playing at Bowls or something like, & some shooting
-  at a target, & some at other games in the nature of tenis & trap-ball,
-  all as fond of the sport as boys & girls, & they all grown up Gent
-  folks & no mistake. And the best of it is they thinks dansing is only
-  fit for children & Savages. It’s as true as I am sitting hear.
-
-  “Its a fine country as I told you for pastur & corn & for gardens &
-  orcheards to, & we see a good shew for fruit, only they havent got all
-  the fruits as are in our colonies, being I suppose they wasnt known in
-  former Times. And they are great Hands at Iragation as its calld thats
-  leting the Water over the Land same as our Water Meadows, They’ll dam
-  up a stream were it comes down from the high Ground, & So let it off
-  by Canalls, & smaller Canalls out of those & so on, & then lower down
-  there will be a nother dam, & so the River keeps wasting a way as it
-  goes on, & some never gets to the Sea a tall. And its my belief they
-  are one cause why no body has found any large river falling into the
-  sea, for they say themselves, some that was in former times good sizd
-  Rivers flowing to’rds the coast are now next to nothing. There is a
-  great many Lakes tho’ & a sight of fine Fish in them, its wonderful to
-  see how some of them will shoot fish in the shalows with Bow an arow.
-  I never see the like, but for striking them with a spear I was up to
-  that as well as them, & hook & line two.
-
-  “And they always serves up fish for second coarse, when theirs any
-  meat for dinner or foul as their generly is, fresh or salt, pork beaf
-  ducks & Geese plenty, then up comes fish after meat, & soupe last of
-  all, & only think chese the first thing of all to begin dinner. They
-  say its a wonder how any Body can degest chese after a Meal, & to be
-  sure there is a saying that chese dejest all things but it self. But
-  its all contrary to our ways as many things is hear, perhaps youll
-  think it stands to reason were the north wind is hot & the south cold
-  & Chrismas come in summer & the shortest day falls in June, tho’ the
-  folks dont walk with their heads down & heals up in the air neither as
-  the old nurses used to tell us.
-
-  “Well I cant tell you all nor half, but I must tell you of one great
-  curosity we all went to see, near the town of Bath called Mount
-  perril, its a good high mountain & they say was in times past a
-  Burning mountain, & there is great caverns in the side, & out of some
-  of them their ishues a noxuous vaper like what Ive heard talk of in
-  coal pits wich they calls it chokdamp. We went a long with the
-  worshipfull Christopher Adamson one of the Sennaters as they call im
-  of the state of Bath, & stood a top of a cliff over one they calld the
-  Gobbling cave, & let down in an iron Great a litle heap of dry chips &
-  brush wood all a light & blazing, & wen it got into the caves mouth
-  out it went as black as night jest as if you’d sousd it into the Sea,
-  only there was no Hiss, and they said if any body was to go close to
-  the mouth at some times hed drop down sufficated by the vaper. And in
-  times past they said it was a fassion for Gentmen & Ladies two, if
-  they had a Quarril to challenge one a nother to go their, by way of
-  fighting a Dual, they calld it an Or Dual & they behovd to go to
-  gather past the Gobbling cave & take their chance wich of ’em sho’d be
-  Sufficated, & some times both. I said I thou’t it better than that or
-  pistols either, to go and box it out fairly & then shake hands, & be
-  freinds, tho’ to be sure that wouldnt do for the Ladys. But however
-  theres no Or Duals now no kind of Duals at all their now a days. Their
-  all to gather a very peicable well behaved set of peple as ever I see,
-  And their a well looking peple to, tho’ some of them has a lick of the
-  Tar brush as they say in the West Indies that is a mixture of Black
-  blood in them, but they ar’nt no ways asham’d of it, for they say
-  their not savages at any rate, & all men are children of Adam.
-
-  “Well I must conclude tho’ I havnt tolld you half what I see, So Mr.
-  Sibthorpe he was for staying a bit longer if he could but let all our
-  freinds know we were safe, for they wo’d be sure to give us up for
-  lost. So it was setteld for Mr. Sibthorpe to stay & Lieut Robt Smith,
-  to stay behind & the rest of us to return, and a long with us young
-  Squire Adamson a son of the old sennator. And there was several more
-  talkd of coming to visit Sidney & paraps England to, along with Mr.
-  Sibthorpe. Well it was about six weeks in all we’d been thear, geting
-  toards the latter part of Octr wen we set off to return and the peple
-  had sent a party on befour, with two Canoes & provisions to wait for
-  us some way on, & we went over land on horse back by a short cut that
-  the Hunters knew of. And that saved us a good bit. And when we
-  imbarked we knew the rout & saved a deal of time that we had lost in
-  coming. But then again we was forced to land in some places were the
-  water was to shalow, or dried up since we was thear be fore. And some
-  hard work we had to get a long over the rocks & weeds. So after great
-  fatigue it was passed the middle of Novr before we ariv’d, which we
-  did all well thank God, & glad our friends was to see us, for they
-  given us up for Lost.
-
-  “And so now as their’s a Vessel to Sail Day after To-morrow Morning I
-  send this in haste hoping it will find you well & my Love to sister
-  Jenkyns and her Husband hope is doing well & the boys who I supose
-  they are grown out of my knowlege, And love to sister Nancy hope she’s
-  a good girl & must be a help to you as you get old. So no more at
-  present from your dutifull
-
-                                          “Son dear Father & Mother
-                                                          “Paul Wilkins.
-
-  “P. S. I send Nancy a work bag I brought with me, made & embroided by
-  a southland woman, she’d never gess what its made of, for its the
-  poutch under a Pellicans Throat, what he keeps fish in. I send you
-  also some peaces of their Money what they Give me, it is nothing very
-  perticuler curious only for the shape, wich all they have is the Same
-  that is not Round peaces like ourn is but Oval, wich they say it is
-  not liabel to role away and be Lost if you drop a Peace, & so I think
-  it is Better.”
-
-
-                                THE END.
-
-
-
-
-                                LONDON:
-                       PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
-                      Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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-                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
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-      spelling.
- 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
- 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
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